Effects of Different Driving Distractions on High School Students

Juliana Lamond

Problem/ Question

Driving distractions recently joined alcohol and speeding as one of the leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes.

How will a high school students reaction time be affected with different driving distractions such as a conversation, texting, and visual distractions?

Background Information• Longer reaction time is the outcome of

the brain switching focus, or multitasking• It is not possible for people to perform 2

tasks will full concentration and effectiveness concurrently

• There is a capacity limit to the brain• Driving distractions are usually the cause

of driving mistakes

Why was I interested?

• I have my driver’s permit• Hopefully getting license soon• To protect my family, friends, others, and

myself

Hypothesis A high school student’s reaction time will be

affected by various distractions such as having a conversation, texting, or having a visual distraction. The most distracting would likely involve more, multiple areas of the brain compared to the reaction test: texting, followed by having a conversation, and finally, visual distractions.

http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php

Online Reaction Time Test Used

Procedure1) Quiet room with a computer was found2) 28 high school girls were randomly placed in

4 groups of 7 (girls were tested singularly)3) Control Group

a) Standard instructions were given about the online reaction time test and subject was told to beginb) Result was recorded

Procedure Continued4) Conversation Distraction Group

a) Standard instructionsb) Subject was told she would be asked simple consecutive questions concurrently with the time test (same questions were used for each subject) c) Subject was told to begin the reaction testd) Result was recorded

Procedure Continued5) Visual Distraction Group

a) Standard instructionsb) Subject was told she would have to study a picture that the researcher would put on the wall concurrently with the test c) Subject was told to begin the reaction testd) Result was taken

Procedure Continued6) Texting Distraction Group

a) Standard instructionsb) Subject was told to memorize the sentence, ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’c) Paper with the sentence on it was placed next to her in case she forgotd) Subject was told to take out her cell phone and text the sentence as fast as she could while taking the teste) Subject was told to beginf) Result was recorded

Variables

• Constants• Room• Computer• Website• Standard directions

• Independent• Type of distraction• Additional instructions for each distraction

• Dependent• Reaction times

Control Group

Conversation Group

Visual Group

Texting Group

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Averages of Reaction Times with Different Distractions

milliseconds

T-Test

Groups P-ValueControl and Conversation 0.0003Control and Visual 0.007Control and Texting 0.0001Conversation and Visual 0.5

Uncontrollable Variables• Inability to gather subjects, so the subject pool was reduced• Confusion to directions• All girls- might have been a difference if boys were included• Natural variation in reaction times

Further Studies•Include high school boys•Larger sample sizes•More distractions tested

Conclusion

• Texting is most distracting, followed by visual distractions and conversations, and finally no distractions

• Error bars based on standard deviation and the T-Test reveal that conversations and visual distractions are not scientifically significant from each other

• Therefore, the hypothesis was partially supported

Conclusion Continued• Best thing to do while driving is to have as few

distractions as possible• Possible to save yourself and others from car

crashes by focusing on just driving

Works Cited• California Department of Motor Vehicles (2008). Driver Distractions. Retrieved

from http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffdl28.htm• National Safety Council (2010). Understanding the Distracted Brain. Retrieved

from http://www.fnal.gov/pub/traffic_safety/files/NSC%20White%20Paper%20-%20Distracted%20Driving%203-10.pdf

• Dux, Ivanoff, Asplund, and Marios (2006). Isolation of a Central Bottleneck of Information Processing with Time-Resolved fMRI. Retrieved from http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/marois/Publications/Dux_et_al-2006.pdf

• U.S. Department of Transportation (2010). Research. Retrieved from http://www.distraction.gov/research

• Whipps (2010). Study Reveals Why We Get Distracted so Easily. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/health/070329_brain_regions.html

• Human Benchmark (2010). Reaction Time Test. Retrieved from http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php