By IANS,
Washington : A minority of people with an extraordinary ability to multitask can drive safely while chatting on their mobile phone,
unlike the other 97.5 percent, says a new study.
These individuals – described by the researchers as “supertaskers” – constitute only 2.5 percent of the population.
They are so named because they can handle two things simultaneously, chat on their mobile phone while operating a driving simulator without noticeable impairment.
This finding is important not because it shows people can drive well while on the phone – the study confirms that the vast majority cannot – but because it challenges current theories of multitasking.
“According to cognitive theory, these individuals ought not to exist,” says University of Utah (UU) psychologist Jason Watson, who conducted the study with David Strayer.
“Yet, clearly they do, so we use the supertasker term as a convenient way to describe their exceptional multitasking ability,” Watson said.
“Given the number of individuals who routinely talk on the phone while driving, one would have hoped that there would be a greater percentage of
supertaskers,” Watson said.
“And while we’d probably all like to think we are the exception to the rule, the odds are overwhelmingly against it.”
Researchers assessed the performance of 200 participants over a single task (simulated freeway driving), and again with a second demanding activity added (a cell phone conversation that involved memorizing words and solving math problems).
Performance was then measured in four areas — braking reaction time, following distance, memory, and math execution, said a UU release.
Further research may lead eventually to new understanding of regions of the brain that are responsible for supertaskers’ extraordinary performance.
These findings are slated for publication in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.