Cell phones are distracting to drivers, but so is almost everything else
Posted by: in General NewsPeople are just really bad at multitasking, especially on the road.
As much as we like to believe that we can gab on our Blackberries, slurp a grande mocha, skim a newspaper and expertly navigate rush hour traffic on 635 all at the same time, the reality, according to a new study, is that even just turning on the radio can turn you into a vehicular menace.
Long story short, some scientists had a bunch of people drive a car in a computer simulation, and added in progressively more disruptive distractions:
During one-minute virtual trips, participants listening to sentences drove onto the shoulder of the pavement or into the wrong lane 13 times on average, compared with 9 times on average for undisturbed drivers.
“Listening to talk radio or to spoken directions from a navigation system while driving probably have similar effects to what we found,” Just says. “Multitasking puts high demands on the brain.”
Listening to verbal conversations is particularly distracting, the scientists found.
Because language is more deeply encoded in our brains than spatial awareness (i.e. avoiding that semi that just slammed on its brakes 10 feet in front of you), your brain will always devote more processing power to language-related tasks when they come up and subtract focus from other things.
So I guess, in theory, monks who take vows of silence are the best drivers in the world.
Via Slashdot (where there’s some interesting debate on the merits of the study in the comments).
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