Communicating safety with drivers via dynamic message signs

In recent years numerous transportation agencies have begun displaying creative safety messages like “get your head out of your apps” on dynamic message signs (DMS). DMS have been used traditionally to provide real-time information about travel times, weather conditions, construction, and incidents. Applying emotional and consequential concepts from protection motivation theory, which has a track record of leading to behavioral changes from public awareness campaigns, this study evaluates how the use of safety messages on DMS impacts driver perceptions. We find that emotions, but not consequences, impact self-reported driving behavior. Further, while drivers reported negative emotions would change their driving habits, positive messages were recalled far more often. Cell phone related messages were recalled most frequently despite being rarely displayed along roadways in Michigan where the study is conducted. Thus, the results support the use of positively themed messages with consequences that drivers perceive as realistic.     

Sexual promiscuity & self-control: A behavior genetic explanation to an evolutionary question

Within separate academic disciplines there exist two consistent findings that have emerged. Behavior geneticists, on one hand, continue to uncover moderate to high heritability estimates for virtually every human trait measurable. Evolutionary psychologists, on the other hand, have thoroughly documented species-wide universality in various human traits, suggesting that natural (or sexual) selection may have directly favored such outcomes. The goal of the current study, then, is to explore ways in which these lines of inquiry can be united via the use of behavior genetic methodologies coupled with evolutionary thought. Additionally, we attempt to unite our findings in a framework that can both account for the existence of heritable individual differences, while also understanding the importance of species-wide characteristics.     

Validation of the Cycling Behavior Questionnaire: A tool for measuring cyclists' road behaviors

IntroductionEven though cycling is an activity whose benefits in terms of urban mobility and health are globally recognized, its disproportional growth during the past few decades has led to some unexpected dynamics. In fact, the increasing number of traffic injuries and deaths involving cyclists has a high cost for public health systems. Considering the available empirical evidence, aberrant and positive behaviors on the road constitute relevant predictors for the injuries suffered by road users. Nevertheless, the scarcity of tools that measure and evaluate the behavior of road users, especially in the case of cyclists, constitutes a serious lack in terms of explaining, intervening and preventing traffic crashes through behavioral approaches.ObjectiveThis study had two essential purposes: first, to describe in detail the validation of measurement of risky and positive road user behaviors of cyclists using the Cycling Behavior Questionnaire. Second, to compare the mean scores of the validated version of the CBQ according to demographic and cycling-related factors.MethodAs a part of a larger collaborative research project, our data was collected from 1064 Spanish-speaking cyclists (between 17 and 80 years old) from 20 countries, who filled out an anonymous electronic survey on their riding behaviors. The data was analyzed using competitive Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA), thus obtaining basic psychometric values and an optimized structure for the scale.ResultsThe obtained results suggest that the CBQ has a clear factorial structure, items with high factorial weight, and good internal consistency. In particular, the results of the latent variable model with three factors, which were labeled errors, violations and positive behaviors, show that the CBQ is satisfactorily adjusted.ConclusionThe findings of this research support the idea that the CBQ may have important applications in the improvement of road safety through the study of cyclists' behavioral factors and their relationship to demographic and cycling-related factors.     

Changing commuters’ behavior using rewards: A study of rush-hour avoidance

In a 13-week field study conducted in The Netherlands, participants were provided with daily rewards – monetary and in-kind, in order to encourage them to avoid driving during the morning rush-hour. Participants could earn a reward (money or credits to keep a Smartphone handset), by driving to work earlier or later, by switching to another mode or by teleworking. The collected data, complemented with pre and post measurement surveys, were analyzed using longitudinal techniques and mixed logistic regression. The results assert that the reward is the main extrinsic motivation for discouraging rush-hour driving. The monetary reward exhibits diminishing sensitivity, whereas the Smartphone has endowment qualities. Although the reward influences the motivation to avoid the rush-hour, the choice how to change behavior is influenced by additional factors including education, scheduling, habitual behavior, attitudes, and travel information availability.     

International publication trends of JABA authorship

The present study addressed international publication trends in JABA authorship between 1970 and 1999. First, we analyzed authorship patterns to identify trends in the appearance of new first authors, unfamiliar authors, and frequent contributors. Second, articles were assigned to either a North American or an international category. The data show a decline in the number of articles by new authors and an increase in the publications of frequent contributors from North America. Trends are shown in comparison to those from the American Journal on Mental Retardation.     

