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Gamers Better at Driving w/ Cell Phones?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-deserve-to-be-smacked dept.

sl4shd0rk writes "A lot of people think talking on the cell phone while driving is natural, but each time someone asks a question or changes the subject, it's like taking on a new task, Psychologists who study multi-tasking have argued for years about whether these "information bottlenecks" occur because people are inherently lazy, or because they have a fundamental inability to switch from one task to another. Mei-Ching Lien, an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University. "Even with a seemingly simple task, structural cognitive limitations can prevent you from efficiently switching to a new task." I have to say that the best ones are those who play a lot of video games," she pointed out. "Those are lab studies, however, and not driving tests." " All I know is that I could get where I was going better if I could shoot turtles at others on the highway.

2 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. The question on every gamer's mind by Guppy06 · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Mei-Ching Lien, an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University."

    Is she hot?

  2. Some people can do it and some people can't... by v3c7r0n · · Score: 0, Troll

    For the record, I am only a 20 year old college kid, but I can say this from experience with some of my friends:

    Most people who drive horribly while they are on the phone, don't drive much (if any) better when they are not on the phone.

    It really is a matter of how well can you drive to begin with, and I have seen much worse than talking on the phone while driving, such as girls doing their make up, guys shaving (it was an electric razor, but still), people reading the paper, watching movies (which was kind of nice when I was stuck behind them with their nice big LCD, but I digress) Some people can walk and chew gum, some people can walk, chew gum, talk on the phone and fold origami, and some people try to and walk into something. Now take that and replace "chew gum" with "drive".

    Games may help develop hand eye coordination and reaction speed, but if you can't multitask you can't multitask.

    Oh, and to you people who insist on saying you need two hands to drive: That's your problem. It is very rare for me to drive with both hands on the steering wheel unless I'm racing someone, even driving a stick shift.