Driving Affects Listening

Studies have shown that talking on a cell phone can impair our ability to drive. A new study shows that driving makes it hard to hear.

96 participants were paired in a simulator - 1 driving, 1 talking as a passenger or on the phone. Drivers and talkers were told a number of stories. Sure enough, drivers had 20% less ability to recall the details as compared with the passengers. And their conversational skills were the worst when navigate intersections or handling traffic.

Brain Is An Active Listener

Language is delivered at up to 5 syllables/second so scientists thought listeners kept pace by anticipating a subset of words the listener knew (like how Google Instant works). Functional MRI's show the brain considers different words and narrows choices by considering words beginning with the same sound.

For example, if one says, “I tasted the sweetest can…" your brain might be priming itself to hear "candy" or "cantaloupe", but not "candle."