Increasing the conspicuity of cyclists at night by using bicycle lights and clothing to highlight their biological motion to oncoming drivers

Reduced conspicuity is an important contributing factor to increased motor vehicle-bicycle crashes and cyclist fatalities at night. This study explored ways of making night-time cyclists more conspicuous to oncoming vehicles through cyclist clothing options and bicycle light position. Fifteen young participants (M = 29.1 ± 4.5 years) drove a closed-road at night and indicated when they first recognized a cyclist pedalling in place at the roadside, facing the approaching vehicle. The bicycle had a static forward-facing white light located either on the handlebars or the helmet and wore one of five clothing configurations: fluorescent vest, retroreflective vest, retroreflective ankle strips, retroreflective vest plus retroreflective ankle strips, retroreflective vest plus biomotion retroreflective strips. There was a significant effect of light position (p < 0.001) and clothing (p < 0.001), where recognition distances were longer when the light was helmet-mounted and when retroreflective strips were worn on the lower legs to highlight the cyclist’s biological motion compared to either of the vest conditions. There was also a significant interaction between light position and clothing (p = 0.007) such that the benefit of retroreflective strips was greater when the bicycle light was helmet-mounted rather than on the handlebars. Importantly, the benefits of leg markings were apparent even when positioned at the ankles alone. These findings highlight that retroreflective material is most useful for improving cyclist conspicuity at night when positioned on cyclists’ lower legs, particularly the ankles (highlighting the cyclist's pedalling motion), rather than on the torso, and have important practical implications for maximising cyclists’ conspicuity and hence safety on night-time roads.     

Relationships amongst psychological determinants,risk behaviour,and road crashes of young adolescent pedestrians and cyclists: Implications for road safety education programmes

Road safety education (RSE) assumes that psychological determinants predict risk behaviour, and subsequently that risky road behaviour predicts crash involvement. This study examined the validity of this assumption, by analysing these relationships in two age groups of teen cyclists and pedestrians: a younger age group (12 and 13 years old: n = 1372) and an older age group (14–16 years old: n = 938). A questionnaire was administered at school during regular class consisting of items on demographics, on risk behaviour based on the Generic Error Model System (GEMS), on psychological determinants targeted in RSE programmes, and on crash involvement and near crashes. For the younger age group, the results indicated that the risk behaviours ‘errors’, ‘dangerous play’, and ‘lack of protective behaviour’ predicted self-reported crashes; for the older age group only ‘errors’ were found to be predictive of self-reported crashes and near crashes. Path analyses confirmed that risk behaviour could be predicted from the psychological determinants, sharing respectively 44% of the variance in the younger age group and 34% in the older group. In conclusion, these results confirm the RSE assumption that psychological determinants are associated with a higher frequency of risk behaviours and that the latter are again associated with higher crash frequencies. Just as in earlier studies on adolescent risk behaviour, the GEMS based distinction between errors and violations was not confirmed, suggesting that this distinction – derived from studies on adult car drivers – may not apply to young adolescent cyclists and pedestrians.     

The safety and conspicuity of pedestrian crossing at roundabouts: The effect of median refuge island and zebra markings

Roundabouts are one of the most used road intersections because, compared to signalized ones, they reduce conflict points between traffic flows and moderate driving speed. Great attention should also be paid to vulnerable road users at roundabouts. According to accident statistics, in fact, accessibility of pedestrians and cyclists is not always ensured.This paper has evaluated the effects on the visibility of pedestrian crossing before and after the displacement of zebra markings, moved before intersections, and the introduction of media refuge islands and “Yield here to pedestrians” vertical signs. The above effects have been assessed by before-after analysis of speed and visual behaviour of drivers approaching the crosswalk.Moreover, the analysis of the drivers’ eye movements has highlighted the most salient elements of the pedestrian crossing. The relation between the drivers’ visual behaviour and the vehicle speed have also been calculated. Results have confirmed that the intervention carried out has increased both visibility and safety of the studied pedestrian crosswalks.Zebra markings and the median refuge island have turned out to be the most glanced elements, respectively seen by 93.75% and 56.25% of the drivers, followed by the “Yield here to pedestrians” vertical sign. The mean distance of first fixation of the crosswalk increased from 21.98 m before the intervention, to 40.69 m after it. The drivers perceived the pedestrian crossings from a longer distance after the intervention, and they continued to glance at the crosswalk while approaching it, enhancing their visual attention.     

Driving on familiar roads: Automaticity and inattention blindness

This paper describes our research into the processes that govern driver attention and behavior in familiar, well-practiced situations. The experiment examined the effects of extended practice on inattention blindness and detection of changes to the driving environment in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Participants were paid to drive a simulated road regularly over 3 months of testing. A range of measures, including detection task performance and driving performance, were collected over the course of 20 sessions. Performance from a yoked Control Group who experienced the same road scenarios in a single session was also measured. The data showed changes in what drivers reported noticing indicative of inattention blindness, and declining ratings of mental demand suggesting that many participants were “driving without awareness”. Extended practice also resulted in increased sensitivity for detecting changes to road features associated with vehicle guidance and improved performance on an embedded vehicle detection task (detection of a specific vehicle type). The data provide new light on a “tandem model” of driver behavior that includes both explicit and implicit processes involved in driving performance. The findings also suggest reasons drivers are most likely to crash at locations very near their homes.     

