Compensation for Drowsiness and Fatigue

Abstract

Do drivers employ different strategies to regulate their activity level depending on their state? A driving simulation experiment was conducted to investigate this issue. Time on task was manipulated to induce a change of attention without fatigue as well as a change of attention with fatigue. This manipulation was related to the duration of the driving task, which was the same for both experimental groups. To prevent the development of fatigue in the non-fatigue group, the experiment was not conducted late at night but in the evening. In order to create comparable conditions, the fatigue group did the experiment at the same time of day, in the evening. As fatigue could not be induced by using time of day as the manipulating factor, alcohol, well-known as a substance that sedates when low doses are taken, was administered.