The critical tracking task: a potentially useful method to assess driver distraction?

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Psychology
• Automotive Safety

Background:

• Assessing distraction from new in-vehicle information systems is crucial.
• The critical tracking task (CTT) offers a potential easy-to-use method for distraction assessment.
• CTT simulates driving by requiring operators to stabilize a visual target.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the critical tracking task's (CTT) utility in measuring distraction.
• To evaluate CTT as a surrogate for driving to assess in-vehicle system distraction.

Main Methods:

• Four experiments were conducted using secondary tasks of varying cognitive demand.
• Participants performed the CTT in parallel with secondary tasks.
• CTT performance, secondary task performance, and subjective workload were analyzed.

Main Results:

• The CTT successfully differentiated between varying levels of cognitive demand.
• Results aligned with predictions regarding the distracting potential of secondary tasks.
• CTT performance reflected the impact of task complexity on operator attention.

Conclusions:

• The CTT shows promise for evaluating the distracting potential of in-vehicle information systems.
• Further research is needed to establish a direct correlation between CTT and driving performance.
• CTT presents a cost-effective tool for early-stage testing of automotive devices.