Speaking about the mobile phones in cars and using sat navs Ash, What infuriates me is how they've drummed it into the public via law for obvious reasons the importance of not using mobile phones whilst driving, today's cars are just like mobile phones on wheels, what did they do? They put an ipad type device (maximum distraction) in the centre consoles of cars, there are no knobs or buttons for "muscle memory" to do it's thing and use said buttons without the need to find said buttons. With them ipads you need to see where you're tapping that damn screen thus taking away ALL attention from the road. How is it that automotive manufacturers are able to produce these cars that're basically fitting features that encourage maximum distraction away from driving. Cars are about driving and driving safely and not about playing with ipads.
yeah I agree. I was recently in a car from mid 90s (the owner kept it in pristine shape) and obviously there were a ton of buttons everywhere, and it stuck with me what you're saying. those buttons are a lot easier to feel for than touch screen
Yep spot on, it makes a mockery of the law when the car comes with a gloried IPad screwed to the dash board that you need to access to change the cars settings while you drive. [i what to change the car;s air con and ventilation, so I’ll just take my eyes off the road while I scroll through the screen on the dashboard ………]
In absolute agreement. Check out the dashboard layout of the Rover P6 or “2000” from 60 years ago. Ignition switch central. Switches either side with a distinctive unique shape. Hence no problem locating by feel or at night. Ironically manufacturers have put more controls within finger reach from the steering wheel since those days. Now due to the fashionable fad for infotainment there is a touch screen, which as you observe requires the driver to look away from the road ahead.
Interesting video, I really enjoyed it. To put it into my world as a bus driver, the cognitive load we have to deal with is sometimes overwhelming especially if you're dealing with busy roads, passengers that have questions or problems and they expect you to know everything. To help me cope I take a deep breath and try and relax my way through my day, I find if I get stressed or my cognitive load is too much I make mistakes which could be dangerous for me and my passengers. After 2 and a half years of doing the job and through help of your videos Ashley, I've learnt my own technique that helps me but keeps every one on or around that potential 15T bus safe.
I've worked in IT (under that name and all its predecessors) since 1976 and been a developer since 1981. Simon's point about small interruptions is immensely important. When you're trying to find a solution and the pressure is on, particularly in a firefighting scenario, the two questions "How are you doing?" and "Have you fixed it yet?" cause more delays than just about anything else. As well as the interruption to your concentration they also add to the pressure, however well meaning they are
Yep, When firefighting, you really need to put a "human firewall" between the workers, and the management - read the case study on Maersk's response to the NotPetya ransomware. Managers will demand a update every 15 minutes, and you need someone on your side to handle that. Unfortunately, companies need obnoxious managers on staff, to take on management at customers and suppliers. PMs are yes men, and will steal resource, by tasking people, without asking, first. When your manager tells said PM that you are mot available, the PM calls the customer and says, I quote "I.T Cannot Deliver" You keep getting it in the neck, until you are fired. (A good manager, on the other hand, is worth their weight in gold.)
That's been one of the big gains with working from home with me. I rarely get interrupted when I'm in the 'zone' at home. Most work chat is via Slack or emails, so being interrupted by phone calls is pretty much non-existent now (from work colleagues at least - still get 'kin cold callers breaking my flow). Also the move towards open-plan offices made things worse, so that was another reason to work from home.
@davem9204 Yes, I completely agree with all that. I've worked from home since 2006. As to open plan, I worked in one office where my desk was next to the walkway. I was the first port of call for anyone walking into the wing looking for someone, and a stopping off point for anyone going out (my desk faced into the wing). I actually complained to my manager who started intervening
6:52 Stirling Moss told a story about the Mille Miglia race. Denis Jenkinson was his navigator and they developed, essentially, pace notes for the route. Stirling could hear Denis through the radio/earphones they had set up when driving at 9/10ths, but as soon as Stirling was going at 10/10ths (flat out) he could no longer hear Denis. The thought being that he had to use all his brain capacity to see/hear and drive and there was none left to process what Denis was saying. In the end they had to resort to hand signals.
true but if you can raise your skills and risk assessment and hazard perception you can reduce the multiplier to less than 10, letting you ride safer for longer and making driving a car or van rather simple in comparison.
Especially when you're in a dull teams/zoom meeting and someone asks you a question and you've just been watching a YT video. "Sorry, i've got a bad connection and your audio cut-out, can you repeat the question for me?" while I pause the video.
Great video (so far….still listening) As a road safety practitioner in Australia, cognitive load is fundamental to so many road safety elements. Eg Sign design, fonts, layout, placement on road side, spacing, message recognition etc. Road design, speed limits and so on. All of these affect a driver’s cognitive load and, combined with the cognitive load management that Ashley often talks about, are critical to a driver managing their driving task. A not as often understood element of cognitive load is that when a cognitive load is lower, drivers will fill in the “gap” to their comfortable load level with music, discussions, or more critically, phone texts and other severe distractions. However, when something happens that needs a driver’s focus, some of that extra load must be shed. When the incorrect information is shed, that is when incidents or crashes happen. This cognitive load discussion is critical to safe driving, so keep up the great discussions and videos
Really good points about low cognitive load. I've certainly found when driving on roads with unrealistically low speed limits that it is easy for the mind to drift, and the brain switches away from driving. You certainly see it in other drivers who don't react to things, or start wandering about the road as they have to dawdle along. There's little wonder why a lot of tiredness-related driving incidents happen on quiet motorways. But there's got to be a balance between overloading the driver with too many things to concentrate on, and not making it so tedious that they drift off. Given that we are all different, finding that balance is quite tricky.
My workplace training is production line based - I used to process material in a complex way before passing my work onto someone else who also did something complex with it. The whole aim was to be as economical as possible with my movements and tasks performed. I apply that now to my driving job. We multi-stop and collect material. The idea is to streamline the collection and the parking and the driving so that we do as little as we need to do to get the job done. That then reflects on being able to drive more slowly and more carefully (trying to keep the brain load as low as possible). As an example we run through several sets of lights on the bypass. Speed limit is 50mph, but it is pointless doing more than about 35mph as all we will do is end up spending longer sat at the lights. Heading north up the bypass the trick is to adjust the speed so that we don't stop (your lights trick Ashley). We can also work the lights when we want them to help us waste time (ditto) towards the end of the day. I never like feeling like I am driving the van "like I stole it", or my car for that matter.
This is a fascinating subject particularly with driving. I don't think we do enough to ensure that the basic motor skills (steering, using the pedals, changing gears etc) are firmly in the "2nd nature" brain during driver training. Getting as much of this + standard situations (positioning for junctions, roundabouts, merging, slip roads etc) to be automatic, reduces the cognitive load and allows much more brain activity to be spent on observation, risk assessment and active problem solving. One of my gripes though is that modern cars actually increase cognitive load. Once we'd got ABS and traction control in as driver aids we should have stopped. Everything else (lane departure warnings, speed limit warnings, blind spot warnings, automatic braking etc etc) are just distractions. Sure, they may help someone avoid a dangerous situation once every so often but you've added to the cognitive load at all other times. Unless, of course, experience of them over time forces you to ignore them, in which case they are not doing their job. I'm probably in the minority in calling for all this rubbish to be taken away and make the test harder or have a graded test. But then I'm also someone who really wants to be able to switch ABS off for the times when it doesn't help or, in fact, increases danger (admittedly situations that occur very very seldomly).
