Children younger than 13 years participating in a very different interactive simulation were more prone to

endure a virtual accident if they talked on the phone while

they were crossing a busy street, study has shown. Preteens are far from the best road-crossers to start with, the study conductors said. But in the research, speaking on the cell phone increased the odds of being hit or almost run over by a virtual car from 8.5 to 12 percent, a 43 percent increase in risk.

The report was published in the February issue of the magazine

Pediatrics. The study comes on on the tails of several others that have shown proof that talking on the phone takes a toll on the concentration and visual processing skills of drivers, and may make the possibility of a vehicular accident

four-fold.

Crossing the busy road is very difficult, if you stop and think about it," said an associate professor of psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Young teens aren’t able to do it nearly as well, he said, when talking on the cell phone.

Dr. Schwebel and his colleagues placed 77 preteens in a virtual reality environment that mimicked an intersection, standing across the busy street from a school with

trucks and cars passing by in both directions. Those doing the study

asked the 10- and 11-year-olds to decide when it would be best to cross. The preteens stepped off a platform approximately the dimensions of a sidewalk when they thought it was safe.

Each child made twelve simulated road crossings, half while speaking on the telephone. About half of the children were conversing during their first six crossings, while the other half answered calls during the second six crossings.

Even though ability improved with time and practice, the psychologists found, the phone conversations distracted the children, making them less attentive to traffic. While on the phone, they were more apt to hesitate before stepping off the simulated curb and didn't give themselves enough time before another car drove by, causing more close calls and more

accidents.

The computer world did not copy life in one

crucial instance: it didn't allow for children to speed up the pace and run

across the busy street, nor could a car slam on the brakes or swerve to avoid an accident, Dr. Schwebel said.

On the other hand, using a cell phone wasn’t new to any of the children, Dr. Schwebel noted. All of them had used the phone before.

If you’re a parent, you should probably tell your kids not to be texting or speaking on the telephone, or listening to an iPod for that matter, when walking across an intersection, said David Strayer, professor of psychology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and an expert on telephone safety.

This is consistent with what we know about how the mind works when people are driving, Dr. Strayer added. You do need your mind to navigate through the world, whether you’re snowboarding or driving or skateboarding.