How Cell Phones Distract

• Visual – Eyes off the road
• Mechanical – Hands off the wheel
• Cognitive – Mind off driving

Hands-free devices offer no safety benefit when driving

• Hands-free seen as a solution and are mistakenly believed to be safer than handheld
• People recognize the risk of talking on handheld and texting more than the risk of hands-free

What is a Hands-Free Device?

• Headset that communicates via wire or wireless connection to cell phone
• Factory-installed or aftermarket feature built into vehicle (voice recognition)

Hands-free devices do not eliminate cognitive distraction

• Cognitive distraction still exists with hands-free
• Talking occurs on both handheld and hands-free cell phones
• Mind focuses on conversation
• Listen and respond to disembodied voice
• Multitasking: A Brain Drain
• Multitasking for the brain is a myth
• 100% of attention can be given to only one thing at a time
• Driving requires 100% focus to be the safest it can be
• Human brains do not perform two tasks at the same time
• Brain handles tasks sequentially
• Brain switches between one task and another
• Brain engages in a constant process to:
  • Select information brain will attend to
  • Process information
  • Encode to create memory
  • Store information
  • Retrieve information
  • Execute or act on information

When the brain is overloaded these steps are affected:

• Brain filters information due to overload
• Drivers not aware of information filtered out
• Information does not get into memory
• Drivers miss critical information on potential hazards
• Brain juggles tasks, focus and attention
• Brain switches between primary and secondary tasks
• Inattention blindness – When people do two cognitively complex tasks (driving and using a cellphone), causing the brain to shift focus
• “looking” but not “seeing”
• Hands-free drivers less likely to see:
• High and low relevant objects
  • Visual cues
  • Exits, red lights and stop signs
  • Navigational signage
  • Content of objects

Multitasking: Impairs Performance

• We can walk and chew gum safely because it is not a cognitively-demanding task
• Even cell phone-using pedestrians act unsafely. They are less likely to:
  • Look for traffic before stepping into street
  • Look at traffic while crossing street
  • Notice unusual objects placed along path

Driving involves a more complex set of tasks than walking

• Visual
• Manual
• Cognitive
• Auditory

A driver’s job is to watch for hazards, but this cannot be done when the brain is overloaded.

Cell Phone: Typical driver behaviors

• Inattention blindness
• Slower reaction/response times
• Problems staying in lane

Ref: Carnegie Mellon University Study (Multitasking); National Safety Council