The evidence is reviewed for a human factors explanation of the phenomenon of unintended acceleration, whereby at the start of a driving cycle an operator experiences full, unexpected acceleration for as long as 12 s with an apparently complete failure of the braking system, often leading to an accident. There is strong support for the view that the right foot contacts the accelerator even though the driver fully intended to press the brake because of inconsistency in foot trajectory generated by spinal- or muscle-level variability. There is considerable evidence that the variable, inconsistent processes that generate muscular forces and their timing are the source of these errors. Issues related to the reasons the driver is not aware of such errors and why they can persist for so long are reviewed. In view of this evidence, future examinations of this problem should be directed toward a fuller understanding of motor control processes in pedal operation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aaron, A.G. (1988). A conundrum for our day---Why do Audis run away? (Available from Arthur G. Aaron, 5 King Arthur's Way, Newington, CT 06111.)
2.
Adams, J. A. (1987). Historical review and appraisal of research on the learning, retention, and transfer of human motor skills. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 41–74.
3.
Angel, R. W., and Higgins, J. R. (1969). Correction of false moves in pursuit tracking. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 82, 185–187.
4.
Beier, E. G. (1951). The effect of induced anxiety on flexibility of intellectual functioning. Psychological Monographs, 65 (Whole No. 326).
5.
Berkun, M. M., Bialek, H. M., Kern, R. P., and Yagi, K. (1962). Experimental studies of psychological stress in man. Psychological Monographs, 75 (Whole No. 534).
6.
Bridgeman, B., Kirch, M., and Sperling, A. (1981). Segregation of cognitive and motor aspects of visual information using induced motion. Perception and Psychophysics, 29, 336–342.
7.
Curry, L. (1975). Habit as the source of an inappropriate response. Ergonomics, 18, 435–442.
8.
Easterbrook, J. A. (1959). The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior. Psychological Review, 66, 183–201.
9.
Evarts, E. A. (1973). Motor cortex reflexes associated with learned movement. Science, 179, 501–503.
10.
Fenz, W. D., and Jones, G. B. (1972). Individual differences in physiologic arousal and performance in sport parachutists. Psychosomatic Medicine, 34, 1–8.
11.
Gibson, J. J. (1966). The senses considered as perceptual systems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
12.
Gielen, C. C. A. M., Schmidt, R. A., and van den Heuvel, P. J. (1983). On the nature of intersensory facilitation of reaction time. Perception and Psychophysics, 34, 161–168.
13.
Glaser, H. J., and Halcomb, C. G. (1980). Foot placement and response latency: A test of Fitts' law. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 24th Annual Meeting (pp. 626–628). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.
14.
Glass, S. W., and Suggs, C. W. (1977). Optimization of vehicle accelerator-brake pedal travel time. Applied Ergonomics, 8, 215–218.
15.
Jagacinski, R. J., and Hah, S. (1988). Progression-regression effects in tracking repeated patterns. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14, 77–88.
16.
Janis, I. L., Defares, P., and Grossman, P. (1983). Hypervigilant reactions to threat. In H. Selye (Ed.), Selye's guide to stress research (pp. 1–43). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
17.
Janis, I. L., and Mann, L. (1977). Decision-making. A psychological analysis of conflict, choice, and commitment. New York: Free Press.
18.
Kahneman, D. (1973). Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
19.
Keele, S. W. (1986). Motor control. In K. R. Boff, L. Kaufman, and J. Thomas (Eds.), Handbook of perception and human performance (vol. 2, pp. 30-1–30-60). New York: Wiley.
20.
Kelly, H. H., Condry, J. C., Dahlke, A. E., and Hill, A. T. (1965). Collective behavior in a simulated panic situation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1, 20–54.
21.
Langolf, G. D., Chaffin, D. G., and Foulke, J. A. (1976). An investigation of Fitts' law using a wide range of targetamplitudes. Journal of Motor Behavior, 8, 113–128.
22.
Lee, D. N. (1980). Visuo-motor coordination in space-time. In G. E. Stelmach and J. Requin (Eds.), Tutorials in motor behavior (pp. 281–285). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
23.
Lee, D. N., and Young, D. S. (1985). Visual timing of interceptive action. In D. Ingle, M. Jeannerod, and D. N. Lee (Eds.), Brain mechanisms and spatial vision (pp. 1–30). Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.
24.
Marteniuk, R. G., and Roy, E. A. (1983). Head position, eye position, and reaching movements. Unpublished experiments. University of Waterloo, Canada, Department of Kinesiology.
25.
Nacson, J., and Schmidt, R. A. (1971). The activity-set hypothesis for warm-up decrement. Journal of Motor Behavior, 3, 1–15.
Neumann, O. (1984). Automatic processing: A review of recent findings and a plea for an old theory. In W. Prinz and A. F. Sanders (Eds.), Cognition and motor processes (pp. 255–293). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
28.
