James Driving Test

Driving is an everyday task that takes uses many parts of the brain. There are so many things happening all at once when driving that your brain is running on all cylinders to perform correctly. When preparing for his driving test, James will have to do both bookwork and driving on the road. Doing these things will use many different parts of his brain. Driving the car will use parts of his brain like; the cerebellum, observational learning, human factors, and the cognitive map, whereas the written test will use things like; reticular formation, predictive validity and semantic memory. On the road, James will be using many important parts of his brain. The cognitive map is a mental representation of one’s environment. This will be used in
The cognitive map will be playing a vital part in his driving by giving him a mental “map” of where he is and the physical things that are all around him. The cerebellum is responsible for coordinating precise movements and functions. When driving James will have to do a lot of fine motor tasks at one time, such as: switching between the gas and the break, operating turn signals, doing all the steps to change lanes, etc. The cerebellum will be functioning on all cylinders in order to do all these complex tasks while driving. Another important brain function that will be happening is observational learning, or social learning. James will not be able to learn everything about driving from books, but rather, he will have to learn from the other drivers around him. He will
Reticular Formation will play an important role when James is taking the written portion of the test. Reticular formation determines someone’s overall level of consciousness, which is very important when taking a test. James will need to be paying very close attention to the questions so that he will not misread them and get the wrong answer. Predictive validity will show after James takes the test. Predictive validity can be seen in the correlation between James’s score on the test, and his ability behind the wheel. Based on how James does on his written test, may have a correlation to how well he does when actually operating a vehicle. Lastly, semantic memory will play a major role in James’s written test. Semantic memory is long term memory that is not linked to personal experiences. Since James will be driving after the written test, all the answers to the questions on the test will have to deal with his semantic memory. Things such as what road signs mean or what to do at a stoplight all have to do with James’s semantic memory. Even though James does not have as many major events going on in his brain when taking the written test, it is still a complex task that the brain has to