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Title:

Does Working Memory Capacity Offer Protection to Driving Performance When Working Memory Load Increases?

Accession Number:

01477353

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

Distracted driving received increasing attention in the literature due to potential adverse safety outcomes. Especially the use of new in-vehicle technologies created situations in which driving is often combined with other tasks. However, operating in-vehicle technology induces working memory load (WM load) and therefore the working memory capacity (WM capacity) of the driver is not only devoted to the primary task of driving. WM capacity consists of different subtypes (visuospatial and verbal). This study investigated if, and how, these types relate to the influence of WM load on driving performance, as measured by a lane changing task (LCT). Young novice drivers (n= 51, age= 17-25), with a minimum 20 hours of practice and no more than two years of driving experience, participated in the experiment. Each participant completed two WM capacity tasks, tapping into either visuospatial or verbal WM capacity. The LCT was performed under baseline conditions and in combination with three levels of increasing WM load, induced by an auditory-verbal response N-back. Dependent measures of interest were mean deviation in the lane change path (MDEV), percentage of correct lane changes (PCL), and lane change initiation (LCI). Results showed that with increasing distraction performance on each measure deteriorated. Furthermore, higher WM capacity was related to better LCT performance, but this relation differed per WM capacity measure. More importantly, for PCL, young novice drivers with high verbal WM capacities were less influenced by distraction. Discarding distraction, in combination with WM capacity training, is proposed as the best solution for minimizing crash risks.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Vehicle User Characteristics.

Monograph Accession #:

01470560

Report/Paper Numbers:

13-4639

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Ross, Veerle
Jongen, Ellen M M
Wang, Weixin
Brijs, Tom
Brijs, Kris
Ruiter, Robert A C
Wets, Geert

Pagination:

13p

Publication Date:

2013

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References

Subject Areas:

Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-4639

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Feb 5 2013 12:54PM