Cell phone-induced failures of visual attention during simulated driving.

TLDR

The study examined the effects of hands‑free cell‑phone conversations on simulated driving. The authors assessed whether the resulting impairment could be attributed to a withdrawal of attention from the visual scene, producing a form of inattention blindness. They found that such conversations impaired drivers’ reactions to braking vehicles, reduced explicit and implicit visual memory for roadside cues, and overall degraded driving performance by diverting attention from the visual scene.

Abstract

This research examined the effects of hands-free cell phone conversations on simulated driving. The authors found that these conversations impaired driver's reactions to vehicles braking in front of them. The authors assessed whether this impairment could be attributed to a withdrawal of attention from the visual scene, yielding a form of inattention blindness. Cell phone conversations impaired explicit recognition memory for roadside billboards. Eye-tracking data indicated that this was due to reduced attention to foveal information. This interpretation was bolstered by data showing that cell phone conversations impaired implicit perceptual memory for items presented at fixation. The data suggest that the impairment of driving performance produced by cell phone conversations is mediated, at least in part, by reduced attention to visual inputs.