The Department of Psychology provides cash awards to the best Senior and Junior projects in Behavioral Science and Social Science. This year’s award for the Best Project in the Junior Division goes to Megan Telehey from Williston Trinity Christian Junior High School. Megan got an award certificate and $50 for her project, “Stop, Look, and Listen!” A picture of Megan next to her poster and an abstract of the study and are listed below.
Congratulations Megan! Keep up the good work.
Stop, Look, and Listen!
Megan Telehey
Trinity Christian School, Williston, ND
Abstract
The purpose of my project was to see if 15-18 year olds or 35-40 year olds reaction time would be affected more by talking on the cell phone.
My hypothesis was that 35-40 year olds reaction time would be quicker because of their experience in driving even while on the phone.
I started by getting 24 volunteers. There were 12 volunteers in each age category, 15-18 and 35-40. Then, in each age category, there were 6 subjects on the phone and 6 off. In each test the subjects had to react to the test by pushing on the brake. The tests that I did were to stop, which they did when they saw the light switch from green to red; to look, which they did by listening and reacting to the siren. Then, I did the tests again, but this time the subjects did not know what order they were in so they would not be expecting anything. After trial 1, I noticed that the 15-18 year olds reacted just as I thought they would, but the 35-40 year olds were faster to react when they were on the phone. This may be because they are used to driving with their cell phones and have probably adapted to being on the phone and paying attention to the road in the process. For trial 2, the test results were very consistent. On all of the average times for each of the 3 tests, both groups were slower when they were on the phone than when they were off the phone. Therefore, looking at the average times for each age group, the first time they did the tests, the adults were faster and the second time they did the tests, the adults and teens were very close in all areas. So, after all the results, I conclude that my hypothesis was correct for the first time I did the test, but the second time my hypothesis was mostly incorrect because they were very close times between the two groups.
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