Citation

Testin FJ, Dewar RE. Ergonomics 1981; 24(2): 111-124.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00140138108924836

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Laboratory studies of traffic sign perception have often neglected to duplicate the divided attention demands of the driving task, even though it has been suggested that the inclusion of a loading task would increase the validity of such research. The present experiment examined the need for this division of attention by requiring subjects to identify traffic sign messages while performing a second, loading task involving the cognitive components of detection, identification or memory. A control group received no loading task. The reaction times to 16 signs were correlated with the legibility distances of the same signs measured in a previous roadway experiment. Contrary to the conclusion of Dewar el al. (1976) that a loading task may increase the validity of the reaction time index, the present study found no advantage to using a loading task in association with the reaction time measure of traffic sign perception.


Keywords: Driver distraction;