Behavioural Road Safety Management

Task performance and fatigue during driving may be influenced by psychological factors since individuals differ in temperament and anxiety status. Fatigue has also been shown to be associated with changes in brain wave activity. However, research on psychophysiological associations with driver fatigue is scarce. Understanding the psychological links could provide information for educating the professional driver on fatigue management. We have in our previous research identified the psychological associations during driver fatigue for the development of fatigue management programs. Psychological profiles influence the fatigue state of a person (1,2&3). It has been found that increased anxiety, and negative mood states such as TensionAnxiety and Fatigue-Inertia are associated with other direct indicators of fatigue such as physiological activity (2). In can be concluded from our investigations in this area that driver fatigue is influenced by psychological factors and reducing anxiety as well as increasing positive mood states may help control fatigue effects. Important psychophysiological information for educating drivers on fatigue management is now available (3,4). There are implications the for application of neurofeedback techniques to reduce and manage driver fatigue. Such driver fatigue educational programs will lead to safer road practices. INTRODUCTION Driver related sleepiness and fatigue are believed to be significant causes of traffic accidents. While numerous physiological indicators are available to measure levels of driver fatigue, the electroencephalography (EEG) signal may be one of the most predictive and reliable (1,2). However, EEG is still relatively new in the area of investigating the psychology of fatigue. Few studies have investigated the psychological associations of mood states, anxiety levels and locus of control with driver fatigue. In our recent study we found associations between psychological factors such as mood, anxiety and driver fatigue (3). Driver fatigue has been specifically defined as a state of reduced mental alertness that impairs performance of a range of cognitive and psychomotor tasks including driving (4) It generally impairs human efficiency when individuals continue working after the onset of their fatigue state. However, task performance during driving may be influenced by psychological factors because individuals differ in attention and anxiety status. An early study of sustained performance in a flight simulator by Bartlett (5) showed that as performance time on a task increased, changes in attention with an increase in errors occurred. It has been suggested that fatigue could be experienced differently by drivers with different psychological profiles and temperament (6). Other studies have indicated associations between brain activity and psychological factors such as anxiety (7). Lal et al. (8) have recently shown that mood and anxiety levels can influence task performance and outcomes. Although some studies have examined