Can Drivers’ Expectations and Behaviour Around Motorcycles Be Influenced by Exposure?

The leading cause of multi-vehicle motorcycle crashes is other road users failing to perceive the motorcycle (ACEM, 2009). This perceptual failure can result from the driver failing to look for the motorcycle (for example, executing a lane change without making a prior head check) or looking but failing to see (see Chapter 3). In both circumstances the motorcycle fails to capture the driver’s attention. Several factors influence whether a stimulus will capture attention. Traditionally, researchers differentiated between exogenous and endogenous control of attention. Exogenous attentional capture occurs involuntarily due to ‘bottom-up’ factors external to the observer, such as stimulus salience, whereas endogenous attentional capture is influenced by internal characteristics of the observer, such as goals or intentions, which are often referred to as ‘top-down’ influences on attention. Although endogenous attention is a broad concept that encompasses many factors, including one’s current goals and recent search history (see Awh et al., 2012), there has been little research examining how it operates in the driving context. The current chapter presents the results of a simulator study designed to explore the extent to which drivers’ behaviour around motorcycles can be changed by influencing their endogenous attention, specifically by manipulating their expectations and prior exposure to motorcycles.