Psychology 2134A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Inattentional Blindness, Electrophysiology, Psych

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2134A/B
• Professor: Sarah Smits- Bandstra

Document Summary

Drivers using a cellphone have slower reaction times and fail to respond to objects and events in plain sight, are more likely to miss a turn and check their mirrors less often. Despite the risks, only 3 percent of respondents on a survey claim they never use their phones while driving. Driving impairment is said to be due to the cognitive demands of conversing over a cell phone. Studies find that those who use their phones during driving are also more likely to engage in other risk taking behaviour. Multitasking involves the alternation of attention between two or more cognitive tasks that take in different inputs, engage in different processes and produce different outputs. Perceived ability to multitask is an especially poor indicator of actual ability. At any rate, talking on a cell phone often leads to inattentional blindness the failure to perceive or remember a stimulus directly in the visual field because another cognitively demanding task is being performed.