The effects of texting and driving on hazard perception and the adoption of driver response strategies -- Restricted access to full text

Abstract

Hazard perception has received little attention compared to measures of vehicle control in studies exploring the effects of texting on driving performance, despite being a more direct measure of crash risk. Twenty participants drove in a simulator while text-messaging in order to assess its affect on hazard detection. Analysis revealed a greater response likelihood (i.e., responding to a greater number of potential hazards) in a relatively easy text-messaging task compared to a more difficult one, t(19) = -3.24, p < .01. These findings suggest that the impact of text-messaging on the detection of driving hazards depends in part, on the nature of the text-message, particularly in the adoption of strategies to compensate for interference on the driving task.