Effects of Simultaneous Smartphone Texting and Auditory Stimulation on Gait

More often than not, pedestrians around busy college campuses, business parks, and shopping malls are seen walking while using their phones and listening to music or having earphones in. Activities on pedestrians’ phones that captivate them more and require higher cognitive processing demonstrated a higher detriment to their gait kinematics than less cognitively complicated activities (Brennan and Preloff, 2021). This study aims to establish whether or not gait parameters are affected by walking while engaging in cognitively demanding activities such as texting and listening to green noise. Green noise is a deviation from white noise, which amplifies the mid-range frequencies of white noise, resulting in a more soothing acoustic environment. Five conditions were used in this study, each increasing the degree of cognitive complexity. Ten participants were involved in the study, and the order in which the participants underwent the different conditions was randomized. Data was collected using the Vicon Nexus Motion Sensor system and processed using Motek’s Gait Offline Analysis Tool (GOAT). Based on prior studies and seeing how the participants’ gait altered due to the more challenging conditions, we expect that gait kinematics were affected negatively as the participants looked at their phones and listened to green noise once the data is processed. If this assertion is proved true by the processed data, this study could serve as further evidence supporting why distracted driving is so dangerous.