The purpose of the present study was to compare menu searching performance and driving performance when the experimental conditions of time pressure(time pressure vs. no time pressure, Experiment 1), road types(straight highway vs. curved highway), an...
The purpose of the present study was to compare menu searching performance and driving performance when the experimental conditions of time pressure(time pressure vs. no time pressure, Experiment 1), road types(straight highway vs. curved highway), and the system menu structure(narrow-deep menu vs. broad-shallow menu) were systematically varied. For both experiments, driving performances of longitudinal(i.e., variabilities in driving speed and headway) and lateral vehicle control(variabilities in lane position), and menu searching performances(i.e., menu selection time and error rate) were measured as the dependent variables. The results of the Experiment 1 showed that the drivers’ menu searching and driving performance under time pressure condition were better than no time pressure condition. The results of the Experiment 2 can be summarized as the followings: (1) As indicated in the Experiment 1, the drivers’ menu searching performances under time pressure condition were better than no time pressure condition. (2) Menu searching performances were better when the drivers were required to select menu items from broad-shallow menu structure than narrow-deep menu structure, and to drive on the straight highway than curved highway. (3) Both aspects of driving performances were better in the straight highway condition than in the curved highway condition. However, (4) each aspect of driving performances appeared to be affected differently according to the time pressure condition and the system menu structure: longitudinal vehicle control was better when the drivers were asked to drive under time pressure condition and to select menu item from broad-shallow menu structure than they were asked to drive under no time pressure condition and to select menu item from narrow-deep menu structure. However, the drivers showed smaller lane position variability(lateral vehicle control) when there was no time pressure. Finally, implication and issues related to this study were discussed.