Estudio del proceso de toma de decisiones y la influencia del feedback en situaciones de riesgo en conducción

Abstract

Every year, around 1.25 millions of people in the world die because of traffic accidents. Almost 50% of the deaths among individuals between 15 and 44 years old are caused by traffic accidents (World Health Organization, 2015). This issue needs further research on the causes and the possible solutions. There are multiple factors related to road accidents, but according to most investigation in this matter the human clearly leads the table as the main cause (Wierwille et al., 2002). The conceptual framework of this thesis focused on the study of cognitive processing in decision-making in risky driving situations. The thesis consists of three broad foci: a) The first experimental block (chapter 2) focuses on the study of the effect of non-contingent feedback in risky behavior using a driving context. From the literature, we analyze the characteristics of different types of risky behaviors compared to driving. b) The second experimental block (chapter 3) differentiates between urgent and evaluative behaviors (Megías, Maldonado, Cándido & Catena, 2011b). The first one includes time pressure, depends on stimulus and has possible negative consequences. It is based on System 1 or automatic system, which uses previous experience and emotional characteristics of the situation. c) The third experimental block (chapter 4) tries to explain the effects of response feedback on risk behavior and the neural and cognitive mechanisms involved, as a function of the feedback contingency. We observed that contingent feedback, compared with non-contingent one, promoted changes in the response bias towards safer decisions. Taking together, this thesis studies the role of feedback in decision making process in risky behavior using a driving context. This information can be useful to design programs intended to improve road safety.