Contingency and changing reality: Perspectives from Germany

The World Wide Web connects less and disconnects more. In Germany as in the United States, disconnecting factions digitize their ideologies and overnight multiply their adherents. Such forces of disruption are incessant. Appeal to constructivist theory reveals that beneath this destabilizing dynamic is awareness of contingency, the feeling of disempowerment in the face of an unpredictable and uncontrollable future. Religion has the potential for stabilizing, but religious leaders will need to reignite a faith in the future to make this happen.     

工作与家庭冲突：压力的交叉传递效应

工作与家庭冲突是指个体的工作和家庭角色压力不相容时产生的冲突,包括工作影响家庭、家庭影响工作两个方面。工作与家庭冲突对个体、家庭和组织都会造成消极影响。本文从交叉传递效应的视角,系统地回顾与总结工作与家庭冲突方面的研究,以动态的角度阐述压力在配偶之间的交叉传递,并介绍了最新的“溢出-交叉传递效应”模型的研究。最后,有针对性地提出了未来研究的展望,包括国内研究应重视的研究问题。     

Gender identity and family relationships: Perspectives from incestuous fathers

The purpose of this study was to understand how incestuous fathers constructed their gender identities and family relationships and to determine how these perceptions were linked to incest. Analysis of intensive interviews with 20 incest offenders suggested that incest occurred in context of entitlement stemming from masculine gender constructions and family experiences which lead to conflicts regarding control and intimacy and a build up of failure. Case illustrations and implications for clinical practice are addressed.     

专长发展与职业发展视域下的教师心理

教师的成长心理已成为教育心理学研究的一个重要领域。近十几年来,从认知心理学视角进行的教师教学专长发展心理的研究,以及从职业心理学视角进行的教师心理特征与心理健康的研究已取得很多有价值的成果。在分析国内外已有研究的基础上,为进一步推进我国教师心理研究提出了几点建议。     

God, Determinism, and Action: Perspectives from Physics

Recent articles by Michael Heller, Carl Helrich, Peter Hodgson, Jeffrey Koperski, and Nicholas Saunders present a challenge to much current thinking on God, divine action, and cosmology. In the process, they also reveal underlying assumptions and current problems, especially in the debate over physics and divine action. In particular, three issues come up that need to be addressed further. First, what is the status of determinism, and what can physics contribute? Second, what kind of divine action are we talking about? Third, what is the relationship between God and time, and how does this affect claims about the personhood of God? While these essays present necessary critiques and interesting, positive proposals, they also reveal unresolved tensions that need to be addressed.     

The evolution of prestige: Perspectives and hypotheses from comparative studies

In this review, we reorganize the concept and highlight the importance of prestige in humans and non-human animals by introducing key characteristics of dominance and prestige and related theories. Previous studies with non-human animals have mainly focused on dominance, presuming prestige as a human-unique social trait. However, to deepen our understanding of the evolution of prestige, comparative studies with non-human animals, especially our evolutionary closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are essential. We propose the direction of future studies to investigate how prestige has emerged as a viable strategy for gaining social rank while diverging from dominance, which will establish a foundation for investigating the impact of prestige on propensities towards large-scale cooperation and cumulative culture which are still considered unique to humans. Such comparative viewpoints on prestige, along with some hypotheses of species differences, will provide powerful guidance for understanding the evolution of social hierarchies.     

Anxiety and performance in runners: Effects of stress and anxiety on physical performance

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of state and trait anxiety on physical performance under both neutral and stressful conditions. In Study I, 43 male and female track athletes answered the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and twice underwent ergometric testing in the physiology laboratory after receiving a neutral or a stress-inducing instruction. In Study II, these 43 runners completed the state scale shortly before a test run in a practice session and once again just before the start in an official competition. Results showed a significant increase in self-reported state anxiety under the stress condition in both the laboratory and the field setting. At the same time, the mean physical performance, measured as physiological performance parameters (maximum oxygen intake, physical work capacity) or as running performance, significantly deteriorated under stress. The induced stress affected the heart rate in addition to the mere physical work load, with no sign of compensation occurring during the entire period of ergometric testing. Effects of anxiety on performance were tested by separate 2(trait) × 3(state) ANOVAs for each situation. For both laboratory situations, and for the practice situation as well, no significant relationships, neither linear nor nonlinear, were detected. In the competition situation, however, an inverted-U relationship was found in the low trait-anxious subgroup.     

