On Jun 21, 6:10*pm, Dan Abel > wrote:
> In article >, "Jean B." >
> wrote:
>
> > Dave Smith wrote:
> > > Dan Abel wrote:
>
> > >> Yeah. *The law won't help much if people don't obey it and the police
> > >> don't enforce it:
>
> > >> 1. *Some people do fine with talking and driving. *Some don't, the
> > >> same people who can't drive and watch a pickup baseball game at the
> > >> local park as they drive by.
>
> > > I consider myself to be a good driver. I have a lot of accident free
> > > miles under my belt. *I cannot concentrate on driving while talking on a
> > > cell phone. *I can do one or the other, but not both.
>
> [snip]
>
> > >> 3. *Where I think the law might help is when the police officer sees
> > >> someone who obviously can't handle talking on a cell phone while
> > >> driving, like parked at a green light or stop sign. *If they see the
> > >> cell phone parked on their ear, they can easily cite them for it.
>
> > There was a recent report that said that folks who multitasked
> > tended to be awful at it. *Also, that the one thing they tended to
> > excel at was talking on the phone--but that that was because they
> > were blocking out things related to driving!!!
>
> I don't think I agree, Jean. *I think most people can multitask
I think I've seen something like the same report. It did not say that
people cannot multi-task just that the ability was overrated. The
ability or opportunity to concentrate on one task intensively tends to
get better results. So if you're a lawyer you probably don't want to
be writing a contract while taking dispositions.
>
> I can't say that I understand why sticking a phone up against the ear
> makes it so hard for some people. *We've all had the experience of
> talking in the car. *Sometimes a passenger will stop in midsentence
> because they see something happening outside. *After the driver is back
> on "auto-pilot", they'll resume talking. *When a driver is alone, they
> can turn on the radio and listen to music, news, a story or a ball game. *
> Sometimes they'll miss a piece due to driving, but that's OK. *So,
> people should be able to talk on the cell phone while driving, the same
> way. *They are talking on the phone, and concentrating on that with part
> of their mind, but realizing that driving is their primary task, and
> when something happens to catch their attention, they have to be able to
> switch out of "phone" mode and into "driving" mode. *Some people just
> can't do that. *
The research that I have read says that just about anyone tested (no
idea of how representative of the general population but the studies
cover 2-3 countries at least and usually are university or gov't
sponsored research institutes) drives much worse when using a
telephone.. Actually the research says that a drunk driver is better
in many ways than is a driver on a cell phone.
The best hypothesis is that talking on a telephone is quite another
thing than talking to another car occupant or listening to the radio,
etc. This seems to be because when speaking on the phone one loses
all sorts of nonverbal cues to what a person is saying. Therefore one
has to concentrate much more on what is being said, presumably
including things like tone of voice, volume and whatever else.
>Now, the big question is whether it makes any difference
> if those people are talking using a hands free phone. *
None basically according to all the research that I've seen. It has
nothing to do with hands, it is all a factor or cognitive loading.
I suspect not,
> but I still don't understand why somebody can drive and talk to their
> passenger, but not drive and talk with a phone jammed up against their
> ear.
See above.
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada