Habit and Perception in Road Traffic Accidents
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, October 8, 2024


Habit and Perception in Road Traffic Accidents



Habit interference is one of the most important issues in accidents and there are many ways of considering this.

Psychology Research and Mental Habits
Psychology research has shown that mental habits are formed when people repeat certain actions frequently. Mental habits do have their positive side in that they help save people both time and effort. Almost every driver will relate to the experience of having reached a destination without being able to “remember” exactly how they got there.

Human conscious thinking cannot cope with more than a few pieces of information in a limited span of time and this enforces these “economical tendencies”. Intuitively, people try to use the limited resource of conscious thinking as economically as possible and this directly causes a lot of error tendencies.

Two Main Branches of Habit Theory

• Schema Theory - the basis of which is that people develop “scripts” in their minds, or automatic ways of thinking

• Habits - Habits are like a river, the more it flows, the deeper it digs a channel and the harder it is to change. Habit can be useful but occasionally, it catches people out.

Drivers need to process huge amounts of information all at the same time and they often do this without even thinking about it. Many mistakes, caused by habits, go by without causing too much hassle: someone might for instance forget to make a detour to go to a shop when travelling down a familiar route.

How Mental Habit Can Cause Driving Accidents
Turning down a certain road because the route is familiar is the type of mistake that is easily remedied. Other times, however, such errors can be quite serious. A bus driver took the top of his double-decker bus clean off through driving under a low bridge. Why? Because usually on that (familiar) route he drove a single-decker. This absent-mindedness, through habit, caused a very serious accident.

Even a habit of checking your phone right away when it beeps can be risky, too. The habit of reaching for the phone and checking it while driving causes accidents too. In fact, in a survey conducted by Ratedradardetector, they found out that the use of cellphone while driving is the number one reason for distracted driving, which then can cause driving accidents.

Novices and Experts and Accidents
It can be understood why novices make mistakes in complex situations but it's not so easy to understand why experts make mistakes as in the above example; the reason having been given, does help us realise the cause of the error.

In 1961, psychologists Fits and Jones noticed the role of habit interference in aircraft crashes. In 1983, another psychologist, Hendrick found that experienced airline pilots were two to four times as likely to make errors in reversed gear stick conditions as were inexperienced pilots.

In the USA, racing drivers on the road have higher crash rates than ordinary drivers. Employees of the New York Police Department, despite being highly trained drivers, have a crash rate that is nine times higher than the ordinary driver. It would appear then, that high performance is not higher safety. Experts are just as vulnerable to these attentional slips.

Perception in Road Traffic Accidents
Scientific studies of driving are uncovering more and more about human limitations. Humans have a wide range of vision but only a small part is accurate. Dr. Alison Smiley, a Traffic Safety Ergonomist, analysed films of eye movement in drivers and she found that people’s eyes tend to fixate for a brief period of time, then fixate on something else.

In 1988, Luoma studied driver's eye fixations and perceptions, using fixed objects such as road signs as targets. He found that when traffic signs were fixated they were always perceived. However, although 54% of eyes focused on the pedestrian crossing, they did not perceive. Only 8% of the study group both focused on and perceived the pedestrian crossing.

Also, houses which were 50 metres from the road were neither focused on nor perceived.

Hazard Perception
So the fact that people actually “look” at an object does not, therefore, always mean that they perceive it. They have not registered it in their mind.

Each fixation, when driving, takes about a third of a second and it is possible that where a person looks at crucial moments in time while driving could mean the difference between an accident or not.










Today's News

May 20, 2020

Researchers find ancient rooms under Jerusalem's Western Wall

$1.6 million still life by Giorgio Morandi marks new record price for any work offered in an online sale at Sotheby's

U.S. art galleries project 73% loss in Q2 revenue due to COVID-19 developments

Auschwitz renovation uncovers objects hidden by prisoners

Beate Wheeler: 1970s transition from mark making to color painting featured at David Richard Gallery

Powerful portrait of Ursula von Rydingsvard to have NYC premiere in Film Forum's Virtual Cinema

Iconic Warhols & fresh-to-market works by blue chip artists achieve over 1 million at Freeman's

Swann ushers in a new era of live online sales with Printed & Manuscript African Americana

Auction dedicated to solo collection attracts record audiences

Walker Art Center commissions new artwork in the form of an urban farm

Manifesta 13 Marseille due to start at the end of August 2020

Robert Berry Gallery announces Impressionable, new show from Chicago artist John Ruby

David Gill Gallery presents a new body of work by Mattia Bonetti

National Museum of Women in the Arts wins Webby Award

Independent Curators International announces board expansion at critical time in the art world

Daylight Books publishes 'Silent Stages' by Ken Dreyfack

Pollock-Krasner Foundation announces nearly $3 million in grants & awards

Magazzino to adopt new social distancing technology upon reopening

Street art confronts the pandemic

Vienna Philharmonic says no increased virus risk for orchestras

Museum of Graffiti re-opens with new offerings

In virus-hit eastern France, masked dancers get back to work

Yu Lihua, 90, dies; writer spoke to 'rootless' Chinese émigrés

Photographic artist Hans Withoos exhibits in Holland

Vincent Van Gogh Becomes a Drive-In Star

Six Things You Need Know About Hiring a Vehicle Accident Attorney

Get your hands-on Division 2 boost right now

Habit and Perception in Road Traffic Accidents

8 Wedding Video Invitation Ideas For Couples

How To Make Your Garden Look Nice With Budget

3 Downloaders You Can Use To Download Music From Youtube

A socially distant Las Vegas? What are the odds?




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful