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Brain & Nervous System276 citations

Engrossed in conversation: The impact of cell phones on simulated driving performance.

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Beede KE, Kass SJ. · 2006

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Talking on a hands-free phone significantly impacted driving performance across all four measured categories.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Thirty-six college students with a median of 6 years of driving experience completed a driving history questionnaire and four simulated driving scenarios. The distraction tasks consisted of responding to a signal detection task and engaging in a simulated cell phone conversation. Driving performance was measured in four categories: traffic violations, driving maintenance, attention lapses, and response time. Performance was significantly impacted in all four categories when drivers were concurrently talking on a hands-free phone.

Why This Matters

The current study examined the effects of cognitively distracting tasks on various measures of driving performance. Performance on the signal detection task was poor and not significantly impacted by the phone task, suggesting that considerably less attention was paid to detecting these peripheral signals. However, the signal detection task did interact with the phone task on measures of average speed, speed variability, attention lapses, and reaction time. The findings lend further empirical support of the dangers of drivers being distracted by cell phone conversations.

Study Details

The current study examined the effects of cognitively distracting tasks on various measures of driving performance.

Thirty-six college students with a median of 6 years of driving experience completed a driving histo...

Performance was significantly impacted in all four categories when drivers were concurrently talking...

The findings lend further empirical support of the dangers of drivers being distracted by cell phone conversations.

Cite This Study
Beede KE, Kass SJ. (2006). Engrossed in conversation: The impact of cell phones on simulated driving performance. Accid Anal Prev38(2):415-21, 2006.
Show BibTeX
@article{ke_2006_engrossed_in_conversation_the_1892,
  author = {Beede KE and Kass SJ.},
  title = {Engrossed in conversation: The impact of cell phones on simulated driving performance.},
  year = {2006},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16310750/},
}
PubMed: 16310750

Cited By (276 papers)

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Quick Questions About This Study

The distraction tasks consisted of responding to a signal detection task and engaging in a simulated cell phone conversation.
Thirty-six college students with a median of 6 years of driving experience participated.
Driving performance was measured in four categories: traffic violations, driving maintenance, attention lapses, and response time.
Performance was significantly impacted in all four categories when drivers were concurrently talking on a hands-free phone.
Performance on the signal detection task was poor and not significantly impacted by the phone task, yet it interacted with the phone task on measures of average speed, speed variability, attention lapses, and reaction time.