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  • Essay / Safe and responsible driving: the impact of cell phones on drivers' reaction times

    Driving is a daily activity that becomes more and more difficult with age. (Hickson, Wood, Chaparro, Lacherez, & Marszalek, 2010) Older drivers have been shown to be at higher risk of motor vehicle collision-related death than other age groups. (Green, McGwin, & Owsley, 2013) The ability to respond in a timely and appropriate manner to ongoing environmental events differs by age (Campbell et al., 2015). Using a cell phone while driving has also been shown to affect driver safety. . The number of drivers using cell phones continues to increase over time. Reaction time to hazards has been shown to increase when having a telephone conversation. (Collet, Guillot & Petit, 2010) Paying attention to auditory information has been shown to impair performance on simultaneous cognitive and motor tasks. (Hickson, Wood, Chaparro, Lacherez, & Marszalek, 2010) Telephone conversations themselves make drivers more likely to miss traffic lights and respond more slowly to signals they are able to detect. Previous research indicates that when a driver participates in a cell phone conversation, their attention is diverted from processing information in their driving environment that is necessary to drive safely. (Strayer & Drews, 2007) Decreased performance on a primary task is thought to occur because the additional effort associated with listening to and understanding a degraded auditory signal takes resources away from other cognitive processes ( Hickson, Wood, Chaparro, Lacherez & Marszalek, 2010)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayResearch shows that hearing and vision impairments are common among older adults. (Green, McGwin & Owsley, 2013) Previous research has suggested a link between hearing loss and driving difficulties in older adults. It has been shown that older adults with poor hearing have more difficulty driving in the presence of distractions than older adults with good hearing. (Hickson, Wood, Chaparro, Lacherez, & Marszalek, 2010) Add a cell phone to the mix and driving conditions quickly become dangerous. The number of drivers over 75 is expected to increase by 70% over the next 20 years. Given the increased risk associated with older drivers and the increasing number of people using cell phones while driving, the safety of older drivers becomes an even more important safety issue. (Green, McGwin & Owsley, 2013) The present study aims to examine the relationship between cellular telephone conversations while operating a motor vehicle among older drivers. A group of older participants will be evaluated and their performance while driving with or without a cell phone will be compared. It is hypothesized that age will affect the ability to drive while talking on the phone given previous evidence of the risks posed by age and cell phone use while driving. Method. Participants 100 licensed older drivers will be recruited to participate through radio advertisements. Participants must be 65 years of age and older, current drivers, and legally licensed to drive. Participants will attend two testing sessions. The first will be a session during which demographic information will be collected as well as assessments of the.