Gamers Better at Driving w/ Cell Phones?

sl4shd0rk writes "A lot of people think talking on the cell phone while driving is natural, but each time someone asks a question or changes the subject, it's like taking on a new task, Psychologists who study multi-tasking have argued for years about whether these "information bottlenecks" occur because people are inherently lazy, or because they have a fundamental inability to switch from one task to another. Mei-Ching Lien, an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University. "Even with a seemingly simple task, structural cognitive limitations can prevent you from efficiently switching to a new task." I have to say that the best ones are those who play a lot of video games," she pointed out. "Those are lab studies, however, and not driving tests." " All I know is that I could get where I was going better if I could shoot turtles at others on the highway.

It's okay, officer . . .

[by Anonymous Coward]

. . . I play Quake. Wonder if this works for drunk driving, too :).

Mushroom

[by Anonymous Coward]

Well i know i used a mushroom to get into this pole position

Stupid console fans

[SmallFurryCreature (593017)]

Now I tuned my car to the max stripping all the boring bits off like roof, lights etc and powerslide my way around corners at 200 miles per hour (grand prix legends) but do you think that is tolerated? NOooooo. I guess the police here is still pissed they had to give up their porches and take it out on anyone who think the speed limit is meant to be a minimum.

Vindication!

[mwilliamson (672411)]

Woohoo, I knew this skill would come in handy someday ;-)

Natural? No.

[DikSeaCup (767041)]

"A lot of people think talking on the cell phone while driving is natural ..."

And a lot of people (including many gamers) think it is not natural.

GET OFF THE PHONE AND DRIVE.

Re:Natural? No.

[oberondarksoul (723118)]

Mod parent up. When you're driving a huge lump of metal with the ability to very, very easily end someone else's (or your own) life, you should be concentrating on one thing and one thing only: ensuring that you don't.

Re:Natural? No.

[MurphyZero (717692)]

Then we should make all cars single passenger vehicles, because I for one am more distracted by passengers talking in the car than by a conversation on a cell phone. For one, the social interaction habits tend to make the driver want to look at the other speaker. A cell phone does not. Likewise, instead of a child seat, maybe a muzzle would provide them better protection. I do have two children, and those two are much greater distractions than any cell phone will ever be.

Re:Natural? No.

[antifoidulus (807088)]

Yes, but a passenger is MUCH more likely to alert you of an impending danger(they can see where you are, and of course don't want to die) than a person on a cell phone. Not to mention that even on hands free sets talking on a cellphone is less natural, and thus takes more concentration than talking to someone next to you.

Re:Natural? No.

[master_p (608214)]

Correct, but why should we be required to physically drive? GPS technology can offer centimeter accuracy, detailed electronic maps of cities already exist, algorithms that choose the optimal path in a graph are known for half a century, sonic radars (or other type) can already be used for regulating the flow of indepentent vehicles on a road.

I'd rather spend my time working and talking, even if in a car on road to work, rather than having to actually pay attention to the road.

Billions of dollars are spent t

Re:Natural? No.

[BushCheney08 (917605)]

Does this mean that I, as a pedestrian or bicyclist, will now be required to carry a GPS device so that some idiot who's letting his car drive doesn't run me down?

Re:Natural? No.

[StarvingSE (875139)]

Agreed. Nov. 15th, I was sitting at a red light with 2 other cars in front of me, and all of a sudden I get rear ended by an F150 at 45mph. My car and the car in front of me ended up totalled. The reason he wasn't paying attention to the red light...... HE WAS ON THE CELL PHONE.

I don't care how good people think they are at multitasking, driving requires 100% of your attention. You could be good at it 99% of the time, but then there's that one time your trying to dial someone's number and you accidenta

Bravo

[YrWrstNtmr (564987)]

Sign I'm putting on the back of my truck:

"If your mommy talks on the phone while she's driving
She doesn't love you very much"

Re:Natural? No.

[Cally (10873)]

exactly. Try it here in the UK you're likely to not only get beeped at, and have headlights flashed at you by other drivers who prefer to avoid having to drive around people not paying attention to the road - you'll be nicked if the cops spot you, because it's illegal. Quite right, too. I'm surprised it's any different anywhere else.

