Cargando…

Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator

Previous research on smart phone use while driving has primarily focused on phone calls and texting. Drivers are now increasingly using their phone for other activities during driving, in particular social media, which have different cognitive demands. The present study compared the effects of four...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: McNabb, Jaimie, Gray, Rob
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4757568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26886099
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148555
_version_ 1782416471584931840
author McNabb, Jaimie
Gray, Rob
author_facet McNabb, Jaimie
Gray, Rob
author_sort McNabb, Jaimie
collection PubMed
description Previous research on smart phone use while driving has primarily focused on phone calls and texting. Drivers are now increasingly using their phone for other activities during driving, in particular social media, which have different cognitive demands. The present study compared the effects of four different smart phone tasks on car-following performance in a driving simulator. Phone tasks were chosen that vary across two factors: interaction medium (text vs image) and task pacing (self-paced vs experimenter-paced) and were as follows: Text messaging with the experimenter (text/other-paced), reading Facebook posts (text/self-paced), exchanging photos with the experimenter via Snapchat (image, experimenter -paced), and viewing updates on Instagram (image, experimenter -paced). Drivers also performed a driving only baseline. Brake reaction times (BRTs) were significantly greater in the text-based conditions (Mean = 1.16 s) as compared to both the image-based conditions (Mean = 0.92 s) and the baseline (0.88 s). There was no significant difference between BRTs in the image-based and baseline conditions and there was no significant effect of task-pacing. Similar results were obtained for Time Headway variability. These results are consistent with the picture superiority effect found in memory research and suggest that image-based interfaces could provide safer ways to “stay connected” while driving than text-based interfaces.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4757568
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-47575682016-02-26 Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator McNabb, Jaimie Gray, Rob PLoS One Research Article Previous research on smart phone use while driving has primarily focused on phone calls and texting. Drivers are now increasingly using their phone for other activities during driving, in particular social media, which have different cognitive demands. The present study compared the effects of four different smart phone tasks on car-following performance in a driving simulator. Phone tasks were chosen that vary across two factors: interaction medium (text vs image) and task pacing (self-paced vs experimenter-paced) and were as follows: Text messaging with the experimenter (text/other-paced), reading Facebook posts (text/self-paced), exchanging photos with the experimenter via Snapchat (image, experimenter -paced), and viewing updates on Instagram (image, experimenter -paced). Drivers also performed a driving only baseline. Brake reaction times (BRTs) were significantly greater in the text-based conditions (Mean = 1.16 s) as compared to both the image-based conditions (Mean = 0.92 s) and the baseline (0.88 s). There was no significant difference between BRTs in the image-based and baseline conditions and there was no significant effect of task-pacing. Similar results were obtained for Time Headway variability. These results are consistent with the picture superiority effect found in memory research and suggest that image-based interfaces could provide safer ways to “stay connected” while driving than text-based interfaces. Public Library of Science 2016-02-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4757568/ /pubmed/26886099 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148555 Text en © 2016 McNabb, Gray http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
McNabb, Jaimie
Gray, Rob
Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator
title Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator
title_full Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator
title_fullStr Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator
title_full_unstemmed Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator
title_short Staying Connected on the Road: A Comparison of Different Types of Smart Phone Use in a Driving Simulator
title_sort staying connected on the road: a comparison of different types of smart phone use in a driving simulator
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4757568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26886099
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148555
work_keys_str_mv AT mcnabbjaimie stayingconnectedontheroadacomparisonofdifferenttypesofsmartphoneuseinadrivingsimulator
AT grayrob stayingconnectedontheroadacomparisonofdifferenttypesofsmartphoneuseinadrivingsimulator