Final answer:
Texting while driving incorporates visual, manual, and cognitive distractions, and is illegal in Florida. Studies show that the habitual nature of checking phones is difficult to resist while driving, endangering driver safety and increasing response time.
Step-by-step explanation:
Texting while driving involves all three types of distraction: visual, manual, and cognitive. This multifaceted distraction is problematic because it takes the driver's eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, and mind off the task of driving. In Florida, texting while driving is indeed illegal. Legislation has been enacted to help prevent the dangerous consequences associated with this activity.
Research by Bayer and Campbell (2012) highlights how the habit of frequently checking our phones in various situations can lead to an automatic response to notifications, which makes it difficult to resist checking the phone even while driving. The concept of 'event schemata' describes this habitual behavior, where learned patterns dictate our actions in certain contexts, such as using a phone while driving.
Considering the danger and the compulsive nature of phone use in vehicles, designing studies to measure the impact of texting on driving performance is crucial. Such studies often assess response time differences between driving while texting and driving without distraction, underlining the detrimental effects of texting on the ability to react quickly to road events, such as a leading car hitting the brakes.