Mario Says, "Don't Talk on the Phone while Driving!"

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective was to find out if talking on a phone impairs driving ability, and whether a hands-free-system improves driving performance as compared to using a hand-held cellphone. Methods/Materials A Mario kart Wii game was used to test 70 people, ranging from 9-75 years old. The Mario wheel controller was immobilized on a post to more closely simulate a driving wheel in an actual car. The subjects first practiced racing a specially selected course until their times became stable. They then completed four tests on the same course under each of the following conditions in a random order: 1) without distractions, 2) holding the phone without talking, 3) holding a conversation over a hand-held phone, and 4) holding a conversation through a speaker phone. I talked with the subjects using a phone in another room for the conversation tests. I recorded the times to complete the course under each condition. Results Talking on the phone while performing the driving task significantly slowed the performance of the population as a whole. Using the speakerphone did modestly improve the performance of the whole population, as compared to using the hand-held phone. However, when the population was divided into age and gender subgroups I found that only the boys did clearly better with the speakerphone than with the hand-held phone. Furthermore, the boys were also unique in that there was not a significant difference between their performance on the speakerphone as compared to driving without distractions. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that talking on the phone while driving should not be allowed, even with a hands-free system, because the speakerphone only dramatically helped the driving ability of young males.

Competition history

• CSEF 2011 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0408

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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