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Abstract

A driver can either be voluntarily or involuntarily distracted when In a vehicle handling environment. They can voluntarily perform steering-irrelevant tasks whilst steering, or momentarily shift their attention to unexpected events. Both instances are a matter of safety-critical concern, especially with the prevalence of consumer devices that compete for limited mental resources (e.g., smartphones). Although dual-task paradigms can be employed to evaluate resource competition between steering and non-steering tasks, they cannot be feasibly implemented in operational scenarios for real-world evaluations. EEG/ERP methods provide the opportunity to do the samewithout requiring an overt response to a steering-irrelevant task. In our talk, we present two studies to show how manipulations of steering demands can influence our ability to either voluntarily or involuntarily attend to steering-irrelevant distractors. Our results show that unexpected auditory targets, which do not require responding, evoke early and late P3a as well as reorientation negativity (RON) components that are sensitive to steering demands. In particular, the amplitude of late P3a (Pz) is diminished by increases in vehicle handling complexity. The P300 amplitudes of rare auditory targets, which require a voluntary response, are diminished by increased difficulty in vehicle handling but in path trajectory complexity. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of an ERP model of distraction that consists of three stages: detection, involuntary orientation, and reorientation.