Driving on familiar roads: Automaticity and inattention blindness

This paper describes our research into the processes that govern driver attention and behavior in familiar, well-practiced situations. The experiment examined the effects of extended practice on inattention blindness and detection of changes to the driving environment in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Participants were paid to drive a simulated road regularly over 3 months of testing. A range of measures, including detection task performance and driving performance, were collected over the course of 20 sessions. Performance from a yoked Control Group who experienced the same road scenarios in a single session was also measured. The data showed changes in what drivers reported noticing indicative of inattention blindness, and declining ratings of mental demand suggesting that many participants were “driving without awareness”. Extended practice also resulted in increased sensitivity for detecting changes to road features associated with vehicle guidance and improved performance on an embedded vehicle detection task (detection of a specific vehicle type). The data provide new light on a “tandem model” of driver behavior that includes both explicit and implicit processes involved in driving performance. The findings also suggest reasons drivers are most likely to crash at locations very near their homes.     

Looking and thinking when driving: The impact of gaze and cognitive load on steering

Driving around bends at high speeds is a task performed by many on a daily basis but the underlying mechanisms of steering control remain largely unknown. Previous research has shown that when steering, gaze direction can be a critical component of success. However, with increased use of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS), there is growing competition over the same resources that are needed to steer (gaze as well as associated attentional resources). Although it can be argued that locomotor steering is an automatic task that can be performed without recourse to conscious “cognitive” control, much simpler locomotor-related tasks, such as judging one’s heading, have been shown to be affected by concurrent attentional tasks (Wann, Swapp, & Rushton, 2000). Here we examined whether an attentional task placed at an offset fixation point influenced concurrent steering performance along a computer simulated road. The experiments either used gaze-fixation points that had similar properties to real-world road signs (i.e. moved relative to the vehicle) or were more akin to IVIS (i.e. fixed to the vehicle). Results showed that gaze fixation eccentric to future path caused systematic steering biases. The degree or type of cognitive load did not change the degree of steering bias, but there was some evidence of decreased lane variability when viewing the IVIS-type displays. No differences in steering performance were found between the different types of cognitive task. We conclude that where you look is critical for safe driving, and IVIS-type displays might make drivers more susceptible to cognitive interference.     

Event-related cerebral hemodynamics reveal target-specific resource allocation for both “go” and “no-go” response-based vigilance tasks

Transcranial Doppler sonography was used to measure cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) in the right and left cerebral hemispheres during the performance of a 50-min visual vigilance session. Observers monitored a simulated flight of unmanned aerial vehicles for cases in which one of the vehicles was flying in an inappropriate direction relative to its cohorts. Two types of vigilance tasks were employed: a traditional task in which observers made button press (“go”) responses to critical signals, and a modification of the traditional task called the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in which “go” responses acknowledged nonsignal events and response withholding (“no-go”) signified signal detection. Signal detections and global CBFV scores declined over time. In addition, fine-grained event-related analyses revealed that the detection of signals was accompanied by an elevation of CBFV that was not present with missed signals. As was the case with the global scores, the magnitude of the transient CBFV increments associated with signal detection also declined over time, and these findings were independent of task type. The results support the view of CBFV as an index of the cognitive evaluation of stimulus significance, and a resource model of vigilance in which the need for continuous attention produces a depletion of information-processing assets that are not replenished as the task progresses. Further, temporal declines in the magnitude of event-related CBFV in response to critical signals only is evidence that the decrement function in vigilance is due to attentional processing and not specific task elements such as the required response format.     

