How religion and morality correlate in age of society 5.0: Statistical analysis of emotional and moral associations with Buddhist religious terms appearing on Japanese blogs

In this paper we analyzed how much religious vocabulary, in particular Buddhist vocabulary taken from the largest online dictionary of Buddhist terms, is present in everyday social space of Japanese people, particularly, in Japanese blog entries appearing on a popular blog service (Ameba blogs). We interpreted the level of everyday usage of Buddhist terms as appearance of such terms in the consciousness of people. We further analyzed what emotional and moral associations such contents generate. In particular, we analyzed whether expressions containing Buddhist vocabulary are considered appropriate or not from a moral point of view, as well as the emotional response of Internet users to Buddhist terminology. As a result of analyzing the data, we found out that Buddhist terms were in fact not absent as a theme from Japanese blogs and generated a strong emotional response. However, while the general reaction to several expressions using Buddhist terms was as expected, there were sometimes surprising twists in terms of social consequences, major discrepancies between what is perceived as ethically correct behavior between the Buddhist doctrine and the reasoning of the general population, as well as a considerate number of terms which have lost their original meaning and instead became slang expressions.     

Control of impulsive emotional behaviour through implementation intentions

Past research has established that people can strategically enhance or override impulsive emotional behaviour with implementation intentions (Eder, Rothermund, & Proctor, 2010). However, it is unclear whether emotional action tendencies change by intentional processes or by habit formation processes due to repeated enactment of the intention (or both). The present study shows that forming implementation intentions is sufficient to modulate emotional action tendencies. Participants received instructions about how to respond to positive and negative stimuli on evaluation trials but no such trials were actually presented. Results showed that merely intending to approach and avoid affective stimuli influenced emotional action tendencies in a modified affective Simon task in which affective valence was irrelevant. An affective Simon effect (i.e., faster reactions when the valence of the stimulus corresponded with the valence of the movement) was observed when participants intended evaluations with affectively congruent responses (i.e., positive–approach, negative–avoid); in contrast, the effect was reversed in direction when participants planned evaluations with incongruent responses (i.e., positive–avoid, negative–approach). Thus, implementation intentions can regulate implicit emotional responses even in the absence of possible habit formation processes. Implications for dual-system accounts of emotion regulation are discussed.     

Fast mapping of multiple words: Insights into when “the information provided” does and does not equal “the information perceived”

A candidate process for explaining the rapid vocabulary acquisition during the preschool years is “fast mapping,” children's ability to sketch partial maps of a word's meaning after brief exposure. The present study examines this process for learning multiple words, testing the hypothesis that children's attention to the information critical for quickly mapping multiple words onto their referents depends on the alternatives available when the words are introduced. Fifty-eight 40-month-old children participated in one of two conditions. In both conditions, each trial for novel Word #1 presented a novel object and three familiar ones. The conditions differed in the object choices presented when novel Word #2 was introduced. Although the same information was available to children in both conditions, younger children showed significantly better learning of the new words in the successive condition than in the concurrent condition. Implications of this for age-related differences and for teaching strategies are discussed.     

Theorema: Towards computer-aided mathematical theory exploration

Theorema is a project that aims at supporting the entire process of mathematical theory exploration within one coherent logic and software system. This survey paper illustrates the style of Theorema-supported mathematical theory exploration by a case study (the automated synthesis of an algorithm for the construction of Gröbner Bases) and gives an overview on some reasoners and organizational tools for theory exploration developed in the Theorema project.     

Supporting the changing driver’s task: Exploration of interface designs for supervision and intervention in automated driving

Driving automation leads to a changing role for drivers, that is from manual vehicle control to supervising automation. Supervision of partial automation requires now and then intervention. Since the automation causes low vigilance and out-of-the-loop performance problems, this changing role is not well suited for human operators. To explore how driver-vehicle interfaces can support drivers in their changed role, we tested three concepts. Concept A was a baseline reference, providing only acoustic warnings. Concept B presented status-information and warnings behind the steering wheel. Concept C used illumination and haptic feedback in the seat-pan to direct attention outside the vehicle and to stimulate response. Concept C only provided vibrotactile feedback when intervention was needed. Results of our study show improved support for supervision with the illumination-concept, i.e. better hazard-detection and raised levels of Situation Awareness in some scenarios relevant for supervisory control. Knowing that supervision will be the dominating driver’s responsibility during partially automated driving, the illumination-concept is a recommended solution for support of the driver’s changing role. Nonetheless, neither concept B, nor C, showed additional support for intervention compared to the baseline. It was hypothesised that the combination of concept C’s stimuli for intervention-support caused counter-productive levels of annoyance. Furthermore, we concluded that intervention and supervision benefit from different interface-features and discussed possible causes underlying ambiguity between support for supervision and support for intervention shown with concept C. Therewith, the considerations in this paper contribute to further development of – and knowledge about – appropriate driver-vehicle interaction while vehicle-operation advances into operating partially automated driving systems.     

