Gareth wrote:hir wrote:For example, if I see a warning sign ahead for "Road Narrows", that knowledge will be... "in my processing of what's upcoming". The sign gives me advance warning of a hazard that I probably may not yet be able to see. Therefore I'll be looking for where the road narrows
By the time the question has been asked you most likely be dealing with a narrowing road, so what you're doing will be uppermost in your mind rather than the discarded memory of the road-sign.
Hi Gareth,
Insofar as the timing of the question is concerned - You know me well enough to know, that I know, that you know, that you don't believe for one moment that's what I would do when it comes to the timing of the question!.
In one of the examples given above the examinee was asked what the last sign was AFTER he had passed the hazard. That's plain stupid.
My example of the "road narrows" warning triangle was in response to another contributor regarding whether or not the warning triangle formed part of... "
my processing of what's upcoming". I would not use that particular sign to demonstrate to the associate that he is not consciously using the information provided to him by a warning triangle. I'm more subtle than that. I use a "Farm vehicles" warning triangle where there is no farm, so the sign can't be second-guessed. The sign refers to a field entrance which is completely obscured. There is often mud on the road at the field entrance. The surface of the road is hidden by a very gentle crest. Any mud on the road will be just before the entrance to a roundabout, just at the point where one starts to brake. On an associate's first drive I take them on an open NSL where you "can see for miles" into the distance. As we come over a crest we can immediately see the warning sign "Farm Vehicles", of which I speak, and which is visible for at least 20 seconds before we've passed it. There are no hedges to hide it, no long grass, there's never any parked vehicles in front of it, it's in plain sight for, in driving terms, a very long time. There are no other signs or warning triangles near to it; so there's no information overload. It's placed at the end of a straight, right at the beginning of a very gentle right-hand curve. So, it's right in front of the associate as he drives towards it. The only reason he doesn't crash into the sign is because he must gently turn the steering wheel as we enter the curve. I make a point of not talking to the associate from the moment we are approaching the crest until I pose the question, so as not to distract him, which could give him a get-out-of-jail-free excuse that I was talking to him. As the front of the car passes the warning triangle I start to ask the question. I know instantly whether or not the associate has consciously taken in the warning information. Interestingly, In 15 years only one associate has been able to tell me what the sign was when the question was posed. So, what I then do for the other 99% who can't tell me what the sign was, is that I ask them to turn around (there's a convenient roundabout 500 yards further up the road) and, without any hint of smugness, I suggest that we drive the same piece of road again. Having driven the same piece of road again there is always an element of incredulity on the part of the associate that the sign didn't register in their consciousness. In fact to a man, and woman, they readily admit that, in their words..." I didn't see it". My usual words at this juncture are, again without any hint of smugness, along the lines of... " you cannot really tell yourself that you didn't see the sign, because you did. You were driving towards it and looking at it for twenty seconds. Perhaps what you should be telling yourself is that although you saw the sign you didn't use the information that you saw in front of you". Invariably, they are chastened by the experience. I tell them... "not to worry about it because nobody gets this exercise right first time", (I never tell them about the one that did). But, I say, by the end of the ten week course you will be using all the information available, including the warning triangles".
In my defence of my exceptional smugness on this occasion I would simply say that the smugness on my part is confined to my belief that the exercise described above is a valuable one for the associate.