Psychologist to Discuss Children's Bicycle Safety Feb. 15

Jodie M. Plumert, an associate professor of Psychology at the University of Iowa and a child psychologist specialist, will speak on “How Do Immature Perceptual and Cognitive Skills Put Child Cyclists at Risk for Injury?” at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, in DeGarmo Hall room 48 at Illinois State University.

She will speak at the Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences Colloquium in the Department of Psychology.  Admission is free.

According to research, bicycle crashes are among the most common causes of severe injuries in childhood, and children between the ages of 5 and 15 represent a particularly vulnerable segment of the population, having the highest rate of injury per million cycling trips.  The underlying causes of these accidents are poorly understood because studying bicycling behavior is difficult without putting children at risk for injury.

But advances in virtual environment technology offer a way of addressing the problem of bicycling safety in a controlled manner without putting children at risk for injury.  Plumert and her colleagues have pioneered the use of an immersive, high-fidelity bicycling simulator to safely and systematically study the factors that may contribute to children’s road-crossing errors.  Their work provides important information about risk factors for bicycle crashes and about developmental changes in children’s perceptual-motor functioning.