Can car driving expertise modulate boundary extension?

Experimental articles
By André Ménétrier, André Didierjean
English

Boundary extension (BE) refers to a memory distortion described as a tendency to overestimate the surroundings of a scene. This study aimed to determine whether this phenomenon, supposed to result from the observer’s generic knowledge about the perceived scene, is sensitive to expert knowledge. We submitted car drivers of different expertise levels (novices, beginners, intermediates, and experts) to a BE task presenting road scenes and neutral scenes. Results show that expertise modulates boundary extension. We observed a decrease in BE with expertise, resulting in a boundary restriction effect with experts. Results also show that neutral scenes did not systematically produce BE, with novices and beginners showing no significant memory distortion for these stimuli. We discuss several hypotheses that might explain these results.

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