If you apply for a driver’s license, you must pass a series of tests designed to assess whether you will be a safe driver. Our Houston car accident attorneys mention that the tests include a written component, an on-road driving component, and sometimes a visual test. State motor vehicle departments use these motor and mental tests as predictors of driver behavior and crash risk.
Generally the tests provide a decent measure of one’s readiness to face ordinary driving conditions. But once you have passed the tests and received a license, it’s rare to have to take the tests again. A driver’s crash risk might increase over time. The introduction of new stimuli, for example cell phones, might greatly increase drivers’ crash risks. And authorities have been noticing an increasing involvement of older drivers in fatal crashes, as people are living longer and more seniors are currently driving longer distances for more years than in past decades.
With the increasing involvement of older drivers in fatal crashes, a trend likely to continue and even increase in coming decades as the U.S. population ages, authorities have been researching tests that might be a good predictor of driver crash risks in order to identify drivers with the onset of dementia. The Houston car accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC remark that many studies have already found the obvious: that individuals age at different rates and in differing ways, so that chronological age alone is not a good predictor of driving performance and crash risk. And many of the tests have been shown to have wider application to the entire driving population.
The tests fall into several classifications designed to measure things like accurate decision-making, risk avoidance, mental impairment, and signs of dementia. There is an extensive series of tests devoted exclusively to mental state, many of which try to detect the existence and severity of dementia, which our Houston car accident attorneys will discuss in another article. This article focuses on the tests measuring visuospatial memory, motor skills, risk avoidance, and decision-making.
1. Visual-spatial ability tests: These tests measure how well drivers understand the relationships between stationary and moving objects and are good indicators of a driver’s ability to safely navigate the streets and traffic.
A. The Embedded Figures Test (EFT) tests a person’s analytical ability and perceptual style. The test measures the ability to find smaller figures embedded within a larger image and is timed. The faster one accurately finds the smaller objects, the better the score. Longer completion times mean that the test taker has difficulty analyzing individual parts separately from the wider pattern. Some researchers found the EFT test scores to be a very good indicator of an individual’s actual driving performance, and a better indicator than the chronological number of the person’s age. But our Houston car accident attorneys note that generally speaking, EFT test scores correlated closely with age.
B. The Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure Test (RO-CFT) measure the mind’s ability to construct a model of a visual space and one’s visual memory. It has 3 parts:
Copy: where the test taker is given a “stimulus” card and asked to draw the image.
Subsequently, the test taker is asked to draw that same image from memory only.
After a 30-minute delay, the test taker is asked to draw the same image from memory again.
Researchers have found that test scores strongly correlate to a person’s crash avoidance, evasive action, and threat recognition abilities while driving, and that scores were very predictive of a person’s likelihood to take unsafe driving actions and to be involved in a crash. Our Houston car accident attorneys point out that scores have also been closely tied to the categories of (1) drivers with a suspended license due to crash involvement (2) drivers with a suspended license without crash involvement and (3) drivers with a clean driving record.
C. In the Block Design Test (BDT), test takers are timed as they arrange blocks with white sides, red sides, and red and white sides according to a provided example. BDT test results correlate strongly with on-road driving performance and the ability to identify landmarks. They also show a close relation to driver’s license status: (1) drivers with a suspended license due to crash involvement (2) drivers with a suspended license without crash involvement and (3) drivers with a clean driving record.
D. The Letter Cancellation Test has 2 target characters seeded approximately 18 times in a row and the test taker must accurately cross out the target characters as quickly as possible. Researchers have found the test shows some link to a driver’s braking and steering behavior, but the test’s usefulness in predicting driver behavior and crash involvement does not seem as strong as many of the other tests.
E. The Maze Navigation Test requires test takers to trace a path through paper mazes of varying complexity. The test taker must avoid dead ends and can’t backtrack; but our Houston car accident attorneys note that the test isn’t timed. This test is typically used to evaluate drivers with brain injuries or strokes and shows significant relationships to drivers’ actual, on-road performance.
2. Executive Function is the process that regulates a driver’s other cognitive processes. It allows drivers to use information from the immediate driving environment and from previous experience to manage multiple, complex driving tasks. Such tasks include the driver assessing progress towards the destination, maintaining his or her lane and speed, monitoring the evolving traffic situation on the roads, ignoring stimuli not relevant to the driving task, and responding to unexpected events.
A. Trail Making Test Part A (TMT-A) – The test taker connects circles numbered 1 to 25 that are randomly scattered across a page. When the test taker makes a mistake, the examiner points it out and the test taker starts again from the last correct number. Our Houston car accident attorneys emphasize that researchers have found very strong relationships between drivers’ scores on the TMT-A and crash records, on-road driving performance, braking and steering behaviors, lane boundary crossings, speed, and brake pedal pressure.
B. Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B) – The test taker must connect circles containing the letters A through L and 13 circles randomly intermixed. The test requires that the letters and numbers be connected in sequential order alternating between letters and numbers. If the test taker makes a mistake, as with the TMT-A, he or she must start again from the last correct point. TMT-B scores have been shown to be an even stronger predictor of driver behavior and crashes than the TMT-A scores, especially for crashes where the test taker/driver is at fault. Our Houston car accident attorneys remark that the test results also showed a relationship to the driver’s ability to identify landmarks while driving.
C. Benton Visual Retention Test – The test requires the participant to view 10 designs, one at a time, and then reproduce them on paper as accurately as possible from memory. The exercise tests one’s visual perception, visual memory, and visuoconstructive abilities. Primarily used to test Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease patients, the test scores reflect landmark identification ability and safety errors while driving.
3. Selective Attention is a driver’s ability to focus on stimuli relevant to the driving task (like traffic movement, changing traffic signals, and street signs) while excluding irrelevant stimuli. The Houston car accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC caution that drivers who get distracted by things like passengers, billboards, bumper stickers, cell phones, and radios are more likely to miss important traffic cues and then have a crash.
A. The Cognitive Flexibility Test measures the participant’s ability to switch from one behavioral strategy to another. There are four-choice visual stimuli requiring a hand response and aural stimuli requiring a foot response. The different types of stimuli are first presented separately and then together and the test taker is required to prioritize the visual stimuli over the aural stimuli and to switch to another modality when receiving an aural stimulus. Our Houston car accident attorneys mention that this test is timed. The test results were a good predictor of on-road driving performance, but not necessarily of crash involvement.
4. Short Term Memory consists of the information a person is currently thinking about or currently aware of. A good short-term memory helps the driver use information from the current traffic environment along with knowledge of traffic rules to support executive functioning for safe driving.
A. The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test involves a list of 15 words that test takers learn during 5 presentations. The test taker must try to recall the words after a 30-minute interval. Drivers with suspended licenses and crash involvement showed much lower scores than drivers with suspended licenses and no crash involvement.
As this brief discussion of some of the available motor and mental skills tests reveals, tests designed to accurately measure one’s reactions to stimuli, memory, and decision-making processes can often strongly predict how you will apply memory, decision-making processes, and reactions to stimuli to the complex task of driving. Driving, though we tend to take the skill for granted after a while, actually involves complex multi-tasking and decision-making that draws on memory, learned responses, and motor skills, as well as a proper assessments of and reactions to the evolving traffic environment as you’re on the road. Our Houston car accident attorneys emphasize that the tests discussed in this article show promise for helping examiners test the potential driving safety and behaviors of drivers of all ages.
Crashes Happen Even to the Test Takers Scoring Highest on Motor and Mental Skills Exams
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