Human factors
Assessing the Effectiveness of Interactive Media in Improving Drowsy Driver Safety
Overview of the article
The article aims to illustrate on the possibility of using interactive media to reduce the chances of drivers getting drowsy. They study the interactive media with the aim of helping the workers to wake up when they are getting tired in the course of driving. Their study bases on the much speculation that drowsiness has served as a negative facto especially in causing accidents. Consequently, the authors set on interactive media, which many researchers have always brushed it importance in showing its impacts. The authors set on investigation of media to help in instilling safety in driving behaviors while also triggering appropriate responses to interactive media. The article makes use of method involving the measurement of drowsiness by the standard scale preexisting from an already done sleep research. The method for measuring driving performance involved the use of driving indicators (unsafe) that served as potential risk to the drivers. The authors selected their participants through local milling lists whereby they made the potential participants (ages between 18 to 44 years) to fill an online version with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale to measure chronic or daytime sleepiness. From this, the authors chose those individuals who score extremely, 80 people involving those who scored the highest and the lowest. The study was gender sensitive with 40 men and 40 women. There was use of System Technology Inc Simulator during the driving contest. The simulator was an important apparatus in ensuring that there is replication of all the driving events. The study also involved the simulation of all the conditions considered as features of drowsy-driving crashes. For the media, there was use of language learning system by manipulating a language-teaching content that could promote efficiency during the alteration to interactive system from the noninteractive system. The study also made use of the Stanford Sleepiness scale which has ranges (1-7) illustrating all the constituents of drowsiness. This proved reliable in measuring drowsiness because it eliminated the need of forcing drowsiness or nondrowsiness on the participants. Another measure was the use of performance in learning languages, which helped in illustrating about the elements of drowsiness and its cognitive effects. The results included the determination that the drowsy drivers drove more safely in the presence of the interactive media while the latter (interactive media) did not have any effect on the nondrowsy drivers. Results
Critical review
What did the paper hope to resolve and were these objectives made clear by the authors?
The main aim of the article was to investigate into the use of interactive media as a step towards resolving the effects of drowsy-driving. The authors wanted to confirm the interactive media as a way of keeping the drivers awake through reducing drowsiness. Even though, there has been much investigation done on the effects of drowsy driving, the author feel that these (investigations) had always ignored the role of interactive media. The authors made their objectives clear by illustrating on the effect of high speed and long distance travelling that result into drowsiness. This formed the basis for the authors to manipulate their objectives since it is from the illustration of drowsiness that they are able to resolve their problem. The authors illustrate the effects of drowsiness, which attracts the readers into understanding how their objective is important as it involves reducing the effects of drowsiness.
Was the presentation of this research clear or could the paper have been better organized in its presentation, and if so, how?
Yes, the presentation by the authors is clear because of the arrangement, which allows readers to get insight about the research. The authors have started by presenting the context of research in order to give the reader the background information about the study. They get to illustrate the effects of drowsiness on driving something that will trigger the readers into wanting to read about how to reduce drowsiness. After providing the context, the researchers goes on to define the question of their research which also induce suspense into the readers. They have then gone into providing the methods, constituting measures, participants and procedure, used during the study that help them to show the credibility of their results. They have accompanied their method and results with appropriate data, which they used. The result also involves subsection, which illustrates on the various variables resulting from the study followed by the section of the discussion.
What was the main approach or method(s) used? Were the methods clearly presented? Did you think these methods were appropriate for answering the study questions?
The method used involved the measurement of drowsiness by the standard scale preexisting from an already done sleep research. The method for measuring driving performance involved the use of driving indicators (unsafe) that served as potential risk to the drivers. Another method involved the use of language learning system, which could help in studying the attitudes towards the media. The study presented the methods clearly especially with the Stanford Sleepiness Scale to measure drowsiness. This is efficient since there was the elimination of inefficiencies that could occur in forcing drowsiness or undrowsiness in the participants. The authors also make use of simulation allowing them to replicate all the conditions experienced during driving. There was the simulation of the unsafe driving indicators. These helped in answering the study question because of their contributions in quantifying the problems, determining the risks and the appropriate countermeasures.
How appropriate and clear was the analysis of the data? Were there any parts that were confusing?
The analysis of the data was appropriate with the use of calculation that helps in the calculation of the values. The values help in analyzing the interaction between the drivers’ drowsiness and interactive media. This calculation is only understandable to the literate in the same field thereby allowing them to get the insight from the results. However, the calculation involving regression proves complicated to many since it involves many mathematical symbols, which may appear confusing. This even made me to assume the calculations and go direct to the discussion since I had no understanding
How appropriate was the interpretation of the findings from the analysis?
The interpretation was appropriate. The appropriateness of the interpretation comes out when the authors illustrate on the effect of interactive media on the two groups of the participants, the drowsy drivers and the non-drowsy drivers. The drowsy drivers seemed to have more attachment to the interactive media. This is a proper interpretation, as drowsiness did not have an effect during the learning of the media system content in difficult driving course. Further, the non-interactive media was a subject for drowsiness impeding liking. However, there were no effect of the interactive media on the non drowsy drivers since they were functioning on normal situations.
Were the conclusions that the authors reached reasonable (i.e., did they seem to follow from the findings)?
Yes, the conclusion that the interactive media complemented on the safe driving of the drowsy drivers was reasonable. The authors used the finding that drowsiness did not have an effect during the learning of the media system content in difficult driving course, in making their conclusion. The findings implied that the drowsy drivers had more likes on the interactive media thereby allowing them to drive more safely. There was also no effect of the interactive media on the non-drowsy drivers. The authors used this finding to show that interactive media could not hinder the functioning of the non-drowsy driver. Consequently, the authors conclude that interactive media is the better solution since it only complement on the safe driving of the drowsy drivers while not affecting the functioning of the nondrowsy ones.
Do you think this study (or studies) had clear implications for practice and design?
Yes, the study had implications for practice and design as it illustrates on the use of driving simulator in order to determine the effect of interactive media on drowsiness. It has successfully incorporated simulation of the various driving conditions to help in understanding the difference between the passive media and the interactive media. The successful use of simulation illustrates that practice and design can help in solving some of the problems in real life.
Do you feel the study was limited or problematic in some ways, and if so, how?
The study was limited because of the need to use simulators in replicating the driving conditions. The simulation always involves an intensive process leading to a longer duration of time as compared when the study could have involved the real things. The delay in the simulation may have arisen because of the need to simulate many driving entities, from the road attributes, behavior of cars and pedestrians and the timing of traffic lights at intersections. This could have led to the condition known as the computational complexity during the study.
Work cited
Takayam, Leila & Nass, Clifford. Assessing the Effectiveness of Interactive Media in Improving Drowsy Driver Safety Overview of the article. Stanford University, Stanford, California. Vol. 50, No. 5, October 2008, pp. 772–781. DOI 10.1518/ 001872008X312341. Copyright © 2008, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
