Differential Effects of Driver’s Cognitive Failure and Driving Confidence on Driver’s Behavior: Interactive or Orthogonal?

The present study investigated the effects of drivers’ cognitive failure tendency and driving confidence on their driving behavior measured by the numbers of traffic accidents, traffic regulation violations, and speeding violations. The results of the study can be summarized as followings: (1) the number of traffic accidents was found to be mainly and independently related to the drivers’ cognitive failure, whereas the numbers of traffic regulation violation and speeding violation appeared to covary with driving confidence level. (2) non-significant interaction effect between cognitive failure and driving confidence indicated that the relationship between the two variables is orthogonal rather than interactive in affecting the drivers’ driving behavior. These results suggest that the drivers’ tendency of cognitive failure and their level of driving confidence are qualitatively different in affecting on driving behavior.