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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 907 912

PSIWORLD 2013

Gender differences in in traffic risk assuming and short term

memory related to traffic situations
Mihai Aniteia, Mihaela Chraifb*, Marina Cristina Sanduc
a, b, c
University of Bucharest

Abstract

The purpose of this study is focused on gender differences in traffic risk assuming and short term memory related to traffic
situations. Method: They were applied on a sample of 60 subjects, 30 men and 30 women in a psychology lab of a driving school.
Instruments: ATATVT measuring short term memory in driving situation and WRBTV mesuring risk asuming tendencies in
traffic situation (Vienna Test System, 2012).
The results didnt confirm the statistical hypotheses in the way that male subjects evidence higher or lower tendences in assuming
the risk in traffic situation than female subjects (p>0.05).

2014 TheAuthors.
2014 The Authors.Published
PublishedbybyElsevier
ElsevierLtd.
Ltd.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and
Selection andpeer-review
peer-reviewunder
underresponsibility
responsibilityofof PSI WORLD
Romanian 2013
Society and their
of Applied Guest Editors:
Experimental Dr Mihaela Chraif, Dr Cristian
Psychology.
Vasile and Dr Mihai Anitei.

Keywords: visual memory, situational tests, assuming the risk in driving situations, risk tendency;

1. Introduction

Driving is a special form of activity, determined objectively by the existence of a spectrum of tasks that need to
be solved to a degree of efficiency and subjective analysis of a certain percentage of the skills and capabilities to
achieve the goal, regardless of gender, ethnicity, education level, professional specialization. What differentiates a

*
Mihaela Chraif tel: +40768811012
Email: mihaelapopa14@yahoo.com

1877-0428 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.378
908 Mihai Anitei et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 907 912

professional driver from a amateur driver is the level of experience and training, clarity and fairness in decision
making, the improved quality of attention. Lately in our country, self testing on computer simulators that replicate
car conditions, visual and auditory perception have been made. Thus, recording and evaluation of the results are
interpreted as a general feature of the organization and conduct of human behavior in traffic and can be repeated by
using regular tools and simulation software specifically designed for visual and auditory sensations in the peripheral
field, appreciation velocities and distances in the central field, auditory stimuli, measuring reaction time etc.. The
reverse connection works better. Individuals have the best solutions to optimize the mode of action in the future
especially in traffic.
An anonymous survey revealed truths unknown to 2003 psychologists who dealt with the prevention of
accidents. Over 69% of Americans cross the yellow traffic lights and exceed the speed limit by 20km /. Fong, Frost
and Stansfeld (2004) observed that these aggressive behaviors in traffic positively correlated with the following
properties: male driver, use of illicit substances, young age.
Shinar (1998) confirmed that the young tend to have a more aggressive driving behavior than older people
(Lenard, 2007). Psychology helps in understanding the phenomenon of bullying, but we offer other perspectives of
communication theories. The literature does not provide studies on the subject, which makes the present approach
all the more important. Gerbner's model highlights the importance of perceptions of those involved in the
communication.
Accidents are often caused by people who have had accidents. This sensitivity to accidents results from the
existence of innate and unchangeable traits. A set of information to the driver overloaded create gaps in traffic and
reverse long distances outside crowded areas also becomes dangerous.
Previous studies conducted in the laboratory of Work and Traffic Psychology, Department of Psychology,
University of Bucharest were focused on visual, cognitive and motor abilities for the youngsters as potential future
drivers. Hence Chraif (2012) was highlited the gender and age differences in short term memory, attention to details
and inductive reasoning on a large Romanian sample, Chraif, (2013a) showed the influence of radio noise in
attention task at youngsters, Chraif, (2013b). highlighted gender and age differences in time reaction and decision to
multiple stimuli and abstract figure on large Romanian sample, Aniei & Chraif (2013a) underlined the effects of
motor coordination error on reaction time and motivation on youngsters, Chraif, Aniei (2013) highlighted gender
differences in motor coordination at youngsters, Chraif, Burtverde & Cojocaru (2013) highlighted the effects of
music exposure in time reaction to multiply stimuli, Gransca & Aniei (2013) highlighted the influence of energy
drinks on reactivity to multiple stimuli, Chraif, Aniei, Mateescu, (2013) highlited correlations between reaction
time, performances in competition and motivation from competition on Romanian youngsters, Aniei, Chraif, Minea
(2013) evidenced the effects of fatigue on impulsiveness, aspiration level, performance motivation and frustration
tolerance on youngsters, Chraif (2013) underlined possible gender differences in mental rotation youngsters and
Niculicea evidenced an experimental design concerning the self-perception aggression in traffic simulation task on
Romanian roads. Furthermore, Srbescu (2013) investigated displaced aggression in Romania on youngster as
potential future drivers, Gtej (2013a) analyzed the disturbing factors of dynamics interfering during Gtej (2013b)
analyzed driving anxiety related with driving behavior, Golu & Gtej (2013) underlined the role of attention in
regulating driving behavior, Aniei & Dumitrache (2013) experimented a correlative study between personality traits
and aggression at young drivers and Burtverde, Chraif, & Pandele (2013) highlighted possible differences between
topographic memory and form gestalt perception. Schuhfried, Sommer, Anitei & Chraif (2010) tried in a pilot study
the experimental validation of a psychological assessment battery for Romanian drivers using Determination test,
Reaction Time test, Cognitrone test, Tahistoscopic test and inductive reasoning test. Continuing this experimental
study, Schuhfried, Aniei, Chraif, (2010) introduced the Visiotest campiest instrument in validating a possible
driving battery as pilot study. Furthermore, Aniei, Chraif, Schuhfried & Sommer (2011) conducted a validation
study on representative sample of 352 participants from Romania having as principal objective to validate the Expert
System Traffic psychological assessment as continuing the pilot previous experimental studies.
 Mihai Anitei et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 907 912 909

2. Objective of the research

2.1. The purpose of the research

This study wants to identify the existing differences between genders in situational tests of Vienna Tests System
for amateur drivers.

