Driving Blind: Change Blindness and Traffic Accidents
The psychological phenomenon is a potential cause of driving accidents.
“One of the key perceptual errors that contribute to accidents on the road is ‘looking but failing to see’.”
(Elsevier Ltd, 2008)
Psychological studies question the reliability of blaming poor attention to the occurrence of driving incidents. Instead, the ‘change blindness’ phenomenon has become considered as a likely cause.
So what is ‘change blindness’?
Experiments have been carried out that show people generally possess a poor memory for the visual world. Resultantly, we often fail to notice changes between successive images. This failure to notice changes has become labeled as ‘change blindness’.
Daniel Simons attributes this to the limitations associated with one’s attention. Incoming information is constantly prioritized by the brain. In this process, decisions are made as to what will be consciously acknowledged and what is allowed to pass us by. We are simply not equipped to process all of our surroundings simultaneously.
Applying such research to the driving domain has generated information that may contribute to accident liability cases. Results from a 2008 experiment found that drivers can suffer from an inability to spot sudden changes in the center of their visual field, such as an event involving the brake lights being applied for example. Consequently, this information could be of use when investigating road accidents like rear-end shunts.
Even knowing about this phenomenon can help drivers be more aware of their surroundings, so it is an important lesson to pass on.
Why not take 4 minutes to watch this video to see some examples of change blindness in real-life settings, you may be really surprised with what you see: www.pbs.org/nova/insidenova
(Credit: NOVA PBS 03/03/11)
As the winter season approaches, don’t forget to ensure that your staff is well informed about driving safety- especially those who will soon be commuting in the dark!
Read the full “Change Blindness in Driving Scenes” report by Adam Galpin, Geoffrey Underwood & David Crundall here: www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/gju/underwood_papers/transres.2009.pdf
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