Date of Award

12-2012

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Ron Van Houten

Second Advisor

Dr. Alyce Dickinson

Third Advisor

Dr. William Rantz

Keywords

Safety, deaccelerator, vehicle, feedback, automated

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

A previous pilot study documented that providing sustained haptic feedback to the gas pedal when a driver exceeded 25mph with his seatbelt unbuckled and removing the feedback contingent on seatbelt use increased seatbelt use in 7 commercial drivers. This study replicated this effect with 20 young drivers who did not consistently wear their seatbelt.

In the current study unbuckled drivers received increased accelerator pedal resistance when they exceeded 20 mph. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design was employed for this study. The dependent variable was percentage of trips driven without seatbelt use. The independent variable was an increase accelerator pedal resistance (force feedback). The force feedback disappeared when the drivers buckled their seatbelt. All drivers drove the vehicle for one week without haptic feedback during the baseline phase. During the treatment condition the haptic feedback system was activated.

All drivers responded to the system by increasing their seatbelt use to 100%. Drivers often encountered the force and buckled within 40 seconds to terminate the force.

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