Task-Difficulty Homeostasis in Car Following Models: Experimental Validation Using Self-Paced Visual Occlusion

Car following (CF) models used in traffic engineering are often criticized for not incorporating “human factors” well known to affect driving. Some recent work has addressed this by augmenting the CF models with the Task-Capability Interface (TCI) model, by dynamically changing driving parameters as function of driver capability. We examined assumptions of these models experimentally using a self-paced visual occlusion paradigm in a simulated car following task. The results show strong, approximately one-to-one, correspondence between occlusion duration and increase in time headway. The correspondence was found between subjects and within subjects, on aggregate and individual sample level. The long time scale aggregate results support TCI-CF models that assume a linear increase in time headway in response to increased distraction. The short time scale individual sample level results suggest that drivers also adapt their visual sampling in response to transient changes in time headway, a mechanism which isn’t incorporated in the current models.