Ampofo-Boateng K, Thomson J A
Department of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.
Br J Psychol. 1991 Nov;82 ( Pt 4):487-505. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1991.tb02415.x.
This study investigates the ability of children between 5 and 11 years to select safe places to cross the street. The children were presented with situations which were either extremely safe or manifestly dangerous and were asked to correctly identify these. In other cases, they were asked to choose for themselves routes across the road which they thought would be safe. The tasks were presented in various ways: by means of a table-top simulation on which traffic scenarios had been contrived; by means of photographs of road situations; and by taking the children to real-world sites in the streets near their schools. All the experiments showed a similar pattern of results. Five- and 7-year-olds exhibited very poor skill in identifying dangerous road-crossing sites. Their judgments relied exclusively on the visible presence of cars in the vicinity. Other factors such as blind summits, obscuring obstacles or complex junctions were never recognized as threatening situations. They also showed an unwillingness to make detours when planning their own routes, even where the direct route was manifestly dangerous. Nine-year-olds showed a higher level of ability and 11-year-olds showed quite good skill in these judgements. No sex differences were apparent. These results suggest that young children up to about 9 years must often be at considerable risk as they do not have the ability to recognize a location as dangerous, even if they know the mechanics of the Green Cross Code. The implications for road safety education are discussed.
本研究调查了5至11岁儿童选择安全过马路地点的能力。向儿童展示了极其安全或明显危险的情境，并要求他们正确识别这些情境。在其他情况下，要求他们自己选择认为安全的过马路路线。这些任务通过多种方式呈现：通过一个设计了交通场景的桌面模拟；通过道路情况的照片；以及带儿童到他们学校附近街道的真实地点。所有实验都呈现出相似的结果模式。5岁和7岁的儿童在识别危险过马路地点方面表现出非常差的技能。他们的判断完全依赖于附近是否有可见的汽车。其他因素，如视线盲区、遮挡障碍物或复杂路口，从未被视为危险情况。在规划自己的路线时，他们也表现出不愿意绕道，即使直线路线明显危险。9岁的儿童表现出较高的能力水平，11岁的儿童在这些判断方面表现出相当好的技能。没有明显的性别差异。这些结果表明，9岁左右及以下的幼儿往往面临相当大的风险，因为他们没有能力识别某个地点是危险的，即使他们知道绿色十字守则的规则。文中讨论了这些结果对道路安全教育的启示。
