This article reports on a study that examined the effects of hands-free cell phone conversations on simulated driving in a population of younger and older adults. Results showed that, compared with driving-only conditions, used cell phones their reactions were 18% slower, their following distance was 12% greater, and they took 17% longer to recover the speed that was lost following braking. There was also a twofold increase in the number of rear-end collisions when drivers were conversing on a cell phone. These cell-phone-induced effects were equivalent for younger and older adults. The authors note that older adults do not suffer a significantly greater penalty for talking on a cell phone while driving than compared with their younger counterparts. The authors comment that this absence of age-related differences between single-task (driving only) and dual-task performance appears to contradict findings from other research showing large and robust age-related differences in dual-task processing. The authors hypothesize that this may be the case because the driving simulator is testing a skill that older adults have performed for 50 years. The net effect of having younger drivers converse on a cell phone was to make their average reactions equivalent to those of older drivers who were not using a cell phone.
Abstract