Precognitive control: open- and closed-loop steering in a lane-change manoeuvre.

Abstract This paper presents two experiments in which steering a lane-change manoeuvre is analysed as a precognitive control task. The suggestion that the dependence on instantaneous visual feedback is low during such a task was tested by analysing steering performance under conditions both with and without visual occlusion. Steering force served as the main independent variable in experiment I, which was performed in a fixed-base driving simulator. A 1 s visual occlusion period during the initial steering-wheel movement to the left was given every other manoeuvre. The results indicate that steering force reduces steering-wheel amplitude variability, this effect also being reflected in the maximum heading angle variability. Steering-wheel angle amplitude was the main independent variable in experiment II, which was carried out in the instrumented car. In this experiment the duration of the occlusion period was 3 s, i.e. covering the complete pull-out phase of the manoeuvre. The results show that variabili...