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Impacts of anger on driving performance: A comparison to texting and conversation while driving
Abstract
Traditionally, driver distraction has been categorized into four types: visual, biomechanical, auditory, and cognitive. However, the place of emotion in driving research is largely undefined. The present study investigates the specific influences of anger – representative emotion arisen while driving, on driving performance, compared to those of traditional distraction tasks. In total, seventy-eight participants were recruited and placed into one of four driving conditions: physical (visual-biomechanical) distraction, cognitive (cognitive-auditory) distraction, emotional (anger), and control conditions. The results demonstrated that anger degrades driving performance as much as or more than other distraction types, specifically, in a yellow traffic signal situation. The causes for these results, underlying mechanisms, and other considerations are discussed with implications for future research.
... Potentially the most common distracting factor is the use of mobile phones, explored in a previous study by Sterkenburg and Jeon [12]. The use of such devices reduces driving precision and causes up to 50% slower responses to risks, thus causing a deterioration in performance [13]. ...
... These practices cause the drivers to take their eyes off the road, their attention away from the task of driving, and their hands off the wheel, which would increase crash risks. This finding is also consistent with Sterkenburg and Jeon [12], and Niu et al. [27], who highlighted the very negative impact of mobile phones on performance. ...
... Based on the previous discussion, generally a good agreement can be observed between the analyzed perceptions of Jordanian drivers and findings in the literature regarding distractions rankings, the impact of using mobile phones, wireless technologies and hand-free systems, eating, drinking, or smoking, and road and environmental factors [12,13,17,25,[27][28][29]. ...
Citation: Al-Rousan, T.M.; Umar, A.A.; Al-Omari, A.A.; Khalaylah, Y.A.; Alkuime, H.M.; Al-Rousan, A.H.
... Potentially the most common distracting factor is the use of mobile phones, explored in a previous study by Sterkenburg and Jeon [12]. The use of such devices reduces driving precision and causes up to 50% slower responses to risks, thus causing a deterioration in performance [13]. ...
... These practices cause the drivers to take their eyes off the road, their attention away from the task of driving, and their hands off the wheel, which would increase crash risks. This finding is also consistent with Sterkenburg and Jeon [12], and Niu et al. [27], who highlighted the very negative impact of mobile phones on performance. ...
... Based on the previous discussion, generally a good agreement can be observed between the analyzed perceptions of Jordanian drivers and findings in the literature regarding distractions rankings, the impact of using mobile phones, wireless technologies and hand-free systems, eating, drinking, or smoking, and road and environmental factors [12,13,17,25,[27][28][29]. ...
Distracting activities while driving are common and can result in errors that threaten road users’ safety. The main objectives of this study were to investigate drivers’ perspectives of the factors contributing to distraction, determine the relative rank of types of distractions, recognize the road factors and environmental effects that make distractions more dangerous, and identify the most effective measures to reduce driver distractions. A survey was conducted to assess Jordanian drivers’ experiences with distracted driving, and what solutions they believed could be implemented to solve the problems. The study’s outcomes revealed that drivers perceive visual distractions as the most dangerous, followed by cognitive, manual, and auditory distractions, respectively. It was also found that “mobile phone texting or dialing” was ranked the top most dangerous visual and manual distracting factor. “Baby is crying or kids are fighting in the back seat” was perceived by all demographic groups as the riskiest auditory factor. Regarding cognitive distraction, four factors were perceived as the most serious, of which “Baby is crying”, “Driving while angry or sad or agitated”, “Talking on a cell phone—even a hands-free one” and “Conversing with passengers” were determined to be the top four distracting factors. The results also revealed that drivers believe that “laws and enforcement” is the most effective measure to reduce distractions while driving.
... Moreover, the complexity of drivers' tasks may influence their ability to perceive tactile stimuli (Tang et al., 2023). Considering that task difficulty is considered a critical factor affecting driver interaction with in-vehicle infotainment systems (Ban and Park, 2024;Jakus et al., 2015;Sterkenburg and Jeon, 2020), further exploration is needed to investigate whether the impact of TFM and TFI is subject to modulation by non-driving related task difficulty (NTD) levels. ...
... Positive emotions like pleasure and confidence enhance the driving experience and road safety. In contrast, negative emotions like anger and frustration can lead to aggressive driving behaviour, driver distraction, increased hazard perception, and an increased risk of road safety incidents (Chan and Singhal, 2015;Sterkenburg and Jeon, 2020). ...
Touchscreen in-vehicle central control interfaces are rapidly replacing traditional physical buttons. However, the differences in the effects of tactile feedback between touchscreens and physical buttons on driver emotions are unclear. This study used a simulated driving experiment to investigate the effects of tactile feedback mode and intensity on driver emotion using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). The results showed that tactile feedback mode, intensity, and difficulty of non-driving-related tasks (NDRTs) significantly affected drivers' emotional states. Touchscreen tactile feedback elicited a more positive emotional state than physical button tactile feedback. The intensity of touchscreen tactile feedback is positively correlated with driver emotional valence. However, higher-intensity physical button feedback decreases driver emotional valence, particularly when drivers are engaged in complex NDRTs, and the difference due to feedback intensity is insignificant. The study's results could help automakers intervene by designing tactile feedback to enhance the emotional experience of the driver's in-vehicle interaction interface.
... Trust, in this case, is critically important to ensure proper use of these systems to their greatest extent. Previous studies have identified that the emotions of a user can have a significant influence on trust development (Dunn and Schweitzer, 2005) and on driving performance (Jeon et al., 2014a,b;Jeon, 2016;Sterkenburg and Jeon, 2020). However, few studies have investigated how these emotions influence trust in a CAV context. ...
