This is your brain, while talking and driving

By: Mike Yamamoto
Topics

Blogma has always been suspicious of people who insist that their driving is in no way affected by their non-stop use of cell phones. But now we have a piece of evidence to whip out the next time such multi-tasking claims are made.

An article in Neuropsychologia, which is described as "an international journal in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience," cites a new study by Australian researchers that showed people's response times slowed during a 30-minute mobile phone call. "This could equate to driving a car and being distracted by another car pulling out in front of you. The drivers reaction time to choose between braking, turning or sounding the horn, could be affected, albeit slightly," a researcher is quoted as saying.

Not very comforting. But it's unclear whether the report will have any effect on debates involving bans on phones in cars, which sometimes sounds eerily similar to rhetoric over gun control.

Blog community response:

"About 85% of people have used mobile phones while driving at some point. Monitoring the driver's cognitive state (based on sensing eye gaze and other behaviour) and using that to adjust the trigger threshold for early collision warning systems can help prevent accidents."
--zestyping

"Anybody that says cell phones, or putting on makeup, or eating, or whatever else doesn't distract them is either lying or just plain wrong. Now, I don't think we should necessarily make it illegal to talk on the cell phone while driving, and it isn't that big of a deal in most situations, but I can't even begin to count the number of times somebody nearly hit me because they were on their cell phone yapping."
--Office Humor Blog

"Anyone who's been behind someone on the road driving twenty miles an hour and weaving lazily while chatting it up already knows. I'm just waiting on the study that shows how stupid you look to other drivers while cruising around holding a Nextel three feet from your ear."
--Deliriously Normal

Mike Yamamoto is an executive editor for CNET News.com.

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by LadyFromNewYork January 12, 2010 11:05 AM EST: How wrong are parents? In the 2007 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey(the most recent year data was published), the CDC found that 38.1% of high school students had tried marijuana and 47.8% had ever had sexual intercourse. http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/pdf/yrbs07_us_overview.pdf; Reply to this comment


by SJerzgirl January 8, 2010 11:35 PM EST: Any parent who thinks their child isn't capable of doing ANY of these things needs to have a major reality check. These are the parents who sue when their child gets caught doing anything wrong or if their child is given a bad grade. These are the parents who hire the best lawyers because their little Johnny or Susie would NEVER EVER use drugs, steal, lie or any other negative imagery because as we all know, our children NEVER lie to us about what they're doing!! My son began having sex at 13; my daughter at 15. Did I like it or condone it? Hell no!! Both of them have used drugs, street and prescription. Both have been drinking since their teen years. What they do when they're not around parents is astounding and parents have psychological issues if they doubt the possibilities!! Are my kids good kids - I'd say for the most part, yes, they are. They are not without fault, but neither are they in jail. They've both owned up to their faults to me and to others and have worked to improve themselves as adults. But, not once did I for one minute believe my kids weren't going to lie to me ever. How do I know? Because I lied to my parents - WE ALL DID!!; Reply to this comment

by cidaia January 8, 2010 6:08 PM EST

attentiondeficit, I am not a Christian, blowhard or otherwise, so I may laugh at all of you disease-ridden kids with their ridiculous belief that teaching them how to put a condom on a cucumber will somehow keep them safe....what fools you are.

The reason we should teach abstinence only is because failing to teach them abstinence only amounts to teaching them that it's okay to screw around. And that is FAILURE TO PROTECT. That makes you partly responsible for contributing to the sexualization of a minor.

Today kids sleep around because you guys act like it's totally outrageous to keep their legs shut. Maybe if we started calling them what they are - LOSERS - and laughing at them, for their diseases and their having been used by boyfriends who couldn't care less about them, for their immaturity in being able to tell smart behavior from dumb, maybe if we laughed at how the guy who "loved them so dearly" also loved several other girls, maybe if we mocked them mercilessly for their total inability to get child support.....maybe if we told the TRUTH, abstinence only education would work as well as showing kids pictures of meth mouth works for eradicating drug addiction.