Distraction while driving: The case of older drivers

As the impairment of older drivers is especially found in perception and attention, one could assume that they are especially prone to distraction effects of secondary tasks performed while driving. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of age on driving performance as well as the compensation strategies of older drivers under distraction. 10 middle-aged and 10 older drivers drove in a simulator with and without a secondary task. To assess driving performance the Lane Change Task (Mattes, 2003) was used. This method aims at estimating driver demand while a secondary task is being performed, by measuring performance degradation on a primary driving-like task in a standardized manner. The secondary task – a self-developed computer-based version of “d2 Test of Attention” was presented both with and without time pressure. The results show that older participants’ overall driving performance (mean deviation from an ideal path) was worse in all conditions as compared to the younger ones. With regard to lane change reaction time both age groups were influenced by distraction in a comparable manner. However, when the lane keeping performance (standard deviation of the lateral position) was examined, the older participants were more affected than the younger ones. This pattern could be explained by compensation strategies of the older drivers. They focused on the most relevant part of the driving task, the lane change manoeuvres and were able to maintain their performance level in a similar way as did younger drivers. The driving performance of the older participants was not additionally impaired when the secondary task imposed time pressure. Overall, subjective rating of driving performance, perceived workload and perceived distraction was found to be similar for both age groups. The observed trends and patterns associated with distraction while driving should contribute to the further research or practical work regarding in-vehicle technologies and older drivers.     

Audiovisual semantic interference and attention: Evidence from the attentional blink paradigm

In the present study we investigate the role of attention in audiovisual semantic interference, by using an attentional blink paradigm. Participants were asked to make an unspeeded response to the identity of a visual target letter. This target letter was preceded at various SOAs by a synchronized audiovisual letter-pair, which was either congruent (e.g. hearing an “F” and viewing an “F”) or incongruent (e.g. hearing an “F” and viewing a “Z”). In Experiment 1, participants were asked to match the members of the audiovisual letter-pair. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to ignore the synchronized audiovisual letter-pairs altogether and only report the visual target. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to identify only one of the audiovisual letters (identify the auditory letter, and ignore the synchronized visual letter, or vice versa). An attentional blink was found in all three experiments indicating that the audiovisual letter-pairs were processed. However, a congruency effect on subsequent target detection was observed in Experiments 1 and 3, but not in Experiment 2. The results indicate that attention to the semantic contents of at least one modality is necessary to establish audiovisual semantic interference.     

The Influence of Expertise on Maritime Driving Behaviour

We compared expert and novice behaviour in a group of participants as they engaged in a simulated maritime driving task. We varied the difficulty of the driving task by controllling the severity of the sea state in which they were driving their craft. Increases in sea severity increased the size of the upcoming waves while also increasing the length of the waves. Expert participants drove their craft at a higher speed than novices and decreased their fixation durations as wave severity increased. Furthermore, the expert participants increased the horizontal spread of their fixation positions as wave severity increased to a greater degree than novices. Conversely, novice participants showed evidence of a greater vertical spread of fixations than experts. By connecting our findings with previous research investigating eye movement behaviour and road driving, we suggest that novice or inexperienced drivers show inflexibility in adaptation to changing driving conditions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Goal setting in teams: The impact of learning and performance goals on process and performance

This study examined the impact of three alternative types of goals (specific learning, general “do your best” learning, and specific performance) on team performance. Eighty-four-person teams engaged in an interdependent command and control simulation in which the team goal and task complexity were manipulated. Contrary to research at the individual level, teams with specific learning goals performed worse than did teams with general “do your best” learning goals or specific performance goals. The negative effects of specific learning goals relative to general “do your best” learning goals and specific performance goals were amplified under conditions of increased task complexity and were explained by the amount of coordination in the teams.     

The effects of speech production and speech comprehension on simulated driving performance

We performed two experiments comparing the effects of speech production and speech comprehension on simulated driving performance. In both experiments, participants completed a speech task and a simulated driving task under single‐ and dual‐task conditions, with language materials matched for linguistic complexity. In Experiment 1, concurrent production and comprehension resulted in more variable velocity compared to driving alone. Experiment 2 replicated these effects in a more difficult simulated driving environment, with participants showing larger and more variable headway times when speaking or listening while driving than when just driving. In both experiments, concurrent production yielded better control of lane position relative to single‐task performance; concurrent comprehension had little impact on control of lane position. On all other measures, production and comprehension had very similar effects on driving. The results show, in line with previous work, that there are detrimental consequences for driving of concurrent language use. Our findings imply that these detrimental consequences may be roughly the same whether drivers are producing speech or comprehending it. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of the global and local attention on the processing of categorical and coordinate spatial relations