Objective and perceived risk in overtaking: The impact of driving context

The assistance and autonomous performance of overtaking manoeuvres can offer significant safety benefits. The impact of driving context on perceived risk emphasises the benefits of using contextual information to adjust the manoeuvring behaviour. This paper follows a mixed approach, addressing two main objectives: identifying factor combinations related to overtaking crashes (objective risk) and exploring their relationship to perceived risk. Factor combinations were extracted from a multi-year dataset, acquired from the UK in-depth study RAIDS (Road Accident In-depth Studies). Selected factors were used to create motorway overtaking scenarios with different manoeuvring behaviour (pull-out distance, manoeuvre duration, speed) and driving context (day/night, overtaking car/truck), while 237 participants assessed their impact on perceived risk through an online survey. The findings highlight the strong impact of manoeuvre characteristics on perceived risk, mediated or intensified by the driving context. Long pull-out distance and short manoeuvre duration time were preferred; under night conditions, short pull-out distances were perceived as riskier compared to daytime, while the opposite effect appeared for high speed, which was considered safer. The results can inform future research on motorway overtaking safety perception and acceptability, as well as the design of systems that assist or autonomously perform overtaking. Specifically, they can be used as guidelines for incorporating context related information to adjust overtaking behaviour according to user preferences and create a positive passenger experience.     

Public acceptance of driver state monitoring for automated vehicles: Applying the UTAUT framework

Driver state monitoring (DSM) systems aim to measure driver/occupant state, considering factors such as fatigue, workload, attentiveness, and wellbeing. They are influential for some vehicles on the road today, but as we move towards higher levels of automation their use is expected to become even more important. Uncertainty around public perception of these systems is a potentially limiting factor, with potential concerns for privacy, data storage, perceived utility, and reliability amongst other things posing potential threats. A survey was conducted based on the Universal Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework, which collected 311 individual responses to explore the acceptability of this technology in specific relation to conditionally and partially automated vehicles. This paper identified that the factors of effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, and attitudes towards using new technology are all positively related to overall behavioural intention, whereas anxiety is negatively related. Other demographic influences are discussed, and recommendations made for future research and marketing/implementation of DSM systems to ensure acceptance by future users.     

External human-machine interfaces: Effects of message perspective

Future automated vehicles may be equipped with external Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs). Currently, little is known about the effect of the perspective of the eHMI message on crossing decisions of pedestrians. We performed an experiment to examine the effects of images depicting eHMI messages of different perspectives (egocentric from the pedestrian’s point of view: WALK, DON’T WALK, allocentric: BRAKING, DRIVING, and ambiguous: GO, STOP) on participants’ (N = 103) crossing decisions, response times, and eye movements. Considering that crossing the road can be cognitively demanding, we added a memory task in two-thirds of the trials. The results showed that egocentric messages yielded higher subjective clarity ratings than the other messages as well as higher objective clarity scores (i.e., more uniform crossing decisions) and faster response times than the allocentric BRAKING and the ambiguous STOP. When participants were subjected to the memory task, pupil diameter increased, and crossing decisions were reached faster as compared to trials without memory task. Regarding the ambiguous messages, most participants crossed for the GO message and did not cross for the STOP message, which points towards an egocentric perspective taken by the participant. More lengthy text messages (e.g., DON’T WALK) yielded a higher number of saccades but did not cause slower response times. We conclude that pedestrians find egocentric eHMI messages clearer than allocentric ones, and take an egocentric perspective if the message is ambiguous. Our results may have important implications, as the consensus among eHMI researchers appears to be that egocentric text-based eHMIs should not be used in traffic.