| from an "Allstate
NOW" (online
employee magazine) article Cell phone users: "inattention blindness" Adapted from a press release from the National Safety Council photo caption: A recent NHTSA survey found that nearly 75% of drivers use their phone while driving. |
| A new study by the National
Safety Council describes new research that explains how
cell phone conversations while driving become a
potentially dangerous distraction. The study, performed
at the University of Utah, shows that conversing on cell
phones while driving disrupts the driver's attention to
the visual environment, leading to what the researchers
call "inattention blindness," or the inability
to recognize objects encountered in the driver's visual
field. The study used 20
participants in controlled, simulated driving conditions.
Using a driving simulator, a city-driving scenario was
used and a number of digital images of real-world
billboards were positioned in the driving scene in clear
view of the participants. An eye-tracking device
determined whether the participants fixated on each
billboard. Afterwards, participants were tested to
determine incidental memory of billboards. One-third of
the billboards were presented in the driving but not
conversing (single-task) condition, one-third were
presented in the driving and conversing on a hands-free
phone (dual-task) condition, and one-third were used as
control stimuli in an incidental memory task, not
presented in the driving The researchers suggest that even when participants are gazing at objects in the driving environment, they may fail to "see" them when they are using a cell phone. The data also suggest that legislation restricting hand-held devices but permitting hands-free devices is unlikely to eliminate the problems. The problems are attributed in large part to the distracting effects of the phone conversations themselves, which direct attention away from the external environment and towards an internal, cognitive context associated with the phone conversation. The issue of driver distractions
caused by cellular phones becomes increasingly important
as cell phone use becomes more prevalent in American
life. According to studies conducted by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), some form
of driver distraction is a contributing factor in 20 to
30% of all crashes. The Cellular Telecommunications and
Internet Association estimates that there are currently
134.5 million cellular phones in operation in the United
States, and a recent NHTSA survey found that nearly 75%
of drivers reported using their phone while driving. A
NHTSA observational study released in 2001 estimated that
500,000 drivers of |