OT: Multi-tasking, attention and talking on your cell while driving Options

[raynekat]

Big time off topic, but really interesting.

Was watching a show last night call "Brain Games."

The topic was how your mind works while paying attention to things....as in how we concentrate.

1) The 1st big misnomer was "multi-tasking." No such thing. Your brain just completely 100% switches from one task to another. Now maybe some are better at switching back and forth than others, but they are still breaking their attention from one task to get on with the other.

2) 95% of magic tricks work on this premise. Since your mind can only concentrate and pay attention to one thing at a time, magicians use this to distract you from what they are trying to accomplish. Pick pockets do the same. Maybe no real news here, but to see it in real time and slow motion was interesting.

3) So this leads to driving while on the cell phone. They put a guy on a small road coarse had him talking to someone on the phone, and would randomly throw stuff in front of the car. Nearly all the time he was out of control as he wasn't paying attention to his driving.

Their conclusion was that driving while talking on the cell was "equally" as dangerous as driving while under the influence. The day might be coming where you'll lose your license for a year if your caught on your cell. I for one think that would be a good thing.

Food for thought at any rate.

You are just kidding yourself if you think you can multi-task. Driving while yacking on your cell is the ultimate example of this.

[somd914]

I've seen a few near accidents as our local police agencies have been heads down on their laptops, even with a cell phone plugged into their ear. We have one nearby jurisdiction where police must answer calls via texting on their laptop. When the public inquired about the dangers of this, the police responded that they are specially trained for such multitasking. Every report on the subject that I have seen/read says the brain cannot truly multitask, that no task gets completed well in these circumstances.

However, if I get pulled over for using my phone (GPS or music), I get cited since I can't easily prove that I wasn't texting or talking. But not sure, perhaps I can talk my way out of ticket for the far more complex and distracting car infotainment systems that are on the market...

[billh1963]

[quote name='somd914' date='Oct 31 2016, 02:27 PM' post='2418045']
When the public inquired about the dangers of this, the police responded that they are specially trained for such multitasking.

What a crock of sh!t