Psychophysiological features driver

Psychophysical capacity of each of us laid on the creation and change are difficult, some impossible. But they need to know, at least to understand the impact they can have on your progress in the development of driving skills.

You have passed a medical examination and have a medical certificate authorizing them to certain categories of vehicles. This means that you do not have any significant deviations that do not allow to drive a car. But this does not imply the absence of some of the deficiencies that may affect your safety. They have each, and they must be good to know.
The research, conducted in the U.S. showed that when drivers repeatedly committed the incident, informed about their psycho-physiological defects, accidents, and they decreased by 2 / 3. Knowing your weaknesses, you will be able to compensate them for the expense of a certain style of driving and greater caution in certain situations.
What are the physiological defects that affect the safety of driving, the most common?
90% of all the information the driver receives through sight. Therefore, know the features of his vision is very important. According to the American Optical Association for at least 35% of drivers have dangerous defects of vision and not know it. Do you know them you know?
What is the sharpness of your vision? If you do not have 100 percent of sight, you need to drive only in glasses, lets you clearly see the situation. Do not be lazy at least once a year to check visual acuity, and, if necessary, change the score.
How well do you see at night? There are people who see a great day and at night in low light is much worse. Check your ability to see in the dark, you can use the following test. Hold it must be daytime in well-lit room.
If at a distance of 5 meters you will be able to accurately describe only the first row of figures depicted on the stand at the ophthalmologist, as a community is open, it is best to restrict night travel, or consult an eye specialist for further advice. If you're good to see the bottom row, then everything is in order.
Your adaptive abilities. To restore the ability to see the situation in the blinding headlights of oncoming car takes an average of 7.8 seconds. How long it takes you, you can see by the test described above, but done it slightly differently. Before we look at the figures, look closely at the source of very bright light, which must be located directly in front of your eyes. After this move look at the figures and start the stopwatch. If not less than 10 seconds. you'll see the figures as well as to the glare, then everything is fine. If this time is longer, you'd better avoid night driving, especially on poorly lit areas where possible blinding of oncoming traffic. Driving a car at night, try as little as possible to look at brightly lit objects.


Peripheral vision. Ability to observe the situation in front and at the same time to monitor what is happening at the side of you is very important. Especially when driving in a city where danger often comes from the side. This ability is determined by the space on the right and left of you, which you can see, keeping your head straight and looking straight ahead. Check it out yourself by doing the following. Stand up, keeping your head straight and looking at any object located in ten meters directly in front of you. Spread the arms to the side so that they form a straight line. Begin to reduce, not dropping down. As soon as you can see their peripheral vision, "Freeze" and define the angle between their position which they occupy, and the source. If he is over 20 degrees, you have poor peripheral vision.
Some people have so-called Tunnel Vision. They can be seen within an angle of 20 degrees. This is extremely dangerous when driving, as the situation on the sides of the vehicle remains out of sight. Compensate for the shortcomings of peripheral vision can be achieved by improving care and caution when driving through areas where perhaps the sudden appearance of danger from the side. It exits from the yard, crossing roads, where pedestrians cross. If you have poor peripheral vision, watch for places that may cause danger from the side by turning your head, not "the edge of the eye.
When driving in the city you have to simultaneously monitor for multiple objects, lights, the members of the movement, signs, etc. How well you get depends on the capacity for rapid distribution and switching of attention. Check it out, you can use a table Schulte-Platonov. Compensate for the attention can be brought to perfection the skills orientation in traffic and showing extreme caution (not to drive at high speed) in a complex and unusual driving conditions.
Rumor need the driver to hear the threat, which is difficult to see, for example, warning about the danger beep sound of the engine and tires, the overtaking car, an ambulance siren, the creaking of brakes ... A person with normal hearing can hear the words spoken in a normal voice at a distance of 6 m. If you have impaired hearing, try to compensate by sight. Also, do not turn the radio loud, keep your window is always ajar.
Motor response time important, but not the most important, as many believe, the quality of the driver. Often people with excellent response in the event fall more often than others. Why? Due to the fact that at first do, then think. Therefore, if you do not have very good reaction time, do not worry: nothing wrong with that. You can successfully compensate for the reaction time due to the ability to predict risk in advance and clearly spent driving skills in critical situations.
The test for determining the reaction time. Take a strip of cardboard 12 cm long, 3 cm wide and have someone hold it so that the lower end is between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Whoever holds the strip, should surprise you let it go, and you - caught between his fingers. If you get - see ads selling cars and pick smart machine. If you do not have time, then you should not delude ourselves about their reaction.

