Visual attentional demand of an in-car navigation display system : Wierwille, W.W., Antin, J.F., Dingus, T.A., and Hulse, M.C. In: Vision in Vehicles — II, A.G. Gale, M.H. Freeman, C.M. Haslegrave, P. Smith and S.P. Taylor (Eds). North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1988, pp 307–316, 0 refs.

Abstract

Two research studies were performed in which an operational in-car navigation display system was tested and evaluated. In the first study, the visual attentional demand requirements for specific tasks associated with the navigation system were compared with those of a wide variety of conventional (though modern) instrument panel tasks. The purpose in gathering these data was to evaluate whether or not the navigation tasks created demands that were greater than those of conventional tasks, and if so, by how much. The second study addressed the effectiveness, efficiency, and strategy associated with three different kinds of route guidance, memorized route, conventional paper map, and the navigation system. Results of the studies indicate that drivers are able to use the navigation system effectively and that it compares favorably with paper maps. However, visual scan patterns are changed when using the navigation system. Furthermore, drivers use a visual sample process which is quite different from that used for either paper maps or memorized route. Other findings indicate that the visual attentional demand of most navigator tasks is within the range of that for conventional tasks, however, a few tasks do have high visual attentional demand. These latter tasks could be modified to reduce their visual attentional demand.