My instructor spent time to make sure that I had the basics down, before moving-on. I never learnt to drive, until later in life, because of fine-motor issues. However, that means I've spent over 25 years on the road, so I knew how to achieve best flow. I'd slow slightly, without thinking, to avoid "same space/time" conflicts. I said " If I back-off a bit, then we can both go." My instructor didn't expect a learner to understand that, yet. Nor about blindspots on lorries, busses, etc. 20 years as a bus passenger, teaches you a lot about driving, and how NOT to drive. The 'German' marques, taxies, and White-Van-Man, no problem, I expect them to behave badly towards me. W-V-M cuts me up, fully in the knowledge that my instructor will stop me. I see what he's about to do, took avoiding action, and said "It's all right, he's entitled to do that, he's in a van" Tailgaters, didn't bother me, "They arn't pushing me along, pass me, if you want, I don't care" I said. I got one to back-off, by gently left-foot braking. I said "I want a switch, that puts the brake lights on. So they panic, and back-off" Apparently, most learners wouldn't think of such things. I'd picked-up a number of bad habits, before I'd driven a single mile. 😊
I agree with your points there, particular on modern cars with these so-called driver aids. Another aspect of the basic motor skills becoming second nature, is when you drive a different car from your usual one. There's a period of adjustment to the slightly different feel and positioning of controls which takes up more concentration. So you can end up not concentrating so well on the other aspects of driving, and things like peripheral vision and forward planning can be compromised. I'm sure anyone who's had to drive abroad in a LHD car knows what it's like to have that settling period to a new layout.
Interesting subject, I will certainly think about it when in a teaching situation. Thinking about it I tend to do this unconsciously when driving. When I approach a complicated junction or situation, I’ll stop talking or even listening to a conversation until I’ve navigated it safely. So I guess I’m self reducing my cognitive load. Drives the wife mad with the usual response of “You haven’t heard a word I’ve just said, have you?”
Your unconscious mind does this itself. In times of extreme cognitive load, where there is way too much to be taken in, the brain deprioritses important tasks, like normal visual processing. This is the "Tunnel Vision" Affect. You might think you have clear vision, you do not. Human vision is deffective - Your brain is lying to you. When you are overwhelmed, and get "Tunnel Vision", that is your brain not having the capacity to keep-up the illusion. You then get to perceive what your eyes are actually seeing. Hold your arms out in front of you, a sholders width apart, form a L shape with finger and thumb. Inside that circle is clear vision, outside is filled in by your brain. Scary, is''t it? The only time I've ever experienced tunnel vision, was on my first three driving tests. I was fine, until the examiner was sat in the car, ready for me to start. Everything outside of the center of my vision, faded to a browny grey! I had to look directly at things to see them clearly. I've never had that happen in my life, before or since. Not even total I.T system failure, caused it.
I had a slight chuckle at Simon’s comment at around time 3:10 because (and I know my situation was an exception because I had five years of motorcycling under my belt before I started learning to drive) the very first manoeuvre I ever did in the driving seat of a car, and it was a driving school car, was to pull out of a layby onto a 70mph dual carriageway during rush hour.
Chris Martin recently posted a video where he had a passenger and while on a blue light run, he was able to have a calm conversation, even some jokes in there, with them while driving at speed through the traffic. that was such a great example to me of the extra brain capacity that he has still there to deal with a situation at those speeds and in busy traffic vs an average driver and even vs an above average driver. years of training and building on those skills to read the road to the point its second nature, its amazing to watch. and shows as well some drivers out there on dash cam channels struggle to deal with an overload of information in some situations and they could really do with taking some advanced lessons to help develop those skills to be safer.
Really good video and cognitive load management is something everyone needs to be able to do. I think Simon summed it up nicely with the "Nobody will die" phrase and that is something that we use a lot at work as well along with "We aren't flying an aeroplane that we need to land at some point" One of the biggest distractions at work when I am in the office is someone else on the phone. The sudden noise can be related to the light being turned on by Developer B that distracts Developer A. The next biggest distraction is someone walking up and saying the worse possible four word combination - "Quick question for you...". It might be a quick question but it is going to take a lot to be able to answer and get back to what we was doing. As for the load itself, time and experience helps greatly. The current job I am in, been here almost 20 years but experience from my previous work meant I was able to (mostly) hit the ground running with a little retraining on different systems. The same is still true today, there are things that arise that haven't happened before and slowing down before jumping in really does get the job done quicker. Same with driving, approaching junctions slower means you can emerge quicker Thank you both 👍
That 'autism' (distraction) perspective for high cognitive load in software development (see also CRM "sterile cockpit" comment) has flip side considerations in the 'everyone is a driver' world of public expectation (even worse in USA) where folks are distracted all over the place (nice dog; stranded lady driver; construction work; etc.)
If it wasn’t for the last sentence, it wouldn’t have been applicable to driving at all. Please make sure your next comment is more directed to driving so we can all understand
@@123MondayTuesday Isn't that a meta problem about abstraction, that is, seeing aspects of one problem in the other. There are a vast array of apparently specialised problems that when 'inverted' turn out to be 'people' problems relating to cognition. Systems Engineering is a whole field that is _just_ 'cognition' repackaged in a task-specific language. There are others;-)
Very interesting video. As a software engineer myself, I was already aware of cognitive load and how even small distractions can really disturb it. I think something you guys slightly touched on, but what many people seriously underestimate, is the cost of "context switching". In software development that usually refers to the time it takes to get back into the right mindset for your task after a disruption (like a meeting or helping a co-worker) or when you switch tasks. It can take up to 20 minutes (depending on the size of the interruption) to get back into the flow of the task you're working on. You can imagine, that with small disruptions all throughout the day, that can really destroy somebody's productivity. When driving a car, it's obviously not quite as extreme, but as you mentioned, even something as inconsequential feeling like changing the volume on your radio can cause such an effect. It takes your attention away and it will take a bit to fully get that attention back. That short period of slightly lowered attention can cause issues if there is a lot of risk around. Which is of course why you always say that you do stuff like that during moments when risk is low (long, straight roads with little traffic).
