Cognitive function and young drivers: The relationship between driving,attitudes, personality and cognition

Young drivers (aged 17–25 years) are the highest risk age group for driving crashes and are over-represented in car crash statistics in Australia. A relationship between cognitive functioning and driving in older drivers (60 years and older) has been consistently supported in previous literature, however, this relationship has been neglected in research regarding younger drivers. The role of cognitive functioning in young people’s driving was investigated both independently and within a current model of younger peoples driving performance. With young drivers as participants, driving behaviour, attitudes, personality and cognitive functioning were tested and driving performance was operationalised through two measures on a driving simulator, speeding and lane deviations. Cognitive functioning was found to contribute to driving behaviour, along with driving attitudes and personality traits, in accounting for young people’s driving performance. The young drivers who performed better on cognitive functioning tasks engaged in less speeding behaviour and less lane deviation on the driving simulator than those who performed worse on these tasks. This result was found independent of the role of driving behaviour, driving attitudes and personality traits, accounting for unique variance in driving ability.     

Effect of electronic device use while driving on cardiovascular reactivity

Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death in people ages 5–34 in the US, and secondary task engagement, such as talking on a cell phone, is a leading contributor to motor vehicle collisions. The negative effects of secondary task engagement on driving performance has become a prominent recent topic of study given the increasing amount of time drivers engage in distracted driving. However, few studies have examined the effects of secondary task engagement while driving on health related outcomes such as cardiovascular reactivity. Cardiovascular reactivity, as measured by heart rate and blood pressure, has been used in previous studies as a means of measuring effort in task engagement as well as a means to predict cardiovascular disease and stroke. This study investigates the effect of secondary task (talking on a cell phone, texting, and driving with no task) while driving in a simulator on cardiovascular reactivity. Using difference scores between baseline (a period of inactivity) and stimulus (driving with no task and driving with secondary tasks), a repeated measures analysis of variance using a mixed model approach was used to determine the effect of secondary task on cardiovascular reactivity. Findings indicated that talking on a cell phone while driving significantly increased cardiovascular reactivity via heart rate and blood pressure compared to driving with no task. Texting while driving did not differ significantly from driving with no task. This study demonstrates the need for more research on the long term effects of secondary tasks while driving on cardiovascular reactivity and for assessing the risks associated with secondary task use while driving on developing cardiovascular disease or stroke.     

Investigating the effectiveness of perceptual treatments on a crest vertical curve: A driving simulator study

Rural roads are characterized by a high percentage of run-off-the-road accidents and head-on collisions, mainly caused by inappropriate speeds and failure to maintain a proper lateral position along the roadway alignment. Among several road safety treatments, low-cost perceptual measures are considered an effective tool, as they generally increase the risk perceived by drivers, or even alter the drivers’ speed perception, and consequently tempting them to decrease their speeds. Their effectiveness has been widely recognized in a number of studies, especially with respect to road intersections and curves.The overall aim of this study is to investigate the effects of different perceptual treatments on driving speed, along a crest vertical curve of an existing two-lane rural road, in order to identify the most effective measure to reduce speed and define its subsequent implementation in the field. Three perceptual treatments were tested using a driving simulator: white peripheral transverse bars, red peripheral transverse bars and optical speed bars, with each one being painted along the approaching tangent to the crest vertical curve. The effects of these speed-reducing measures were investigated using a sample of forty-four participants, by comparing the driving speeds with those recorded under a baseline condition (without a treatment); these were also used to validate the driving simulator’s speed measurements with those found in the field. Moreover, subjective measures were collected, consisting of the driver’s static evaluation of the desired speed, risk perception and markings comprehension, based on screen shot pictures that represented the simulated configurations of the treatments.The findings demonstrated an overall effectiveness of the perceptual treatments, although only the red peripheral transverse bars were found to significantly reduce the driving speeds (−6 km/h). The analysis of the questionnaire yielded interesting information and demonstrated the importance of performing driving simulation tests for evaluating the effectiveness of perceptual treatments.Finally, the results confirmed the enormous potential of using driving simulators to pinpoint a number of speed-reducing measures, and consequently select the most effective one that reduces cost and promotes safety before its actual implementation in the field.     

