The effect of concurrent task difficulty on working memory during simulated driving

• Published in: Ergonomics Vol. 42; no. 5; pp. 767 - 777
• Main Authors: RADEBORG, KARL, BRIEM, VALDIMAR, HEDMAN, LEIF R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis Group 01.05.1999; Washington, DC Taylor & Francis; Taylor and Francis; Taylor & Francis LLC
• Subjects: Applied physiology; Applied Sports Science; Automobile driving; Behavioral research; Biological and medical sciences; Biomechanics & Human Movement Science; Cellular telephone systems; Cognitive Ergonomics; Cognitive Psychology; Design Technology - Education; Design: Product Design; Driving Performance; Engineering and Technology; Ergonomics; Ergonomics & Human Factors; Ergonomics. Work place. Occupational physiology; Ergonomics: Product Design; Hands-free Mobile Telephoning; Health & Safety; Health & Safety Aspects of Computing; Human Computer Intelligence; Human Computer Interaction; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Maskinteknik; Mechanical Engineering; Medical sciences; Memory; Occupational/Industrial Health & Safety; Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics; Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi; Simulation; Social Aspects of Computing & IT; Sports Injury; Sports Rehabilitiation; Sports Technology and Engineering; Teknik; Web Usability; Work & Organizational Psychology; Working Memory; World Wide Web; Vehicle driver; Human; Vigilance; Ergonomics; Simulation; Telephone; Vehicle driving; Attention; Concurrent task; Portable equipment; Working memory; Performance
• ISSN: 0014-0139; 1366-5847; 1366-5847
• DOI: 10.1080/001401399185441

The effects of a concurrent simulated driving task on performance in a working memory task was investigated in 20 subjects (10 females, 10 males, median age = 33 years). The working memory task consisted of (1) judging whether simple sentences, presented in series of four, were meaningful, and (2) recalling the first words of each sentence in the series. The concurrent task had three levels of difficulty: (a) no driving, (b) easy driving, and (c) difficult driving. Being involved in the driving task (levels b and c) was found to be associated with significant deterioration of both recall and judgement, but whether the driving task was easy or difficult (level b or c) had no discernible effect on either recall or judgement. The results are discussed with reference to models of working memory and attention.