Investigating Differences In Driver Accident Involvement

Project summary:

This study seeks to determine: 1) whether competence in perceptual-motor skills, as developed through sport participation, transfers to driving ability; and 2) if such transfer is mediated by gender. Four groups of age-matched individuals will be divided by sex and perceptual-motor capabilities (i.e., high or low competence) to participate in two driving situations during a high-fidelity driving simulation: controlling the vehicle to avoid a likely accident (i.e., psychomotor combination) and providing avoidance decision without actual vehicle control (i.e., perceptual/strategic combination). Anticipated findings include: 1) the high competence group (athletes) will outperform the low competence group (non-athletes); 2) within each competency group, there will be no differences between males and females; and 3) the high competence group of females will outperform the low competence group of males. Such findings would confirm competency (as partially gained through sport participation) as the primary source of driver ability rather than intrinsic differences due to gender alone.