The emotional impact and ease of recall of warning signs for suicide: a controlled study

In light of concerns about potential iatrogenic effects of information about suicide, in the current study we examined the emotional impact of reading a list of warning signs for suicide in comparison to comparable lists for heart attacks and diabetes. All participants read two sets of warning signs, with the experimental group reading the suicide warning signs. Results confirm no difference in emotional impact across groups, along with providing evidence that warning signs for suicide are as easy to recall after exposure as warning signs for heart attack. Implications for pubic health campaigns are discussed.     

Warning signs for suicide on the Internet: a descriptive study

The issue of suicide warning signs on the Internet is considered. In addition to reviewing some of the relevant conceptual issues about warning signs, a random sample of Internet sites was selected and reviewed. Warning signs were grouped and agreement across sites was examined, with results confirming broad disparity in what is presented to the public. The implications of a lack of consensus on warning signs for suicide are discussed.     

A test of the effectiveness of a list of suicide warning signs for the public

In this study we examined the effect that reading a list of warning signs for suicide has on beliefs about suicide, including the belief that one can recognize a suicidal crisis. All participants read two sets of warning signs (with only the experimental group reading the suicide warning signs) and then answered questions concerning beliefs related to three health problems. Results indicate that participants who read the suicide warning signs reported greater abilities to recognize if someone is suicidal but did not report stronger beliefs that suicidal individuals are partly to blame, nor did they report lower likelihoods of befriending suicidal individuals. Results suggest that reading the list of warning signs may be effective in increasing the public's ability to recognize suicidal crises without creating or magnifying stigmatizing beliefs about suicidal individuals.     

Risk Factors,Warning Signs,and Drivers of Suicide: What Are They,How Do They Differ,and Why Does It Matter?

Research investigating suicide attempts and deaths by suicide has yielded many specific risk factors and warning signs for future suicidal behaviors. Yet, even though these variables are each valuable for suicide prevention efforts, they may be limited in their applicability to clinical practice. The differences among risk factors, warning signs, and “drivers,” which are person‐specific variables that lead individuals to desire death by suicide, are highlighted. The scarce evidence on drivers is described and specific recommendations for conducting future drivers‐focused research and targeting them in clinical practice are suggested.     

Exposure to a Mnemonic Interferes with Recall of Suicide Warning Signs in a Community‐Based Suicide Prevention Program

The incremental impact of adding a mnemonic to remember suicide warning signs to the Air Force Suicide Prevention Program (AFSPP) community awareness briefing was investigated with a sample of young, junior‐enlisted airmen. Participants in the standard briefing significantly increased their ability to list suicide warning signs and improved consistency with an expert consensus list, whereas participants in the standard briefing plus mnemonic demonstrated no learning. Both groups demonstrated positive changes in beliefs about suicide. Results suggest that inclusion of the mnemonic in the AFSPP briefing interfered with participants' ability to learn suicide warning signs, and that increased confidence in the perceived ability to recognize suicide risk is not related to actual ability to accurately recall warning signs.     

Age differences in perception of risk.

Age differences in perception of risk and the likelihood of disregarding warning signs were examined. A total of 358 adults, between 18 and 85 years old, were asked to rate 12 warning labels with respect to (a) how risky it would be to ignore the warning, (b) how likely it was that they would disregard the warning, and (c) how familiar they were with the labels. The older groups indicated higher risk in ignoring the signs than did the younger group. The older subjects were also less willing to disregard the signs than the younger subjects.     

Mechanisms behind hazard perception of warning signs: An EEG study

Warning signs are the most effective way to alert people to hazards in the industries, architecture, and transportation. To better understand how these warning signs prompted hazard, this study investigated the intrinsic mechanism of hazard perception of warning signs, including warning words (low versus high hazard levels) and surrounding shapes (upright triangle versus circle). We recruited 18 participants and recorded electroencephalogram (EEG). We found that a combination of high-hazard-level words and an upright triangle shape significantly elicited more negative N300 and increased theta-band (3–8 Hz) synchronization, but reduced beta-band (15–30 Hz) desynchronization. The N300 component represented the emotional arousal strength, theta oscillations reflected the engagement of retrieval of emotional experiences from episodic memory, and beta oscillation connoted the semantic encoding. Thus, these findings suggested that a high-hazard-level combination had the ability to obtain high priority in cognitive processing. The EEG pattern changes allowed us to assess whether the hazard perception of warning signs was high or low, which could be an accurate indicator to better evaluate the design of warning signs.     

