Searching in Lists While Driving

More and more in-vehicle systems are rapidly becoming commercially
available, making the driving task more and more complex. Driving
performance in such multiple-task situations depends primarily on
the level of task demands imposed on the driver by certain
situations. The higher the perceived task difficulty, the higher
the workload level of that individual. The aim of this dissertation
was therefore to investigate possible trade-offs between primary
task (driving) and secondary task (searching in a list) performance
in a simulated driving environment. For this purpose, the effects
of a standardized secondary visual search task on the primary task
of driving were evaluated and compared between several conditions.
Even though there was a clear tendency to protect the primary task
of driving, participants seemed incapable of fully prioritising the
primary task of driving over the secondary search task at all
times.