How Automatic Is Manual Gear Shifting?

Abstract

Manual gear shifting is often used as an example of an automated (vs. controlled) process in driving. The present study provided an empirical evaluation of this assumption by evaluating sign detection and recall performance of novice and experienced drivers driving manual shift and automatic transmission cars in a downtown area requiring frequent gear shifting. The results showed that manual gear shifting significantly impaired sign detection performance of novice drivers using manual gears compared with novice drivers using an automatic transmission, whereas no such differences existed between the two transmission types for experienced drivers. The results clearly demonstrate that manual gear shifting is a complex psychomotor skill that is not easily (or quickly) automated and that until it becomes automated, it is an attention-demanding task that may impair other monitoring aspects of driving performance. Actual or potential applications of this research include a reevaluation of the learning process in driving and the need for phased instruction in driving from automatic gears to manual gears.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander, G. J. , & Lunenfeld, H. (1972). Satisfying motorists' need for information. Traffic Engineering, 43, 46–70.

Anderson, J. R. (1995). Learning and memory: An integrated approach. New York: Wiley.

Baddeley, A. D. (1990). Human memory: Theory and practice. London: Erlbaum.

Bargh, J. A. (1992). The ecology of automaticity: Towards establishing the conditions needed to produce automatic processing effect. American Journal of Psychology, 105, 181–199.

Drory, A. , & Shinar, D. (1982). The effects of roadway environment and fatigue on sign perception. Journal of Safety Research, 13, 25–32.

Duncan, J. , Williams, P. , & Brown, I. D. (1991). Components of driving skill: Experience does not mean expertise. Ergonomics, 14, 345–352.

Duncan, J. , Williams, P. , Nimmo-Smith, I. , & Brown, I. D. (1992). The control of skilled behavior: Learning, intelligence and distraction. In D. E. Meyer & S. Kornblum (Eds.), Attention and performance XIV (pp. 323–341). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Groeger, J. A. , & Clegg, B. A. (1997). Automaticity and driving: Time to change gear conceptually. In T. Rothengatter & E. C. Vaya (Eds.), Traffic and transport psychology: Theory and application (pp. 137–146). Oxford: Pergamon.

Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95, 583–598.

10.

Lunenfeld, H. , & Alexander, G. (1990). A user's guide to positive guidance (3rd ed.; Report No. FHWA-SA-90-017). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.

11.

MacKay, D. G. (1982). The problem of flexibility, fluency, and speed-accuracy trade-off in skilled behavior. Psychological Review, 89, 483–506.

12.

McKnight, A. J. , & Adams, R. D. (1970). Driver education task analysis: Volume I. Task descriptions. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization.

13.

Michon, J. A. (1985). A critical review of driver behavior models: What do we know, what should we do? In L. Evans & R. C. Schwing (Eds.), Human behavior and traffic safety (pp. 485–520). New York: Plenum.

14.

Mourant, R. R. , & Rockwell, T. H. (1972). Strategies of visual search by novice and experienced drivers. Human Factors, 14, 325–335.

15.

Mourant, R. R. , Rockwell, T. H. , & Rackoff, N. J. (1969). Drivers' eye movements and visual workload. Highway Research Record, 292, 1–10.

16.

Schmidt, R. A. (1982). Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

17.

Shiffrin, R. M. , & Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84, 127–190.

18.

Shinar, D. , & Drory, A. (1983). Sign registration in daytime and nighttime driving. Human Factors, 25, 117–122.

19.

Tzelgov, J. (1997). Specifying the relations between automaticity and consciousness: A theoretical note. Consciousness and Cognition, 6, 441–451.

20.

Verwey, W. B. (1996). Buffer loading and chunking in sequential keypressing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22, 544–562.

21.

Welford, A. T. (1988). Acquiring skills: Some experiences. Journal of Motor Behavior, 20, 458–461.