Psychological attentional characteristics based on TEST2DRIVE test battery and age as a factor of drivers distraction in LCT and 3VPT simulator scenarios

Abstract

Drivers distraction analysis should take into account capabilities of road users with the weakest performance. The first issue was to determine by Test2Drive psychological testing system, empirical criteria of limited attention performance. The second issue was the level of influence of distracting roadside advertisement on driving performance in standard simulator tasks - three vehicle platoon task and lane changing task. The attentional performance has been established by PUT test. This method, based on conjunctive search task was an indicator of speed and accuracy of visual inspection. In the experiment distraction mode has been established at three levels: on roadside billboards red dot has been absent or exposed for 1 or 2 second. In first analysis a group of about 17 000 professional drivers, aged 18-84 form Test2Drive database were selected. In a simulator experiment a group consisted of 30 drivers in age 20-60. As expected, attention performance decreased with age. Markers of impaired attentional performance have been established. In the experiment, no significant effects have been found in 3VPT paradigm. In LCT paradigm, a significant interaction of attention and distraction mode has been observed - drivers with symptoms of attentional malfunctions presented significant problems with maneuver accuracy. The experiment allowed to prove that attentional performance led to higher distraction when stimuli analogical to roadside advertisement were presented. The observed effect was statistically significant but not so strong as in had been expected, what can be explained by a small sample size, in which attention disorders rate were not high. Even with its limitations the experiment proves a simple thesis - roads users with limited attention performance are safer when no salient distractors are disturbing them.