Assessment of proneness to distraction: English adaptation and validation of the Attention-Related Driving Errors Scale (ARDES) and cross-cultural equivalence

Prior research developed the Attention-Related Driving Errors Scale (ARDES), a 19-item questionnaire aimed at evaluating the drivers’ predisposition to attentional error, and also provided validity evidence of ARDES measures across two countries: Argentina and Spain. In the current work we adapt the Spanish version of the ARDES to the English language and the culture, traffic regulations and driving habits of the UK, and then provide new evidence of the cross-cultural equivalence of the scale. First, an improved forward and backward translation design was used to translate the Spanish ARDES into English. A committee-approach review process was also performed during the translation phase to guarantee that the English ARDES was the most appropriate to reflect the language, culture, traffic regulations and driving habits of the UK. Second, the adapted questionnaire was tested on 301 British drivers to inspect its psychometric properties and study the relationships between the ARDES-UK and different socio-demographic variables. In agreement with the previous literature, the results of the factor analysis confirmed a single factor and accounting for 33.84% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha was equal to .89. The observed pattern of relationships of the scores and the different socio-demographic variables was consistent with previous evidence and support the validity of the adapted questionnaire. For example, the ARDES-UK scores were significantly different between drivers reporting and not reporting traffic accidents with material damage. To conclude with, the translation design and the resulting psychometric suggest the validity of ARDES-UK measures for evaluating the British drivers’ predisposition to attentional error. In addition, the evidence in the current work supports the hypothesis of the cross-cultural stability of the scale across Spain and the UK.     

How transport users perceive personal safety apps

Fear of crime and a perceived sense of being unsafe have the potential to discourage individuals from using public transport. This paper presents analysis of the results of a survey on aspects of personal safety apps and how individuals perceive them in relation to their personal safety, privacy and their preference to purchase them. It explores their willingness to download for free or purchase such an app, their impression of features that an app might include such as revealing their location, how they would rate police force monitoring if included as a feature of the app and finally how they would rate a personal safety app against other technologies used to improve perceived transport user safety. The results show that the majority of respondents would consider downloading a personal safety app. Lower levels of engagement with technology, a higher level of education, being resident in the city of Dublin (as opposed to surrounding regions) and privacy concerns tended to make females less likely to consider downloading the app. These findings were not repeated for males. The results suggest that younger respondents were more likely to be negatively impacted by the inclusion of a facility to report location in an emergency on the app, while the older age groups were more likely to be unaffected. For the location tracking feature, cluster membership, gender and resident outside Dublin were significant. Less than half of the respondents would be negatively influenced in their decision to buy the app if a cost of €1.79 were introduced. When respondents were asked about the inclusion of police monitoring as a feature of the app, the results suggested that police monitoring had a more definite effect on perceived personal safety than on privacy.     

Beer Goggles: Blood Alcohol Concentration in Relation to Attractiveness Ratings for Unfamiliar Opposite Sex Faces in Naturalistic Settings

ABSTRACT

The popular notion that alcohol intoxication enhances perceptions of the physical attractiveness of the opposite sex has been inconsistently supported. The current study tested intoxicated and non-intoxicated persons of both genders in naturalistic settings after measuring their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) by a breath test. A sample of 80 heterosexual university student social drinkers was recruited at a campus pub and campus parties over a 3-month period to take a survey rating the attractiveness of unfamiliar faces of the opposite gender presented in photographs. Attractiveness ratings were positively correlated with BAC. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted on attractiveness ratings with independent variables of gender and BAC group, with three levels of the latter: non-intoxicated (BAC = 0), moderately intoxicated (BAC .01%–.09%), and highly intoxicated (BAC .10%–.19%). Both intoxicated groups gave significantly higher attractiveness ratings than non-intoxicated controls. The findings confirm the “beer goggles” phenomenon of folk psychology for both genders, although the mechanism remains unclear.     

