up
at
traffic
lights
alongside
care
with
loud
music
made
some
psychologists in the University of Sydney look into whether loud music has something to do with
driving.
The psychologists invited 60 men and women aged between 20 and 28 as subjects and tested
them on almost the same driving tasks under three noise conditions
：
silence, rock music played at
a gentle 55 decibels (
分贝
), and the same music at 85 decibels.
For
l0
minutes
the
subjects
sat
in
front
of
a
screen
operating
a
simple
machine
like
a
car
．
They
had
to
track
a
moving
disk
on
screen,
respond
to
traffic
signals
changing
color,
and
brake (
刹车
) in response to arrows that appeared without warning.
On
the
tracking
task,
there
was
no
difference
in
performance
under
the
three
noise
conditions
．
But under both the loud and quiet music conditions, the performers
“
braked
”
at a red
light about 50 milliseconds sooner than they did when there was no rock music at all
．
That could
mean a reduction in braking distance of a couple of meters actually, the difference between life
and death for a pedestrian(
行人
).
When it came to the arrows that appeared across the visual field, the psychologists found that
when
the
music
was
quiet,
people
responded
faster
to
objects
in
their
central
field
of
sight
by
about 50 milliseconds
．
For the people listening at 85 decibels, response times dropped by a further
50 milliseconds - a whole tenth of second faster than t
hose “driving” with no music.
“
But
there
’
s
a
trade
-
off,
”
the
psychologists
told
the
European
Congress
of
Psychology
．
“
They lose the ability to look around the whole situation effectively.
”
In responding
to
objects
that
suddenly
appeared,
people
subjected
to
85-decibel
rock
music
were
around
100
milliseconds slower than both the other groups
．
Since some accidents - such as children running
into the road -take place without any notice, drivers listening to loud music must be less safe as a
result.
1
．
Which of the following is the best way to make driving safer?
A
．
Loud music.
B
．