Modeling ratings of in-vehicle alerts to pedestrian by leveraging field operational tests data in a controlled laboratory study

We show how to leverage expensive field operational tests (FOT) data in a controlled laboratory study when defining an in-vehicle algorithm that alerts drivers to pedestrians. We used an empirical approach that quantifies the relative level with which drivers are likely to accept alerts to pedestrians. The approach was used in two studies to investigate a range of contextual factors known to influence driver ratings of alerts to pedestrians issued by a driver-assistance system. Regression analysis shows that four factors consisting of combinations of pedestrian location and motion relative to the road ahead of the vehicle explain 85% of the variability in drivers’ ratings of alerts. Adding two factors related to the uncertainty of the pedestrians’ future path improves the model slightly. These findings suggest that drivers’ assessment of the danger associated with pedestrians derives largely from the possibility that they might move into the vehicle’s path, even when the vehicle is not on a collision course with the pedestrians. The less probable such an event seems, the less accepted an alert will be. Time to arrival (TTA) improved the regression model only when restricted to pedestrians in clear need of an alert, but was also found to have an effect in alert timing. This finding suggests that four contextual factors largely define the perceptual cues that drivers use to rate alerts to pedestrians.     

Effects of driving anger on driver behavior – Results from naturalistic driving data

There is a positive relationship between driving anger and near-crash or crash risk. However, it remains unclear if anger in fact contributes to traffic accidents and whether this happens due to cognitive overload or aggressive driving behaviors. This study investigated how anger affects driving behavior based on naturalistic driving data from the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2). Ten-minute trip segments were analyzed in which drivers exhibited anger with regard to driving errors, violations, and aggressive expressions. This data was compared to a matched baseline consisting of the same drivers not exhibiting anger. Results showed that anger resulted in more frequent aggressive driving behaviors but did not increase driving error frequency. Anger consequently creates danger due to deliberate behaviors rather than because of cognitive overload. In congruence with this finding, only anger triggered by threats, provocations, and frustrations increased the frequency of deliberate infringements. In contrast, anger due to having conflicts with someone on the phone or with a passenger was not linked to any type of aberrant driving behavior. Finally, severe displays of anger were accompanied by more violations as compared to slight or marked anger.     

儿童早期精细动作技能与认知发展的关系

精细动作技能指个体主要凭借手以及手指等部位的小肌肉或小肌肉群而产生的运动, 它可以为个体提供认知经验, 丰富认知对象, 进而促进个体对事物本质的认识。当个体需要将认知资源-注意在两个或多个任务之间进行分配时, 熟练的精细动作可以节省注意资源, 为高级的认知任务更好地服务; 精细动作与认知在发展中不断相互促进, 有些动作是某些认知习得或认知练习的先决条件; 精细动作技能可以预测小学低年级的学业成绩, 尤其是阅读和数学成绩。精细动作技能和认知发展的关系具有大脑神经发育基础, 它们在某种程度上共享相同的脑区, 如小脑和前额叶。因此, 某些认知损伤的病症可以通过精细动作的训练而得到改善和治疗。     

Driver distraction in long-haul truck drivers

Research on driver distraction has typically been conducted by means of epidemiology or experimental testing. The study presented here uses a naturalistic approach, where real-world driving data were collected from truck drivers as they worked their normal delivery runs. Crash, near-crash, and crash-relevant conflict data from 41 long-haul truck drivers, driving approximately 140,000 miles, were examined. Of the 2737 crashes, near-crashes, and crash-relevant conflicts (collectively termed “critical incidents”) that were recorded, 178 were attributed to “driver distraction”. The 178 distraction-related critical incidents were analyzed and 34 unique distraction types were identified. Results showed that a small number of long-haul drivers were involved in a disproportionate number of distraction-related critical incidents. For example, two of the drivers accounted for 43 of the 178 distraction incidents. Important insight was also gained into the relative safety impacts of different distracting agents and behaviors. The frequency and duration of a task, along with the visual demand associated with performing the task, were found to contribute in combination to the prevalence of critical incidents. Finally, it was found that simply because a task does not necessarily require visual attention does not mean that long-haul drivers will not look (sometimes often) away from the roadway. However, it is also clear that visually demanding tasks carry the highest degree of risk, relative to other categories of tasks.     

Should your lips be zipped? How therapist self‐disclosure and non‐disclosure affects clients

Is therapist self‐disclosure a therapeutic technique or a therapeutic mistake? Is it useful? Is it ethical? This study attempts to address this controversy among therapeutic modalities by asking clients about their perceptions of self‐disclosure and non‐disclosure. Eighteen people (16 women, two men), currently in therapy in two Canadian cities, generated 157 incidents of both disclosure and non‐disclosure. The incidents were first coded as helpful or unhelpful. Cross‐tabulation of the results showed that disclosures were more than twice as likely to be experienced as helpful; non‐disclosures were twice as likely to be unhelpful (χ² (3, N=157) = 14.439, p≤0.002). One‐quarter of these incidents was coded by two independent raters; inter‐rater reliability was high (Pearson corr. ranged from 0.755 to 1.0, p≤0.01). The data was then sorted, using the Constant Comparison method, into themes, starting with, but not limited to, the themes suggested by the literature. The greatest single effect was on the therapeutic alliance, both positive and negative. Clients’ perceptions of helpful disclosures and non‐disclosures generally supported therapists’ rationales. There was also some evidence that when clients found disclosures unhelpful, the reasons also supported theoretical rationales against disclosing. Rather than simply supporting either position in the controversy, this study suggests that skill, or lack of it, was the intervening variable that affected the perceptions of both techniques. Further research on the effects of skill on both disclosure and non‐disclosure are warranted. This study has implications for both researchers and practitioners.     