We did mention it in passing but I was very conscious that we didn't get distracted by it as a topic....Isn't that a bit Meta? I've helped teams to develop strategies to cope with this. There's a fine line between interrupting someone and causing cognitive switching and waiting for an opportune moment while being blocked. We encourage teams to communicate openly and constantly but everyone in the team is also responsible for minimising the drag caused by switching
There is something that quite a few cars can be guilty of is that small distraction from what you are doing - the onboard warning system. There have been a few examples of drivers in automatic cars panicking upon hearing a reversing sensor beeping and accelerating instead of breaking as it is something out of the ordinary. Now imagine the scenario where, it happened to Ashley in one of his videos where the collision detection system activated an audio warning, another system activates as the driver is doing something critical like merging onto a motorway or dual carriageway and they look at what the beep was for but miss traffic slowing in front of them. I am still watching the video so am waiting for the discussion around driver assistance and how it is meant to reduce the cognitive load but in my humblest of opinions, there are some systems that can actually increase the load when they activate without warning and for no reason. Lane assist on a SMART motorway? Having the steering wheel snatch in your hands as it doesn't realise you can use the hard shoulder is a heart stopping moment
You know you are talking to a dev, when they use the term "Context Switching" to describe (Human) Interrupts. Sadly not all human interrupts can be masked. Those are often caused by priority interrupts from "Management Processes"
A subtle difference (perhaps not so) is that when driving one has a full view ahead of the physical ground ahead and its layout, while in development (and many other cognitive issues in life) we can't physically see that future, beyond a simple digital clock and calendar of obligations and expectations. In some senses this a great help in using 'driving' as a simplified analogy for 'development', with the added nuance of 'and what sound an instructor learn.. Not got to a point where hopefully, time (rather than space) management is covered as we can manage easily for spacings but not timings (e.g. the "2 chevrons" are not 2 seconds apart at motorway speeds!)
The term ‘cognitive load’ was quite novel to me, almost like a neurological perspective - but the real life factors of it is quite familiar. Apart from road driving, similar issues exist in other areas where the work load can increase quite rapidly when unplanned events happen. E.g. in a control room environment where much is automatic, most of the time, but where the human operative is expected to deal with any emergency, and take over manual control of something or other. In that context, the timing of our reaction to any incoming data can be relevant, along with normal eyesight features - in particular the different resolution of our viewing angles. After all, our high resolution angle is pretty narrow, although we can detect potential threats at a wide angle. But try to read a load of detailed text on a batch of road signs on approach to them, or even worse, be distracted by some kind of advertising signage in an awkward place. Maybe that is taken into account in road design etc, but I'm not sure about that.
Many points well made. Thank you for putting this out to a wider audience. Mobile phones, in-car conversations, resetting a satnav are all extraneous loads that are within the driver’s control. Simply elect not to do them at a bad time. The extraneous load OUTSIDE the vehicle cannot be controlled so must be managed by spotting them early. Having names for ideas certainly encourages thought. The significance of “regular cadence” during M-way driving is obvious. But didn’t find talk about teams useful. Driving is not a team activity, but thanks again for prompting a debate.
Great video. When Simon said about having team members capable of doing some parts of another role to make it easier on other members, from an instructors point of view that’s what I’m always trying to do with my students to understand a lorry driver or cyclist’s perspective
Understanding what you've learned intuitively (or through bitter experience) can make it much easier to communicate it to others, and also provides access to other, related knowledge that has been researched or otherwise implemented by others, and often from different disciplines. In this case, the formalism is "cognitive load" and the understanding as to what causes it and how to develop and improve defences against its occurring cross disciplinary boundaries, so knowing what it is gives you access to experience from other domains, not just the driving instructor domain. An excellent and related example is the commercial airline Crew/Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) and the concept of a "sterile cockpit", particularly during periods of intense activity like landings. Application of the "sterile cockpit" when driving a car would cover distractions like music playing, chatting to passengers, mobile phones, etc. I turn the music off when I drive in cities. My attention needs to be outside the car, not in my head singing along raucously to whatever nonsense I'm hearing!
Then there's the extra load of turning off the radio etc when approaching any hazard, such as a round about or tricky T junction without sufficient anticipation (Eeek!)
Hi Ashley, I was having an interesting conversation this afternoon on this very topic, one of the women I work with was saying that stopping for pedestrians at exit of a roundabout is not something she is prepared to do!,. her 'reason' given being that a following car might run into the back of her vehicle!. I suggested that given the observations required one must know how close the car behind is before any change of speed and direction, this for me at roundabouts is never a problem because I always know the distance and speed of traffic following and adjust my speed and position during the entire approach and negotiation of the roundabout, this always involves finding a space pocket for myself and ensuring that other vehicles can also have their own pocket, thus should I observe pedestrians at the exit I will see that as soon as they are visible and looking in my mirrors so that I can slow down early for the walkers!. As I was speaking I could see that she did not follow my thread and it went in one ear and out the other!, an example of her cognitive overload, just as that traffic situation also induces overload, in both cases when people hear things that do not fit their own picture and expectations it cannot be understood, an example of how listening interferes with hearing and made up minds inhibit rational thinking. What I am suggesting is not that cognitive overload is not an issue but the behaviour that causes or amplifies it is manageable, it requires a significant change in mind set!, observing the dynamic situation you bare in without preconception or prejudgement, looking only for new detail information, all changes as they occur and act accordingly without any judgement, it does not matter if other drivers are not doing what they should it matters only that you observe and respond appropriately, this turns out to be remarkably easy in most traffic situations, the relative speeds and positions are not that hard to deal with, if they were fewer of us would survive out there!. The other significant influence of people's ability to think clearly and logically is strong emotions, extreme anger or too much laughing will distract you!, you can't stop it coming but you can let it pass without doing anything too silly. Distractions of many types a persistent part of our lives!, what ever we are trying to do other things drop in and interfere, my trick is to offer no resistance let things in and let them through it only takes a moment but it makes sense to allow some free mind time when driving, none of us can rely on a-=our own continuous concentration. One of the things you talked about recently was about finding a pocket of space to drive in, this is actually what all drivers do, some are cleverer than other but none of us can ever expect to occupy the exact same space as anyone else, when you take a space pocket the other =drivers will see it for what irt is and act accordingly, this is essentially the same sort of team work he speaks of, just not formalised. Some people might insist that we humans must know and understand the 'rules' of human behaviour in order to apply them, this is totally false, we do not obey gravity because we know and understand it as with all natural laws they cannot be broken by anyone at any time, in just this way our behaviour is regulated by the natural laws that apply regardless of what we think we know!. Cheers, Richard.
Interesting stuff, we had Agile training at work. We then ignored it all and carried on the same. I'm not a dev though, although we could have incorporated some of it.
Another interesting topic to cover regarding driving is the " Familiarity breeds Contempt " where over 80% of car accidents occur within 3 miles of a drivers home ! Where we as drivers a prone to switching off when we drive on roads we a very familiar with , This kind of ties in with this Cognitive load discussion where when we are driving on unfamiliar roads we tend to concentrate more , which in turn reduces risk .
Most folks start and end all their driving excursions from home, so it _should_ be no surprise that most accidents are 'near' home, especially when there is just as much area between 3 & 4 miles, as all the are within that 3 mile radius (plus, it's always other people or their distractions that cause those accidents 😉)
I drive a WAV but as a second car i bought a VW fox it had power steering but nothing else electronic, it even had manual window openers, it was a lovely little car to drive nothing distracting it was like going back in time.
