Perception and Driving

Running head: PERCEPTION AND DRIVING 1

In the article, Distracted Driving, the focus is on the ability of a driver to adapt to perceived distractions over a period of time. According to the article, accurate perceptions of driving ability are believed to positively influence driving behavior because they help people take on an appropriate and acceptable amount of risk (Deery, 1999). It is believed that people generally overestimate their driving ability while believing they're more skilled than other motorist on the road. There have been a limited amount of studies that evaluated the perceptions of distracted drivers. Negative effects of distracted driving has been well documented and established, but drivers that are overconfident in their driving ability may continue to engage in distracted driving because they may not be aware of how distractions affect their driving performance. Subjective estimates provided by Horrey, Lesch, and Garabet (2008) showed that distracted driving performance was unrelated to actual driving performance. Their findings showed that people may not accurately perceive their ability to operate a motor vehicle while distracted.

The study conducted in this article was based on a small group of 9 people between the ages of 20-24. The study was designed to measure the accuracy of distracted driving abilities in the course of 4 sessions in a 2 week time span. The drivers in this study drove a vehicle that was sensors to monitor their speed control and lane management ability throughout their recorded sessions. The distraction method used was math equations that were heard from speakers positioned behind the driver seat headrest. The point of the math problems was to introduce additional cognitive load that would be similar to conventional distractions while driving your personal vehicle. Distraction effects were seen during the study in math task performance, as well as lane keeping, and speed management....