Abstract
In spite of increased public awareness and an ever-growing body of research, driver distraction remains an important safety concern. Reading text while driving may be especially detrimental by imposing both visual interference and extra cognitive demand on drivers. However, in most cases, drivers do not passively respond to such a task, they actively decide when to perform the task. The current study investigated drivers’ strategies with respect to the initiation of text reading when faced with fluctuations in driving demand. Text messages were made available to participants shortly before the vehicle entered an area with increased driving demands (demand zone). Participants were asked to read the message before the end of the trial, but were free to decide when and how to read the messages. We manipulated the type of driving demand (baseline; three levels of high demand—narrow lane, pace clock, and ultimate [narrow + pace clock]), format of text (no message; paragraph; parsed), and the distance from start of message to the demand zone (near; far). The results showed that in most cases drivers started to read the text message before or in the demand zone even though they would have enough time to complete the task after passing the area. Nonetheless, task initiation time (measured from the appearance of the message to the drivers’ first glance to the display) increased when driving was demanding compared to the baseline condition. It suggests that drivers may be sensitive to transitions from low to high demand when initiating secondary tasks, however are not discouraged from such activities when demands are already elevated.
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