Driven To Distraction

2345 Words10 Pages
Running head: Driven to distraction 1 Driven to distraction: Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular phone. David L. Strayer and William A. Johnson General Psychology II Running head: Driven to distraction 2 In David L. Strayer and William A. Johnson’s research article, Driven to Distraction: Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular phone. We are able to read about hypotheses and experiments done to establish a correlation between either peripheral factors or attention factors while driving and holding phone conversations. I will identify the hypothesis’, experiments, dependent, and independent variables within the research article in an attempt to better understand the research done. I will also describe the main findings of the article and point out the real world applications that it contains. The main hypothesis within the research article deals with what part of conversing on a cellular phone interferes with paying attention to traffic signals and more efficient driving altogether. Most people believe, and in fact even people in congress for many laws have been established because of this hypothesis, that using a cellular phone interferes with effective and safe driving because of the peripheral factors. Peripheral factors deal with things like dialing the numbers, holding the phone or hanging up. However the main focus of this paper was to demonstrate that the peripheral factors may not be the risky part of driving and holding cellular conversations after all but rather the attentional factors; the conversation itself. Attention that may deviate a person from their original task refers to cognitive attention which is how we process specific information in our surroundings. Example, you can easily write and chew gum, because chewing gum does not require cognitive attention. Human brains cannot
Open Document