Cognitive load, working memory capacity and driving performance: A preliminary fNIRS and eye tracking study
DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2022.11.013
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Summary
This study investigates the impact of cognitive load on driving performance, gaze behavior, and the role of individual differences in working memory capacity (WM). Motivated by the prevalence of driver distraction and the limited understanding of how WM capacity mitigates performance decrements under dual-task conditions, the researchers employed a fixed-base driving simulator. The study aimed to determine if engaging in a cognitively demanding secondary task increases cognitive load, alters visual attention strategies, and affects driving safety, particularly in drivers with varying WM capacities. The experimental design involved 21 licensed participants who completed a simulated driving task on a country highway under two conditions: single-task (driving only) and dual-task (driving while performing an auditory modified 2-back task). Cognitive load was measured objectively using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to monitor prefrontal cortex oxygen saturation (rSO2) and subjectively via the Rating Scale of Mental Effort (RSME). Visual attention was tracked using mobile eye-tracking glasses, recording fixations and dwell times on specific areas of interest. Participants’ WM capacity was assessed using the Operation Span Task. Driving performance was quantified by the number and severity of traffic infractions, while secondary task performance was measured by accuracy on the 2-back task. The results indicated that the dual-task condition significantly increased cognitive load, evidenced by higher prefrontal rSO2 levels and greater self-reported mental effort compared to the single-task condition. Despite this increased load, participants maintained their driving performance, with no significant differences in the number of infractions or demerit points between conditions. However, this maintenance of primary task performance came at the expense of secondary task accuracy, which significantly declined during dual-tasking. Gaze behavior also shifted under cognitive load: participants made fewer fixations of longer duration and increased their dwell time on the road ahead, while reducing attention to mirrors and the speedometer. Crucially, driving infractions in the dual-task condition were negatively correlated with WM capacity, suggesting that individuals with higher WM capacity committed fewer errors. These findings suggest that while drivers can maintain safe driving performance under increased cognitive load, they do so by altering their visual scanning strategies and sacrificing performance on concurrent tasks. The negative correlation between WM capacity and driving infractions highlights the protective role of high WM capacity in resisting distraction. The study underscores the utility of combining fNIRS and eye-tracking to provide objective, real-time measures of cognitive load and attention allocation, offering insights into how individual cognitive differences influence driving safety in complex, distracting environments.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | openalex | — | — | 5 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 10 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
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