Fogarty, Bronwyn (2015) Internalised Thought Whilst Driving: A Taxonomy Review and Scale Development Of Internalised Thought Whilst Driving. Coursework Masters thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Despite driver distraction and inattention being costly for individuals and society, drivers’ thoughts as a type of distraction is an understudied phenomenon. The overall aim of these two articles is to promote exploration and categorisation of drivers’ internalised thought which may have differential impacts upon activities critical for safe driving. The first paper reviews the driver diverted attention component of Regan, Hallett and Gordon’s (2011) driver distraction and inattention taxonomy. We propose alternate categories of internalised thought, according to stimuli dependence, task relatedness and driver meta-awareness of their conscious state. The types of thought, which are either with or without meta-awareness, were stimulus-independent task-unrelated thought, stimulus-dependent task-unrelated thought, stimulus-independent taskrelated interfering thought and stimulus-dependent task-related thought. As the taxonomy encompasses only distraction, stimulus-dependent task-related thought, which is thought being fully focused upon the driving task, is not incorporated within the suggested amendment to the taxonomy. The second article details the development of the Internalised Thought Whilst Driving (ITWD) scale, which is a multidimensional instrument assessing types of internalised thought. An attempt was made to have each type of internalised thought from the taxonomy review represented within the scale. This was achieved as the items grouped into the factors as anticipated, with the exception of stimuli-independent task-unrelated thought or mind wandering, which grouped into two factors. Exploration of whether mind wandering items may be categorised according to whether there is a shifting or controlling element involved, similar to an approach utilised with the Attentional Control Scale, was not supported (ACS, Derryberry & Reed, 2002). There was an expected negative relationship between ITWD items and attentional control, with individuals who report greater attentional control indicating less mind wandering. Another finding was that the shifting factor of ACS did not have a predictive relationship with either the shifting or focusing element of ITWD mind wandering. Although results generally support the validity of the ITWD, additional research is needed. We present the ITWD as an instrument for research focused upon internalised thought whilst driving, which may then foster interventions and generate awareness that the way that we think positions driver internalised thought as an important form of driver distraction.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Coursework Masters) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Tony Machin |
| Qualification: | Doctor of Psychology (Clinical) |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2025 02:34 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2025 02:34 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | internalised thought, mind wandering, driving inattention and distraction taxonomy, stimuli-independent task-unrelated thought, Internalised Thought Whilst Driving, attentional control, Attentional Control Scale |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52324 |
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