Participants made categorical or coordinate spatial judgments on the global or local elements of shapes. Stimuli were composed of a horizontal line and two dots. In the Categorical task, participants judged whether the line was above or below the dots. In the Coordinate task, they judged whether the line would fit between the dots. Stimuli were made hierarchical so that the global patterns composed of a “global line” made of local dots-and-line units, and “global dot” made of a single dots-and-line unit. The results indicated that the categorical task was better performed when participants attended to the local level of the hierarchical stimuli. On the other hand, the coordinate task was better performed when they attended to the global level. These findings are consistent with computer simulation models of the attentional modulation of neuronal receptive fields’ size suggesting that (1) coordinate spatial relations are more efficiently encoded when one attends to a relatively large region of space, whereas (2) categorical spatial relations are more efficiently encoded when one attends to a relatively small region of space.     

Task-induced fatigue states and simulated driving performance

States of fatigue are implicated in driver impairment and motor vehicle accidents. This article reports two studies investigating two possible mechanisms for performance impairment: (1) loss of attentional resources; and (2) active regulation of matching effort to task demands. The first hypothesis predicts that fatigue effects will be accentuated by high task demands, but the second hypothesis predicts that fatigue effects will be strongest in "underload" conditions. In two studies, drivers performed a stimulated driving task, in which task demands were manipulated by varying road curvature. In a "fatigue induction" condition, the early part of the drive was occupied by performance of a demanding secondary task concurrently with driving, after which the concurrent task ceased. Post-induction driving performance was compared with a control condition in which drivers were not exposed to the induction. In both studies, the fatigue induction elicited various subjective fatigue and stress symptoms, and also raised reported workload. Fatigue effects on vehicle control and signal detection were assessed during and after the fatigue induction. The fatigue induction increased heading error, reduced steering activity, and, in the second study, reduced perceptual sensitivity on a secondary detection task. These effects were confined to driving on straight rather than on curved road sections, consistent with the effort regulation hypothesis. The second study showed that fatigue effects were moderated by a motivational manipulation. Results are interpreted within a control model, such that task-induced fatigue may reduce awareness of performance impairment, rather than reluctance or inability to mobilize compensatory effort following detection of impairment.     

Towards a cognitive model of distraction by auditory novelty: The role of involuntary attention capture and semantic processing

Unexpected auditory stimuli are potent distractors, able to break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task. This study examined the processing fate of novel sounds by examining the extent to which their semantic content is analyzed and whether the outcome of this processing can impact on subsequent behavior. This issue was investigated across five laboratory experiments in which participants categorized visual left and right arrows while instructed to ignore irrelevant sounds. The results showed that auditory novels that were incongruent with the visual target (e.g., word “left” presented before a right arrow) disrupted performance over and above congruent novels (semantic effect) while both types of novels delayed responses in the visual task compared to a standard sound (novelty effect). No semantic effect was observed for congruent and incongruent standards, suggesting that novelty detection is necessary for involuntary semantic processing to unravel. While the novelty effect augmented as the difference between novels and the standard increased, the semantic effect was immune to this variation. Furthermore, the novelty effect decreased across the task while the semantic effect did not. A general cognitive framework is proposed encompassing these new findings and previous work in an attempt to account for the behavioral impact of irrelevant auditory novels on primary task performance.     

The “Sprinter effect”: When self-control and involvement stand in the way of sequential performance

This research examines the joint effect of dispositional self-control and situational involvement on performance in two successive resource-demanding tasks. We demonstrate that being highly involved and having high self-control facilitates high performance in the first task but, contrary to intuition, may jeopardize performance in a second, unexpected task. We term this the “sprinter effect” and demonstrate it in both lab and field settings. We further explore how a “marathon” mindset can debias this effect.     

