Parts of the Brain for
Driving
Parts for Driving:
Parts for Texting:
Occipital Lobe - Vision
Parietal Lobe - Sensory,
orientation, and perception
of stimuli
Motor Cortex (M1) Principal area in controlling
motor functions
Thalamus - Relays
information from sensory
nerves to other area
Cerebellum - Receives
information and regulates
motor movements (muscle
memory)
Premotor - Planning actions
Brainstem - Messages
travel through, staying alive
Hippocampus - Where to
go
Occipital Lobe
Parietal Lobe
Motor Cortex
Thalamus
Cerebellum
Premotor
Brainstem
Hippocampus
Our Question & Why It’s
Important
VS.
How much does texting and other distractions really interfere with driving?
Driving and texting both require many parts of the brain, overlapping
frequently. A person’s focus may shift from one thing to another, and
cannot be at one hundred percent when multi-tasking leading to mistakes
in either or both tasks.
We want to test how much of an impairment texting and other distractions
are on a person’s reaction time. We are conducting an experiment!
Task Design
-Conditions last
about 4 min all
together and 5
min of instruction
preparation------------- 1 to 2 sec -----------------------go-------------------response period-----------------error
phase
stimuli
1.5 sec
if no response
or stop
stimuli
3 conditions per
participant:
-no distractions
-texting
-horror stimuli
Example Stimuli
Stimuli presenting
go ---->
Stimuli presenting
stop ----->
Horror stimuli
----->
Methods
Conditions
Trials
Time/ trial
No
Distraction
15 go
15 stop
Total: 30
3
seconds
Texting
15 go
15 stop
Total: 30
3
seconds
Scary
Pictures
15 go
15 stop
Total: 30
3
seconds
7/17
7/22 and 7/24
Wednesday, the 17th
we will be collecting
our data for our
experiment. We want
to test 15 subjects
total, but from our
calculations we will
not have time to test
15 subjects in one
day. So, we plan to
test 12 subjects on
the 17th and plan to
test the other three
on the 22nd.
On the 22nd we will
finish collecting our
data and start
working on the
analysis.
We will finish our
analysis on the 24th.
7/28
The 28th is when we
will do our write up
for our experiment.
We will also be
making our final
touches to our
presentation.
Calculation
3 sec/trial
90 trials
270 sec
4 min 30 sec
4 min 30 sec
5 min 30 sec
10 min/ subject
7/31
Presentation Day!
Our Hypothesis
Follow-up Questions
With our experiment there are so many factors we can
analyze, but for the sake of time, for now, we will be
analyzing the change in behavior while driving with
distractions.
The other type of analysis that we thought may be good
follow ups were: the number of errors someone makes with
the gas pedal and brake, how the length of a text message
may affect someone’s driving, and how someone reacts
when they see their phobia.
THANKS!!!