Driving under the influence of distraction: Examining dissociations between risk perception and engagement in distracted driving

Driving while distracted is a critical and unwavering problem in the United States leading to numerous injuries and fatalities each year. While increasing legislation and developing technological interventions strive to ensure we only focus on driving, individuals still drive distracted. We surveyed college-aged adults to examine the factors that influence both their risk perception of driving while distracted and how often they engage in distracting activities and situations while driving. We found a disassociation between individuals’ perception of driving distraction risk and their engagement with the distraction. Exposure, perceived knowledge of risks, fairness beliefs, and ratings of perceived visual and cognitive demands was associated with risk perception. Conversely, risk-seeking traits, how voluntary the task was perceived, and previous exposure to a distraction influenced engagement. Overall, we recommend additional research focusing on factors that predict engagement in driver distraction rather than perceived risk alone.     

The Relationship of Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking, Coping, and Substance Use in Youth Gamblers.

This study examines the relationship of impulsivity, sensation seeking, coping, and substance use to disordered gambling in a sample of 1,339 youth (637 males and 702 females), 17-21 years old. Results indicate that males with serious gambling problems were more likely than their peers to abuse substances and to use avoidant stress-coping strategies, such as seeking emotional outlets, distracting themselves with other activities, and using humor. In contrast, female disordered gamblers were less likely to engage in active coping and planning strategies. Overall, substance use, coping through distraction, and impulsivity proved the most predictive of disordered gambling for males, and intensity seeking and impulsivity proved most predictive for females. Implications for prevention, intervention, and education are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The duality of selection: Excitatory and inhibitory processes in auditory selective attention.

Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements were made in an auditory selective-attention paradigm, both before and after a series of inhibition or discrimination training sessions. The presence of distractors caused poor perceptual sensitivity, weak P3 responses, conservative responding, and slow reaction times relative to baseline. Distraction prompted a frontal enhancement of ERP components occurring 100-250 ms after the onset of attended signals (N1, P2, and N2). Training ameliorated behavioral interference from distraction. Participants receiving inhibition training acquired improved inhibitory processing of distractors, an effect that peaked 200 ms after distractor onset, In a proposed model, distinct excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms work interactively to maintain sensitivity to environmental change in the fare of disruption from the contextual integration of irrelevant events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

考虑驾驶任务需求的车内次任务分神干预策略

为使分配给驾驶任务的注意水平与其任务需求相匹配,从而满足安全驾驶要求,探究车内次任务分神干预策略.基于车辆和驾驶环境数据及前方道路场景视频资料,构建基于实时道路交通数据的驾驶任务需求预测模型,采用驾驶任务需求评估法,验证所建预测模型的有效性,给出不同驾驶任务需求下的次任务分神预防策略.结果表明:驾驶任务需求评估与预测等级一致性达到83%,没有出现预测需求高,评估需求低的情况.当驾驶任务需求较高时,除收音机及CD播放外,其他车载信息任务分神均应予以警告或禁止,次任务分神可以通过制定预防策略避免,研究结果可为驾驶分神预警管理提供方案及技术支持.     

The effects of in-vehicle tasks and time-gap selection while reclaiming control from adaptive cruise control (ACC) with bus simulator

This research aimed to find out the effects of in-vehicle distractions and time-gap settings with a fix-based bus driving simulator in a following scenario. Professional bus drivers were recruited to perform in-vehicle tasks while driving with adaptive cruise control (ACC) of changeable time-gap settings in freeway traffic. Thirty subjects were divided equally into three groups for different in-vehicle task modes (between subjects), including no task distraction, hands-free, and manual modes. Further, time-gap settings for the experimental ACC were: shorter than 1.0 s, 1.0–1.5 s, 1.5–2.0 s, and longer than 2.0 s (within subjects). Longitudinal (mean headway, forward collision rate, and response time) and lateral control (mean lateral lane position and its standard deviation) performance was assessed. In the results, longitudinal control performance was worsened by both shorter time-gaps and heavier in-vehicle tasks. But the interaction indicated that the harm by heavier in-vehicle distraction could be improved by longer time-gaps. As for the lateral control, it would only be negatively affected by shorter time-gap settings. This research indicates the effects of time-gaps and in-vehicle distraction, as well as the interaction. Proper time-gap selection under different in-vehicle distractions can help avoid accidents and keep safe.     