Neumann, O. (1987). Beyond capacity: A functional view of attention. In H. Heuer and A. F. Sanders (Eds.), Perspectives on perception and action (pp. 361–394). Hills-dale, NJ: Erlbaum.
29.
Pepper, R. L., and Herman, L. M. (1970) Decay and interference effects in the short-term retention of a discrete motor act. Journal of Experimental Psychology Monographs, 83, (Suppl. 2).
30.
Perel, M. (1976) Analyzing the role of driver/vehicle incompatibilities in accident causation using police reports (Tech. Report DOT HS-801–858). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation.
31.
Perel, M. (1983). Vehicle familiarity and safety (Tech. Report DOT HS-806–509). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation.
32.
Pollard, J., and Sussman, E. D. (1989). An examination of sudden acceleration (Tech. Report DOT-HS-807–367). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation.
33.
Posner, M. I. (1978). Chronometric explorations of mind. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
34.
Posner, M. I., and Keele, S. W. (1969). Attentional demands of movement. In Proceedings of Congress of Applied Psychology 16th Annual Meeting. Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger.
35.
Rabbitt, P. (1967). Time to detect errors as a function of factors affecting choice-response time. Acta Psychologica, 131–142.
36.
Rogers, S. B., and Wierwille, W. W. (1988). An investigation into the occurrence of accelerator and brake pedal actuation errors during simulated driving. Human Factors, 30, 71–81.
37.
Roll, R., Bard, C., and Paillard, J. (1986). Head orienting contributes to the directional accuracy of aiming at distant targets. Human Movement Science, 5, 359–371.
38.
Roush, G. S., and Rasmussen, R. E. (1974). Brake pedal location study (Tech. Report PG-34703). Milford, MI: General Motors Proving Grounds.
39.
Schmidt, R. A. (1976). Control processes in motor skills. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 4, 229–261.
40.
Schmidt, R. A. (1988). Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis (2nd ed). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers.
41.
Schmidt, R. A., and Gordon, G. B. (1977). Errors in motor responding, "rapid" corrections, and false anticipations. Journal of Motor Behavior, 9, 101–111.
42.
Schmidt, R. A., Sherwood, D. E., Zelaznik, H. N., and Lei-kind, B. J. (1985). Speed-accuracy trade-offs in motor behavior: Theories of impulse variability. In H. Heuer, U. Kleinbeck, and K.-H. Schmidt (Eds.), Motor behavior: Programming, control, and acquisition (pp. 79–123). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
43.
Schmidt, R. A., and Stelmach, G. E. (1968). Postural set as a factor in short-term motor memory. Psychonomic Science, 13, 223–224.
44.
Schmidt, R. A., and Young, D. E. (1987). Transfer of movement control in motor skill learning. In S. M. Cormier and J. D. Hagman (eds.). Transfer of learning (pp. 47–79). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
45.
Schmidt, R. A., Zelaznik, H. N., and Frank, J. S. (1978). Sources of inaccuracy in rapid movement. In G. E. Stelmach (Ed.), Information processing in motor control and learning (pp. 183–203). New York: Academic Press.
46.
Schmidt, R. A., Zelaznik, H. N., Hawkins, B., Frank, J. S., and Quinn, J. T. (1979). Motor-output variability: A theory for the accuracy of rapid motor acts. Psychological Review, 86, 415–460.
47.
Sperry, R. W. (1950). Neural basis of the spontaneous op-tokinetic response produced by visual inversion. Psychological Monographs, 74 (Whole No. 498).
48.
Sursi, P. L., and Mullins, H. (1984). Control pedal performance evaluation---Domestic vehicles (Tech. Report ODI 283-2-2). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation.
49.
Tomerlin, J. (1988, June). Solved: The riddle of unintended acceleration. Road & Track, 39, 52–59.
50.
Tomerlin, J., and Vernoy, M. W. (1988). Pedal errors in several make and model cars (Unpublished Tech. Report), Laguna Beach, CA: Public Policy, Inc.
51.
von Holst, E. (1954). Relations between the central nervous system and the peripheral organs. British Journal of Animal Behavior, 2, 89–94.
52.
Weinberg, R. S., and Hunt, V. V. (1976). The interrelationships between anxiety, motor performance, and electromyography. Journal of Motor Behavior, 8, 219–224.
53.
Weinberg, R. S., and Ragan, J. (1978). Motor performance under three levels of trait anxiety and stress. Journal of Motor Behavior, 10, 169–176.
54.
Weltman, G., and Egstrom, G. H. (1966). Perceptual narrowing in novice divers. Human Factors, 8, 499–505.
55.
West, L. J. (1967). Vision and kinesthesis in the acquisition of typewriting skill. Journal of Applied Psychology, 51, 161–166.
