Using a hands free kit while driving ‘as distracting’

Driving while talking on a hands-free phone can be as distracting as talking on a hand-held mobile, psychologists at the University of Sussex say.

The study, published in the Transportation Research journal, found that drivers having conversations which sparked their visual imagination detected fewer road hazards than those who didn’t.  They also focused on a smaller area of the road ahead of them and failed to see hazards, even when they looked directly at them. This shows the risks of even hands-free phone conversations.

The researchers found that conversations may use more of the brain’s visual processing resources than previously understood.  Having a conversation which requires the driver to use their visual imagination creates competition for the brain’s processing capacity, which results in drivers missing road hazards that they might otherwise have spotted.

Dr Graham Hole, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex, said:

“A popular misconception is that using a mobile phone while driving is safe as long as the driver uses a hands-free phone. Our research shows this is not the case.  Hands-free can be equally distracting because conversations cause the driver to visually imagine what they’re talking about.  This visual imagery competes for processing resources with what the driver sees in front of them on the road.

“Our findings have implications for real-life mobile phone conversations. The person at the other end of the phone might ask “where did you leave the blue file?”, causing the driver to mentally search a remembered room.  The driver may also simply imagine the facial expression of the person they’re talking to.

“Clearly this research isn’t a green light to use hand-held mobile phones while driving, however. The use of hand-held phones was made illegal primarily because they interfere with vehicle control; but our study adds to a mounting body of research showing that both hand-held and hands-free phones are dangerously distracting for drivers. The only ‘safe’ phone in a car is one that’s switched off.

The study, which tracked eye movements, also found that drivers who were distracted suffered from “visual tunnelling.” They tended to focus their eyes on a small central region directly ahead of them.  This led them to miss hazards in their peripheral vision. Undistracted participants’ eye movements ranged over a much wider area.

‘Imagery-inducing distraction leads to cognitive tunnelling and deteriorated driving performance’ is published in the Transportation Research journal.