Endogenous and Exogenous Effects on a Driving-Simulation Task

Abstract

The present work tests the effect of attentional distractors on participants'' path movement. This influence on movement was measured, in a series of three experiments, both as an involuntary deviations in the trajectory in a tracking task and as the probability of taking the left/right-branch in a Y-junction of a simulated road. The effects found in previous works have shown relevant implications for road safety. None of previous theoretical models are able to account for most of present and those previous results. Three different attentional cues were used to test if the path movement of University students was influenced. Endogenous and exogenous attentional cues were used in a series of the three experiment. Data show the key role of both the meaning per se of cues and the context--in which these cues are presented--in determining the kind of effect on movement. The most relevant result is that participants approach to the location in which traffic signs were presented. In this sense, I discuss the relevance of the results from a cognitive-ergonomic point of view. Regarding its theoretical contribution, findings support recently-proposed accounts for the relationship between attention and movement (MDRA model).