Supertaskers: Just 1 in 40 can drive well while on phone

JUGGLING NOT FOR ALL

Supertaskers: Just 1 in 40 can drive well while on phone

Washington: Very few people can multitask and drive well as they speak over their phones, a new research by University of Utah psychologists revealed. The study has shown that just 1 in 40 people can manage both quite well. For the research, scientists analysed 200 participants.

    They found only 2.5% of the volunteers — called “supertaskers” by researchers — could talk on a cellphone while operating a driving simulator without noticeable impairment unlike 97.5% who couldn’t. The study, conducted by psychologists Jason Watson and David Strayer, will appear in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. Watson said: “According to cognitive theory, these individuals ought not to exist.” “Yet, clearly they do, so we use the supertasker term as a way to describe their exceptional multitasking ability. Given the number of people who routinely talk on the phone while driving, one would have hoped that there would be a greater percentage of supertaskers. And while we’d probably all like to think we are the exception to the rule, the odds are overwhelmingly against it,” said Watson. “The odds of being a supertasker are about as good as your chances of flipping a coin and getting five heads in a row,” he added. The researchers assessed the performance of participants over a single task (simulated freeway driving), and again with a second demanding activity added (a mobile conversation that involved memorizing words and solving math problems).

    Performance was then measured in four areas-braking reaction time, following distance, memory, and math execution. For those who were not supertaskers and who talked on a cellphone while driving simulators, it took 20% longer to hit the brakes when needed and following distances increased 30% as drivers failed to keep pace with traffic. ANI 

Publication: Times Of India Hyderabad;

Date: Apr 5, 2010;

Section: Times Business;

Page: 14