TRAINING NOVICE DRIVERS' VISUAL SEARCH

An ongoing programme of research is exploring the development of newly qualified drivers' skills during the first year of driving since passing the practical driving test (eg Underwood, Crundall and Chapman, 1997). Work already completed has studied a cohort of these drivers and compared them with older more experienced drivers known to be at lower risk of accident involvement in an attempt to identify components of skill which differ between these two groups (see also Underwood and Chapman, this volume). The authors have consistently found that visual search strategies, especially in hazardous situations differentiate between these groups. They have thus designed a brief training intervention with the aim of influencing novice drivers' visual search. This paper briefly overviews some of the theoretical justification for this intervention, describes the procedure used and presents some preliminary results comparing visual search in novice drivers who have taken part in the intervention with a control group. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 492593.