Driving monotonous routes in a train simulator: the effect of task demand on driving performance and subjective experience

Abstract

Although monotony is widely recognised as being detrimental to performance, its occurrence and effects are not yet well understood. This is despite the fact that task-related characteristics, such as monotony and low task demand, have been shown to contribute to performance decrements over time. Participants completed one of two simulated train-driving scenarios. Both were highly monotonous and differed only in terms of the level of cognitive demand required (i.e. low demand or high demand). These results highlight the seriously detrimental effects of the combination of monotony and low task demands and clearly show that even a relatively minor increase in cognitive demand can mitigate adverse monotony-related effects on performance for extended periods of time. Monotony is an inherent characteristic of transport industries, including rail, aviation and road transport, which can have adverse impact on safety, reliability and efficiency. This study highlights possible strategies for mitigating these adverse effects.

Practitioner Summary: This study provides evidence for the importance of cognitive demand in mitigating monotony-related effects on performance. The results have clear implications for the rapid onset of performance deterioration in low demand monotonous tasks and demonstrate that these detrimental performance effects can be overcome with simple solutions, such as making the task more cognitively engaging.

Keywords:

• monotony
• task demand
• alertness
• performance
• train driver

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the funding of this research provided by the Australian Research Council (LP0667799), the NSW Independent Transport Safety Regulator (ITSR), RailCorp and Public Transport Safety Victoria (PTSV). The recommendations of this study are those of the authors and do not represent the views of ITSR, PTSV or RailCorp. Prof Williamson is supported by an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship.