How Do Cell Phones Affect Teens' Reaction Times?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of our project was to determine if cell phone usage, while driving, affects teens' reaction times. Methods/Materials We randomly selected fifteen boys and fifteen girls from ages fifteen to eighteen with driving experience. We constructed an apparatus which consisted of: an electronic timer, a button placed at foot level, a button placed at hand level, two lights placed in the test subject's peripheral vision, electrical wire and two AA batteries. We recorded the test subject's four initial reaction times and then compared them to their four reaction times while holding and talking on a cell phone. Results It takes teenagers, on average, 51%-57% longer to react while talking on a cell phone. Conclusions/Discussion Our conclusion is that cell phone usage while driving greatly affects the driver's reaction time, therefore putting themselves and others in danger.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Behavioral Sciences · Entry S0304

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Behavioural and Social Sciences projects
• CSEF Behavioural and Social Sciences projects
• Every CSEF 2004 project