The Calling

9:41 AM |

Before it was texting that caused most accidents on the road. And now, it's... calling?

There were so many precautionary advices saying that texting through cellphones while driving could cause accidents on the road. Almost all of the warning signs across the world show the harm of texting, just texting. Many people around the world think that accident is caused by not looking directly on the front because when we text we usually look at our cellphones and not on the road. But studies showed that using cellphones or merely tapping on the call key even when looking in front could cause a significant effect on driving. Significant in the sense that it would be your last tap or luckily, you last call.

Drews et al. (2003) formulated an experiment on the effect of cell phone on our attention while driving. To be different from the previous studies done, they used the hands-free conversation on cellphone as the independent variable. In Experiment 1, they tried to find out if cell phone conversations can impair driving performance. And to prove Strayer and Johnston’s (2001) hypothesis that inattentional blindness, "a situation in which an object is not perceived when it is not attended even if an individual looks at it"[1], could cause cell phone conversations to impair driving reaction and performance. Experiments 2 to 4 studied the effects of cell phone conversations on attention to objects or stimuli in the visual field during driving because low attention on visual stimulus could prove the inattentional blindness hypothesis.

They found out in Experiment 1 that if the participants were on a conversation on phone, their reaction to stepping on the brake was impaired when a car in front stopped.Experiment 2 found that recognition memory for billboards exposed in the driving environment was impaired when participants had a conversation on phone. Experiment 3 observed also this impairment but for billboards the participants directly fixated. Experiment 4 also proved these findings through showing that implicit perceptual memory for words presented at fixation was impaired when participants were also in a conversation. When we are driving, we focus our attention on the environment stimuli. During a conversation on phone can change our attention from the environment to the cognitive context of what the conversation is all about. The intensity of the conversation also affects the impairment of our attention.

This study tells us that our attention to a particular object actually affects how we perceive it. When we divide our attention, our perception actually divides also like we perceive differently. This is very interesting and helpful especially for the growing cases of accidents in our country. Our government must be aware of this instead of always changing the rules of the road. There is no need for a new rule compared to a proper education given by the government. There is already the result, we must apply and implement it for us to have a more happy and safe life. Well, it is better to be cautious than to be sorry at the end.

Drews, F. A., Johnston, W. A., Strayer, D. L. (2003). Cell Phone-Induced Failures of Visual Attention During Simulated Driving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 9(1), 23-32. Retrieved from http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/wong/visualattention.pdf

[1] Goldstein, E. B. (2010). Sensation and perception (8th ed.). California, USA: Wadsworth.