Exploring the Perceived Cognitive Workload: The Impact of Various Scenarios and Emotions on a Driving Simulator

Driver distraction due to emotional states gained attention in the last decades. Even though there are various studies examined and compared various emotions, so far changes in the emotional state was not examined. The aim of this paper was to explore the emotion-ordered effect on driver cognitive workload and contribute to the emotion distraction literature and draw practical implications for road safety. To study the effect, thirteen participants recruited for a driving simulator study and they were divided into two experimental groups in which they either tried Happy-to-Angry or Angry-to-Happy emotion transitions. Participants later assigned different driving scenarios. NASA-TLX data was collected after each scenario. Results reveal no statistically significant differences in perceived mental workload across different experimental conditions or their sequences, indicating consistent cognitive demands. However, observed trends suggest subtle variations that may require larger samples or more sensitive tools for detection.