It seems like common sense that you shouldn’t talk on the phone while driving a car. You cut your maneuvering resources in half, and some people are just not as skilled at driving with one hand.

The obvious solution? Hands-free phone calls! With relatively new technology, you can make phone calls and even dial friends and family with the sound of your voice. Without the hassle of holding the phone itself, your attention can now focus on the road ahead of you.

There’s just one problem with that theory–it’s wrong.

Multitasking is a process which uses executive function in order to complete more than one action or thought process at a time. The problem with multitasking involves switch cost, which is the disruption of one task by another and the slowness of the second task as compared to the other. While driving and talking on the phone, this switch cost can not only lead to more driving mistakes, it can actually impair the driver’s ability to judge how safely they are driving.

Hands-free driving causes inattention blindness, which means that drivers have a tendency to look at, but not really “see” objects (Understanding the Distracted Brain, 2012).

Although many people claim that they are “great at multitasking”, research indicates that this is rarely, if ever true. A 2015 study investigated multitasking during daily life instead of in a laboratory setting, where previous research on the subject was usually conducted. The study focused specifically on technology distractions in the teen and young adult age group. The research suggests that there is no instance in which multitasking improves performance. This includes multitasking while doing homework, sitting in class, and all other aspects of young adult life (Carrier et al., 2005). If the study suggests that multitasking with technology never has a positive effect on these tasks, why is it still socially acceptable to do it while operating a potentially dangerous vehicle?

Green states have laws prohibiting all drivers from using hand-held cellphones while driving. Red states do not.

Currently,15 states have laws against driving and talking on a cellphone that is not hands-free. These new rules fall under the “Distracted Driving” laws and are under the same category as texting while driving. These laws seem like a good idea, but most scientific research claims that these laws actually make driving more dangerous than before, because they encourage the usage of hands-free devices.

According to a 2004 study, talking using a hands-free device decreases braking speed and significantly decreases the ability to avoid obstacles while driving. The data suggests that talking on a hands-free cellphone is significantly more deleterious than talking to a passenger in the car (Treffner & Barrett, 2004).

What about the differences between talking using a hands-free device and holding the cellphone? Surely it must be better to use a hands-free device? Not quite.

In a study surveying New York taxi drivers who had experienced an accident, the chance of an accident while talking on the phone was increased by a factor of 4 as opposed to driving in silence. In addition, there was no distinction between hands-free and non hands-free devices on the risk factor.

Activity of the brain in a silent car and while using a hands-free device.

There is also a correlation between the usage of hands-free devices and presuming that you are a safer driver than you actually are. In a 2015 study, a driving simulator allowed participants to drive with either no device or while talking on a hands-free device. The study found that not only did the participants talking on the hand-free device make more mistakes, they also were unable to accurately judge the number of driving mistakes they had made (Sanbonmatsu et. al, 2015). This research emphasizes that hands-free driving can diminish the ability of a person to judge the safety of their own driving, an effect which can cause major safety issues.

Although the majority of scholarly research and other online sources agree that hands-free driving is hardly safe, companies such as Bluetooth constantly encourage consumers to use their products for not only talking on the phone, but much more. As taken from the Bluetooth website:

“Since the smartphone is the hub of consumer’s lives, they allow consumers to do much more than just talk or listen to music. Once connected to the audio system and the flat-panel displays, drivers can use apps to navigate, check traffic, view weather reports, look up movie and restaurant information, and perform other tasks to improve the driving experience.”

Unfortunately, instead of acknowledging the dangers of hands-free driving, Bluetooth has instead added more features that can be accessed via voice. This seems incredibly irresponsible, and as consumers, we must be aware of the actual dangers involving hands-free talking, texting, and even weather-checking.

Check out this commercial, which glorifies a car reading your Facebook newsfeed out-loud:

The ability to call and hang up, right in the steering wheel!

The following image appears in a blog post from “Simply Being Mommy”, a website for new mothers and mothers-to-be. The author explains how easy it is to use the technology, and how she can finally keep her “eyes on the road”. The mother in the article truly believes that this hands-free technology will keep her children safe. The majority of scientific research disproves her claim.

So…why does this all matter?

On January 14th, 2004, a woman in Grand Rapids, MI hit and killed a 12 year old boy. Witnesses say that she was looking directly at the road. She was not holding her cellphone and not texting. However, she was using a hands-free device, and her attention was held by the conversation, not by the boy ahead (Understanding the Distracted Brain, 2012). While it is important to be aware of the more trivial consequences multitasking has on daily activities such as homework, it is essential that we prevent tragedies such as this one by being informed consumers and not mixing talking with driving.

