Selective searching while driving: the role of experience in hazard detection and general surveillance GEOFFREY UNDERWOOD*, DAVID CRUNDALL and PETER CHAPMAN School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK Keywords: Visual search; Driving; Hazard detection; Skill and experience. Novice drivers have been found in previous studies to display a limited search of the immediate environment, relative to experienced drivers, when manoeuvring on a dual-carriageway road. The present study investigated whether this reduction in the variance of search along the horizontal plane was a product of less frequent glancing in the car’s mirrors. Novice and experienced drivers were observed as they made lane changes in relatively unobstructed conditions and when they needed to move into a lane already occupied by trac. Novice drivers were found to rely more than experienced drivers upon their internal mirror, even when the lane-changing manoeuvre required information about trac in the lane best re¯ected in the external, door-mounted mirror. Novices did increase their use of the external mirror in response to driving needs, suggesting that they did have an awareness of the situation that required inter-weaving with trac in their destination lane. Their reliance upon the internal mirror may be a product of a habit acquired speci®cally for the driver licensing examination, in which exaggerated inspection of the internal mirror is regarded as being desirable. 1. Introduction In a review of models of driving behaviour, Ranney (1994) highlighted visual search as an aspect of driving that must be central to a complete description of the cognitive abilities necessary for a skilled driver. The identi®cation of salient information, both static and moving objects, is critically important at both the strategic level of activity involving navigation and route-choice, and at the tactical level that involves manoeuvring relative to other vehicles and avoiding unexpected hazards. Failure to search the roadway eVectively is likely to result in a collision with another vehicle, or at best neglect of route information. This paper reports a study of the patterns of visual search by drivers of diVerent abilities as they negotiate sections of multi-lane roadway that present diVerent levels of diculty. Current evidence suggests that newly quali®ed drivers are particularly vulnerable to driving errors that are associated with inecient visual search. An analysis of written police reports of road trac accidents in California reported by Lestina and Miller (1994) found that the single most common contributor to a crash was failure to search the roadway. Drivers were cited as not searching far enough ahead, or of being culpable through inattention, or failing to avoid distraction . Most importantly, it was the very youngest drivers who experienced accidents that were *Author for correspondence. e-mail: geoV.underwood@nottingham.ac.uk ERGONOMICS, 2002, VOL. 45, NO. 1, 1 ± 12 Ergonomics ISSN 0014-0139 print/ISSN 1366-584 7 online # 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080 /0014013011011061 0