Understanding Driving: Applying Cognitive Psychology to a Complex Everyday Task

by Groeger,John A.

• ISBN13: 9780415187527
• ISBN10: 0415187524
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book closely examines what is involved in driving. It identifies the aspects of perception, attention, learning, memory, decision making and action control which are drawn upon in order to enable us to drive, and the brain systems involved. It attempts to show how studying tasks such as driving can help to understand how these fundamental aspects of cognition combine to facilitate performance in complex everyday tasks. In doing so it shows how a very broad range of laboratory based findings can be applied, and that through our attempts to apply this knowledge to complex everyday tasks, we gain, in return, a greater understanding of fundamental aspects of human cognition.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
Foreword: Drivers and the driving they do	xiii
Assessing distance, speed, and time	1	(24)
Light and the eyes	1	(2)
Depth and distance	3	(5)
Motion and speed	8	(9)
Time-to-collision	17	(6)
Summary	23	(2)
Motor responses and behavioural repertoires	25	(16)
Object-oriented actions	26	(7)
Endogenous and exogenous singals: Reactions to expected and unexpected events	33	(5)
Summary	38	(3)
Combining perceptual-motor skills	41	(14)
Braking to avoid a collision	42	(3)
Following another vehicle	45	(3)
Steering control and gaze	48	(4)
Summary	52	(3)
Attention, automaticity, and distraction	55	(20)
Aspects of attention	56	(1)
Attention as schema scheduling	57	(6)
Routine actions and automaticity	63	(6)
Driving and distraction	69	(5)
Summary	74	(1)
Learning, instruction, and training	75	(24)
Learning curves and practising	76	(4)
Varieties of practice	80	(8)
Stages in the acquisition of skill	88	(3)
Transfer of acquired skill	91	(4)
Instruction and feedback	95	(1)
Summary	96	(3)
Memory for driving	99	(22)
Memories and remembering	99	(8)
Working memory and driving activities	107	(5)
Memory for situational and spatial information	112	(2)
Memory for when and whether accidents happened	114	(5)
Summary	119	(2)
When driving is dangerous: Arousal, assessment, and hazard perception	121	(22)
Physiological consequences of confronting a dangerous situation	122	(3)
Memory for threatening situations	125	(7)
Assessing driving scenes	132	(4)
Hazard perception	136	(5)
Summary	141	(2)
Appraisal, efficacy, and action	143	(22)
Beliefs about attitudes	143	(2)
Assessments of ourselves and others	145	(7)
Developing self-efficacy	152	(4)
Self-efficacy and actual ability	156	(3)
Appraisal, efficacy, and emotion-driven actions	159	(4)
Summary	163	(2)
Age, neurological damage, disease, and driving	165	(24)
Age and driving	166	(5)
Traumatic brain injury and driving	171	(6)
Dementia and driving	177	(9)
Continuing driving with neurological damage and disease	186	(3)
Towards a cognitive account of driver behaviour	189	(16)
A framework for understanding the driving task	190	(9)
Evaluating the four-facet framework	199	(3)
The four-facet framework and beyond	202	(3)
References	205	(34)
Author index	239	(12)
Subject index	251