Sensation Seeking and Drivers’ Glance Behavior while Engaging in a Secondary Task

Abstract

To investigate possible relationships between drivers’ sensation seeking and glance behavior while interacting with human-machine interfaces, a total of 70 drivers’ eye-glance data, Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS), and Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) data were collected and analyzed. Participants conducted radio tuning tasks with two standard production interfaces while driving on a highway, and their glance allocations to defined regions were recorded and manually annotated. Results showed that sensation seeking scores were related with self-reported violation scores, off-road glance patterns, and driving speed: (1) violation scores of DBQ were positively correlated with sensation seeking, (2) mean and standard deviation of off-road glance duration were positively correlated with sensation seeking for younger drivers (under 40 years), (3) total off-road glance time per minute and number of off-road glances per minute were positively correlated with sensation seeking for older drivers (over 40 years), and (4) percentage of speed change was negatively correlated with sensation seeking for both younger and older drivers. The results indicate that sensation seeking is associated with drivers’ off-road glance patterns and driving behavior. These observations further highlight the relationship between personal traits and driver behavior.