Driver hand position on the steering wheel while merging into motorway traffic

It has been suggested that a driver’s hand position on the steering wheel can reflect the perceived risk of the road context (Walton, D., & Thomas, J. A. (2005). Naturalistic observations of driver hand positions. Transportation Research Part F, 8, 229–238, Thomas, J. A., & Walton, D. (2007). Measuring perceived risk: Self-reported and actual hand positions of SUV and car drivers. Transportation Research Part F, 10, 201–207). These original studies were based on field observations where only a part of the steering wheel could be viewed. In the present study hand positions were observed in a driving simulator during the performance of a demanding task; merging into motorway traffic. In the current study the whole steering wheel could be observed and hand positions were classified in three categories: high control, medium control, and low control. Differences in hand position between different traffic conditions were limited, and hand position did not correlate with self-reported risk or self-reported mental effort, but changes in hand positions do seem to be associated with changes in workload demand. It is therefore concluded that hand position can give some information about mental workload.     

Longitudinal Studies of Anger and Attention Span: Context and Informant Effects

ABSTRACT This study examined stabilities of informant and context (home vs. classroom) latent factors regarding anger and attention. Participants included children from the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development who were measured at 54 months, first grade, and third grade. Latent factors of anger and attention span were structured using different indicators based on mothers', fathers', caregivers', teachers', and observers' reports. We used structural equation modeling to examine the autoregressive effects within a context (stability), the concurrent associations between home and classroom contexts, and informant effects. The results indicated that for both anger and attention (1) there were significant informant effects that influenced stability in a context, (2) there was higher stability in home context than nonhome context, and (3) stability within a context increased over time. The findings suggested that anger was more prone to context effects and informant effects than attention.     

The Validity of a Brief Risk Assessment Tool for Predicting Suicidal Behavior in Veterans Utilizing VHA Mental Health Care

Suicide risk among military veterans is an important and ongoing concern. The Veterans Administration (VA) mandates suicide risk screening of all veterans seen for mental health issues, but little is known about the effectiveness of this screening. A retrospective chart review to examine all suicide risk screens at VA San Diego between October and December 2012 (n = 3,365) was conducted to assess whether results were associated with suicidal behavior over the subsequent 12 months. Patients judged to be at increased risk for suicide were 3 to 16 times more likely to attempt suicide and 7 to 25 times more likely to engage in self‐directed violence over the next 12 months compared with others. The screening tool may be a useful addition to clinical practice.     

Evidence against hyperspecificity in implicit invariant learning

Four experiments examined the claim that cross-format transfer in invariant learning is reliant solely on the presence of repetition structure in study and test strings (Stadler, Warren, & Lesch, 2000). Experiments 1, 2, and 3 used strings with no repetitions and found significant cross-format transfer in combination with a non-significant transfer decrement - no significant difference between same- and changed-format conditions. Further investigation of the basis of the role of repetition structure revealed an emphasis on the perceptual salience of test stimuli (Experiment 4). Our results contrast with those of Stadler et al. and suggest that under the conditions we employed invariant learning is not highly sensitive to changes in the perceptual characteristics of stimuli and therefore is inaccurately described as hyper specific. We suggest that the term hyper specific be reserved for cases in which minor format changes result in significant performance impairments - for example, typographical effects in implicit memory.