評論
打印
Science and technology
科學技術
Safe driving
安全行駛
Keep your mind on the road
時刻看路
Hands-free texting is more distracting to drivers than using a mobile phone
語音發短信比手機通話更容易讓駕駛人分心
CARS, to paraphrase some in America's gun lobby, do not kill people.
套用美國步槍協會的說法，汽車不會殺人。
People kill people.
人殺人。
And among the people more likely than others to kill people are those distracted by their use of mobile phones and other portable electronic devices while they are driving.
在人群中，那些在開車時，使用手機或者其他便攜式電子設備的人，比其他人更容易殺人。
Actually holding a phone to your ear while driving is illegal in many places.
事實上在許多地方，開車的時候將手機放在耳朵上是違法的。
But not having both hands on the wheel is only part of the problem.
但是沒有把雙手放在方向盤上僅僅只是一部分問題。
Another part, probably more serious, is the dissipation of attention involved.
另一部分，可能更加嚴重，是注意力不集中。
If further evidence of this were needed, it has just been provided in a study published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, in Washington,
如果需要更多的證據，這可以由在華盛頓特區的美國汽車協會的交通安全基金會發表的一份研究報告提供。
DC. David Strayer and his colleagues at the University of Utah, the study's authors, looked at exactly how distracting various mental activities are to drivers.
猶他州的大衛·斯特雷耶和他的同事，這份研究報告的作者，清楚地看到了精神活動是如何使駕駛員分心。
In a world where cars are often fitted with hands-free electronic devices, what they found is worrying.
在一個汽車配備了免提式電子設備的世界里，這就是他們所擔心的事情。
Dr Strayer divided 102 volunteers into three groups.
斯特雷耶博士將102名志愿者分為了三組。
Each participant performed eight tasks under the scrutiny of his team and while wearing an electrode-laden hat to record what is known as their Event-Related Brain Potentials.
每一位參與者要在他的隊伍的監督下完成八個任務，并且是戴了一個用于記錄大腦的事件相關電位的，布滿電極的帽子。
The eight tasks were: doing nothing; listening to the radio; listening to an audio book; conversing with a passenger; calling a friend using a hand-held phone; calling a friend using a hands-free phone; using speech to send a text message; and, as an example of a difficult task few people engage in behind the wheel, verifying a set of mathematical equations while memorising nouns interjected between the maths problems.
這八個任務是：什么都不做；聽廣播；聽音頻書；與一位乘客交談；用一個手持式電話呼叫一位朋友；使用免提式電話呼叫一位朋友；用語音發送一條短信；作為一個困難的任務的一個例子，少數人加入這個團體；當熟記插入到這些算術問題中的名詞時，證明一系列算術等式。
The first group of volunteers performed these tasks sitting at a computer.
第一組人在電腦前完成這些任務。
The second sat in simulators resembling the interior of a car, and followed another car on a screen.
第二組坐在一個汽車模擬器里，在屏幕上他的前方有一輛車。
The third drove real cars.
第三組開真正的車。
Besides their ERPs, the volunteers' reaction times were assessed, their level of concentration was tested by studying their responses to lights shone in the periphery of their visual fields, and their subjective views of which tasks demanded most attention were recorded.
除了他們的大腦的事件相關電位外，他們的反應時間也會被評估，他們的集中程度也會通過研究他們對視野邊緣的燈光閃爍的反應進行測試，還有他們對哪種任務更加需要集中精力的判斷也被記錄下來。
Dr Strayer then consolidated these various results into a single number that represented the overall mental distraction a task created.
斯特雷耶博士將這些不同的結果結合在一起形成一個單獨的數字，用于表示一個任務所產生的綜合精神分散。
Doing nothing provided a baseline value of 1.0 and juggling maths and word-memory provided an upper bound of 5.0.
什么都不做的情況設為基礎值-1.0，然后盡量使用數學和字存儲器產生一個更高的范圍-5.0。
As might be expected, listening to the radio or to a book were the least distracting activities.
可能像預期的那樣，聽廣播或者音頻書是是最不容易使人分心的活動。
Talking to a passenger and talking on the phone were intermediate.
與一位乘客交談和打電話是中等程度。
The most distracting, at 3.06, was hands-free texting.
最使人分心的活動的分數為3.06，是語音發短信。
On a scale where 5.0 is the most distracted it is possible to be, that is worryingly high.
在某種程度上，可能存在最使人分心的，程度為5.0的活動,那么3.06就相當高。
In attention to the road is not the only cause of traffic accidents, but it is an important one.
不集中注意力觀察道路情況不是造成交通事故的唯一的原因， 但是它是最重要的。
In America, various studies have suggested that it contributes to between a quarter and a half of accidents.
在美國，許多研究表明這種情況所造成的交通事故的比率在1/4到1/2之間。
Those who think that hands-free texting is low on the list of potential driving hazards might therefore wish to think again.
那些認為語音發短信所造成的風險很小的人可能要因此重新考慮一下。
