Effect on brake response time of mental workload from thinking-aloud task

摘要

To test how much the burden from thinking-aloud task while driving causes a delay in brake operation, an indoor driving simulation experiment was conducted with 14 subjects. In addition to the control conditions, subjects were given 3 psychological load tasks: a 3-character word repeat task, a 3-character word reverse reply task, and a 4-character word reverse reply task, The time delay until the subjects pressed the brake pedal (brake response time) while performing these tasks was measured. In addition, the brake response time when the drivers took their eyes off the road as normal to view an in-vehicle display device was estimated, and compared with the brake response time when thinking aloud. Although drivers can safely take their eyes off the road during normal driving to view onboard devices, the present findings show that even this has a higher risk than that from the distraction when thinking aloud.