Cardiac Autonomic Control During Simulated Driving With a Concurrent Verbal Working Memory Task

Objective: The objective of the study was to illustrate sensitivity and diagnosticity differences between cardiac measures and lane-keeping measures of driving performance. Background: Previous research suggests that physiological measures can be sensitive to the effects of driving and side task performance and diagnostic of the source of the attentional demands. We hypothesized that increases in side task difficulty would elicit physiological change without reduction of driving task performance and that the side task demands would elicit patterns of autonomic activity that map to specific attentional processing resources. Method: Separately and concurrently, thirty-two participants performed a simulated driving task and verbal working memory task (with two levels of difficulty, 0 back and 3 back) separately and concurrently. Attentional demands were assessed through physiological and performance measures. Results: Cardiac measures reflected changes in attentional demand from single- to dual-task driving with an n-back task, whereas lane-keeping measures did not. Furthermore, patterns of autonomic activity elicited by driving, n-back task, and dual-task driving with a 3-back task were consistent with our predictions about autonomic activity. Conclusion: Changes in cardiac measures without changes in lane-keeping measures provide evidence that cardiac measures can be sensitive to hidden costs in attention that do not manifest in coarse measures of driving performance. Furthermore, correct predictions regarding the patterns of autonomic activity elicited suggests that cardiac measures can serve as diagnostic tools for attention assessment. Application: Because of the demonstrated differences in sensitivity and diagnosticity, researchers should consider the use of cardiac measures in addition to driving performance measures when studying attention in a driving simulator environment.

[1]  A. Kramer,et al.  Physiological metrics of mental workload: A review of recent progress , 1990, Multiple-task performance.

[2]  Neil Salkind,et al.  Using SPSS for Windows: Analyzing and Understanding Data with Disk , 1997 .

[3]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Working Memory: A View from Neuroimaging , 1997, Cognitive Psychology.

[4]  B McElree,et al.  Working memory and focal attention. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[5]  Jacob M. Wetzel,et al.  Cardiovascular Measures of Attention to Illusory and Nonillusory Visual Stimuli , 2006 .

[6]  I. Brown,et al.  Interference between concurrent tasks of driving and telephoning. , 1969, The Journal of applied psychology.

[7]  Woodrow Barfield,et al.  HUMAN-SYSTEM INTERFACE ISSUES IN THE DESIGN AND USE OF ADVANCED TRAVELER INFORMATION , 1998 .

[8]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Impedance pneumography: noise as signal in impedance cardiography. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[9]  Richard W. Backs,et al.  Diagnosticity of Cardiac Modes of Autonomic Control Elicited by Simulated Driving and Verbal Working Memory Dual-Tasks , 2007, HCI.

[10]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  The metrics of cardiac chronotropism: biometric perspectives. , 1995, Psychophysiology.

[11]  A. Hamish Jamson,et al.  Speech-Based E-Mail and Driver Behavior: Effects of an In-Vehicle Message System Interface , 2004, Hum. Factors.

[12]  N. Mcbrien,et al.  The influence of cognition and age on accommodation, detection rate and response times when using a car head‐up display (HUD) , 1998, Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians.

[13]  Frank Drews,et al.  A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver , 2004, Hum. Factors.

[14]  J. Thayer,et al.  Vagal influence on working memory and attention. , 2003, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[15]  Christopher D. Wickens,et al.  Multiple resources and performance prediction , 2002 .

[16]  Omer Tsimhoni,et al.  Address Entry While Driving: Speech Recognition Versus a Touch-Screen Keyboard , 2004, Hum. Factors.

[17]  Paul A. Green,et al.  Cardiac Measures of Driver Workload during Simulated Driving with and without Visual Occlusion , 2003, Hum. Factors.

[18]  H Alm,et al.  Changes in driver behaviour as a function of handsfree mobile phones--a simulator study. , 1994, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[19]  R. Backs.  A comparison of factor analytic methods of obtaining cardiovascular autonomic components for the assessment of mental workload. , 1998, Ergonomics.

[20]  H. Beh,et al.  Performance on driving-related tasks during music , 1999 .

[21]  H. Nagaraja,et al.  Heart rate variability: origins, methods, and interpretive caveats. , 1997, Psychophysiology.

[22]  William J Horrey,et al.  Modeling drivers' visual attention allocation while interacting with in-vehicle technologies. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[23]  M. A. Recarte,et al.  Mental workload while driving: effects on visual search, discrimination, and decision making. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[24]  M. A. Recarte,et al.  Effects of verbal and spatial-imagery tasks on eye fixations while driving. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[25]  Timothy L. Brown,et al.  Speech-Based Interaction with In-Vehicle Computers: The Effect of Speech-Based E-Mail on Drivers' Attention to the Roadway , 2001, Hum. Factors.

[26]  R W Backs.  Going beyond heart rate: autonomic space and cardiovascular assessment of mental workload. , 1995, The International journal of aviation psychology.

[27]  Daphne N. Yu,et al.  High-resolution EEG mapping of cortical activation related to working memory: effects of task difficulty, type of processing, and practice. , 1997, Cerebral cortex.

[28]  John T. Cacioppo,et al.  Illusions, arithmetic, and the bidirectional modulation of vagal control of the heart , 1996, Biological Psychology.

[29]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Autonomic determinism: the modes of autonomic control, the doctrine of autonomic space, and the laws of autonomic constraint. , 1991, Psychological review.

[30]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Inferring psychological significance from physiological signals. , 1990, The American psychologist.

[31]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Autonomic space and psychophysiological response. , 1994, Psychophysiology.

[32]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Autonomic cardiac control. II. Noninvasive indices and basal response as revealed by autonomic blockades. , 1994, Psychophysiology.

[33]  K A Brookhuis,et al.  The effects of mobile telephoning on driving performance. , 1991, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[34]  H Alm,et al.  The effects of a mobile telephone task on driver behaviour in a car following situation. , 1995, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[35]  A. M. Parkes,et al.  DRIVER SITUATION AWARENESS AND CARPHONE USE , 2001 .

[36]  Wolfgang Minker,et al.  The SENECA spoken language dialogue system , 2004, Speech Commun..

[37]  Arthur F. Kramer,et al.  Assessing the development of automatic processing: An application of dual-task and event-related brain potential methodologies , 1988, Biological Psychology.

[38]  Richard W. Backs,et al.  CARDIAC CONTROL DURING DUAL-TASK PERFORMANCE OF VISUAL OR AUDITORY MONITORING WITH VISUAL-MANUAL TRACKING , 2005 .

[39]  G. Zajicek,et al.  The Wisdom of the Body , 1934, Nature.

[40]  G. Stemmler.  Receptor antagonists as tools for structural measurement in psychophysiology. , 1993, Neuropsychobiology.