British Journal of Educational Psychology · 1967 · 20 citations · 0 references
Safety ScienceTraffic EnforcementEducationCognitionEarly Childhood EducationInjury PreventionPerceptionSocial SciencesDevelopmental PsychologyDriver BehaviorCognitive DevelopmentEarly Childhood ExperienceRoad SafetyChild PsychologyCognitive ScienceTraffic SafetyRoad Traffic SafetyMany Young ChildrenEarly Childhood DevelopmentExperimental PsychologySocial CognitionChild DevelopmentKerb DrillPediatricsRoad Casualty Figures
S ummary . Trends in road casualty figures among children in recent years are evaluated and interpretations suggested. The experiment reported here shows that the educator's conception of the function of the kerb drill, i.e., to detect traffic, is not reflected in its function as perceived by many young children, who in the experimental setting behave as though they regarded the performance of the kerb drill as in itself sufficient to ward off the dangers of the road. The experiment also demonstrates that the notions of directionality which the kerb drill presupposes are not those of 5–6‐year‐old children, who often regard ‘left’ and ‘right’ as parts of the environment rather than relations to the person. The ‘static’ conception of directionality becomes more frequent after exposure to a propaganda film in which the kerb drill exemplars perform facing their audience.