God, Freedom, and Evil: Perspectives from Religion and Science

This paper develops analogies concerning the evolution of dissipative structures in nonequilibrium thermodynamics to interpret irrational human behavior in which one finds a lack of correspondence between the invested means and the consequences observed. In an attempt to positively explain the process of cooperation between the free human person and interacting God, I use philosophical categories of Whitehead's process philosophy in an aesthetic model that opposes composition and performance in a musical symphony. Certainly, the essence of human freedom can be expressed in neither thermodynamical nor aesthetic terms. The models proposed can, however, facilitate our understanding of the mutual relations between God's action in the world and the drama of human free choice of moral evil.     

Child Maltreatment and Emergent Personality Organization: Perspectives from the Five-Factor Model

The Five-Factor Model was used to examine personality organization in 211 six-year-old children (135 maltreated and 76 nonmaltreated). Longitudinal assessments were conducted at ages 7, 8, and 9. Six-year-old maltreated children exhibited lower agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience and higher neuroticism than did nonmaltreated children. Maltreated children also were more frequently represented in less adaptive personality clusters than were their nonmaltreated counterparts. A particularly vulnerable profile occurred predominantly among maltreated children and was related to experiencing both abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment and personality clusters were related to individual differences perceived by peers. Longitudinal stability of the personality dimensions also was assessed. At age nine, evidence was found for maintenance of the organization of the personality clusters obtained at age six and for continuity of maltreated children's personality liabilities.     

Temporal perception in closed-skill sports: An experimental study on expert swimmers and runners

The cognitive benefits of closed-skill sports practice have so far been scantily investigated. Here, we thus focused on the potential impact of swimming and running - two sports that highly rely on a precise control of timing - on time processing. To investigate the impact of these closed-skill sports on time perception and estimation, three groups of participants (for a total of eighty-four young adults) took part in the present study: expert swimmers, expert runners, and non-athletes. The ability to process temporal information in the milliseconds and seconds range was assessed through a time reproduction and a finger-tapping tasks, while a motor imagery paradigm was adopted to assess temporal estimation of sport performance in a wider interval range. We also employed the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire to assess the individual's ability of motor imagery. Results showed that closed-skill sports, specifically time-related disciplines, enhance motor imagery and time perception abilities. Swimmers were more accurate and consistent in perceiving time when compared to runners, probably thanks to the sensory muffled environment that leads these athletes to be more focused on the perception of their internal rhythm.     

Book Review: Contemporary Perspectives on Psychotherapy and Homosexualities

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to illustrate some of the ethical and clinical difficulties which may arise when student counselling takes place under conditions which pay insufficient attention to the ground rules of therapy. It considers the importance of the frame in psychotherapy and the implications for this of working in an institutional setting. It also looks at the changes that may be made in the way the counsellor functions in the institution in order to secure the best conditions for effective counselling work with students, based on the author's personal experience.     

易学视野下的武术文化研究——《周易》与太极拳

<周易>是中国文化史上最古老、也是地位最显要的一部典籍.因为它年代久远,就自然对中华传统文化的形成起到了源头活水的作用;由于它地位显要,因而中国传统文化的诸多方面都受到它的影响而与之交融会通.探讨<周易>与太极拳的关系,有助于人们从根本上深刻认识太极拳的文化内涵.太极拳的名称受<周易>的深刻影响;太极拳的理论源于<周易>的阴阳学说;<周易>思想指导着太极拳内功的修炼;太极拳体现了<周易>"天人合一"的思想;太极拳蕴含<周易>"仁义诚敬、刚柔并济"的道德标准.     

Blasphemy and Protection of the Faith: Legal Perspectives from the Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal traditions have all attempted to define and prohibit blasphemy: insult or verbal attack against their religion, against its rites and symbols, against God and his human representatives. Such laws could be internal (prohibiting blasphemy by members of the faith group) or external (prohibiting insult by those outside the faith). This article will first briefly trace the former, looking at how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal traditions from Antiquity and the Middle Ages define and prohibit blasphemy. The second part of the article will then focus on the second issue, looking at how Christian and Muslim legal traditions attempted to prohibit insults to the faith by adherents of other religions. We shall look, for example, at various Christian laws dealing with what was perceived as Jewish mockery of Christian ritual and sacred objects: from mock crucifixions allegedly practiced by Jews as part of Purim celebrations in the fifth-century Roman Empire to Jews who supposedly derided the Eucharist during thirteenth-century Corpus Christi processions. We shall in parallel examine prohibitions in Muslim legal texts (including the so-called Pact of ?‘Umar) of dhimmīs insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Qur'an. This comparison will show that, while blasphemy was illegal and could be harshly sanctioned and there were lines that religious minorities must not cross, these lines were often not clearly delimited, and became the object of conflict and negotiation.     

New Evolutionary Perspectives on Altruism: Multilevel-Selection and Costly-Signaling Theories

Social psychological theories tend to be primarily concerned with the immediate causes of altruism, whereas evolutionary explanations focus more on the origins and ultimate functions of altruistic behavior. Recent developments in the evolutionary psychology of altruism promise an even richer understanding of this important category of social behaviors. Specifically, new perspectives offered by multilevel-selection theory and costly-signaling theory may help to shed light on some of the more problematic issues in the study of altruism.