Comparison of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral one-session exposure treatments for small animal phobias

This study evaluated the efficacy of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral one-session exposure treatment procedures with and without programmed generalization for participants with small animal phobias. Forty participants were randomly assigned to the treatment and generalization conditions. Both treatments produced significant improvements from pre-test to post-test and these results were maintained for 1 year. The treatment effect sizes ranged from large to very large across behavioral, self-report, and subjectively rated measures. Participants in the behavioral treatment condition reported that the treatment was significantly more intrusive than participants in the cognitive-behavioral treatment group. The programmed generalization condition did not produce additional measured benefit. The results are discussed in terms of the overall effectiveness of one-session exposure treatment components for small animal phobias.     

Are American children's problems still getting worse? A 23-year comparison

Child Behavior Checklists were completed in home interviews by parents of 7–16-year-olds in 1976, 1989, and 1999. Competence scores decreased from 1976 to 1989, but increased in 1999. Problem scores increased from 1976 to 1989 and decreased in 1999 but remained higher than in 1976. Items, empirically based scales, and DSM-oriented scales showed similar patterns for demographically similar nonreferred samples assessed in 1976, 1989, and 1999 and for national samples that included referred children assessed in 1989 and 1999. For the 114 problem items that were common to the 1976, 1989, and 1999 assessments, the Q correlation was .98 between the mean scores on the 114 items in 1976 versus 1989 and was .94 between the mean scores on the 114 items in 1976 vs. 1999. This indicated very high stability in the rank ordering of item scores across intervals up to 23 years. For all children, the 1-year prevalence rate for mental health services use was 13.2% in 1989 versus 12.8% in 1999. For children with deviant Total Problems scores, the 1989 prevalence for service use was 30.5 versus 26.6% in 1999. Neither difference was statistically significant.     

Anxiety and counter-conditioning: the role of the behavioral inhibition system in the ability to associate aversive stimuli with future rewards

A total of 130 female undergraduates performed a counter-conditioning choice-task. This task presented two response alternatives and subjects were instructed to earn the maximum number of points. Responses to button 1 were normally followed by an immediate reward (an average gain of 7.5 points). Responses to button 2 were always followed by a punishment (an average loss of 20 points), but caused the next-but-one press on button 1 to give an average gain of 115 points. Thus, subjects were required to learn and maintain this counter-conditioning association. Four groups of subjects were formed according to the scores on the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward scales (which are measures of individual differences of Gray's anxiety and impulsivity personality dimensions, respectively). A 69.2% of subjects learned and maintained the counter-conditioning association. As predicted, personality results confirmed that subjects with lower scores on the Sensitivity to Punishment scale learned the counter-conditioning association better and faster when compared with high scorers. Results are consistent with Gray's Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) model of anxiety which holds that individual differences in anxiety may relate to the ability to associate aversive stimuli with a future reward. Assuming that anxiety depends on BIS functioning, our results show that high trait anxious subjects, if compared with low anxious ones, would have a lower ability for associating an aversive event with a later appetitive one. This learning process would serve non-anxious subjects to reduce the aversiveness of cues of punishment and to cope better with stressful situations.     

Measurement and Non-Measurement Influences of Test-Session Behavior on Individually Administered Measures of Intelligence

Two nested structural models were developed to determine whether test-session behaviors affect the manner in which intelligence is measured or whether their influence is related to the constructs being measured. Children’s test-session behaviors were assessed using the Guide to the Assessment of Test-Session Behaviors for the WISC-III and WIAT (GATSB; Glutting & Oakland, 1993) and intelligence was measured with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991). Model 1 investigated relationships between test-session behaviors and the WISC-III’s four-factor solution by first evaluating the underlying factor structure of the instruments. Thereafter, this measurement model served as a baseline against which alternative models were compared. The alternative models considered the influence of test-session behaviors on: (a) the subtests used to measure the WISC-III’s constructs of intelligence, and (b) the actual constructs of intelligence. Model 2 explored similar relationships by considering only the WISC-III’s Verbal and Performance dimensions. Results indicate that test-session behaviors play a larger role influencing the mechanisms through which intelligence is measured than on the actual constructs of intelligence. Implications are discussed for clinical practice.     

A within-subject analysis of stimulus control therapy with severe sleep-onset insomnia.

Stimulus control, a behavioral technique designed to reduce sleep difficulties, has been demonstrated to be effective when compared with control procedures. These comparisons, mainly involving between-subjects analyses, have neglected the contribution of the stimulus control procedure to the production of clinically significant amelioration of sleep dysfunction. In contrast, the present within-subjects experiment was conducted to assess the capability of stimulus control to produce clinically relevant reductions in multiple measures of sleep disturbance. A comparison with the credible placebo procedure indicated that the stimulus control techniques reduced subjects' sleep onset latency to a mean latency below 30 min per week. Additionally, sedative-hypnotic usage was greatly reduced.