Psychology Master's Thesis Proposal Defense Presentation

Date: Friday, March 9, 2018

Time: 2:00pm

Location: JS Coon 217

Advisor:

Professor James Roberts, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Professor Susan Embretson Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Associate Professor Michael Hunter, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech )

Title: Applying Item Response Theory to Drivers’ Perceived Complexity of Roadway Environments

Abstract:

Roadway environments constitute visually complex systems within which users make split-second critical decisions on a daily basis. As such, understanding transportation system users’ perceptions and performance across varied roadway environments is crucial for a broad array of transportation research and engineering purposes (e.g. understanding safety data trends, informing roadway design guidelines, etc.). This thesis will apply item response theory (IRT) to identify and interpret the dimensions present that influence drivers’ perceived complexity of roadway environments, as well as to identify which of the environments studied are best at differentiating between the perceptual dimensions identified. This study will enable not only an understanding of the factors that influence driver perception of the built environment, but will demonstrate an application of multidimensional, polytomous IRT to study transportation system users’, one of the first known implementations of multidimensional IRT within transportation engineering.