Dual task interference during walking: The effects of texting on situational awareness and gait stability

• We quantified the effect of texting while walking on situational awareness and gait kinematics.
• Texting while walking resulted in almost a 50% drop in visual cue detection rate.
• Texting results in a significant increase in lateral sway during walking.
• Loss of situational awareness was dependent upon the nature of the visual task imposed.

Dual-task interference caused by mobile phone use while walking increases safety risks by increasing attentional and cognitive demands. Situational awareness, important for control of walking and safety, has been examined previously but measured only by the awareness of visually noteworthy objects in the environment or the number of times the person looked up from the phone. This study systematically investigated the effects of texting on situational awareness to different environments and its consequent impact on gait kinematics. Twenty healthy volunteers walked on a treadmill while texting and attending to visual tasks simultaneously. Gait parameters and situational awareness examined under dual-task conditions (walk and text or walk, text, and visual task) were compared with those of single-task conditions (text, walk or visual task only). The size of the visual field, display duration of the visual cue, and visual acuity demand were varied across the visual task conditions. About half of the visual cues provided during walking and texting were not perceived (48.3%) as compared to the visual task only condition. The magnitude of this loss of situational awareness was dependent upon the nature of visual information provided. While gait parameters were not different among visual task conditions, greater total medial–lateral excursion of the pelvis was observed in the walk and text condition compared to the walk only condition, showing the dual-task effects of texting on gait kinematics. The study provides further evidence of dual-task effects of texting on situational awareness as well as gait kinematics.