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Imagery-inducing distraction leads to cognitive tunnelling and deteriorated driving performance

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posted on 2023-06-08, 20:19 authored by Gemma F Briggs, Graham Hole, Michael F Land
The effects of imagery-induced distraction on hazard perception and eye movements were investigated in 2 simulated driving experiments. Experiment 1: sixty participants viewed and responded to 2 driving films containing hazards. Group 1 completed the task without distraction; group 2 completed a concurrent imagery inducing telephone task; group 3 completed a non imagery inducing telephone task. Experiment 2: eye-tracking data were collected from forty-six participants while they reacted to hazards presented in 16 films of driving scenes. 8 films contained hazards presented in either central or peripheral vision and 8 contained no hazards. Half of the participants performed a concurrent imagery-inducing task. Compared to undistracted participants, dual-taskers were slower to respond to hazards; detected fewer hazards; committed more “looked but failed to see” errors; and demonstrated “visual tunnelling”. Telephone conversations may interfere with driving performance because the two tasks compete for similar processing resources, due to the imagery-evoking aspects of phone use.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour

ISSN

1369-8478

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

38

Page range

106-117

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-02-19

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-12-12

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-06-16

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