A Study on an Arousal Maintenance Tool Based on Driver's Active Coping

- Experimental Assessment of Percussion-performance Effect -

Abstract

This paper describes an effect of the arousal maintenance method based on percussion performance. An experiment to validate this method’s effect was performed under the following experimental conditions: Condition 1, “Only warning”; Condition 2, “Cold wind after warning”; and Condition 3, “Percussion performance after warning.” After the ratings for “Drowsiness level” and “Effort against drowsiness” were evaluated by two trained raters, an “Arousal maintenance time” was calculated. “Arousal maintenance time” in Conditions 1 and 2 was about 17 min, while “Arousal maintenance time” in Condition 3 was about 46 min (2.7 times the other conditions). Thus, motivation for the percussion performance may have caused the arousal maintenance effect.