The advancement of Conditionally Automated Vehicles (CAVs) requires research into critical factors to achieve an optimal interaction between drivers and vehicles. The present study investigated the impact of driver emotions and in-vehicle agent (IVA) reliability on drivers’ perceptions, trust, perceived workload, situation awareness (SA), and driving performance toward a Level 3 automated vehicle system. Two humanoid robots acted as the in-vehicle intelligent agents to guide and communicate with the drivers during the experiment. Forty-eight college students participated in the driving simulator study. The participants each experienced a 12-min writing task to induce their designated emotion (happy, angry, or neutral) prior to the driving task. Their affective states were measured before the induction, after the induction, and after the experiment by completing an emotion assessment questionnaire. During the driving scenarios, IVAs informed the participants about five upcoming driving events and three of them asked for the participants to take over control. Participants’ SA and takeover driving performance were measured during driving; in addition, participants reported their subjective judgment ratings, trust, and perceived workload (NASA-TLX) toward the Level 3 automated vehicle system after each driving scenario. The results suggested that there was an interaction between emotions and agent reliability contributing to the part of affective trust and the jerk rate in takeover performance. Participants in the happy and high reliability conditions were shown to have a higher affective trust and a lower jerk rate than other emotions in the low reliability condition; however, no significant difference was found in the cognitive trust and other driving performance measures. We suggested that affective trust can be achieved only when both conditions met, including drivers’ happy emotion and high reliability. Happy participants also perceived more physical demand than angry and neutral participants. Our results indicated that trust depends on driver emotional states interacting with reliability of the system, which suggested future research and design should consider the impact of driver emotions and system reliability on automated vehicles.
... However, continuous stress during travel may lead to more complex emotions, such as anger or frustration. Previous research [15] proposed that "anger degrades driving performance," such continuous stress may cause a decrease in driving performance. ...
Aiming to improve traffic safety, we investigated the effect of landscape and soundscape on driving behavior in urban roads using a VR driving simulator. While active and passive systems are implemented in vehicles and safer infrastructure is being proposed and built, previous research has suggested that the environment around roads also affects driving behaviors. Although changes in infrastructure and technological improvements are costly, well-implemented policies and better maintained road environments could also affect driving behaviors, especially with respect to risky driving. In this paper, we focus on traffic noise and road maintenance, which are examples of soundscapes and landscapes that can be improved relatively easily via appropriate policies. Specifically, we investigated the effects of soundscapes and landscapes on speed, lateral deviation from the road center, and behavior at crosswalks. The experimental results showed that both the soundscape and landscape affected driving behaviors; more precisely, horn noise and dirty environment enhanced aggressiveness in driving and driver distraction. This implies that policies targeting those aspects may improve safety without costly interventions.
... Human factors comprise different topics, e.g., alcohol-impaired or drug-impaired driving; sleepiness; fatigue; reckless driving; speeding; mood, attention, and risky road behaviors (Horberry et al., 2006;Lu et al., 2020;Mirón-Juárez et al., 2020;Sterkenburg and Jeon, 2020). This is partly because they increase the likelihood of a crash, but it's also because they're closely linked to contemporary transportation dynamics, one of which is distracted driving (Useche et al., 2021a;Pavlidis et al., 2016). ...
The growing evidence on road distraction during the recent years has shown how road distractions might be playing a relevant role on traffic crash causation. However, the empirical insights about how it works in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are really limited so far. The case of Colombian non-professional drivers remains virtually unexplored on this regard. This research aims to assess the effect of road distractions, driving-related issues and road behaviors on the self-reported crashes suffered by drivers in Bogotá, Colombia. To do so, a sample of 659 drivers (64% males and 36% females) with a mean age of 37.9 years (SD = 11.7) was gathered, who answered an online survey on road distractions, behaviors and self-reported crash history. Most of the distracting sources reported were found to be rather common among most of the drivers, even though only a few gender differences were found. Structural Equation Models show that there is a significant effect of road distractions on drivers’ self-reported crash rates and that young adults are more prone to incur in these behaviors as a consequence thereof. These findings support the design of safety interventions that focus on mitigating the risk of being distracted. In the same vein, authorities should increase the efforts to enforce ICT-related laws while driving, thus contributing to reduce the prevalence and impact of distracting sources while driving.
... On the other hand, the presence of external stressors, but not exercise complexity, did affect shooting performance (defined as the amount of incorrect and/or unnecessary movements/procedures observed by the shooting instructor), showing an increment of procedural errors for the emotionally induced arousal group, independently from the exercise complexity. This is in line with our hypothesis and with previous evidence that reported a detrimental effect of emotional arousal on operator performance (e.g., Oudejans, 2010, 2011;Nieuwenhuys et al., 2012;Serrano et al., 2014;Sterkenburg and Jeon, 2020), independently from the complexity of the task (see also Liu and Li, 2012 for a review of task complexity as a predictor of human behavior). In our study, it seems that external stressors might have interfered with preparatory movements (i.e., rituals or mannerisms, such as keeping the finger on the trigger when not engaging a target) without compromising shooting accuracy. ...
Due to the intrinsic difficulties associated with simulating extreme events, it remains unclear how unpleasant emotional arousal might affect shooting performance among well-trained high-risk operators. To address this issue, an infantry rifle squad performed two simulated shooting exercises of different complexity (low vs. high) while exposed to unpleasant emotionally charged sound clips. A control group underwent the same experimental procedure without the presence of any sound clips. To externally validate our method of emotional arousal inoculation, we collected infantrymen's salivary cortisol and perceived arousal and valence levels over the experimental phases (i.e., baseline, shooting, and recovery). The dependent variables were their shooting performance (shot-to-hit ratio and instructor's evaluation) and the perceived degree of task complexity. Furthermore , we explored the variations of participants' nasal skin temperature during the shooting exercises. Salivary cortisol concentrations varied over time only for the squad exposed to emotionally charged stimuli. While emotional arousal had an effect on overall infantrymen performance (e.g., precision of movements while shooting), shooting accuracy was not affected. Emotional arousal did not influence nasal skin temperature. Overall, our results suggest that arousal inoculation based on emotionally charged sound clips could serve as a complementary (reliable and ethically appropriate) method to train high-risk operators to deal with emotional arousal. These findings may also contribute to a better understanding of the role of emotional arousal in operational effectiveness.
