Week Six Discussion: Teaching Your Teen to Drive

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This discussion is about teaching your teen to drive. It begins with a wonderful video a
student brought to my hybrid Parenting class one summer: It is titled The Backwards Brain
Bicycle. The link:  

Please type these exact words into your browser: 

youtube the backwards brain bicycle.

This video is about riding a crazy bicycle, and the man who made the video does not connect it
to neural development, but neural development is the key to understanding this video and also to
understanding what has to happen before your teen is a safe driver.  There are no other readings,
just viewing the video, and reading my “lecture notes” attached here.  

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Dr. Barr's lecture notes on the neurology of the Backward Brain Bicycle:

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Introduction:

Procedural memory is a part of long-term memory that is responsible for knowing how  to do

things, also known as motor memory. As the name implies, procedural memory stores
information on how to perform certain procedures, such as walking, talking, ice skating, skiing,
swimming, riding a bike, and driving a car. 

The interesting point is that once something is stored in procedural memory, you do not have to
pay conscious thought to do those things; they have become automatic.

Procedural memory is a subset of implicit memory, sometimes referred to as unconscious

memory or automatic memory or motor memory. Implicit memory uses past experiences to
remember things without thinking about them. It differs from declarative memory or explicit
memory, which consists of facts and events that can be explicitly stored and consciously recalled
or “declared”. 

Examples of procedural memory: Musicians and professional athletes are said to excel, in part,
because of their superior ability to form procedural memories. Procedural memory is also
important in language development, as it allows a person to talk without having to give much
thought to proper grammar and syntax. 

The point? Once something is learned really well, it no longer is completely under conscious
control. Many of the “little programs” to ride a bike (or, to drive a car) are automated and placed
in a different part of the brain (probably in the “motor strip” of the brain) where they are
accessed without our knowledge. That frees conscious attention from having to pay attention to
too many things at once.

Adult and very experienced drivers all have automated the driving function.  When someone is
driving and seems to be failing to stop at the right time, have you found your "brake foot" slams
down on the floor of the car?  That is your auto-pilot working unconsciously for you. Perhaps
you drove somewhere today and you don’t even remember part of the familiar road; you were on
“autopilot”  because your brain used that motor memory/procedural memory package to help you
drive.

In the backwards bicycle video, the task demanded of the rider is something that is stored in
procedural memory, so the bike rider begins effortlessly to ride as he always has, and falls off,
over and over, for the “program” for riding the bike no longer “works.” When he finally is able
to ride the crazy bike, it takes him some time to switch back when he tries to ride a normal bike
again.   This illustrates that riding a bike, and driving a car, are very complex “programs” that
need to be automated in the brain to free up some attention for things like other cars, or squirrels
in front of the car, or red lights. Your teen is not a safe or competent driver until he or she has
fully automated those skills and that takes a very long time with tons of what we call distributed
practice.

Distributed practice is many, practice sessions with time between each, to consolidate learning
in the brain. A student in this course last term trains helicopter pilots and rescue swimmers for
the U.S. Navy.  He reported that only after 1,000 flights is a "newbie" helicopter pilot considered
to be a standard pilot.  For those 1,000 flights the "newbie" has a crew of several pilots observing
and commenting on the "newbie's" actions all during those training flights.  One of the four or
five observer pilots is another "newbie."  A thousand flights!!!   

Back to us and training our teens to drive:  So, no radio, no phone, no other teens in the car with
you and your teen, no texting, and so on, and LOTS and LOTS of practice before getting that
driver’s license.  You can now see that a few lessons at a driving school and a few more at high
school cannot possibly "automate" the driving functions for your teen so that your teen can free
enough attention to be a really safe driver.

Teaching your teen to drive: Learning to drive is an example of developing procedural

memory. You have to give your teen enough experience that driving ability becomes automated
in the brain. Until that happens, your teen is not a safe driver. This is one of the most serious
responsibilities you have to your adolescent. A few driving lessons at school or at a driving
school will not suffice to make a safe driver in urban traffic. To go to work in California I exited
a freeway at a point where there were eleven lanes of traffic in a single direction! How can one
help their teen become capable of handling this challenge skillfully? 

