Driver's Lateral Control Strategy as Affected by Task Demands and Driving Experience

Driving behavior may be described as the result of a process during which performance is optimized to meet several task demands at the same time. In order to fulfill this task it is assumed that the driver has the disposal of a multivariate internal criterion that governs the rules for optimization.

In the present study it was investigated how different task demands interact, particularly in combination with driving experience, the latter factor being indicative for driving skill development. The results showed that driving experience as a main experimental factor interacted significantly with task demands for lateral and longitudinal control. Besides, a controversy in the literature concerning differences in steering-wheel reversals between experienced and inexperienced drivers can be explained by this interaction.

The results may be important for the discovery of characteristic performance patterns of experienced and inexperienced drivers and therefore for the development of driver education and training programs, amongst others.