Riding a moped is becoming more and more dangerous in the Netherlands. Development of educational programs, as one of the possible countermeasures, needs an empirical foundation for several reasons. The most important reason is that we need a behavioural, psychological model of the moped rider. With an empirical based model, educational goals may be determined, we should be able to predict the outcome of learning processes and we should be able to evaluate a specific educational effort in terms of effectiveness. The study presented is one of a series meant to enable the formulation of such a model. The main question in the experiment was whether moped riders with different riding experience vary in required mental effort to control a moped. Participating subjects had either no experience at all, had three months or at least twelve months of experience. The task consisted of riding a moped and performing on a reaction time task simultaneously. In this secondary task, subjects had to react selectively to an auditory stimulus which appeared randomly in one of the ears with intervals between 2 and 5 seconds. Both speed and complexity of manoeuvre were independent variables. Dependent variables were variance in speed and handlebar angle, reaction time (RT), misses and false alarms. The results can be characterized by the Power Law of Practice, especially the RT and errors in the reaction time task. The effects of mental overload due to controlling a moped will be discussed in relation to other determinants of behaviour, such as knowledge and motivation, as a preliminary attempt to formulate a behavioural model of the moped driver. (A)
Abstract