Cognitive accident-avoidance training for beginning drivers

Abstract

Used programmed instruction/testing to teach safety techniques to 192 high school students in driver education. The independent variable was training feedback/testing, which had 4 levels: (a) no test and no feedback; (b) test with an IBM answer format, but no item feedback; (c) test with a punchboard answer format and immediate individual item feedback; and (d) double testing with punchboard answer format and training feedback. Pressey punchboards provided the programmed testing training. This device registers a response and indicates the correctness of the choice immediately. If initially wrong, an S continued working until that item was correct. Separate ANOVAs were done for (a) number of driving accidents, and (b) moving violations year by year in the 3 yrs following training. For the 1st yr only, the punchboard-twice drivers had one-fourth the accidents of the no-test control drivers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)