Effects of using a Smart Phone on Pedestrians’ Attention and Walking

Abstract Effects of “smart-phoning” (using a smart phone) while walking were investigated in a laboratory experiment. While walking with an iPhone 5s, 24 undergraduate students texted a message, watched a video, played a game, and just held the phone in one hand in addition to performing visual and auditory detection tasks at the same time. The detection tasks were to respond to designated target signals as quickly as possible by clicking the wireless mouse held in the hand that did not hold the phone. The visual stimuli were presented on 4 video displays placed outside of the walking route. The target was a sudden change in screen color from blue to red. The auditory signals were presented through a loudspeaker once each second for a duration of 500 ms, and the target was to respond to a higher pitch within the tones. Participants performed these multiple tasks while walking clockwise along the perimeter of a 3 m by 3 m square marked on the floor. Results showed that the number of right footsteps that missed the line marking the walking route was greater under cell phone-use conditions than under the control condition, with results for the game condition worst among the cell phone-use conditions. Mean reaction times for both visual and auditory targets were significantly longer under cell phone-use conditions than under the control condition. Again, the game condition was the worst among cell phone-use conditions. Number of missed visual targets was significantly higher with the game condition than the control and video watching conditions. In summary, the results suggest a higher risk of accidents among pedestrians who are using cell phones, especially for those who are playing games with a smart phone.