Effect of Driver's Cognitive Distraction on Driver's Physiological State and Driving Performance

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate effect of driver's cognitive distraction on driver's physiological state and driving performance, and then to determine parameters appropriate for detecting the cognitive distraction. Background: Driver distraction is a major cause of traffic accidents and poses a serious threat to traffic safety due to ever increasing use of in-vehicle information systems and mobile phones during driving. Cognitive distraction, among four different types of distractions, prevents a driver from processing traffic information correctly and adapting to change in surround vehicle behavior in time. However, the cognitive distraction is more difficult to detect because it normally does not involve significant change in driver behavior. Method: A full-scale driving simulator was used to create virtual driving environment and situations. Participants in the experiment drove the driving simulator in three different conditions: attentive driving with no secondary task, driving and conducting secondary task of adding numbers, and driving and conducting secondary task of conversing with an experimenter. Parameters related with driver's physiological state and driving performance were measured and analyzed for their change. Results: The experiment results show that driver's cognitive distraction, induced by secondary task of addition and conversation during driving, increased driver's cognitive workload, and indeed brought change in driver's physiological state and degraded driving performance. Conclusion: The galvanic skin response, pupil size, steering reversal rate, and driver reaction time are shown to be statistically significant for detecting cognitive distraction. The appropriate combination of these parameters will be used to detect the cognitive distraction and estimate risk of traffic accidents in real-time for a driver distraction warning system.