title: Enhancing hazard avoidance in teen-novice riders.
abstract: Research suggests that novice drivers' safety performance is inferior to that of experienced drivers in different ways. One of the most critical skills related to accident avoidance by a novice driver is the detection, recognition and reaction to traffic hazards; it is called hazard perception and is defined as the ability to identify potentially dangerous traffic situations. The focus of this research is to assess how far a motorcycle simulator could improve hazard avoidance skills in teenagers. Four hundred and ten participants (207 in the experimental group and 203 in the control group) took part in this research. Results demonstrated that the mean proportion of avoided hazards increases as a function of the number of tracks performed in the virtual training. Participants of the experimental group after the training had a better proportion of avoided hazards than participants of the control group with a passive training based on a road safety lesson. Results provide good evidence that training with the simulator increases the number of avoided accidents in the virtual environment. It would be reasonable to explain this improvement by a higher level of hazard perception skills.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. giulio.vidotto@unipd.it
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vidotto
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bastianelli
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spoto
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sergeys
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology*; D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000193:education*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009049:Motorcycles; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012449:Safety; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014796:Visual Perception