I thought this was really interesting. I recognise the symptoms Simon mentions, as I have ADHD - they have many striking similarities. To describe our cognitive load of a typical ADHD person: My IQ is 162. Imagine waking up with two songs or ear worms playing in your head at the same time - all day. Maybe one you don't even recognise. Whilst that is going on, you are thinking about number of different things - Mine has been obsessed with' Axiams' for example. I researched them and it is something to do with energy and propulsion. I am not interested in it, but my brain does it's own thing, it's constantly working on problem solving. There could be several of these random topics being thought about, plus the songs all the the same time. Whilst all that is going on, you are having day to day conversations., dealing with day to day issues, working and learning other things as life demands. What Simon describes, particularly the changing from working to meeting at irregular times, is actually a known ADHD weakness - it is called 'Task Switching' where you struggle to continue the task you left earlier. Having regular, set timings is what ADHD people do to control it. What we do have as our 'superpower' is the ability to 'Hyper Focus' on tasks that interest them - where you are fully engrossed in one subject at the detriment of all else around you. Again, that is what Simon described when he was talking about high output problem solving in his industry, where they block everything else out. Hyper Focus can achieve the extraordinary - so do programmers in Simon's environment harness this Hyper Focus without realising it? Are they operating at such a high level of problem solving - a task ADHD people are known to excel at with ease due to their cognitive dysfunction - that they are meeting a level of 'overwhelm' that is shared with those that have ADHD? A level of burnout? The point were you literally 'clock off' from a task and fight to re-engage? From an Instruction level with Driving, ADHD are perceived as being more high risk - but I don't agree. Keeping the brain busy is it's comfort zone. Riding a motorcycle is a relaxing experience as there is so much to be looking out for. Instructors describe me as 'hyper observant' where I am checking all around me, all of the time- we are hyper alert to movement. Riding a bike you need to assess constantly, watch six cars ahead, plus the one in front and have at least two escape routes in place. Driving a car, I passed first time after three lessons, with one fault - A car in front had broken down at the lights, I was given a hesitation (unfairly I thought, but I took it on the chin) as I thought he had stalled. I've driven all over the world, passed all ADI training (didn't have the final 4k funds for the certificate at the time) had a career on the road driving most of the time and had two bumps since passing my test almost forty years ago. Neither significant. I don't feel that we are a risk as many would assume. But the similarities on cognitive function are very interesting, and it does make me wonder if this level of high output problem solving is reaching levels that diagnosed ADHD people operate at in terms of cognitive function. Would be interesting if some of Simons' colleagues took a test and how many may be on that level.
Interesting title and subject. Will watch the entire video soon. One comment for now. Sometimes when I review my dash cam footage purely for my own coaching purposes, I notice things that I didn't notice at the time I was driving.
I too watch my driving back, yesterday I learnt when a 30 limit ends and 40 limit begins on a small stretch of a dual carriageway I’ve always done less than 40 on it
So I learnt to ski went on a couple of holidays but found I concentrated too hard on what I was doing could not enjoy myself I had lots of lessons in UK dry slope But just found it hard to do in ski resort I come across a book about how to concentrate and allow the body to deal with what you had to do in between all this I had two driving tests and failed on both But after reading this book about skiing I tried it for driving as well which I passed on the next test It helps you focus on where you are
My HGV instructor said he had to slow things down while learning to a speed the pupil can take it in process what is happening and how to deal with it. . This will be different for each pupil
Ashley says 'no one', because he will say 'nobody has right of way'. The real answer, particularly with mini-roundabouts, is it's the first vehicle onto the roundabout. I had this very situation occur this morning - the white van driver needed no permission to take the initiative and make the first move! If another vehicle had then pulled out and collided with the white van that was established on the carriageway of the roundabout, then they would have been at fault.
5:27 There are many more vehicles on the roads and many more different road users using the roads, but would tuition be easer in a remote rural area than a busy congested city? With congestion you’d learn hazards, cyclists, pedestrians, road furniture etc With rural area you can build speed, better understand brakes, better understand steering etc I’m sure many viewers have learnt between the two i.e the busy city/town with the rural roads nearby but for those people who learnt in one area and never driven in the other that cognitive load will be much greater.
Does cognitive load capacity explain tailgaters? Are they driving so close in an effort to (unknowingly) reduce the inputs coming in by only being able to see just the back of the car in front?
Perhaps a little - relying on the vehicle in front to make the decisions for the tailgater behind, aggression and impatience are also factors. Tailgating certainly increases the cognitive load on the driver being tailgated.
Puzzled, posted 20 mins ago but comments 2 months old. Didn't come across this 2 months ago, as far as i know 🤔 Edit ahhh I've just realised this is a members only video that has been released for the general public👍
Ashley Psychic again. Only on the way home just now I was thinking of how often I don't see indicators on roundabouts due to the overload of information my brain is trying to process (as a person who is autistic there can be TMI quite frequently). [edited for tpyo]
I'm not sure that my mindset was in the right place to take on board such a lengthy vid. Being sick/run down with the Flu doesn't help. One thing that I can take on board, however, is that you can be great driver but not necessarily a good teacher. Autism is a definite factor. It doesn't just apply to being on the road. Your work can also be affected. Outside influences can often impair performance. Suffice to say that I'm going nowhere near the Car until this Flu has gone. No point in placing others at risk.
I'm also finding it hard. Simon's audio, seems to have been run through an aggressive, reduced bit rate codec. It could also be in combination with his mic. Too aggressive filtering or noise -cancelling, results in a intelligible, but fatiguing sound. To avoid codec-stacking, perhaps record the mics at each-end, then replace the soundtrack in post? I used to have to run large-scale A/V and video conferences. I strived for an intelligible, but natural, sound. The more aggressive the processing, or codec, the less information remains, and the harder it is for the listener. Remember, the purpose of video calling, is communication, so good audio production is a must, give as much bandwidth to audio, with the least aggressive codec.
🥕The title you selected for this video must have alienated whatever sector of your potential audience adopt a strictly carnivore diet!😂 Did you allow yourself sufficient time to be able to think it through from their perspective before committing to it? 😉
They are spending too much time looking after the cyclists around them instead of driving 😉 Joking around. Some can be down to the incognitive attitude of thinking cars are superior to other road users
Speaking about the mobile phones in cars and using sat navs Ash, What infuriates me is how they've drummed it into the public via law for obvious reasons the importance of not using mobile phones whilst driving, today's cars are just like mobile phones on wheels, what did they do? They put an ipad type device (maximum distraction) in the centre consoles of cars, there are no knobs or buttons for "muscle memory" to do it's thing and use said buttons without the need to find said buttons. With them ipads you need to see where you're tapping that damn screen thus taking away ALL attention from the road. How is it that automotive manufacturers are able to produce these cars that're basically fitting features that encourage maximum distraction away from driving. Cars are about driving and driving safely and not about playing with ipads.
Beautifully put.
yeah I agree.
I was recently in a car from mid 90s (the owner kept it in pristine shape) and obviously there were a ton of buttons everywhere, and it stuck with me what you're saying. those buttons are a lot easier to feel for than touch screen
Yep spot on, it makes a mockery of the law when the car comes with a gloried IPad screwed to the dash board that you need to access to change the cars settings while you drive.
[i what to change the car;s air con and ventilation, so I’ll just take my eyes off the road while I scroll through the screen on the dashboard ………]
In absolute agreement. Check out the dashboard layout of the Rover P6 or “2000” from 60 years ago. Ignition switch central. Switches either side with a distinctive unique shape. Hence no problem locating by feel or at night.
