image: This is one of the simulators. view more
Credit: University of Granada
This release is available in Spanish.
The University of Granada will house the first European research centre on teenagers' mental mechanisms when driving motorcycles and carrying out risk conducts, which could be helpful, in a near future, to modify and avoid them. The Faculty of Psychology will house three state-of-the-art simulators –there was already one at the UGR so far- that will be useful to do research into these mechanisms, thanks to an agreement signed with the company Honda Motor Co. (Europe); the University will become one of the most important centres around the world in this subject.
The new simulators, equipped with innovative software developed by Honda, will arrive to the University of Granada in a few days. They will be used by the research group supervised by professors Andrés Catena Martínez, José Juan Cañas Delgado, Antonio Maldonado López and Antonio Cándido Ortiz, of the Department of Experimental Psychology and Behaviour Physiology, to measure risk conducts in adolescents aged between 18 and 25.
The only accident's rate which does not decrease
According to Leandro Luigi Di Stasi, a member of the research group of Cognitive Ergonomics of the UGR, the accidents derived from driving motorcycles "have not decreased in the last years, as has happened with the rest of vehicles", according to the last data provided by the motor club RAAC.
In addition, according to the data of the Spanish Traffic Department (DGT) 50% of the accidents with victims take place in urban areas; half of them take place in junctions and most of the victims are men aged between 16 and 25 years old who were driving motorcycles or mopeds, or pedestrians.
For this reason, the new research laboratory placed at the UGR "will allow to develop intervention programmes to modify such behaviours", as these simulators "can be used to determine the individual's emotional state and work on it, connecting the cognitive and emotional systems through the study of their variables".
The UGR researchers will use emotional induction techniques in order to modify drivers' mood (this is, "inspiring" them artificially a state of euphoria, sadness or tiredness), and then subjecting him to driving in order to see his reactions.
Please find attached two photographs of one of the simulators.
Reference: Leandro Luigi Di Stasi. Department of Experimental Psychology and Behaviour Physiology. Mobile: +34 655 149 186. E-mail: distasi@correo.ugr.es Prof. Andrés Catena Martínez and José Juan Cañas Delgado. Department of Experimental Psychology and Behaviour Physiology. University of Granada. Phone numbers: +34 958244254 - +34 958243767 - +34 958246268. E-mail. acatena@ugr.es - delagado@ugr.es
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