One of the dominant concepts in the theory of driver behaviour has been that driving is an automatic process. This paper presents some research on whether hazard perception may become an automatic process after years of driving practice. To explore this possibility, both experienced and novice drivers were considered; a `novice' is here defined as a driver with less than three years' driving experience, who has passed a driving test, and an `experienced' driver as having over ten years' driving experience. 18 drivers and 18 novices, all of whom held a British driving licence, took part in the study. Two perception tests were used, each of which consisted of seven scenes with an identifiable hazard present and two scenes with no hazard present. The scenes were from a driver's perspective, and the drivers were instructed to respond as fast as possible by pressing a button when they detected a hazard. They performed a hazard test both alone and while performing a simple secondary task. The results were analysed using a related analysis of variance with interference (control versus task) and driving experience as independent variables and response latency and number of misses as dependent variables. The secondary task interfered with hazard perception for both novice and experienced drivers.
Abstract