Higher skill training improves young driver safety

Media Release: June 29 2007

Research project confirms higher-level driving skills training improves young driver safety

The ground-breaking young driver study conducted by the University of Waikato and AA Driver Education Foundation has proved that training in higher cognitive skills - like visual search, hazard detection and risk management - can improve young drivers' performance behind the wheel.

Results of the young driver study were announced today at the Ministry of Transport, where delegates heard that even Dr Robert Isler - the senior lecturer in psychology who conducted the experiment - was surprised at just how much the youngsters he studied had improved.

"The results show that training in higher-level driving skills works!” says Dr Isler. “No-one has done anything like this before, that’s why it’s such a huge breakthrough for driver training with enormous implications on the way to best train young drivers.”

Teenage drivers are 19 times more likely to crash in their first six months driving solo, than in the months in which they were supervised. As a result, drivers aged under 25 account for 30% of road deaths and 30% of road injuries (2004 figures).

Students who only received training in higher-level skills developed a safer attitude to driving than those who received traditional car control, practical driver training,” he says.

"They were less likely to endorse following too closely, showed safer attitudes to overtaking, and were better able to correctly identify hazards.”

"Better still, those trained in higher cognitive skills showed as great an improvement in directional control of the car as those who had received practical training – which came as a surprise - you'd imagine directional control would benefit most from practical driver training."

“What we found is that the beneficial effects on driving of such cognitive skills training are so great that we know we can improve the safety of young drivers without even putting them behind the wheel – without exposing them to risk.”

The study, which was funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation, Tranzqual and the Road Safety Trust, featured 72 young drivers - half were the control group, and half attended a Taupo training camp last year.

Of those, one third received cognitive skills training and practical training; one third reversed the two; and one group received cognitive skills training only.

The double-blind study brought independent evaluators on site to examine the participants before, during and after each batch of training. Over a six month period all 72 participants then provided a follow-up fortnightly diary of driver behaviour, traffic infringements and the like.

In addition, eight students had black box data recorders fitted to their cars, recording speeds in excess of the open road limit; length, duration and route of each journey; and instances of excessive acceleration or braking.

Isler points out that the follow-up data is not as complete as he'd like. Self-assessment is potentially flawed, and the number of students driving with data recorders was not enough to provide statistically robust data.

“Some effects were the same as those obtained by practical training, but you can also decrease confidence with this type of cognitive skills training, which doesn’t happen in practical skills courses.”

Isler intends to make the most of his findings for future work, as this pilot study will provide the basis for a more extensive, large-scale study which Isler hopes to conduct next year. “150 young drivers would be involved with 75 on site. We’d have data recorders in every car, for up to two months in advance, to better evaluate before-and-after improvements and study how long those improvements last.”

“It doesn't take long for a young driver to learn the practical skills of driving - which may lead to over-confidence. It normally takes much longer to learn related cognitive skills, like hazard perception, risk management and self control.”

“This is because the brain's frontal lobe doesn't develop fully until 25, and young drivers are therefore more at risk from making inappropriate decisions when driving.”

Dr Isler hopes the frontal lobe project will drive development of evidence-based training interventions, based on best international practice, to help young drivers learn to keep themselves safe.

ENDS

© Scoop Media