Stony Brook study warns of texting while walking - Long Island Business News - Claude Solnik  - January 19, 2012

Walk the walk. And talk the talk. But don’t do the two simultaneously, unless you want to risk veering off course, according to a study by Stony Brook University researchers.

Although it’s widely accepted that texting and talking on cell phones while driving can lead to accidents, researchers found texting will throw people off course and interfere with memory– even when walking.

Although it may be self-evident that texting while walking will lead to distractions, Stony Brook researchers measured the impact.

They said they were looking at how the brain handles, or runs into problems, handling the two simultaneous activities.

“We were surprised to find that talking and texting on a cell phone were so disruptive to one’s gait and memory recall,” said Eric M. Lamberg, co-author of the study and clinical associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Stony Brook University’s School of Health Technology and Management.

The study, by Lamberg and Lisa M. Muratori, a clinical associate professor in Stony Brook’s Department of Physical Therapy, was published in Gait & Posture titled “Cell phones change the way we walk.”

“We were looking at whether texting had more disruptions than talking on a cell phone,” Lamberg said.

Researchers asked participants to walk to a point 8 feet away and then asked them to return and repeat the exercise while texting, as well as talking on cell phones.

The researchers found “gait velocity is reduced when using a cell phone while talking or texting,” that “navigational errors occur when texting while walking” and “texting while walking produces greater interference than talking on a cell phone.”

“Cell phone use among pedestrians leads to increased cognitive distraction, reduced situation awareness and increases in unsafe behavior,” according to the abstract of the study in Gait and Posture online. “Performing a dual-task, such as talking or texting with a cell phone while walking, may interfere with working memory and result in walking errors.”

Participants who texted while walking “veered off course, demonstrating a 61 percent increase in lateral deviation and 13 percent increase in distance traveled.”

Lamberg said this shows the impact such distractions have on walking, an activity that seems automatic.

“We are using the findings to help physical therapy patients improve true functional walking,” he said, noting some tasks may affect their gait or certain aspects of memory. “In rehabilitation, we should use this as a tool to prepare our patients to be more ready to function in a natural environment.”

He said patients going through rehabilitation might even be told to text or talk while walking as they seek to regain their stride.

“We think using dual-task methodology is a way to challenge people during rehabilitation,” Lamberg said, noting, at a minimum, people might be prepared for this dual tasking. “Using cell phone use as part of a gait-training paradigm isn’t common in physical therapy.”

Reports surfaced last year that Philadelphia banned texting while walking, although city officials quashed those rumors.

And texting while walking causes a fair number of collisions, although not like those while driving.

While she was texting while walking last summer in the Berkshire Mall in Reading, Pa., Cathy Cruz Marrero tumbled into the mall fountain.

The video system at the mall, where she worked, captured that moment. The video was posted on YouTube, generating nearly 4 million views.

“We want to raise awareness that a real disruption occurs because of texting,” Lamberg said of the bigger picture. “Texting disrupts your ability much more than does talking.”

Should texting while walking be banned? That’s not the idea behind the research.

“Absolutely not,” Lamberg said. “I think it’s just to raise an awareness to this issue, that it does disrupt your ability to walk naturally.”