title: Overload depending on driving experience and situation complexity: Which strategies faced with a pedestrian crossing?
abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of situation complexity and driving experience on subjective workload and driving performance, and the less costly and the most effective strategies faced with a hazard pedestrian crossing. Four groups of young drivers (15 traditionally trained novices, 12 early-trained novices, 15 with three years of experience and 15 with a minimum of five years of experience) were randomly assigned to three situations (simple, moderately complex and very complex) including unexpected pedestrian crossings, in a driving simulator. The subjective workload was collected by the NASA-TLX questionnaire after each situation. The main results confirmed that the situation complexity and the lack of experience increased the subjective workload. Moreover, the subjective workload, the avoidance strategies and the reaction times influenced the number of collisions depending on situation complexity and driving experience. These results must be taken into account to target the prevention actions.
authors.affiliation: IFSTTAR-LMA, 304 Chemin de la Croix Blanche, 13300 Salon de Provence, France. Electronic address: julie.paxion@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paxion
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille University-PsyCLE, 29 avenue Robert-Schuman, 13621 Aix-en-Provence, cedex 1, France. Electronic address: edith.marie@univ-amu.fr.
authors.forename: Edith
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Galy
authors.affiliation: IFSTTAR-LMA, 304 Chemin de la Croix Blanche, 13300 Salon de Provence, France. Electronic address: Catherine.berthelon@ifsttar.fr.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berthelon
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D001364:Awareness; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000069636:Pedestrians; D011930:Reaction Time; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Driving experience; Situation complexity; Subjective workload