Chi'08 alt.chi / do we bump into things more while speaking on a cell phone?

  • Authors:

  • Noam Tractinsky;David Shinar

  • Affiliations:

  • Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel;Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

  • Venue:
  • CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

We observed more than 8,800 cases of people passing by an obstacle that was placed at different heights at the entrance to a university cafeteria. Of those cases, 491 were of pedestrians speaking on a cell phone. Overall, 2,422 bumping cases were recorded. Using a cell phone while walking did not increase the risk of bumping into protruding obstacles. The results suggest that the effective visual field of people who are involved in a highly automated, relatively slow- paced task, such as walking, under low rates of information input, is not degraded by speaking on a cell phone.