LARGE-SCALE REDUCTIONS IN SPEEDING AND ACCIDENTS IN CANADA AND ISRAEL: A BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

We assessed the effects of posted feedback and warning ticket programs on speeding and accidents in two cities. In Experiment 1, speeding feedback signs were effective even when 10 were used in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and reductions in speeding were associated with reductions in accidents. The effectiveness of the signs was correlated with the number of intersections and residences within 0.5 km beyond them, and the signs had no effect on untreated streets. In Experiment 2, posted feedback and a warning program reduced speeding and accidents on 14 streets in Haifa, Israel.     

Interpretation and misinterpretation of warning signage: perceptions of rockfalls in a naturalistic setting

The aim of the present study was to investigate the factors relating to non-adherence to warning signs about falling rocks from coastal cliff faces. Face-to-face interviews (n?=?62) in a naturalistic setting (in the vicinity of a high-risk rockfall area) were conducted to investigate attention to and comprehension of warning signs, as well as beliefs relating to non-adherence of the signage. It was found that, while most participants could correctly identify the danger in the area and had noticed the warning signage, less than half of the participants could correctly interpret the signage. The perception of danger did not differ significantly between the participants who had, or had not, entered the high-risk zone. Differences in knowledge and beliefs between local residents and visitors to the area were identified. It was concluded that the warning signs did not provide enough detail for people to make informed decisions about safe behaviours. Comprehension of the signage may have been hampered by a lack of prior-knowledge of the particular risk, a failure to think carefully about the situation (i.e. low-effort processing), and the pictorial representation on the signs misleading the participants as to the true danger.     

Prediction of drivers' recognition of posted signs in five Arab countries

The effects of six predictor variables, drivers' age, monthly income, years of education, sex, marital status, and nationality on perception of traffic signs were modeled through regression techniques. The populations sampled here were from Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman. A total of 28 posted regulatory and warning signs were investigated. A questionnaire especially prepared for this study was distributed to 9,000 drivers in the five states, out of which 4,774 responded (53%). The drivers were selected according to stratified choice-based random sampling technique. Two prediction models were developed for assessment of drivers' recognition of regulatory and warning signs.     

安全标志词语的风险等级对注意效应的调节作用

安全标志是一种传递潜在风险的方式,在安全管理中有重要地位。安全标志词语在安全标志中应用广泛。本文从新的视角研究安全标志词语的有效性,应用心理学中的线索-靶范式研究安全标志词语的风险等级对目标的注意效应的影响。实验结果发现,词语的风险等级显著调节注意返回抑制（inhibition of return, IOR）效应, 高风险词语相对于中、低风险词语能够减弱IOR效应;但词语的风险等级对IOR的调节作用受到靶子位置的影响,其中,靶子出现在左侧时调节作用显著,而靶子出现在右侧时调节作用不显著,这是由于风险引发的负性情绪刺激处理的偏侧优势产生的。本文为安全标志有效性相关研究提供了新的研究视角和心理学实验证据。     

Measuring cancer knowledge: Comparing prompted and unprompted recall

Studies evaluating public knowledge of the warning signs and risk factors associated with cancer have varied in the question format used. Those using a prompted (recognition) format have tended to find higher levels of knowledge than those using an unprompted, recall format. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of prompting on knowledge of the seven warning signs of cancer, and risk factors for breast and bowel cancer, using data from large representative samples of the UK population. We also tested for demographic differences in the effect of prompting, hypothesizing that prompting would have the greatest impact on groups with least knowledge, specifically men, older and younger people, and those with least education. Analysis of data from four ONS surveys (total n = 5,863) demonstrated significantly higher knowledge of all signs and risk factors in the prompted compared with the unprompted condition. Contrary to our hypothesis, the pattern of interaction of prompting with gender and level of education was inconsistent, and the effect of prompting decreased with increasing age. Implications for future research on cancer knowledge and the most appropriate question format are discussed.     

A test of the validity of the IS PATH WARM warning signs for suicide

The 10 warning signs for suicide, encapsulated in the mnemonic IS PATH WARM, did not differentiate between genuine suicide notes and those written by people simulating a suicidal crisis or between notes written by completed suicides and those written by attempted suicides.     

Increasing driver yielding and pedestrian signaling with prompting, feedback, and enforcement

The effects of an intervention package on drivers' yielding to pedestrians and on pedestrians' signaling their intention to cross the street were assessed using a multiple baseline design. The intervention, which consisted of publicly posted feedback on the percentage of motorists yielding to pedestrians, small signs prompting pedestrians to engage in appropriate crossing behavior, and an enforcement program involving the use of warning tickets and feedback fliers, was sequentially introduced on two streets. The intervention more than doubled the percentage of motorists yielding to pedestrians and increased the percentage of pedestrians signaling their intention to cross the street to over 13% from a baseline level of less than 1%. Near misses involving pedestrians decreased by more than 50% on the narrower of the two streets.     

The failure to respond to changes in the road environment: Does road familiarity play a role?

