Central interference in driving: is there any stopping the psychological refractory period?

ABSTRACT— Participants attempted to perform two tasks concurrently during simulated driving. In the choice task, they responded either manually or vocally to the number of times a visual or auditory stimulus occurred; in the braking task, they depressed a brake pedal in response to the lead car's brake lights. The time delay between the onset of the tasks' stimuli, or stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), was varied. The tasks were differentially affected by the manipulations. Brake reaction times increased as SOA was reduced, showing the psychological refractory period effect, whereas the choice task showed large effects of the stimulus and response modalities but only a small effect of SOA. These results demonstrate that a well-practiced "simple" task such as vehicle braking is subject to dual-task slowing and extend the generality of the central-bottleneck model.     

Aggressive driving: Do driving overconfidence and aggressive thoughts behind the wheel,drive professionals off the road?

Aggressive driving has emerged as one of the most studied behaviors in the traffic psychology context due to its association with odds of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) and especially fatal ones. Nevertheless, behavioral (aggression) and affective (anger) aspects of aggressive driving have been deeply studied; its cognitive part hasn’t gained much attention; However, its role in understanding the process of aggression and designing interventions couldn’t be neglected. This research investigated the contribution of overconfidence (as the driver’s cognitive bias), aggressive thoughts, driver’s aggression, and risk perception in driver’s performance and the number of self-reported active accidents. The unique contribution of this study is its sample of urban bus drivers that have less been studied to date. Structural equation modeling (SEM), and mediation analysis revealed that overconfidence contributes to aggressive driving through aggressive thoughts behind the wheel. Moreover, overconfidence decreased the risk perception and driving performance of individuals, which were associated with a higher number of driver’s accidents. Besides, aggressive thoughts behind the wheel predicted physically aggressive expression and using the vehicle to express anger, which were associated with a decreased level of driving performance and an increased number of accidents. This study brings further evidence, supporting the importance of cognition in understanding and preventing aggressive driving and its adverse outcomes.     

Functional and dysfunctional perfectionists: are they different on compulsive-like behaviors?

Both perfectionism and excessive responsibility have been linked to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Up to now however, a greater number of studies have focused on the role of responsibility. The present study compared compulsive-like behavior of people with different styles of perfectionism. Sixteen functional perfectionists (FP) and 16 dysfunctional perfectionists (DP) were compared on three different tasks in order to explore OC type behavior such as doubting, checking and intrusions. Results show that DP participants, compared to FP participants, scored higher on an OC behavior scale, took significantly more time to complete a precision task and precipitated their decision when confronted with ambiguity. The two groups also tended to differ in their intrusive thoughts following an unsolved problem; FP participants were more preoccupied about solving the problem than about the quality of their performance, contrary to DP subjects. Results are discussed according to theoretical models of OCD.     

Virtual driving and risk taking: do racing games increase risk-taking cognitions, affect, and behaviors?

Research has consistently shown that aggressive video console and PC games elicit aggressive cognitions, affect, and behaviors. Despite the increasing popularity of racing (driving) games, nothing is known about the psychological impact of this genre. This study investigated whether playing racing games affects cognitions, affect, and behaviors that can promote risk taking in actual road traffic situations. In Study 1, the authors found that the frequency of playing racing games was positively associated with competitive driving, obtrusive driving, and car accidents; a negative association with cautious driving was observed. To determine cause and effect, in Study 2, the authors manipulated whether participants played 1 of 3 racing games or 1 of 3 neutral games. Participants who played a racing game subsequently reported a higher accessibility of cognitions and affect positively associated with risk taking than did participants who played a neutral game. Finally, on a more behavioral level, in Study 3, the authors found that men who played a racing game subsequently took higher risks in computer-simulated critical road traffic situations than did men who played a neutral game. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Effects of route familiarity on drivers’ psychological conditions: Based on driving behaviour and driving environment

