Driving while distracted
We all know driving is a complicated business, but that doesn't keep us from doing a lot of other things behind the wheel.
So when we siphon off some brainpower to talk on our cell phones, how much does it really matter?
A lot, say Boston researchers. As in, reducing emergency stopping distance by more than a car length if you are driving 60 miles an hour.
People tracking multiple objects on a screen -- a simulation analogous to the visual, physical and cognitive demands of driving -- took a little longer to react when they were just listening to someone talk, researchers reported. But listening and talking on a cell phone added significantly to their reaction times.
"If we assume that this result would generalise to driving, talking on a mobile phone would lead a driver going 60 mph to travel an additional 18.5 feet (more than the length of an average car) before braking," Todd Horowitz and Michael Cohen of the Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-authors write in the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
Don't think your hands-free phone gets you off the hook. The researchers say putting conversation on a speaker phone made little difference. It's the conversational give-and-take that drains some of the attention needed to drive, adding to competing demands on our visual and cognitive abilities.
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A law requiring hands-free, and prohibiting text messaging, is a no-brainer. Why has nothing been passed in MA? It is impossible to remove all distractions when driving ... listening to the radio or talking to a passenger can be distracting, but making them illegal would be ridiculous.
In a related story, snow is white and lemons are yellow.
People actually get grants to study this stuff.
I want to do a study that demonstrates that lack of sleep causes exhaustion; which branch of government should I submit my application to?
DUH!
BREAKING NEWS! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? Way to go Boston researchers, you really opened our eyes here
I really hope no tax dollars were wated on this study.
Talking on your cell phone impairs your ability to react while driving? I would have never thought of that! What a novel idea. This breakthrough is right up there with cancer cures.
"Study: Distracted drivers react slowly"
In other news, the sky is blue and rain is wet.
I wonder if they studied people having a conversation with someone in the same car, and then compared it to the people having a conversation on a phone?
As the senior author on the paper in question, I can assure Dave and Steve that tax dollars were spent on this study (though it was pretty cheap to do), both here and in the UK.
Starbug: Drews, Pasupathy, and Strayer have a paper coming out in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied saying that it's better to have a conversation with your passenger.
Will, Dave, Bob M., Steve, & Captain Obvious: I agree that it should be obvious that you can't talk on the phone and drive at the same time, but clearly for millions of people that is not the case. Even those who do realize that it's problematic tend to think that the problem is driving with one hand. This is the logic that makes legislators pass "hands free" laws. Unfortunately, MGG, our study is merely the latest to show that that won't help. The problem is that your brain can't do two things at once, or at least not these two things. This has already been shown in driving simulator studies. Our small contribution is just to demonstrate that it's really about your visual attention, which makes it hard to notice that you're impaired!
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