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Dangers of Distracted Driving | Sayville Personal Injury

Steven Gacovino | 699 Views | 08/26/2015

Dangers of Distracted Driving

You’re driving down the road, and you see that guy, the one holding-up traffic because his attention is one his cellphone. You shout at him, “Really?” You think to your self, “That idiot is going to hurt somebody.” Some people just don’t mixed their phone and driving as well as you do. Well, at least you think you mixed them well.

Let’s consider this thing called: distracted driving. Let’s call it any activity that can divert a person’s attention from the primary task of driving, such distraction include: grooming, texting, eating, changing the radio station, talking on a cellphone and so forth.

 

Humans have long claimed the ability to multitask, and with our current culture, technology saturation at an all time high, people believe more than ever that they are good multitaskers. While it’s possible to do more than one thing at a time, the human brain is incapable of devoting sufficient attention across multiple tasks, when just one of them require much attention.

Earl Miller Distracted Driving Research

MIT, neuroscientist, Earl Miller, puts it bluntly. You’re not paying attention to one or two things simultaneously. He says, “You’re actually switching between them very rapidly.” Even the things we do very well, with little conscious thought, can be a big bite out of the mental capacity which has strict limits by nature. Talking on the phone is easy, but it uses up mental capacity, and depending on the conversation, it can eat up most or all of our attention.

Dr. Miller says, “We’re mistaken when we believe we’re paying attention to everything around us when we multitask.” Psychologist say we’re also prone to inattentional blindness, that’s the failure to notice something even when we’re looking right at it. One of the most famous study to show this phenomenon involved an invisible gorilla. Participants watched a video of six people passing basketballs, and counted how many times the players wearing white passed the ball. In the middle of the video, a woman in a gorilla suit walks into the middle of the screen, thump her chest, and then leaves. About 50% of the participants didn’t even notice the gorilla – they were demonstrating inattentional blindness.

Consider the Following Factors that Can Affect Inattentional Blindness.

One: Obviousness

This has to do with the object’s ability to catch our attention. For example, especially on a rainy day, a gray car pulling out in front of your car would not be as conspicuous as a bright red car.

Two: Expectation

When we expect certain things to happen, we might overlook or blackout to what actually is happening. For example, if we expect the car up the road to be moving, when it’s really stalled, we may not realize we’re approaching the stalled vehicle at high speed. Three: capacity. As stated earlier, we can spread our attention around only so far. Even when we are expert at something, the activity consumes a certain amount of attention. Talking on the phone, texting, dialing: each demands part of our mental capacity, and can easily compete for the same resources we need for staying aware of our surroundings.

 

Distracted Driving Risk

Distractions can blind the mind the things around us, and driving is one of the most dangerous activity the average american engages in, with approximately 33,000 traffic fatalities annually. So we have a choice, will I pretend to be an expert at multitasking while driving, and put my mind at greater risk for inattentional blindness, increasing the possibility that I will harm other, and myself too, or will I choose to drive cell free with myself off as many distractions as possible and devote my mind to safer driving?

Take the pledge to drive cell free at www.drivecellfree.net. You can also download our free eBook: Distracted Driving, The Multitasking Myth. It will tell you more about the psychology behind inattentional blindness, bust the myth that talking on the phone is the same as talking to someone in the car, give you interesting and practical facts and statistics surrounding distracted driving, and explain some of the legal ramifications of distracted driving – go to www.drivecellfree.net. Finally, to help make our street safer, we invite you to share this video with your friends and family.

By: Steven Gacovino

Dangers of Distracted Driving | Sayville Personal Injury

Dangers of Distracted Driving

You’re driving down the road, and you see that guy, the one holding-up traffic because his attention is one his cellphone. You shout at him, “Really?” You think to your self, “That idiot is going to hurt somebody.” Some people just don’t mixed their phone and driving as well as you do. Well, at least you think you mixed them well.

Let’s consider this thing called: distracted driving. Let’s call it any activity that can divert a person’s attention from the primary task of driving, such distraction include: grooming, texting, eating, changing the radio station, talking on a cellphone and so forth.

 

Humans have long claimed the ability to multitask, and with our current culture, technology saturation at an all time high, people believe more than ever that they are good multitaskers. While it’s possible to do more than one thing at a time, the human brain is incapable of devoting sufficient attention across multiple tasks, when just one of them require much attention.

Earl Miller Distracted Driving Research

MIT, neuroscientist, Earl Miller, puts it bluntly. You’re not paying attention to one or two things simultaneously. He says, “You’re actually switching between them very rapidly.” Even the things we do very well, with little conscious thought, can be a big bite out of the mental capacity which has strict limits by nature. Talking on the phone is easy, but it uses up mental capacity, and depending on the conversation, it can eat up most or all of our attention.

Dr. Miller says, “We’re mistaken when we believe we’re paying attention to everything around us when we multitask.” Psychologist say we’re also prone to inattentional blindness, that’s the failure to notice something even when we’re looking right at it. One of the most famous study to show this phenomenon involved an invisible gorilla. Participants watched a video of six people passing basketballs, and counted how many times the players wearing white passed the ball. In the middle of the video, a woman in a gorilla suit walks into the middle of the screen, thump her chest, and then leaves. About 50% of the participants didn’t even notice the gorilla – they were demonstrating inattentional blindness.

Consider the Following Factors that Can Affect Inattentional Blindness.

One: Obviousness

This has to do with the object’s ability to catch our attention. For example, especially on a rainy day, a gray car pulling out in front of your car would not be as conspicuous as a bright red car.

Two: Expectation

When we expect certain things to happen, we might overlook or blackout to what actually is happening. For example, if we expect the car up the road to be moving, when it’s really stalled, we may not realize we’re approaching the stalled vehicle at high speed. Three: capacity. As stated earlier, we can spread our attention around only so far. Even when we are expert at something, the activity consumes a certain amount of attention. Talking on the phone, texting, dialing: each demands part of our mental capacity, and can easily compete for the same resources we need for staying aware of our surroundings.

 

Distracted Driving Risk

Distractions can blind the mind the things around us, and driving is one of the most dangerous activity the average american engages in, with approximately 33,000 traffic fatalities annually. So we have a choice, will I pretend to be an expert at multitasking while driving, and put my mind at greater risk for inattentional blindness, increasing the possibility that I will harm other, and myself too, or will I choose to drive cell free with myself off as many distractions as possible and devote my mind to safer driving?

Take the pledge to drive cell free at www.drivecellfree.net. You can also download our free eBook: Distracted Driving, The Multitasking Myth. It will tell you more about the psychology behind inattentional blindness, bust the myth that talking on the phone is the same as talking to someone in the car, give you interesting and practical facts and statistics surrounding distracted driving, and explain some of the legal ramifications of distracted driving – go to www.drivecellfree.net. Finally, to help make our street safer, we invite you to share this video with your friends and family.

By: Steven Gacovino