Electronic records of undesirable driving events

The cause of the majority of road crashes can be attributed to drivers’ behavior. Recent in-vehicle monitoring technologies enable continuous and high resolution measurements of drivers’ behaviors. We analyzed the information received from a novel in-vehicle technology which identifies the occurrences of undesirable driving events such as extreme braking and accelerating, sharp cornering and sudden lane changing. We undertook an exploratory analysis to provide better understanding of events frequency (EF) statistical properties. Our findings show higher EF in trip edges (trip beginning and trip end) than in the middle of the trip, higher EF for males than for females and higher EF at nighttime than at daytime. Use of the in-vehicle technology’s continuous and high resolution measurements enabled interesting advanced statistical analyses. Future research can use our findings to build similar statistical models to predict the occurrence of undesirable driving events by other independent variables.     

Internet addiction among Norwegian adults: a stratified probability sample study

Most Norwegians are Internet users. We conducted a stratified probability sample study (Norway, 2007, age-group 16–74 years, N = 3,399, response rate 35.3%, 87.1% Internet users) to assess the prevalence of Internet addiction and at-risk Internet use by the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire (YDQ). The prevalence of Internet addiction (YDQ score 5–8) was 1.0% and an additional 5.2% were at-risk Internet users (YDQ score 3–4). Internet addiction and at-risk Internet use was strongly dependent on gender and age with highest prevalences among young males (16–29 years 4.1% and 19.0%, 30–39 years 3.3% and 10.7%). Logistic regression showed that male gender, young age, university level education, and an unsatisfactory financial situation were factors positively associated with "problematic Internet use" (at-risk and addicted use combined). Time spent on the Internet and prevalence of self-reported sleeping disorders, depression, and other psychological impairments increased linearly with YDQ score. Problematic Internet use clearly affects the lives of many people.     

Moral Agency and the Paradox of Self-Interested Concern for the Future in Vasubandhu’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Abhidharmakośabhāṣya</Emphasis>

It is a common view in modern scholarship on Buddhist ethics that attachment to the self constitutes a hindrance to ethics, whereas rejecting this type of attachment is a necessary condition for acting morally. The present article argues that in Vasubandhu’s theory of agency, as formulated in the Abhidharmako?abhā?ya (Treasury of Metaphysics with Self-Commentary), a cognitive and psychological identification with a conventional, persisting self is a requisite for exercising moral agency. As such, this identification is essential for embracing the ethics of Buddhism and its way of life. The article delineates the method that Vasubandhu employs to account for the notion of a selfless moral agent, with particular emphasis on his strategies for dealing with one central aspect of agency, self-interested concern for the future.     

Negative transfer in human associative learning

Models of attentional allocation in associative learning are typically structured according to one of two guiding principles: the predictiveness principle, which posits that attention is paid to cues that have reliably predicted an outcome in the past, or the uncertainty principle, which states that attention is paid to cues about which little is known. Both principles are well supported by studies of animals. However, in studies of human learning, there is very little direct empirical support for the uncertainty principle. In the study reported here, we addressed this gap by investigating negative transfer, a phenomenon that may provide unique support for the uncertainty principle. In two human learning experiments using an allergist task, we replicated the primary findings of previous research on animal learning. We believe that these data provide the first direct evidence for the uncertainty principle in human associative learning.     

Simple movement imitation: Are kinematic features sufficient to map perceptions into actions?

The aim of this study was to pinpoint the nature of the visual features used in the automatic mapping of perceived movements into similar executed movements, following the direct matching hypothesis. In Experiment 1 subjects imitated the lifting of one of two fingers, presented with different orientations. As predicted, stimuli which were further rotated away from the posture of the executing hand elicited slower reaction times. In Experiment 2, we verified that this orientation effect was not a purely perceptual effect by presenting the same stimuli but asking subjects to respond verbally. No orientation effect was found using a verbal response. In Experiment 3, we replaced the moving fingers by two arbitrary objects moving with the trajectories of the finger tips of Experiment 1. The same orientation effect as in Experiment 1 was observed. We conclude that in this experiment participants are using purely kinematic features to map perceived into executed movements.     

Ageing effects on the attention demands of walking

Attention demands of walking were determined in six male and six female young adults (mean 26.3 yr) and 12 gender-matched healthy, active older adults (mean 71.1 yr) using a dual task procedure with a reaction time (RT) secondary task. In three conditions an auditory stimulus, a visual stimulus and both stimuli (auditory/visual) were presented. Relative to no-walking baselines, increased RT was found in all conditions revealing an attentional cost of normal walking. When participants traversed the laboratory walkway and also positioned one of their feet within a target area on the ground, attention demands were greater than in unconstrained walking. In the targeting task, RTs to the visual stimulus were longer than for the auditory stimulus due to the interference associated with viewing both the stimulus monitor and the foot-target. Older participants' RTs in the visual and auditory/visual conditions, but not in the auditory condition, were significantly longer than for the young group in both walking tasks but RTs for young and older adults were not different in no-walking baseline trials. Inspection of mean RT functions at time intervals following gait initiation (0-3000 ms from the first step) suggested a fluctuating attentional cost of walking with increased demands associated with contingencies requiring step length regulation. The findings have applied significance in demonstrating the possibility of increased falls and pedestrian accident risk in older individuals in dual task situations such as road crossing.     

Integrating the Automatic and the Controlled: Strategies in Semantic Priming in an Attractor Network With Latching Dynamics

Semantic priming has long been recognized to reflect, along with automatic semantic mechanisms, the contribution of controlled strategies. However, previous theories of controlled priming were mostly qualitative, lacking common grounds with modern mathematical models of automatic priming based on neural networks. Recently, we introduced a novel attractor network model of automatic semantic priming with latching dynamics. Here, we extend this work to show how the same model can also account for important findings regarding controlled processes. Assuming the rate of semantic transitions in the network can be adapted using simple reinforcement learning, we show how basic findings attributed to controlled processes in priming can be achieved, including their dependency on stimulus onset asynchrony and relatedness proportion and their unique effect on associative, category‐exemplar, mediated and backward prime‐target relations. We discuss how our mechanism relates to the classic expectancy theory and how it can be further extended in future developments of the model.     

Training‐induced recovery of low‐level vision followed by mid‐level perceptual improvements in developmental object and face agnosia

Long‐term deprivation of normal visual inputs can cause perceptual impairments at various levels of visual function, from basic visual acuity deficits, through mid‐level deficits such as contour integration and motion coherence, to high‐level face and object agnosia. Yet it is unclear whether training during adulthood, at a post‐developmental stage of the adult visual system, can overcome such developmental impairments. Here, we visually trained LG, a developmental object and face agnosic individual. Prior to training, at the age of 20, LG's basic and mid‐level visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding effects, and contour integration were underdeveloped relative to normal adult vision, corresponding to or poorer than those of 5–6 year olds (Gilaie‐Dotan, Perry, Bonneh, Malach & Bentin, 2009). Intensive visual training, based on lateral interactions, was applied for a period of 9 months. LG's directly trained but also untrained visual functions such as visual acuity, crowding, binocular stereopsis and also mid‐level contour integration improved significantly and reached near‐age‐level performance, with long‐term (over 4 years) persistence. Moreover, mid‐level functions that were tested post‐training were found to be normal in LG. Some possible subtle improvement was observed in LG's higher‐order visual functions such as object recognition and part integration, while LG's face perception skills have not improved thus far. These results suggest that corrective training at a post‐developmental stage, even in the adult visual system, can prove effective, and its enduring effects are the basis for a revival of a developmental cascade that can lead to reduced perceptual impairments.