The effects of motion on in-vehicle touch screen system operation: A battle management system case study

The use of in-vehicle touch screen devices is currently common in both military and civilian vehicles; despite this, the effects of motion on touch screen device operation within vehicles remains largely unexplored. This article describes a study that examined, using driving simulation, the influences of motion on performance, workload and usability when using a touch screen in-vehicle battle management system. Acting in the role of battle management system operator, 20 participants undertook four simulated drives, two under high motion (representative of an unsealed road) and two under normal motion (representative of a sealed road), whilst performing various battle management tasks. In the high motion condition, lower accuracy and longer task completion times were found, along with greater levels of subjective and physiological workload and lower levels of perceived device usability, when compared to the normal motion condition. The findings indicate that, compared to normal motion, the high motion condition impaired key aspects of battle management system operation. In closing, the importance of considering motion and its effects during touch screen system design is discussed.     

The influence of reporting mode on children's cued personal memories

The Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) is widely used in research contexts to measure the extent to which participants (children or adults) report specific or general memories in response to cue words. Recalling fewer specific and more general memories (overgeneral memory) has been shown to be linked to depression in adults, but findings for youth, in particular, are mixed. Different versions of the AMT may be one contributing factor, yet this issue has received little research attention. The current study investigated the influence of reporting mode (written vs. spoken) on the specificity, length, and content of memories provided by 8- to 10-year-old children (N?=?48). No significant differences were found in the number of specific responses given in the written and spoken modes. On the other hand, the spoken mode elicited longer and more detailed memories, although most content differences were eliminated when memory length was controlled. These findings suggest that different reporting modes can influence the nature of the memories reported, but the absolute differences are relatively small.     

Akiva Yosef Schlesinger—a forerunner of Zionism or a forerunner of ultra-orthodoxy

Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlesinger (Pressburg 1838—Jerusalem 1922) is considered by some scholars to be a forerunner of ultra-Orthodoxy, but by others as a forerunner of Zionism. This article unravels this enigmatic personality, demonstrating that he was indeed a forerunner of ultra-Orthodoxy who was motivated by a complete rejection of modernity and promoted religious positions that were more radical than those of the Hatam Sofer. Those who associate Schlesinger with Zionism are misled by the fact that he encountered fierce opposition from his Hungarian colleagues and from the “Yishuv hayashan” in Jerusalem, advocated the use of the Hebrew language and promoted a “settlement” programme in Palestine. The article suggests that Schlesinger's programme was in reality designed to create a sacred utopian society, and was motivated by his desire to isolate the traditional Jewish community from modernity, rather than by a nationalist ideology. Furthermore, the opposition of the Jerusalem rabbis to Schlesinger's ideas was based largely on his unusual religious positions and his suggestion that the youth should be engaged in work. In analysing Schlesinger's legacy, the article also clarifies the distinctions between ultra-Orthodoxy and Zionism, as well as some common elements that they share.     

Norms for two types of manipulability (graspability and functional usage), familiarity,and age of acquisition for 320 photographs of objects

There is increasing interest in the role that manipulability plays in processing objects. To date, Magnié, Besson, Poncet, and Dolisi’s (2003) manipulability ratings, based on the degree to which objects can be uniquely pantomimed, have been the reference point for many studies. However, these ratings do not fully capture some relevant dimensions of manipulability, including whether an object is graspable and the extent to which functional motor associations above and beyond graspability are present. To address this, we collected ratings of these dimensions, in addition to ratings of familiarity and age of acquisition (AoA), for a set of 320 black-and-white photographs of objects. Familiarity and AoA ratings were highly correlated with previously reported ratings of the same dimensions (r =.853, p<.001, and r=.771, p<.001, respectively), validating the present norms. Grasping and functional use ratings, in contrast, were more moderately correlated with Magnié et al.’s pantomime manipulability ratings (r=.507, p<.001). These results were taken as evidence that the new manipulability ratings collected in this research capture distinct aspects of object manipulability. The complete stimuli and norms from this study may be downloaded from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Multi‐agency collaboration,multiple levels of meaning: social constructionism and the CMM model as tools to further our understanding

This study explores the discourse emerging when professionals from a child and adolescent mental health service meet with professionals from other agencies to discuss cases. The study is timely, given the current political contextual forces pushing agencies to work together which run alongside an expanding literature acknowledging the obstacles to achieving this. A thematic analysis identified nine themes, defined according to their discourse type, including single agency discourse, case complexity discourse and multi‐agency discourse. In this paper, the usefulness of the coordinated management of meaning model (CMM) is examined as an additional tool which may be used in data analysis to help understand the discourse within multi‐agency meetings. The two approaches to data analysis are complementary to each other, with both allowing for different layers of context and complexity to emerge from the data.