This study formulates a divided attention task that measures the capacity of drivers to use in-vehicle Advanced Transportation Information Systems (ATIS). Henderson and Suen (1999) have suggested that an ATIS is a two-edged sword for older drivers because with advancing age drivers experience diminished perceptual and cognitive abilities that make it difficult to use in-vehicle displays. When using an in-vehicle display to obtain potentially useful information, a driver usually 1) makes a small head movement to the right accompanied by an eye-movement of about 30-35 degrees and 2) adjusts his/her eye for close vision which involves convergence eye movements and accommodation of the eye lenses. For people who are 60 years or older these processes take longer and thus older drivers spend more time than young drivers acquiring information from an in-vehicle display. The present study measures drivers’ ability to obtain information while constantly switching between near and far visual tasks. In addition we compare driver performance relative to two display formats. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting