Nowadays, mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our life.
We use phones to communicate, to study, to
entertain ourselves and so on.
Besides, it seems that we do not want to waste
any second to spend time on our smartphones,
including we are walking or driving.
However, do you think using smart phones while
walking or driving is doable?
Findings from National Tsing Hua University
suggested that distracted walking caused by
smartphone use slows down the pedestrians,
limits their visual attention, and impairs
the stability of walking.
Additionally, a report offered by Rikkyo University
showed a higher risk of accidents among pedestrians
who are using cell phones, especially for
those who are playing games with a smartphone.
What's more, according to our survey which
involves 49 respondents, the result showed that
Less than one-fifth of them never use smartphones
while walking or driving.
And nearly half respondents had met sudden
unexpected situations when they are using
smartphones.
In addition, four-fifths of them had noticed
others meeting accidents as they using phones
on street.
But over eighty percent of them didn't support
using phones while walking or driving.
And about three-fourths of respondents thought
it is possible or highly possible incurring
an accident under this situation.
Therefore, we designed an experiment to know
different types of apps' influence on people's
reaction time and the steps are
Firstly, Ask the test volunteers to play the
reaction time game with their right hand.
They have to follow onscreen instructions
and tap the screen when the screen’s color
changes.
Secondly, Repeat the test.
This time ask the test volunteers to speak
to someone on a cell phone while we conduct
the experiment.
Finally, repeat the test.
This time ask the volunteers to send a text a message with the left hand while we conduct the experiment
And each volunteer on each test performed
five trials
and we calculated the average time.
Then we compare three results of the mean
and standard deviation.
Our result shows that when our volunteers
focus on the game, their mean reaction time
is 0.3317s, with the standard deviation 0.0375.
And when they simultaneously tested themselves and spoke to someone, the mean is 0.3940s
and the standard deviation is 0.0598.
When they tested themselves and texted,
the mean becomes 0.6653s and the standard
deviation is 0.1436.
You may get nothing form those unfriendly
numbers, so we construct 3 normal distribution
modes and combine them so that you can see
it clearly.
Therefore, we get the conclusion:
Speaking to each other as well as texting
does lengthen people's reaction times.
And compared with the influence of phoning,
the impact caused by texting is conspicuously larger.
Besides, the instabilities of three test,
which is reflected by standard deviation,
differ from one another as well.
So, why does this occasion happen?
According to a specialist in cognition and
cognitive neuroscience, Daniel, in fact, our
brain never multitasks but switch from one task to another with extraordinary speed.
In the first test, we concentrated only on one screen,
so our brains have just one task.
Although different volunteers may have different
reaction times.
This difference is relatively slight.
However, in the second test, the brain controller
switches back and forth from the hearing center
to the visual center.
But as two receptors, eyes and ears are working
simultaneously, once the color change happens,
the controller will immediately switch and
react, so the mean reaction time and the standard
deviation are in the middle.
And in the third test, besides the time for
brain to switch tasks, it also takes time
for our eyes to switch back and forth between
two screens.
You may luckily focus on the test phone, but
you also may concentrate on texting a message.
To avoid accidents, my dear audiences, please remember, when you are walking or driving, not
be distracted by your mobile phone.
Our safety is the first, so texting can wait.
Thanks for watching it.
See ya!.
