Driving Anxiety and Visual Attention in Young Drivers

Over the last summer I participated in a research experience for undergraduate at the University at Buffalo (UB) hosted by the Geologic and Climate Hazards Center. In this program students spent several weeks at UB working with faculty on a diverse set of projects ranging from understanding snow events over the great lakes, forest die off to utilizing crowdsourced data to study dust events. One of the projects I was involved with resulted in a poster being presented at the 105th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting entitled "Driving Anxiety and Visual Attention in Young Drivers: A Driving Simulator Study". 

In this study Phoebe Schrag worked alongside Austin Angulo, Irina Benedykc, Gongda Yu, Daisha Cardenas, Hayden Radel (from UB's Transportation Research and Visualization Laboratory (TRAVL)) and myself to explore driving anxiety of young drivers between the ages of 18 and 25. Using eye-tracking data from a high-fidelity virtual reality (VR) driving simulator we explored the effects of self-reported driving anxiety on visual attention, decision-making, and cognitive load. We found that driving anxiety can impair situational awareness. If this sounds of interest and you want to find out more, below you can read the abstract to the poster along with a link to the actual poster itself. 

Abstract: 

Motor vehicle crashes have remained the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults in the United States. Although high crash rates are commonly attributed to inexperience, risk-taking behavior, and underdeveloped executive functions, the role of emotional factors such as driving anxiety remain under-explored. Driving anxiety, which is characterized by persistent fear or worry while driving, may have a significant impact on young or novice drivers due to their limited experience and developing emotional regulation abilities. However, existing research has relied heavily on adult samples, self-report measures, or clinical cases, rarely incorporating real-time behavioral data from young adults. This study addresses these gaps by using eye-tracking in a high-fidelity virtual reality (VR) driving simulator to objectively evaluate the effects of self-reported driving anxiety on visual attention, decision-making, and cognitive load. Thirty-one licensed drivers aged 18–25 were classified into anxiety and non-anxiety groups using a questionnaire with reference to the Driving Cognitions Questionnaire. Participants completed five mixed urban-rural scenarios (two dynamic, two static, and one repeated dynamic) while wearing a Varjo XR3 headset with iMotions eye-tracking monitoring. Key eye-tracking metrics (e.g., dwell time proportion, fixation duration and saccade count) were analyzed using scenario-specific Welch’s t-tests (α = 0.05). The results showed that anxious drivers had significantly fewer saccadic movements in high-demand scenarios, indicating reduced scanning and increased cognitive load. These findings demonstrate how driving anxiety can impair situational awareness and suggest that targeted psychological interventions could improve attentional control. This work informs emotionally adaptive driver training for young drivers.

KEYWORDS: Driving Anxiety, Eye-Tracking, Visual Attention, Young Drivers, Cognitive Load, VR Driving Simulation.

Full Reference:

Schrag, P., Yu, G., Cardenas, D., Radel, H., Angulo, A., Crooks, A.T. and Benedyk, I. (2026), Driving Anxiety and Visual Attention in Young Drivers: A Driving Simulator Study, 105th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, 11th – 15th January, Washington DC. (poster pdf)