Route familiarity affects a driver’s mental state and indirectly affects traffic safety; however, this important factor is easily overlooked. Previous research on route familiarity has only analysed psychological states in terms of unfamiliarity and familiarity, the influence of driving behaviour and driving environment on psychological states has been ignored. As a result, the mechanisms through which the route familiarity influence driver psychological states, and vice versa, are unclear. This study proposes a quantitative framework for studying driver psychological condition and route familiarity using experimental data from a real driving task and driving environment data. The experimental data included 1022 observations obtained by 23 participants over 7 consecutive trials on 6 unfamiliar experimental routes with large differences in scenarios; environmental data were automatically extracted after segmenting a driving video through the Dilated Residual NetWorks model. The results reveal that (1) the relationship between the driver’s psychological condition and route familiarity is not monotonic and is different for straight and turning sections; (2) the driver’s psychological condition is influenced by the visual scene elements and the type of road section, and the results of the multivariate regression analysis quantified the variability of the influence; and (3) unlike a majority of findings on distracted driving, our study suggest that the driver’s attention to the external environment in the urban distracted driving state will gradually approach a ‘distraction threshold’, and the time and size of the ‘distraction threshold’ are influenced by the driver. This study can further the development of urban traffic safety research and help urban designers plan and improve urban landscapes to ensure drivers maintain stable mental states when they drive.     

Exploratory behaviors and recalibration: What processes are shared between functionally similar affordances?

Recalibration of affordance perception allows observers to adapt to changes in the body’s size or abilities that alter possibilities for action. Of key interest is understanding how exploratory behaviors lead to successful recalibration. The present study was designed to test a novel hypothesis—that the same processes of exploration and recalibration should generalize between affordances that share a similar function. Most affordances for fitting the body through openings are recalibrated without feedback from practicing the action; locomotion exploration is sufficient. The present study used a different fitting task, squeezing through doorways, to determine whether locomotor experience was sufficient for recalibrating to changes in body size that altered affordances. Participants were unable to recalibrate from locomotor experience, demonstrating that exploratory behaviors do not necessarily generalize between functionally similar affordances. Participants only recalibrated following action practice or after receiving feedback about judgment accuracy, suggesting that the informational requirements of the squeezing task may differ from those of other fitting tasks. Implications for affordance theory are discussed.     

Feelings or cognitions? Moral cognitions and emotions as longitudinal predictors of prosocial and aggressive behaviors

There is debate regarding the roles of sociomoral cognitions and emotions in understanding moral development. The short-term longitudinal relations among perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors and aggression in adolescents were examined. Participants were 489 students (M age = 12.28 years, SD = .48; 232 boys) in public and private schools from predominantly middle class families in Valencia, Spain. Students completed measures of perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors, and aggressive behaviors. Overall, structural equation modeling analyses showed that moral reasoning and emotions were interrelated and predicted both prosocial behaviors and aggression. Discussion focuses on the relevance of both social cognitions and emotions in moral development.     

How does emotional intelligence predict driving behaviors among non-commercial drivers?

Dangerous driving behaviors have been found to be a leading contributor to vehicle crashes and fatalities, with more than 2.7 million people injured and 36,560 people killed in the United States in 2018 (NHTSA, 2020). Drivers’ emotions have been found to be among the leading contributors to dangerous driving behaviors. Emotions can be measured and understood through one’s emotional intelligence (EI). Previous research has confirmed the relationship between EI and dangerous driving behaviors among general driving populations in limited scope. This study analyzed dangerous driving behaviors (e.g., aggressive driving) among non-commercial US drivers. 615 US drivers ages 18 to 65 (M = 31.14, SD = 11.15) with valid US driver’s licenses (non-commercial) participated in this study. Participants completed an online survey through Qualtrics that included the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue-SF) to measure different dimensions of EI and the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) and the Driving Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) to measure dangerous driving behaviors. Furthermore, participants reported their demographic information, including age, sex, and location. Correlation analysis revealed that significant associations exist between dangerous driving behaviors and EI. The emotionality component of EI was found to be the strongest predictor of dangerous driving behaviors. The findings concluded that participants with higher EI scores engaged in less dangerous driving behavior, resulting in fewer crashes and fatalities. Thus, promoting and improving EI may be useful in preventing risky driving among non-commercial drivers. Incorporating emotional intelligence education in driver’s education, workplace training, and licensing procedures can be helpful to develop safer drivers. Further research is needed to investigate commercial drivers’ behaviors in relation to EI.     

Assumptions of infantile amnesia: are there differences between early and later memories?

