Research on partially automated driving has revealed relevant problems with driving performance, particularly when drivers' intervention is required (e.g., take-over when automation fails). Mental fatigue has commonly been proposed to explain these effects after prolonged automated drives. However, performance problems have also been reported after just a few minutes of automated driving, indicating that other factors may also be involved. We hypothesize that, besides mental fatigue, an underload effect of partial automation may also affect driver attention. In this study, such potential effect was investigated during short periods of partially automated and manual driving and at different speeds. Subjective measures of mental demand and vigilance and performance to a secondary task (an auditory oddball task) were used to assess driver attention. Additionally, modulations of some specific attention-related event-related potentials (ERPs, N1 and P3 components) were investigated. The mental fatigue effects associated with the time on task were also evaluated by using the same measurements. Twenty participants drove in a fixed-base simulator while performing an auditory oddball task that elicited the ERPs. Six conditions were presented (5-6 min each) combining three speed levels (low, comfortable and high) and two automation levels (manual and partially automated). The results showed that, when driving partially automated, scores in subjective mental demand and P3 amplitudes were lower than in the manual conditions. Similarly, P3 amplitude and self-reported vigilance levels decreased with the time on task. Based on previous studies, these findings might reflect a reduction in drivers' attention resource allocation, presumably due to the underload effects of partial automation and to the mental fatigue associated with the time on task. Particularly, such underload effects on attention could explain the performance decrements after short periods of automated driving reported in other studies. However, further studies are needed to investigate this relationship in partial automation and in other automation levels.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 September 2021.
All research outputs
#3,196,127
of 23,006,268 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
#1,587
of 7,189 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#62,821
of 330,769 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
#37
of 157 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,006,268 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,189 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.6. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 330,769 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 157 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its contemporaries.
