• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Teenagers and adults: mental abilities for safe driving

adAs dri­vers get old­er a num­ber of cog­ni­tive prob­lems can get in the way of safe driving.

The insur­ance com­pa­ny All­state recent­ly start­ed a research study to eval­u­ate inno­v­a­tive ways to alle­vi­ate this prob­lem. All­state is now offer­ing for free the InSight pro­gram (a Posit Sci­ence pro­gram) to sev­er­al thou­sand 50–75 year-old, auto pol­i­cy-hold­ers in Penn­syl­va­nia, as well as to some poten­tial clients. They rec­om­mend par­tic­i­pants to devote at least 10 hours to the train­ing exer­cis­es. They expect the soft­ware exer­cis­es to reduce risky dri­ving maneu­vers and improve stop­ping dis­tance. The goal is to see whether com­put­er­ized brain train­ing can help reduce the num­ber of acci­dents in the group par­tic­i­pat­ing in the exer­cis­es com­pared to the group of pol­i­cy-hold­ers who are not. InSight focus­es most­ly on visu­al pro­cess­ing but pri­or stud­ies, con­duct­ed by Dr. Jer­ri Edwards (whose inter­view you can find at the end of this chap­ter) have shown that com­put­er­ized pro­gram focus­ing on visu­al aware­ness can indeed improve dri­ving skills.

An increas­ing num­ber of traf­fic schools in Europe and Cana­da, as well as US com­pa­nies that employ large num­bers of dri­vers, are adding a new tool to their assess­ment and train­ing toolk­it: the Dri­ve­Fit tech­nol­o­gy, devel­oped by Cog­niFit. This pro­gram was award­ed the pres­ti­gious Prince Michael Inter­na­tion­al Award for Road Safe­ty for its ‘outstanding con­tri­bu­tion to road safe­ty’ in the UK. Dri­ve­Fit is a suite of pro­grams aimed at help­ing to assess and build the cog­ni­tive, psy­chomo­tor and per­son­al­i­ty skills need­ed by novice, senior and fleet dri­vers. The prod­uct is dis­trib­uted by coun­try-spe­cif­ic agree­ments with chains of traf­fic schools, such as Young Dri­vers of Cana­da (over 100 cen­ters) and the British School of Motor­ing (BSM) in the UK (with 107 centers).

Accord­ing to non-pub­lished research from dri­ving train­ing experts at the British School of Motor­ing, learn­ers who trained with MAP (Men­tal Alert­ness Pro­gramme, devel­oped by Cog­niFit for BSM, build­ing on Dri­ve­Fit) record­ed a 16 per­cent high­er pass rate (of the exam required to obtain a dri­ving license) than ones who did not use the program.

Keep learn­ing by read­ing more arti­cles in the Resources sec­tion, and also please con­sid­er join­ing our free month­ly Brain Fit­ness eNewsletter

This new online resource is based on the con­tent from the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness (May 2009, $19.95), by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,620 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy