Promoting safety belt use among state employees: the effects of prompting and a stimulus-control intervention.

This study assessed the effects of dashboard stickers and signature sheets on safety belt use among occupants of state-owned vehicles in three Florida agencies. The stickers and signature sheets contained information regarding a regulation requiring safety belt use and a consequence of a 25% reduction in benefits for noncompliance if the driver were to become involved in an accident. Safety belt use significantly increased during the intervention phase in all three agencies and maintained variable but high levels for 5 months. In Agency 1 and Agency 2 (stickers plus signature sheets) safety belt use increased from averages of 10.8% and 9.4% during baseline to 57.4% and 47.0%, respectively, during intervention. In Agency 3 (stickers only) the rates of safety belt use averaged 9.7% during baseline and 38.0% during intervention. Some increases in private vehicle use were observed. A substantial reduction in workers'' compensation claim costs was shown for the target agencies with some reductions also shown in the nontarget agencies.     

PROMPTING PATRON SAFETY BELT USE AT A SUPERMARKET

We used a reversal (ABAB) design to assess the effects of a personal prompt on safety belt usage by grocery store patrons. A personal prompt delivered by grocery carriers resulted in a 12% increase in the number of patrons exiting the parking lot with their safety belts buckled. This simple, low-cost intervention offers potential savings to society from increased safety belt use.     

A temporal parameter influencing choice between signalled and unsignalled shock schedules

The present study investigated whether choice of a signalled variable-time shock schedule over an unsignalled one was influenced by the average intershock interval. Eight rats were given a choice between signalled and unsignalled shock schedules in a series of conditions with average intershock intervals of 510, 270, 150, 90, 60, and 45 sec. Each test condition was preceded by a training-baseline condition, and schedule values were arranged in an ascending (four subjects) or descending (four subjects) order. Choice of the signalled conditions was directly related to the average intershock interval of the variable-time schedule for six of the eight subjects. The per cent of time in the signalled condition was highest when the average intershock interval was 150 sec or longer and lowest when the average intershock interval was 45 sec. The findings were interpreted as being due to changes in the safety features of the signalled schedule, rather than to changes in the average intershock interval per se.     

PARTICIPATIVE EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN: AN EFFECTIVE APPROACH TO INCREASE SAFETY BELT USE

Vehicle license plate numbers and the shoulder belt use of front-seat occupants were recorded unobtrusively when parents delivered and picked up their children at a Montessori school during 5-day baseline, intervention, and follow-up phases. Practicing and presenting a 15-min safety belt skit increased the safety belt use of those 6 kindergarten children who were not consistent belt users 82% above their preintervention baseline belt use mean of 47%. The belt use of these children's parents (who watched the skit) increased to 56% above their baseline mean of 36%. Also, mean safety belt use of 11 primary school children who watched the skit increased to 70% above their baseline of 28%. Mean safety belt use of the older children's parents (who didn't watch the skit) remained at approximately 31% for each phase, regardless of whether children were vehicle occupants. The follow-up observations, taken 3 months after the intervention, revealed 60% belt use for the kindergartners, 48% for the primary school children, and 71% for the kindergartners' parents when the children were vehicle occupants but only 30% when the parents were driving alone.     

SELF-ADMINISTERED WRITTEN PROMPTS TO TEACH HOME ACCIDENT PREVENTION SKILLS TO ADULTS WITH BRAIN INJURIES

This study evaluated the use of written checklists and task analyses as self-administered prompts to teach home accident prevention skills to 4 adults with brain injuries. Subsequent to baseline, participants used written checklists that identified potential in-home hazards but did not prompt behaviors necessary for hazard remediation. Written individualized task analyses, incorporating specific behavioral steps for correcting hazards that participants had failed to remediate during the checklist phase, were used to prompt appropriate responding when necessary. These were subsequently faded to transfer stimulus control to the natural conditions. A multiple probe technique across participants and settings was used. Results indicated that the checklist alone was sufficient to increase appropriate responses to many of the potential hazards. Individualized task analyses, when needed, resulted in appropriate remediation of all potential hazards. Generalization to untrained potential hazards occurred to some degree for all participants. Follow-up results showed that most skills trained were maintained over a 1-month period.     