References

Bluetooth. (2015). Bluetooth expands beyond hands-free calling. Retrieved from Bluetooth website: http://www.bluetooth.com/marketing-and-branding/markets/automotive-cars#sthash.7DutiD6Y.dpuf

Carrier, L. M., Rosen, L. D., Cheever, N. A., & Lim, A. F. (2015). Causes, effects, and practicalities of everyday multitasking. Developmental Review, 35, 64-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2014.12.005

Crystal. (2012, August 20). Bluetooth (hands free calling) [Blog post]. Retrieved from Simply Being Mommy website: http://simplybeingmommy.com/2012/08/20/2013-kia-sorento-ex-fwd-review/

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, & State Highway Safety Offices. (2015, November). Distracted driving laws. Retrieved from Governors Highway Safety Association website: http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

NewsFromTheShed. (2011, February 8). Status | Chevy Cruze | Super Bowl Ads [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seKnxwzF2DU

Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Strayer, D. L., Biondi, F., Behrends, A., & Moore, S. M. (2015). Cell-phone use diminishes self-awareness of impaired driving. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0922-4

Treffner, P. J., & Barrett, R. (2004). Hands-free mobile phone speech while driving degrades coordination and control. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 7(4-5), 229-246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2004.09.002

Understanding the distracted brain: Why driving while using hands-free cell phones is risky behavior (National Safety Council, Comp.) [Pamphlet]. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.nsc.org/DistractedDrivingDocuments/Cognitive-Distraction-White-Paper.pdf

Dory demonstrates her ability to speak whale in Finding Nemo. Dory is trying to break down the language barrier between “human” language and whale speak. Does that mean language is universal across all species or is language only unique to humans?

Many animals have ways of communicating information throughout their colony, tribe, school, etc. For example, if a honeybee wants to tell his friends about all the flowers waiting to be pollinated, he performs a special dance, often called the waggle dance. The waggle dance signifies to the other bees the precise direction and distance that a flower is located. The honeybee enters the colony and shakes his tail back and forth, the speed signaling the distance, and moves around in a figure eight pattern, signaling the direction of the food source.

Dolphins communicate in intricate ways as well. Not only do they use bodily movements and gestures to communicate, they also have their own special kind of language made up of whistles, squeaks, and clicks. Researchers have spent decades attempting to crack the code of dolphin speak, but with no luck. Dolphins, like whales and being elusive when underwater, display many of the same gestures when interacting with each other when playing and fighting, making it difficult for researchers to derive meaning from their sounds and movements.

The parrot also shows ways of communicating that are much different from dolphins and honeybees. Parrots can learn to speak all sorts of different human languages. One special parrot, Alex, learned over 150 words of the English language, the difference between small and large, the abstract concept of numbers and counting, and other lingual skills that humans possess. His trainer, Irene Pepperberg, believed Alex could truly understand her and had a language acquisition comparable to humans. Professor Pepperberg chronicles many accounts of Alex’s intelligence in picking up words and linking them to the appropriate situations, such as apologizing when he did something wrong or saying “I love you” when the professor left the lab at the end of the day. Pepperberg continued to train other parrots as well, but never any quite as smart as Alex.

But can it really be said that animals possess the same kind of language that humans do? Certainly it cannot be said that honeybees and dolphins interact the same using grammar and syntax rules found in the English language as humans do. Alex the parrot possessed an immense amount of human-like lingual characteristics, but he also lacked a good portion as well. So what makes human language unique from honeybee, dolphin, or parrot language? Let us explore.

It is easy to contrast between human language and the honeybee or dolphin’s means of communication. Honeybees do not use words or construct sentences as humans do. They do not understand the concepts of past and future. With their main goal in life being to collect pollen and food, it would be trivial for them to sit around their hive discussing Noam Chomsky’s take on language acquisition. However, that is not to say that their communication forms are in any way unintelligent, but rather are of a different intelligence than humans are able to comprehend. When it comes to dolphins, humans cannot properly imitate their speech patterns or even begin to make sense of their subtle clicks and whistles.

 “The capacity of humans to systematically turn conceptual ideas into limitlessly creative word sequences is truly unparalleled in nature.”

