Science behind driving behavior, aptitude explored in new blog

For every law-abiding motorist, there is another driver who is breaking the speed limit and cutting off other drivers in traffic. For every person who easily follows driving directions to reach a destination, there are others who always seem to get lost.

Psychological scientists have been studying these sorts of driving behaviors for decades, and have made many discoveries about the decisions, risks, and mistakes that occur behind the wheel.

This line of research is the focus of Minds on the Road, a new blog devoted exclusively to the scientific study of behaviors, emotions, skills, and errors that we display when driving.

The Association for Psychological Science (APS), an organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific psychology, is launching the online publication to showcase research on the decisions we make, the risks we take, and the mistakes we make in the driver's seat.

Minds on the Road will feature the latest research on a variety of psychological factors that affect traffic patterns and safety. It will explore new findings about:

• distracted driving;
• roadway aggression;
• visual perception behind the wheel;
• navigation ability;
• driving under the influence;
• and much more.

The blog will feature groundbreaking research from the world's leading scholarly journals, including the APS publications Psychological Science, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Perspectives on Psychological Science.

The most recent post, for example, explores the issue of kids and traffic accidents, highlighting research that suggests that kids perform worse than adults when it comes to actually detecting oncoming cars.