Alcohol Effects onDrving Behavior and Performance inaCarSimulator

monitor arealsopre- andactualdriving performance [6],[12], alcohol does sented. Dataaregiven foreighteen drivers, ranging inagefrom21-65, atblood alcohol concentrations (BAC)of0,0.06, and0.11. Alcoholconsistently degrade driving performance bothintermsof causes larger laneandheading deviations, andincreases detection and lateral (lane) position control[6],[13]and response to reaction times onthediscrete task. Control-behavior measures showthatdiscrete events [5], [13], [14]. thedriver's control gain decreases, butstability margins aremaintainedA great dealofeffort hasbeendevoted todetermining the under alcohol, while driver remnant increases. Sucheffects could bedue behavioral elements associated withdiscrete tasks, suchas toindifference thresholds and/or intermittent attention inthecontrol task. Bothcontinuous steering control anddiscrete peripheral "sign"detection, information processing, etc., thataredegraded response tasks wereperformed, singly andcombined, toinvestigate thebyalcohol[5], [10], [11]. Thislevel ofeffort hasnotbeen effects ofdivided attention. Performance onthesteering control taskcarried through tothecontinuous control behavior portion wasdecreased whenboth tasks were done concurrently, butthesensi- ofdriving, however, whichproduces lanedeviations that tivity toalcohol effects wassimilar. Thedriving simulation hasprovenultimately influence theprobability ofaccident involvement. anefficient toolforalcohol research. Ithasgained acceptance from subjects asavalid approximation ofdriving, andthevarious relatedResearch on driver control behavior hasoftenbeen measurements haveproven tobereliable andsensitive tolevels of stymied inthepastbythelackofappropriate behavioral intoxication. modelsandefficient measurement techniques; however, recent advances inmanual control technology havechanged