Date of Award

Spring 2020

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Katherine S. Moore, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Elizabeth A. Walshe, Ph.D.; Chelsea Ward McIntosh, M.S.

Third Advisor

Daniel Romer, Ph.D.; Flaura K. Winston, M.D., Ph.D.

Abstract

Distracted driving, particularly cell phone use while driving, is a major contributor to motor vehicle crashes. However, a person doesn’t have to physically interact with a cell phone to be distracted. The current research explored the visual and performance costs that cell phone alerts pose to drivers, and if individual differences in executive function capacity can potentially moderate these costs. In a simulated driving environment, 23 young drivers encountered intersections with and without (i.e., baseline) a ringing cell phone. In both intersections, drivers’ attention was captured by the ringing cell phone significantly more than it was captured by other objects in the driving environment (e.g., traffic light) (p=.001). Compared to baseline, drivers took longer to initially accelerate, drove at higher average speeds, and took longer to cross the intersection (all ps<.05) in the presence of a ringing cell phone. Executive function capacity wasn’t significantly correlated with these visual and performance costs, though the direction of the relationship suggests that some drivers can resist this distraction better than others depending on cognitive ability. Altogether, these results support the notion that during cognitively demanding tasks like driving, cell phone alerts capture attention and this negatively affects certain aspects of task performance. These findings support interventions aimed at eliminating distraction from cell phones while driving, such as Do Not Disturb While Driving and similar functions that minimize cell phone alerts when it’s detected that a person is in a moving vehicle.

Download

Share

COinS
 

Cell Phone Alerts Impair Certain Aspects of Visual Attention and Driving Performance

Distracted driving, particularly cell phone use while driving, is a major contributor to motor vehicle crashes. However, a person doesn’t have to physically interact with a cell phone to be distracted. The current research explored the visual and performance costs that cell phone alerts pose to drivers, and if individual differences in executive function capacity can potentially moderate these costs. In a simulated driving environment, 23 young drivers encountered intersections with and without (i.e., baseline) a ringing cell phone. In both intersections, drivers’ attention was captured by the ringing cell phone significantly more than it was captured by other objects in the driving environment (e.g., traffic light) (p=.001). Compared to baseline, drivers took longer to initially accelerate, drove at higher average speeds, and took longer to cross the intersection (all ps<.05) in the presence of a ringing cell phone. Executive function capacity wasn’t significantly correlated with these visual and performance costs, though the direction of the relationship suggests that some drivers can resist this distraction better than others depending on cognitive ability. Altogether, these results support the notion that during cognitively demanding tasks like driving, cell phone alerts capture attention and this negatively affects certain aspects of task performance. These findings support interventions aimed at eliminating distraction from cell phones while driving, such as Do Not Disturb While Driving and similar functions that minimize cell phone alerts when it’s detected that a person is in a moving vehicle.