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In relation to mindfulness, less mindful individuals are more likely to behave automatically, which would detract from them following through on their intentions. As such, in relation to driving, with repeated exposure to a particular road, drivers may experience the phenomenon of driving without awareness or mindless driving (Charlton & Starkey, 2012). Currently, a review of the literature reveals that there have been a number of studies which have examined and/or made reference to the concept of mindfulness specifically in relation to driver behaviour. For instance, Demick (2000) assessed the effects of the field dependence independence cognitive style (the effect of an individual's perceptive behaviour while distinguishing object figures from the content field) and other individual factors on driving behaviour of young, middle aged and older drivers. Demick found that cognitive disembedding ability (individual ability to disembed information from context or surrounding gestalt), and not age was the best predictor of driving performance. He argued that this finding might be reframed within the concept of mindfulness. In particular, he stated that during driving people need to be mindful to distinguished information (e.g., other road user behaviour, the change of traffic light, the presence of pedestrian) from the surrounding environment in order to drive safely.

To clarify this argument, Demick performed observations study using car simulator and followed by interviews with the participants. The findings indicated that driving an automobile is perceived by participants as mindless (routine and automatic) activity. Whereas, driving a car simulator requires an individual to be attentive and mindful throughout the experiment. This may be because the car simulator and road environment presented were different thus, need the participant to focus and pay attention. In any particular situation, wearing seat belt, for example, a common factor will prepare the individual for action or what Demick termed “tuning” (i.e., enter a car) then, specific triggers will activate the behaviour (i.e., prepare to drive) (Demick, 2000). Based on his findings, although Demick did not explored mindfulness directly, he concluded that the construct of mindfulness can be used because of its applicability to many subfields in psychology, including social, and cognitive. Further, he recommended that there is a need to explore the relationship between intentionality and action in the driving context and to consider integrating mindfulness constructs within any theoretical orientation which may help in

understanding the complexity of behaviour. This is because by understanding the role of mindfulness in driving, it could aid the intervention strategies especially to improved driving performance and increase road safety.

In another study, Kass, Cole, and Legan (2008) reviewed literature on driver

distraction focusing on situational awareness (SA). To improve SA, these researchers recommended mindfulness training to assist in educating drivers on how to be more aware of external and internal environment that are relevant to driving. Thus, while they did not explore directly the impact of mindfulness on intentions and/or

behaviour, the researchers did highlight their acknowledgment of the important role that mindfulness training may play to improve situational awareness among drivers. A recent study by Ledesma, Montes, Poo, and Lopez-Ramon (2010) examined the validity of the newly-developed Attention-Related Driving Errors Scale (ARDES), a self-report measure that assesses individual differences in the proneness to make attention-related errors while driving. Ledesma et al. measured the relationship of the ARDES with the Mindfulness Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003). Ledesma et al. argued that driving attention errors may be related to general functioning that is characterised by a lack of awareness of daily life activities which could be reframed within the concept of mindfulness (i.e., mindfulness focused on the attention to and awareness of what is occurring in the present). In this study, they found that driver attention-related errors were closely related to a lack of

mindfulness of an individual driver in their everyday life. Similar to Demick (2000) and Kass et al. (2008), these latter researchers did not explore directly the impact of mindfulness on intentions and/or behaviour; however, they highlighted that driving errors may be characterised by inattention and a lack of awareness (mindlessness) in everyday life.

As noted, aforementioned studies did not explore directly the impact of mindfulness on intentions and/or behaviour; however, the studies highlighted the researchers’ acknowledgment of the important role that mindfulness may play in influencing driver behaviour. Of the studies which are available, the evidence suggests that research on mindfulness in driving very much in its infancy and that the role of mindfulness in relation to other constructs is far from clear or established. One

important area in which clarification is needed was identified by Demick (2000), who argued that there is a need to explore the relationship between intentionality and action in the driving context and to consider integrating mindfulness theory within any theoretical orientation that may help in understanding the complexity of

behaviour. As noted above, the TPB is one of the primary theoretical approaches that posit a link between intention and action and that has demonstrated applicability in the road safety context. As such, Demick’s comments highlight a belief, similar to the researcher, that there is a possibility for mindfulness to be considered in relation to the TPB and speeding-related research. Currently, as reviewed in Section 3.5.3, it appears that only one study has adopted an extended TPB which incorporated mindfulness and habit: a study by Chatzisarantis and Hagger (2007) in which they examined mindfulness in relation to individuals’ intentions to perform, and actual behaviour, regarding leisure-time physical activity. With regard to mindfulness, Chatzisarantis and Hagger utilised Mindfulness Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS) to measure mindfulness. The next section of this chapter justifies the usage of the MAAS as a measure for mindfulness in the current research.