Hands-Free Conversations Affecting Driver's Attention

“Distracted driving refers to any nondriving activity that takes motorists ' attention away from the safe operation of their vehicles” (Leone). Every time a driver gets in a vehicle and decides to use a cell phone to have a conversation, either talking or texting, they put themselves and others lives in danger. The convenience a cell phone and the capabilities they offer have made them a substantial distraction and a cause of significant source of vehicle accidents and fatalities. There are three different types of distractions: visual, manual and cognitive. Cell phone use is the most dangerous distraction because it involves all three different types of distraction and plays a part in the increasing issue of distracted driving. Even

There are both cognitive and physical factors that contribute to accidents when drivers talk on their cell phones and/or text behind the wheel. The primary cognitive factor is that an individual’s attention is divided when he or she is paying attention to more than one thing at a time (Goldstein, 2011). For example, a driver’s attention is on the road and perhaps how far the car ahead of him/her is, but at the same time is also trying to read a text message on a cellular device. This divided attention reduces the reaction speed and driving performance of the driver because there are not as many cognitive resources available to focus his/her attention on the most important thing: driving. When the driver is processing

In this article “Distracted Driving”, many distractions are mentioned other than just cell phone usage, such as changing the radio station or driving with kids in the back seat. It is stated that the dangers from distracted driving are because of the decrease in brain function and inability to pay full attention to the road. These practices lead to wrecks and in many cases death.

Many people think that talking on the phone with someone while driving does no harm because they are still looking at the road. However, “Distracted driving is

“A distracted driver may fail to see up to 50% of the available information in the driving environment. You may look but not actually “see” what is happening. Focus of the driver is not on the road or traffic and it becomes difficult to handle phone and vehicle at one time. Cell phones during driving also reduce the mental capacity of drivers as they fail to concentrate on minor or major activities happening around them. Cell phones distract drivers' attention resulting in comparatively slow response to traffic signals and other related traffic events. Studies have shown the fact that breaking reaction time is also slower while talking on a cell phone during driving. The perception, vision, general awareness, and concentration of the driver are impacted while communicating on a cell phone during driving. Especially during bad weather or driving on slippery roads, drivers engaging in conversation pay less attention to these areas increasing risks of fatal accidents.

Distracted driving is one of the fastest growing problems in the United States.   It is starting to be considered as serious as drunk driving based on the dangerous outcomes.  According to the Department of Transportation (2012), “distracted driving was a cause of roughly 450,000 accident-related injuries and nearly 5,500 fatalities in 2009 alone” (para. 1). Drivers who allow themselves to become distracted while driving are not only endangering themselves, but other innocent bystanders.

Studies conducted from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that using a cell phone while driving significantly impairs a driver’s reaction time and triples the risk of being involved in a crash or near-crash, and text messaging increases crash risk by a multiple of 8 for all ages (NHTSA, 2009). Situational awareness is significantly decreased while engaging in distracted driving, and in turn inattention blindness is increased drastically creating a potentially deadly situation on the roads. A driver who is multitasking has less brain function available and thus literally fails to see or pay attention to things that are squarely in the field of vision (Texting and Driving, 2010). On the other hand there are those that may be able to multitask successfully though the challenge is

Visual driving distractions take off the driver’s eyes off from the road and cognitive driving distractions take off the mind of the driver from driving. It has been stated by NHTSA that since text messaging needs visual, cognitive and manual attention on part

In another study on the effects driving while talking on cell phones by Strayer and Johnston (2001) shows ‘’the subjects a simulated driving task that required them to apply the brakes as quickly as possible in response to a red light. Doing this task while talking on a cell phone caused subjects to miss twice as many of the red lights as when they weren’t talking on the phone’’

The distractions of driving are a popular area of research. Recent studies have looked at what distracts drivers and what other failures of awareness may contribute to traffic accidents. The goal of this paper is to look at research and explain how change blindness can possibly effect driving.

The main idea of this article was to experiment the different causes of driving distractions in order to narrow down what affects drivers the most. Participants ranging from 18 to 30 were separated into 3 groups. In these groups, 1 group will be tested by having a conversation on the phone, another group will be holding phones, and the last group will be listening to the radio (all while driving). After the experiment was conducted, the authors justified that the groups who were holding phones and having a conversation missed twice as many simulated traffic signals than the radio group. The radio group was barely affected while testing. Moreover, this article is credible because the authors majored in psychological science at the University

The study tracked eye movements and found that drivers who were distracted suffered from “visual tunneling,” which caused them to focus their eyes on a small central region directly ahead of them. This led them to miss hazards in their peripheral

According to the author’s hypothesis in relation to inattention-blindness, when drivers are conversing on their cell phones, whether hands-free or hand-held, there is a deficit in their cognitive abilities. The results are impaired attention, with regards to their environment, while the driver’s attention is more focused on their conversation. Safety becomes an issue since these drivers are not analyzing important information about potential hazards. In addition, drivers having conversations with passengers in their vehicles were much better equipped to analyze their surroundings and thus less likely to experience inattention-blindness deficits in their cognitive abilities.

A car starts swerving off the road while going ten miles over the speed limit; however, the driver does not stay on the road for much longer as they had suddenly crashed into an oncoming vehicle. There are so many distractions in today’s vehicles that it becomes almost impossible to drive without losing focus. Most people are unaware of most distractions while they are driving, it has become such a nonchalant habit for them. Although, when people become distracted they endanger everyone else on the road, especially pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. It’s important to stay focused and aware while driving; when people are distracted they ignore obvious safety issues. Some of the dangerous habits most people practice today are eating, texting, and driving under the influence.

Hands free cell phone usage should not be used while driving based on evidence that shows that the use a cell phone while driving leads to more driving mistakes and overall lack of awareness (Sanbonmatsu et al., 2015). Drivers that use cell phones make more serious and minor errors, but cannot recall making these errors due to a lack of awareness. These drivers are more unaware of their inconsistent speed, placement in lanes and near accidents than those that are not using a cell phone. Additionally, these drivers are less likely to self-regulate their driving efficiently like drivers not using cell phones because of this lack of awareness. This reduction in self-regulation moreover leads to an increase in both minor and major errors (Sanbonmatsu et al. 2015). To determine this, Sanbonmatsu et al. (2015) gathered participants and split them into either a control/no cell phone group and an experimental/cell phone group. These participants were then tested in a driving simulator with the control group simply running through the simulator while the cell phone group called a friend or family member and had a conversation on a hands free device. The results of this experiment indicated that even though the control group did still make errors, they had more awareness of those errors than the experimental group, and made less serious errors than the experimental group.