Journal Ayanami Rei's Journal: Insight into Cell Phone Vehicular Abuse 2
In the April 2003 issue of Communications of the ACM (Vol. 46, no. 4) the News Track section mentions research that has recently determined that using a hands free phone does nothing to improve driver attentiveness. They used scanners that track eye movement and determined that there was no difference using a traditional or hands-free phone in the car, while those talking to a passenger or listening to music were unaffected. The concern is that a number of states are introducing legislation that will force drivers to use hands-free technology to improve safety, and that these laws could instill a false sense of security (in addition to being plain dumb).
The question remains: Why do drivers get tunnel vision when they are talking to someone who isn't there? They know that it's not that the driver literally gets tunnel vision, but that they start filtering out signs and other cars (inattention blindness). Still, what is it about the fact the person they are conversing with isn't there that causes that problem?
I have a theory. Imagine for a second you are in the car, talking to a friend. Then there's traffic up ahead, you say to the friend, "hold on," and you interrupt your train of thought to deal with the vehicles. Later, when the traffic eases up, you both figure out where you last left off.
But on a cellphone, the person at the other end doesn't have this context. You may tell them: wait, I'm in the car, I need to deal with this, but it's not the same. When you initiate a phone transaction, the assumption is that someone has been interrupted (the callee), and so both parties are very focused on the dialog; or maybe they are worried about the minutes left on their plan. The person on the other end of the cellphone won't know why you trail off because you can't be distracted; so you try not to and you struggle to keep engaging them. PRetty soon, you're realizing your about to miss your exit, so you swerve over to the right to make it, then BAM!
Not good. I might also postulate that using a phone is particularly more stressful on the brain because each party is visually imagining the person they are talking to (at least I'm aware that _I_ do it); these are visual cortex cycles that should be focused on one's environment. But this is in contrast with the fact music or books on tape don't were found to NOT have this effect.
Comments?
(can't let my journal get archived) (Score:1)
must