Shifting eyes and thinking hard keep us in our lanes
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Summary
HFES Annual Meeting paper that dissociates visual scanning from cognitive workload as candidate explanations for the counterintuitive finding that hands-free conversation reduces lateral lane variability. Eighteen participants drove nine five-minute scenarios in a fixed-base simulator under crossed manipulations of secondary-task workload and guided eye-fixation patterns. Increased secondary-task load reduced lateral movement, and active eye movement reduced lateral movement only when paired with a secondary task. The authors conclude that gaze-concentration cannot fully account for the lane-position effect and that multiple interacting factors drive lateral control under cognitive load.
Key finding
Reductions in lateral lane variability under cognitive load are not fully explained by gaze concentration toward the center of the roadway; cognitive workload and visual scanning interact, and workload drives lateral-control changes beyond what eye-movement patterns alone can explain.
Methodology
Within-subjects fixed-base driving-simulator experiment crossing cognitive-workload condition with guided-fixation condition across nine 5-minute scenarios per participant. Lateral vehicle movement (standard deviation of lane position) was the primary dependent measure.
Sample size: N=18 undergraduate participants (11 men, 7 women)
Quality score: 5 / 5