The overall aim of the studies described in this dissertation was to examine the effects of visual IVIS on simulated driving. In the first three experiments the focus was on effects of display complexity. An adaptation of the HASTE visual search task was used as a surrogate IVIS (Carsten & Brookhuis, 2005). Previous research was extended by independently manipulating set size and distinguishing between displays with pop-out or conjunction features, based on feature integration theory (Treisman & Gelade, 1980; Wooldridge, Bauer, Green, & Fitzpatrick). Potential effects of search type and display size on driving were studied using a simulated driving task and a driving simulator. In two of the experiments effects of attention allocation and preparation were studied using ERPs, and in one experiment the use of Head-Up and Head-Down Displays was compared. The second set of experiments focused on the time course of interference of an IVIS task on critical driving tasks. These experiments were inspired by the PRP effect (Telford, 1931; Welford, 1952). We hypothesized that when the driver interacts with an IVIS while driving there is effectively a short period of dual task performance, so if IVIS information is presented in close temporal proximity with an event in traffic that requires a quick action, for instance an emergency brake, the reaction time might be affected by the processing of IVIS information. A second overall focus was on ageing. In healthy cognitive ageing there is a decline in executive functions (Raz, 2000) which are needed e.g. for integrating information and planning actions. This could effectively put more time-pressure on decision making and increase dual task costs, and hence exacerbate effects of additional information processing load due to IVIS. (Author/publisher)
Abstract