A parrot, it would seem, comes the closest to using human speech. But is it perhaps just mimicry? It is not hard to find a parrot that will imitate the words you speak, but one that can learn to match meaning to the words they repeat is more intriguing. Professor Pepperberg would certainly argue that her parrot learned the English language as it can decipher between objects big and small, same or different, as well as learn words and fit them to context. Mimicry is a far cry from the clear intellect that Alex the parrot possessed, but it cannot be concluded that the parrot has the same language skills as humans.

Honey Bee worker with full pollen sacs executing waggle dance, watched by other workers.

Grammar and syntax is a large part of the human language. We can take meaningless letters and arrange them to form a meaningful word. We can “create nonsensical yet understandable sentences like ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.’” We have the privilege of communicating more than what is necessary, such as saying, “This blog post is top-notch” or “Burgers are better with cheese.” Honeybees do not say to each other “Hmm, I wish I had some toast to spread all this honey on.” Dolphins, for all we know, do not swim around quoting Shakespeare. And parrots certainly do not have the capacity to relay to their hairdresser how they want their feathers ruffled for prom.

Human language is different. Animal languages allow animals to communicate about food, predators, or what have you. But human language is the capacity to communicate in infinite ways. We can string together infinite pairings of words to not only communicate, but to convey meaning. Communication is universal across all species on earth, but language, and all the complex ways it works within the brain, is unique to the human experience alone.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121016-is-language-unique-to-humans

https://www.quora.com/Noam-Chomsky-has-said-that-human-language-is-unique-in-the-biological-world-Is-he-correct

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2458346/Parrot-learned-say-I-love-mean-word.html

http://www.columbia.edu/~rmk7/HC/HC_Readings/AnimalComm.pdf

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/secret-language-of-dolphins/#dolphin-communication.jpg

The beloved movie ‘50 First Dates’ tells the love story of Lucy and Henry who meet and hit it off one day, causing Henry to think he’s finally found the girl of his dreams. But unfortunately Henry discovers that Lucy has a special type of amnesia caused by an accident, which causes her to forget him once she wakes up the next day. The movie tells their love story and how they eventually overcome this roadblock and live happily ever after.

The movie is a romantic comedy, and is cheesy at some points, but it does do a good job of describing certain aspects that are true for a person experience what is known as ‘Anterograde Amnesia’.

Anterograde amnesia is defined as the inability to code and store long term memory of events that happen after the brain injury, in this case Lucy’s car accident. The brain damage for anterograde amnesia usually affects hippocampus or medial temporal lobe of the brain. In the movie Lucy is told by her doctor that she has experienced brain damage to her temporal lobe, which is an area known to cause anterograde memory loss thus providing some validity to the movie!

(Red dot represents the hippocampus and surrounding temporal lobe area on a MRI scan of the brain.)
Furthermore the movie gets right the fact that Lucy still possesses her semantic and procedural memories, or also known as her implicit memories. She can still understand morality and facts about the world (semantic), and can paint and still follows out her habit of going to the pancake house for breakfast (procedural). But what she can’t do is wake up and form new episodic memories that last more than a day, because as soon as she falls asleep, it’s as if her slate is wiped clean and she is taken back to the day after her car crash, where she experienced her brain injury.

Lastly another thing the movie does that is not necessarily correct on but more an interesting part to address, is the fact that Lucy’s family tries to help Lucy by replicating the day after her accident for her everyday. When Lucy wakes up it is the day after the accident, which is also her father’s birthday, so everyday her father and brother bake a cake and pretend and go along with Lucy and her belief that it’s her Father’s birthday. Additionally they made sure to buy enough newspapers with the same date of after the accident and place them in the pancake house for her so she is not confused by the leap of time that has happened unknowingly to her. Lucy’s family instead of confronting and explaining to her her condition, pretend for her in order to save her any discomfort or confusion, for it it very well documented that anterograde amnesiacs when told about things that have happened to them become very frustrated, sometimes angry and definitely distressed. So the fact that Lucy’s family is saving her from that is an interesting reality of theirs that could possibly be true in a real life anterograde amnesia patient.

However going off that point, the movie is meant to be light in tone, and so the seriousness and detrimental effects anterograde amnesia can have on family and on the patient is lost a little. It is as though the person is forever stuck in the past, and everyone else around them, friends and family, moves on without them in so many ways. The frustration and sadness that is a reality for many anterograde amnesiacs and their families is not very accurately portrayed in the movie, and in that way makes it a bad representation of the amnesia.

