Using an Advance Time Meter display as means to reduce driving speed

ObjectiveTesting an experimental means to reduce motivation to drive fast.BackgroundOne determinant of that motivation may be a wrong presumption, demonstrated here: Time to reach destination declines about linearly to increase in driving speed. Actually, that time is a linear function of advance time, the inverse of speed. It is hypothesized that the behavioral by-product of the popularity of that fallacy could be counteracted by introducing an essential change to the speed-based continuous feedback provided to the driver – from a speedometer displaying instantaneous velocity to a gauge reporting advance time (denoted ATM), so that both average driving speed and speed variance are reduced.MethodIn two driving simulator experiments, driving speed of participants presented with either of the two types of gauge was recorded.ResultsThe main finding is that driving with feedback provided by an ATM gauge following prior briefing led to a significant reduction – ∼11 km/h – in mean speed, as well as to a significant reduction in between-driver speed variability, as compared with driving with an ordinary speedometer. It was also found that no significant difference was observed in the speeding behavior of participants driving with an ATM display for three ∼2-h sessions administered in three different days, so that the last session took place within seven days from the first one.ConclusionThe ATM gauge serves to reduce motivation to speed.ApplicationWidespread use of the ATM gauge may result in reduction in number and intensity of accidents.     

A company-based lottery to reduce the personal driving of employees

A company-based lottery was used to reduce the number of nonessential miles employees drove their personal cars each day and thereby save gasoline. Employees were divided into an experimental and a contrast group. The experimental design involved two conditions: (a) a baseline in which no consequences were attached to driving behavior, and (b) a month-long lottery in which the experimentals were rewarded for decreasing their percentage of average miles driven per day relative to their initial baseline average. The experimentals received an ABA order of conditions while the contrast group remained in baseline. The lottery condition consisted of four weekly lotteries and one grand drawing held at the end of the month. During the lottery condition, the experimentals reduced their average daily mileage by 11.6% relative to their initial baseline (7.85 miles per employee per day) while the contrast employees increased their average mileage by 21.2%. Both groups exceeded their initial baseline averages in the return to baseline. The study was almost cost-effective because the experimentals' gas savings ($75) was within $4 of the cost of motivating them to reduce their mileage ($79).     

How to nudge drivers to reduce speed: The case of the left-digit effect

To decrease the negative consequences of a road crash, even a small reduction in driving speeds can make a significant difference. We examined the possible application of the left-digit effect as a nudge to reduce road speed. In the marketing field, this effect is based on reporting price tags that are characterized by a low leftmost number and a high rightmost number (e.g., a price tag of €14.99 rather than €15.00). We applied the same strategy to improve road safety. Participants were college students (43.75% female, mean age = 24.06 years in Study 1; 50% female, mean age = 23.53 years in Study 2) who were asked to drive in a simulator on a route that had both usual unmodified road signs (e.g., 50 km/h) and the same road signs increased or decreased by one unit (e.g., 49, 51 km/h). We compared the average median speeds in road segments with unmodified road signs with those in road segments with the corresponding modified signs. The average median speeds in the presence of a sign modified by the reduction of 1 km/h were significantly lower compared with the median average speeds recorded with unmodified signs. We showed that the application of psychological insights can reduce driving speeds and therefore increase road safety.     

Cognitions related to anxiety: a pilot study of treatment

In general, where anxiety appears to have a specific external focus, such as the situations which are avoided by phobic patients, treatment involving systematic exposure to those situations seems to be effective. This is less appropriate, or even impossible, where anxiety is not dependent on any external circumstance, but is described by the patient as occurring at any time or place, either chronically over long periods, or acutely in the form of ‘panic attacks’. These patients with ‘generalised’ anxiety often describe internal cues for anxiety either in the form of thoughts (e.g. worry over a current problem) or somatic (e.g. chest sensations interpreted as possible heart disease). Beck et al. (1974) has suggested that on interview, all patients diagnosed as suffering from diffuse or generalised anxiety can report specific ideas or other cognitive cues which are associated with anxiety. These usually concern possible traumatic events, such as illness and death, or social rejection. Clearly Beck has in mind the possibility that these cognitions have the effect of inducing anxiety, although even if the validity of the subjective reports were to be accepted, the problem remains of whether the relationship between mood state and cognitions is causal and if so, in which direction it operates. Obviously a causal relationship may also operate in both directions simultaneously, to form a ‘vicious circle’ in which each exacerbates the other. To establish whether there is a sense in which particular cognitions contribute causally to anxious mood, it would be necessary to find a method of manipulating the type or frequency of cognitions thought to be operating in this way.

