Abstract
A proposed feedback model of driving implicates vehicle feedback as an important variable affecting driver cognition. This naturalistic study employs an on-road paradigm to begin investigating the effects of vehicle feedback on drivers. Whilst performing a specially designed concurrent verbal protocol, 12 drivers drove their own cars around a predetermined 14 mile test route. This was designed to elicit the information that drivers were gaining from the environment and the vehicle, and how this information was being put to use. Prerun questionnaire measures featured driving style and locus of control, whereas postrun measures included self-assessment of mental workload and situational awareness. The vehicles were divided into 2 groups contingent upon their mechanical and engineering specifications into high and low vehicle feedback status, anecdotally, driver's cars versus average cars. A content analysis showed key differences in driver cognition contingent upon the vehicles feedback status. High-feedback vehicles are related to better situational awareness for drivers, coupled with lower workload. Drivers of low-feedback cars used their vehicle's instruments more often (despite having less of them), and it appears overall from self-assessment of situational awareness that drivers are not particularly aware of their own levels of Situational Awareness (SA), or indeed, any shortfall in it. These findings all correspond to feedback model predictions, and suggest a fruitful avenue for further simulator-based research.