Harry Pottersa国际传媒檚 power appears to extend beyond the page, as recent Canadian research suggests listening to an audiobook from the popular fiction series can improve focus on long and boring drives.
Lana Trick, a psychology professor at the University of Guelph, wanted to look into areas that could help improve driving performance, given that 40 per cent of collisions can be attributed to in-car distraction, she said.
While much of scientific research has focused on the deleterious effects of distracted driving, she sought to look into sa国际传媒済ood distractions.sa国际传媒�
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The problem with driving, she explained, is the load the brain carries. Too little stimulation sa国际传媒� dubbed mental underload sa国际传媒� can be just as bad as the opposite, or mental overload.
sa国际传媒淚tsa国际传媒檚 like nature abhors a vacuum,sa国际传媒� she said. sa国际传媒淚f you have an empty brain, you can doze off or your mind wanders or you find another way to distract yourself, like grabbing your cell phone.sa国际传媒�
The key, she said, is to find the sweet spot between the two for the brain sa国际传媒� thatsa国际传媒檚 where audiobooks come in.
sa国际传媒淎udiobooks can be cases where a little bit of distraction can be useful,sa国际传媒� she said.
For the project, Tricksa国际传媒檚 team wanted an audiobook that featured an interesting, relatively popular story, and the novel featuring the boy wizard and his friends fit the bill.
sa国际传媒淗arry Potter is engaging and exciting,sa国际传媒� Trick said, sa国际传媒渂ut also something you can have in the background and not too complex.sa国际传媒�
Her research, recently published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, showed drivers who participated in her study had better sa国际传媒渉azardous response timessa国际传媒� sa国际传媒� braking faster in response to hazards sa国际传媒� while listening to sa国际传媒淗arry Potter and the Deathly Hallowssa国际传媒� compared to those who drove in silence.
Trick recruited undergraduate students at the University of Guelph as test subjects who used a driving simulator at a specialized laboratory. The DRiVE Lab sa国际传媒� named for Driving Research in Virtual Environments sa国际传媒� is a state-of-the-art facility where researchers can test various scenarios without the risks of driving on a road, Trick said.
The lab has a car sa国际传媒� a convertible Pontiac sa国际传媒� that is surrounded by screens. Sounds of driving and sa国际传媒渇orce feedbacksa国际传媒� sa国际传媒� such as the vibrations of a moving car sa国际传媒� add to the feel of driving, Trick said. For her study, participants drove both complex and simple routes while listening to parts of the Harry Potter audiobook or driving in silence.
The researchers first scored students on their working memory. Those who had strong working memories, as in those who could hold a number of ideas at once, saw a particularly strong benefit to listening to an audiobook while driving long and boring routes, Trick said.
sa国际传媒淭hose drivers that have the highest memory load are the most challenged by dull, simple drives and an audiobook seemed to help them,sa国际传媒� she said.
The audiobook did, however, have a slightly negative effect on drivers with poor working memory on particularly complex drives. The research shows the audiobook had no effect on driverssa国际传媒� speeds.
sa国际传媒淲hat this means is that it could help when yousa国际传媒檙e driving along the boring 401 with no change of scenery for miles and miles and miles,sa国际传媒� she said.
One other notable finding, Trick said, came with whatsa国际传媒檚 known as sa国际传媒渟tandard deviation of lateral position,sa国际传媒� which means how much a car moves from side to side in a lane. At times, those who listened to the audiobook showed more variance in their lanes, she said.
sa国际传媒淲hen people are excited they tend to shift around a little bit more,sa国际传媒� Trick said. sa国际传媒淲e were going through an especially exciting period of Harry Potter and it was possible they were getting into it.sa国际传媒�
Trick said she hopes to test other drivers, especially those who have experience commuting, to expand her research. She said she is also studying the effects of audiobooks on different aspects of road complexity.
sa国际传媒淲hat wesa国际传媒檙e trying to do is find ways to reduce the number of collisions on the road, especially those from distracted driving, which has become a major problem.sa国际传媒�
Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
