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Is Inattentional Blindness So Different Between The Two Tasks?

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One of my good friends is a nerdy astrophysicist and he looks like one. When he found out was I texting and driving he was outraged. He told me that every time I texted and drove I would now think of him naked; it was a strong mental image. I still think about it some days when I pick up my phone. That image got me to stop texting and driving for quote a bit of time. Despite his best efforts I still do use my phone and drive. Most people seem to fall into the same trap, but can we text and drive safely? According to David L. Strayer and Frank A. Drews research, no. It’s estimated that 100 million drives use a phone and drive. Yet people are not distracted as much by the radio, or audio books, why? The researchers wanted to see why …show more content…

Instead of a driving simulator that was used for the first two studies participants followed a car that would break at random. The ERPs were reduced by 50% when driver talked on the cellphones compared to the single task group. This supports the hypothesis that the participants are not encoding the information when distracted and less able to react. The fourth study looked and a hands free cell phone conversation but instead of the single task they had participants talking to a passenger when driving. The drivers with the passenger had about 88% of participants that completion and the dual task group had 50%. It is believed that the to people worked together to help the driver stay safe. It was hypothesized by the researchers that cell phones are distracting because of the idea that the central-processing bottleneck. The central-processing bottleneck is the idea that the brain has these two sources of information, and the brain is taking turns rather than doing two task at once. It implies that humans can not multitask, making phones and driving unsafe. In Utah is is already illegal to use a handheld cellphone however distracted driving can happen with a headset, even without a headset it seems like cars have been made into phones, and are more and more technology based. Cars now come preprogrammed with command stations, and all sort of gizmos to make them “safer”. I see no difference between them and a holding a cell

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