Verbal-Spatial Cue Conflict: Implications for the Design of Collision-Avoidance Warning Systems

Automated systems are increasingly being implemented in modern automobiles in an effort to increase safety. Collision avoidance warning systems are an important component of this effort. A spatial auditory Stroop paradigm was used to examine the effects of verbal-spatial cue conflict on response accuracy, reaction time, and driving performance. Participants responded to either the semantic meaning or the spatial location of a directional word, which were either congruent (i.e. the word “right” being presented from the right) or incongruent (i.e. the word “right” being presented from the left), while following a lead car in a simulated driving scenario. Accuracy was worse when participants were responding to the spatial location of a word in an incongruent trial, indicating that participants experienced significant interference when trying to ignore the semantic meaning of the word when it conflicted with the presentation location. Implications for the design of collision-avoidance warning systems are discussed.