But it's *not* like having someone next to you

[Anonymous Brave Guy (457657)]

Unfortunately, like most people, you've got completely the wrong idea of why driving while using a mobile phone is dangerous. At this point, I'd like to pause for a moment to thank the UK government for introducing legislation attacking the wrong problem, and thus giving millions of drivers a false sense of security when they're using a hands-free kit.

In fact, if you look at the studies done in the UK and elsewhere before the explicit ban was introduced in the UK, the big problem is the loss of concentration. The physical incapacity caused by tying up one hand obviously doesn't help, but it makes far, far less of a difference to road safety.

The reason that talking on a phone isn't like talking to a person next to you is that a person next to you will sense when you need to concentrate, because they can see that you're approaching a hazard for example, and they'll shut up and not distract you while you navigate around the hazard. Someone you're talking to on a phone can't do that, and will change the subject, ask you a question, or otherwise attract your attention just as much when you're approaching a potential danger as when you're driving on an open road without another car in sight. Whether you're holding a little box near your ear or listening to someone through a speaker doesn't affect this at all.

If the UK government really wanted to improve the level of road safety rather than score cheap political points, they would have banned all mobile phone use while driving. Then again, the whole idea of such a specific offence seems a bit redundant when you already have legislation making dangerous driving illegal in general. Presumably someone thought it would draw more attention to the specific and increasing problem, or they were just after the political points.

In summary, this is wrong:

If you want/need to use a phone while driving get a hands free kit.

For most people, you simply don't need to use a phone while driving, period. If you want to talk to someone elsewhere while on the move, get someone else to drive. Doing anything less will dramatically increase your risk of having an accident, as surely as driving while drunk, tired or stoned.

Re:But it's *not* like having someone next to you

[fafalone (633739)]

While concentration does indeed play a bigger role, you are wrong to to imply that hands free sets cannot make you substantially safer. Consider the driver of a vehicle with manual transmission in relatively dense traffic. Steering and shifting gears requires both hands for doing both at the same time, which is often neccessary. If you're on the phone, you have to put your head into an awkard position which compromises safety. Or, you have to briefly use your steering hand to shift gears while holding the c

Shooting turtles

[sucker_muts (776572)]

All I know is that I could get where I was going better if I could shoot turtles at others on the highway.

Sure, but then the other cars will slow down or spin at your oil patches. :-D

(For the people who wonder: Mario kart! [mariokart.com])

No.

[bwd (936324)]

Just because you're good with multitasking with your hands doesn't mean you're inherently better than other people at multitasking in a car. With one, there are no consequences for failure. When you're driving a car, serious injury or death is the result of failure.

It's just this kind of superiority BS by gamers that will get them killed in a car. There's a difference between games and real life.

Re:No.

[nolife (233813)]

I think I agree. I consider myself a "gamer", I am a little older then average but I've had every game console since pong in the mid 70's. Through gaming, I have developed great hand eye coordination, a decent ability to look for and predict how other people may react in certain situations, and I am expecting the unexpected. Those skills are great to have as a driver but I still suck at driving while on the cell phone, hands free or not. Maybe gamers are statistically better at driving overall beacause

The frame rate

[ScottCooperDotNet (929575)]

There's a difference between games and real life.

The frame rate is so much better!

Well...

[Sv-Manowar (772313)]

I think driving with any kind of distraction will always make driving more dangerous, even hands-free kits, because you are trying to think about the conversation you are having whilst focusing on driving. Holding a phone up to your face might mean you lose the use of one your hands for driving, but it's what is going on that is taking you attention away.

Gamers are most probably more used to multitasking while doing activities, I can't count how many times I've had a conversation while play Gran Turismo 4 only to crash because of it, but as you do it more you get better.

Is this really true?

[SmallFurryCreature (593017)]

F1 and other motor sports absolutly leaped on the capabilty of modern communication to allow the driver to communicate with the pit crew. At speeds your average street car could only reach by being dropped from a plane.

Then their is motor cycle riding course. How do you communicate with your instructor? Two way radio. This in a vehicle that requires and extra task namely of keeping upright. With the extra handicap that by the difinition of driving instruction that you are not very good at it yet.