Road signs do not necessarily lead to the right response. Especially when signs are changed, drivers may not always detect new signs and may therefore fail to respond correctly to the situation indicated. The present driving simulator study investigated whether road familiarity (increased exposure to the same road) influenced failure to respond to a change in road signs. In order to study the failure to respond, participants were presented with a change in the road lay-out (as indicated by a road sign) in the last of a series of simulated drives. The change introduced was the conversion of a normal road into a No-Entry road. Results show that several participants failed to respond to this change. However, the failure to respond was not simply the result of familiarity with the road or prior exposure to precisely the same road, but seemed to be influenced by expectations induced by the road design. Additional safety measures such as the placement of additional road signs reduced the failure to respond. An auditory in-vehicle message gave the best results. Interestingly, both in the case of additional signs and of the in-vehicle message, a general warning was sufficient, without the need to specify the precise traffic situation.     

Saccade latency and warning signals: Stimulus onset,offset, and change as warning events

Two experiments investigated saccade latency to a peripheral target under various warning signal conditions. In Experiment I, the effects of warning stimulus onset, change, and two offset conditions were compared at warning intervals of 0, 100, 300, and 600 msec. Warning stimulus onset, change, and offset were all effective in reducing saccade latency as compared to a no-warning control condition, but warning stimulus offset resulted in shorter saccade latency than onset or change at all warning intervals. Experiment 2 compared onset and offset warning conditions at ?300-, ?250-, ?200-, ?150-, ?100-, ?50-, 0-, and 50-msec intervals. Responses following onset were slower than those following offset at the latter five intervals, while warning onset resulted in slower saccades than no-warning control conditions at ?150-, ?100-, and ?50-msec intervals. These results indicate that the onset of a visual warning signal can have an interfering effect on the programming or execution of a saccade.     

The development of reactions of the public to warning and emergency situations in France, Greece, and the Netherlands.

This article describes the different reactions to emergency warning messages among residents living within a 3-km radius of a hazardous chemical complex and by people living at least 10 km from an industrial site in France, Greece, and the Netherlands. Belief in warning, primary and secondary appraisal, emotional response, and adherence to normal routine were assessed by conducting face-to-face interviews in which a four-phase scenario simulating a credible industrial accident was presented. The results showed that respondents who did not reside in the neighborhood of the hazardous site were, in general, more inclined to trust the warning messages than respondents who resided in the neighborhood were. With the exception of primary appraisal, the warning phases evoked very distinct reactions in the respondents from all three countries with regard to warning belief, secondary appraisal, emotional response, and adherence to normal routine.     

Effects of variable message signs for slippery road conditions on driving speed and headways

This field study investigated the effects of two variable message signs (VMS) on driver behaviour. Specifically, the signs were a warning sign for slippery road conditions and a minimum headway sign. The study was performed as a before-and-after experiment at three test sites in Finland with an after period covering two winter seasons. The results showed that the slippery road condition sign reduced the mean speed on slippery roads by 1–2 km/h in addition to the decrease caused by the adverse road conditions. The minimum headway sign decreased the proportion of headways shorter than 1.5 s for cars in car-following situations, in addition to a speed reduction of 1 km/h. The effects were somewhat smaller during the second winter than the first.     

Using Popular Films to Enhance Classroom Learning: The Good, the Bad, and the Interesting

ABSTRACT— Popular history films sometimes contain major historical inaccuracies. Two experiments investigated how watching such films influences people's ability to remember associated texts. Subjects watched film clips and studied texts about various historical topics. Whereas the texts contained only correct information, the film clips contained both correct information (consistent with the text) and misinformation (contradicted by the text). Before watching each clip, subjects received a specific warning, a general warning, or no warning about the misinformation. One week later, they returned for a cued-recall test about the texts. Watching a film clip increased correct recall of consistent information relative to recall of the same information when subjects did not see the clip. However, when the information in the film contradicted the text, subjects often (falsely) recalled misinformation from the film. The specific warning substantially reduced this misinformation effect. Teachers should use popular history films with caution and should warn students about major inaccuracies in the films.     

Attacks on German public figures, 1968-2004: warning behaviors, potentially lethal and non-lethal acts, psychiatric status, and motivations

Fourteen non-terrorist attackers of public figures in Germany between 1968 and 2004 were intensively studied, with a particular focus on warning behaviors, attack behaviors, and the relationship between psychiatric diagnosis, symptoms, and motivations for the assault. A large proportion of the attackers were severely mentally ill, and most likely to be in the potentially lethal rather than the non-lethal group. A new typology of seven warning behaviors was applied to the data, and all were present, most frequently fixation and pathway warning behavior, and least frequently a direct threat. Psychiatric diagnosis could be closely linked to motivation when analyzed at the level of symptom and content of thought, often delusional. Most of the attacks were directed at political figures, and the majority occurred after 1995.