8 July 2021

Research pick: Driving hazards - "Individual differences predict drivers hazard perception skills"

Contrary to what one might expect less driving experience is not a risk factor for not being able to spot hazards as quickly as a more experienced driver might. A surprising new study published in the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics, looks at perception skills and how individual differences affect the ability of drivers to predict hazards.

Daniela Barragan and Yi-Ching Lee of the Psychology Department at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, USA, explain how they recruited around 400 drivers to an online study with a hazard-perception video task. The study in contrast to much of the existing literature did not show that driving experience and risk perception are good predictors of hazard perception skills.

It is well known that drivers differ in their ability to detect and respond to dangerous events while driving. This phenomenon has been termed hazard perception and perhaps lies at the root of many road traffic accidents and could be the focus of better driver instruction and ongoing learning for drivers. The hazard perception process involves spotting a dangerous or potentially dangerous event on the road ahead, identifying the nature of the event from visual cues, working out how to respond to the event, and finally making an appropriate response or manoeuvre to avoid a collision or other unwanted outcome.

One might assume that a more experienced driver would be better at this process but the findings from this new research which suggest otherwise ought to serve as a valuable lesson to policymakers, driving instructors, the driving test authorities, and perhaps drivers themselves. The team concludes that their insight could be used to guide training programs that might be tailored to those drivers who are most susceptible to committing hazard perception errors whether they are experienced drivers or not.

With this knowledge to hand, we might give learner drivers exercises on visual perception and traffic laws during the licensing process and perhaps ongoing assessment, training, and testing might also be useful in some situations for ensuring that all road users improve their hazard perception skills and so roadway safety.

Barragan, D. and Lee, Y-C. (2021) ‘Individual differences predict drivers hazard perception skills’, Int. J. Human Factors and Ergonomics, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp.195–213.

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