Abstract
Driving behavior is a direct consequence of the stimuli received from the road infrastructure, from the surrounding environment, and from the atmosphere inside the vehicle. Almost all of these perceptions, which affect steering, are received through the drivers' eyes. For this reason, in this paper visual behavior was examined in order to deduce new indexes connected to mental workload. To this aim, a consistent sample of drivers covered a rural road inside a vehicle, while their eye movements and driving activities were being recorded with suitable instruments. The quantification of some variables involved in the trials permitted the evaluation of visual behavior and determination of a measure of mental workload, identifying also any situations where performance was compromised. Some reports between mental workload and road geometry, summarized in a few tables, could represent a further aid for road designers and managers.
Highlights
IntroductionOne of the most famous definitions was reported in O’Donnell and Eggemeier (1986) which defined workload as that portion of the operator’s limited capacity that is required to perform a particular task
There are some definitions, proposed by the literature of recent years reported, but all of them have in common the uncertainty and the consequent difficulty of quantification, because of visual pathologies, skill, experience, risk inclination and level of attention.One of the most famous definitions was reported in O’Donnell and Eggemeier (1986) which defined workload as that portion of the operator’s limited capacity that is required to perform a particular task
Eye movements were represented in a Cartesian diagram with units of measurement expressed in pixels
Summary
One of the most famous definitions was reported in O’Donnell and Eggemeier (1986) which defined workload as that portion of the operator’s limited capacity that is required to perform a particular task. Others authors (Meijman, O’Hanlon 1984; Wickens 2002; Zijlstra, Mulder 1989), in a rather simple way described mental workload as the difference between the cognitive demands of a particular task and the driver’s attention resources. Workload is strongly influenced by human nature and not just by the task. It is, a mistake to associate task demands and the effect of these demands on the driver, using the same term. The goal, achieved by means of task performance, which determines the demand and its effect on the driver, is really the workload (De Waard 1996)
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