Performances on all 4 categories were significantly impacted when driving and simultaneously having a conversation on the phone. Performance on signal detection task was poor but not significantly impacted by the phone task, indicating less attention was paid to detecting signals. This shows support that mobile phone distractions lead to decreased driving ability. 

Talking and Texting:

Caird et al. (2008)-

-Meta-analysis with a total sample size of 2000 participants

-Reaction times to events increased by 250ms when participants used phones

-This increase in RT was observed across different test settings: laboratory, driving simulation and on-road research setting

-The effect was larger when drivers were talking than when they were listening

 

 

 

Hand-held vs hands-free:

Strayer and Johnstone (2001)-

-Found that when using a phone participants required to press brakes in response to a red light were slow to respond and missed more red lights. 

-This was the case for handsfree too, due to limited cognitive resources

Redelmeier & Tibshirani (1997)-

-Examined phone call records of 699 drivers involved in collisions 

- Using a mobile phone associated with a quadrupling of the risk of a collision (4.3 times more likely) 

-Handsfree also showed to be no safer than a hand-held phone 

 

 

 

 

Compare to conversations with a person in the vehicle:

Drews, Pasupathi & Strayer (2008)-

-Found a conversation with someone present is different in comparison to talking to someone on the phone 

-Surrounding traffic becomes the topic of conversation as the passenger is aware of what is happening on the roads as they are present in the car

-the conditions that influence driving have an influence on the difficulty of the conversation.

-For example a passenger may stop talking if they are approaching a complex junction