Evaluation of laboratory methods for the study of driver behavior: Relations between simulator and street performance.

Road performance data on 304 taxi drivers were obtained by pairs of trained observers using behavioral checklists. Drivers did not know they were being observed. 66% of the drivers then agreed to participate in the laboratory study, which involved performance on 2 different driving simulators and on 4 perceptual–motor tests. Officially recorded accidents and violations over a 5-yr period were obtained for each S for comparison with performance data. Results show that few of the scores from the simulators or tests were significantly correlated with road performance; however, a number of significant relations were found between perceptual–motor test performance and simulator performance. Although these correlations were not high, they tended to be more significant than those between performance on the 2 simulators. Age was negatively correlated with simulator performance. Relations between all performance measures and officially recorded accident and violation data were low. Some significant predictors of certain classes of violations were achieved from road performance measures obtained in the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Road safety improvement in large companies. An experimental comparison of different measures

Road accidents among professional drivers are a major problem in many companies. There are several traditional measures for improving safety, but knowledge about what measures are most effective is rather limited. The aim of the study is to compare four different measures for reducing accident involvement through changed driver behaviour. The measures are driver training, group discussions, campaigns and bonuses for accident free driving. Five groups of approximately 900 drivers each employed by the Swedish telephone company "Televerket" have been used in the experiment. Four of the groups were test groups, where each took part in one of the measures. The fifth group was a control group. The effect on accident risk (accidents in relation to mileage) and accident costs have been calculated for a period of 2 years after the measures were applied. The results show that group discussions and driver training with the rather unusual design used in the experiment succeeded in improving the accident risk compared to the control group. Accident costs were reduced in all four test groups, but not in the control group.     

Personality dynamics and accident proneness in an industrial setting.

"Two groups of Ss… [17 men with a total of 47 accidents over 2 years, and 17 accident-free men] were [compared] by means of a sentence completion test… . the high accident Ss, in comparison with the non-accident Ss, were significantly lower on the socially desirable personality dispositions of optimism, trust, and sociocentricity. In general, there were no statistically significant differences… on several negative personality dispositions, but there was a slight indication of positive association between high accident proneness and high scores on a cluster composed of the socially undesirable personality dispositions of egocentricity, anxiety, and resentment. There was highly significant association between high accident proneness and projective responses indicative of a negative attitude toward employment." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual-motor speed discrepancy and deviant driving.

Drake, using industrial accident data, proposed that individuals with better motor speed than perceptual speed are more accident-prone than those with greater perceptual than motor speed. This hypothesis was tested n the area of traffic accidents using 3 measures of perceptual and 3 measures of motor speed. The Ss were 2 groups of 70 male drivers each, matched for age, education , and driving exposure. The problem-driver group had 4 times more traffic accidents during the past 5 years than the controls. None of the 9 perceptual-motor speed discrepancies supported Drake's hypothesis. The assumption of this hypothesis are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of fear-arousing components of driver education on students' safety attitudes and simulator performance.

Notes that despite the importance of driving safety, there is little evidence that traditional driver education courses are effective. A 2 * 2 * 2 factorial experiment examined the effects of (a) the noxiousness of an automobile accident, (b) one's probability of being in an accident, and (c) the efficacy of safe-driving practices on 144 high school driver education students. Results show that increments in the noxiousness variable greatly reduced error rates on driving simulators. Additionally, if Ss behaved negligently, driving performance was improved by increasing either their perception of the severity of accidents or their chances of being in one. Advantages of discovering effective variables linked to general psychological theories (i.e., expectancy-value theories) are reviewed, and implications for implementing these principles in driver education are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of accidents in a standardized home environment.

Used a kitchen laboratory to study accidents incurred by 226 females who performed standardized household tasks under observation. 4 yrs of driving records were obtained for a subsample of 178 Ss possessing licenses. In addition, all Ss were assessed on a battery of psychomotor and personality tests (e.g., the MMPI). Kitchen criteria were classified as property damage accidents and personal injury accidents, summed to provide total kitchen accidents. Near accidents constituted the 4th kitchen criterion. Significant (p     

Driver accidents and the neuropsychiatric patient.

