Driving Psychology (Psych
409a); November 25, 2006
Are Driving Skills Important?
By:
Kasey Vanderhoof
Instructions for this activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Citation:
Peter Rothe, Editor (2002).
Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer. (
Driver Skill
1.
What is Skill?
a.
A learned ability to perform some task
effectively and efficiently
b.
Driving researchers and educators argue that a
complex skill and say this is why he need to take driving more seriously
i.
Non-experts say that driving seems as simple and
natural as walking
c.
Driving skills
i.
Making the car go, keeping it between the lines
and stopping before hitting anything are individually master quickly
ii.
Smooth integration of control skills take much
longer
d.
Driving skills are learned in different degrees
i.
Some drivers may learn some skill easier and
quicker than other drivers
e.
Some skills such as emergency handling are
rarely needed and may not be learned very well since they are rarely used.
2.
Basic Human Capacities Underlying Driving Skill
a.
Driving skills are built on a broad foundation of
basic human abilities
b.
Driving demands may exceed a drivers mental
capacity at any given time
i.
Drivers may not be able to comprehend everything
that is going on
c.
General abilities underlying driving skills may
be trainable
3.
Looking for the Whole Driver
a.
Driving places high demands on people
i.
There is no equally comprehensive model of
driving that would explain how we are able to meet all the demands place on
drivers
b.
Experienced drivers, as a group, have important
skill advantages
i.
They are better able to:
1.
control and distribute attention
2.
automate and integrate the various simple
psychomotor-control skills
3.
extract the full richness of the information
available from the environment
4.
detect and recognize hazards at a safe distance
5.
make driving decisions quickly under pressure
c.
Research findings indicate that weaknesses in
the basic driving skills cause at least some of the crashes involving new
drivers
4.
A Taxonomic Model of Driving and Driver Skill
a.
Knowledge
i.
Consists of a wide range of information stored
in both long-term and short-term memory
ii.
It includes rules and principles, scripts,
schemata, performance routines, recognition templates and expectations
iii.
It builds up continuously as drivers receive
instruction and experience driving in the system
iv.
It might be useful to think of knowledge as the
content or raw material used by the cognitive and mental skills
b.
Attention
i.
Includes states of vigilance, alertness and
mental arousal, essential the “internal” predisposition to interact with the
environment
ii.
It directs and focuses searching, scanning and
noticing, and it determines how our limited supply of mental processing
capacity will be allocated
c.
Detection
i.
Primarily involve visual searching, scanning and
noticing things that are relevant
ii.
Our senses are built to detect change and
contrast
d.
Perception
i.
Consists of mental organizing and processing of
patterns of data from the senses, turning data into information
ii.
Results in the recognition and identification of
potential hazards, opportunities and other relevant information
iii.
Is influenced by cognitive knowledge,
experience, and expectations
e.
Evaluation
i.
We evaluate something after we perceive it
ii.
Our evaluation of a situation will determine how
we act in certain situations
iii.
Is influenced by knowledge, in the sense that
rules and principles are needed to predict outcomes and are built up mainly
from experience
iv.
Becomes virtually automatic and unconscious for
routine driving
f.
Decision
i.
Given a particular situation evaluation, final
authority for action (or inaction) rests with the driver’s decision skills,
which weigh the optional courses of action, selecting and timing responses
g.
Motor skills
i.
Drivers must have a certain amount of
traditional perceptual-motor skill to execute an intended action properly
ii.
More critical, and requiring more practice, is
the integration of the basic skills into smooth, coordinated, simultaneous
automatic operation
h.
Imagination
i.
The amount of safety depends on ones ability to
imagine what will happen
1.
this is the result of higher-order mental skill
processes that takes place at some time before any obvious hazard or risky
situation has occurred
ii.
It is in effect a preparatory response for
possible situations and scenarios that cannot yet be see but must be imagined
iii.
It is an abstract mental skill
i.
Motivation
i.
The internal affective of emotional force
compelling the individual to seek satisfaction of personal needs
ii.
It consists of the appetite, drives, emotions,
and utility-maximizing efforts that energize behavior and direct choices
iii.
Comes from within and is driven by personal needs
or norms and the need to reduce uncertainty
iv.
May also be driven by external forces such as
incentives and disincentives as well as more social and cultural forces such as
active caring for the welfare of others
v.
It activates and directs behavior toward the
immediate objectives
j.
Responsibility
i.
The driver’s top cognitive management, a sort of
rational executive process focused on the highest level goals and values
ii.
Based on the values and internalized norms that
influence individual motivation and character, as well as ethical, pro-social
conduct
iii.
Helps energize and direct behavior toward goals
beyond the personal and immediate, requiring
a commitment to helping meet social objectives beyond those of the
individual
5.
How Important is Driving Skill?
a.
Improving driving skills may be necessary but
not sufficient for improved safety, because situational factors, motives and
higher-level driver skills are clearly important
b.
If crashes result from what drivers choose as
much as from what they are able or unable to do, we must consider a whole
hierarchy of driver skills, ranging from “simple” control to coordination of
controls, through a range of higher mental skills, perceptual, cognitive, and
“meta-cognitive”
6.
Driver Skill and Preparation in the Future
a.
Driving skills are important in order to keep up
with the technological advances that today’s society are coming up with
i.
These technologies include but are not limited
to
1.
cell phones
2.
in car computers
3.
navigations systems
4.
in car DVD player
5.
and many more
Links:
My
homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/vanderhoof/vanderhoof-home.htm
Class
Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm