Mind Not on the Road?

If you're driving and talking on a cell phone, your mind isn't on the road. Period.  And the problem isn't the the physical act of dialing, holding the phone, or listening to the person on the other end. The impairment comes from speaking; and in terms of accident risk, the impairment is comparable to driving drunk.

So says David Strayer, psychology professor at the University of Utah. Radio Times' Marty Moss-Coane interviewed Stayer on Monday's show, and it was a fascinating listen.  Some tidbits from the conversation, mostly derived from Strayer's studies in his lab's driving simulator:

• Cell phone conversations are much more distracting than in-car conversations.  While conversation-making is a big drain on attention, if you are talking with someone in the car with you, the other person is paying attention to the road as well. 
• The levels of impairment are essentially the same for hand-held and hands-free devices.
• Text-messaging while driving is, not surprisingly, even more dangerous.
• Listening while driving -- to the radio, to a book on CD, pre-recorded conversations to this interview on Radio Times -- is not nearly as problematic.  It's the generation of communication, according to Strayer, that causes the interference. (phew!)
• Strayer said:  "driving also interferes with your ability to make good decisions while you're on the phone."  Because attention is limited, and because it takes attention to both drive safely and make good decisions, when your attention is divided, both driving and decision-making can suffer.
• Finally, if you do business on your phone while driving, Strayer suggests that you might be putting your company at risk for liability if there is an accident.

The interview is a great listen; callers asked great questions to which Stayer provided fascinating responses.  A logical conclusion would be that talking on cell phones & driving don't mix.

For More Information

• Radio Times interview with David Strayer, January 27, 2009.  (mp3) or find WHYY's Radio Times in iTunes.
  
• Drivers Distracted More by Cell Phones Than by Passengers. University of Utah News Release, November 30th, 2008.
• Drews, Frank A., Monisha Pasupathi, and David Strayer. Passenger and cell phone conversations in simulated driving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. 14(4), Dec 2008: 392-400. (Subscription required or @ your library).
• Drivers on Cell Phones Are as Bad as Drunks. University of Utah News Release, June 29th, 2006.
• Strayer, D.L., Drews, F.A., Crouch, D.J. A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. 48(2), Jan. 2006: 381-391. (Subscription required or @ your library)
• Cell Phone Use as Dangerous as Drunken Driving. Alcohol: Problems & Solutions entry provides a nice summary of  Stayer's 2006 article.
• Drivers on Cell Phones Clog Traffic. University of Utah News Release, January 1st, 2008.
  

TV & attention spans?

The New York Times reports today that "In the last two years, two ... studies have failed to find any link between television exposure and symptoms of attention-deficit disorder. The most recent, published this month in the journal Pediatrics, based its findings on a group of 5,000 American kindergartners who were followed for two years."

Read more: PEDIATRICS Vol. 117 No. 3 March 2006, pp. 665-672 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-0863)
There Is No Meaningful Relationship Between Television Exposure and Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

True Multitasking ...

... may not be possible. The World of Psychology blog reports on a recent article from the Journal of Neuroscience suggesting "... that the brain can’t simultaneously give full attention to both the visual task of driving and the auditory task of listening." Which is why you shouldn't talk on the phone while driving, even with a hands-free device.

The study was done by a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University, and you can read more details in their press release.