Driver inattention has emerged as a critical concern impacting road safety, resulting in an alarming surge in accidents and fatalities. This research introduces a novel system for detecting inattention, structured across six levels: perception, facial feature extraction, tracking driver face, and driver secondary task using pre-trained deep learning models, inattention detection, risk estimation, and alert. The system is based on image processing captured from two strategically positioned cameras that simultaneously capture the driver’s activities while driving and their facial expressions. The second contribution concerns the driver facial features extraction using multi-task cascaded convolutional networks (MTCNN), and it is comparison with the histogram of gradient (HOG)-based frontal face detector, and haar feature based cascade classifier. The algorithms were compared based on their runtime efficiency, robustness in handling varying lighting conditions, and various head movements. The MTCNN achieves high performance, reaching accuracy levels ranging from 96.4% to 99.5% on two datasets including realistic driving scenarios: the DrivFace dataset and, the driver drowsiness dataset. The comparative analysis sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm, providing valuable insights for selecting the most suitable face detection algorithm to use in our system.
Traffic crashes remain a leading cause of accidental human death where aggressive driving is a significant contributing factor. To review the driver’s performance presented in aggressive driving, this systematic review screens 2412 pieces of relevant literature, selects and synthesizes 31 reports with 34 primary studies that investigated the driver’s control performance among the general driver population in four-wheeled passenger vehicles and published with full text in English. These 34 selected studies involved 1731 participants in total. By examining the selected 34 studies, the measures relating to vehicle speed (e.g., mean speed, n = 22), lateral control (e.g., lane deviation, n = 17) and driving errors (e.g., violation of traffic rules, n = 12) were reported most frequently with a significant difference observed between aggressive driving and driving in the control group. The result of the meta-analysis indicates that the aggressive driving behaviour would have 1) a significantly faster speed than the behaviour in the control group with an increase of 5.32 km/h (95% confidence interval, [3.27, 7.37] km/h) based on 8 studies with 639 participants in total; 2) 2.51 times more driving errors (95% confidence interval, [1.32, 3.71] times) than the behaviour in the control group, based on 5 studies with 136 participants in total. This finding can be used to support the identification and quantification of aggressive driving behaviour, which could form the basis of an in-vehicle aggressive driving monitoring system.
Unsafe driving behaviors are the leading causes of truck crashes. Therefore, an enhanced understanding of truck drivers' unsafe driving behaviors is of considerable significance for preventing truck crashes. However, previous studies have rarely encompassed proactive factors such as safety management. Therefore, a classification framework for truck drivers' unsafe driving behaviors was established according to a survey of 2000 truck drivers using four machine learning models (CART, RT, AdaBoost, and GBDT). The classification framework included six first-level input dimensions, 51 s-level input indicators, covering both objective and proactive factors. Nine types of unsafe driving behaviors were determined as outputs. Unique risk factors associated with each of nine unsafe driving behaviors were identified. The results showed that the model's predictive performance varies with different driving behaviors (Classification Accuracy ranges from 0.64 to 0.95, F1-score ranges from 0.52 to 0.72), which was caused by different formation mechanisms of different driving behaviors. Similarly, the results related to factor importance for different driving behaviors were also significantly different, regardless of the first-level and second-level factors. Furthermore, the correlation analysis and OR value strengthened the interpretability of the factor importance, revealing possible reasons for the differences between various driving behaviors.
Recent research has indicated strong relations between people's appraisals of their circumstances and their emotional states. The present study examined these relations across a range of unpleasant situations in which subjects experienced complex emotional blends. Subjects recalled unpleasant experiences from their pasts that were associated with particular appraisals and described their appraisals and emotions during these experiences. Situations defined by particular appraisals along the human agency or situational control dimensions were reliably associated with different levels of anger, sadness, and guilt, as predicted. However, predicted differences in emotion were not observed for situations selected for appraisals along the certainty or attention dimensions. Most subjects reported experiencing blends of two or more emotions, and correlation/regression analyses indicated that even in the context of these blends, patterns of appraisal similar to those observed previously (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985, 1987) characterized the experience of the individual emotions. The regressions further indicated that appraisals along some dimensions were more important to the experience of particular emotions than were appraisals along other dimensions. These central appraisals are compared with the adaptive functions their associated emotions are believed to serve, and the implications of these findings are discussed. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45362/1/11031_2004_Article_BF00993115.pdf
Approximately one quarter of vehicle crashes in the United States are estimated to result from the driver being inattentive, or distracted. As more wireless communication, entertainment and driver assistance systems proliferate the vehicle market, the incidence of distraction-related crashes is expected to escalate. In North America, Europe and Japan, driver distraction is a priority issue in road safety. However, the significance of driver distraction as road safety issue has only recently been recognised in Australia. This paper provides a review of current research on in-vehicle driver distraction, focusing on mobile phone use in particular, given that this device has received the greatest attention in the driver distraction literature. The review discusses the effect of in-vehicle devices on driving performance. Issues addressed include: the adaptive strategies drivers adopt in order to maintain their driving performance while distracted at an adequate level; under what conditions these adaptive strategies can fail; and how driving performance is affected when they do. Also examined is whether, and to what degree, these degradations in driving performance translate into an increased crash risk. In the final section of the paper, recommendations for future research are provided.
