ABSTRACT

Driver sleepiness is a leading contributor to road crashes. Sleep-related crashes are more likely to involve collision with a stationary object than non-sleep-related crashes. The mechanism underpinning this is unknown; one potential explanation may be an increased propensity for change blindness. Twenty-four drivers with at least one year of independent driving experience completed two simulated drives: one following a normal night of sleep (7–8 h) and one following sleep restriction (5 h). The drive consisted of 5 laps of an 11.3 km circuit, taking approximately 45 min. Each lap comprised half urban and half rural driving environments. Twenty times during the drive the visual screen was blanked for 500 ms, and when it reappeared participants were asked whether there were any changes. Twelve times a change occurred, and eight times no change occurred. Additionally, four unexpected changes occurred; for example, the language of the road signs was changed from English to German. At the end of each drive, participants were asked if anything unusual occurred. Sleep loss resulted in significantly increased subjective sleepiness and subjective workload. Driving in an urban environment did not increase alertness; subjective sleepiness ratings did not significantly differ between urban and rural environments. Change detection accuracy for both cued and unexpected changes was not significantly affected by sleep loss. In line with previous research, accuracy was greater for changes with high safety relevance and those occurring in rural environments. Collectively the findings of the study suggest that increase change blindness is probably not a contributor to sleep-related road crashes; however, future on-road research and with greater levels of sleep loss is needed to confirm findings.

摘要

驾驶员的困倦是导致道路交通事故的主要原因。与非睡眠相关的崩溃相比，与睡眠相关的崩溃更可能涉及与静止对象的碰撞。支撑该机制的机制尚不清楚；一种可能的解释可能是改变盲目性增加了。有至少一年独立驾驶经验的二十四位驾驶员完成了两次模拟驾驶：一次在正常睡眠（7-8小时）之后，另一次在睡眠受限（5小时）之后。该驱动器由11.3公里赛道的5圈组成，耗时约45分钟。每圈包括一半的城市驾驶环境和一半的农村驾驶环境。在驾驶过程中，二十次可视屏幕消隐了500 ms，然后再次出现时，询问参与者是否有任何变化。十二次发生变化，八次没有变化。此外，发生了四个意外的更改。例如，路标的语言从英语更改为德语。在每次驾驶结束时，询问参与者是否发生了异常情况。睡眠不足导致主观嗜睡和主观工作量显着增加。在城市环境中驾驶并没有提高机敏性；城市和乡村环境之间的主观嗜睡等级没有显着差异。提示丢失和意外更改的更改检测精度不受睡眠损失的影响很大。与以前的研究一致，对于具有较高安全性的更改以及在农村环境中发生的更改，准确性更高。总的来说，该研究的结果表明，增加变化的盲目性可能不是与睡眠相关的道路交通事故的原因。但是，需要进一步的道路研究以及更多的睡眠障碍来确认研究结果。