A review of driver mental workload in driver-vehicle-environment system

Abstract

This paper reviews mental workload literatures which focus on the field of driving task. The purpose is to identify and discuss shortcomings in present research and opportunities for future study. A comprehensive search of journal papers on ISI Web of Science® (WoS) data base was conducted. 50 most-cited studies [1-50] are analyzed and classified into 4 categories: characteristics of the driver, characteristics of the vehicle, characteristics of environment, measurement and modeling. Chronological historiograph is generated to highlight the relationship among these studies in the retrieved categories. We argue that the ambiguity of concept and dissociative measurement are still primary barriers for current workload research. The further application of driver mental workload research should fully consider various potential influence factors in the Driver-Vehicle-Environment (DVE) system. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.