Hazard anticipation of young novice drivers - SWOV

Stimulation' device (tDCS). This device contains small electrodes that deliver
directly constant, low current to a particular brain area. In half of the group,
the right DLPFC was activated and inhibited during the drive and in half of
the group, the left DLPFC was activated and inhibited during the drive. The
authors mention that participants could vaguely notice that the tDCS was
switched on, but could not discriminate whether the tDCS was set on
activation or set on inhibition. Before and after the simulator drive in which
the tDCS was switched on (part of the time activating and part of the time
deactivating), participants drove the same scenario. In the pre-drive, they
were equipped with the tDCS that was switched off and during the postdrive
they drove without the device on their head. No differences were
found between activation and deactivation of the right DLPFC and the left
DLPFC. When the DLPFC (either the right or the left) was activated,
participants kept a significantly larger distance between the own car and the
lead vehicle and made significantly less speed violations in the built-up
areas, compared to the situations where the tDCS was set on inhibition or
was switched off. Moreover, marginal significant differences were found in
average speed and engine rpm when the tDCS was activating instead of
inhibiting or switched off. There were no significant differences between the
inhibiting situation and the switched off situation. The authors indicate that
given the size of the electrode, other regions of the PFC may have been
stimulated besides the DLPFC, in particular the VMPFC or the OFC.
Whether other regions were stimulated or not, this study indicates that, an
active PFC makes drivers more cautious in normal driving conditions. The
authors do not mention if there were particular hazardous situations in the
scenario.
As presumably, experienced drivers drive more often in the automatic
mode than in the control mode, compared to novice drivers, also in
situations with familiar hazards, it is likely that a secondary task not related
to the driving task will affect the hazard anticipation skills of novice drivers
more than of experienced drivers. In a study conducted by Baumann et al.
(2008) experienced drives drove in a simulator. The simulator drive
comprised hazardous situations that were hardly predictable. One of the
scenarios was a blocked road because of road constructions in a curve with
dense vegetation on both sides of the road and no sign before the curve that
warned for these road constructions. The simulator drive also comprised
hazardous situations that were predictable (e.g. the same situation with road
works in a blind curve, but now with a warning sign before the curve). Some
participants drove without a secondary task, some participants drove while
performing a monitoring task (reacting as soon as possible when a particular
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