Here is yet another cellphone study with some awfully surprising conclusions:
Using a cellphone — even with a hands-free device — may distract drivers because the brain cannot handle both tasks, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
Imaging tests show the brain directs its resources to either visual input or auditory input, but cannot fully activate both at the same time, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found.
“Our research helps explain why talking on a cell phone can impair driving performance, even when the driver is using a hands-free device,” said Steven Yantis, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences who led the study.
“Directing attention to listening effectively ‘turns down the volume’ on input to the visual parts of the brain,” he added in a statement.
“When attention is deployed to one modality — say, in this case, talking on a cell phone — it necessarily extracts a cost on another modality — in this case, the visual task of driving.”
No kidding. While the innovative use of technology is cool, this is nothing more but what we have known for years.
Mike
OK, If the distraction is a function of the auditory section of the brain, why hasn’t anyone tried to ban radios from cars.
There has to be more to it than that.
Jeff
I’ve been pretty much saying the same thing you’ve said for a while now, and it’s not just that the conversation is a distraction, it’s that there are certain people who are gonna be distracted by SOMETHING, regardless of whether or not it’s a cell phone conversation and regardless of whether or not it’s in a car.
My office is right in the city and most of the time i’ll just walk to client appointments, and i can’t tell you the number of times i’ve seen people yapping on their cell phones while they’re walking and end up almost getting smacked by a car because the person walking and talking doesn’t realize that the light is red and traffic is coming (apparently they’re so distracted they never noticed ten people all standing on the corner waiting to cross).
If cell phones never would’ve been invented, these same nitwits would find other ways to be distracted while driving, whether it’s messing around with the radio, trying to light a cigarette, or whatever.
Compuglobalhypermeganet
…and why not ban talking to the passengers? For the children!
It kind of reminds me of a study I read in college where, during orgasm, visual acuity goes down to like 30% and audiory acuity goes down to 50% (IIRC). So imagine how dangerous it is to be talking on the CELLPHONE while having an orgasm while driving. Go ahead. Imagine it. Pretty cool, eh?
kenB
…and why not ban talking to the passengers?
Personally, I find a cellphone conversation to be much more demanding of my concentration than a conversation with a passenger. My theory (which a proctologist with a flashlight will now show you the source of) is that talking on the phone requires the brain to visualize the interlocutor or otherwise create some sort of “virtual” representation which distracts it from attending to the actual sensory input.
cfw
Driving can be divided into two phases: (a) turning, stopping, navigating, backing – operations requiring (or deserving) complete attention (turn off phones, tvs, radios, live talks in the car) and (b) the rest of the driving (waiting for traffic, long straight stretches on the freeway, etc.).
Drinking pop, muching snacks, radio time, books on tape, talks with passengers, limited use of phones seem ok in (b) phases of driving, not in (a) phases.
Safety talks need to make the distinction, no?