Ironically manufacturers have put more controls within finger reach from the steering wheel since those days. Now due to the fashionable fad for infotainment there is a touch screen, which as you observe requires the driver to look away from the road ahead.
All those cars should be confiscated without compensation.
Interesting video, I really enjoyed it. To put it into my world as a bus driver, the cognitive load we have to deal with is sometimes overwhelming especially if you're dealing with busy roads, passengers that have questions or problems and they expect you to know everything. To help me cope I take a deep breath and try and relax my way through my day, I find if I get stressed or my cognitive load is too much I make mistakes which could be dangerous for me and my passengers. After 2 and a half years of doing the job and through help of your videos Ashley, I've learnt my own technique that helps me but keeps every one on or around that potential 15T bus safe.
I've worked in IT (under that name and all its predecessors) since 1976 and been a developer since 1981. Simon's point about small interruptions is immensely important. When you're trying to find a solution and the pressure is on, particularly in a firefighting scenario, the two questions "How are you doing?" and "Have you fixed it yet?" cause more delays than just about anything else. As well as the interruption to your concentration they also add to the pressure, however well meaning they are
Yep, When firefighting, you really need to put a "human firewall" between the workers, and the management - read the case study on Maersk's response to the NotPetya ransomware.
Managers will demand a update every 15 minutes, and you need someone on your side to handle that. Unfortunately, companies need obnoxious managers on staff, to take on management at customers and suppliers.
PMs are yes men, and will steal resource, by tasking people, without asking, first.
When your manager tells said PM that you are mot available, the PM calls the customer and says, I quote "I.T Cannot Deliver"
You keep getting it in the neck, until you are fired.
(A good manager, on the other hand, is worth their weight in gold.)
That's been one of the big gains with working from home with me. I rarely get interrupted when I'm in the 'zone' at home. Most work chat is via Slack or emails, so being interrupted by phone calls is pretty much non-existent now (from work colleagues at least - still get 'kin cold callers breaking my flow).
Also the move towards open-plan offices made things worse, so that was another reason to work from home.
@davem9204 Yes, I completely agree with all that. I've worked from home since 2006. As to open plan, I worked in one office where my desk was next to the walkway. I was the first port of call for anyone walking into the wing looking for someone, and a stopping off point for anyone going out (my desk faced into the wing). I actually complained to my manager who started intervening
Totally agree. I am in a similar situation and it really annoys and stresses me.
6:52 Stirling Moss told a story about the Mille Miglia race. Denis Jenkinson was his navigator and they developed, essentially, pace notes for the route. Stirling could hear Denis through the radio/earphones they had set up when driving at 9/10ths, but as soon as Stirling was going at 10/10ths (flat out) he could no longer hear Denis. The thought being that he had to use all his brain capacity to see/hear and drive and there was none left to process what Denis was saying. In the end they had to resort to hand signals.
Times 10 on a motorcycle! Great talk.
true but if you can raise your skills and risk assessment and hazard perception you can reduce the multiplier to less than 10, letting you ride safer for longer and making driving a car or van rather simple in comparison.
Sometimes I have to pause a youtube video to be able to concentrate on work. This was very interesting.
How inconsiderate of people interrupting your TH-cam viewing with work 😁
Most of the time the plane flies itself.
Especially when you're in a dull teams/zoom meeting and someone asks you a question and you've just been watching a YT video. "Sorry, i've got a bad connection and your audio cut-out, can you repeat the question for me?" while I pause the video.
Great video (so far….still listening)
As a road safety practitioner in Australia, cognitive load is fundamental to so many road safety elements. Eg Sign design, fonts, layout, placement on road side, spacing, message recognition etc. Road design, speed limits and so on.
All of these affect a driver’s cognitive load and, combined with the cognitive load management that Ashley often talks about, are critical to a driver managing their driving task.
A not as often understood element of cognitive load is that when a cognitive load is lower, drivers will fill in the “gap” to their comfortable load level with music, discussions, or more critically, phone texts and other severe distractions. However, when something happens that needs a driver’s focus, some of that extra load must be shed. When the incorrect information is shed, that is when incidents or crashes happen.
This cognitive load discussion is critical to safe driving, so keep up the great discussions and videos
The low load is the reason I was taught to not lane hog on the motorway, as this lower the cognitive load and distractions.
Really good points about low cognitive load. I've certainly found when driving on roads with unrealistically low speed limits that it is easy for the mind to drift, and the brain switches away from driving. You certainly see it in other drivers who don't react to things, or start wandering about the road as they have to dawdle along.
There's little wonder why a lot of tiredness-related driving incidents happen on quiet motorways.
But there's got to be a balance between overloading the driver with too many things to concentrate on, and not making it so tedious that they drift off. Given that we are all different, finding that balance is quite tricky.
My workplace training is production line based - I used to process material in a complex way before passing my work onto someone else who also did something complex with it. The whole aim was to be as economical as possible with my movements and tasks performed. I apply that now to my driving job. We multi-stop and collect material. The idea is to streamline the collection and the parking and the driving so that we do as little as we need to do to get the job done. That then reflects on being able to drive more slowly and more carefully (trying to keep the brain load as low as possible). As an example we run through several sets of lights on the bypass. Speed limit is 50mph, but it is pointless doing more than about 35mph as all we will do is end up spending longer sat at the lights. Heading north up the bypass the trick is to adjust the speed so that we don't stop (your lights trick Ashley). We can also work the lights when we want them to help us waste time (ditto) towards the end of the day. I never like feeling like I am driving the van "like I stole it", or my car for that matter.
This is a fascinating subject particularly with driving. I don't think we do enough to ensure that the basic motor skills (steering, using the pedals, changing gears etc) are firmly in the "2nd nature" brain during driver training. Getting as much of this + standard situations (positioning for junctions, roundabouts, merging, slip roads etc) to be automatic, reduces the cognitive load and allows much more brain activity to be spent on observation, risk assessment and active problem solving.
One of my gripes though is that modern cars actually increase cognitive load. Once we'd got ABS and traction control in as driver aids we should have stopped. Everything else (lane departure warnings, speed limit warnings, blind spot warnings, automatic braking etc etc) are just distractions. Sure, they may help someone avoid a dangerous situation once every so often but you've added to the cognitive load at all other times. Unless, of course, experience of them over time forces you to ignore them, in which case they are not doing their job.
I'm probably in the minority in calling for all this rubbish to be taken away and make the test harder or have a graded test. But then I'm also someone who really wants to be able to switch ABS off for the times when it doesn't help or, in fact, increases danger (admittedly situations that occur very very seldomly).
My instructor spent time to make sure that I had the basics down, before moving-on. I never learnt to drive, until later in life, because of fine-motor issues. However, that means I've spent over 25 years on the road, so I knew how to achieve best flow. I'd slow slightly, without thinking, to avoid "same space/time" conflicts.
I said " If I back-off a bit, then we can both go." My instructor didn't expect a learner to understand that, yet.
Nor about blindspots on lorries, busses, etc. 20 years as a bus passenger, teaches you a lot about driving, and how NOT to drive.
The 'German' marques, taxies, and White-Van-Man, no problem, I expect them to behave badly towards me.
