Title: Effects of Cell Phone Notification Levels on Driver Performance
Abstract: Previous literature was reviewed in an effort to
further investigate the link between notification levels of a cell
phone and their effects on driver distraction. Mind-wandering has
been suggested as an explanation for distraction and has been
previously operationalized with oculomotor movement.
Mind-wandering’s definition is debated, but in this research it was
defined as off task thoughts that occur due to the task not
requiring full cognitive capacity. Drivers were asked to operate a
driving simulator and follow audio turn by turn directions while
experiencing each of three cell phone notification levels: Control
(no texts), Airplane (texts with no notifications), and Ringer
(audio notifications). Measures of Brake Reaction Time, Headway
Variability, and Average Speed were used to operationalize driver
distraction. Drivers experienced higher Brake Reaction Time and
Headway Variability with a lower Average Speed in both experimental
conditions when compared to the Control Condition. This is
consistent with previous research in the field of implying a
distracted state. Oculomotor movement was measured as the percent
time the participant was looking at the road. There was no
significant difference between the conditions in this measure. The
results of this research indicate that not, while not interacting
with a cell phone, no audio notification is required to induce a
state of distraction. This phenomenon was unable to be linked to
mind-wandering.
Publication Year: 2019
Publication Date: 2019-01-01
Language: en
Type: dissertation
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