Police motor cycle cops also use two way radio to communicate during high speed pursuits.

So basically a lot of people drive and talk at the same time. From trained proffesionals who should know about road safety to the most elite drivers in the world to newbies.

Personally I think it depends on the person. I seen people drive that shouldn't be allowed to even if their eyes were glued to the windscreen and others who can do a myriad of tasks and still be full aware of everything on the road and more important perhaps, the side of the road. If you ever road shotgun on a truck in the innercity you will know how important it is to keep track of kids playing in gardens. Trucks seem to have a magnetic field that pulls everyone in.

But.

[TheLink (130905)]

The thing is - most of those cases the driver is talking about something fairly related to the situation he needs to concentrate on.

Not something totally unrelated.

The cop probably looking at the vehicle he's chasing, describing it, saying where it's going. I'd find that not so hard to do that myself.

He's not trying to think of whether his girlfriend's maroon skirt (gf: "Not the red one, _maroon_") will go fine with her new top, or whether what he says next will get him in trouble with her...

As for F1 drivers, they are drivers who are highly coordinated and can probably multitask and drive at highspeeds. At least the top ones should be able to practically drive around tracks in their sleep ;).

Apparently when the F1 racers were made to race in go-karts years ago, Ayrton Senna apparently was driving whilst tweaking the fuel-air mix on his kart's engine at the same time.

Rally drivers might even better at these sort of situations.

Driving while talking

[quokkapox (847798)]

I don't care if you're some kind of whiz-bang gamer, if you are the only person responsible for the safe operation of a huge chunk of fast moving metal, shouldn't you be concentrating overwhelmingly on that task alone? You owe it to the dumb pedestrians out there, who do not deserve to be Darwinized for making a simple mistake that ends up getting them killed because you're paying less attention than you could be.

Relatedly, and I know this is anecdotal, but I try to conscientiously observe the driver when I see someone make a mistake at an intersection (when it is safe for *me* to do so, such as when I'm already *STOPPED* and some bloody fool runs a stale yellow/red light from the lane next to me.) More often than not, they are talking on a cellphone. Or eating, or drinking.

WTF

[Turn-X Alphonse (789240)]

I can multitask fine. I'm often doing 3-4 things at once (playing games while watching TV and talking on IM for example), but this is ridiclous and should NOT be encouraged. Almost every time I see a bad driver they're either talking on the phone or they're some asshole 20 year old with daddie's money paying for his new car, who just happens to have a death wish.

I don't care if you play games, play golf or play with yourself. You can't control a car with one hand (unless specially adapted), let alone control it with one hand while you focus on going "oh really? Yes? wow? cool!" over and over down a phone. If the call is THAT important then you can pull over and answer it, you'll take 5 minutes longer to get there but you arn't endangering my life.

Re:WTF

[Hope Thelps (322083)]

I can multitask fine. I'm often doing 3-4 things at once (playing games while watching TV and talking on IM for example), but this is ridiclous and should NOT be encouraged.

What they seem to ignore is that driving ALREADY means paying attention to multiple things at once. You're looking at the road ahead, and reading the road signs and watching for anything approaching the road from the sides and monitoring the situation behind you in the mirrors and keeping track of your various readouts like the speedometer. This is a lot for anyone to handle.

Re:WTF

[syukton (256348)]

This is a lot for anyone to handle.

Um, what? Seriously, WHAT? Did you fail the licensing exam a few times or what? You might just be kind of slow, you know.

Maybe you don't possess the skill to drive, but I sure do and I loathe your generalization.

Anybody with a measurable level of driving skill doesn't even need their speedometer because they can judge how fast they're going. And in traffic, generally, your speed is less important than it is to just maintain a speed with the flow of traffic. Reading road si

Re:WTF

[geminidomino (614729)]

So if you drive an automatic, then you don't need that second hand.

I just don't see it.

[bsartist (550317)]

I know a lot of gamers who multitask incredibly poorly when playing games. There's a "zone" they get into, where distractions just don't get through - telephone, household pets, noise outside, a bomb in the next room, etc., none of it gets noticed.

