A simplified laboratory simulator was developed to test two types of tasks used in driving on the open road: a continuous steering task to regulate against gust induced disturbances and an intermittent discrete response task requiring detection, scanning, recognition, and motor response typical of horn or brake operations. The development and details of this simulator, the many behavioral and performance measures, and some basic effects of blood alcohol concentrations of up to 0.11 BAG on a mixed group of 18 moderate and heavy drinkers is given in Part 1. Part 1 concentrates on the differences between continuous steering control and discrete peripheral sign response tasks both alone and combined, to establish the foundations of Part 2. Part 2 covers the main objective of this program, the differences in alcohol impairment of driving performance between moderate and heavy drinkers. This objective was successfully met using a cross section of 20 typical licensed drivers ranging in age from 21 to 65 years, 10 of each type of drinking habit. For selected cases, eye-point-of -regard measures were taken which gave new insights into the detection and recognition aspects of the discrete tasks. BACs equivalent to around 0.11% of moderate drinkers and 0.16 for heavy drinkers were used, with distinct and self -consistent differences noted between drinker types. The two parts of the study have a separate entry, see B 8163 and B 8164.
Abstract