The Effects of Cognitive Executive Load on Driving Crashes and Near-Crashes

Previous naturalistic driving studies have shown that visual and manual secondary tasks increase driving crash risk. With the increasing use of infotainment systems in vehicles, secondary tasks requiring cognitive executive demand may increase crash risk, especially for young and older drivers. Naturalistic driving data were examined to determine if secondary tasks with increasing cognitive executive demand would result in increasing crash risk. Data were extracted from the Second Strategic Highway Research Program Naturalistic Driving Study, where vehicles were instrumented to record driving behavior and crash/near-crash data. Cognitive executive and visual-manual tasks paired with a second cognitive executive task were compared to the cognitive executive and visual-manual tasks performed alone. Crash/near-crash odds ratios were computed by comparing each task condition to driving without presence of any secondary task. Dual cognitive executive tasks resulted in greater odds ratios than those for single cognitive executive tasks. The dual visual-manual tasks odds ratios did not increase from single task odds ratios. These effects were only found for young drivers. These findings help validate that cognitive executive secondary task load increases crash/near-crash risk, especially in dual task situations for young drivers. Future research should be conducted to minimize cognitive task load associated with vehicle infotainment systems using such technologies as voice commands.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Sullivan, Keith Alexander

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Klauer, Charlie

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Nussbaum, Maury A.
• Guo, Feng

• Dual task
• texting
• dialing
• situation awareness
• age

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:34565

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/110511