Most adults are able to provide few, if any, reports of autobiographical memories from the first years of life. Early memories that do exist have been characterised as highly emotional, containing an abundance of perceptual as opposed to propositional information, and more often in the third than the first person perspective. These qualities figure prominently in theories of the source of the phenomenon of infantile amnesia. However, early and later memories have not been directly compared with regard to these features. In the present research, we compared early and later memories in the same individuals, with the same methodology. Results indicated few objective differences between the early and later memories of women (Experiment 1) and men (Experiment 2). The findings are discussed in light of their implications for theories as to the source of infantile amnesia.     

Bridging in social networks: Who are the people in structural holes and why are they there?

The current paper examines the psychological characteristics of people who link tightly connected cliques to each other with friendship ties. Based on the work of sociologist Georg Simmel, I argue that these people are characterized by two separate motivations, which I call entrepreneurial and relationship-building motivations. Using a complete network from a heterogeneous class of Jewish-, Arab-, and Druze-Israelis, I provide the first empirical evidence of their existence. Gould and Fernandez's brokerage roles were calculated for each participant, and triad proportions from each brokerage type were correlated with well-established psychological questionnaires. Results indicate the existence of two psychologically distinct network orientations, easily interpretable in terms of Simmel's analysis of processes in triads.     

Interpersonal predictors of stress generation: Is there a super factor?

Hammen's (1991, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 555–561) seminal paper on stress generation highlighted the reciprocal relationship between stress and depression. Not only does stress predict depression, but women with a diagnosis of depression also experienced subsequent increased levels of stress. In the ensuing years, depression researchers have moved beyond clinical predictors and examined whether depression vulnerability factors also contribute to stress generation. This interest has led to a growing focus on interpersonal vulnerability factors that contribute to stress generation. To date, the research examining interpersonal predictors of stress generation has tended to examine vulnerability factors singly and thus potential overlap and unique predictions among vulnerability factors have not been determined. This study examines interpersonal vulnerability factors from various schools of thought (dependency, attachment, and unmitigated communion) as predictors of interpersonal stress generation. Three hundred and sixty-four young adults completed baseline measures of interpersonal vulnerabilities and provided weekly reports of depressive symptoms and stressful life events. Multilevel models were estimated to examine their unique predictions of interpersonal stress generation. Despite converging theories, there does not appear to be a single super factor. Of the interpersonal vulnerability factors tested, anxious attachment emerged as a consistent predictor of interpersonal stress generation both when examined singly and when in combination with related variables.     

Culture and self: are there within-culture differences in self between metropolitan areas and regional cities?

Although differences in self-conception across cultures have been well researched, regional differences within a culture have escaped attention. The present study examined individual, relational, and collective selves, which capture people's conceptions of themselves in relation to their goals, significant others, and in groups, comparing Australians and Japanese participants living in regional cities and metropolitan areas. Culture, gender, and urbanism were found to be related to individual, relational, and collective selves, respectively. Australians emphasized individual self more than Japanese, women stressed relational self more than men, and residents in regional cities regarded collective self as more important than their counterparts in metropolitan areas. These findings provide support for the tripartite division of the self and suggest a need to construct a culture theory that links self and societal processes.     

Why are there sex differences in risky driving? the relationship between sex and gender‐role on aggressive driving,traffic offences,and accident involvement among young turkish drivers

The aim of this study was to investigate how sex (male and female) and gender‐role (masculinity and femininity) and their interaction were associated with risky driving behaviors, traffic offences, and accident involvement among young Turkish drivers. Three‐hundred and fifty‐four young drivers (221 males and 133 females) filled in a form including the short form of Bem Sex‐Role Inventory (BSRI), the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ), questions about a driver's accident history, and background information. The effects were tested on outcome variables by using hierarchical regression analysis. It was found that sex (being male) predicted only the ordinary violations. While masculinity score predicted positively the number of offences, and aggressive and ordinary (highway code) violations, femininity score predicted negatively the number of accidents and offences, aggressive and ordinary violations, and errors. The effect of interaction between masculinity and femininity was only found on the number of accidents and aggressive violations among young drivers. There was no significant interaction effect between sex and gender roles on criterion variables. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–12, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

How many hindsight biases are there?

