Date of Award

Fall 12-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Committee Director

Jing Chen

Committee Member

Yusuke Yamani

Committee Member

Catherine Glenn

Abstract

Drivers of vehicles that use a driving automation system were tasked with supervising the vehicle to ensure it was functioning properly. This task required drivers to stay vigilant of the roadway while being ready to intervene in the case of an unexpected hazard that the driving automation system may not have detected. This study investigated whether reclining a drivers’ seatback to more comfortable postures would affect their vigilance performance over time. Vigilance performance was measured by correct detections, false alarms, response sensitivity, response bias, and response time to hazardous events. Forty-five participants were recruited and randomly assigned to a postural condition with a seatback that was upright, slightly reclined, or very reclined. Their performance and comfort were measured over the course of a 40-minute driving task that used SAE Level-2 automation. Participants were tasked with classifying whether the neighboring vehicles were hazardous or safe. Based on our performance measures, we found a vigilance decrement that was potentially caused by cognitive underload stemming from the low task demand. We also found that posture did not affect any of the performance measures and that comfort ratings were similar despite the postural manipulation. This result indicates that drivers of vehicles with a driving automation system are free to adjust their seatback from an upright to very reclined posture without concern for their vigilance performance.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Copyright, 2022, by Jeremiah Gabriel Ammons, All Rights Reserved.

DOI

10.25777/374g-j057

ISBN

9798371976130

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Psychology Commons

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