MOTORISTS' TESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 5, 6 January 1934, Page 9

MOTORISTS' TESTS.

CINEMA FILM BEFORE EYES. LONDON, December 30. Various illusions which are experienced under the new indoor driving test invented by the National Institute of Industrial Psychology have been demonstrated iu London. The main feature of the test, which ,tho institute hopes will be officially adopted to replace Great Britain's present haphazard method of granting licenses, consists of a candidate sitting in a dummy car and facing a cinematograph screen on which a film of a winding road is thrown.When the candidate presses the accelerator the road begins moving towards him, and when the foot brake is vigorously depressed ditches stand still. . , The harder the accelerator is pressed the faster runs the rolling English road towards the driver, who after a few minutes lias the illusion of actually driving in the country. The institute has devised other ingenious tests to discover myopic or colour-blind candidates. To learn how a candidate reacts to traffic signals lie is asked to 6it facing a distracting film showing the tricks of an Indian fakir, on the margin of which red, amber, and green lights are thrown at different intervals in an irregular order. Beside him is a switchboard with knobs of corresponding colours, which he is asked to press accordingly.