A COMPARISON OF TWO SUBSIDIARY TASKS USED TO MEASURE FATIGUE IN CAR DRIVERS

Abstract

Car driving has been studied by combining it with a subsidiary task, performance on which is negatively correlated with the perceptual load imposed by changing conditions of traffic. The present experiment compares a subsidiary task which required almost continuous attention to an auditory display, and which involved memory spans of only 3 sec, with an alternative task which did not require continuous attention, but which involved memory spans of up to 55 sec. The former was found to have some advantages. This comparison was combined with a study of men engaged in 8-hour spells of car driving. Some explanations are offered for the finding that performance on the subsidiary tasks was better at the end of the work-spell than at the beginning.