Effects of sleep loss on change detection while driving

The predominantly urban roads of the ACT create a complex environment in which drivers must quickly detect and respond to changing hazards. This project comprised three experiments designed to assess factors that affect drivers’ ability to detect changes in visual information and specifically exploring whether sleepiness impairs change detection, as no previous published research had examined this. Experiment 1 assessed factors that affect drivers’ change detection using photographic stimuli representing urban and rural driving scenes. Experiment 2 used a modified version of the Experiment 1 task to explore the effect of sleep loss on change detection. Experiment 3 was conducted in the CARRS-Q advanced driving simulator. Overall, this research suggests that drivers are better at detecting changes that involve other road users and targets with high safety relevance. The impact of safety relevance is greatest in demanding situations, e.g. when the visual environment is cluttered or at high travel speeds. There is limited evidence that sleep loss impairs efficiency of change detection in visually cluttered urban scenes. Future research is necessary to understand the vulnerability of visual attention to sleep loss.

Media Info

  • Pagination: 81p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01638158
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: ARRB
  • Files: ITRD, ATRI
  • Created Date: Jun 19 2017 10:59AM