Vibration Effects on Cognitive Task Performance in a Rural Road Automobile Driving Environment

Research has been carried out to investigate the effect of left or right handedness on cognitive performance under the impact of vibration in a rural road-driving environment. Fourteen subjects (7 right handed and 7 left-handed), all males, participated in the study. The independent variables selected were handedness, difficulty index and equivalent level of vibration. The reaction time was measured in ms. The data collected was analysed using 3 factors ANOVA. Results of the present research showed that handedness and the level of equivalent vibration were statistically non-significant while the difficulty index was found to have a significant effect in the driving environment undertaken in the study. The interaction between handedness and difficulty index was also observed to be statistically significant. However, the interaction between vibration level & difficulty index and handedness & vibration level were statistically non-significant. The second order interaction i.e. handedness x vibration level x difficulty index also emerged to be non-significant

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