Information use by humans during dynamic route choice in virtual crowd evacuations

Information use by humans during dynamic route choice in virtual crowd evacuations

Blog Article

We conducted a computer-based experiment with over 450 human participants and used a Bayesian model selection approach to explore dynamic exit route choice mechanisms of individuals in simulated crowd evacuations.In contrast to previous work, we explicitly explore the use of time-dependent and time-independent information in decision-making.Our findings suggest that participants tended to base their exit choices on time-dependent gtech brush bar information, such as differences in queue lengths and queue speeds at exits rather than on time-independent information, such as differences in exit widths or exit route length.

We found weak support for similar decision-making mechanisms under a stress-inducing experimental treatment.However, under this treatment participants were less able or willing to adjust their original exit choice in the course of the evacuation.Our experiment is not a direct test of behaviour in real evacuations, but it does highlight the role different types of information and stress play in real human decision-making in a virtual environment.

Our findings may be useful in identifying topics for future study on real human crowd movements or for cent dyyni developing more realistic agent-based simulations.