One obvious possibility is that of ‘thought-stopping’: that is, patients could be taught to identify thoughts which are associated with anxiety and stop them in the usual way (Wolpe, 1973, p. 211) e.g. by' shouting stop, and substituting an alternative thought. The present study was planned as a pilot experiment to determine (i) if appropriate anxiety related cognitions could be elicited from a series of patients with generalised anxiety, (ii) if the reported frequency of such thoughts could be modified by a thought-stopping technique, and (iii) if any changes in thought frequency were associated with improvements in mood.

Clearly there are many ‘non-specific’ features involved in thought-stopping which could also have therapeutic effects on mood. For this reason it was necessary to include an alternative procedure, not directed at reducing thought frequency, but having the same degree of plausibility to patients, and preferably to therapists. The control procedure chosen for this purpose was modelled on desensitisation, in which patients were encouraged to allow the supposedly anxiety-provoking thoughts into their mind and tolerate them, rather than attempt to stop them. In summary, the study employed a relaxation training phase as a base-line, followed by a cross-over design in which the two treatment phases of thought-stopping and ‘cognitive desensitisation’ were given to each patient, in balanced order.     

Guiding drivers towards safer driving speed: Exploiting visual dominance in speed adaptation

Inappropriate speed is a main cause of accidents. Drivers are often unaware of potential risks due to inadequate speed. To prevent dangerous situations, we need to understand perceptual factors influencing human speed perception. Due to the prominent role of vision in driving, we examined the effect of visuo-spatial stimuli on speed based on the optic flow. While developing an adaptive infrastructure measure to reduce speed, we conducted two consecutive studies, a driving simulator study and a field test to investigate findings further. In both studies, we placed lights on two sides of a highway exit and either illuminated them statically or activated them in a way that they appeared to be moving towards the driver. We expected drivers to slow down more when seeing static light stimuli compared to a baseline without lights. We also expected drivers to decrease speed more in conditions with oncoming lights compared to a baseline, and to static lights, due to distorted speed perception. The first study in a static driving simulator revealed no difference between conditions. In the field test, both static lights and lights moving towards the driver led to a speed reduction compared to a baseline but did not differ from one another. Lights in general led to lower driving speed, potentially due to their warning character, but we found no difference between the light conditions, suggesting that the effect might not be based on the optic flow. Future research should investigate the relationship between driven and perceived speed more closely.     

Hardiness as predictor of work readiness: a preliminary exploratory study

This study explored hardiness as a possible predictor of work readiness in cross-cultural settings. In order to explore which factors may elicit hardiness, the sub-scales were identified and explored. Participants were from two African countries, namely South Africa (n = 47; females = 57%) and Uganda (n = 45; females = 51%). They completed the Sense of Coherence (SOC), Psychological Capital (PSYCAP) and Dispositional Hardiness/Resilience Scale (DRS-15). The results showed a strong positive correlation between psychological capital and dispositional hardiness.     

A randomised trial investigating guided self-help to reduce perfectionism and its impact on bulimia nervosa: A pilot study

Aim

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate reducing perfectionism as a potential treatment target for individuals with Bulimia Nervosa (BN).

Method

Forty-eight individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for BN or eating disorder - not otherwise specified with binge eating [objective or subjective] or purging at least once per week were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 8 sessions of manual-based guided self-help (GSH) over a 6-week period that was focused on either cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for perfectionism, CBT for BN, or a placebo. Individuals were assessed at baseline, pre-treatment, post-treatment and at six-month follow-up on 12 outcome variables, including diagnostic criteria and psychological variables.

Results

There was no significant change in any of the outcome variables over a 6-week no-treatment period but at post-treatment and 6-month follow-up there were significant main effects of time for 10 and 8 outcome variables respectively, suggesting that all groups reported significant reductions in bulimic symptomatology and related psychopathology at post-treatment and follow-up.

Conclusions

These findings show potential for the use of novel interventions in GSH for BN.     

