RELATION BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AND DRIVER PERFORMANCE

A DRIVER TRAINING SCHOOL WAS ESTABLISHED AT NORTH CAROLINA STATE COLLEGE FOR TRAINING TRACTOR-TRAILER TRUCK DRIVERS. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH WAS ONE OF THE AIMS OF THE TRAINING PROGRAM. THE RESEARCH PROGRAM USED INTERVIEWS, PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING, PSYCHOLOGICAL PAPER-AND-PENCIL TESTS, AND ACCIDENT FOLLOW-UP TO SHOW THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AND TRACTOR-TRAILER DRIVER PERFORMANCE. THE STUDY RESULTED IN THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSION: (1) ACCIDENT RATES, EVEN THOUGH DETERMINED ON THE BASIS OF MILES DRIVEN PER ACCIDENT, CONTINUED TO FOLLOW THE POISSON DISTRIBUTION IMPLYING THAT CORRECTIONAL INDICES NEED TO BE INTERPRETED WITH CAUTION, (2) SAFE DRIVERS TEND TO BE MORE TENSE, LESS SELF-SUFFICIENT, LESS DOMINENT, AS SHOWN BY THE BERNREUTER PERSONALITY INVENTORY, AND THESE SAME TRENDS ARE DEMONSTRATED ON THE MMPI TEST (HYPOCHONDRIASIS AND HYSTERIA SCALE) EVEN THOUGH DIFFERENCES WERE NOT SHOWN TO BE STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT, (3) SAFE DRIVERS TEND TO MAKE HIGHER SCORES ON THE BENNETT MECHANICAL COMPREHENSION TEST, AND (4) THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF DRIVING EXPERIENCE APPEARS TO BE A LEARNING PERIOD BECAUSE OF THE HIGH INCIDENCE OF ACCIDENT RATES.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbbulletin/60/60-002.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • No 60, pp 17-24, 2 FIG, 3 TAG, 4 REF Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • MOFFIE, D J
  • Symmes, Andrew
  • Milton, Charles R
• Publication Date: 1952

Media Info

• Monograph Title: Road-user characteristics
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Bulletin
  • Issue Number: 60
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Crash rates; Driver performance; Driver training; Drivers; Human characteristics; Personnel performance; Poisson ratio; Psychological aspects
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver characteristics
• Old TRIS Terms: Driver psychology; Poissons ratio
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00222869
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 28 1994 12:00AM