SIZE MATTERS: THE ROLE 0F ATTENTIONAL CAPACITY IN EXPLAINING THE EFFECTS OF MENTAL UNDERLOAD ON PERFORMANCE. IN: ENGINEERING PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE ERGONOMICS. AEROSPACE AND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

Vehicle automation devices that can control speed and headway without any input from the driver are now becoming available. Research has shown that drivers often perform worse when reacting to automation failures than when reacting to critical events under manual control. This paper discusses a new theory of attentional resources to predict performance under automation failure conditions and presents data from a driving simulator experiment. The results tend to support the attentional resources explanation of mental underload while incorporating driver expertise as a moderating factor.