The multitasking motorist and the attention economy
DOI: 10.1037/0000208-007
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Summary
Book chapter framing driver distraction within an attention-economy account. Introduces the SPIDER model (Scanning, Predicting, Identifying, Decision-making, Executing a Response) as the set of attention-limited processes that build and maintain situation awareness, and reviews evidence that secondary tasks impair each. Develops a dynamic model of situation awareness loss and recovery during and after a secondary-task episode, illustrated with voice-text estimates (~30 s task duration plus ~27 s residual recovery, citing Strayer et al., 2015, 2017). Extends the framework to Level 2/3 vehicle automation, arguing the driver-to-system handoff shifts driving from control to monitoring, inviting vigilance decrement, complacency, and out-of-the-loop performance, illustrated by the 2016 Tesla Autopilot fatality. No new empirical data; integrates prior work from the Strayer/Cooper/Biondi lab and broader literature.
Key finding
Distraction harms driving by degrading SPIDER-related processes, lowering situation awareness in a continuous loss/recovery curve that persists 20-60 s past task offset; the same framework predicts vehicle automation will produce analogous loss of situation awareness during monitoring and a recovery cost at takeover.
Methodology
theoretical