The Effects of Visual and Cognitive Distraction on Driver Situation Awareness

Abstract

Abstract. Driver distraction has become a major concern for transportation safety due to the increasing use of in-vehicle devices. To reduce safety risk, it is crucial to understand how fundamental aspects of distracting activities affect driver cognition in terms of roadway situation awareness. This study used a simulator-based experiment to investigate the effects of visual, cognitive and simultaneous distraction on operational and tactical control of vehicles. Twenty drivers participated in the study and drove in following or passing driving scenarios under four distraction conditions (without, with visual, with cognitive, and with simultaneous distraction). Results revealed visual distraction to affect all aspects of driver situation awareness. Cognitive distraction affected comprehension and projection of roadway and vehicle states. Correlation analyses revealed decrements in driver SA due to distraction to be associated with decreases in performance.

Novel Multimodal Feedback Techniques for In-Car Mid-Air Gesture Interaction

“…Visual attention is a measure used in driving studies [24,11,33] to evaluate the amount of distraction caused by secondary tasks. Liang et al [19] have shown that duration of glances reliably predicts the risk of crashes.…”

“…The third most common cause of car crashes and near crash events is driver distraction [4]. Rogers et al [33] investigated the effects of driver distraction and found that visual distraction significantly affected all aspects of situation awareness. In order to reduce driver distraction it is important to minimise eyes-off-the-road time when interacting with the infotainment system.…”

Evaluation of speech-based HMI concepts for information exchange tasks: A driving simulator study

“…A detailed description of the ConTRe task can be found in Mahr et al (2012). Visual demand off the road reduces driver situation awareness (Rogers et al, 2011) and negatively influences driving performance (Horrey et al, 2006), as the time spent looking inside the vehicle is not spent looking at the road for potential crash-inducing hazards. Therefore, we were interested in investigating the effects of the GUI in a speech dialog on visual distraction.…”

Driving automation interface design : supporting drivers' changing role

“…Therewith, traditional interfaces provide especially information why attention is needed, but the information itself often keeps the driver from observing where attention is needed. Studies confirm the visual distraction of graphical (screen) interfaces (Lansdown, Brook-Carter, & Kersloot, 2004;Rogers, Zhang, Kaber, Liang, & Gangakhedkar, 2011). Directional illumination, on the other hand, is designed to direct attention where needed.…”

“…Existing interface solutions do not connect the mode information to the relevant location outside the vehicle. Moreover, the provided mode information has more than once shown to be a distraction at the very moment an intervention is required (Hurts, Angell, & Perez, 2011; J. D. Rogers et al, 2011;Stanton et al, 2011). As a consequence the required cognitive attention to understand on-screen mode information could make the information a distraction in itself.…”