A single-subject approach to evaluating vehicle safety belt reminders: Back to basics

A single-subject ABA reversal design was applied to evaluate the effectiveness of a limited 8-s safety belt reminder system and two modified reminder systems (a delayed and second reminder) to increase the safety belt use of 13 drivers. The research was conducted with a specially equipped research vehicle that permitted the manipulation of different safety belt reminder stimuli and the unobtrusive recording of a driver's belt use. For 2 subjects, the limited 8-s reminder increased safety belt use. For another 2 subjects, the second reminder markedly increased belt use. Some subjects were uninfluenced by the reminder systems presented; others always buckled up during both baseline and intervention conditions. The approach and results are discussed with regard to the application of behavior analysis methodologies (e.g., cumulative records) and principles (e.g., schedules of reinforcement) to advance the utility and investigation of safety belt reminder systems.     

TEACHING ADULTS WITH SEVERE AND PROFOUND RETARDATION TO EXIT THEIR HOMES UPON HEARING THE FIRE ALARM

Prompting, modeling, and differential reinforcement with client-chosen rewards were used to teach 3 nonverbal people with severe to profound mental retardation to exit their group homes at the sound of the house fire alarm, using a multiple baseline design. All 3 participants learned to exit independently in less than 2 min in all experimenter-initiated surprise fire drills and in the majority of staff-initiated surprise fire drills. Each participant was also able to exit from five areas of the house from which teaching was not done.     

Creating the conditions for psychological safety and its impact on quality coach-athlete relationships

In this study, we investigated the notion that giving voice to athletes is an important aspect to creating a psychologically safe environment which can then feed into maintaining good quality coach-athlete relationships where every athlete feels heard, valued, and connected. 379 athletes completed a multi-section questionnaire that assessed their (a) capacity to be open and manage conflict with their coaches, (b) perceptions of psychological safety within their team or group, and (c) perceptions of the coach-athlete relationship quality. Structural equation modelling revealed that openness and conflict management positively predicted psychological safety which, in turn, positively predicted coach-athlete relationship quality. Psychological safety was found to explain the association between athletes’ communication (i.e., capacity to be open, honest and transparent as well as manage interpersonal conflict effectively) and coach-athlete relationship quality regardless of athletes’ gender. These findings highlighted that if athletes have the capacity to have candid discussions and can navigate conflict with their coaches, then it is possible to feel psychologically safe and thus able to engage in risky interpersonal interactions (e.g., raise concerns, admit mistakes) within their group context without fear of intimidation and humiliation. Furthermore, it was revealed that such a psychologically safe group environment fostered athletes’ trust and respect, as well as commitment and cooperation with their coach. The discussion provides links to theory, research and practice.     

Safety Planning Within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a contextual behavioral psychotherapy that helps clients build meaningful lives in the service of their own chosen values, rather than specifically focusing on symptom reduction or prevention of destructive behaviors. However, empowering ACT clients to navigate suicidal crises effectively is vital to ensuring the opportunity to build a life they will choose to live. Suicide safety planning is a widely used empirically supported approach to prepare clients to survive suicidal crises, and can be effectively incorporated into ACT. In this paper, we offer a contextual behavioral conceptualization of suicide as an extreme attempt to solve the problem of painful thoughts, emotions, and sensations, and provide an example of how this conceptualization and the necessity of safety planning can be introduced to clients. Use of chain analysis of suicidal behavior is introduced as a tool to inform the suicide safety plan. We describe how ACT processes can enhance safety plans and, in turn, create safety plans that will serve as means to develop skills associated with efficacious/effective ACT interventions. Finally, we discuss the ongoing evaluation and revision of the safety plan from an ACT framework.     

伪忽视行为表现与神经基础及交通驾驶应用

伪忽视是健康个体存在轻微偏左的不对称空间注意。影响这个现象的因素主要包括刺激材料、年龄、认知负荷和知觉负荷等。其中, 眼动搜索习惯曾经被认为是伪忽视现象的主要因素, 甚至提出伪忽视是眼动偏好现象。但是, 最近文献研究普遍认为, 伪忽视不是眼动行为, 而是注意特质。近10年的大脑神经层面的证据发现, 右脑腹侧注意网络对左侧空间注意偏好有较大的贡献, 而且在神经传导束的证据中也发现右脑大纵束二型对左侧空间注意的激活程度高于其他两种类型的传导束。另外, 注意偏好的时间分辨率研究发现, 注意的左侧空间偏向发生在注意发生后的100~200 ms之内, 眼动搜索时间则是在1500 ms之内出现最大左偏。该现象的应用研究主要体现在交通驾驶员的注意能力和驾驶视觉搜索模式的关系研究。研究意义在于为安全交通提供两条原则, 首先, 道路交通驾驶环境设置要满足驾驶员的注意特质的需求; 其次, 通过合理干预, 可以抑制视觉搜索习惯, 培养安全的驾驶搜索模式。