Some folks might point out that a lot of modern games have in-game voice chat, but there's a key difference there - the players are generally talking about the game. So it's not really multitasking, it's just another piece of the single task they're involved in and focusing on.

Re:I just don't see it.

[Guppy06 (410832)]

"There's a "zone" they get into, where distractions just don't get through - telephone,"

That right there may be a part of it.

Re:I just don't see it.

[bsartist (550317)]

Example of multitasking in games. I have a Healer in the Midgard realm in Dark Age of Camelot. In a group, I might have to be monitoring the health and situation of up to 7 other people, prioritize their healing needs, pick what healing spells to use on them, and heal them. Meanwhile, if any extra monsters show up, I have to mesmerize them if the rest of the group is not ready to immediately deal with them. I've also got a spell that slows monster attack speed for 20 seconds. I need to be using that and renewing it on monsters that are taking a long time to kill. I've got a limited amount of power for all this, so I have to keep close watch on my power level.

That's not the same kind of multitasking. Everything you mentioned is one aspect of the larger task of "playing the game" - a thread, as it were, not a full task. Switching from one thread to another isn't a change in context, because they're all closely related to one another. Driving has many such threads as well - monitoring the gauges, the road ahead, the mirrors, etc.

The kind of multitasking that causes problems is when it's two or more entirely unrelated tasks.

That's because the average person has no skills

[cfavader (754724)]

That's because the average person has no skills.

Most gamers on the other hand have like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills, etc...

Having such a large repertoire of skills, over the years gamers have had to learn better multitasking skills out of necessity (unless, of course, you have a sweet bike or a mustache).

Need new Drivers license tests

[G4from128k (686170)]

Perhaps all driver license tests should include a multitasking reaction time test. The person would have to listen to and correctly answer questions about driving (i.e., a voice response version of the written part of the driver's test) while taking a simulated driving test that checks reaction time and the ability to multitask. You would have to both drive safely AND verbally answer the questions correctly. Those who pass both halves of the test get a license to use a cellphone whilst driving and those that don't don't. Retaking this test every 10 years would help deal with any age-related cognitive declines.

Can people learn to drive with a cellphone, safely

[mindstrm (20013)]

Sure they can.
Can they learn to drive faster than the speed limit, safely? Sure they can.
Can they learn to drive safely while intoxicated? Sure they can. (think, drive slower, etc)

Does that mean we should encourage these things? Of course not.

The fact is, most people think they are better than average drivers. Given that you are piloting a few thousand pounds of steel and gasoline around, your focus should primarily be on doing that safely, not on doing your makeup/talking on the phone/rolling that joint/whatever.

Thank goodness...

[Aphrika (756248)]

...that this is illegal in the UK. I still see people on phones when driving and there is no way they can give attention to both the call and the road. If I'm at a pedestrian crossing I'll give drivers a wide berth if they're on the phone - all too often they'll just sail through a red light.

In all honesty, I don't like surveys like this as they seem to justify to some people that they are superhuman and do have the ability to do things that are just plain dangerous. Sure, some people may be able to drive and phone, but it's clear that you're obviously not giving the road 100% attention. It's not like there's a video chip and a sound chip in there and they work independently. People also have the ability to over-estimate their own skills and cause problems for others - drink driving for example. So for the love of God if you're in the UK, don't start using your phone just because you're a gamer...

Also a quick point; to those people who have hands-free headsets. It does not help if you do not wear them, then fumble to put on the sodding thing when a call comes in! That's just as dangerous, especially if - like they guy I saw drive into a tree at 30 mph - you were under the dash getting it out of the glovebox...

Gamers Better at Driving w/ Cell Phones?

[digitalsushi (137809)]

Gamers Better at Driving w/ Cell Phones?

"Those are lab studies, however, and not driving tests."

Wow.

Let's face it....

[Jace of Fuse! (72042)]

Let's face it, some people are just better driver with or without cell phones.