The results of research into the causes accidents associated with psycho-physiological characteristics showed that the importance of some of them in terms of impact on the reliability of the driver is clearly overrated. While other more important qualities of most drivers do not even know. For example, the inability to distinguish colors, or in other words, color-blindness. This quality of the bidder to manage any type of ground transportation typically have fairly strict requirements. However, the study of accidents with drivers, color blind, there was no connection between the causes of accidents and violations distinguish colors. This, of course, does not mean that the colorblind can not get into accidents because no ability to distinguish traffic lights, but, apparently, the probability of such events is low. Explains this seemingly strange fact that approaching an intersection, you can track the movement of other vehicles and thus determine the mode of operation of traffic lights. Drivers who constantly use this method, achieve very high accuracy rating.
Feature of the view that most drivers do not know and therefore can not compensate for its dangerous effect when driving - the predominant use of the right or left eye. Begs the assumption that the dominant is the one eye that sees better. However, it is not. In some cases the weak eye, too, can be dominant. At first glance, it seems that this feature of view should not have a significant impact on the safety of driving. But this view is mistaken. The value of this particular view is even, and because most people are not aware of the existence of their dominant eye. With the dominance of one eye sees the situation the driver well, located by a dominant eye, and much worse than what happens on the other side. So, for example, a man who has dominated the left eye can not see a vehicle driving up to the right. To determine the existence of a dominant eye, you can use a very simple test. Both arms pull in front of the thumb and forefinger hold the ring, and looking through it, find and commit some object (like a matchbox), located at some distance from you, so that he could be seen strictly in the center of the ring.
After that close the first one and then the second eye, and notes for any closed eye object is shifted toward the center of the ring. Opposite him eye is dominant. To compensate for this particular view while driving with extreme care must examine the situation from the side opposite the dominant eye, while not limited to a simple shift of the eyes, and turn your head, especially at roundabouts.
Human eye is arranged so that does not allow him to perceive at a glance the whole entire situation, in which it is located. Therefore, he is forced to consider it in parts. However, given the features and capabilities of its visual apparatus, apply a sequence of inspection, which will allow him to get the most important information for the least amount of time.
What are the characteristics of view are from this point of view, the greatest value?
It is known that the area of ​​maximum visual acuity is limited. Most clearly a person sees objects that are within the cone angle of 30. Enough objects are visible and within the larger cone angle of about 10-200. With the help of peripheral vision, the scope for which is equal to 160-180 degrees, the objects can only be detected but not identified. To identify the object at the side, to understand the nature of its movement, need a translation sight, during which the person is almost not perceive their environment. This is explained by the fact that visual perception is possible only when the fixation. It is well known, for example, that looking from the extreme left scope for the extreme right and the fixation on the present facility takes time from 1 to 1.5 seconds. At night or in poor light conditions this time is increased.


As a particular view, which most drivers do not know can cause involuntary blinking of the eyes. What is happening at the same time, and the rapid movement of the head and eyes. Usually a person does not notice the flashing, as it happens involuntarily. In this part of the space may remain unseen. For example, consider the situation that arises when making a turn.
Driver's gonna turn left, should quickly move your eyes from the oncoming traffic (when he finds sufficient for the passage of the gap in the flow) to the region on the left in the direction of its movement when changing direction. It is necessary to quickly browse a large portion of the situation, during which his eyes locked involuntary blinking eyelids.
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A clear perception is the basis of correct evaluation and prediction of possible developments. Psycho-physiological basis for the assessment of the situation are the qualities that enable a person to detect changes in spatial and temporal parameters. These include the ability to estimate speed, distance, direction, change in distance to objects. Usually there are two types of motion: radial, ie delete, or closer to the observer and tangential - perpendicular to the line of sight.
Ability possessed by most people, allow them to accurately assess the speed and distance of objects moving in the tangential direction. Significantly worse than the ability to estimate distances and speeds of up to objects moving in a radial direction, such as the leading cars.

Experimental data show that the highest accuracy is typical for estimates of direction. It can be assumed that the estimate of spatial-temporal parameters of a road traffic situation, the driver makes a complex, noting the two main parameters (in possession of time and space on the road) and comparing them with time and space required to safely perform maneuvers undertaken.
We reviewed the most important physiological qualities of the person defining success driving. Try to identify which physiological features and drawbacks are for you. Keep this in mind while driving, trying to compensate for their more careful driving and working out a certain style of driving in adverse situations for you.