ABSTRACT
Achievements in neuroscience call for a new paradigm in many fields of human behaviour, not least behaviours of road users. One important contributor to this new paradigm is Damasio (1994) and the perspective he elaborates in Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. Most prevailing driver behaviour models lack a neuroscientific basis, which requires revision of previous driver behaviour models or, alternatively, elaboration of new models. The present text proposes the Risk Monitor Model (RMM), which is explicitly based on Damasio’s paradigm. The RMM incorporates Naatanen and Summala’s (1974) “zero-risk model” and the concept of a subjective risk monitor, and Reason’s model of information processing and decision-making, but takes these models a step further by integrating Damasio’s paradigm, which provides an improved understanding of how perception and attention might operate in critical scenarios where the risk of accidents is salient. It is asserted that this revised model of information processing and decisionmaking provides an alternative and better prediction of specific accident scenarios, which in turn calls for measures that may be more effective in reducing the number of accidents.
