Tillman Gabriel, Strayer David, Eidels Ami, Heathcote Andrew
School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2017 Aug;79(6):1795-1803. doi: 10.3758/s13414-017-1337-2.
Cognitive load from secondary tasks is a source of distraction causing injuries and fatalities on the roadway. The Detection Response Task (DRT) is an international standard for assessing cognitive load on drivers' attention that can be performed as a secondary task with little to no measurable effect on the primary driving task. We investigated whether decrements in DRT performance were related to the rate of information processing, levels of response caution, or the non-decision processing of drivers. We had pairs of participants take part in the DRT while performing a simulated driving task, manipulated cognitive load via the conversation between driver and passenger, and observed associated slowing in DRT response time. Fits of the single-bound diffusion model indicated that slowing was mediated by an increase in response caution. We propose the novel hypothesis that, rather than the DRT's sensitivity to cognitive load being a direct result of a loss of information processing capacity to other tasks, it is an indirect result of a general tendency to be more cautious when making responses in more demanding situations.
次要任务带来的认知负荷是一种干扰源，会导致道路上的受伤和死亡。检测反应任务（DRT）是评估驾驶员注意力认知负荷的国际标准，它可以作为次要任务执行，对主要驾驶任务几乎没有或没有可测量的影响。我们研究了DRT表现的下降是否与信息处理速度、反应谨慎程度或驾驶员的非决策处理有关。我们让参与者两两一组在执行模拟驾驶任务的同时参与DRT，通过驾驶员与乘客之间的对话来操纵认知负荷，并观察DRT反应时间的相关减慢情况。单边界扩散模型的拟合表明，反应减慢是由反应谨慎程度的增加所介导的。我们提出了一个新的假设，即DRT对认知负荷的敏感性不是由于对其他任务信息处理能力丧失的直接结果，而是在要求更高的情况下做出反应时普遍更加谨慎的间接结果。
