Cell-phone use diminishes self-awareness of impaired driving.
Multitasking diminishes the self-awareness of performance that is often essential for self-regulation and self-knowledge. Participants drove in a simulator while either talking or not talking on a hands-free cell phone. Following previous research, participants who talked on a cell phone made more serious driving errors than control participants who did not use a phone while driving. Control participants' assessments of the safeness of their driving and general ability to drive safely while distracted were negatively correlated with the actual number of errors made when they were driving. By contrast, cell-phone participants' assessments of the safeness of their driving and confidence in their driving abilities were uncorrelated with their actual errors. Thus, talking on a cell phone not only diminished the safeness of participants' driving, it diminished their awareness of the safeness of their driving.
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. RM. 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0251, USA. sanbonmatsu@psych.utah.edu.
David M
DM
Sanbonmatsu
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. RM. 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0251, USA. david.strayer@utah.edu.
David L
DL
Strayer
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. RM. 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0251, USA.
Francesco
F
Biondi
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. RM. 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0251, USA.
Arwen A
AA
Behrends
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. RM. 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0251, USA.
Shannon M
SM
Moore
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D040421:Cell Phone; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012449:Safety; D000068356:Self-Control; D055815:Young Adult
Distracted driving; Multi-tasking; Self-awareness; Self-regulation