Webinar - Measuring the effects of distraction on drivers: evidence of impairment and the challenges of communicating it

The Institute will be presenting the next one hour webinar for the membership on Wednesday 17^th October 2021 in which applied cognitive psychologist, Dr Gemma Briggs – a senior lecturer at the Open University – will discuss research findings on driver distraction.

Gemma has researched this area for many years, and her collaborative research has provided new explanations for both how and why phone use leads to deteriorated driving.

Following on from her first talk, which discussed research on mobile phone use by drivers, this session will look further into the measurable effects of distraction on driving performance. It will cover some of the research findings on reaction times, hazard detection rates, stopping distances and lane discipline, with the aim of giving indications of how lab-based research can meaningfully inform assessment of real-world incidents.

The webinar will also delve deeper into research findings on inattention blindness, with particular reference to the eye movements of distracted drivers, as well as the enduring effects of distraction after a phone conversation has ended. The varying and changeable nature of distraction within an individual journey makes it challenging for researchers and practitioners alike to determine at what point a driver has overloaded their attentional capabilities. This issue will be discussed and provide some applied resources which have been developed, which may be of use to those who need to convince a court of the very real consequences of inattention behind the wheel.