Compared the driving records of 533 neuropsychiatric patients with a random sample of 86,717 California drivers in an attempt to improve prediction of accident records. Results indicated that Ss diagnosed schizophrenic reaction had a lower accident rate, while those with a high Mania score on the MMPI or who drank had a higher rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reported driving speeds and previous accidents.

For 275 psychology students, accident records and frequency of traffic citations were compared with self-reported driving speed (slow, medium, fast) and with number of speeding citations. "… individuals in the kind of population considered who report consistently higher driving speeds than average have traffic records free of accidents as often as other drivers. This finding also holds for individuals with previous speeding citations and traffic citations of all kinds." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Systematic cooperation between driving schools and parents in driver education, an experiment

The overall purpose of the experiment is to study the effects of various educational changes as a measure for preventing accidents among young drivers. The hypothesis is that accident risks among young drivers, normally educated by private instructors, i.e. parents, will be reduced if complementary professional education and support are provided. To analyze the effect of this combination of private and complementary professional driver education compared to solely private instruction, nearly 2,000 young people, 17 years old, were divided into two groups. The experimental group was given professionally supported education and the control group was educated by parents or other private teachers. The changes comprised three parts, systematic cooperation between driving school and parents, "commentary driving" to improve scanning behaviour, and special practice to help the learner experience his own limitations in driving skill. The results based on self-reported accident show negative effects during the first year and positive effects of the changes during the second year after licensing. When the two years were added, no significant change was found. Questionnaire data in subjective skill and driving style showed small changes, the experimental group being a little more careful and a little less self-confident. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive overload and the learners' limited capacity to benefit from the changes during the first of the two years.     

Attributions and disability acceptance following traumatic injury: A replication and extension.

(This reprinted article originally appeared in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977, Vol 35 [5], 351–363. The following abstract of the original article appeared in PA, Vol 62:3939.) Examined the relation between victims' attributions of causality for their accidents and their ability to cope with severe misfortune. A total of 29 individuals who had been paralyzed in serious accidents between the ages of 16 and 35 yrs were intensively interviewed. Individuals were selected who had been injured either 1–4 or 8–22 mo prior to the interview. Both quantitative and open-ended questions were used to elicit attributions of blame and causality by Ss; coping scores were obtained from a social worker and a nurse familiar with each case. Findings suggest that blaming another and feeling that one could have avoided the accident were successful predictors of poor coping; self-blame was a successful predictor of good coping. The question "Why me?" was posed by all Ss, and 28 of the 29 Ss offered to explain why the accident had happened to them. Their responses seemed to illustrate their need for meaning in explaining the selective incidence of the accident. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Car-driving consistency and measures of personality.

Three groups of Ss—10 skilled police driving instructors, 10 skilled car club drivers, and 6 drivers of lesser skill—were studied to determine the relationship of driving consistency to neuroticism and to introversion-extroversion. The driving consistency measures (based on vehicle acceleration and deceleration) were found to be negatively related to the two personality measures for the skilled police drivers and the lesser-skilled drivers, but not for the skilled car club drivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (p125FAK) and paxillin in glomeruli from diabetic rats

A study of group comprising all road accidents caused by drivers of private cars who were under the influence of alcohol (BAC > = 0.3 g/kg; X = 1.56 +/- 0.62 g/kg) that occurred in a defined area over the span of one calendar year (n = 625) was compared with a randomly selected control group of 718 road accidents in which the drivers had not been under the influence of alcohol. The drivers in the study group were marginally younger than the ones in the control group. However, there was no evidence of an alcohol related increase in the risk of an accident associated with younger age. The sex ratio in the study group corresponded to that, generally found amongst people driving under the influence of alcohol. In the study group there was no evidence of a restricted manner and extent of car use, based on the distances between the sites of the accidents and the offenders' homes. However, the proportion of accidents occurring out of towns was greater in the study group. Alcohol associated accidents occurred more frequently in the evenings and at night, which reflects habitual drinking patterns. Therefore these accidents occurred mainly in darkness and twilight. Surprisingly, unfavorable weather conditions such as rain or ice did not lead to an increase in accidents due to alcohol. In fact, in the study group, proportionally fewer accidents occurred on icy roads. Both injury to persons and damage to property were more severe in the study group. While no relationship between accident severity and blood alcohol concentration could be proven within the study group, the risk of death or severe injury was 3 to 4 times greater in this group than in the control group.     

