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Listening, Talking, Driving Don't Mix

August 27, 2005
New research shows that drivers have greater difficultly maintaining a fixed speed or keeping their car safe in a single lane when performing tasks that simulated conversing on a mobile phone, than if they were driving without the distraction.

• Federal Agencies Team Up To Combat Distracted Driving • Congress Takes On Distracted Driving Prevention • Obama Administration To Combat Distracted Driving • Survey: U.S. Drivers Say Texting While Driving Should be Banned • New Insight into Cell Phone Use and Driving Distraction • Phonegate: Feds Withheld Data on Cell Phone Dangers • Using A Cellphone? Make Sure to Stand Still • New Jersey Steps Up Cell Phone Law Enforcement • Talking While Walking May Put Kids At Risk • Car Key Jams Teen Drivers' Cell Phones • Feds Withhold Cell Phone Safety Data, Suit Charges • Cell Phone Conversations Distract Drivers, Study Finds • Texting Behind The Wheel Like Driving Drunk Or High • California Motorists Cope With New Hands-Free Law • More Teens Using Cell Phones While Driving • Drivers Impaired Just by Listening to Cell Phone • Driving While Phoning Gums Up Traffic, Study Finds • Study: Drivers Using Cell Phones As Bad As Drunks • Survey: Outlaw Cell Phone Use While Driving • Cell Phone No. 1 Driver Distraction • More Drivers Talking While Driving • Listening, Talking, Driving Don't Mix • Poll Finds Motorists Irked At Other Drivers • Crash Risk Four Times Higher When Driver is On the Phone • Cell-Phoning Drivers Get Failing Grade from Johns Hopkins • Study: Eight Percent of Drivers Are On the Phone • Feds Say Hands-Free Cell Phone Ineffective • Hands-Free Phones Safer, Study Finds • Make a Call, Get a Ticket --- Cell Phone Hazards • Study Finds Little Short-Term Cell Phone Health Risk • Cell Phones Linked to Bee Decline • Mayo Clinic Finds Cell Phones Safe in Hospitals • Origin of California Cell Phone Fire Disputed • Cell Phone Ignites, California Man Severely Burned • Study: Cell Phone Users Have Lower Sperm Counts • Study: Drivers Using Cell Phones As Bad As Drunks • Doctors Warn Against Cell Phone Use In Storms • Cell Phones Cleared in Gas Fire • Sleep With Your Cell Phone? Don't Forget the Dog • Feds Warn of Cell Phone Battery Hazards • Risk of Cell Phone Explosions Growing • Cell Phone Catches Fire • Battery Recall • Traffic Tickets • Gasoline Fires • Radiation Fears --- • Consumer Complaints

Contrary to expectation, the speaking and listening were equally distracting. The research was conducted at the University of Illinois and will be published in the next edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Almost 100 students took experiments in which they drove virtual cars. While driving they had to provide answers about the layout of buildings on their campus, or check that statements made by others about relative positions of building were correct. The researchers monitored various aspects of their driving performance while they performed these tasks.

The results showed that both speaking and listening had detrimental effects on driving.

Participants were poorer at maintaining a stable speed, or keeping a constant distance between themselves and other traffic than when only driving. Paradoxically, there was some indication that when drivers had to speak while driving, their lane control increased even though speed control decreased.

Before this research the expectation was that speaking would be more detrimental than listening, because speaking is often thought to be a more complex task.

"Unexpectedly we found that speaking and listening had very similar detrimental effects," says lead author Tate Kubose, a postdoctoral fellow working in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois.

"These results challenge the widespread presumption that production is harder than comprehension, and the expectation that talking while driving is necessarily more disruptive than listening," said Dr Kubose.

The results support the growing body of data suggesting that it is the cognitive task of conversing via phone, in addition to the physical task of handling the equipment, that impedes a person's ability to drive safely.

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