Watling Christopher N, Larue Grégoire S
School of Psychology and Wellbeing, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), Ipswich, Australia.
School of Psychology and Counselling, Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2025;26(5):497-505. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2024.2437814. Epub 2024 Dec 13.
Distracted driving is a major contributor to crashes involving younger drivers. A considerable amount of evidence emphasizes the link between driver distraction, poorer driving performance and increased crash risk. However, limited research has examined the effects of mobile phone use on hazard perception performance, especially younger drivers. The focus of the current study was to determine the hazard perception decrements associated with performing a low-order secondary task with a mobile phone and to determine what psychological factors were associated with hazard perception performance decrements in younger drivers (aged 20-25 years).
In total, 74 participants (men: 40, women: 34) who had an open driver license and were, on average, aged 22.89 ( = 1.83) completed two hazard perception sessions (control and dual task). The dual task condition entailed participants completing the hazard perception task while concurrently performing a low-order visual distraction task.
Clear decrements in hazard perception (longer reaction times and more missed hazards) were observed when performing the low-order secondary task when compared to completing the hazard perception test without the distraction task. In addition, higher levels of self-reported problematic mobile phone use and perceiving multitasking while driving as easy were associated with larger hazard perception performance decrements.
The findings suggest drivers misperceive their ability to divide their attention when driving and their actual hazard perception performance which likely facilitates distracted driving. The current study adds to the extant empirical studies emphasizing the link between driver distraction and poorer driving performance, in this case, decrements in hazard perception performance.
分心驾驶是涉及年轻驾驶员的撞车事故的主要原因。大量证据强调了驾驶员分心、较差的驾驶表现与增加的撞车风险之间的联系。然而，关于手机使用对危险感知能力的影响，尤其是对年轻驾驶员的影响的研究有限。本研究的重点是确定与使用手机执行低阶次要任务相关的危险感知能力下降情况，并确定哪些心理因素与年轻驾驶员（20至25岁）的危险感知能力下降有关。
共有74名持有开放驾照、平均年龄为22.89岁（标准差=1.83）的参与者（男性40名，女性34名）完成了两个危险感知测试环节（对照和双重任务）。双重任务条件要求参与者在同时执行低阶视觉分心任务的情况下完成危险感知任务。
与在无分心任务的情况下完成危险感知测试相比，在执行低阶次要任务时观察到危险感知能力明显下降（反应时间更长，错过的危险更多）。此外，自我报告的手机使用问题水平较高以及认为驾驶时同时处理多项任务很容易，与更大的危险感知能力下降有关。
研究结果表明，驾驶员错误地判断了他们在驾驶时分散注意力的能力以及他们实际的危险感知能力，这可能会助长分心驾驶。本研究补充了现有的实证研究，强调了驾驶员分心与较差的驾驶表现之间的联系，在这种情况下，是危险感知能力下降。
