Driving and talking on a cell phone
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Driving and talking on a cell phone
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[ID] => 559710
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[post_date] => 2025-01-01 07:39:53
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-01-01 12:39:53
[post_content] => Practice Passage (Question 1-5)
*This passage is the property of Khan Academy and has been reformatted into an AAMC-style interface in their entirety by MedLife Mastery. MedLife Mastery does not endorse and is not an affiliate of Khan Academy.
The interference resulting from the performance of two simultaneous cognitive tasks can be categorized as either domain-general or domain-specific. Domain-general interference results from a lack of overall cognitive resources to attend to both tasks. A domain-specific interference is related to a lack of resources in a specific system, such as the visual or motor system. Recent research has suggested that language regarding visual and motoric content may engage some of the same systems through mental simulation, rather than engaging separate systems for language and perceptual systems. Studies have shown following distance increases with increased distraction or weather related stress.
Other researchers wanted to understand the implications of this research on driving ability. They set up an experiment to test the effects of content specific language involving visual, motor, or abstract content on reaction times and following distance. All participants spoke English fluently and underwent training to ensure competence in the driving simulator did not affect their performance of the task. Participants were required to keep both hands on the wheel during the experiment. After the driving simulation began, the participants had to respond to a battery of true and false questions in each language condition. A possible visual language condition sentence is ‘A stop sign is green’; a correct response is speaking the word ‘false’. Sentences in the motor condition included fine motor details and differed from required movements for driving (e.g. ‘It is possible to crush a remote between the thumb and first finger’; similarly, this would require speaking ‘false’). Abstract sentences were taken from the U.S. citizenship exam (e.g. ‘The American Civil War took place before WWII’; ‘true’). The mean following distance from the pace car for each of the three language conditions and a control group (asked to repeat the word ‘true’ or ‘false’) is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The mean following distance between the participant’s vehicle and the vehicle in front of the participant in the simulation. There were significant differences between pairwise comparisons in all conditions.
Bergen, B., Medeiros-Ward, N., Wheeler, K., Drews, F., & Strayer, D. (2013). The crosstalk hypothesis: Why language interferes with driving. Journal of experimental psychology: general, 142(1), 119.
[post_title] => Driving and talking on a cell phone
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[question] => What is the dependent measure in the study described in Figure 1?
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[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
The independent measure is the variable(s) manipulated by the researcher.
In this study, the independent measure was the language condition assigned to each participant.
The dependent measure is the variable(s) measured response.
The following distance is the dependent measure of the study described in Figure 1.
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[answers] => Array
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. Following distance
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[1] => Array
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[each_answer] => B. Control
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[each_answer] => C. Abstract
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[each_answer] => D. Language condition
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[1] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 3873426850
[question] => Which statement is a valid conclusion that can be drawn from the results shown in Figure 1?
[value] => Array
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[answer] => 3
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
There was a significant difference between pairwise comparisons of all conditions.
Domain-general interference occurs when there are not enough cognitive resources to meet the cognitive demands of a task or tasks.
Domain-specific interference occurs when a specific system lacks the resources, such as the visual, auditory, or motor system.
Performing any two actions simultaneously, which happens even in the control language condition, is domain-general interference.
If a certain language condition differs significantly from the control language condition, the interference is described as domain-specific.
The larger following distance in the Visual and Motor language conditions shows domain-specific interference.
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. Domain-general interference has no impact on participants during the Control language condition.
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[each_answer] => B. The lack of significant difference between the Motor and Control language conditions shows domain-general interference.
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[2] => Array
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[each_answer] => C. The larger following distance in the Visual and Motor language conditions shows domain-specific interference.
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[each_answer] => D. The difference in following distance between the Abstract and Control language conditions is not significant.
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[2] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 83407773
[question] => The term ‘LBFS (Look But Failed to See) accident’ has crept into the nomenclature to describe an accident where the driver looked in a direction, only to be hit by an oncoming vehicle that should have been highly visible from that same direction. Which of these would NOT account for this problem?
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[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
Domain-general interference results from a lack of overall cognitive resources to attend to both tasks. Domain-specific interference is related to a lack of resources in a specific system, such as the visual or motor system.
The expectations of an experienced driver create a schema. A driver may never see a car at an intersection and not see an oncoming car because he or she does not expect to see a car (does not match existing schema).
As the eyes track a moving object, they make tiny adjustments, between which the individual is temporally blind. This blindness could result in an LBFS accident.
A person driving on an unfamiliar road would not account for LBFS accidents.
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[answers] => Array
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. Saccadic masking occurrence, in which moving eyes are rendered temporarily blind
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[each_answer] => B. Driving on an unfamiliar road
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[2] => Array
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[each_answer] => C. Domain-general and domain-specific interference
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[each_answer] => D. An experienced driver’s existing schema does not match an oncoming car
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[quiz_unique_key] => 2261298308
[question] => Why did the researchers require the drivers to keep their hands on the wheel during the simulation?
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[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
The researchers did not have an ethical responsibility to require the drivers to use both hands while driving in the simulator. It is a simulation, so participants would not be in any real danger.
There is no evidence that the tasks would have been more difficult if the researchers allowed the participants to drive with one hand while answering the questions.
Some people spontaneously gesture when required to make judgments about objects or actions.
These people may attempt to act out the visual or motor conditions.
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. Ethically, the researchers must require the drive to use both hands on the wheel. It is unsafe to drive with only one hand.
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[each_answer] => B. Some people may attempt to act out the visual or motor conditions.
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[each_answer] => C. Driving performance is increased when driving with both hands on the wheel.
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[each_answer] => D. The researchers wanted to make the tasks harder.
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[quiz_unique_key] => 574431310
[question] => Which of these is a possible confound for the researchers’ experiment shown in Figure 1?
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[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
The type of transmission (automatic) was constant throughout the experiment.
Although an argument can be made that people may simulate differently in different languages, all participants were described as speaking English fluently.
Each participant underwent extensive training to ensure competence in the driving simulator.
No one will argue that passengers can be distracting under certain circumstances. However, when listening to speech from passengers, those passengers can give the driver cues that attention is critically required. (See Drews et al., 2008)
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. The experiment did not control for the differences between automatic and manual transmission.
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[each_answer] => B. When listening to speech from passengers, those passengers can give the driver cues that attention is critically required.
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[each_answer] => C. Domain-general interference caused by inadequate competence in the driving simulator.
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[each_answer] => D. Some participants may not have been native English speakers.
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