MythBusters

[MrShaggy (683273)]

There was an episode that was done a while that addressed this same problem. They had a gentleman from the DMV perform a driving test. Two of them had to take the test as a baaseline.Things like driving through pylons, and accelerating and stopping. All of these were low speed tests. They then did the test on their cell phones. They had to answer a bunch of different questiions, like "What colour is your hair, ' other questions to see if they could understand a series of questions. And different sets of demands on the phone. They then had to do the test again, but drunk. They had a couple of cops, doing a brythaliser test. They flunked both road test preatty mush the same. They were surpisred that the phone and the alcohol would affect them the same way. Of course lots of people would say ' well there isnt enough data to make that work.' But that is a good way to start. If you were to test 100 people in the same manner, I think that it would be surprisig. Shaggy

There is a way...

[roman_mir (125474)]

It is possible to talk on the phone and drive. The trick is simple: you must make concentrating on the road your priority. What I mean is this: you must actively THINK that you are driving. Talking on the cell becomes of much lesser priority. If something interrupts your normal driving pattern just drop the phone instantly, just put 100% of all your capacities to the road. For example if someone cuts you off too damn close, you must act as if there is no cell phone in your hand. I admit, sometimes I drive that way. Of-course I prefer not to be on the phone while driving, but you can't do much about it. We spend too much time driving, there is no surprise that people talk on the phone, this is inevitable.

Unfortunately almost all people don't do it that way. For some strange reason they concentrate on the phone call and view their driving as the secondary task. This leads to accidents. Probably everyone who drives (myself included,) have witnessed someone doing something incredibly stupid while on the phone.

I actually think talking on the phone while driving should become part of the driving test. We can't stop people from talking on the phone. Really. They will use hands-free devices and no police will be able to enforce a law like that. So we must TEACH people to do it right. Part of the course and exam must include a person calling the driver, while the teacher/examiner observe the driver's behaviour. The driver must learn to pay 95% of his attention to the road, to observe the traffic laws AND follow them and to drive in real traffic conditions without endangering the rest of the world by their behaviour. They should be taught to drop the phone conversation instantly, I mean in a hundred of a millisecond and completely concentrate on the road if they feel that a dangerous situation is coming up. But this will probably prohibit many people from driving at all, but you know what? Then you should have an extra configuration in your driver's license: Did not pass drive while talking exam. The penalties for driving and talking and causing an accident should be extra-severe for these people.

I had an accident about 4 years ago (and no, I wasn't on the phone,) a fender-bender. Also I spun out of control once (I behaved stupidely, made a very sharp turn at a very high velocity) didn't hit anything but after a 270 turn both rear wheels went into a ditch. After these 2 incidents I have developed some kind of a reflex, when I stop paying attention to the road for even a millisecond, a scene plays in my mind: I FEEL like I am crashing into something HARD. I feel it with every cell in my body and it forces me to start paying fullest attention again. I am telling you, this feeling prevented me from doing quite a few stupid things and probably from a few accidents (I almost never go with the speed limit though, I always go at least 25% faster.) But you can't develop this reflex from instructions, unfortunately you have to go through bad things a couple of times to have it automatically. It's unpleasant to feel this, but if it saves me from an accident I am just glad that I have it.

Re:There is a way...

[roman_mir (125474)]

Let me explain something to you, buddy, I don't know where and how you live, but where I live, everyone has got a phone and almost everyone drives. Given that people drive at least 2 hours every day of their lives, don't tell me that making or accepting phone calls while driving can actually be constantly avoided. The problem with your argument is that you believe that people can be changed from their ways, but this is false. People don't change their ways, they do what is the most convenient and comfort

flip flop

[bitspotter (455598)]

"Attention Deficit" is classified as a disorder by some. Not having it myself, I often think I a have trouble with the modern world - I like to focus on single tasks instead of being distracted and interrupted all the time.

I sense that this is one of those researchers that wants to classify ADD as a functional adaptation to post-modern life, rather than a disorder. Those with an *in*ability to "multitask" (ie, manage distractions) are the ones with the disorder.

maybe that's because...

[Infonaut (96956)]

Gamers are used to having their hands on the joystick, so they don't *TALK WITH THEIR HANDS* which is the single most annoying thing to watch when you're cycling along on a narrow shoulder. You look over and see some idiot gesticulating as they drive, whether talking on a hands-free set or to another person in the car. Meanwhile, you're thinking, "Great, if this guy forgets to put his hands back on the wheel, or if he has to react suddenly, I'll wind up as road pizza."

