THE EFFECT OF AN EXPERIMENTER AND VISIBLE INSTRUMENTATION ON DRIVER BEHAVIOUR IN AN INSTRUMENTED CAR

This paper describes a study conducted at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) concerning the use of instrumented cars in monitoring driver behavior and, in particular, the effect of visible instrumentation and an experimenter sitting next to the driver on driver behavior. Statistical examinations were carried out using analysis of variance with repeated measures. Independent variables were the presence of the experimenter vs. driving alone, repetition of the route and the subject group, as well as the various combined effects of these variables. The study provided neutral data on whether driving behavior is the same with an experimenter in the car vs. when there are other people in the car, and whether driving behavior is the same when driving completely alone as compared to when driving while being secretly monitored. The implications of these results are discussed.