Assessing cognitive distraction using event related potentials
DOI: 10.17077/drivingassessment.1586
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Summary
Driving Assessment proceedings paper (Coleman, Turrill, Hopman, Cooper, & Strayer) examining the utility of event-related potentials (ERPs)—P300 latency and amplitude—for measuring cognitive distraction during interactions with in-vehicle voice-command systems. ERPs were elicited by a go/no-go oddball Detection Response Task with red/green LEDs in a head-mounted configuration. Experiment 1 was non-driving baseline; Experiment 2 paired the protocol with simulator driving. ERPs effectively quantified cognitive workload, but the ERP signal-to-noise ratio decreased as driving-environment complexity increased.
Key finding
P300 ERPs elicited by a go/no-go oddball DRT are an effective objective measure of cognitive workload from voice-command in-vehicle tasks, though their signal-to-noise ratio is degraded by the visual and motor complexity of concurrent simulated driving.
Methodology
Two-experiment ERP study using a head-mounted red/green LED go/no-go oddball Detection Response Task following ISO 17488 preliminaries; Experiment 1 conducted seated in front of a fixation cross, Experiment 2 in a fixed-base L-3 driving simulator. Continuous 32-channel EEG recorded with NeuroScan, time-locked to rare green stimuli; nine voice-command conditions counterbalanced via Latin Square.
Sample size: N=20 (10 per experiment; 6 male in Exp 1, 7 male in Exp 2; mean age 24.7)
Quality score: 5 / 5