A CPM-GOMS-model of lane changes on highways

Abstract

As multitasking in the real world often does, driving a car manually requires an orchestrated effort of motoric, perceptual and cognitive faculties. As Neisser already pointed out with the Perception-Action-Cycle (1967), actions must be described and explained both regarding these faculties and the situative context they are rooted in. Especially highly dynamic environments such as the domain of public traffic require using and integrating manifold data sources. To this end, the Critical Path Model - Goals, Operators, Methods and Selection Rules (CPM-GOMS; John & Gray, 1995) provides a strong methodological and theoretical framework. It allows to understand, explain and predict driver actions regarding their time course as well as in their context. In an explorative study, one female and two male subjects (23-33 years of age) drove a passenger car on a two and a three lane motorway, without receiving explicit instructions. Based on video and vehicle data we modelled drivers’ motoric actions, perception and cognition for different lane change manoeuvres. For this we employed the CPM-GOMS-approach as analysis and modelling technique. Here, we present our approach and first models.