Thinking about Research A summary of a research study in psychology is given below. As you read the summary, think about the following questions:

What behaviors did the researchers observe? How were the observations recorded by the researchers?

Were the researchers able to identify a cause of behavior from this study?

Were the researchers able to answer their research questions with the observations they collected? How?

What results would have falsified the explanation of behavior the authors tested?

Do you think this study qualifies as primarily basic or applied research? Why? What are some examples of real-world behaviors that the results of this study might apply to?

Research Study. Strayer, D. L., & Johnston, W. A. (2001). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11760132

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9280.00386

Driven to distraction: Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular phone. Psychological Science, 12, 462-466. Purpose of the Study. The researchers were interested in how use of a cell phone while driving influences driving performance (see Photo 1.8). They describe previous studies that have shown that devices that require one's hands while driving (e.g., the radio, temperature controls, etc.) can reduce driving performance. In this study, they predicted that cell phone use would reduce driving performance. They tested two ideas about how cell phone use could decrease driving: (1) that the use of a hand-held phone would interfere with driving and (2) that the attention requirements of a phone conversation would interfere with driving.

Photo 1.8: Strayer and Johnston's (2001) study examined whether talking on a cell phone while driving decreases driving performance.

Method of the Study. Forty-eight undergraduates (half male, half female) participated in the experiment. Each of the students was randomly assigned to one of three cell phone conditions: hand-held phone, hands-free phone, and no phone (radio control only). The participants performed a computer-simulated driving task where they moved the cursor on the screen to match a moving target as closely as possible, using a joystick. Red and green lights flashed periodically during the task and subjects were instructed to press the "brake" button as quickly as possible when the red light flashed. They performed this task on its own in a practice segment and two test segments, with a dual-task segment placed between the two test segments. In the dual-task segment, they were given an additional task that included one of the following to match the conditions listed above: hand-held phone conversation with another person (who was part of the research team) about a current news story, hands-free phone conversation with another person about a current news story, or controlling a radio to listen to a broadcast of their choice. The frequency of missing red lights and the reaction time to hit the "brake" button when a red light appeared were measured and compared for the three phone conditions.

Results of the Study. The two cell phone use conditions did not differ in their results, suggesting that driving performance in response to red lights is similar for hand-held and hands-free phone use.

Figure 1.1 shows a graph for each of the measures according to the phone (combined for hand-held and hands-free conditions) and no-phone conditions. The data are shown in each graph separately for driving performance in the driving only segments (single task) and for the phone/radio task while driving (dual task) segment. The graphs show that more red lights were missed and time to press the "brake" button was longer when subjects were talking on the phone (compared with when only driving), but there was no difference in driving performance when subjects listened to the radio while driving and when they just performed the driving task on its own.

Figure 1.1 Driving Performance as Measured by Responses to Red Lights in the Driving Task While Performing the Driving Task on Its Own (Single Task) or While Also Performing the Phone or Radio Task (Dual Task) Source: Figure 1 from Strayer and Johnston (2001).