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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Phone Faces

Some of you, and you know who you are, already know my views on driving and talking on the cell phone at the same time. I was taught to drive with my hands placed firmly at ten and two o'clock, and any deviation from this was considered to be dangerous.

Here's a new study that casts a different light on the subject. It's not just about the hands on the steering wheel. It's all about the role of the imagination in speaking to a person over the phone; how you have to use a part of your brain to visualize the person you're speaking to, or, in the words of the inestimable Ann Althouse, create a "phone face". Whatever part of your brain is busy with this visualization process cannot simultaneously be busy looking at the road. This makes sense to me.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where's the study that documents how one's brain expands, over time, to accommodate simultaneous visualization of phone face and the road? From daughter #2.

7:40 PM  
Blogger sixty-five said...

Thankfully it's illegal in NJ, so it can remain a non-issue for the time being. See you tomorrow! H claims to be willing to pick you up at the airport.

10:28 AM  

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