In this study, air traffic control instructors controlled simulated traffic while three techniques for determining situation awareness (SA) were implemented. SA was assessed using a self-report measure (SART); a query method that removed information on the plan-view display (SAGAT); a query technique that did not have a memory component (SPAM); and the detection of errors integrated into the scenarios (implicit performance). We used these measures of SA together with a measure of workload, NASA TDC, to predict two different performance measures. One performance measure was an over-the-shoulder, subjective assessment by a subject matter expert (SME). The other performance measure was a count of the number of control actions remaining to be performed at the end of the scenario. The SME evaluation was predicted by workload and the controller's appreciation of both the present and the future. The remaining-actions count (RAC) was predicted by the controller's appreciation of the future. In fact, an appreciation of the present led to poorer RAC scores: The better the participant was at answering questions about the present or the better he or she understood the present situation, the larger the number of actions remained to be performed. The results have implications for the relationships among workload, situation awareness, and performance, and suggest limitations on several of the measures currently proposed as SA techniques. The results confirm that future versus present is an important conceptual difference in air traffic control. More importantly, the results suggest that a controller who remains overly focused on the present may do so at the expense of the future.
in our discussion of emotion and dysfunction, we have intimated that emotions are instructive about persons because both emotions and the personality are organized around the problem of surviving, getting along, and flourishing over the life course
begin by addressing the question of what an emotion is / describe our own [the authors'] recent work directed at illuminating what we see as one of the important issues in emotion theory—the role of cognitive appraisal
embed this work in a general model of emotion, which identifies the key variables and processes within a systems framework emphasizing person-environment relationships and cognitive mediation
illustrate how emotion theory makes firm contact with a variety of topics currently being pursued across diverse psychological disciplines, especially personality and social psychology
the adaptational problem and the evolution of emotion / appraisal theory / personality, society, and biology in emotion (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Most theories of affective influences on judgement and choice take a valence-based approach, contrasting the effects of positive versus negative feeling states. These approaches have not specified if and when distinct emotions of the same valence have different effects on judgement. In this article, we propose a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice. We posit that each emotion is defined by a tendency to perceive new events and objects in ways that are consistent with the original cognitive-appraisal dimensions of the emotion. To pit the valence and appraisal-tendency approaches against one another, we present a study that addresses whether two emotions of the same valence but differing appraisals—anger and fear—relate in different ways to risk perception. Consistent with the appraisal-tendency hypothesis, fearful people made pessimistic judgements of future events whereas angry people made optimistic judgements. In the Discussion we expand the proposed model and review evidence supporting two social moderators of appraisal-tendency processes.
The overwhelming majority of research on affect and social information processing has focused on the judgments and memories of people in good or bad moods rather than examining more specific kinds of emotional experience within the broad categories of positive and negative affect. Are all varieties of negative affect alike in their impact on social perception? Three experiments were conducted to examine the possibility that different kinds of negative affect (in this case, anger and sadness) can have very different kinds of effects on social information processing. Experiment I showed that angry subjects rendered more stereotypic judgments in a social perception task than did sad subjects, who did not differ from neutral mood subjects. Experiments 2 and 3 similarly revealed a greater reliance upon heuristic cues in a persuasion situation among angry subjects. Specifically, their level of agreement with unpopular positions was guided more by the credibility of the person advocating the position. These findings are discussed in terms of the impact of emotional experience on social information-processing strategies.
Music is the favourite activity while driving. However, very few studies have investigated its impact on driving performances. This study was designed to assess the effect of music’s emotional valence on driving behaviour. Happy, sad and neutral music excerpts were alternated with no-music phases while driving in a simulator. Results showed that happy music distracted drivers the most as their mean speed unexpectedly decreased and their lateral control deteriorated. Sad music influenced drivers in a different way as they drove slowly and kept their vehicle in its lane. These findings were discussed within the framework of attentional orienting and emotions.
Using a closed-circuit driving track environment, we investigated the influence of using a hands-free mobile (or cell) phone on various biomechanical and perceptual factors that underlie the control of driving. Results showed that in three tasks representative of everyday driving conditions, the perceptual control of action was compromised when compared to a control condition where no mobile phone conversation was present. While conversing, critical control actions related to braking were postponed on approach to a corner. During controlled braking, as when approaching a stationary car at a traffic light, the degree of braking was reduced and braking style was altered in a non-optimal manner. During an obstacle avoidance task, car dynamics were affected as a result of the conversation. Interpretation of the results is motivated by the ecological approach to perception–action and the theory of affordances. It is concluded that a driver’s sensitivity to prospective information about upcoming events and the associated perception and awareness of what the road environment affords may both significantly be degraded when simultaneously using a hands-free mobile phone. Implications for intervention and policy are discussed.
This paper describes the origins and hisotry of multiple resource theory in accounting for difference in dual task interference. One particular application of the theory, the 4-dimensional multiple resources model, is described in detail, positing that there will be greater interference between two tasks to the extent that they share stages (perceptua/cognitive vs response) sensory modalities (auditory vs visual), codes (visual vs spatial) and channels of visual information (focal vs ambient). A computational rendering of this model is then presented. Examples are given of how the model predicts interference differences in operational environments. Finally, three challenges to the model are outlined regarding task demand coding, task allocation and visual resource competition.
Keywords: daydreaming, sleepiness. Thesis (Ph. D.)--North Carolina State University. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-50). Includes vita.
There has long been interest in describing emotional experience in terms of underlying dimensions, but traditionally only two dimensions, pleasantness and arousal, have been reliably found. The reasons for these findings are reviewed, and integrating this review with two recent theories of emotions (Roseman, 1984; Scherer, 1982), we propose eight cognitive appraisal dimensions to differentiate emotional experience. In an investigation of this model, subjects recalled past experiences associated with each of 15 emotions, and rated them along the proposed dimensions. Six orthogonal dimensions, pleasantness, anticipated effort, certainty, attentional activity, self-other responsibility/control, and situational control, were recovered, and the emotions varied systematically along each of these dimensions, indicating a strong relation between the appraisal of one's circumstances and one's emotional state. The patterns of appraisal for the different emotions, and the role of each of the dimensions in differentiating emotional experience are discussed.
Evidence for the role of affective states in social judgments is reviewed, and a new integrative theory, the affect infusion model (AIM), is proposed as a comprehensive explanation of these effects. The AIM, based on a multiprocess approach to social judgments, identifies 4 alternative judgmental strategies: (a) direct access, (b) motivated, (c) heuristic, and (d) substantive processing. The model predicts that the degree of affect infusion into judgments varies along a processing continuum, such that judgments requiring heuristic or substantive processing are more likely to be infused by affect than are direct access or motivated judgments. The role of target, judge, and situational variables in recruiting high- or low-infusion judgmental strategies is considered, and empirical support for the model is reviewed. The relationship between the AIM and other affect-cognition theories is discussed, and implications for future research are outlined.
