{"id":1233,"date":"2015-05-06T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T08:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktheorytesttoday.com\/?p=1233"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T18:18:23","slug":"teen-driving-changes-when-mums-in-the-car-says-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/teen-driving-changes-when-mums-in-the-car-says-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen driving changes when Mum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the car says research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not too long ago Book Theory Test Today published a blog asking \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcif you had to choose, which parent would you want teaching you to drive?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 According to new research, having Mum in the car changes teen driving habits.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A new study shows that the presence of Mum in the car as a driving tutor helps teenage drivers to make safer decisions when on the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the teen driving study, researchers designed a driving simulator test encouraging risk-taking behaviour. 25 teens were asked to complete the simulation in the quickest possible time.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The simulation featured 26 intersections giving teens the opportunity to stop for a yellow light, which would cause a three-second delay, or speed through the light \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which was the fastest option, provided they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t crash. In the event of a crash, participants suffered a six second delay, which was added to their total time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Teen driving and the presence of Mum<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Participants were asked to complete the course once on their own and once under the watchful eye of mum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Book Theory Test Today<\/strong><\/a> says: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Perhaps unsurprisingly, 55 percent of participants sped through the lights when driving on their own, but when mum was present this dropped by around 10 percent to 45 percent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eva Telzer, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois and lead author of the study, said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We think that parents play an important scaffolding role, helping their children to make more thoughtful decisions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers also discovered that the presence of mum altered the brain activity of teen drivers. When driving alone and running the yellow light, researchers noted a surge in blood flow to the brain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reward centre, shown by MRI images. However, when driving with mum present, the reward centre lit up when they chose to stop at the light.<\/span><\/p>\n

Previous teen driving research <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

In contrast to these latest results, previous research revealed that driving with peers could have the opposite effect on their decisions and brain activity. A 2011 study, which used the same teen driving simulation test, showed that teens were more likely to take a risk when friends were watching them drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest study also links the presence of mum with the heightened activity in the area of the brain responsible for impulse control. This was not affected when participants were asked to drive alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Telzer said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mothers redirected adolescents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sense of reward away from risky choices and towards safe choices. In other words, it feels good to play it safe when mum is there, whereas it feels good to be risky when alone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Book Theory Test Today\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Book Theory Test Today offers an intermediary service assisting clients with booking a UK theory test, or practical test, at test centres<\/strong><\/a> across the nation. The service also supplies resources to help you prepare for your theory test \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ready to take your theory test? Book your theory test online today\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not too long ago Book Theory Test Today published a blog asking \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcif you had to choose, which parent would you want teaching you to drive?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 According to new research, having Mum in the car changes teen driving habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,74,73],"tags":[111,158,117,174,267,266,145,265,86,126],"class_list":["post-1233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-driving-safety","category-learning-to-drive","category-road-safety","tag-book-theory-test-today-2","tag-book-your-theory-test","tag-book-your-theory-test-online","tag-book-your-theory-test-online-today","tag-driving-simulator","tag-driving-simulator-test","tag-practical-test","tag-teen-driving","tag-theory-test","tag-uk-theory-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktheorytesttoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}