Crash dieting: the effects of eating and drinking on driving performance

Previous research suggests that compared to mobile phone use, eating and drinking while driving is more common and is seen as lower risk by drivers. Nevertheless, snacking at the wheel can affect vehicle control to a similar extent as using a hands-free phone, and is actually a causal factor in more crashes. So far, though, there has not been a controlled empirical study of this problem. In an effort to fill this gap in the literature, we used the Brunel University Driving Simulator to test participants on a typical urban scenario. At designated points on the drive, which coincided with instructions to eat or drink, a critical incident was simulated by programming a pedestrian to walk in front of the car. Whilst the driving performance variables measured were relatively unaffected by eating and drinking, perceived driver workload was significantly higher and there were more crashes in the critical incident when compared to driving normally. Despite some methodological limitations of the study, when taken together with previous research, the evidence suggests that the physical demands of eating and drinking while driving can increase the risk of a crash.     

Coram Populo—In the Presence of People: The Effect of Others in Virtual Worlds

3D virtual worlds (VWs) enable perception of others' presence and actions. However, it is unclear how this influences behaviors in group tasks. We study the influence of ‘perceived colocation’ and ‘perceived coaction’, on cognitive absorption, which in turn predicts participative behaviors. Perceived colocation and coaction are central to social facilitation effects, tested primarily in face‐to‐face settings. We use distraction‐conflict theory to explain how these may occur in VWs. Results from a quasi‐experiment in Second Life support our hypotheses. We demonstrate the influence of perceived colocation and coaction and extend the applicability of social facilitation effects by incorporating the concept of cognitive absorption in VWs. We conclude with suggestions for the use of VWs for decision‐making tasks.     

Texting while driving using Google Glass™: Promising but not distraction-free

Texting while driving is risky but common. This study evaluated how texting using a Head-Mounted Display, Google Glass, impacts driving performance. Experienced drivers performed a classic car-following task while using three different interfaces to text: fully manual interaction with a head-down smartphone, vocal interaction with a smartphone, and vocal interaction with Google Glass. Fully manual interaction produced worse driving performance than either of the other interaction methods, leading to more lane excursions and variable vehicle control, and higher workload. Compared to texting vocally with a smartphone, texting using Google Glass produced fewer lane excursions, more braking responses, and lower workload. All forms of texting impaired driving performance compared to undistracted driving. These results imply that the use of Google Glass for texting impairs driving, but its Head-Mounted Display configuration and speech recognition technology may be safer than texting using a smartphone.     

Divergent cognitive costs for online forms of reappraisal and distraction.

The present study was set out to evaluate the cognitive costs of two major emotion regulation strategies under conditions of increased challenge. Previous studies have established that cognitive reappraisal (construing an emotional event in nonemotional terms) has no cognitive costs. However, in all of these studies, reappraisal was initiated at the emotional situation onset, before emotional response tendencies sufficiently evolved. In the present study, the challenge of regulation strategies was increased by initiating strategies online at a late time point in an emotional situation. Applying this procedure revealed for the first time a cognitive cost for reappraisal and also provided double dissociation between reappraisal and another major cognitive emotion regulation strategy--distraction (diverting attention from an emotional situation via producing neutral thoughts). Specifically, late reappraisal, relative to distraction, resulted in an expenditure of self control resources. Late distraction but not reappraisal impaired memory encoding of the emotional situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Perfect et al. (2011).

Reports an error in "Eye closure reduces the cross-modal memory impairment caused by auditory distraction" by Timothy J. Perfect, Jackie Andrade and Irene Eagan (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2011[Jul], Vol 37[4], 1008-1013). There is an error reported in the Results section on p. 1010. This error is addressed in the correction. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-05332-001.) Eyewitnesses instructed to close their eyes during retrieval recall more correct and fewer incorrect visual and auditory details. This study tested whether eye closure causes these effects through a reduction in environmental distraction. Sixty participants watched a staged event before verbally answering questions about it in the presence of auditory distraction or in a quiet control condition. Participants were instructed to close or not close their eyes during recall. Auditory distraction did not affect correct recall, but it increased erroneous recall of visual and auditory details. Instructed eye closure reduced this effect equally for both modalities. The findings support the view that eye closure removes the general resource load of monitoring the environment rather than reducing competition for modality-specific resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)