(This is a video of Clive Wearing that more accurately depicts the tragic reality anterograde patients and their families face, specifically at 8:00-9:00 and 22:00-25:00)

More over, what is perhaps the biggest point of debate in the movie is that Lucy can remember everything that happens in a full day, and that it is her falling asleep that causes the memories to seemingly dissapear. What most studied anterograde amnesia patients experience is a shortened life span of working memory where they can only hold information ‘in mind’ for anywhere from a matter of seconds or minutes or hours before it dissapears. However a whole day of having her working memory able to work and for me to remember things that happen earlier in the day suggest that Lucy’s problem happens when she sleeps and perhaps when she is consolidating memories and storing them in long term memory. Amnesia is a heterogeneous disorder meaning that it has varying degrees of severity and varies in qualitative aspects, but there are not many other known and studied patients like Lucy and so her type of anterograde amnesia represented in the movie is somewhat debatable in its scientific accuracy.

In conclusion the ending of the film is concerning too as it seems to over simplify the complexity of amnesia. Henry decides that the solution to his problem of loving Lucy and not having her remember him every morning, is that he is going to record their experiences together and have her watch the video once she wakes up in order to orient her to her new reality. Of course in the hollywood movie this works for Lucy, but I can’t help but think that a real life anterograde amnesia would have more trouble accepting that video and would probably be more scared and confused by it then comforted.

So all in all the movie seemed to evenly describe some accurate and not so accurate portrayals of anterograde amnesia. As cognitive science students I hope that watching the movie you will be able to appreciate and be much more informed on the validity of amnesia representations not only in ’50 First Dates’, but representations of amnesia in all future movies that you go and see!

References:

 https://www.google.com/search?q=brain+scan+damage+to+medial+temporal+lobe&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI8MmtqJvcyAIVhXYeCh1JHA8L&biw=1260&bih=647#tbm=isch&q=+damage+to+medial+temporal+lobe+anterograde+brain+scan&imgrc=dvxZmSbL00_b4M%3A

http://www.human-memory.net/disorders_anterograde.html

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amnesia/basics/symptoms/con-20033182

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psychologist-the-movies/201212/amnesia-in-50-first-dates

The Students Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience

Are optical illusions an obscure phenomenon that cause our visual processing to go haywire? Absolutely not! Optical illusions are in fact images that play on the very complex pathways of our vision to cause us to perceive an image in an abnormal way. Visual processing encompasses many pathways in our brain and requires the activity of many different areas. To unravel the myths of optical illusions we will show you two examples of optical illusions and explain the processes causing you to perceive an unusual image.

Illusion 1: Vases or Men?

http://mesosyn.com/mental8-8.html

Which image jumps out at you first, the white vases or the black human figures in the background? There is no right or wrong answer! This optical illusion is one of many created playing on the Gestalt grouping principles. These principles help to explain why your brain sees certain things: by grouping certain aspects of an image together and others apart.  This optical illusion focuses on the principle of Figure & Background grouping. In this method of grouping, your brain determines what is the main figure and what is the background of an image, causing you to separate the two aspects. Eventually, you end up focusing on one more than the other. For example, let’s say you first see the white vases rather than the human figures. Your brain initially grouped the image into a figure of vases and a black background causing you to see the vases and ignore the human figures. However, you may have also separated the image by observing the black human figures as the main figure and the white as the background resulting in the opposite effect.

An image of the primary visual cortex or the V1 region of the brain. The V1 region is seen in dark blue to the right of the image.

There are many parts of your brain that are used in order to do this grouping, but the main area is most likely the primary visual cortex or the V1 region. This region is responsible for detecting edges and boundaries of an image. Therefore, it is active when deciphering between the figure and background of an image. However, it is very important to keep in mind that the V1 region is not the only area active when perceiving this image, or any image for that matter. Areas that perceive color, shade, object recognition, etc. are also active when looking at such an image.

 Illusion 2: Enigma Illusion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/10-optical-illusions_n_3354122.html

Do not let this image trick you! This is a still image even though you might get a headache from staring at it for too long, as it appears to be moving or shaking. Many parts of your visual system are being activated while looking at this image. To start, your V4 area is processing the colors of the image, which is not specific to an optical illusion. What causes this image to look as if it is moving involves the activation of your V5/MT area of the brain. This area is responsible for detecting real movement. However, it has also been found to be activated when looking an an optical illusion like this one (Ward, 2015). Therefore, you are activating the same area that causes you to perceive motion when it is not present.

