Attentional perturbations encountered in driving: experimental evaluation of cognitive factors

Studies on attentional perturbations in driving are on the rise, especially with the growing implementation of vehicle information and communication systems. Van Elslande, Jaffard, Fouquet and Fournier (2009) distinguished between attentional perturbations according to the task in competition with the driving task: inattention, attentional competition and distraction. The study had two mains objectives: to evaluate what is directly attributable to a failure of attentional processes and to test whether a factor internal to individuals, such as working memory capacity, modulates inter-individual differences in attention. Participants performed two tasks: a visual search task adapted from Lavie and Cox (1997) and an Operation Span task (OSPAN) assessing Working Memory Capacity (WMC). The visual search task, and more precisely the “distractor compatibility” variable, enables us to distinguish between attentional competition and distraction. With the OSPAN task, we have two groups: high spans and low spans. As in Lavie (1995), the results showed that the perceptual load in a visual search task determines the ability to ignore the distractor. This means that whatever the nature of 2 the distractor (e.g. attentional competition or distraction), perceptual load reduces its effect. Concerning individual differences, we showed a non-significant trend toward an interaction between span group, load and compatibility, suggesting that the perceptual load should reduce the distractor effect, especially for low spans. The main interest of these results is for them to be transposable to every day life, such as in driving.

• Record URL:
  https://document.chalmers.se/download?docid=462321501
• Corporate Authors:

  Chalmers University of Technology. SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Hoel, J
  • Boujon, C
  • Granjon, L
  • Van Elslande, L
• Conference:
  • 2nd International conference on driver distraction and inattention
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 18
• Monograph Title: 2nd International conference on driver distraction and inattention (DDI2011)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alertness; Distraction; Driving; Motor reactions; Perception; Stress (Psychology)
• ITRD Terms: 2238: Attention; 2247: Automatic reaction; 2229: Cognition; 2237: Distraction; 1855: Driving (veh); 2234: Mental load; 2247: Reaction time; 2234: Stress level
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01556770
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
• Files: ITRD, VTI
• Created Date: Mar 12 2015 10:16AM