TY - JOUR
T1 - Alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) while driving
AU - Oron-Gilad, Tal
AU - Ronen, Adi
AU - Shinar, David
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by a grant from the General Motors Foundation, a grant from the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade, Commerce and Labor, and the Paul Ivanier Center for Robotics and Production Management at Ben-Gurion University.
PY - 2008/5/1
Y1 - 2008/5/1
N2 - We evaluated the effectiveness of alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) on driver performance, subjective feelings, and psychophysiological state in monotonous simulated driving in two experiments. In the first experiment, 12 professional truck drivers participated in five sessions of simulated driving: driving only, driving with one of three AMTs (counterbalanced), and driving while listening to music. AMTs were not equally effective in maintaining alertness. The trivia AMT prevented driving performance deterioration, and increased alertness (measured by standardized HRV). The choice reaction time AMT was least demanding but also increased subjective sleepiness and reduced arousal (measured by alpha/beta ratio). The working memory AMT caused a significant decrement in driving speed, increased subjective fatigue, and was regarded by the participants as detrimental to driving. Trivia was preferred by the majority of the drivers over the other two AMTs. Experiment 2 further examined the utility of the trivia AMT. When the drivers engaged in the trivia AMT they maintained better driving performance and perceived the driving duration as shorter than the control condition. The two experiments demonstrated that AMTs can have a positive effect on alertness. The effect is localized in the sense that it does not persist beyond the period of the AMT activation.
AB - We evaluated the effectiveness of alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) on driver performance, subjective feelings, and psychophysiological state in monotonous simulated driving in two experiments. In the first experiment, 12 professional truck drivers participated in five sessions of simulated driving: driving only, driving with one of three AMTs (counterbalanced), and driving while listening to music. AMTs were not equally effective in maintaining alertness. The trivia AMT prevented driving performance deterioration, and increased alertness (measured by standardized HRV). The choice reaction time AMT was least demanding but also increased subjective sleepiness and reduced arousal (measured by alpha/beta ratio). The working memory AMT caused a significant decrement in driving speed, increased subjective fatigue, and was regarded by the participants as detrimental to driving. Trivia was preferred by the majority of the drivers over the other two AMTs. Experiment 2 further examined the utility of the trivia AMT. When the drivers engaged in the trivia AMT they maintained better driving performance and perceived the driving duration as shorter than the control condition. The two experiments demonstrated that AMTs can have a positive effect on alertness. The effect is localized in the sense that it does not persist beyond the period of the AMT activation.
KW - Alertness maintaining
KW - Monotonous drive
KW - Professional drivers
KW - Simulated driving
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=42949148629&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.aap.2007.09.026
DO - 10.1016/j.aap.2007.09.026
M3 - Article
C2 - 18460351
AN - SCOPUS:42949148629
SN - 0001-4575
VL - 40
SP - 851
EP - 860
JO - Accident Analysis and Prevention
JF - Accident Analysis and Prevention
IS - 3
ER -