March 16, 2012
News

As carmakers and lawmakers draw up plans for combating distracted driving, new research from MIT shows that drivers can lose focus even with their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. Furthermore, the level of distraction that drivers encounter can best be measured in shades of gray rather than black and white.

The study, conducted by Bryan Reimer and Bruce Mehler of MIT’s AgeLab, measured the eye movements of 108 volunteers who ranged in age between 20 and 69. As participants drove an SUV on I-93 north of Boston, the researchers gave them increasingly difficult number-based repetition tasks to perform. Even when drivers completed a task as simple as repeating back a single digit number, the researchers detected a marked increase in “gaze concentration” — when drivers stare ahead with tunnel vision instead of scanning the road for potential hazards.

Read the full article here.

Wired