1. Effects of Different Driving Distractions on High School Students Juliana Lamond

2. Problem/ Question Driving distractions recently joined alcohol and speeding as one of the leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes. How will a high school students reaction time be affected with different driving distractions such as a conversation, texting, and visual distractions?

3. Background Information Longer reaction time is the outcome of the brain switching focus, or multitasking It is not possible for people to perform 2 tasks will full concentration and effectiveness concurrently There is a capacity limit to the brain Driving distractions are usually the cause of driving mistakes

4. Why was I interested? I have my driver’s permit Hopefully getting license soon To protect my family, friends, others, and myself

5. Hypothesis A high school student’s reaction time will be affected by various distractions such as having a conversation, texting, or having a visual distraction. The most distracting would likely involve more, multiple areas of the brain compared to the reaction test: texting, followed by having a conversation, and finally, visual distractions.

6. http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php Online Reaction Time Test Used

7. Procedure 1)Quiet room with a computer was found 2)28 high school girls were randomly placed in 4 groups of 7 (girls were tested singularly) 3)Control Group a)Standard instructions were given about the online reaction time test and subject was told to begin b) Result was recorded

8. Procedure Continued 4)Conversation Distraction Group a)Standard instructions b) Subject was told she would be asked simple consecutive questions concurrently with the time test (same questions were used for each subject) c) Subject was told to begin the reaction test d) Result was recorded

9. Procedure Continued 5)Visual Distraction Group a)Standard instructions b) Subject was told she would have to study a picture that the researcher would put on the wall concurrently with the test c) Subject was told to begin the reaction test d) Result was taken

10. Procedure Continued 6)Texting Distraction Group a) Standard instructions b) Subject was told to memorize the sentence, ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ c) Paper with the sentence on it was placed next to her in case she forgot d) Subject was told to take out her cell phone and text the sentence as fast as she could while taking the test e) Subject was told to begin f) Result was recorded

11. Variables Constants Room Computer Website Standard directions Independent Type of distraction Additional instructions for each distraction Dependent Reaction times

13. T-Test GroupsP-Value Control and Conversation0.0003 Control and Visual0.007 Control and Texting0.0001 Conversation and Visual0.5

14. Uncontrollable Variables Inability to gather subjects, so the subject pool was reduced Confusion to directions All girls- might have been a difference if boys were included Natural variation in reaction times Further Studies Include high school boys Larger sample sizes More distractions tested

15. Conclusion Texting is most distracting, followed by visual distractions and conversations, and finally no distractions Error bars based on standard deviation and the T-Test reveal that conversations and visual distractions are not scientifically significant from each other Therefore, the hypothesis was partially supported

16. Conclusion Continued Best thing to do while driving is to have as few distractions as possible Possible to save yourself and others from car crashes by focusing on just driving

17. Works Cited California Department of Motor Vehicles (2008). Driver Distractions. Retrieved from http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffdl28.htm National Safety Council (2010). Understanding the Distracted Brain. Retrieved from http://www.fnal.gov/pub/traffic_safety/files/NSC%20White%20Paper%20 -%20Distracted%20Driving%203-10.pdf Dux, Ivanoff, Asplund, and Marios (2006). Isolation of a Central Bottleneck of Information Processing with Time-Resolved fMRI. Retrieved from http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/marois/Publications/Dux_et_al- 2006.pdf U.S. Department of Transportation (2010). Research. Retrieved from http://www.distraction.gov/research Whipps (2010). Study Reveals Why We Get Distracted so Easily. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/health/070329_brain_regions.html Human Benchmark (2010). Reaction Time Test. Retrieved from http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php