Review of the Judgement and Decision-making Literature Pertinent to the Development of Traffic Offender Training / Improvement Programmes

A comprehensive review was conducted to examine psychosocial, judgement and decision-making models and constructs considered relevant to traffic safety and related behaviours. The longer-term goal of this review is to improve the quality of traffic safety interventions and serious offender training/improvement programmes through theoretically-informed approaches.

Two approaches were taken for this review:
• A large-scale review of the research literature; and
• An analysis of relevant theoretical approaches and constructs.

Prior to conducting a literature review, the research team developed a list of relevant categories for searching the empirical and theoretical literature on traffic safety and driving behaviour. From approximately 9,000 potential studies published between January 1985 and August 2005, the research team reviewed article titles and abstracts and retained studies that were relevant to the review’s goals and objectives.

The studies agreed on by the research team were obtained and reviewed using an interactive database specifically developed for this review. The research team appraised 377 studies. Of the 377 studies, 107 did not measure psychosocial, judgement or decision-making variables, though this was suggested in the abstract. A total of 270 studies were therefore reviewed for this report. Of these studies, 23
were reviews, 12 were meta-analyses and 18 were commentaries. Of the remaining 217 studies, 96 were experimental studies and 116 were observational studies. 29 studies were relevant to children, 201 studies were relevant for adolescents, 189 studies were relevant for young adults, and 29 studies were specifically relevant to adult serious traffic safety offenders. Agreement in reviewer evaluations ranged between 87% and 92%.

The analysis of theoretical approaches started with models, theories and constructs
developed within the traffic safety field, then considered safe driving behaviour from more general cognitive, psychosocial and physiological perspectives. These theoretical approaches were examined vis-a`-vis data from the literature review.