Représentations et pratiques du réseau urbain chez des conducteurs professionnels

Abstract

Road users have to overcome many problems when moving around an unfamiliar environment. In this paper we examine factors that are intrinsic to drivers such as their knowledge of the environment and their related spatial representations. We wish to demonstrate, with the help of experimental studies, how three groups of professional drivers represent their work environment and to describe the strategies used when moving about in it. We also wish to propose a fast and efficient training program to facilitate the insertion of professional drivers into a new urban environment. The analysis of the cognitive processes involved suggested strong similarities in reference points and sequential strategies between the three groups despite varying professional objectives. Each group established a different network. The most efficient drivers had received a theoretical and practical training related to the work network. Those that had not received specific training were equally efficient if they had the possibility of learning about the environment in several ways. We conclude that the network is acquired in two steps : 1) the perception of spatial information (roads, reference points, etc.) and 2) the integration of this acquired information within the network. These two steps must be repeated regularly. Moving slowly while acquiring this information seems to be a determining factor in the elaboration of an efficient mental representation of the environment.