Individual differences in perceptual information processing and their relation to automobile accident involvement.

Abstract

A perceptual-information-processing model of driver decision making was used as a framework to select and devise predictions of accident involvement. The predictors of field dependence, selective attention, and complex reaction time significantly related to accident involvement for 75 commercial drivers. Initial, simple, and choice reaction time did not relate to accident rate. The visual measures of field dependence and the auditory measure of selective attention were related in the predicted direction with the field-independent drivers making fewer errors in selective perception. This finding lends support to the importance of the further development of an information-processing model of the driving task. Since evidence is accumulating that stable individual differences in information processing relate to accident involvement, consideration should be given to devising techniques to develop these skills. /Author/