2.2. Hypotheses

x There are statistically significant gender differences in short term memory traffic situation-correct
answers.
x There are statistically significant gender differences in short term memory traffic situation-incorrect
answers.
x There are statistically significant gender differences in short term memory traffic situation-omitted
answers.
x There are statistically significant gender differences in assuming risk in traffic situations.

3. Method

3.1. Participants

Participants were 60 amateur drivers, 30 men and 30 women, the test being performed within the psychology
laboratory of Teo driving school from Bucharest. They signed a consent certificate according the evaluation.

3.2. Instruments/Measures

Instruments used were two situational tests of battery Vienna Test System (2012), ATAVT and WRBTV cited in
Aniei & Chraif, (2013b). ATATVT test measure short term memory in driving situation and WRBTV measure the
risk assuming tendencies in traffic situation (Vienna Test System, 2012).

3.3. Procedure

Testing procedure duration was approximately 20 minutes. Variables: WRBTV situational test, variable "risk-
taking tendency in traffic situations" measure driving behavior in potentially critical situations.

3.4. Experimental design

Independent variable: gender: female and male.

Dependent variables:
x Scores from ATATV test as correct answers, incorrect answers and omitted answers.
x Scores from WRBTV test as assuming the risk tendency into traffic situation.

4. Results

The findings showed no gender differences in terms of performance on the two tests situational. Men with high
scores on the test WRBTV leads to the idea that risk-taking tendency in traffic is much higher. On ATAVT test, the
results were similar between the two groups.

In table 1 can be seen the descriptive statistics of the tests variables: Means and Standard deviations.
910 Mihai Anitei et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 907 912

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of study variables by genderGroup Statistics

gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

female 30 11,00 2,244 ,410
atRS
male 30 11,13 2,285 ,417
female 30 49,27 26,825 4,898
atPR
male 30 45,67 19,971 3,646
female 30 49,73 9,051 1,653
atT
male 30 48,57 5,917 1,080
female 30 8,5603 2,12535 ,38803
wrRS
male 30 8,1487 2,06968 ,37787
female 30 32,07 27,588 5,037
wrPR
male 30 39,37 30,333 5,538
female 30 43,87 10,513 1,919
wrT
male 30 46,30 10,771 1,966

Table 2. T test for unrelated data for all study variables independent samples test

Levene's test for equality t-test for equality of means

of variances
f sig. t df sig. (2- mean std. error 95% confidence interval of the
tailed) difference difference difference
lower upper
atrs equal variances
,068 ,795 -,228 58 ,820 -,133 ,585 -1,304 1,037
assumed
equal variances not
-,228 57,980 ,820 -,133 ,585 -1,304 1,037
assumed
atpr equal variances
3,386 ,071 ,590 58 ,558 3,600 6,106 -8,622 15,822
assumed
equal variances not
,590 53,593 ,558 3,600 6,106 -8,644 15,844
assumed
att equal variances
4,465 ,039 ,591 58 ,557 1,167 1,974 -2,785 5,119
assumed
equal variances not
,591 49,959 ,557 1,167 1,974 -2,799 5,132
assumed
wrrs equal variances
,015 ,904 ,760 58 ,450 ,41167 ,54162 -,67251 1,49584
assumed
equal variances not
,760 57,959 ,450 ,41167 ,54162 -,67253 1,49586
assumed
wrpr equal variances
,809 ,372 -,975 58 ,334 -7,300 7,486 -22,285 7,685
assumed
equal variances not
-,975 57,486 ,334 -7,300 7,486 -22,288 7,688
assumed
wrt equal variances
,247 ,621 -,885 58 ,380 -2,433 2,748 -7,934 3,067
assumed
equal variances not
-,885 57,966 ,380 -2,433 2,748 -7,934 3,067
assumed
In table 2 can be seen the results of testing the research hypotheses using T-test for independent group (the results
from Kolmogorv-Smirnov test showed normal distribution for all the variables in the study).

5. Conclusions

The results didnt confirm the statistical hypotheses in the way that male subjects evidence higher or lower
tendencies in assuming the risk in traffic situation than female subjects (p>0.05). Hence, both gender has tendencies
in assuming the risk in traffic and short term memory of traffic situations as the pilot study reflected. Furthermore,
we have to take in consideration the age interval of the participants (18-29 years old) and the possibility that at this
age interval there are no short term memory of traffic situation and assuming risk tendencies in traffic. Hence, the
future directions should extend the sample sizes and also the age interval. Studies on elderly should be made as well.
 Mihai Anitei et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 907 912 911

The cultural contexts determine attitudes and traffic characteristics, thus while driving men have an open attitude to
risk, compared to women who face a cautious and adaptive attitude. While driving a vehicle appraisal, errors may
occur due to the time needed to perform certain maneuvers. This may affect distributive attention so that the subject
cannot correctly perform while multi-tasking.Through several psychological tests we can measure cognitive abilities
(perception, attention focused, distributive attention, thinking, etc.) and psychomotor skills including coordination
and complex reactions: reaction time synchronization hands down, tuning, speed, accuracy, motor learning, and so
on. The study is noticeable important regarding psycho-motor coordination tests on obtaining a driver's license
exam.

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