Aging and driving in a complex world: Exploring age differences in attentional demand while driving

We investigated the relationship between attention and road complexity in a convenience sample of older drivers. The study sought to examine the impact of age-associated changes in attention in response to situations with an elevated risk of crash. Scenarios were manipulated in terms of handling and information processing complexity. Twenty-six older drivers and 30 mid-aged drivers completed a series of 20 simulated driving scenarios incorporating either rear-end or crossing path situations. For each scenario, the complexity of the driving environment was systematically manipulated in terms of vehicle handling and information processing elements. The attentional demands of half of the scenarios were assessed by means of a peripheral detection task (PDT) as well as through a subjective measure of overall difficulty. The results indicated that when information processing demands were increased, through the addition of traffic, and buildings, all participants exhibited greater workload regardless of age. While no main effects of age were observed, older drivers did exhibit significantly longer PDT responses in the low vehicle handling condition of the crossing path scenario. The results confirm the impact of environmental complexity on attention but suggest that the PDT may not be the most appropriate means of assessing attentional demands among older drivers, particularly when the driving complexity is elevated.     

Driving simulator validation with hazard perception

How should we assess the comparability of driving on a road and “driving” in a simulator? If similar patterns of behaviour are observed, with similar differences between individuals, then we can conclude that driving in the simulator will deliver representative results and the advantages of simulators (controlled environments, hazardous situations) can be appreciated. To evaluate a driving simulator here we compare hazard detection while driving on roads, while watching short film clips recorded from a vehicle moving through traffic, and while driving through a simulated city in a fully instrumented fixed-base simulator with a 90 degree forward view (plus mirrors) that is under the speed/direction control of the driver. In all three situations we find increased scanning by more experienced and especially professional drivers, and earlier eye fixations on hazardous objects for experienced drivers. This comparability encourages the use of simulators in drivers training and testing.     

The effect of a simulated hearing loss on performance of an auditory memory task in driving

Hearing loss has been shown to exacerbate the effect of auditory distraction on driving performance in older drivers. This study controlled for the potentially confounding factor of age-related cognitive decrements, by applying a simulated hearing loss in young, normally hearing individuals. Participants drove a simulated road whilst completing auditory tasks under simulated hearing loss or normal hearing conditions. Measures of vehicle control, eye movements and auditory task performance were recorded. Results showed that performing the auditory tasks whilst driving resulted in more stable lateral vehicle control and a reduction in gaze dispersion around the road centre. These trends were not exacerbated by simulated hearing loss, suggesting no effect of hearing loss on vehicle control or eye movement patterns during auditory task engagement. However, a small effect of simulated hearing loss on the performance of the most complex auditory task was observed during driving, suggesting that the use of sound-based in-vehicle systems may be problematic for hearing impaired individuals. Further research incorporating a wider variety of driving scenarios and auditory tasks is required in order to confirm the findings of this study.     

Effects of distraction and experience on situation awareness and simulated driving

This study examined the impact of cell phone conversation on situation awareness and performance of novice and experienced drivers. Driving performance and situation awareness among novice drivers ages 14–16 (n = 25) and experienced drivers ages 21–52 (n = 26) were assessed using a driving simulator. Performance was measured by the number of driving infractions committed: speeding, collisions, pedestrians struck, stop signs missed, and centerline and road edge crossings. Situation awareness was assessed through a query method and through participants’ performance on a direction-following task. Cognitive distractions were induced through simulated hands-free cell phone conversations. The results indicated that novice drivers committed more driving infractions and were less situationally aware than their experienced counterparts. However, the two groups suffered similar decrements in performance during the cell phone condition. This study provides evidence of the detrimental effects of cell phone use for both novice and experienced drivers. These findings have implications for supporting driving legislation that limits the use of cell phones (including hands-free) in motor vehicles, regardless of the driver’s experience level.     

Counterfactual structure and learning from experience in negotiations

Reflecting on the past is often a critical ingredient for successful learning. The current research investigated how counterfactual thinking, reflecting on how prior experiences might have been different, motivates effective learning from these previous experiences. Specifically, we explored how the structure of counterfactual reflection - their additive (“If only I had”) versus subtractive (“If only I had not”) nature - influences performance in dyadic-level strategic interactions. Building on the functionalist account of counterfactuals, we found across two experiments that generating additive counterfactuals about a previous negotiation produced an advantage for negotiators over their previous performance compared to subtractive counterfactuals, both in terms of obtaining value for oneself and conceiving creative agreements. Additive counterfactuals enabled negotiators to more effectively extract lessons from past experiences to improve their current negotiation performance.     

