Abstract
A study was conducted on a dynamic driving simulator aiming to examine whether the effect of mental effort due to an auditory detection task on accident risk is additive to the effect of higher speed. Two levels of the driving task were employed, a low-demanding and a high-demanding one. Twenty drivers were asked to drive two rounds on a rural road with normal traffic, with unexpected traffic events along the second round. In half of the cases an auditory detection task had to be performed in parallel. The analysis of results showed that higher speed or higher mental effort due to the secondary task lead to more accidents and the effects should be considered as additive. These effects should not be considered as the mere effect of attentional resource availability but as depending on the drivers’ skill to manage their attentional control.
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Portouli, E., Papakostopoulos, V., Nathanael, D. (2013). Combined Effect on Accident Risk of a Dual Task and Higher Driving Speed: A Simulator Study. In: Harris, D. (eds) Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. Applications and Services. EPCE 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8020. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39354-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39354-9_5
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