Factors influencing intentions to text while driving among Polish drivers

Previous research has found that using a mobile phone while driving has a detrimental effect on driver safety and performance. The present study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to examine a number of factors thought to be related to intentions to send or read text messages while driving. A total of 298 Polish drivers completed a survey that included measures of the TPB components related to intentions to send or read text messages in four different scenarios. The scenarios differed according to whether or not the drivers were waiting at traffic lights or travelling at 100 km/h and according to whether or not they were under time pressure. The research found that Attitudes and Perceived Behavioural Control were positive predictors of general intentions to use a mobile phone while driving. Similarly, Attitudes consistently predicted intentions to send and read text messages across the four scenarios. The findings of this study could be utilised for developing an educational campaign aimed at promoting more positive attitudes toward road safety and at reducing intentions to use mobile phones while driving.     

Visual perception of rapidly presented word sequences of varying complexity

Four experiments are described that determine whether or not syntactic complexity affects the visual perception of rapidly presented word sequences. The results indicate that sentences containing only one sentence in the underlying structure are more accurately reported than sentences containing two underlying sentences. It is shown that this result is not due solely to distortion of the input, but is likely to reflect the rate at which structural representations of the input can be developed.     

Acquisition of information from rapidly presented verbal and nonverbal stimuli

Two experiments tested recognition memory for rapidly presented stimuli. In Experiment I 16 words were presented at exposure times ranging from 25 to 500 msec followed by a yes-no recognition test. The results showed a strong dependence of memory performance on both exposure time and serial position. In Experiment II 16 random forms were presented at exposure times ranging from 125 to 2000 msec followed by a yes-no recognition test. Results for random forms showed that memory performance was strongly dependent on exposure time but not on serial position. Taken together, the results of Experiments I and II suggest qualitative encoding differences between verbal vs nonverbal stimuli.     

The Cloze procedure as a test of plagiarism: the influence of text readability

The authors investigated whether scores on the Cloze procedure as a test of plagiarism would be significantly affected by the readability of text. Undergraduates were asked to either paraphrase or plagiarize legal documents. Approximately half of the participants in the paraphrase condition received documents that were difficult to read, whereas the other half received versions that were easy to read. About 2 weeks later, participants completed Cloze tests that were based on their rewritten paraphrased or plagiarized versions of the documents. As predicted, Cloze scores from the plagiarize condition were significantly lower than those from the paraphrase condition. However, difficult-to-read documents, whether they had been paraphrased or plagiarized, yielded significantly lower Cloze scores than their easier-to-read counterparts. In spite of some methodological shortcomings, the results of this study suggest caution in the use of the Cloze procedure as a test of plagiarism.     

Semantic and syntactic factors in the perception of rapidly presented sentences

An important controversy in psycholinguistics has been the nature of the initial hypothesis in sentence processing. This problem has been directly addressed with the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) technique, in which words of a sentence are presented one at a time at tachistoscopic rates. The results of this research (Forster and Ryder, 1971) have provided evidence against Bever's (1970) thesis that most normal perceptual processing of sentences is probably carried out with little regard to actual sequence or structure. However, since the number of words seen is a result of presentation speed as well as psycholinguistic processing, this result could be an artifact of presentation rate. A slower or faster rate could facilitate different processing strategies and perhaps suggest a different nature of the initial hypothesis. Thus, the present study is a conceptual replication of Forster and Ryder (1971), at different presentation rates. While significant effects for syntactic structure were obtained only at the slower presentation rate, results for semantics were significant at both slow and fast presentation speeds. Thus, insofar as sentence perception with the RSVP technique reflects the nature of the initial hypothesis, it is suggested that the hypothesis is semantic.     

False memory following rapidly presented lists: the element of surprise

This article examines a false memory phenomenon, the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) effect, consisting of high false alarms for a prototype word (e.g., SLEEP) following a study list consisting of its associates (NIGHT, DREAM, etc.). This false recognition is thought to occur because prototypes, although not presented within a study list, are highly activated by their semantic association with words that are in the list. The authors present an alternative explanation of the effect, based on the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis. According to that account, false (and true) familiarity results when a comparison between expectations and outcomes within a processing episode causes surprise. Experiment 1 replicates the DRM effect. Experiment 2 shows that a similar effect can occur when participants are shown lists of unrelated words and are then surprised by a recognition target. Experiments 3 and 4 show that the DRM effect itself is abolished when participants are prevented from being surprised by prototypes presented as recognition targets. It is proposed that the DRM effect is best understood through the principles of construction, evaluation, and attribution.     

Recall of rapidly presented random chess positions is a function of skill

A widely cited result asserts that experts’ superiority over novices in recalling meaningful material from their domain of expertise vanishes when they are confronted with random material. A review of recent chess experiments in which random positions served as control material (presentation time between 3 and 10 sec) shows, however, that strong players generally maintain some superiority over weak players even with random positions, although the relative difference between skill levels is much smaller than with game positions. The implications of this finding for expertise in chess are discussed and the question of the recall of random material in other domains is raised.     

Factors influencing child witnesses

This study elucidates how professional intervention can influence children's abilities to report accurately about abuse experiences. Based on knowledge acquired through previous research and the present case study, the study shows how methods of information acquisition used during preliminary investigations can negatively affect child reports. The case study emanates from a larger study of 193 allegedly sexually abused children. Examination of these police interviews shows that 55 children were interviewed more than once and their reports were exposed to possible professional influences before and during the preliminary investigation. The case study reveals the inadequate management of a child witness. The findings indicate that police officers and psychologists should avoid suggestive interventions and co-ordinate their efforts during the preliminary investigation in order to safeguard the children's as well as the suspects' legal interests. This paper points out the need for implementing interview interventions that can enhance children's abilities to report accurately about abuse experiences.     