This research examined the effects of hands-free cell phone conversations on simulated driving. The authors found that these conversations impaired driver's reactions to vehicles braking in front of them. The authors assessed whether this impairment could be attributed to a withdrawal of attention from the visual scene, yielding a form of inattention blindness. Cell phone conversations impaired explicit recognition memory for roadside billboards. Eye-tracking data indicated that this was due to reduced attention to foveal information. This interpretation was bolstered by data showing that cell phone conversations impaired implicit perceptual memory for items presented at fixation. The data suggest that the impairment of driving performance produced by cell phone conversations is mediated, at least in part, by reduced attention to visual inputs.
The prevalence of automobile drivers talking on cell phones is growing, but the effect of that behavior on driving performance is unclear. Also unclear is the relationship between the difficulty level of a phone conversation and the resulting distraction.
This study used a driving simulator to determine the effect that easy and difficult cell phone conversations have on driving performance.
Cell phone use caused participants to have higher variation in accelerator pedal position, drive more slowly with more variation in speed, and report a higher level of workload regardless of conversation difficulty level.
Drivers may cope with the additional stress of phone conversations by enduring higher workloads or setting reduced performance goals.
Because an increasing number of people talk on the phone while driving, crashes caused by distracted drivers using cell phones will cause disruptions in business, as well as injury, disability, and permanent loss of personnel.
Using touchscreens while driving introduces competition for visual attention that increases crash risk. To resolve this issue, we have developed an auditory-supported air gesture system. We conducted two experiments using the driving simulator to investigate the influence of this system on driving performance, eye glance behavior, secondary task performance, and driver workload. In Experiment 1 we investigated the impact of menu layout and auditory displays with 23 participants. In Experiment 2 we compared the best systems from Experiment 1 with equivalent touchscreen systems with 24 participants. Results from Experiment 1 showed that menus arranged in 2 × 2 grids outperformed systems with 4 × 4 grids across all measures and also demonstrated that auditory displays can be used to reduce visual demands of in-vehicle controls. In Experiment 2 auditory-supported air gestures allowed drivers to look at the road more, showed equivalent driver workload and driving performance, and slightly decreased secondary task performance compared to touchscreens. Implications are discussed with multiple resources theory and Fitts’s law.
This study was an investigation into mind wandering during everyday driving, and its association with crash patterns. We selected a 25 km route on urban roads for analysis of crashes, and an on-road study of mind wandering by a sample of drivers familiar with the route. We analysed reported crashes on the route over a five year period from New Zealand's crash database. For the on-road study a researcher accompanied 25 drivers on the route, asking them what they were thinking about at 15 predetermined road sections. The road sections were selected to include a range of different speed limits and traffic volumes as well as roundabouts, priority intersections and midblocks. Thought samples were categorised as either mind wandering or driving focus, and triggered by the senses, or internally. The frequencies of mind wandering at different road sections on the route were compared to the frequencies of reported crashes along the same route over the preceding five years. Results showed that although all drivers reported mind wandering, it was more likely to be reported at slower, quieter, less complex road sections. Overall, more crashes were reported at priority intersections and midblocks than at roundabouts, but the crash rate (per road section) was higher at roundabouts, where mind wandering was least likely to be reported. These findings suggest that although drivers' minds wander constantly, driving focus is commanded in demanding situations and in response to the actions of other road users. While mind wandering is ubiquitous, drivers are least likely to report mind wandering at locations showing the highest crash rates. More work is needed to test these findings and to provide direction for road safety interventions.
This chapter aims to systematically explore the relationship and effects between affect and driving behaviors. Even though some driving models partially address drivers’ affective factors, the majority of them have focused on cognitive aspects. Thus, to understand driver behavior in a more holistic way, more systematic reviews and empirical research including affective aspects of driving behavior are required. First, the current driving models are briefly described and the research gap is identified. Then, the effects of affective states on driving performance are delineated from multiple perspectives. Finally, theoretical and practical future works are discussed. This chapter is intended to help researchers construct a more naturalistic and generic driving behavior model, conceptualize affect detection research with a clearer idea of what affect needs to be detected and why, and develop an affect regulation model and adaptive system for multiple drivers.
While driving research on affect has mostly focused on anger and road rage, there has been little empirical research on other affective states. Affect researchers widely acknowledge the ‘sadder but wiser’ phenomenon, but there is little evidence if this tendency can be applied to the driving environment as well. The objective of the present study is to empirically test whether sadness enhances driving performance as the sadder but wiser notion might predict or sadness impairs driving performance as its negative valence or low arousal dimension might predict. The study consists of a simulated driving experiment with induced anger, sadness, and neutral affect to examine how anger and sadness influence driving-related risk perception, driving performance, and perceived workload. Sixty one young drivers drove under three different road conditions with either induced anger, sadness, or neutral affect conditions. After affect induction, there was no difference in subjective risk perception across three affect conditions. However, participants in both affect conditions showed significantly more errors and took longer driving time than those in the neutral condition. Only participants with induced anger reported significantly higher physical workload and frustration than participants with neutral affect. Results are discussed in terms of affect mechanisms, design directions for the in-vehicle affect mitigation system, and limitations of the study.
Research has suggested that interaction with an in-vehicle software agent can improve a driver's psychological state and increase road safety. The present study explored the possibility of using an in-vehicle software agent to mitigate effects of driver anger on driving behavior. After either anger or neutral mood induction, 60 undergraduates drove in a simulator with two types of agent intervention. Results showed that both speech-based agents not only enhance driver situation awareness and driving performance, but also reduce their anger level and perceived workload. Regression models show that a driver's anger influences driving performance measures, mediated by situation awareness. The practical implications include design guidelines for the design of social interaction with in-vehicle software agents.
