ATTENTIONAL DEMANDS WHILE DRIVING IN A SIMULATOR: EFFECTS OF DRIVING STRAIGHTS ON OPEN ROADS, APPROACHING INTERSECTIONS AND DOUBLING MANEUVERS

Recent concerns about road safety and the use of cellular phones and other more recent in-vehicle digital devices has prompted a resurgence of interest in cognitive aspects of driving. Presented are two experiments to examine if driver's mental workload can be manipulated while driving in a simulator. The probe reaction time (RT) technique was adopted to measure the attentional demands while driving. RT data showed that, even for driving straights on an open roads, driving was not an automatic task. Approaching an intersection yielded increases in RT and lane change and doubling maneuvers was the most demanding driving context presented.