Effects of cognitive load on response time in an unexpected lead vehicle braking scenario and the detection response task (DRT)

The response time results from the artificial DRT did not generalize to the critical lead vehicle braking scenario. This finding can possibly be explained by the cognitive control hypothesis, which suggests that cognitive load selectively impairs driving subtasks that rely on cognitive control (i.e. novel or inconsistent tasks) but leaves automatic performance unaffected (Engström, Markkula, Victor, & Merat, 2017). While the DRT responses, because of the task novelty, can be assumed to require cognitive control, responses to visually expanding objects, such as a braking lead vehicle with short time headway, are triggered automatically. Common interpretations of the effect of cognitive load on traffic safety thus need to be re-examined. It seems inappropriate to generalize from effects of cognitive load on DRT, or other artificial laboratory tasks that rely on cognitive control, to unexpected real-world situations where responses are triggered primarily by looming cues.