Exploring the Effects of Language on Angry Drivers' Situation Awareness, Driving Performance, and Subjective Perception

Research shows that anger has a negative impact on cognition due to the rumination effect and in the context of driving, anger negatively impacts situation awareness, driving performance, and road safety. In-vehicle agents are capable of mitigating the effects of anger and subsequent effects on driving behavior. Language is another important aspect that influences information processing and human behavior during social interactions. This thesis aims to explore the effects of the language of in-vehicle agents on angry drivers' situation awareness, driving performance, and subjective perception. The three conditions explored are the native language agent condition (Hindi or Chinese), secondary language agent condition (English), and no agent condition. Results indicate that driving performance is better in the case of the native language agent condition when compared to the no agent condition. Higher levels of situational awareness were affected by the agent condition, favoring the native language condition over the secondary language condition. The participants preferred native language agents over the other conditions and the perceived workload was higher in the no-agent condition than the native agent condition. Drivers also expressed the need to control the state of the in-vehicle agent. The study results have practical design implications and the results are expected to help foster future work in this domain.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science and Applications

Department dc:contributor.department

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Muhundan, Sushmethaa

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Jeon, Myounghoon

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Luther, Kurt
• Lee, Sang Won

• Angry driving
• In-vehicle agents
• Native language processing
• Situation awareness
• Driving performance
• Perceived workload

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

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

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:30005

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/103165