Does advanced driver training improve situational awareness?

Full Abstract

Over 70 years of experiential evidence suggests that a specific form of advanced driver training, one based on an explicit system of car control, improves driver situation awareness (SA). Five experimental hypotheses are developed. They propose that advanced driving should increase the number of information elements in the driver's working memory, increase the interconnection between those elements, increase the amount of 'new' information in memory as well as the prominence of existing information, and that finally, it should stimulate behaviours that help drivers evolve better situations to be aware of. An approach to SA based on Neisser's perceptual cycle theory is anchored to a network based methodology. This is applied within the context of a longitudinal on-road study involving three groups of 25 drivers, all of whom were measured pre- and post-intervention. One experimental group was subject to advanced driver training and two further groups provided control for time and for being accompanied whilst driving. Empirical support is found for all five hypotheses. Advanced driving does improve driver SA but not necessarily in the way that existing situation focused, closed loop models of the concept might predict.

Author information

Author/s: Walker, Guy H (GH); Stanton, Neville A (NA); Kazi, Tara A (TA); Salmon, Paul M (PM); Jenkins, Daniel P (DP);

Affiliation: Ergonomics Research Group, School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB83PH, UK. guy.walker(-atsign-)brunel.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article

Journal: Applied ergonomics (Appl Ergon), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jul; vol 40 (issue 4) : pp 678-87

Dates: Created 2009/04/13; Completed 2009/06/23;

PMID: 18675387, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/23/2009, IMS Date: 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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