Driving fitness/driving capacity of patients treated with methadone

To answer the question whether or not therapeutic methadone doses significantly reduce traffic-related performance of drivers on medically supervised methadone programmes, 34 methadone substitution patients, all of them volunteers, were subjected to a test series: the focus of the study was a psychophysical test battery consisting of 10 individual performance tests to assess essential functions with regard to driving ability, such as concentration, attention, reaction capability, memory, perception and sensorimotor coordination. In evaluating the results of the psychophysical tests, multiple drug use and subjective methadone influence at the time of the examination were taken into consideration but current methadone blood level was neglected. The results were compared to those of a control group. The methadone group (n = 34) consisted of 25 men and 9 women aged between 18 and 38. At the time of the study, the majority of the test persons (29) were on low dosage methadone maintenance (up to 60 mg/day). In the urine samples of approximately 2/3 of the test persons, evidence was found for multiple drug use together with other psychotropic substances, the most frequent (14) being cannabis metabolites. Referring to their driving practices, a mere 4 out of 29 drivers had not committed any driving offences. A comparison of the psychophysical performance of the whole methadone group (n = 34) with a control group demonstrated that the methadone substitution patients achieved rather lower results in almost all variables. These performance deficits were particularly conspicuous in sustained attention, sensorimotor coordination and reaction capability. 12 "methadone only" participants, i.e. methadone probands without any additional consumption of psychotropic substances showed-partly considerably-better performance than the methadone group as a whole and also achieved normal results in relation to the test norm. Nevertheless, once again, results tended to be of lower level in comparison to the control group. "Methadone only" substitution patients, in particular those volunteers without a current subjective methadone influence-reached practically the same results as the corresponding control subjects, or at least average results based on test norm. However, the study revealed distinctive performance impairment (e.g. in sustained attention, reaction capability) when other psychotropic substances (including alcohol and cannabis!) were taken as well during the subjective methadone phase. The performance deficits were predominantly caused by a slowing down of reactions. Our study illustrates that, under certain conditions, long-term methadone maintenance under strict medical supervision does not have any significant unfavourable impact on the psychophysical performances in driving ability as examined in this study. Thus, these research findings support the previous Zurich experiences, according to which driving ability--and in the end also driving aptitude--of the methadone substitution patients does not depend on the methadone therapy itself, nor on the amount of the daily methadone intake. In making the final medical judgement on driving ability, the presence of a mixed drug use and the personality of the person in question are of far greater importance.     

A driving-simulator test of Wilde's risk homeostasis theory.

Previous experimental tests of risk homeostasis theory (RHT) have failed to manipulate both motivational and nonmotivational variables in an ecologically valid within-subject design. In this study, 24 Ss operated an interactive driving simulator under varying levels of a within-subject motivational factor (monetary accident cost), a within-subject nonmotivational factor (speed limit), and a between-subjects nonmotivational factor (speeding fine). Consistent with RHT, increased speed limit and reduced speeding fine significantly increased driving speed but had no effect on accident frequency. Moreover, increased accident cost caused large and significant reductions in accident frequency but no change in speed choice. Results suggest that in contrast to motivationally based accident countermeasures, regulation of specific risky behaviors such as speed choice may have little influence on accident rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simulation training of psychomotor skills: Teaching the brain-injured to drive.