The sad fact is, all your faux compassion doesn't change the fact that nobody respects a fifteen year old with a disease. Why not tell them the truth?

Reply to this comment


by erasmus111 January 8, 2010 6:42 PM EST: "Why not tell them the truth?"

It's the parents that can't deal with the truth.


by SJerzgirl January 8, 2010 11:41 PM EST: Teaching about abstinence isn't a bad thing - however, ignoring the realities of peer pressure and hormonal urges that often get followed without any knowledge of the consequences is a definite problem. They should always be encouraged to choose abstinence - but they should understand WHY! It's not just morality, it's health issues. They need to understand these health issues. Even C. Everett Koop, a born again Christian, stated that the next best thing to abstinence is the use of a condom. No one's saying ONLY teach condoms - if they are, they're foolish. But, neither should abstinence only be taught because we KNOW they will not always honor it. They should know the risks and the ways of prevention and they should know that even those methods of prevention aren't foolproof - but they're sure as hell better than being infected with Herpes, HIV, or any other STD - or having a child while a child!!


by hologram5 January 8, 2010 5:27 PM EST: Just be an active participant in your child's lives and you'll know what is going on. Don't leave them to sit in front of a tv or pc monitor and spend time with them and be honest with them and they'll be honest with you. They aren't stupid and know more than we give them credit for.; Reply to this comment


by Skruffy1 January 8, 2010 5:16 PM EST: Well, I'm pretty sure my 8-year-old daughter isn't having sex. Not because she's only 8, but because she's a dog and she's been spayed. As for those who don't think their teenage human kids are having sex, all I can say to most of them is: ha-ha-ha-ha-ha... Look around.; Reply to this comment


by PVperson2 January 8, 2010 4:51 PM EST: Geeez, this isn't denial, this is delusion.; Reply to this comment


by erasmus111 January 8, 2010 4:47 PM EST: "... with 75 percent saying their kids have put off amorous behavior."

And probably a good 70 percent of them are delusional.; Reply to this comment


by Brokennews January 8, 2010 3:26 PM EST: When I was a kid, my Dad made it very clear to any boy dating my sister that if any funny stuff happened that the boy would never have to worry about it happening again for the rest of his life because he would be a eunuch. He said it kinda joking & kinda not. My sister hated Dad for that at first because everybody at school thought that Dad was a psycho & put a real dent in her popularity status at school, but she got over that & now she has her husband to the same thing to the boys that want to date their daughter.; Reply to this comment


by babooph January 8, 2010 11:44 AM EST: 75%! More than the religios bunch-delusions are rampant-no wonder almost half the suckers could be sold idiot Bush 2x!; Reply to this comment


by Tongkuai21 January 8, 2010 10:31 AM EST: Hate this!

Just because so many kids led disconnected chaotic lives with little parent supervision when they were young they believe all people do. Torturing young adolescent lives with "Don't do drugs!" Kid thinks why? Whats so cool about drugs?! "just don't!" they say. Torturing them with curiosity until they succumb.

"Dont have teenage sex!" (but here's a free condom if you need it! Making out in the car is a normal right of life... but that condom in the glove compartment burning with desire is too much brain-torture for teenage willpower. Kids (yes teens are still developemental "kids") cannot resist the convenience. They would have done just fine... steamy windows and summer nights can never go away. Youth runs its *responsible* course, but today, the school nurse's "just in case condom" came out.

Disconnected damaged poeple are the first to reply with the "you know they will *wink*". Just because you threw the human gift of self control out the window in the summer of '69 doesn't mean todays youth couldn't live and grow into healthy balanced adults with a modicum of discipline and a little help. Hell, forget the help, stop giving them all the ammunition they need to shoot themselves!

Parents, Stop torturing our youth. Stop the schools, the "health care professionals" form torturing our youth!

Teach them what it is to be human, to grow and live; Restore the warm summer night and all it offers with confidence and discipline!; Reply to this comment