De invloed van sms-en en bellen op autorijden is al langer bekend, maar hoe zit het met wandelen? Een nieuw onderzoek van Eric M. Lamberg en Lisa M. Muratori gaat hier op in.

Ze onderzochten of mensen ‘wandelfouten’ maken als mensen aan het bellen zijn of tekstberichtjes versturen. Eerst en vooral gaan mensen trager stappen als ze bellen of sms-en. Vooral het sms-en blijkt er voor te zorgen dat je meer afgeleid bent en dat je bijvoorbeeld de verkeerde kant opgaat.

Abstract van het onderzoek (betalend):

Cell phone use among pedestrians leads to increased cognitive distraction, reduced situation awareness and increases in unsafe behavior. Performing a dual-task, such as talking or texting with a cell phone while walking, may interfere with working memory and result in walking errors. At baseline, thirty-three participants visually located a target 8m ahead; then vision was occluded and they were instructed to walk to the remembered target. One week later participants were assigned to either walk, walk while talking on a cell phone, or walk while texting on a cell phone toward the target with vision occluded. Duration and final location of the heel were noted. Linear distance traveled, lateral angular deviation from the start line, and gait velocity were derived. Changes from baseline to testing were analyzed with paired t-tests. Participants engaged in cell phone use presented with significant reductions in gait velocity (texting: 33% reduction, p=0.01; talking: 16% reduction, p=0.02). Moreover, participants who were texting while walking demonstrated a 61% increase in lateral deviation (p=0.04) and 13% increase in linear distance traveled (p=0.03). These results suggest that the dual-task of walking while using a cell phone impacts executive function and working memory and influences gait to such a degree that it may compromise safety. Importantly, comparison of the two cell phone conditions demonstrates texting creates a significantly greater interference effect on walking than talking on a cell phone.