Abstract Research has suggested that emotional states have critical effects on various cognitive processes, which are important components of situation awareness (Endsley, 1995b). Evidence from driving studies has also emphasized the importance of driver situation awareness for performance and safety. However, to date, little research has investigated the relationship between emotional effects and driver situation awareness. In our experiment, 30 undergraduates drove in a simulator after induction of either anger or neutral affect. Results showed that an induced angry state can degrade driver situation awareness as well as driving performance as compared to a neutral state. However, the angry state did not have an impact on participants' subjective judgment or perceived workload, which might imply that the effects of anger occurred below their level of conscious awareness. One of the reasons participants showed a lack of compensation for their deficits in performance might be that they were not aware of severe impacts of emotional effects on driving performance.
There is little agreement in the scientific literature about what the terms "driver distraction" and "driver inattention" mean, and what the relationship is between them. In 2011, Regan, Hallett and Gordon proposed a taxonomy of driver inattention in which driver distraction is conceptualized as just one of several processes that give rise to driver inattention. Since publication of that paper, two other papers have emerged that bear on the taxonomy. In one, the Regan et al taxonomy was used, for the first time, to classify data from an in-depth crash investigation in Australia. In the other, another taxonomy of driver inattention was proposed and described. In this paper we revisit the original taxonomy proposed by Regan et al. in light of these developments, and make recommendations for how the original taxonomy might be improved to make it more useful as a tool for classifying and coding crash and critical incident data. In addition, we attempt to characterize, theoretically, the processes within each category of the original taxonomy that are assumed to give rise to driver inattention. Recommendations are made for several lines of research: to further validate the original taxonomy; to understand the impact of each category of inattention in the taxonomy on driving performance, crash type and crash risk; and to revise and align with the original taxonomy existing crash and incident investigation protocols, so that they provide more comprehensive, reliable and consistent information regarding the contribution of inattention to crashes of all types.
The term working memory refers to a brain system that provides temporary storage and manipulation of the information necessary
for such complex cognitive tasks as language comprehension, learning, and reasoning. This definition has evolved from the
concept of a unitary short-term memory system. Working memory has been found to require the simultaneous storage and processing
of information. It can be divided into the following three subcomponents: (i) the central executive, which is assumed to be
an attentional-controlling system, is important in skills such as chess playing and is particularly susceptible to the effects
of Alzheimer's disease; and two slave systems, namely (ii) the visuospatial sketch pad, which manipulates visual images and
(iii) the phonological loop, which stores and rehearses speech-based information and is necessary for the acquisition of both
native and second-language vocabulary.
This research is a part of the IVAT (In-Vehicle Assistive Technology) project, an in-dash interface design project to help drivers who have various disabilities, including deficits in emotion regulation. While there have been several studies on emotion detection for drivers, few studies have seriously addressed what to detect and why. Those are crucial issues to consider when implementing an effective affect management system. Phase 1 of our study gathered a total of 33 different driving situations that can induce emotions and 56 plausible affective keywords to describe such emotions. Phase 2 analyzed factor structures of affect for driving contexts through user ratings and Factor Analysis, and obtained nine factors: fearful, happy, angry, depressed, curious, embarrassed, urgent, bored, and relieved. These factors accounted for 65.1% of the total variance. Results are discussed in terms of designing the IVAT emotion detection and regulation system for driving contexts.
The aim of the current chapter is to share eight fundamental insights that have been gleaned from over fifty years of social psychological theorizing and research relating to justice. These insights are that: 1. Justice is an important subjective phenomenon 2. People have a need to believe in a just world 3. Outcomes, procedures, and treatment impact perceptions of justice 4. Perceptions of justice are important for both individuals and groups 5. People care about justice for a number of different reasons 6. Feelings of injustice are tied to notions of accountability and blame 7. Justice judgments are formed through social comparisons 8. Justice judgments are shaped by cultural values
NASA-TLX is a multi-dimensional scale designed to obtain workload estimates from one or more operators while they are performing a task or immediately afterwards. The years of research that preceded subscale selection and the weighted averaging approach resulted in a tool that has proven to be reasonably easy to use and reliably sensitive to experimentally important manipulations over the past 20 years. Its use has spread far beyond its original application (aviation), focus (crew complement), and language (English). This survey of 550 studies in which NASA-TLX was used or reviewed was undertaken to provide a resource for a new generation of users. The goal was to summarize the environments in which it has been applied, the types of activities the raters performed, other variables that were measured that did (or did not) covary, methodological issues, and lessons learned
Background:
The use of a cell phone or communication device while driving is illegal in many jurisdictions, yet evidence evaluating the crash risk associated with cell phone use in naturalistic settings is limited. This article aims to determine whether cell phone use while driving increases motor vehicle crash culpability. Method Drivers involved in crashes where police reported cell phone use (n = 312) and propensity matched drivers (age, sex, suspect alcohol/drug impairment, crash type, date, time of day, geographical location) without cell phone use (n = 936) were drawn from Insurance Corporation of British Columbia Traffic Accident System data. A standardized scoring tool, modified to account for Canadian driving conditions, was used to determine crash culpability from police reports on all drivers from the crashes. The association between crash culpability and cell phone use was determined, with additional subgroup analyses based on crash severity, driver characteristics and type of licence.
Results:
A comparison of crashes with vs without cell phones revealed an odds ratio of 1.70 (95% confidence interval 1.22-2.36; P = 0.002). This association was consistent after adjustment for matching variables and other covariates. Subgroup analyses demonstrated an association for male drivers, unimpaired drivers, injured and non-injured drivers, and for drivers aged between 26 and 65 years.
Conclusions:
Crash culpability was found to be significantly associated with cell phone use by drivers, increasing the odds of a culpable crash by 70% compared with drivers who did not use a cell phone. This increased risk was particularly high for middle-aged drivers.
