The Victorian Driving Risk in Young People Study (Vic DRYP)
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1
Monash University, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Australia
Background
Young drivers, aged 18 to 25, pose a significant risk on the roads, with motor-vehicle accidents a significant contribution to death in this age group. Young drivers’ risk may be attributed to a range of factors including inexperience, and developmental factors such as immaturity of the prefrontal cortex leading to risky decision making. This study investigated whether screening of cognitive risk factors using an online tool would be sufficiently sensitive to identify driving risk in young people. We predicted that compared to lower risk drivers, higher risk drivers would demonstrate riskier performance on behavioural tasks and report more risky personality characteristics.
Methods
Young Victorian drivers aged 18-25 (n =116) completed an online assessment of cognitive risk, with behavioural tasks including the Iowa Gambling Task and the Balloon Analog Risk Task, as well as self-report questionnaires including the Impulsivity subscale of Eysenck’s IVE Questionnaire, and the Harm Avoidance subscale of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Participants were classified into lower or higher risk driving groups based on questionnaires relating to driving behaviour and driving record.
Results
Compared to lower risk drivers (n = 51), higher risk drivers (n = 65) reported higher levels of impulsivity (p less than .001) and fearlessness (p = .001). No significant differences were found between the driving groups for the IGT (p = .985) or BART (p = .285).
Discussion
Our findings indicate that self-reported risky driving behaviour is associated with self-reported risky characteristics, such as impulsivity and fearlessness. Although the behavioural tasks were not significantly related to self-reported driving behaviour, it may be that these tasks correlate with naturalistic driving behaviour, an avenue for further investigation. Identifying cognitive characteristics in young drivers that can predict risky driving behaviour will aid development of strategies to improve road safety in youth at the highest crash risk. Further findings and implications will be discussed.
Keywords:
driving,
executive functions,
Iowa Gambling Task (IGT),
impulsivity,
Prefrontal Cortex
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Executive Processes
Citation:
Le Bas
G,
Stout
J and
Hughes
MA
(2013). The Victorian Driving Risk in Young People Study (Vic DRYP).
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00078
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Received:
15 Oct 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Ms. Genevieve Le Bas, Monash University, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia, gale9@student.monash.edu