13 brain-injured individuals (average age 24.2 yrs) completed a set of 7 exercises simulating specific cognitive and behavioral aspects of motor vehicle operation, using an electric-powered vehicle, to test whether training would generalize to a complex functional task (i.e., automobile driving). Training exercises involved visuomotor tracking, divided attention, successive increases in difficulty level, performance feedback, and social reinforcement. Ss were compared with 11 closed-head-injured controls of the same average age, who received experience with the electric vehicle but no training exercises, and with 11 normal high-school students, who had driver's licenses and were trained in some of the exercises (e.g., divided attention). Training consisted of 8 2-hr sessions; at the conclusion of training, experimental and control Ss were evaluated in an on-the-road automobile test. Results indicate that experimental Ss showed improvements on the specific exercises, and training resulted in improved performance on tests of on-the-road driving when compared with closed-head-injured controls, who did not show improvement in their driving performance. Results suggest a significant therapeutic effect of the specific training exercises. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SERF: a program for accessible surface area calculations

An interview survey of 996 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers was undertaken. It was designed to investigate the relationship between HGV drivers' accidents, daytime sleepiness (measured using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale) and other relevant physical characteristics. The drivers were sampled randomly at motorway service areas. The average age was 41.4 y (SD 10.5), they drove an average of 69700 miles annually (SD 36120), and their average score on the Epworth daytime sleepiness scale was 5.65 (SD 3.31). They reported an average accident liability of 0.26 accidents in a 3-y recall period. Drivers who reported snoring regularly whilst sleeping at night or who were obese or who had a noticeably large collar size had higher accident liabilities than those not exhibiting these characteristics. Accident liability increased with increasing scores on the Epworth daytime sleepiness scale. These findings suggest that further investigation of the mechanisms behind the higher accident rates of some categories of HGV drivers would be justified in the interests of road safety.     

The effectiveness of unanticipated persuasive communications.

This study investigated the effect of cognitive dissonance on opinion changing. 2 groups of Ss were presented with an opinion rather forcefully oriented ("persuasive communication"). One group was given an orientation that would not lead Ss to anticipate the "persuasive communication"; the other group was given an orientation that might lead them to reject the opinion expressed in the "communication" but in so doing, would also reject their own opinions. Ss were high school students; the topic dealt with young drivers. One group was told the speaker's point of view (the "tough" policy with young drivers) before hand; the other group was directed to evaluate the speaker's personality. Ss who were forewarned about the topic changed their opinions less than the "naive" Ss. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3GD35A. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Follow-up study of relationships between perceptual style measures and telephone company vehicle accidents.

Conducted a follow-up study of 16 telephone company drivers (J. R. Williams, 1971) to confirm earlier relationships between 2 measures of perceptual style (the conventional Witkins Hidden Figures Test and the author's Three-Dimensional Embedded Figures Test [3D-EFT]) and company vehicle accidents. As was the case in the 1971 study involving the original population of 38 drivers, the 3D-EFT was able to discriminate between the accident and nonaccident groups, but the Hidden Figures Test was not. In addition, a correlation (p) of .77 was obtained between 3D-EFT scores and "total number of accidents held accountable for." It is concluded that these results are encouraging but that additional research on other and larger populations is needed to verify the capability of the 3D-EFT to predict accident involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention and driving performance in Alzheimer's disease

The present study examined the relationship between visual attention measures and driving performance in healthy older adults and individuals with very mild and mild dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). Subjects were administered an on-road driving assessment and three visual attention tasks (visual search, visual monitoring, and useful field of view). The results indicated that error rate and reaction time during visual search were the best predictors of driving performance. Furthermore, visual search performance was predictive of driving performance above and beyond simple dementia severity and several traditional psychometric tests. The results suggest that general cognitive status may be useful for identifying individuals "at risk" for unsafe driving. However, measures of selective attention may serve to better differentiate safe versus unsafe drivers, especially in the DAT population.     

The influence of gender on traffic accidents--the case of the Republic of Slovenia

Modern road traffic (RT) requires great efforts from all drivers and the highest use of all their physical and mental capacities. In addition, drivers must possess a certain character to ensure safe driving. Only a few decades ago, the driving of motor vehicles was a rarity and women behind the steering wheel were even scarcer. With the development of motorisation, their share of RT has been on a constant increase, as has, logically, their share of road traffic accidents (RTA). This research presents the increasingly important role of women in RT and attempts to show the special attributes of female drivers, namely that above all, they cause fewer accidents, and notably, those they cause are less likely to be fatal.