Driving performance in an instrumented vehicle was compared with performance in a low-cost, fixed-based driving simulator. Six men and six women drove a freeway route while periodically dialling simulated phone calls. The same subjects drove a laboratory driving simulator using two visual fidelity levels: a colour scene with relatively high detail, and a monochrome (night) scene showing only road-edge markings. Lane position, speed, steering-wheel angle and throttle position were recorded in both contexts. Lane-keeping in the simulator was less precise than on the road, but speed control performance was comparable. The SD of lane position in normal driving was about twice as large, on average, in the simulator (0.360 versus 0.165 m). Lane keeping and speed control were less precise when dialling the phone than in normal driving, both in the simulator and on the road, but the performance decrement was greater in the simulator. The addition of the phone task increased the mean lateral speed in the car by about 43%, while in the simulator the mean lateral speed increased by 158% with the addition of the phone task. Subjects >60 years of age showed larger performance decrements during a concurrent phone dialling task than did subjects 20–30 years of age both in the simulator and on-road. No important differences in driving performance were found between the high and low simulator scene fidelity levels. The simulator demonstrated good absolute validity for measures of speed control and good relative validity for the effects of the phone task and age on driving precision.
This was only a conference paper (i.e. ppt slides). For a full-text version of the same topic please read:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312488348_The_Lane-Change-Task_as_a_tool_for_driver_distraction_evaluation
Studies have shown that the inappropriate use of in-vehicle technology may lead to hazardous disruption of driver performance. This paper reports an investigation into the socio-technical implications of maintaining a difficult conversation while driving. Twenty romantically involved couples participated in a driving-simulator experiment. The participants engaged in emotionally difficult conversations while one partner drove. The contentious conversation topics were identified using a revealed differences protocol, requiring partners to discuss sources of ongoing disagreement in their relationship. The conversations were conducted either using handsfree telephone or with both parties present in the simulator. Results indicate that the revealed differences tasks were subjectively viewed as emotionally more difficult than a control. Driver performance was found to be adversely effected for both longitudinal and lateral vehicle control. Performance was worst during contentious conversations with the partner present, suggesting the drivers may be better able to regulate driving task demands with the partner not in the vehicle during difficult discussions.
On-the-road driving records of Sports Car Club of America national competition license holders from three states were compared with the records of other drivers of the same age and sex. In each state the race drivers had a greater number of crashes per driver, and a greater number of speeding violations, other moving violations, and non-moving violations per driver, than the drivers comprising the matched comparison group. The results cast considerable doubt as to the validity of the Master Driver's License concept, which has been given serious consideration by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The results also suggest a need for caution regarding the assumption that advanced driver education crash-avoidance techniques can he translated into reduced crash experience.
Little work has empirically examined the cognitive construct of situation awareness (SA) in driving tasks involving the use of advanced in-vehicle automated technologies and personal communication devices. This research investigated the effects of an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system, and cell phone use in driving, on a direct and objective measure of SA, and assessed the competition of multiple driving and communication tasks for limited mental resources in terms of driving performance. Eighteen participants drove a virtual car in a driving simulation and performed a following task involving changes in speed and lateral position. Half of the participants were required to respond to cell phone calls and all completed trials with and without use of the ACC system. Task performance was measured in terms of lane deviations and speed control in tracking a lead vehicle, as well as headway distance in the following task. SA was measured using a simulation freeze technique and SA queries on the driving situation. Subjective workload was measured using a uni-dimensional mental workload rating. Results indicated use of the ACC system to improve driving task SA under typical driving conditions, and to reduce driver mental workload. However, the cell phone conversation caused deleterious effects on driving SA and increased driver mental load. The cell phone conversation (secondary task) competed for limited mental resources of drivers, leading to less attention to, and accurate knowledge of, the driving situation. Results also revealed the ACC system to improve driving performance along multiple dimensions; however, the cell phone did not have an effect. The latter result may be attributed to a short duration of the cell phone conversations during the experiment. This study has implications for the implementation of in-vehicle automation to support driver SA under normal driving conditions and regulations on the use of cell phones while driving.
This study examined the causal factors associated with anger while driving and the possible consequences of that anger on driving behaviour. Drivers kept diaries over a period of two weeks, detailing the events occurring during each journey in that time, with notes on events such as near accidents and on feelings of anger. The study examined the diaries of 100 drivers, who reported a total of 293 near accidents and 383 occasions when they experienced anger. The drivers also completed questionnaires that assessed a number of individual differences such as propensity towards mild social deviance and towards committing traffic violations. On a journey by journey basis drivers were more likely to report anger when congestion was present, but there was no evidence that the drivers who generally experienced higher levels of congestion also experienced more anger. The study found a strong association between the number of near accidents and occasions of anger a person experiences while driving, but this concealed two separate relationships. Near accidents frequently provoked feelings of anger, particularly where the driver felt that they were not at fault in the incident. However, there was also a separate link between the experience of anger in other situations and reports of near accidents where the driver was to blame. Such anger also appeared to be linked to mild social deviance and the commission of driving violations.
There is accumulating evidence that driver distraction and driver inattention are leading causes of vehicle crashes and incidents. However, as applied psychological constructs, they have been inconsistently defined and the relationship between them remains unclear. In this paper, driver distraction and driver inattention are defined and a taxonomy is presented in which driver distraction is distinguished from other forms of driver inattention. The taxonomy and the definitions provided are intended (a) to provide a common framework for coding different forms of driver inattention as contributing factors in crashes and incidents, so that comparable estimates of their role as contributing factors can be made across different studies, and (b) to make it possible to more accurately interpret and compare, across studies, the research findings for a given form of driver inattention.
In this study, 150 subjects observed a 25-minute video driving sequence containing 45 highway traffic situations to which they were expected to respond by manipulation of simulated vehicle controls. Each situation occurred under five conditions of distraction: placing a cellular phone call, carrying on a causal cellular phone conversation, carrying on an intense cellular phone conversation, tuning a radio, and no distraction. All of the distractions led to significant increases in the proportion of situations to which subjects failed to respond. However, significant age differences of nonresponse appeared. Among subjects over age 50, nonresponses increased by about one-third under all of the telephone distractions. The response rate of younger subjects increased by a lesser degree except under intense conversation. Results were not influenced by gender or prior experience with cellular phones. The authors conclude that older drivers might reduce their accident risk during attention-demanding traffic conditions by avoiding use of cellular phones and that other drivers might do so by refraining from calls involving intense conversation.