W-V-M cuts me up, fully in the knowledge that my instructor will stop me. I see what he's about to do, took avoiding action, and said "It's all right, he's entitled to do that, he's in a van"
Tailgaters, didn't bother me, "They arn't pushing me along, pass me, if you want, I don't care" I said.
I got one to back-off, by gently left-foot braking. I said "I want a switch, that puts the brake lights on. So they panic, and back-off"
Apparently, most learners wouldn't think of such things. I'd picked-up a number of bad habits, before I'd driven a single mile. 😊
I agree with your points there, particular on modern cars with these so-called driver aids.
Another aspect of the basic motor skills becoming second nature, is when you drive a different car from your usual one. There's a period of adjustment to the slightly different feel and positioning of controls which takes up more concentration. So you can end up not concentrating so well on the other aspects of driving, and things like peripheral vision and forward planning can be compromised. I'm sure anyone who's had to drive abroad in a LHD car knows what it's like to have that settling period to a new layout.
Interesting subject, I will certainly think about it when in a teaching situation. Thinking about it I tend to do this unconsciously when driving. When I approach a complicated junction or situation, I’ll stop talking or even listening to a conversation until I’ve navigated it safely. So I guess I’m self reducing my cognitive load. Drives the wife mad with the usual response of “You haven’t heard a word I’ve just said, have you?”
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.....in that order. Hard-earned maxim that you've worked out yourself, well done!
Your unconscious mind does this itself.
In times of extreme cognitive load, where there is way too much to be taken in, the brain deprioritses important tasks, like normal visual processing.
This is the "Tunnel Vision" Affect.
You might think you have clear vision, you do not. Human vision is deffective - Your brain is lying to you.
When you are overwhelmed, and get "Tunnel Vision", that is your brain not having the capacity to keep-up the illusion. You then get to perceive what your eyes are actually seeing. Hold your arms out in front of you, a sholders width apart, form a L shape with finger and thumb. Inside that circle is clear vision, outside is filled in by your brain.
Scary, is''t it?
The only time I've ever experienced tunnel vision, was on my first three driving tests. I was fine, until the examiner was sat in the car, ready for me to start. Everything outside of the center of my vision, faded to a browny grey!
I had to look directly at things to see them clearly.
I've never had that happen in my life, before or since. Not even total I.T system failure, caused it.
Really interesting conversation both from a driver perspective and my job in the software industry.
I had a slight chuckle at Simon’s comment at around time 3:10 because (and I know my situation was an exception because I had five years of motorcycling under my belt before I started learning to drive) the very first manoeuvre I ever did in the driving seat of a car, and it was a driving school car, was to pull out of a layby onto a 70mph dual carriageway during rush hour.
Chris Martin recently posted a video where he had a passenger and while on a blue light run, he was able to have a calm conversation, even some jokes in there, with them while driving at speed through the traffic. that was such a great example to me of the extra brain capacity that he has still there to deal with a situation at those speeds and in busy traffic vs an average driver and even vs an above average driver. years of training and building on those skills to read the road to the point its second nature, its amazing to watch. and shows as well some drivers out there on dash cam channels struggle to deal with an overload of information in some situations and they could really do with taking some advanced lessons to help develop those skills to be safer.
Really good video and cognitive load management is something everyone needs to be able to do. I think Simon summed it up nicely with the "Nobody will die" phrase and that is something that we use a lot at work as well along with "We aren't flying an aeroplane that we need to land at some point"
One of the biggest distractions at work when I am in the office is someone else on the phone. The sudden noise can be related to the light being turned on by Developer B that distracts Developer A. The next biggest distraction is someone walking up and saying the worse possible four word combination - "Quick question for you...". It might be a quick question but it is going to take a lot to be able to answer and get back to what we was doing.
As for the load itself, time and experience helps greatly. The current job I am in, been here almost 20 years but experience from my previous work meant I was able to (mostly) hit the ground running with a little retraining on different systems. The same is still true today, there are things that arise that haven't happened before and slowing down before jumping in really does get the job done quicker. Same with driving, approaching junctions slower means you can emerge quicker
Thank you both 👍
That 'autism' (distraction) perspective for high cognitive load in software development (see also CRM "sterile cockpit" comment) has flip side considerations in the 'everyone is a driver' world of public expectation (even worse in USA) where folks are distracted all over the place (nice dog; stranded lady driver; construction work; etc.)
If it wasn’t for the last sentence, it wouldn’t have been applicable to driving at all. Please make sure your next comment is more directed to driving so we can all understand
@ I drive when I work and I work when I drive so all should be understandable 👍
@@123MondayTuesday Isn't that a meta problem about abstraction, that is, seeing aspects of one problem in the other.
There are a vast array of apparently specialised problems that when 'inverted' turn out to be 'people' problems relating to cognition. Systems Engineering is a whole field that is _just_ 'cognition' repackaged in a task-specific language. There are others;-)
When Ashley said there were lads who struggled to speak English when he played for Liverpool, I thought he was talking about Peter Beardsley.
And Jan Molby spoke better English than most of the British lads.
Very interesting video. As a software engineer myself, I was already aware of cognitive load and how even small distractions can really disturb it. I think something you guys slightly touched on, but what many people seriously underestimate, is the cost of "context switching". In software development that usually refers to the time it takes to get back into the right mindset for your task after a disruption (like a meeting or helping a co-worker) or when you switch tasks. It can take up to 20 minutes (depending on the size of the interruption) to get back into the flow of the task you're working on. You can imagine, that with small disruptions all throughout the day, that can really destroy somebody's productivity.
When driving a car, it's obviously not quite as extreme, but as you mentioned, even something as inconsequential feeling like changing the volume on your radio can cause such an effect. It takes your attention away and it will take a bit to fully get that attention back. That short period of slightly lowered attention can cause issues if there is a lot of risk around. Which is of course why you always say that you do stuff like that during moments when risk is low (long, straight roads with little traffic).
We did mention it in passing but I was very conscious that we didn't get distracted by it as a topic....Isn't that a bit Meta? I've helped teams to develop strategies to cope with this. There's a fine line between interrupting someone and causing cognitive switching and waiting for an opportune moment while being blocked. We encourage teams to communicate openly and constantly but everyone in the team is also responsible for minimising the drag caused by switching
There is something that quite a few cars can be guilty of is that small distraction from what you are doing - the onboard warning system.
There have been a few examples of drivers in automatic cars panicking upon hearing a reversing sensor beeping and accelerating instead of breaking as it is something out of the ordinary. Now imagine the scenario where, it happened to Ashley in one of his videos where the collision detection system activated an audio warning, another system activates as the driver is doing something critical like merging onto a motorway or dual carriageway and they look at what the beep was for but miss traffic slowing in front of them.
I am still watching the video so am waiting for the discussion around driver assistance and how it is meant to reduce the cognitive load but in my humblest of opinions, there are some systems that can actually increase the load when they activate without warning and for no reason. Lane assist on a SMART motorway? Having the steering wheel snatch in your hands as it doesn't realise you can use the hard shoulder is a heart stopping moment
the CRM "sterile cockpit" approach comment might be appropriate.
You know you are talking to a dev, when they use the term "Context Switching" to describe (Human) Interrupts.
