title: Texting while driving: is speech-based text entry less risky than handheld text entry?
abstract: Research indicates that using a cell phone to talk or text while maneuvering a vehicle impairs driving performance. However, few published studies directly compare the distracting effects of texting using a hands-free (i.e., speech-based interface) versus handheld cell phone, which is an important issue for legislation, automotive interface design and driving safety training. This study compared the effect of speech-based versus handheld text entries on simulated driving performance by asking participants to perform a car following task while controlling the duration of a secondary text-entry task. Results showed that both speech-based and handheld text entries impaired driving performance relative to the drive-only condition by causing more variation in speed and lane position. Handheld text entry also increased the brake response time and increased variation in headway distance. Text entry using a speech-based cell phone was less detrimental to driving performance than handheld text entry. Nevertheless, the speech-based text entry task still significantly impaired driving compared to the drive-only condition. These results suggest that speech-based text entry disrupts driving, but reduces the level of performance interference compared to text entry with a handheld device. In addition, the difference in the distraction effect caused by speech-based and handheld text entry is not simply due to the difference in task duration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA. Electronic address: jibo.he@wichita.edu.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chaparro
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Burge
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crandall
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chaparro
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo N2L 3G1, Canada.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001334:Automobile Driving; D040421:Cell Phone; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D049250:Speech Recognition Software; D060145:Text Messaging; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Car following; Cellphone; Driver distraction; Speech-based interaction; Texting