The effects of a mobile telephone task on young and elderly drivers' choice reaction time, headway, lateral position, and workload were studied when the subjects were driving in a car-following situation, in the VTI driving simulator. It was found that a mobile telephone task had a negative effect upon the drivers' choice reaction time, and that the effect was more pronounced for the elderly drivers. Furthermore, the subjects did not compensate for their increased reaction time by increasing their headway during the phone task. The subjects' mental workload, as measured by the NASA-TLX, increased as a function of the mobile telephone task. No effect on the subjects' lateral position could be detected. Taken together, these results indicate that the accident risk can increase when a driver is using the mobile telephone in a car following situation. The reasons for the increased risk, and possible ways to eliminate it, are also discussed.
This study was aimed at investigating drivers' ability to detect a car ahead decelerating, while doing mobile phone related tasks. Nineteen participants aged between 20 and 29 years, (2000-125000 km driving experience) drove at 80 km/h, 50 m behind a lead car, on a 30 km section of motorway in normal traffic. During each trial the lead car started to decelerate at an average of 0.47 m/s2 while the participant either looked at the car in front (control), continuously dialed series of three random integers on a numeric keypad (divided visual attention), or performed a memory and addition task (non-visual attention). The results indicated that drivers' detection ability was impaired by about 0.5 s in terms of brake reaction time and almost 1 s in terms of time-to-collision, when they were doing the non-visual task whilst driving. This impairment was similar to when the drivers were dividing their visual attention between the road ahead and dialing numbers on the keypad. It was concluded that neither a hands-free option nor a voice controlled interface removes the safety problems associated with the use of mobile phones in a car.
Drawing on an appraisal-tendency framework (J. S. Lerner & D. Keltner, 2000), the authors predicted and found that fear and anger have opposite effects on risk perception. Whereas fearful people expressed pessimistic risk estimates and risk-averse choices, angry people expressed optimistic risk estimates and risk-seeking choices. These opposing patterns emerged for naturally occurring and experimentally induced fear and anger. Moreover, estimates of angry people more closely resembled those of happy people than those of fearful people. Consistent with predictions, appraisal tendencies accounted for these effects: Appraisals of certainty and control moderated and (in the case of control) mediated the emotion effects. As a complement to studies that link affective valence to judgment outcomes, the present studies highlight multiple benefits of studying specific emotions.
Forty-two licensed drivers were tested in an experiment that required them to respond to an in-vehicle phone at the same time that they were faced with making a crucial stopping decision. Using test track facilities, we also examined the influence of driver gender and driver age on these dual-task response capacities. Each driver was given task practice and then performed a first block of 24 trials, where one trial represented one circuit of the test track. Half of the trials were control conditions in which neither the stop-light was activated nor was the in-vehicle phone triggered. Four trials required only stop-light response and a further four, phone response only. The remaining four trials required the driver to complete each task simultaneously. The order of presentation of specific trials was randomized and the whole sequence was repeated in a second block giving 48 trials per driver. In-vehicle phone response also contained an embedded memory task that was evaluated at the end of each trial circuit. Results confirmed our previous observation that in the dual-task condition there was a slower response to the light change. To compensate for this slowed response, drivers subsequently brake more intensely. Most importantly, we recorded a critical 15% increase in non-response to the stop-light in the presence of the phone distraction task which equates with increased stop-light violations on the open road. These response patterns varied by driver age and driver gender. In particular, age had a large effect on task components that required speed of response to multiple, simultaneous demands. Since driving represents a highly complex and interactive environment, it is not possible to specify a simplistic relationship between these distraction effects and outcome crash patterns. However, we can conclude that such in-vehicle technologies erode performance safety margin and distract drivers from their critical primary task of vehicle control. As such it can be anticipated that a causal relation exists to collision events. This is a crucial concern for all in-vehicle device designers and for the many safety researchers and professionals seeking to reduce the adverse impacts of vehicle collisions.
This research tested hypotheses from state-trait anger theory applied to anger while driving. High and low anger drivers drove equally often and as many miles, but high anger drivers reported more frequent and intense anger and more aggression and risky behavior in daily driving, greater anger in frequently occurring situations, more frequent close calls and moving violations, and greater use of hostile/aggressive and less adaptive/constructive ways of expressing anger. In low impedance simulations, groups did not differ on state anger or aggression; however, high anger drivers reported greater state anger and verbal and physical aggression in high impedance simulations. High anger drivers drove at higher speeds in low impedance simulations and had shorter times and distances to collision and were twice as likely to crash in high impedance simulations. Additionally, high anger drivers were more generally angry. Hypotheses were generally supported, and few gender differences were noted for anger and aggression.
To quantify the central attention-diverting effect of hands-free cellular phone conversation on visual field awareness.
Experimental study.
Twenty male and 21 female healthy participants performed a pretest and baseline Esterman visual field examinations with the Humphrey Systems Visual Field Analyzer II. During the consequent third examination, each participant engaged in a hands-free conversation using a cellular phone. The conversation was the same for all participants. Visual field performance parameters were compared between the second (baseline) examination, and the third (test) examination for each eye.
During phone conversation, missed points increased from mean 1.0 +/- 1.5 to 2.6 +/- 3.4 (P < or =.001) in the right eye and from 1.1 +/- 1.53 to 3.0 +/- 3.4 (P <.001) in the left eye. Fixation loss increased from mean 7.8% to 27.4% (P <.0001) and from 7.2% to 34.8% (P <.0001) for the right and left eyes, respectively. Test duration increased by a mean of 0.28 seconds (15%) per stimulus (P <.0001). Approximately half of missed points were inside the central 30 degrees. There was no significant difference in the performance of male and female participants.
We describe a new model for the quantification of the attention-diverting effect of cellular-phone conversation on the visual field. In the current study, cellular hands-free conversation caused some subjects to miss significantly more points, react slower to each stimulus, and perform with reduced precision. Legislative restrictions on concomitant cellular-phone conversation and driving may need to be based on individual performance rather than a general ban on cellular phone usage.