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In order to carry out skilled, visually guided actions, humans need to be able to use feedback to monitor and adjust performance. Such feedback can be relatively low level, with some motor commands being recalibrated rapidly based on visual feedback with little cognitive awareness (eg, Mon-Williams and Murray 2000). In tasks such as driving, however, awareness of performance could be important for making strategic adjustments in order to respond to road conditions. To investigate whether participants could accurately gauge steering performance, we used a simulated driving scenario. Participants (n=30) were required to steer around a series of bends and stay within a central marked zone. In order to alter the task demands, the speed of travel (fast/slow) and the width of the zone (narrow/wide) were manipulated. After each bend the participants made an explicit percentage judgment of time spent within the required zone. The mean group steering results showed that performance was worst for faster speeds and narrower zones, and this pattern was matched in the awareness judgements. Closer inspection of the data, however, showed that at an individual level these judgements often failed to capture trial performance and were often merely influenced by the visible task characteristics (eg, fast and narrow trial). This suggests that participants may erroneously rely on salient cues about task characteristics to assess performance if direct feedback is weak. This has important implications for driving since individuals may be failing to respond to situation characteristics that actually make performance worse. |