The relationship between ADHD symptoms and driving behavior in college students: The mediating effects of negative emotions and emotion control

Previous research has shown a relationship between attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and driving anger and adverse driving outcomes. Moreover, adults with ADHD symptoms express their emotions in more aggressive ways, indicating a lack of emotion control. The present study surveyed 246 college students to examine the relationship among ADHD symptoms, negative emotions, emotion control, and driving anger and safe driving behavior. Mediating effects of negative emotions and emotional control on the relationship between ADHD symptoms and self-reported driving anger and safe driving behavior were also examined. Both negative emotions and emotion control were significant mediators of the relationship between ADHD symptoms and driving anger, but not safe driving behavior. Mediation was stronger for ADHD-Hyperactive/Impulsive symptoms than for ADHD-Inattention symptoms. These results may provide some insight on how to design training programs for individuals with ADHD symptoms to increase driving safety.     

Valid representation of a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario in a driving simulator

In Germany the second-most frequent accidents in road traffic are rear-end collisions. For this reason rear-end collisions are quite important for accident research and the development of driving safety systems. To examine the functionality and to design the human–machine-interface of new driving safety systems, especially in the early development phase, subject tests are necessary. Because of the great hazard potential of such safety critical scenarios for the test persons, they are often conducted in a driving simulator (DS). Accordingly, validity is an important qualification to ensure that the findings collected in a simulated test environment can be directly transferred to the real world.This paper regards the question of driving behavior validity of DS in critical situations. There are hardly any validation studies which analyze the driving behavior in a specific collision avoidance situation.The validation study described in this paper aims to evaluate the behavioral validity of a fixed-base simulator in a collision avoidance situation. For this reason a field study from 2007 was replicated in a fixed-base simulator environment.The main questions of this validation study were if the driver can notice an active hazard braking system and if the driving behavior in a static simulator can be valid in such a critical situation.The key finding of the study states that there is no driving behavior validity in a static driving simulator for the tested dynamic scenario. The missing vestibular feedback causes a different behavior of the participants in field and simulator. The resulting absence of comparability leads to non-valid performance indicators. But these indicators are key parameters for analyzing the function and acceptance of active braking systems. So the question arises, which motion performance does a motion base have to provide in order to achieve valid acceleration simulation of such a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario. The DS’s performance is measured in workspace, velocity and acceleration.     

心理负荷的评估:基于神经人因学的视角

心理负荷的评估正经历着从传统工效学向神经人因学的变革.EEG、ERPs、fMRI、fNIRS和TCD等神经科学研究技术为这场变革提供了有力的工具.研究发现:在单任务情境下,随着操作者心理负荷的增加,脑电α波活动减弱,θ波活动增强,并且前额皮层血流、左侧额下回血液氧合血红蛋白浓度变化均增加,大脑动脉血流速度也增快;在双任务情境下,随着操作者主任务心理负荷的增加,次任务的N1、新异P3和P3b等ERPs成分波幅降低.依据这些研究成果,学者们利用人工神经网络、支持向量机等模式分类算法实现了对心理负荷的实时在线评估.但是,各种研究技术在敏感性、诊断力、主任务干扰、实施需求、可接受性和信度等方面各有优势与不足.在未来研究中,要注意促进相关技术的融合、提高其可接受性,并充分利用模式识别算法提高其诊断力和敏感性.     

