TY - JOUR
T1 - Texting and walking
T2 - a controlled field study of crossing behaviours and inattentional blindness in Taiwan
AU - Chen, Ping Ling
AU - Saleh, Wafaa
AU - Pai, Chih Wei
N1 - Funding Information:
The research was funded by the research grants from Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [102-2221-E-038-017-MY2; 103-2221-E-038-020-MY2].
PY - 2017/4/3
Y1 - 2017/4/3
N2 - The paper investigates the effects of phone use (talking, texting, and listening to music) on the street-crossing behaviours of pedestrians and their inattentional blindness in Taiwan. Recent handsets with touchscreens, as well as more advanced features including multimedia, and mobile applications (apps), exacerbate problems relating to cognitive distraction and reduced situation awareness. A controlled field study using video cameras was conducted for observing pedestrians’ crossing behaviours (e.g. crossing time, sudden stops, looking both ways before crossing, and disobeying traffic signals). Pedestrians were classified into two groups: experimental group (talking, texting, and listening to music) and control group (no phone use). Pedestrians’ inattentional blindness was examined by evaluating whether they saw and heard an unusual object (i.e. a clown) nearby. The results indicate that the proportions of unsafe crossing behaviours (e.g. sudden stops, disobeying traffic signals, and not looking both ways before crossing) were higher among distracted individuals and more pronounced among those using instant-messaging apps. These instant-message app users were the least likely to see the clown, and music listeners were the least likely to hear the horn that the clown was honking. Contributing factors to unsafe behaviours include being a student, having a phone screen of 5 inches or larger, and having unlimited 3G Internet access. Texting message via apps was the leading factor on unsafe crossing behaviours of pedestrians and their inattentional blindness.
AB - The paper investigates the effects of phone use (talking, texting, and listening to music) on the street-crossing behaviours of pedestrians and their inattentional blindness in Taiwan. Recent handsets with touchscreens, as well as more advanced features including multimedia, and mobile applications (apps), exacerbate problems relating to cognitive distraction and reduced situation awareness. A controlled field study using video cameras was conducted for observing pedestrians’ crossing behaviours (e.g. crossing time, sudden stops, looking both ways before crossing, and disobeying traffic signals). Pedestrians were classified into two groups: experimental group (talking, texting, and listening to music) and control group (no phone use). Pedestrians’ inattentional blindness was examined by evaluating whether they saw and heard an unusual object (i.e. a clown) nearby. The results indicate that the proportions of unsafe crossing behaviours (e.g. sudden stops, disobeying traffic signals, and not looking both ways before crossing) were higher among distracted individuals and more pronounced among those using instant-messaging apps. These instant-message app users were the least likely to see the clown, and music listeners were the least likely to hear the horn that the clown was honking. Contributing factors to unsafe behaviours include being a student, having a phone screen of 5 inches or larger, and having unlimited 3G Internet access. Texting message via apps was the leading factor on unsafe crossing behaviours of pedestrians and their inattentional blindness.
KW - pedestrian safety
KW - phone use
KW - texting and walking
KW - Unsafe crossing behaviour
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84989910170&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/0144929X.2016.1240234
DO - 10.1080/0144929X.2016.1240234
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84989910170
SN - 0144-929X
VL - 36
SP - 435
EP - 445
JO - Behaviour and Information Technology
JF - Behaviour and Information Technology
IS - 4
ER -