Sadly not all human interrupts can be masked. Those are often caused by priority interrupts from "Management Processes"
A subtle difference (perhaps not so) is that when driving one has a full view ahead of the physical ground ahead and its layout, while in development (and many other cognitive issues in life) we can't physically see that future, beyond a simple digital clock and calendar of obligations and expectations.
In some senses this a great help in using 'driving' as a simplified analogy for 'development', with the added nuance of 'and what sound an instructor learn..
Not got to a point where hopefully, time (rather than space) management is covered as we can manage easily for spacings but not timings (e.g. the "2 chevrons" are not 2 seconds apart at motorway speeds!)
The term ‘cognitive load’ was quite novel to me, almost like a neurological perspective - but the real life factors of it is quite familiar. Apart from road driving, similar issues exist in other areas where the work load can increase quite rapidly when unplanned events happen. E.g. in a control room environment where much is automatic, most of the time, but where the human operative is expected to deal with any emergency, and take over manual control of something or other.
In that context, the timing of our reaction to any incoming data can be relevant, along with normal eyesight features - in particular the different resolution of our viewing angles. After all, our high resolution angle is pretty narrow, although we can detect potential threats at a wide angle. But try to read a load of detailed text on a batch of road signs on approach to them, or even worse, be distracted by some kind of advertising signage in an awkward place. Maybe that is taken into account in road design etc, but I'm not sure about that.
Many points well made. Thank you for putting this out to a wider audience.
Mobile phones, in-car conversations, resetting a satnav are all extraneous loads that are within the driver’s control. Simply elect not to do them at a bad time. The extraneous load OUTSIDE the vehicle cannot be controlled so must be managed by spotting them early.
Having names for ideas certainly encourages thought. The significance of “regular cadence” during M-way driving is obvious.
But didn’t find talk about teams useful. Driving is not a team activity, but thanks again for prompting a debate.
Great video. When Simon said about having team members capable of doing some parts of another role to make it easier on other members, from an instructors point of view that’s what I’m always trying to do with my students to understand a lorry driver or cyclist’s perspective
Understanding what you've learned intuitively (or through bitter experience) can make it much easier to communicate it to others, and also provides access to other, related knowledge that has been researched or otherwise implemented by others, and often from different disciplines.
In this case, the formalism is "cognitive load" and the understanding as to what causes it and how to develop and improve defences against its occurring cross disciplinary boundaries, so knowing what it is gives you access to experience from other domains, not just the driving instructor domain.
An excellent and related example is the commercial airline Crew/Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) and the concept of a "sterile cockpit", particularly during periods of intense activity like landings. Application of the "sterile cockpit" when driving a car would cover distractions like music playing, chatting to passengers, mobile phones, etc. I turn the music off when I drive in cities. My attention needs to be outside the car, not in my head singing along raucously to whatever nonsense I'm hearing!
Then there's the extra load of turning off the radio etc when approaching any hazard, such as a round about or tricky T junction without sufficient anticipation (Eeek!)
Hi Ashley, I was having an interesting conversation this afternoon on this very topic, one of the women I work with was saying that stopping for pedestrians at exit of a roundabout is not something she is prepared to do!,. her 'reason' given being that a following car might run into the back of her vehicle!. I suggested that given the observations required one must know how close the car behind is before any change of speed and direction, this for me at roundabouts is never a problem because I always know the distance and speed of traffic following and adjust my speed and position during the entire approach and negotiation of the roundabout, this always involves finding a space pocket for myself and ensuring that other vehicles can also have their own pocket, thus should I observe pedestrians at the exit I will see that as soon as they are visible and looking in my mirrors so that I can slow down early for the walkers!. As I was speaking I could see that she did not follow my thread and it went in one ear and out the other!, an example of her cognitive overload, just as that traffic situation also induces overload, in both cases when people hear things that do not fit their own picture and expectations it cannot be understood, an example of how listening interferes with hearing and made up minds inhibit rational thinking.
What I am suggesting is not that cognitive overload is not an issue but the behaviour that causes or amplifies it is manageable, it requires a significant change in mind set!, observing the dynamic situation you bare in without preconception or prejudgement, looking only for new detail information, all changes as they occur and act accordingly without any judgement, it does not matter if other drivers are not doing what they should it matters only that you observe and respond appropriately, this turns out to be remarkably easy in most traffic situations, the relative speeds and positions are not that hard to deal with, if they were fewer of us would survive out there!.
The other significant influence of people's ability to think clearly and logically is strong emotions, extreme anger or too much laughing will distract you!, you can't stop it coming but you can let it pass without doing anything too silly.
Distractions of many types a persistent part of our lives!, what ever we are trying to do other things drop in and interfere, my trick is to offer no resistance let things in and let them through it only takes a moment but it makes sense to allow some free mind time when driving, none of us can rely on a-=our own continuous concentration.
One of the things you talked about recently was about finding a pocket of space to drive in, this is actually what all drivers do, some are cleverer than other but none of us can ever expect to occupy the exact same space as anyone else, when you take a space pocket the other =drivers will see it for what irt is and act accordingly, this is essentially the same sort of team work he speaks of, just not formalised.
Some people might insist that we humans must know and understand the 'rules' of human behaviour in order to apply them, this is totally false, we do not obey gravity because we know and understand it as with all natural laws they cannot be broken by anyone at any time, in just this way our behaviour is regulated by the natural laws that apply regardless of what we think we know!.
Cheers, Richard.
Interesting stuff, we had Agile training at work. We then ignored it all and carried on the same. I'm not a dev though, although we could have incorporated some of it.
Another interesting topic to cover regarding driving is the " Familiarity breeds Contempt " where over 80% of car accidents occur within 3 miles of a drivers home ! Where we as drivers a prone to switching off when we drive on roads we a very familiar with , This kind of ties in with this Cognitive load discussion where when we are driving on unfamiliar roads we tend to concentrate more , which in turn reduces risk .
Absolutely, I think it's subconscious relaxation because we're on familiar ground, potentially very bad news.
Most folks start and end all their driving excursions from home, so it _should_ be no surprise that most accidents are 'near' home, especially when there is just as much area between 3 & 4 miles, as all the are within that 3 mile radius (plus, it's always other people or their distractions that cause those accidents
😉)
My cousin moved house 4 times to try and solve that problem.
@@chrisl1797 🤣😂🤣
@@chrisl1797 Made me laugh, nice one 😄
I drive a WAV but as a second car i bought a VW fox it had power steering but nothing else electronic, it even had manual window openers, it was a lovely little car to drive nothing distracting it was like going back in time.
I thought this was really interesting. I recognise the symptoms Simon mentions, as I have ADHD - they have many striking similarities. To describe our cognitive load of a typical ADHD person: My IQ is 162. Imagine waking up with two songs or ear worms playing in your head at the same time - all day. Maybe one you don't even recognise. Whilst that is going on, you are thinking about number of different things - Mine has been obsessed with' Axiams' for example. I researched them and it is something to do with energy and propulsion. I am not interested in it, but my brain does it's own thing, it's constantly working on problem solving. There could be several of these random topics being thought about, plus the songs all the the same time. Whilst all that is going on, you are having day to day conversations., dealing with day to day issues, working and learning other things as life demands.
