Granted, learning to do two things at once, depending on what they are may take alot of practice. but look at the walking and chewing gum example; we are all conceding that we can do these automatically, but then saying that this is only because they utilise subcortical areas. Well ofcourse – we’ve done it since we were very young, and therefore had a lot of practice. its been shown that once a task reaches automaticity that we sub-cortical areas become more involved in chunking motor sequences.

One side effect of cracking down in this is that people will text below the line of sight of the road so their phones are not seen by other drivers (police). This eliminates the possibility of identifying danger with their peripheral vision. I’m not saying that texting higher up so that you can “see” the road is a good thing, I just wonder if it is now worse

Of course they are nonsensical, but it allows politicians to look like they are doing something about a problem. Banning cell phones altogether would appear to be extreme by the average person.
I disagree that the average mundane call is not problematic. I agree that intense conversations are worse, but even mundane calls will slow reaction time enough to make a big difference… its not so much about going the wrong route as it is: not stopping in time if traffic ahead stops quickly, or if a car pulls out in front of you suddenly, or if a kid runs into the road.

That is why I think that hands free laws are asinine. The issue is not the fact that you can’t drive one handed. Or that it is incredibly complex to simply hold a phone to your head. The issue is that the content of the call is quite distracting from driving.

Of course, for an average mundane call, I think there isn’t much issue. The automaticity of driving lends itself well to that. Most likely you will just go on “auto-pilot” and drive home instead of the store, if anything at all. However, if the conversation is intense, complex, emotional, etc… then it is indeed quite dangerous.

But nothing is quite as dangerous as texting and driving. Thankfully my phone takes dictation and sends texts/emails by voice command.

I was teaching a course at the time and remember joking with colleagues that this suggested that we should test students while they are highly fatigued, caffeine loaded, with music blasting from the classroom speakers. In alll seriousness, however, this study of HMMs vs LMMs would suggest something similar. Students who study for exams while checking Facebook, email, and listening to music would seem likely to perform less well on exams than those who can (and do) study in a quiet environment – regardless of whether they know the material equally well.

The other thought has to do with the issue of the automaticity that takes over for higher cognitive functions: the fact that we can perform some functions while on ‘automatic’ doesn’t mean that we necessarily perform our best that way. In professional sports, for example, players must raise their level of attention via anxiety or becoming hyped up by coaches etc in order to overcome the tendency to play on automatic. They need to intentionally overcome that well-rehearsed automaticity so they can give a great performance. So, automaticity likely has a significant downside when the quality of the performance is critical.

For me, any competing sensory input involving words is more distracting. I can read while some bland instrumental music is playing, but have never (even in my teen years) been able to read when lyrics are involved. This applies to lyrics I know even if the version I’m hearing is instrumental.

I absolutely abhor the placement of TVs tuned to news or talk shows in public areas where I have to wait (hospital and doctor waiting rooms and airports specifically). I’ve always got a book with me that I’d rather read. It’s quite easy for me to tune out the buzz of multiple normal conversations.

This is (one reason) why I don’t think I would be a good police officer even though I think I’m a decent driver. I’d be overwhelmed trying to listen to the scanner and look for specific things like somebody wearing a mask running away from a bank. You probably wouldn’t want someone like me piloting aircraft either.

Dang, I’m feeling sort of useless now :/