As others have mentioned, when you're driving, you're taking control of a weapon. Even a small amount of carelessness when driving can kill one or more people. I find it mind-boggling how so many people have become anesthetized to the fact that they're actually driving a vehicle. Automatic transmissions, cush interiors, shock absorbtion that cushions the road, and other modern enhancements to automobiles make people remove the sense of inherent danger that makes people pay attention.

It's great that cars are safer and more comfortable than they used to be, but the number of near-accidents I see on a daily basis makes me think that we'd better hurry up with self-driving automobiles. The actual driving part of driving a car has become so secondary that we may as well remove it from human control altogether.

Gaming lets you react to emergencies

[doc modulo (568776)]

A friend of mine says Counter-Strike saved his life. He was driving along when, from the edge of his vision, he saw someone throw something from the overpass onto the road.

Because of all the CS playing he was more perceptive of movement and he was trained in how to react to dangerous objects moving your way (grenade dodging). CS will also teach you to do all this quickly, otherwise you die.

He judged the trajectory of the stone and "decided" to break hard, the stone smashed into the road just ahead of him. The stone broke and the fragments cracked his windshield but at least he was alive.

He says he would have headbutted the stone at 100 Km/H if he hadn't been a games player.

Is it multitasking? Maybe, he didn't have a good description of the psycho who threw the stone. It was fast task-switching or maybe his brain put all it's multitasking power into the stone evasion stuff and didn't bother with the guy on the bridge because of that.

Re:Well??

[UnderDark (869922)]

I'll just say that it's normal to embrace enthusiastically any message that tells you you're better than most other people.

Wohoo! I'm normal now!

Re:Well??

[Hal_Porter (817932)]

Yeah, it reminds me of a joke about ultra male English drivers.

I break the speed limit, tailgate and drive after 3 pints. But it's ok, because I'm a good driver with a very fast car.

Testosterone poisoning I call it.

Re:Not really scary..

[quokkapox (847798)]

I've read about studies (cant reproduce them, sorry, but they sounded reasonable) that when something unexpected happens, the reaction between ppl on the phone and normal people is basically identical. People just drop the phone (literally) and do what they have to do. Also reaction times are pretty equal, and people don't really swerve etc.

I can assure you based on personal experience that you would think differently if you are ever actually involved in an pedestrian accident. Getting hit by a car (e

Re:Not really scary..

[ivan256 (17499)]

Things that ARE dangerous are things like trying to operate a complex(ish) thing like a car stereo, GPS navigator, audio players etc.
...dealing with misbehaved children in the back seat...

The worst drivers by far are the ones that can't ignore a crying child in the back seat. You never hear complaining about that though, because it's trendy to hate cell phones, and it's taboo to say anything bad about mothers or children.

The fact of the matter is that most people who are bad drivers while talking on a cell

Re:Not really scary..

[nolife (233813)]

I agree with your reaction time statement but not the overall assumption that the result would be the same.

In the example you site, all things are assumed to be equal up to the point that an immediate action has to be taken. Look at the two different situations a little deeper or back up in time about 15 seconds before the situation.
If you are aware of your surroundings, you can make a more logical choice or possibly see a potential hazard and prepare for it. Assume a dog running down the side of the stre

Re:Cell Phones vs. Passenger

[Hope Thelps (322083)]

Honestly, how is talking on a cell phone much more distracting than talking to a passenger in your car?

Because the people in the car with you react to the context you're in. Liking shutting up when you stop paying attention to them rather than saying "are you still there? hello? hello? I can't hear you... hello? are you okay...".

Re:Bandwidth

[fwitness (195565)]

Like my sibling poster commented, your passenger reacts to your environment as you do. However, another important problem is the communication itself. Depending on who you talk to, most communication is 20-30% nonverbal. When you talk on the phone, you try to make up for this with more words and different inflections. Essentially, you try to make up for the lack of a face and hands by variations of voice.

Don't believe me? The next time you're talking with a friend, just tell them "bye" in the middle of

Re:It's fun actually!

[Meagermanx (768421)]

50/50 isn't really accurate. It varies depending on your Dexterity modifiers.