Éléments de réflexion pour la mise en œuvre d’une démarche de prévention des risques psychosociaux au travail en France

Preventing social risks at work is an international concern. It has been demonstrated that the work in its all dimensions such as, organizational, technical, technological and relational, involves a multiplicity of constraints. They participate to the degradation of work health and to the organizational performance through to the complex and various mechanisms. The aim of this paper is to explain how a methodological consensus linking the European legislation, national agreements, scientifically theories and tools, and actual work has been gradually introducing in France. Based on theoretical and methodological considerations and on a Return Of Experience (ROE) we demonstrate the necessity to adopt an integrated approach to prevent social risks that focusing more on the work determinants than on individuals’ issues.     

Expedited suppression signal in ocular go/no-go decision

When scrutinizing the visual world, complex and unexpected stimuli often lead to prolonged eye fixations to enhance cognitive processing, likely by temporarily suppressing a planned saccade. The present study examined whether the suppression signal is tightly linked to a specific planned saccade and if it conforms to the viewer's intention. A novel Go/No-go task was devised where participants made consecutive saccades to fixate a stimulus appearing across the screen horizontal meridian in 4° steps. At times, the features of the stimulus (colour and/or shape) were altered when it reappeared at a new location. Participants had to suppress the saccade that would otherwise leave the stimulus if its features matched instructed criteria. Saccade suppression was determined by the reduced probability for saccades towards and away from a target stimulus. Results show both correct suppression to saccades leaving the target and erroneous suppression to saccades towards it. The erroneous suppression was initially observed for any change in features but later lifted. The suppression shortened the length of saccades leaving a target but not those towards it. The initial suppression during previewing the target appears to be based on expedited but incomplete evaluation of visual stimulus, and is not linked to any specific saccade. These properties might reflect the stage of ocular decision based on which the suppression signal is generated. They also account for the phenomenon of “peripheral-to-foveal” effect on eye movements in reading.     

Training interventions are only effective on careful drivers,not careless drivers

Drivers aged 16–24 are overrepresented in fatal crashes compared to middle-aged, more experienced drivers. This age-related difference in crash rates partly arises from younger drivers’ poorer performance on three cognitive skills known to be related to crash involvement: hazard anticipation, hazard mitigation and attention maintenance. Training programs have been shown effective at improving these skills within a short period of time. However, young drivers are not homogenous and they have different driving styles. The driving styles can interact with driving skills by influencing both their acquisition and, once acquired, their execution. A study was undertaken on a driving simulator to determine whether the effectiveness of an already existing training program aimed at improving the three above mentioned skills is moderated by driving style. In particular, drivers were classified as either careful or careless drivers based both on their scores on measures designed to evaluate two general traits relevant to discriminating between careful and careless drivers (sensation seeking and aggressiveness) as well as on their scores designed to evaluate driving specific behaviors that discriminate between careful and careless drivers (aggressive driving behaviors and driving violations and errors). It was found that training improved the hazard anticipation and attention maintenance performance of only the careful drivers, not the careless drivers.     

A method to improve the hazard perception of young novice drivers based on Bandura’s observational learning theory: Supplement to expert commentary training

Compared with experienced drivers, young novice drivers are more likely to have traffic accidents. The main reasons are that they lack experience, their hazard perception is weak, and their visual search strategy is underdeveloped. Research shows that hazard perception training can improve the visual search strategy of young novice drivers and enhance their hazard perception ability. We propose that a driver's visual search behaviour, like any other action, can be developed by observing the behaviour of a role model. In an experiment based on a driving simulator, we clustered the visual search paths of 20 experienced drivers, selected the drivers with the best visual search behaviour, and obtained visual search path video footage to produce hazard perception training videos. Using these videos, we applied Bandura’s observation learning theory to train 20 young novice drivers. We call this approach “training based on experienced drivers' performance”. To determine the effects of training based on experienced drivers' performance, 20 young novice drivers were given the usual expert commentary training, and 20 young drivers were given no training. The results showed that training based on experienced drivers' performance and expert commentary training had positive effects on the average speed of young novice drivers through hazard sections. Compared with untrained young novice drivers, trained young novice drivers decreased their speed in response to dangerous road sections. Compared with young novice drivers who received expert commentary training and those who did not receive training, young novice drivers who received training based on experienced drivers' performance showed significant improvements in visual search. These results suggest that training based on experienced drivers' performance can help young novice drivers improve their hazard perception, especially in visual aspects. This training method can complement existing training methods for young novice drivers.     

Improving drivers’ eye fixation using accident scenes of the HazardTouch driver-training tool

This study investigated the effect of a driver-training tool that uses “HazardTouch” software and videos of actual accidents on drivers’ eye fixation through a tablet device (iPad). Drivers’ eye fixation of a video of a car passing thirteen intersections without signals was measured before and after training, using an eye-mark recorder. Three training exposures of four scenes using HazardTouch improved drivers’ eye fixation on the stimulus movie. In particular, the first fixation on the edge of the blind spot at intersections appeared significantly sooner after training. Moreover, fixation frequency for this blind spot increased significantly at post-training. These results suggest that the proposed driver-training tool effectively improves eye-fixation behavior in drivers and may prevent accidents.     

Affective components in training to ride safely using a moped simulator

The aim of the present research was to compare different methods of training for safe moped use, especially focusing on physiological reactions during risky experiences. By recording skin conductance response (SCR), we investigated whether training that requires active riding behavior in different risky situations through the use of the Honda Riding Training (HRT) simulator leads to different physiological reactivity, which, in turn, might lead to better learning outcomes. Results indicated that participants who rode actively through the HRT showed higher percentages of SCRs than participants who simply observed risky road scenes to spot hazards. SCR percentage was higher in scenes with no accident. Overall, SCR amplitude was greater when accidents occurred than in scenes with no accidents. Implications for the effectiveness of inexperienced riders training with riding simulators were also discussed.     

The analysis of drivers’ hazard detecting ability using Empathizing–Systemizing model

Since there are drivers who repeatedly have accidents, this research postulated that the lack of hazard perception which is a primary cause of accidents might be determined by individual differences in cognitive traits. The Empathizing–Systemizing (E–S) model was used for the cognitive traits, with Empathizing expected to correspond to ability at hazard perception and fewer accidents and/or incidents (near-accidents). On the other hand, Systemizing was not expected to contribute to them. A web questionnaire was conducted to collect data of accidents and incidents experienced during ordinary driving, and this was analyzed. The results showed that drivers with higher Empathy Quotient (EQ) experienced fewer accidents and incidents. The Systemizing Quotient (SQ) had no significant effect on these experiences. However, the experience of incidents by drivers with high Systemizing Quotient increased when their Empathy Quotient was low. Based on these results, it was suggested that drivers who have a stronger Empathizing function may have a stronger ability at hazard perception. On the other hand, the Systemizing function may weaken hazard perception ability when Empathizing is weak, although it does not have an independent effect.