Persistent bias in expert judgments about free will and moral responsibility: a test of the expertise defense

Many philosophers appeal to intuitions to support some philosophical views. However, there is reason to be concerned about this practice as scientific evidence has documented systematic bias in philosophically relevant intuitions as a function of seemingly irrelevant features (e.g., personality). One popular defense used to insulate philosophers from these concerns holds that philosophical expertise eliminates the influence of these extraneous factors. Here, we test this assumption. We present data suggesting that verifiable philosophical expertise in the free will debate—as measured by a reliable and validated test of expert knowledge—does not eliminate the influence of one important extraneous feature (i.e., the heritable personality trait extraversion) on judgments concerning freedom and moral responsibility. These results suggest that, in at least some important cases, the expertise defense fails. Implications for the practice of philosophy, experimental philosophy, and applied ethics are discussed.     

The time-saving bias, speed choices and driving behavior

When drivers are asked to estimate how much time can be saved by increasing speed, they generally underestimate the time saved when increasing from a relatively low speed and overestimate the time saved when increasing from a relatively high speed. This time-saving bias has been demonstrated to affect drivers’ estimations of driving speed as well as drivers’ personal choice of speed. Specifically, drivers with a high time-saving bias chose unduly high speeds, which sometimes results in speeding, more frequently than drivers with a lower degree of the bias. This study sought to determine whether this relationship would be mediated by individual differences in driving behavior – including drivers’ attitudes, norms and habits regarding speeding behavior as well as their level of aberrant driving behavior (committing aggressive or ordinary violations, errors or lapses in driving, measured by the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire). The results showed that the time-saving bias predicted estimations of required speed better than any of these factors, and also better than drivers’ age, gender, education and income, as well as the number of years they have had a license and their monthly driving kilometrage, their prior speeding violations and crash involvement. In predicting drivers’ personal speed choices, the time-saving bias was second only to the frequency of committing ordinary violations.     

Drivers’ decision to speed: A study inspired by the theory of planned behavior

Using structural equation modeling (LISREL 8.71), drivers’ everyday speeding behavior was predicted using the theory of planned behavior as a frame of reference. One hundred and twelve test drivers had a device installed in their vehicles that continuously logged their speeding behavior in a large area under an extended period of time. The test drivers also completed a questionnaire including questions inspired by the theory of planned behavior. It was found that the independent variables stipulated in the theory afforded a level of prediction of drivers’ self-reported speeding as well as of their logged speeding. Attitude towards speeding, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were significant determinants of self-reported speeding. Self-reported speeding, and subjective norm, but not perceived behavioral control, did then contribute to the prediction of drivers’ logged speeding. The fact that perceived behavioral control did not directly contribute to the prediction of drivers’ logged speeding may be due to the possibility that drivers with several years of experience already take into account the actual control they have over the target behavior. As the theory of planned behavior can be used as a frame of reference to predict drivers’ everyday speeding behavior, it is suggested that the drivers might decide on a target behavior and in living up to this decision they continuously monitor their target speed during everyday driving.     

The influence of robotic guidance on error detection and correction mechanisms

New technologies have expanded the available methods to help individuals learn or re-learn motor skills. Despite equivocal evidence for the impact of robotic guidance for motor skill acquisition (Marchal-Crespo, McHughen, Cramer, & Reinkensmeyer, 2010), we have recently shown that robotic guidance mixed with unassisted practice can significantly improve the learning of a golf putting task (Bested & Tremblay, 2018). To understand the mechanisms associated with this new mixed approach (i.e., unassisted and robot-guided practice) for the learning of a golf putting task, the current study aimed to determine if such mixed practice extends to one’s ability to detect errors. Participants completed a pre-test, an acquisition phase, as well as immediate, delayed (24-h), and transfer post-tests. During the pre-test, kinematic data from the putter was converted into highly accurate, consistent, and smooth trajectories delivered by a robot arm. During acquisition, 2 groups performed putts towards 3 different targets with robotic guidance on either 0% or 50% of acquisition trials. Only the 50% guidance group significantly reduced ball endpoint distance and variability, as well as ball endpoint error estimations, between the pre-test and the post-tests (i.e., immediate retention, 24-h retention, and 24-h transfer). The current study showed that allowing one to experience both robotic guidance and unassisted (i.e., errorful) performances enhances one’s ability to detect errors, which can explain the beneficial motor learning effects of a mixed practice schedule.     

语境预测性对中文高低阅读技能儿童预视加工的影响

采用呈现随注视变化的边界范式(boundary paradigm),操作目标词的语境预测性和预视类型,考察高、低阅读技能儿童在词汇预视加工中语境预测效应的差异。结果发现,高、低阅读技能儿童对语境预测性的使用在发生时程上存在差异,高阅读技能儿童从词汇副中央凹预视加工阶段开始利用语境预测性信息,而低阅读技能儿童则在加工晚期更加依赖语境预测性信息,符合预测编码框架理论对儿童语境预测性效应差异的解释。