What’s the brain got to do with driving?

In the Kelby Ergo Design February newsletter I wrote a feature called “What’s the Brain Got To Do With It?” In it I gave an example of an incident that occurred at a transportation company. A driver with over 5 years’ experience was involved in an accident where he was struck by another vehicle coming through an intersection when he was making a left turn. The operations manager completed the incident investigation and came to the conclusion that his driver was a fault and the driver “should’ve seen it coming”. I went on to explain that his conclusion is very presumptuous because of how our brains work; in a nutshell they go on autopilot all too easily. I came across a recent study that provides a nice follow up to my article and specifically to the driving example I used. The study, titled “Driving with the wandering mind”, looked at the effects of mind wandering. The authors of the study defined mind wandering as “the cognitive state in which the thought processes that occupy the mind are focused on topics that are unrelated to the task at hand.” It is well known that talking on a cell phone, text messaging and other in car tasks such as changing the radio or eating can have a detrimental effect on driving behavior. However, lesser known and understood is the effects of the mind simply wandering away from the task at hand, i.e. driving. Mind wandering in general is thought to interfere with goal or task direct thought, is associated with decreased situational awareness with the incidence or frequency of it increasing when a goal or task is familiar, dull or repetitive. The study attempted to quantify the extent to which mind wandering would lead to impairments in critical aspects of driving performance, specifically responsiveness to sudden event, headway distance and mean velocity (speed). I won’t go into all of the details of the study except to say two experiments were conducted using a driving simulator with each “drive” lasting 30 minutes. One of the more interesting results of the two experiments showed the percentage of time spent on task was only 58-61%. That means that approximately 40% of the time spent driving is not spent focused on the road! With this in mind the rest of the results are, in my opinion, not surprising and expected. The results showed that compared to on-task time, the mind-wandering showed longer response times to sudden events, drove at a higher velocity, and maintained a shorter headway distance. The authors concluded “these findings indicate that mind-wandering affects a broad range of driving responses and may therefore lead to higher crash risk.” Does it seem reasonable to you that our mind wanders ~40% of the time? We’ve all hand the experience at one time or another of pulling into our driveway and not remembering much, if anything, of the actual drive home. So what does this mean to you and I when we drive? It means that even if we are not on the phone, not playing with the radio, not eating, etc. our mind will at times wander. It is at these mind wandering times when we are impaired the most, i.e. our driving responses are compromised and the risk of an accident or crash is higher. What does this mean if you happen to be an employer who employs drivers? If you’re like most employers you have a policy that stipulates no calling or texting while driving. However, this shows that mind wandering impairs driving so is it reasonable to assume that a certain amount of accidents and crashes are unavoidable? That question isn’t answered by this study or previous studies on mind wandering. It is my opinion that drivers can be trained on tactics and strategies to keep their minds on task as to limit wandering. Also, since mind wandering occurs more frequently when we are on familiar routes, consideration should be given to modifying routes on a regular basis to keep things “fresh”. Please contact us for more information on training and strategies for keeping your employees’ minds sharp, focused and on task.