Selection of Measurement Method for Detection of Driver Visual Cognitive Distraction: A Review

Driving distraction is a topic of great interest in the transport safety-research community, because it is now a primary cause of road accidents. A recent report has revealed that distraction is more alarming than previously thought, and a suitable measurement to effectively detect distraction is required. Most agree that driving distraction actually comprises the simultaneous interaction of two or more types of distraction. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to determine the promising method for measuring visual cognitive distraction. We discuss the five common measurement methods for visual and cognitive driving distraction, which include driving performance, driver physical measures, driver biological measures, subjective reports, and hybrid measures. Hybrid measurement of driver's physical measures (e.g., eye movement) and driver's biological measures (e.g., electroencephalogram) is better than other methods at detecting types of visual cognitive distraction. This new perspective on measurement methods will help the field of transport safety to determine the best means of detecting and measuring the effect of visual cognitive distraction.