Why Hands-Free Devices May Still Distract Drivers
Nancy Mann Jackson
Think your Bluetooth or other hands-free technology makes it safer to use your cell phone while driving? Think again.
The use of handheld devices while driving is rejected because it limits a driver’s ability to operate a vehicle properly, and recent research shows that having your hands free isn’t the only thing that matters for safety. It’s equally important to have your mind free of distractions while driving. A study published by the University of Sussex in England found that talking on the phone, even with a hands-free device, requires much of the same brain processing resources needed for driving. Doing both at the same time caused participants in the study to detect fewer hazards, respond to hazards more slowly and fail to register seeing things that were right in front of them.
Cell phone use is just one of many culprits that lead to distracted driving, but in recent years, it has contributed to a growing number of crashes. That’s largely because of the limitations of the human brain: Our brains simply aren’t able to do everything we may expect of them at the same time.
Are You Paying Attention?
If you’ve ever been irritated by a family member who appears to tune out your voice while he is reading the newspaper or trying to attend to a crying grandchild, you may be surprised to learn that he may not be ignoring you purposefully. Instead, his brain may be simply unable to pay attention to what you’re saying while focused on the newspaper or a small child’s whines.
Through extensive study, researchers have found that attention is a limited resource. Each person only has a certain amount of attention available, and when focusing his or her attention on one thing, he or she is unable to focus on others. Nobody is able to attend to everything at once, so when we apply our attention resources to one thing, we are always doing so at the expense of other things. That’s why, as you attend to the crying toddler, you may miss hearing what your spouse is trying to tell you. Read More
