Gaze-Based Indicators of Driver Cognitive Distraction: Effects of Different Traffic Conditions and Adaptive Cruise Control Use

In this simulator study, we investigate how gaze parameters reflect driver cognitive distraction under varying traffic conditions and adaptive cruise control (ACC) use. Participants completed six driving scenarios that combined two levels of cognitive distraction (with/without mental calculations) and three levels of driving environment complexity. Throughout the experiment, participants were free to activate or deactivate an ACC. We analyzed two gaze-based indicators of driver cognitive distraction: the percent road center, and the gaze dispersions (horizontal and vertical). Our results show that vertical gaze dispersion increases with traffic complexity, while ACC use leads to gaze concentration toward the road center. Cognitive distraction reduces road center gaze and increases vertical dispersion. Complementary analyses revealed that these observations actually arise mainly between mental calculations, while periods of mental calculations are characterized by a temporary increase in gaze concentration.