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How Cell Phones Affects Driving Performance

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These findings are important because it shows how distractions can make driving conditions more dangerous for everyone on the road. By knowing that driving while talking on a cell phone decreases driving performance, drivers hopefully will avoid using their cell phones until they have reached their destination. The end result of this will end up making the roads safer for everyone. Also, government officials can make laws that uphold drivers to certain standards, to keep the roads safe. For instance, there is already a law that prohibits drivers that are under 18 from talking on their cell-phone, however, it is legal for the majority of drivers to talk on their cell phones. Statistics and findings from these studies, can in turn persuade government officials into changing the laws to improve safety.
These results also relate to what I’ve learned from my understanding of psychology. While talking on a cell-phone, a driver may experience a decrease in their cognitive ability to drive because they are distracted. In class, we learned about two parts of selective attention. The first part is Inattentional …show more content…
I expected that participants that were talking on their phone would see a decline in their driving performance, because most people have trouble with multitasking. This being said, being engaged in a conversation could force a driver to pay less attention to the road and traffic and more attention to the person that they are communicating with. However, I expected to see a similar drop in driving performance when driving with a passenger. My initial expectations were incorrect. Driving with a passenger that is engaged in the driving environment actually improved the driving performance and created a safer environment. However, the researchers’ justification made sense to why this may happen and they also pointed out that not all passengers come with positive

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