Psy 409a - Driving Psychology, April 24, 2006

Skills behind the wheel

Tiare MacDonald

J. Peter Rothe. Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems that Make Traffic Suffer. Pages 219-230.

Instructions for this activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/g24-oral1.htm

Instructor: Dr. Leon James

I. SKILL CATEGORIES

Attention

• Humans can direct their attention as well as automatically attend to things.
• It is difficult to sustain the level of attention that driving demands.
• Much of knowing what to attend to on the road is the result of a learned experience.
• Attentional errors are often the causes of car accidents.
• An attentional error need not be failing to attend; you can attend and still miss information.

Detection

• Detection is detecting things in your environment that relate to what you are doing, as well as if you are searching for something (like an exit).
• Our sensory system is equipped to naturally detect things (such as changes in balance, hearing emergency sirens, etc.)
• Detection is flawed.
• There is only so much that our eyes can see (e.g. the human blind spot).
• Detection is especially limited at nighttime, because eyes can only see what artificial lighting illuminates (headlights, streetlights, etc.)

Perception

• Perception is making sense of all the sensory inputs we receive.
• However, perception is not always accurate because it is influenced by our past experiences and cognitive and affective selves.
• We make sense of information using schemas or categories, but this is limiting.

Evaluation

• Evaluating includes assessing what we perceive for potential dangers and opportunities.
• We are usually unaware when evaluation takes place because it is automatic.
• Evaluation is influenced by alcohol blood content and fatigue.

Decision

• Decision is how you end up choosing to act or not act.
• Decision-making is very complicated.
• Factors that influence decision making are alcohol intake, fatigue, and motivation.
• Deciding to act at an inappropriate time may have major consequences.

Motor Skills

• Motor skills are the execution of your decisions.
• Most of these are automatized in experienced drivers.

Imagination

• Imagination involves the decisions you make regarding timing, speed and spatial relations.
• Beginning drivers may have a hard time with imagination.

Motivation

• Motivation is the thing that drives people to accomplish intended goals.
• It can be external or internal.

Responsibility

• Responsibility dictates ones morals regarding the road.
• Responsibility helps regulate motivation.

II. DRIVING SKILL IMPORTANCE

• Novice drivers may be at risk because they have not had enough experience on the road.
• Experienced drivers, on the other hand, are also at risk because they are at ease with their driving skills and have developed bad habits.
• Some experienced drivers become overly confident with their skills.
• Sensorimotor skills can be easily overridden by a driver’s motivations.

III. TECHNOLOGY AND DRIVING SKILLS

• Technological advances related to driving are an inevitable part of our future.
• However, people must receive proper training on how to use technology.
• Future gadgets may be designed to make the road safer, but ultimately the problem (and solution) lies within individual human beings and the way they conduct themselves behind the wheel.

RELATED LINKS:

1. Driving Skills for Life

http://www.drivingskillsforlife.com/elearn_menu.asp

This website was put out by Ford Motors targeting teens. Supposedly, if you take this 25 minute course, you will have “Driving skills for life.” I thought this was pretty funny. The four skills that they have identified as being the most crucial to preventing crashes are Hazard Recognition, Vehicle Handling, Speed Management, and Space Management. I went through the tutorial myself and found that it was better than I thought. For example, they covered distractions, and how to drive in an emergency situation. However, they never mentioned anything about affective self.

2. Car Gadgets of the Near Future

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9909/21/car.gadgets.idg/index.html

This CNN article talked about the newest inventions in car technology. They mentioned the camera in the back seat to monitor children, as well as advanced GPS systems that calculate new routes if you get lost. The one that appealed to me the most was the gadget that allowed you to see better at night. I think that this would be really useful because human vision is very limited, especially during the nighttime. I think this might help prevent animals getting hit by vehicles as well (which makes me really sad).

3. ADHD and Driving

http://add.about.com/od/forteens/a/driving.htm

I looked up this article because for my oral presentation I talk about how my boyfriend has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and how he feels this helps him to drive because he can focus on many things at once. I thought this article was amusing because it actually says that people with ADHD are more likely to get into car accidents than people without the disorder. It cites the inability to pay attention to fine details and sustain one’s attention as possible reasons for the higher rate of vehicle collisions.

My Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/macdonald/macdonald-home.htm

Class Homepage:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm