Why do we turn down the radio when driving around looking for a street or address?

Question

I get the concentrating - but how hard do we really need to concentrate on one street name or one address??? Even with the radio down, I personally have still missed by destination... how about you?

Answer 1

so the brain can focus on what is important. Noise interferes with decision making abilities.

Answer 2

Turn The Radio Down

Answer 3

We would need to concentrate for a while when breaking out of work-in-hand of only 'driving' at that moment to additional work of 'looking / searching'. Hence, turning down or putting off the radio helps avoid distraction to concentrate special need of the hour.

Answer 4

We can't efficiently multi-task on those two activities. Multitasking works best when activities are fairly mindless--for instance speaking on the phone while washing dishes, or even just driving on a familiar route while belting out tunes. But for a task involving concentration--for example looking for a house number or street name--most other tasks interfere. So, when we turn down the radio, we are allowing our brain to focus on the task at hand.

Answer 5

Because you need to concentrate. Music gets me side-tracked when I'm looking for an address.

Answer 6

SO U don't aggravate the neighborhood people because your RADIO is so {GD} LOUD ! BUTT U don't need the same attention when U are driving & TALKING on the PHONE because what would happen if U didn't get that call about getting some milk or newspaper. (OMG) What's more important ------ Getting the milk or Driving into a person !

Answer 7

I do it so I can concentrate and focus all of my attention on the street or address I'm trying to find. Background noise is distracting, to me.

Answer 8

Well of course when you are driving you need complete concentration,weather the radio,or a cassette player is on it should be turned of for complete concentration.It is understood.

Answer 9

I guess we do that so that the part of the brain needed for those tasks is able to function more precisely and without distraction. I do the same thing when I'm looking for a parking spot or if I get into really heavy traffic.

Answer 10

So we can concentrate better and aren't distracted by the radio. Some people can tune out distractions more than others, so they don't have to.

Answer 11

I'd say it's because when we are searching for something or somewhere while listening to music, we instinctively want to listen to lyrics or whatever in the music, so in order to concentrate, we turn down the volume.