What Simon describes, particularly the changing from working to meeting at irregular times, is actually a known ADHD weakness - it is called 'Task Switching' where you struggle to continue the task you left earlier. Having regular, set timings is what ADHD people do to control it. What we do have as our 'superpower' is the ability to 'Hyper Focus' on tasks that interest them - where you are fully engrossed in one subject at the detriment of all else around you. Again, that is what Simon described when he was talking about high output problem solving in his industry, where they block everything else out.
Hyper Focus can achieve the extraordinary - so do programmers in Simon's environment harness this Hyper Focus without realising it? Are they operating at such a high level of problem solving - a task ADHD people are known to excel at with ease due to their cognitive dysfunction - that they are meeting a level of 'overwhelm' that is shared with those that have ADHD? A level of burnout? The point were you literally 'clock off' from a task and fight to re-engage?
From an Instruction level with Driving, ADHD are perceived as being more high risk - but I don't agree. Keeping the brain busy is it's comfort zone. Riding a motorcycle is a relaxing experience as there is so much to be looking out for. Instructors describe me as 'hyper observant' where I am checking all around me, all of the time- we are hyper alert to movement. Riding a bike you need to assess constantly, watch six cars ahead, plus the one in front and have at least two escape routes in place. Driving a car, I passed first time after three lessons, with one fault - A car in front had broken down at the lights, I was given a hesitation (unfairly I thought, but I took it on the chin) as I thought he had stalled. I've driven all over the world, passed all ADI training (didn't have the final 4k funds for the certificate at the time) had a career on the road driving most of the time and had two bumps since passing my test almost forty years ago. Neither significant. I don't feel that we are a risk as many would assume.
But the similarities on cognitive function are very interesting, and it does make me wonder if this level of high output problem solving is reaching levels that diagnosed ADHD people operate at in terms of cognitive function. Would be interesting if some of Simons' colleagues took a test and how many may be on that level.
Interesting title and subject. Will watch the entire video soon.
One comment for now. Sometimes when I review my dash cam footage purely for my own coaching purposes, I notice things that I didn't notice at the time I was driving.
Hi Ibrahim. Hope you have a good day.
I too watch my driving back, yesterday I learnt when a 30 limit ends and 40 limit begins on a small stretch of a dual carriageway I’ve always done less than 40 on it
@@thomaselliot2257 Tried replying with a long message and it's gone.
I believe you already knew that from driving, and that you didn’t learn it be reviewing your dashcam footage
So I learnt to ski went on a couple of holidays but found I concentrated too hard on what I was doing could not enjoy myself I had lots of lessons in UK dry slope But just found it hard to do in ski resort I come across a book about how to concentrate and allow the body to deal with what you had to do
in between all this I had two driving tests and failed on both But after reading this book about skiing I tried it for driving as well which I passed on the next test It helps you focus on where you are
My HGV instructor said he had to slow things down while learning to a speed the pupil can take it in process what is happening and how to deal with it. . This will be different for each pupil
Crucial for any trainer to understand - I hate the "haven't I told you this ten times, already?!" attitude.
Quick unrelated question. What happens when 3 vehicles arrive at a roundabout at the same time? Who has right of way?
No one
The theme from Good, the bad and the ugly plays.
Ashley says 'no one', because he will say 'nobody has right of way'.
The real answer, particularly with mini-roundabouts, is it's the first vehicle onto the roundabout. I had this very situation occur this morning - the white van driver needed no permission to take the initiative and make the first move! If another vehicle had then pulled out and collided with the white van that was established on the carriageway of the roundabout, then they would have been at fault.
@@shm5547I think 'priority' is the correct term these days.
in theory, all three can enter at the same time. which is the benefit of a roundabout over a crossroads.
Fascinating stuff
5:27 There are many more vehicles on the roads and many more different road users using the roads, but would tuition be easer in a remote rural area than a busy congested city?
With congestion you’d learn hazards, cyclists, pedestrians, road furniture etc
With rural area you can build speed, better understand brakes, better understand steering etc
I’m sure many viewers have learnt between the two i.e the busy city/town with the rural roads nearby but for those people who learnt in one area and never driven in the other that cognitive load will be much greater.
Does cognitive load capacity explain tailgaters? Are they driving so close in an effort to (unknowingly) reduce the inputs coming in by only being able to see just the back of the car in front?
Perhaps a little - relying on the vehicle in front to make the decisions for the tailgater behind, aggression and impatience are also factors.
Tailgating certainly increases the cognitive load on the driver being tailgated.
Puzzled, posted 20 mins ago but comments 2 months old. Didn't come across this 2 months ago, as far as i know 🤔
Edit ahhh I've just realised this is a members only video that has been released for the general public👍
Restricted to members?
members vid
I realised before your helpful replies👍
Had to go through some mental processes to understand and focus on how this video came about. Had a cognitive load. 😊
@ lol
Enjoyed that
Way too many distractions in modern cars , the last thing I want in a car is tech . Test passed Jan 84 .
Ashley Psychic again. Only on the way home just now I was thinking of how often I don't see indicators on roundabouts due to the overload of information my brain is trying to process (as a person who is autistic there can be TMI quite frequently). [edited for tpyo]
I'm not sure that my mindset was in the right place to take on board such a lengthy vid.
Being sick/run down with the Flu doesn't help.
One thing that I can take on board, however, is that you can be great driver but not necessarily a good teacher.
Autism is a definite factor.
It doesn't just apply to being on the road. Your work can also be affected.
Outside influences can often impair performance.
Suffice to say that I'm going nowhere near the Car until this Flu has gone. No point in placing others at risk.
I'm also finding it hard.
Simon's audio, seems to have been run through an aggressive, reduced bit rate codec. It could also be in combination with his mic. Too aggressive filtering or noise
-cancelling, results in a intelligible, but fatiguing sound.
To avoid codec-stacking, perhaps record the mics at each-end, then replace the soundtrack in post?
I used to have to run large-scale A/V and video conferences. I strived for an intelligible, but natural, sound.
The more aggressive the processing, or codec, the less information remains, and the harder it is for the listener.
Remember, the purpose of video calling, is communication, so good audio production is a must, give as much bandwidth to audio, with the least aggressive codec.
🥕The title you selected for this video must have alienated whatever sector of your potential audience adopt a strictly carnivore diet!😂 Did you allow yourself sufficient time to be able to think it through from their perspective before committing to it? 😉
fantastic
Very interesting, but, far too many advert breaks.
YT places them automatically. I've just deleted a few!
@@ashley_nealan appropriate response, considering the subject of your discussion!😅
But what is it about cyclists that causes some motorists to lose all sense?
They are spending too much time looking after the cyclists around them instead of driving 😉
Joking around. Some can be down to the incognitive attitude of thinking cars are superior to other road users
Many social media cyclists show cognitive load is too much on many occasions
@@ashley_neal I guess you’d know, being a “social media cyclist” yourself! 😉
@ I think this is very true (the second bit that is! 🤣)
Interesting, but I could have done without the rather distracting background image.
I listened like a Podcast. Can see what you mean though.