Driver distraction is a widespread and growing issue. Previous studies have shown that passenger conversations can be less distracting than cell phone conversations because of an increase in shared situational awareness when the conversation partner can see the driver and driving scene. Recently, Gaspar and colleagues (in press) found that providing remote conversation partners views of the driver and driving scene via a videophone could mitigate driver distraction relative to cell phone conversations. The goal of the present project was to extend these results by examining the efficacy of videophone conversations in reducing cell phone distraction during freeway and intersection driving for younger and older drivers. Pairs of younger and older adult drivers completed highway and intersection driving assessments in each of four conditions: driving alone without distraction, conversing with an in-car passenger, conversing with a remote cell phone partner and conversing with a remote partner via a videophone. Although all conversations disrupted driving performance relative to driving alone, the results suggest that passenger and videophone conditions reduced distraction relative to the cell phone. Conversational analyses suggest that the benefit for passenger and videophone conversations was due to an increase in partner situational awareness, even when the partner could only see a subset of the critical information in the driving scene. Importantly, younger and older adults showed similar benefits from videophones over cell phones. These results provide evidence for the efficacy of videophone conversations in reducing, but not eliminating, cell phone distraction across different driving tasks and for different groups of drivers.
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Characterizing the effects of videophone conversations on younger and older driver performance
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