Mental load and loss of control over speed in real driving.: Towards a theory of attentional speed control

Relationships between attention and speed control are analysed. The demands of speed control are derived from subjective appreciation of the traffic environment and from the need to adapt to legal restrictions. Drivers check the speedometer more or less frequently and also use their subjective speed perception while looking ahead. It is hypothesised that, in absence of specific speed restrictions, drivers choose an optimum preferred speed so that the attentional effort dedicated to speed control is minimised but with explicit speed restrictions additional resources are required to keep speed under control including more glances to the speedometer. If a secondary task needs attention the speed control is affected and the speed tends to return to the optimal preferred level. Twelve participants drove about 200 km in a Spanish highway under eight conditions: two speedometer states (visible/concealed) × two speed instructions (free/restricted between 90 and 100 km/h) × two workload states (normal driving/performing a mental task). The results demonstrated: (a) that under free speed the drivers choice was 11 km/h faster than in the restricted-speed condition, indicating that the speed instructions were effective and operated as a speed limit. (b) When a mental task was performed the speed increased independently of the speedometer availability under restricted speed but not in the free speed condition, what clearly supports the stated hypothesis. The role of the speedometer in speed control, its relations with endogenous distraction and its implications for driving are analysed.     

Superior implicit memory: a pilot study

In this pilot study, implicit memory was examined in participants selected according to their scores on the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised. Implicit memory was explored using a word-stem completion test after 24 participants had processed texts to be remembered. Variations in priming were observed among 12 Normal and 12 Good memorizers (Verbal Memory scores >110) following presentation of target words in the context of a coherent text. One intriguing result emerged: the magnitude of the priming effect varied by group, greater among Good memorizers than Normal memorizers.     

A validation study of driving errors using a driving simulator

BackgroundDriving simulators have become an important research tool in road safety. They provide a safer environment to test driving performance and have the capacity to manipulate and control situations that are not possible on-road.AimTo validate a laboratory-based driving simulator in measuring on-road driving performance by type and mean driving errors.MethodsParticipants were instructed to drive a selected route on-road. The same route was programmed in the driving simulator using the UC/Win-road software. All participants completed a background questionnaire. On-road driving behaviours of participants and driving behaviours in the simulator were assessed by an occupational therapist and two trained researchers using an assessment form. Interclass correlations were calculated to assess the inter-rater agreement between the researchers on driving behaviours. Paired t-tests were used to assess differences in driving performance between the simulator and on-road assessments.ResultsA convenience sample of 47 drivers aged 18–69 years who held a current Western Australian class C licence (passenger vehicle) were recruited into the study. The mean age was 34.80 years (SD: 13.21) with twenty-six males (55.32%) and 21 females (44.68%) completing the study. There was no statistical difference between the on-road assessment and the driving simulator for mirror checking, left, right and forward observations, speed at intersections, maintaining speed, obeying traffic lights and stop signs.ConclusionThe preliminary results provide early support for the relative validity of the driving simulator which may be used for a variety of road safety outcomes with reduced risk of harm to participants.     

Perceptions of visible piercings: a pilot study

49 undergraduates were shown pictures of a man and a woman with piercings and with no piercings. The pierced model was judged to be less attractive and less normal than the nonpierced model. The pierced model was perceived as less intelligent, caring, generous, honest, and religious but more artistic and mysterious.     

fMRI of developmental stuttering: a pilot study

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the feasibility of fMRI in the study of developmental stuttering. Speech contrasts (loud versus silent reading) and language contrasts (reading of semantically meaningful text versus nonsense words) of six developmental stutterers and six nonstutterers were compared using a commercial 1 Tesla MR-Scanner (Siemens Expert). Results indicate that mapping cortical function in persons who stutter is indeed feasible, even with a 1TMR-system. Compared to normals the stutterers seemed to employ different and particularly less differentiated auditory and motor feedback strategies in speech. They apparently rely on auditory processing and on cerebellar contribution as much during silent reading as during reading aloud. Moreover, they showed a greater involvement of the right hemisphere in language processing, activating not only the typical language areas on the left but also and with equal magnitude the right side homologues of these areas. In spite of the promising results, at present several practical problems such as possible movement artifacts and possible masking through scanner noise still hamper a more straightforward use of fMRI in the study of developmental stuttering.     

