Seeing Pedestrians at Night: Visual Clutter Does Not Mask Biological Motion

Although placing reflective markers on pedestrians’ major joints can make pedestrians more conspicuousto drivers at night, it has been suggested that this “biological motion” effect may be reduced when visualclutter is present. We tested whether extraneous points of light affected the ability of 12 younger and 12older drivers to see pedestrians as they drove on a closed road at night. Pedestrians wore black clothingalone or with retroreflective markings in four different configurations. One pedestrian walked in placeand was surrounded by clutter on half of the trials. Another was always surrounded by visual clutter buteither walked in place or stood still. Clothing configuration, pedestrian motion, and driver age influencedconspicuity but clutter did not. The results confirm that even in the presence of visual clutter pedestrianswearing biological motion configurations are recognized more often and at greater distances than whenthey wear a reflective vest