"How the Brain Reacts"

The online article by Marcel Just and Tim Keller summarizes the main points of their study entitled "A Decrease in Brain Activation Associated with Driving When Listening to Someone Speak."

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 8 Unit 2's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Grant and Lee, Harrison Bergeron, The Giver, Banned Books Week, Fatal Text Message, Distracted Driving, How the Brain Reacts, Cellphones and driving
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. divert
    turn aside; turn away from
    Behavioral studies have shown that talking on a cellphone diverts the driver's attention and disrupts driving performance.
  2. simulated
    reproduced or made to resemble; imitative in character
    In our study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the effect of listening to someone speak on the brain activity associated with simulated driving.
  3. concurrently
    overlapping in duration
    The parietal lobe activation associated with spatial processing in driving decreased by 37 percent when participants concurrently listened to the sentences.
  4. deterioration
    a symptom of reduced quality or strength
    We found that listening comprehension tasks drew mental resources away from driving and produced a deterioration in driving performance, even though the drivers weren't holding or dialing a phone.
  5. basis
    a relation that provides the foundation for something
    These brain activation findings show the biological basis for the deterioration in driving performance (in terms of errors and staying in a lane) that occurs when one is also processing language.
  6. degrade
    lower the rank or value of something
    If listening to sentences degrades driving performance, then probably a number of other common driver activities--including tuning or listening to a radio, eating and drinking, monitoring children or pets, or even conversing with a passenger--would also cause reduced driving performance.
  7. interpret
    give an explanation to
    Not responding in a cellphone conversation, for instance, can be interpreted as rude behavior.
  8. suppress
    reduce the incidence or severity of or stop
    Indeed there is recent experimental evidence suggesting that passengers and drivers suppress conversation in response to driving demands.
  9. process
    a mental operation that you are not directly aware of
    Third, with spoken language, a listener cannot willfully stop the processing of a spoken utterance.
  10. consideration
    information to be kept in mind when making a decision
    These considerations suggest that talking on cellphones while driving can be a risky choice, not just for common sense reasons, but because of the way our brains work.
Created on Mon Dec 15 13:09:55 EST 2014 (updated Mon Dec 15 14:27:54 EST 2014)

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