Drivers’ performances and their subjective feelings about their driving during a 40-min test on a circuit versus a dynamic simulator

Car manufacturers expect driving simulators to be reliable research and development tools. Questions arise, however, as to whether drivers’ behavior on simulators exactly matches that observed when they are driving real cars. Drivers’ performances and their subjective feelings about their driving were compared between two groups during a 40-min driving test on the same circuit in a real car (n = 20) and a high-fidelity dynamic simulator (n = 27). Their speed and its variability, the braking force and the engine revolutions per minute (rpm) were recorded five times on a straight line and three times on a curve. The differences observed in these measurements between circuit driving (CD) and simulator driving (SD) from the 6th to 40th minute showed no significant changes during the drive. The drivers also completed the NASA Raw Task Load Index (NASA RTLX) questionnaire and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and estimated the ease and standard of their own driving performances. These subjective feelings differed significantly between the two groups throughout the experiment. The SD group’s scores on the NASA RTLX and SSQ questionnaires increased with time and the CD group’s perceived driving quality and ease increased with time, reaching non-significantly different levels from their usual car driving standards by the end of the drive. These findings show the existence of a fairly good match between real-life and simulated driving, which stabilized six minutes after the start of the test, regardless of whether the road was straight or curved. These objective findings and subjective assessments suggest possible ways of improving the match between drivers’ performances on simulators and their real-life driving behavior.     

Individual glance strategies and their effect on the NHTSA visual manual distraction test

The purpose of this paper was to investigate how individual differences in glance strategy could impact the glance performance test defined in the NHTSA visual manual distraction guidelines. Better understanding of the test procedure could help development of new technology for safe driving. A custom in-vehicle information system was developed and assessed in a driving simulator by eighteen participants. The interfaces were designed according to recommendations in the NHTSA guidelines and contained manual radio-tuning tasks, sound settings tasks and six letter spelling tasks. Two of the six tested interfaces fully complied with the test. In addition, clear individual differences in glance strategy were found among the participants. Four individual glance strategies were identified. Two of these, long glancers and frequent glancers, highly affected the outcome of the compliance test. Participants belonging to the long glancers and the frequent glancers categories were identified as statistical outliers in many test cases. For example, if the individual values of these participants were replaced with sample mean, the number of complying interfaces would increase to five out of six, which is more in line with expectations for these interfaces. The results of this study show that individual variations in glance strategy exist. Also, these individual variations seem to have a non- negligible influence on the result when performance-testing of in-vehicle interfaces is done according to the NTHSA guidelines.     

A simulator study of factors influencing drivers’ behavior at traffic lights

Drivers’ reactions to changing traffic lights have an impact on safety at intersections. We examined the influence of transient factors – more specifically time pressure and social context, both conducive to traffic-light violation – on behavior behind the wheel when a traffic light changes. We carried out an experiment on a driving simulator. The participants were 94 car drivers (53 males) with a mean age of 21.7 years. They drove under time pressure vs. no time pressure. At several intersections the participants were alone (no other drivers present), whereas at several other intersections they were behind a line-up of vehicles, the last of which ran the yellow light (other drivers present). As expected, time pressure and social context (presence of other drivers) increased participants’ risky behaviors while approaching, and going through traffic lights, as well as undesirable rapid accelerations when the signal changes to green. The effect of time pressure on yellow-light running was not mediated by approach speed, which showed that participants in a hurry were likely to run lights intentionally. The results are interpreted in view of proposing effective measures for reducing yellow-light running and rapid accelerations at traffic lights.     

Analysis of factors affecting drivers’ choice to engage with a mobile phone while driving in Beijing

In the current work, we examined reasons that drivers choose to engage with a mobile phone while driving in Beijing. An Internet survey was administered to collect data about talking and texting while driving. Conversations were sorted into different types. Respondents were requested to indicate the frequency of initiating a call or text, perceived risk, perceived importance and emotionality of the call or text. A structural equation model of talking and texting while driving was developed with perceived risk, perceived importance and emotionality of the call as predictors and compared to a similar model with U.S. drivers. Unlike the U.S. data, perceived risk has a significant negative impact on the choice to call or text among drivers in Beijing. Results also show that perceived importance of the call is a major factor affecting the usage of phone while driving. Even though drivers know it is dangerous and illegal, Beijing drivers choose to talk on mobile phones while driving, but they prefer not to text.