The answer is three: questioning a conceptual default assumption in hindsight bias research, we argue that the hindsight bias is not a unitary phenomenon but consists of three separable and partially independent subphenomena or components, namely, memory distortions, impressions of foreseeability and impressions of necessity. Following a detailed conceptual analysis including a systematic survey of hindsight characterizations in the published literature, we investigated these hindsight components in the context of political elections. We present evidence from three empirical studies that impressions of foreseeability and memory distortions (1) show hindsight effects that typically differ in magnitude and sometimes even in direction, (2) are essentially uncorrelated, and (3) are differentially influenced by extraneous variables. A fourth study found similar dissociations between memory distortions and impressions of necessity. All four studies thus provide support for a separate components view of the hindsight bias. An important consequence of such a view is that apparent contradictions in research findings as well as in theoretical explanations (e.g., cognitive vs. social-motivational) might be alleviated by taking differences between components into account. We also suggest conditions under which the components diverge or converge.     

Safety of micro-mobility: Riders’ psychological factors and risky behaviors of cargo TTWs in China

Cargo two- or three-wheeled vehicles (TTWs), as a new form of micro-mobility, have become a popular mode of urban cargo transportation in China. Cargo TTW riders’ psychological factors and risky behaviors lead to a number of accidents. A questionnaire is designed by comprehensively considering these factors and behaviors of cargo TTW riders that includes eleven risk factors to quantitatively analyze the risky behaviors based on structural equation modeling (SEM). One thousand three hundred nineteen participants reported using cargo TTWs on a questionnaire distributed across the country. The characteristics of riding behavior data are analyzed to verify the three-layer risk theoretical framework of “Psychological factors (Personality traits/specific factors) - Psychological acceptability of risks (confidence/perception/attitude) - Risky behaviors”. The results show that anger has a strong direct effect on riding violations, while normlessness and altruism have a direct effect on riding errors. Workload has a weak but direct effect on risky behaviors, and riding feedback has a weak and mixed effect. In addition, high-risk groups are identified by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with rider population attributes. These quantitative analyses can help guide safety countermeasures to mitigate accidents involving cargo TTWs.     

Why are there no objective values?

Using the mathematical frameworks of economic preference ranking, subjective probability, and rational learning through empirical evidence, the epistemological implications of teleological ethical intuitionism are pointed out to the extent to which the latter is based on cognitivist and objectivist concepts of value. The notions of objective value and objective norm are critically analysed with reference to epistemological criteria of intersubjectively shared valuative experience. It is concluded that one cannot meaningfully postulate general material theories of morality that could be tested, confirmed or refuted by intersubjective empirical evidence of preferences and values, however loosely the empirical evidence of values may be interpreted. This situation is explained with reference to the ways in which preceived values become systematically influenced by the concomitants of individual valuative experience, but which have nothing to do with contingent subjective interests.     

Externalizing problems and problematic sexual behaviors: same etiology?

The study sought to determine whether maltreatment subtypes, family sexuality, and personal characteristics predicted and distinguished child problematic sexual behaviors (PSB) and externalizing problems (EP). Participants were families of 188 children, 6–11 years old, referred by child welfare services in four Quebec districts. Caregivers completed interviews and questionnaires. Results suggested that family environment and maltreatment subtypes had partially different impacts on PSB and EP. When EP and gender were controlled, younger children in a sexualized family environment and those verbally victimized were more likely to exhibit PSB. When PSB and gender were controlled, verbal abuse and neglect emerged as predictors of EP. Potential implications for child PSB research and interventions are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 36:358–370, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Parenting and children's aggression: are there differences in the influence of the father and the mother?

Child rearing provides messages and rules that mediate the children's personality. These messages have a positive or negative influence on their behaviour. The objective of this empirical study was to analyse the relationship between physical and verbal aggression of sons and daughters and parenting style practiced by the father and the mother. The sample consisted of 2,788 students, aged 10 to 15 years, studying either the third cycle of Primary Education (44%) or the first cycle of Secondary Education (56%). Of them, 1,412 were boys (50.6%) and 1,375 were girls (49.3%). The results show that children's aggressiveness is more related to factors associated with the mother's parenting. In the case of daughters, the influence of parenting factors are caused by both parents (father and mother).