Baldo Nicola, Marini Andrea, Miani Matteo
Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture (DPIA), University of Udine, Via del Cotonificio 114, 33100 Udine, Italy.
Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society (DILL), University of Udine, Via Margreth 3, 33100 Udine, Italy.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2020 Oct 1;10(10):150. doi: 10.3390/bs10100150.
In this study, a cohort of 78 university students performed a driving experience in a virtual urban scenario, by means of a car driving simulator, to examine effects of a planned hands-free mobile phone conversation on young drivers' braking behaviors. To this aim, a control group was left free to drive without any imposed cognitive task. An experimental group faced the same scenario while engaged in a phone call. The conversation via earphones was arranged to diminish the amount of cognitive resources allocated to the driving task. For both groups, the analyses focused on the moment at which a child entered a pedestrian crossing from a sidewalk. The results of a mixed two-way ANOVA showed the presence of a significant difference for distracted and non-distracted drivers with the absence of gender-related differences across the two groups. Distracted participants assumed lower initial speeds, took the first action to stop at shorter distances from the zebra crossing, and had more difficulty in keeping speed variations under control. These findings suggest that the distraction induced by the use of earphones may induce risk compensation behaviors and delay pedestrian perception. Moreover, the effects on the participants' braking behavior suggest that the procedure adopted to increase cognitive load, based on a story retelling, is an effective method to analyze the impact of hands-free cellphone use on driving skills in a car simulation experiment.
在本研究中，78名大学生借助汽车驾驶模拟器在虚拟城市场景中进行驾驶体验，以考察有计划的免提手机通话对年轻驾驶员制动行为的影响。为此，设立了一个对照组，让其在无任何强加认知任务的情况下自由驾驶。一个实验组在打电话的同时面对相同场景。通过耳机进行的通话旨在减少分配给驾驶任务的认知资源量。对于两组，分析集中在儿童从人行道进入人行横道的时刻。混合双因素方差分析的结果表明，分心和未分心的驾驶员之间存在显著差异，且两组之间不存在与性别相关的差异。分心的参与者初始速度较低，在离斑马线较短距离处就采取首次制动行动，并且更难控制速度变化。这些发现表明，使用耳机引起的分心可能会引发风险补偿行为并延迟对行人的感知。此外，对参与者制动行为的影响表明，基于故事复述来增加认知负荷所采用的程序，是在汽车模拟实验中分析免提手机使用对驾驶技能影响的一种有效方法。
