Last month, at an MIT event in Northern California, we discussed what specific applications could take computer-based brain training to a new level, and highlighted the potential for testing and improving driving skills.

Assessing and improving driving skills would be a prime candidate, given the well-defined nature of the need and the emergence of programs with increasing evidence (both scientific and real-world) behind it.

Along these lines, the New York Times just published an article, titled “Are You a Good Driver? Here’s How to Find Out.” Some quotes:

– “COULD a video game make you a better driver? More importantly, could computer software prevent teens from making fatal mistakes or even eliminate older drivers whose weaknesses make them prone to crashes?”

– “There are already programs like AAA’s Roadwise Review (about $15), which is meant to help seniors evaluate their driving.”

– “There are other programs that will test mental agility and then use subsequent computer training sessions to improve driver skills. One such program is an online application called DriveFit ($89), which was developed by CogniFit, An Israeli company that specializes in cognitive training, DriveFit uses visual and memory tests to measure 12 cognitive skills related to driving.”

A question we often get when we talk to insurance companies is, “So can we really train drivers to be smarter behind the wheel?” Well, it depends on what “smarter” means (we don’t know of brain training programs for drivers to avoid alcohol or sleep-inducing drugs before driving), but there is growing evidence that specific cognitive abilities that are important to driving can, in fact, be trained, resulting in better driving results.

A key research reference: the studies published by Dr. Karlene Ball and Dr. Jerri Edwards. We recently had the fortune of interviewing Dr. Edwards, and this is what she had to say when I asked her to explain the results of her 2003 paper on human factors (Roenker, D., Cissell, G., Ball, K., Wadley , V., & Edwards, J. (2003. Processing speed and driving simulator training result in improved driving performance. Human Factors, 45: 218-233):

– “Our goal was to train what is called the ‘useful field of vision’. The useful field of vision is a measure of processing speed and visual attention which is critical to driving performance, and one of the areas that it decays with age.It has previously been shown that this skill can be improved with training, so we wanted to see what effect it would have on the driving performance of older adults and whether training would be more or less effective than a simulation course traditional driving.

– For the study, we divided forty-eight adults over the age of fifty-five into two intervention groups of twenty-four people each. Each group received twenty hours of training. One group was exposed to a traditional driving simulator, where they learned specific driving behaviors. The other went through the cognitive training program.

– The driving performance of both groups improved just after their respective programs, but most of the benefits of the driving simulator disappeared by month eighteen.

– The processing speed intervention helped participants not only improve “useful field of vision”, the skill that was directly trained, but also transferred to real-life driving, and the results were maintained after 18 months. And by the way, the test was about as real as one can imagine: a 14-mile test on the open road.

– Increased processing speed seemed to allow adults to react better to unexpected events that require a quick response and to reduce the number of dangerous maneuvers on real roads (defined as those that required instructor intervention during the evaluation) by 40%. ).”

Note: The program used in that study, called Visual Awareness, was recently purchased by Posit Science Corporation.

In short, you will most likely answer YES to the question used to open the New York Times article. A well-designed video game CAN make you a better driver.

Of course, this is an emerging field, and much more research needs to be done before apps become mainstream, but the field certainly deserves more attention, research dollars, and commitment from insurance companies to design and conduct trials in the real world.

Allstate: How about spending just a fraction of your scary ad campaign budget to explore potential additional solutions?

Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains