Field of Research "Action Preparation"
There is an increasing use of head-up-displays (HUDs) in modern cars. The primary advantage of HUDs is that drivers can obtain relevant information without looking away from the road. HUDs also seem to be well suited for response preparation.
Basic research has identified two classes of action preparation, namely event preparation and temporal preparation. Event preparation deals with the reduction of event uncertainty, that is, with respect to the possible set of response parameters (e. g., force, direction, hand) of a forthcoming response (e.g., Müller-Gethmann, Rinkenauer, Stahl, & Ulrich, 2000). Consistent with the notion of movement preprogramming, reaction time usually decreases as the amount of advance information increases. Temporal preparation, however, is closely related to the reduction of temporal uncertainty. This means uncertainty that pertains to when, as opposed to how, a response should be produced. Temporal preparation has been extensively investigated by manipulating foreperiod durations, that is, the temporal interval between a warning signal and the imperative response signal (e.g., Müller-Gethmann, Ulrich, & Rinkenauer, 2003, Rolke & Hofmann, 2007).
In the automotive context it is an unresolved issue whether these paradigms can be applied to the driving situation. It is noteworthy to mention that most of the results concerning temporal preparation and movement precuing have been derived from static experimental setups using 2D (planar) visual displays. The aim of our research is to examine temporal preparation and basic movement planning in a dynamic simulated driving task by employing HUDs as a source of (advance) information.
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