The research group carries out research focused on the psychological and cognitive components aimed at improving risk perception and consciousness. These components include, among others, personality characteristics and perceptual, attentive and psychophysiological mechanisms. In this area, the research group deals with the following topics:

• attentive abilities, particularly focusing on spatial attention and response selection mechanisms, through the study of phenomena such as spatial compatibility and Simon effect, paying attention particularly to learning processes concerning spatial information coding;
• new methodologies for both the construction of evaluation tools of risk perception and motor abilities and the responsiveness of safe driving trainings;
• risk perception in driving abilities and the improvement of such abilities through the use of psychophysiological indexes too;
• relations between driving performance and personality traits and relation between driving performance and the use of substances (i.e. alcohol);
• driving abilities measures that can explain the underlying learning processes;
• the role of individual personality characteristics in proneness to risky driving behaviors in youths.

….testing of driving assistance systems aimed at reduced dangerous behaviors such as overspeeding and harsh celeration maneuvers.

In these areas of interest, the driving simulators Honda Riding Trainer (HRT) and Lander are employed. The HRT simulator has been developed to provide training sessions for promoting road safety, training risk perception and its avoidance, and fostering defensive driving styles. It has been used in a variety of project in this field, with the collaboration of national and international research partners. The Lander simulator, with a higher degree of realism and immersiveness, allows for further advances allowing to include in the driving sessions external stimuli, through the possibility to be connected with other external instrumentation.

Honda Riding Trainer (HRT)
Lander simulator

Mobility and Behavior Study Center – MoBe