Differential Impact of Working Memory and Inhibitory Control on Distracted Driving Performance among Experienced and Inexperienced Drivers

Distracted driving poses a significant risk to traffic safety, mainly influenced by cognitive functions and driving experience. This work focuses on the impact of working memory and inhibitory control on distracted driving performance among experienced and inexperienced drivers. A car-following driving simulation experiment was conducted to gain data. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA of the experimental results show that among experienced drivers, those with higher working memory capacity have faster braking response and tend to have a more decentralized visual search pattern. Similarly, drivers with higher inhibitory control ability also showed faster braking reaction time. Conversely, among inexperienced drivers, both the group with high working memory capacity and the group with high inhibition control ability had a lower rate of change of steering wheel angle and a shorter braking reaction time. Notably, the interaction between working memory capacity and inhibitory control ability has a significant effect on the standard deviation of longitudinal acceleration among inexperienced drivers.