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This is useful advice, on how to avoid the SMIDSY, or “Sorry mate, I didn’t see you”, accident type.
When we looked at what predicts whether you do remember the motorbike, it’s not whether you looked at it, or how long you looked at it for, it’s what you do afterwards. So the more things you look at after the motorbike, the more likely you are to forget it. Now that looks like forgetting, not a failure to attend to it in the first place. […] it looks as though this error is a limitation in short term memory. Now what we do know about short term memory, and we’ve known since the 1960s, is that you’ve got two types of short term memory that are essentially independent systems. You’ve got visuospatial working memory, for the things you look at and you’ve got phonological short term memory. That’s a verbal form of store for things you say. The two are separate. So I’ve suggested that if you’re at a junction and you see a motorbike or a pedal cycle coming, you just say aloud or under your breath, “bike”, that will automatically encode it in phonological working memory. That gives you extra capacity, essentially doubling the amount of stuff you can remember. See bike, say bike could be a simple intervention that might make a big difference.
(tags: memory cycling safety roads driving smidsy accidents attention brain)