Unveiling the Impact of Cognitive Distraction on Cyclists Psycho-Behavioral Responses in an Immersive Virtual Environment

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the number of bicyclist fatalities has increased by more than 35% since 2010. One of the main reasons associated with cyclists’ crashes is the adverse effect of drivers’ cognitive distractions. However, very limited studies have evaluated the impact of cyclists’ cognitive distraction on their behaviors and safety. This study leverages an Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) simulation environment to explore the effect of secondary tasks on cyclists’ cognitive distraction by evaluating their behavioral and physiological responses. Specifically, by recruiting 75 participants, this study explores the effect of listening to music versus talking on the phone as standardized secondary tasks on participants’ behavior (i.e., speed, lane position, input power, head movement) as well as, physiological responses including participants’ heart rate variability and skin conductance metrics. Our results show that listening to high-tempo music can lead to a significantly higher speed, a lower standard deviation of speed, and higher input power. Additionally, the trend is more significant for cyclists who have a strong habit of daily music listening (
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4 hours/day). In the high cognitive workload situation (simulated hands-free phone talking), cyclists had a lower speed with less input power and less head movement variation. Our results indicate that participants’ heart rate variability (HRV) features (the power of high frequency, pnni-50) and electrodermal activity (EDA) features like numbers of skin conductance responses (SCR) peaks are sensitive to cyclists’ cognitive load changes in the IVE simulator. Gender differences are identified in cycling performance and physiological response.