Arts & Social Sciences
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  Young Drivers & Training

The 'Frontal Lobe' Project: Evaluating the effectiveness of higher level driving skills training
2006-2008
Funded by ACC, AA Driver Education Foundation, & Road Safety Trust

The brain’s frontal lobes are involved in planning and organising behaviour and inhibiting inappropriate social and emotional responses and are not fully developed until the age of 25 years.

We wanted to see if we could compensate for this and improve young drivers' safety by teaching them higher level driving skills – eye scanning,  hazard anticipation, risk management, emotion regulation and impulse control.

Participants either had traditional driver training (vehicle handling), or training in higher level driving skills using computer simulated tasks, focus groups, driving self evaluations and peer teaching.

Higher level driving skills training

• improved on road visual search behaviour
• increased the accuracy of hazard detection in road commentary tasks
• improved attitudes towards speeding, close following and overtaking
• decreased driving confidence

Future research will examine the long-term effects of higher level driving skills training.