Want to Avoid Crashes? Pay Attention to Your Inattentional Blindness
Want to know how dangerous driving really is? If you ride a motorcycle -- or drive in a car -- listen up.
A new study has found that "inattentional blindness" affects all of us when we drive. Say what?
According to newswise.com, the disproportionately high number of motorcycle-related traffic accidents may be linked to the way the human brain processes - or fails to process - information. So why should that affect you if you never ride a motocycle?
It applies to cars, too.
A person's failure to notice an unexpected object located in plain sight, might explain the prevalence of looked-but-failed-to-see (LBFTS) crashes, the most common type of collision involving motorcycles. It also applies to pedestrians, too, crossing at a crosswalk where there's a turning car (two people in my small town have been killed that way in the last several months), newswise.com reports.
Despite clear conditions and the lack of other hazards or distractions, drivers will look in the direction of the oncoming motorcycle - and in some cases appear to look directly at the motorcycle - but still pull out into its path. And here's where cars come in.
"When we are driving, there is a huge amount of sensory information that our brain must deal with," notes Kristen Hammer, a professor of psychology and associate dean of science at Australian National University. "We can't attend to everything, because this would consume enormous cognitive resources and take too much time. So our brain has to decide what information is most important."
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A new study has found that "inattentional blindness" affects all of us when we drive. Say what?
According to newswise.com, the disproportionately high number of motorcycle-related traffic accidents may be linked to the way the human brain processes - or fails to process - information. So why should that affect you if you never ride a motocycle?
It applies to cars, too.
A person's failure to notice an unexpected object located in plain sight, might explain the prevalence of looked-but-failed-to-see (LBFTS) crashes, the most common type of collision involving motorcycles. It also applies to pedestrians, too, crossing at a crosswalk where there's a turning car (two people in my small town have been killed that way in the last several months), newswise.com reports.
Despite clear conditions and the lack of other hazards or distractions, drivers will look in the direction of the oncoming motorcycle - and in some cases appear to look directly at the motorcycle - but still pull out into its path. And here's where cars come in.
"When we are driving, there is a huge amount of sensory information that our brain must deal with," notes Kristen Hammer, a professor of psychology and associate dean of science at Australian National University. "We can't attend to everything, because this would consume enormous cognitive resources and take too much time. So our brain has to decide what information is most important."
Although 48% of all participants in the study reported that they didn't notice any additional object, they were significantly less likely to detect the motorcycle (65%) than to notice the taxi (31%).
Further evidence that inattentional blindness could be present was revealed in the results of a survey administered before the experiment, the purpose of which was to gauge participants' overall perception of each vehicle in the photos. Although they believed a motorcycle was just as likely to be on the road as a taxi, they thought they would be far less likely to notice the motorcycle.
So, back to my original point. What this have to do with drivers of cars? Flash back to all that information bombarding us as we drive. I'd worry about myself in a car, too.
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