Jessica S.

CELL PHONE DISTRACTION WHILE DRIVING IS A TWO WAY STREET
2/16/2010. Science News.

Scientists research shows that trying to tell a story while driving, despite safety issues, may be pointless anyway because you get it wrong. In this experiment, drivers and passengers were placed into a driving simulator, then each person heard a story through headphones, and finally told to retell each story to each other. The IV was that the story remained the same through each trail. The DV was that the location of the car. The first location was in an unmoving car. The second location was in a car on a straightaway. The third location was in a car that was going through intersections. Nearly 70% of the story elements were told correctly in an unmoving car. On Straightaways, 60% of the story elements were told correctly, and 50% on intersections. I thought this experiment was a good one because it shows that there is no point at risking your concentration when you will most likely get it wrong. I can't think of any way the experiment could be improved without danger. As far as follow-up experiments, I would do another experiment that changed the complexity of the story.