Comprehension by learning-disabled and nondisabled adolescents of personal/social problems presented in text.

Four groups of 14-year-olds, differing in reading level, learning disability status, and socioeconomic status, read and retold short problem narratives and answered questions. The pattern of reporting components of the problem schema (goal/obstacles/choices) differed for problems presented with or without a statement of the character's priority for action, suggesting that including priorities adds another level of information to the problem text and changes its macrostructure. Even the poorest readers showed this sensitivity to text structure. Three of the four measures of problem representation (idea units recalled, problem-schema components reported, and error rate) reflected overall reading ability. However, the degree to which extraneous information was incorporated into problem representations did not. Learning-disabled students made more importations, and more implausible importations, than did non-disabled students. Moreover, this pattern was associated with poor problem solving. Only proficient readers showed awareness of the source of the information (text or extratext) on which their predictions were based.     

The total time hypothesis,recall strategies,and memory for rapidly presented word strings

In three experiments the free recall of rapidly presented word strings was studied. The word strings were shown either in grammatical order or a scrambled order. It was found that the invariance of recall with various presentation times for grammatical sequences breaks down at presentation times between 175 and 250 msec. The order of recall, however, remains consistent with the type of sequence presented irrespective of presentation time. The amount of time requked to utilize syntactic information fully in free recall is of approximately the same order of magnitude as that required to read the words.     

Factors influencing perceived angular velocity

The assumption that humans are able to perceive and process-angular kinematics is critical to many structure-from-motion and optical flow models. The current studies investigate this sensitivity, and examine several factors likely to influence angular velocity perception. In particular, three factors are considered: (1) the extent to which perceived angular velocity is determined by edge transitions of surface elements, (2) the extent to which angular velocity estimates are influenced by instantaneous linear velocities of surface elements, and (3) whether element-velocity effects are related to three-dimensional (3-D) tangential velocities or to two-dimensional (2-D) image velocities. Edge-transition rate biased angular velocity estimates only when edges were highly salient. Element velocities influenced perceived angular velocity; this bias was related to 2-D image velocity rather than 3-D tangential velocity. Despite these biases, however, judgments were most strongly determined by the true angular velocity. Sensitivity to this higher order motion parameter was surprisingly good, for rotations both in depth (y-axis) and parallel to the line of sight (z-axis).     

Factors influencing assignment of pronoun antecedents

In two experiments a group of adult subjects and a group of 10 – 13 year old subjects completed sentences of the format NP1 V NP2 because Pro… The fragment, John telephoned Bill because he…, elicited completions such as had good news, which locate the impetus for telephoning in NP1 (John). The fragment, John admired Bill because he…, elicited completions such as was a fine athlete, which locate the impetus for admiring in NP2 (Bill). The assignment of the subject pronoun of the second clause as coreferential with NP1 or NP2 shows that this choice depends on a factor, direction of causality, which may be assigned to verb roots. This factor was isolated from interacting semantic and syntactic features of sentences in which the verbs occurred. Manipulation of these features resulted in greater or lesser salience of the direction of causality factor. The potential of this technique for investigation of verb semantics and for interaction of semantic, pragmatic and syntactic features in the psychological study of comprehension is discussed.     

When words collide: facilitation and interference in the report of repeated words from rapidly presented lists

Inhibited encoding is the basis of some accounts of repetition blindness--impaired report of the second occurrence of a repeated word in a rapidly presented word sequence. The author presents evidence for the claim that repetition effects arise from constructive processes of perception and memory that occur to some extent after the word sequence has been presented. Unpredictable postlist cues prompted subjects to report either the entire list or just the final word in the list. Repetition impaired the report of the second occurrence of a repeated word under full report but facilitated the report of such items when only the final word had to be reported. The author modulated this dissociation by presenting repeated words in sentences rather than unrelated word lists. The sensitivity of the effects of repetition to postlist cues supports a construction rather than an encoding inhibition account of repetition blindness.     

Factors influencing the desire for children

187 college students (139 women; 175 between the ages of 18 to 25 years) were asked to report how many children they desired. Participants' desire for children was unrelated to skin color, socioeconomic status, and the need for postbaccalaureate education. Conversely, sex, value orientation, and religious orientation were significantly associated with a desire for children.     

Factors influencing perceived angular velocity.

The assumption that humans are able to perceive and process angular kinematics is critical to many structure-from-motion and optical flow models. The current studies investigate this sensitivity, and examine several factors likely to influence angular velocity perception. In particular, three factors are considered: (1) the extent to which perceived angular velocity is determined by edge transitions of surface elements, (2) the extent to which angular velocity estimates are influenced by instantaneous linear velocities of surface elements, and (3) whether element-velocity effects are related to three-dimensional (3-D) tangential velocities or to two-dimensional (2-D) image velocities. Edge-transition rate biased angular velocity estimates only when edges were highly salient. Element velocities influenced perceived angular velocity; this bias was related to 2-D image velocity rather than 3-D tangential velocity. Despite these biases, however, judgments were most strongly determined by the true angular velocity. Sensitivity to this higher order motion parameter was surprisingly good, for rotations both in depth (y-axis) and parallel to the line of sight (z-axis).