Teaching my own teens to drive: Here was what I did to teach my kids to drive in very dense
urban traffic in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California. From the day the our kids got their
learner’s permit, they drove 30 to 45 minutes every single morning under my supervision, before
school, every day, for one year. (365 training "flights!) Toward the end of the year my son drove
us from San Francisco to the Sierras in snow on a ski trip. Toward the end of her year of training,
our daughter drove us from San Francisco to Los Angeles. They both had driven in San
Francisco with rain, steep hills, and cable cars in the way. They have driven across the Golden
Gate Bridge, and inside multilevel parking garages (those were the very worst!). (Just this last
year (2020) our son, whose training is described here, has taught his daughter to drive here in
Maryland and she now has her license. It is great to see my "lessons" passed on to the next
generation!)

By the way, we did no night driving until after they had their licenses.  It just seemed to be too
many things just to get the basics in broad daylight in the crowded California setting. I
understand that night driving hours are necessary training before getting the driver’s license here
in Maryland where our grandkids live.

We began in empty shopping center parking lots, where there is lots of room and space to learn
to steer and run the controls of the car. Then we began to go around the shopping mall, learning
to stop and look both ways and use turn signals. Then, to very quiet, flat streets. Then to streets
with hills. Then to a highway that had two lanes. And, then to neighborhood streets. And, then,
to freeways. Finally, defensive driving on freeways. All this took one year because I wanted to
make only small changes in difficulty so that my “student” never became scared or
overwhelmed.

What used to be done to train drivers in the olden days: What did my parents do to teach me
to drive in the late 1950s? They let me drive in forward and in reverse down our long driveway a
few times in their stick shift car. That was all! It was many years before I became comfortable
with driving and, I am sure, before I became a safe and confident driver.  I never felt comfortable
driving, but never had an accident.  However, I did back up and take out the neighbor's
mailbox!  

Parental role in this: This is an example of a parental responsibility to your own teen. Do not
wait to punish or ground your teen when he or she has an accident. Instead, recognize your own
responsibility as a parent and help ensure your teen becomes a safe and confident driver.  

Final message:

The challenge for parents: Teaching a teen to drive is a real challenge to all adults!  If you are
nervous or become annoyed, or if your “student” becomes nervous or annoyed, or if an argument
breaks out, find another relative or friend who can be calm and very positive and supportive. 
There never should be an argument during the lessons. Learning to drive and becoming a skilled
driver is a very happy and positive goal already for a teen and good and kindly teaching has
many opportunities for praise and laughter between the teacher and the student when they have a
warm and very respectful relationship.

Why bother? Last term a student emailed that he just had Driver's Ed at school and then a few
lessons and got his license and didn't need to have that whole year of practice and he and his
friends are fine!  How could I explain that I was driving to work with 11 lanes of traffic in ONE
direction in urban California, and he was a resident of a rural area on the East Coast.  It is not
necessary to take this much time and effort to protect your teen, but I felt it was worth it, just as
the Navy Rescue Swimmer/Helicopter Pilot trainer felt 1,000 hours of practice with supervision
of 5 other pilots is needed to make a properly trained pilot. 

Guiding questions for this discussion:

 What is procedural memory and how is it related to learning to drive?

 How does automating a function like driving a car enable a person to be a better driver?
Please explain how the brain helps you drive. Hint: Discuss attention and the limits to
attention!!!
 Why does Dr. Barr call learning to drive a parental responsibility and not a teen
responsibility?

Due Date: 

Please finish your posting and responding in the Week Six Discussion: Teaching your Teen to
Drive, before midnight, Tuesday, June 28. As usual, you have a one-day grace period, so if your
work is turned in before midnight, Wednesday, June 29, it will be considered “on time.

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