Construct Validity of Victoria's new licence test

A new drive test for car driver licence applicants has been developed in Victoria. The aim was to create a test that discriminates those young drivers who have completed the new mandatory minimum of 120 hours of supervised driving practice from those who have not. To ensure the construct validity of the new test, evidence-based conceptual frameworks were reviewed to identify the key constructs requiring assessment. Potential test items for each of these constructs were then drawn from a range of existing drive tests; where required new items were formulated, including a secondary task intended to assess drivers? ?spare? attentional capacity. This paper describes the conceptual basis of the new licence test, giving examples of test items for each of the key constructs. It also presents some on-road trial results concerning relationships between performance on the secondary task and indices of driver experience, measures related to safe-driving skills, and some test-specific variables. It was concluded that secondary task performance would not have practical value as part of a licence test. Some implications of the results for further research on driving skill development are discussed.