Conference Proceeding

Driving with Foresight - Evaluating the Effect of Cognitive Distraction and Experience on Anticipating Events in Traffic

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Abstract

Driving with foresight is essential for road safety. Anticipating upcoming events and intended maneuvers of other traffic participants requires the perception and processing of meaningful and valid cues. To provide insights into the cognitive mechanisms of anticipation, we investigated the effect of cognitive load, experience and cue characteristic on the anticipation of upcoming lane changes in urban driving scenarios. A two-step reaction method gathered low and high certainty anticipatory reactions of student and ambulance drivers. Results indicated that different anticipatory cues affected anticipatory performance. Target cues highly associated with the intended behavior of another traffic participant increased while context cues in the surrounding environment seemed to hamper anticipatory reactions. Furthermore, high cognitive load prolonged the latencies of low certainty anticipation but did not affect the performance quality. This initial intuition of an upcoming lane change was indicated earlier by experienced than by inexperienced drivers. These findings enhance the understanding of the human process of anticipation in dynamic uncritical traffic situations.

How to Cite:

Mühl, K. & Koob, V. & Stoll, T. & Baumann, M., (2019) “Driving with Foresight - Evaluating the Effect of Cognitive Distraction and Experience on Anticipating Events in Traffic”, Driving Assessment Conference 10(2019), 321-327. doi: https://doi.org/10.17077/drivingassessment.1713

Rights: Copyright © 2019 the author(s)