MPC Research Reports
Report Details

Title:	Cell Phone Use Diminishes Self-Awareness of the Adverse Effects of Cell Phone Use on Driving
Authors:	David M. Sanbonmatsu, David L. Strayer, Francesco Biondi, Arwen A. Behrends, and Shannon M. Moore
University:	University of Utah
Publication Date:	Mar 2017
Report #:	MPC-17-322
Project #:	MPC-407
TRID #:	01634747
Keywords:	awareness, cellular telephones, distraction, driver errors, driving simulators, highway safety, multitasking

Abstract

Multitasking may diminish the self-awareness of performance that is often essential for self-regulation and self-knowledge. Participants in an experiment drove on a simulator while talking or not talking on a cell phone. The errors they made while driving were recorded. Following previous research, participants who talked on a cell phone made more serious driving errors than no cell phone participants. No cell phone participants' assessments of the safeness of their driving and general ability to drive safely while distracted were negatively correlated with the actual number of errors they made driving. Hence, more errors were associated with more negative self-assessments. In contrast, cell phone participants' assessments of the safeness of their driving and confidence in their driving abilities were uncorrelated with their actual errors. Thus, talking on a cell phone not only diminished the safeness of participants' driving, it diminished their awareness of the safeness of their driving.

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How to Cite

Sanbonmatsu, David M., David L. Strayer, Francesco Biondi, Arwen A. Behrends, and Shannon M. Moore. Cell Phone Use Diminishes Self-Awareness of the Adverse Effects of Cell Phone Use on Driving, MPC-17-322. North Dakota State University - Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, Fargo: Mountain-Plains Consortium, 2017.