Moving to the Music: Proceed With Caution

Driving is a lot more fun while listening to music, as Selina Grizzell, 21, knows. Soon after Grizzell, who works at Wherehouse Music in Burbank, slides behind the wheel, she’s listening to KROQ-FM--and her favorite songs by Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails or Sublime.

“If there’s a really good song on, I tend to turn it up,” she says.

One of her customers on a recent night, Steve Hofer, a 32-year-old musician, says he listens to music while driving but usually picks classical, especially when gridlock strikes.

“It gives me something to calm myself when in traffic,” he says.

After all, if music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks or bend a knotted oak, isn’t it bound to calm the average stressed-out L.A. driver enough to avoid going berserk--or at least getting into an accident?

Common sense says yes. But experts who have researched music and driving performance in simulated settings have come to differing conclusions. Some have found that the right kind of music can improve one’s driving, whereas others say driving in silence is best.

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Listening to music could divert too much of a driver’s attention, suggest two British researchers who tested the lap times of 96 subjects (half of them men, half women) playing a computer motor racing game under a variety of conditions. In the study, the subjects either listened to “arousing” music (140 beats per minute) or “non-arousing” music (80 beats per minute).

Participants sometimes also counted backward as they played the computer game, to enable the researchers to determine whether paying attention to the music and to another mental task would reduce performance.

It did. Listening to arousing music and counting backward negatively affected driving performance more than listening to non-arousing music and not counting backward, the researchers reported in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology in 1999.

But a personal liking for the music being played, they also found, did improve subjects’ driving performance. The conclusion: It makes sense for motorists not to overtax their brains and to switch stations if a song they loathe comes on.

Music works best as a tranquilizer in the worst traffic conditions, according to another team of researchers, who evaluated 40 drivers (again half of them men, half women) who commuted at least half an hour on Highway 401, a major artery that serves metropolitan Toronto.

Drivers who faced heavy traffic, listening to self-selected music they liked, reported being much less stressed than those in heavy traffic with no music. But when traffic was light, drivers in the music and non-music groups reported similar levels of stress, the researchers reported last year in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

But for motorists concerned about reaction time--and doing what they can to avoid accidents--driving in silence is sometimes best, according to another researcher. Marilyn Turner, a Wichita State University psychologist, tested 90 men and women, ages 18 to 49, who sat in driving simulators and were told to brake when the red light came on. They repeated the exercise with music at various volumes and with no music at all.

In general, the drivers’ reaction times were fastest when no music was playing, says Turner, who published the results of her study in the Journal of General Psychology in 1996.

Then came the surprise finding. Turner thought that drivers would react more slowly as the music was cranked up louder and louder. But as the volume reached the level at which the drivers liked to listen, in general their reaction times improved slightly.

Why? At a volume deemed best by the listener, within reason, it may be easier to suppress distractions. When Turner analyzed the results by gender, she found that women reacted fastest when the music was at the volume they liked best, though men still had the fastest reaction time without music.

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But the sky’s not the limit. If the volume is too loud, it slows reaction time, according to research by Susan Strick. She was a student in a class taught by Leon James, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and an expert in traffic psychology, who requires his students to write a report on music and its effects on driving.

Strick--whose report and those of other students appears on James’ Web site, https://aloha.net/ ~dyc/misc/music_strick_report.html--tested women ages 15 to 17 who sat in a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo in a garage with the windows up and the vehicle turned to accessory mode.

With the music--”I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys--at different volumes up to 95 decibels, Strick tested braking reaction times. (Normal conversation is about 60 decibels.) She found a 0.12-second difference in reaction times with music at zero versus the highest volume, with the reaction time lengthening as the volume increased. Although the difference seems slight, she noted in her report, it might make the difference between avoiding or being involved in a collision.

Drivers should consider listening to music without words, suggests Barry Kantowitz, director and senior scientist at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor, and an expert in driver distraction research. His reasoning: Such music requires less attention than a song with words, which one may be tempted to follow along or learn while driving.

Likewise, listening to the news or to radio talk shows that air topics evoking strong opinions might not be the safest driving pastime, he says.

“I’m not saying don’t ever listen to the news and drive,” he says. Rather, drivers should be aware that their attention could be compromised.

James, the Hawaii professor, takes a softer stance after reading his students’ reports.

“People have found they can use music either to calm themselves or to excite themselves into a frenzy,” he says, noting in particular that “we need to teach young people how to use music appropriately when driving.”

And that means learning how to monitor oneself, he says.

“Sometimes people, while driving, get into the music too much,” James says. “They try to learn the words, for instance.”

That poses the possibility of distraction “just as much as talking on the phone,” he says.

“But as long as you learn to monitor yourself, you can make use of music.”

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Good Carma is a guide to automotive-related health and consumer issues. Kathleen Doheny can be reached at kdoheny@compuserve.com.

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Driven by Noise

Although listening to music at an optimal level can enhance the driving experience, very loud car stereos can actually damage hearing. Experts warn that prolonged exposure to sounds over about 90 decibels can cause gradual hearing loss, and a loud car stereo can easily top 125 decibels. Here is how some everyday noises compare with your car stereo:

Legend

Gradual hearing loss with prolonged exposure.

No more than 15 minutes of unprotected exposure is recommended.

One minute of regular exposure may risk permanent loss.

Whisper: 30 dB at 15 ft.

Light traffic: 55 dB at 50 ft.

Jack-hammer: 85 dB at 50 ft.

Loud shout: 100 dB at 50 ft.

Car stereo (high volume): 125 dB or more

Household noise (urban): 50 dB

Car stereo (low volume): 75dB

Heavy traffic: 90dB at 50 ft.

Airplane taking off: 105 dB at 2,000 ft.

Airplane taking off: 140+dB at 200 ft.

Note: A 10dB increase means that the sound is actually 10 times louder

Sources: League for the Hard of Hearing; Symphonix Devices Inc.; AMA Encyclopedia of Medicine; MacMillan Visual Desk Reference

Now Hear This: Warning Signs

If you’re concerned about possible hearing loss, you might want to seek medical attention if you:

* Frequently complain that people mumble, speech is not clear or you hear only parts of conversations when people are talking.

* Often ask people to repeat what they said.

* Have friends or relatives tell you that you don’t seem to hear very well.

* Don’t laugh at jokes because you miss too much of the story.

* Need to ask others about the details of a meeting that you just attended.

* Are told you play the TV or radio too loudly.

* Can’t hear the doorbell or the telephone.

* Find that looking at people when they are talking to you makes it easier to understand, especially in a noisy place or where there are competing conversations.

compiled by Michelle Maltais

Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Assn.