This paper aimed to reveal effects of cognitively distracting activity on checking traffic condition before changing lanes. We conducted an experiment to investigate driver behavior to change lanes under two conditions: only a driving task and an additional cognitive task. It was revealed that the decrease and delay on checking traffic occurred continually during a long time period before executing lane changes, not just temporarily. The result showed that distraction might contribute to the effects. It was also suggested that cognitive distraction may degrade the perceptual capability in situation awareness. A necessary was demonstrated to give support functions, which aid a driver enhancing situation awareness and attract driver's attention from distractions, in order to prevent accidents in lane changes. (Author/publisher)
Abstract