Reversing the speed–IQ correlation: Intra-individual variability and attentional control in the inspection time paradigm

Elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs) are simple tasks involving basic cognitive processes for which speed of performance typically correlates with IQ. Inspection time (IT) has the strongest IQ correlations and is considered critical evidence for neural speed underlying individual differences in intelligence. However, results from Bors et al. [Bors, D.A., Stokes, T.L., Forrin, B. & Hodder, S.L., (1999). Inspection Time and Intelligence: Practice, strategies, and attention. Intelligence, 27, 111–129.] suggest task consistency may underlie this shared variance. One possibility is that performance consistency reflects attentional mechanisms, as previous research has shown relationships between attentional control and cognitive performance. In study 1, participants were administered the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and performed an alternative version of the IT task to measure individual trial-by-trial consistency expressed as the standard deviation of IT (ITSD). The alternative procedure yielded IT–IQ correlations similar to those obtained in previous studies and ITSD accounted for the IT–IQ variance. A second experiment tested whether ITSD measures attentional control, as participants simultaneously performed the IT task and an attention-demanding verbalization task. Under these conditions, high IQ participants performed worse on IT. These results suggest IT performance may reflect individual differences in attentional control and that this variable may account for the variance shared between IT and IQ.     

Driving in dangerous territory: Complexity and road-characteristics influence attentional demand

Car driving related attentional demands fluctuate according to route complexity and are found to be highly associated with motor-vehicle collisions (MVCs). The purpose of the current study was to explore the inherent attentional demands of scenarios that approximate common crash configurations. Sixty drivers completed a series of 20 simulated driving scenarios incorporating either rear-end or crossing path situations. For each scenario, the complexity of the driving environment was systematically manipulated in terms of vehicle handling and information processing elements. The attentional demands of each scenario were assessed by means of a peripheral detection task (PDT) as well as through a subjective measure of overall difficulty. Our results showed a reduction in PDT performance at intersections where information processing is increased as well as when handling maneuvers behind a lead vehicle were required. The results point to the appropriateness of the PDT as a sensitive measure of cognitive workload. The implications of these findings for future research and safety initiatives are discussed.     

Approaching intersections: Gaze behavior of drivers depending on traffic,intersection type,driving maneuver,and secondary task involvement

Urban intersections are hotspots for crashes because they provide a location for several traffic streams and types of road users to cross. A main cause of crashes is the misinformation of drivers as they fail to sense relevant visual information. We aimed to analyze the gaze behavior of car drivers in a variety of intersection scenarios, bringing together the partial findings of previous research, and examine the interdependencies of the contributing factors to provide a database for driver modeling. In a driving simulator study with 59 participants, we varied intersection scenarios regarding drivers’ right of way (yield sign, green traffic light), intersection type (T junction, X intersection), surrounding traffic (none, irrelevant, relevant), and intended driving maneuver (left turn, right turn, going straight). A total of 25 intersection scenarios were presented in a within-subjects design to a control group and a group with a cognitive load task (counting back in numbers of two). Fixations were coded regarding defined areas of interest in the field of view and separated according to three segments of the intersection approach: 75–50 m, 50–25 m, and 25–0 m before entering the intersection. The results show that the effect of surrounding traffic, secondary task engagement, and the intended driving maneuver changed dramatically depending on the right of way of the driver. Surrounding traffic primarily affected gaze behavior in scenarios of ceding the right of way close to the intersection entry. The cognitive load task increased fixations on the road center especially in situations where the driver had the right of way, but less in situations of ceding the right of way. Interactions with the type of intersection were only apparent for different driving maneuvers. This study provides a detailed and comprehensive picture of drivers’ attentional processes when approaching intersections which is relevant for understanding and modeling of driver behavior in urban traffic.