Racheva Rositsa, Totkova Zornitsa
Department of Psychology, Institute for Population and Human Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev St., Bl. 6, Fl. 5, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2020 Jan 19;10(1):37. doi: 10.3390/bs10010037.
The quality of drivers' performance is one of the crucial components related to road safety. One of the key cognitive characteristics related to the ability to drive safely are executive functions. The main goal of the presented research is to propose a new method (Trace-route task) for assessment of executive functions in drivers. The present article discusses the results of two consecutive studies. Study one aims to determine the validity and reliability of the method used and includes 134 participants, equally divided in two groups-people with disturbances in executive functions and people from the general population. Study two aims to assess the ability of the method to distinguish drivers with risky behavior. It includes 1440 participants divided in two groups-people with and without actual risky driving behavior. The results from the studies show that people with different neurological or psychiatric diseases and drivers with different road violations demonstrate worse planning ability, working memory, decision making, and cognitive flexibility. This data show that the trace-route task method is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing executive functions and has the ability to distinguish people with risky driving behavior from those who drive safely. This study reveals that the proposed method can be used for implementation in the area of traffic psychology.
驾驶员的表现质量是与道路安全相关的关键因素之一。与安全驾驶能力相关的关键认知特征之一是执行功能。本研究的主要目标是提出一种评估驾驶员执行功能的新方法（追踪路线任务）。本文讨论了两项连续研究的结果。研究一旨在确定所使用方法的有效性和可靠性，包括134名参与者，平均分为两组——执行功能有障碍的人和普通人群。研究二旨在评估该方法区分有危险行为驾驶员的能力。它包括1440名参与者，分为两组——有实际危险驾驶行为的人和没有实际危险驾驶行为的人。研究结果表明，患有不同神经或精神疾病的人和有不同道路违规行为的驾驶员表现出较差的规划能力、工作记忆、决策能力和认知灵活性。这些数据表明，追踪路线任务方法是评估执行功能的有效且可靠的工具，并且有能力区分有危险驾驶行为的人和安全驾驶的人。这项研究表明，所提出的方法可用于交通心理学领域的实践。
