Briggs, Gemma F, Hole, Graham J and Land, Michael F (2016) Imagery-inducing distraction leads to cognitive tunnelling and deteriorated driving performance. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 38. pp. 106-117. ISSN 1369-8478

PDF - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial No Derivatives. Download (377kB)

Abstract

The effects of imagery-induced distraction on hazard perception and eye movements were investigated in 2 simulated driving experiments. Experiment 1: sixty participants viewed and responded to 2 driving films containing hazards. Group 1 completed the task without distraction; group 2 completed a concurrent imagery inducing telephone task; group 3 completed a non imagery inducing telephone task. Experiment 2: eye-tracking data were collected from forty-six participants while they reacted to hazards presented in 16 films of driving scenes. 8 films contained hazards presented in either central or peripheral vision and 8 contained no hazards. Half of the participants performed a concurrent imagery-inducing task. Compared to undistracted participants, dual-taskers were slower to respond to hazards; detected fewer hazards; committed more “looked but failed to see” errors; and demonstrated “visual tunnelling”. Telephone conversations may interfere with driving performance because the two tasks compete for similar processing resources, due to the imagery-evoking aspects of phone use.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Attention, Dual tasking, Cognitive workload, Driving, Imagery
Schools and Departments:	School of Psychology > Psychology
Depositing User:	Graham Hole
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2016 11:50
Last Modified:	02 Jul 2019 13:35
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/53368

View download statistics for this item

📧 Request an update