Whether or not it is safe to perform certain tasks together has been the subject of countless studies and surveys in recent years, from constant appearances on Local news outlets to an appearance on Mythbusters. The common perception, for the benefit of ‘shock and awe’ in public perception, have been consistently compared to the effect of driving intoxicated. These studies, although truthful in context of the study, miss a huge concept.
There is a lot of information available on the effects of different conditions that these studies ignore. In the NPR radio segment, Daniel Weissman talked about this concept. Some of the factors include: Easier to switch between different stimulators, It depends on how demanding the tasks are, and ultimately strategies are critical to the success of multi-tasking.
The key to driving comes down to a concept called continuous partial attention. When driving and talking, I notice that whenever something happens on the road that requires my attention, I end up having to ask “What was that again?” My brain switched to driving as my primary attention. Studies force subjects to never let this happen, they make the subject keep driving as secondary no matter what, that negates the ability to switch. Think of the cocktail analogy given by the other NPR audio story. If you are listening to one person, you are constantly scanning the background noise. Just wait for someone to break a glass or say your name and see how quickly your attention will turn.
I do believe that driving and talking, especially pulling your eyes off the road, is dangerous. I am simply making a call for a change in the way studies are completed. For the piano experiment, I would suggest moving the piano slightly and watching them compensate in different situations, and see where their focus goes, to the piano or the phone conversation.
The role of continuous partial attention is an interesting one, and there was another recent segment on NPR that featured a neuroscientist discussing talking on the phone while driving. She noted that talking on the phone while driving, even hands-free, causes our focus to become interior and inward, rather than directed to exterior conditions like the road. This switch to interiority is part of the reason that talking on the phone while driving is four times more likely to result in a crash.
ReplyDeleteThe transcript is here - the topic comes up about halfway down. http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-01-31/lisa-genova-left-neglected
Thanks for the additional info.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought. I noticed that driving in snow and talking is much more difficult. Driving takes over my primary thought more often.