An image showing the V4 and V5 areas of the brain.

The illusion of movement, such as in the above picture, may be caused by tiny adjustments and fluctuations in your eye fixation. Your eye is rapidly trying to process all of the aspects of the complicated image causing you to perceive the image as if it were moving (Troncoso et. al, 2008). These tiny fluctuations are still not fully understood but may account for such an illusion.

So what?

An optical illusion is an image that uses your normal visual pathways to trick your mind into thinking you see one thing over another. Your brain processes visual images in a highly complex and organized way. There are many parts, and only a few were explained in this post. A lone process is never activated without the activation of many others. Hopefully the mystery of optical illusions is a little less mysterious for you now!

References:

Ward, Jamie. The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience. Hove, East Sussex: Psychology, 2015.

https://www.quora.com/How-much-of-the-brain-is-involved-with-vision

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/10-optical-illusions_n_3354122.html

http://vanseodesign.com/web-design/gestalt-principles-of-perception/

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00730/full

The Internet contains a vast amount of information that can be a wonderful source to turn to when trying to understand new concepts. However, you have to be cautious about believing everything you see, for much of it can be misleading and inaccurate. Furthermore, ideas can be taken out of context and represented in a way that is flashy and eye-catching, but not scientifically truthful. This certainly applies to the idea of left-brain vs. right-brain dominance as is illustrated by the photo below, which attempts to explain the differences between the brain’s left and right side characteristics. However, these differences are not so clear cut and simple as the graphic suggests. Dominance in one hemisphere of the brain does not mean that one doesn’t use their other hemisphere at all. Different sides of the brain do have different specialties, but optimal brain functioning requires the two hemispheres to communicate and work with each other.

A common interpretation of the personalities of the left and right brain.

“Logic, scientist, mathematician”, are the words that describe left-brained people in this image. Not only are these constraining adjectives, but they imply that left-brained people would do best in a STEM career. It also suggests that right-brained people should not go into careers that require skills in math, which is false. The left hemisphere of the brain is associated with listening, reading, and auditory memory. Judges, lawyers, and bankers are often left-brain dominated. People who are left hemisphere-dominated can give directions using street names and mileage. For example, they can say, “Turn down Crenshaw Drive and go 2 miles before turning onto Westhampton Way and North Court Dormitory will be on your left.” Right-hemisphere dominant people use landmarks, such as, “Turn left once you pass the church”. However, everybody uses both sides of their brain, meaning that left-brain dominant people shouldn’t be the only people to pursue careers in science and math.

According to the image, the feeling of sand beneath your bare feet, movement, and laughter are feelings and enjoyments you can only have if you are right-brain dominant. Many researchers and common-folk alike would agree that the left and right brain possess different areas of specialization. For example, language is usually is dominant in the left brain. Perhaps the right brain is much more attuned to other aspects of life, such as creativity and emotion. But that is not all the right side is good for. Research has shown that the right hemisphere contributes to visual imagery, which makes face recognition and spatial processing in the right brain easier for supposedly right brain dominant individuals (Smith, 2012).

As stated above, the image suggests that that being right brained is more fun and colorful than being left brained. For instance, on the right brain side of the image is the phrase, “I feel”. Who wouldn’t want to feel emotions? The image is misleading by insinuating that left brained people are unfeeling, controlling, black and white people. However, research has proven that many processes once thought to only involve one side of the brain actually involve both. For example, the processing of a metaphor, which would go in the right brain side of the above image, actually involves both hemispheres (Beeman & Chiarello, 1998a, 1998b). In reality, no one is completely left brained or right brained. Everyone uses both sides of the brains in everyday life. You can be a creative, logical, free spirited, and practical thinker.

As you can see, there are many aspects of human function that are localized in one hemisphere or the other, however, it is not as simple as the photo above suggests. One cannot function with the use of only one hemisphere. The brain works laterally and communication between the two hemispheres is required. The image above can cause negative stereotypes of people based on a few characteristics of a person’s personality. A person who thinks analytically is not completely left brain dominant and should not be placed into a tight category. Brains are complicated organs that result in the full use of both hemispheres. No one is 100% left brain dominant or 100% right brain dominant, so remember to take what you see on the internet with a grain of salt!

Citations

Smith, E. E. (2012, October 19). Are You Left- or Right-Brain Dominant? Retrieved September 05, 2015, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/not-born-yesterday/201210/are-you-left-or-right-brain-dominant