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

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dc.contributor.authorSullivan, Keith Alexanderen
dc.contributor.committeechairKlauer, Charlieen
dc.contributor.committeememberNussbaum, Maury A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberGuo, Fengen
dc.contributor.departmentIndustrial and Systems Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-09T08:01:32Zen
dc.date.available2022-06-09T08:01:32Zen
dc.date.issued2022-06-08en
dc.description.abstractPrevious 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.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralPrevious 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 demand may increase crash risk, especially for young and older drivers. Naturalistic driving study data were examined to determine if secondary tasks with increasing proposed cognitive demand would result in increasing crash/near-crash risk. Cognitive and visual-manual tasks paired with a second cognitive task were compared to the cognitive and visual-manual tasks performed alone. It was found that dual cognitive tasks resulted in greater crash/near-crash risk than the single cognitive executive tasks. The dual visual-manual tasks did not show greater crash/near crash risk than the visual-manual tasks performed alone. These effects were only found for young drivers. These findings help validate that cognitive secondary task load increases crash/near-crash risk, especially in dual task situations for young drivers. Future infotainment systems and drivers' education programs should be designed to minimize cognitive loads.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:34565en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/110511en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectDual tasken
dc.subjecttextingen
dc.subjectdialingen
dc.subjectsituation awarenessen
dc.subjectageen
dc.titleThe Effects of Cognitive Executive Load on Driving Crashes and Near-Crashesen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineIndustrial and Systems Engineeringen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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