Perceptual style and visual contribution to dynamic balance: a pilot study

Field-independent and -dependent individuals performed a test of dynamic balance (stabilometer) under four different vision conditions (ns = 8), including vision, intermittent vision, no vision, and tilted visual field. Analyses indicated no significant difference between the field-independent and -dependent groups on the balance task. Performance on the task was optimal when continuous visual cues were present. Participants were less stable when only intermittent visual cues were available and least stable when no visual cues were available.     

The impact of daytime running (LED) lights on motorcycles speed estimation: A driving simulator study

Motorcycles are the most common type of vehicle involved in traffic deaths, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. In order to prevent traffic accidents involving motorcyclists, one of the measures is to respect the “see and be seen” rule. If a motorcycle is perceived in time or another motorcyclist is spotted in time, there is enough time to react, in order to avoid a traffic accident or reduce the consequences. In many countries, it is for this reason that the use of daytime running lights on motor vehicles and/or motorcycles is legally prescribed. In the Republic of Serbia, a country that belongs among the least developed countries, about a third of those killed in traffic accidents are motorcycle drivers. For these reasons, an experimental study was conducted on a driving simulator to examine the importance of (non) use of daytime running lights on the estimation of motorcycle speed. Three different situations were examined: without daytime running lights, with daytime running lights, and with LED daytime running lights; for test speeds of 30 km/h, 50 km/h, 70 km/h, and 90 km/h. In the experiment, 128 young drivers participated. The results showed that the speed of a motorcycle with LED daytime running lights on is perceived most accurately.     

Feedback interventions and driving speed: A parametric and comparative analysis

Five experiments were conducted to assess the effects of several variables on the efficacy of feedback in reducing driving speed. Experiment 1 systematically varied the criterion used to define speeding, and results showed that the use of a lenient criterion (20 km/hr over the speed limit), which allowed for the posting of high percentages of drivers not speeding, was more effective in reducing speeding than the use of a stringent criterion (10 km/hr over the speed limit). In Experiment 2 an analysis revealed that posting feedback reduced speeding on a limited access highway and the effects persisted to some degree up to 6 km. Experiments 3 and 4 compared the effectiveness of an unmanned parked police vehicle (Experiment 3) and a police air patrol speeding program (Experiment 4) with the feedback sign and determined whether the presence of either of these enforcement variables could potentiate the efficacy of the sign. The results of both experiments demonstrated that although the two enforcement programs initially produced larger effects than the feedback sign, the magnitude of their effect attenuated over time. Experiment 5 compared the effectiveness of a traditional enforcement program with a warning program which included handing out a flier providing feedback on the number and types of accidents occuring on the road during the past year. This experiment demonstrated that the warning program produced a marked reduction in speeding and the traditional enforcement program did not. Furthermore, the warning program and a feedback sign together produced an even greater reduction in speeding than either alone.     

The relation of acceleration force to traffic accident frequency: a pilot study

Acceleration- (g-) force and mean speed are measured onboard city buses in regular traffic. The means of Right/Left, Gas/Brake, the composite g-force and speed are correlated with drivers’ frequency of (bus) accidents for different time periods. No stable relationship is found, only a weak tendency for the dimensions of mean speed and Right/Left to predict bus accidents when time periods of one to five years are used. The many problems inherent in this kind of field research are discussed and some remedies proposed.     

Young adult drivers' sensitivity to changes in speed and driving mode in a simple vehicle simulator

The study was done to check replication of changes in sensitivity with a simple simulator as had been obtained in an experiment using the real road situation. Another purpose was to control simulator sickness which could have confounded data from testing with a simulator or in actual driving. Sensitivity of the drivers (72 healthy young adults, M age = 24 yr., SD = 5) while performing the driving task was measured in terms of subjective ratings of simulator sickness and affect, and physiological measures (i.e., galvanic skin responses and skin temperature) at different driving speeds and in driving mode conditions, using a simple vehicle simulator. Analysis showed measures of drivers' state, including simulator sickness, physiological indices, and subjective reports, increased with driving speed (30 --> 90 -->120 km/hr.) and driving mode change from the regular speed to sudden increasing to sudden decreasing speeds. Particularly, the results suggest that the increased autonomic nervous activation induces increase of rated simulator sickness. Based upon the same tendency in change of the simulator sickness and physiological state with driving speed and driving mode conditions, it was concluded that, if the results obtained from the simulator experiment can be generalized to the real situation, the simulator sickness must be considered a confounding factor. The results also suggest that the changes in human sensitivity are dependent upon aspects related to speed of a vehicle and driving mode.