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.