Online Telehealth Delivery of Group Mental Health Treatment Is Safe,Feasible, and Increases Enrollment and Attendance in Post-9/11 U.S. Veterans

Post-9/11 U.S. veterans are clinically complex with multiple co-occurring health conditions that lead to increased morbidity and mortality, risk for suicide, and decreased quality of life, but underutilization and resistance to treatment remain significant problems. Increased isolation and decreased community and social support due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have exacerbated mental health risk. This study evaluated the safety and feasibility of home-based telemental health group workshops to improve reintegration and social connection in post-9/11 U.S. military personnel. Seventy-four (61 males/13 females) post-9/11 U.S. military veterans were randomized to receive 12 sessions of STEP-Home cognitive-behavioral group workshop or present-centered group therapy. Treatment was delivered either in person (traditional medical center setting, treatment as usual [TAU]), or via home-based synchronous videoconferencing (VC). The change to VC occurred due to social distancing guidelines during COVID-19. Mean age was 41.0 years (SD = 11.5, range 24–65). Forty-five (36 males/9 females) participated in VC and 29 (25 males/4 females) in TAU. Demographics were similar across treatment milieu. There were no differences in therapist treatment adherence for TAU versus VC. Therapist satisfaction was higher for TAU groups (q value < .05). Veterans showed higher enrollment, attendance, group cohesion, and veteran-to-veteran support for VC compared to TAU (q values < .05). Safety procedures were successfully implemented via VC. Results demonstrate the safety, feasibility, and high satisfaction of group telemental health in U.S. veterans. Higher enrollment and treatment adherence for telemental health delivery resulted in a greater likelihood of receiving an effective treatment dose than TAU. Strong group cohesion and veteran-to-veteran support were achievable via telehealth. Telemental health offers convenient, efficient, and cost-effective care options for veterans and may be particularly helpful for patients with high psychiatric burden.     

领导权力和地位对下属建言的影响——心理安全感的作用

通过实验研究(研究1、2)和多来源、多时点的实地问卷调查(研究3), 本文发现: 领导权力对下属建言有消极作用, 领导地位对下属建言有积极作用; 领导地位调节领导权力对下属建言的影响, 当领导地位较低时, 领导权力对下属建言的负面作用增强, 反之则不显著; 领导地位对权力的调节作用通过下属心理安全感传递至下属建言行为。这一研究结果有助于阐明组织层级差异(如权力、地位)是如何影响下属建言行为的。     

What constitutes traffic event severity in terms of human danger perception?

This study focuses on the severity gradation of non-collision events. Earlier theoretical work has suggested that a proper severity measure for an event should reflect the risk of personal injury, which is often split into two components, including the risk of a collision and the potential consequences had the collision taken place. While a great number of severity measures have been suggested, most of them fail to address both components, thus resulting in counter-intuitive event gradations and inconclusive outcomes in validation studies. Conversely, it has been shown that human observers often show very good agreement when given a task to rank traffic situations by their severity or level of danger. The aim of this study is to investigate in depth how human judgements of the severity of traffic situations can be expressed by means of objective safety indicators. In this study, a set of video-recorded traffic situations, in which a cyclist passes straight through an intersection while a left or right-turning motor vehicle crosses the cyclist’s path, were analysed. Binary logistic regression was used to develop models assessing the most important traffic severity indicators associated with human feelings of danger. The results showed that the initial conditions of a traffic event, defined as a start of an evasive action, contain the most important information for explaining its severity. Moreover, variables related to both proximity and collision consequences are important and should be integrated into severity measures.     

Relationship between driving styles and biological behavior of drivers in negative emotional state

ObjectiveThis paper explores the links between driving style and the biological behavior of people while driving with dangerous negative emotions (such as anger, anxiety, and fear).BackgroundIt is highly important to study the behavior of humans from varying aspects to discover the factors affecting it. Driving style, as one of the critical aspects of the human factor, and biological behavior, as a factor influencing the performance of individuals, motivate us to examine the relationship between the two.MethodFor this purpose, a test was designed to record the biological signal data, namely, the Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electromyogram (EMG), and Electrodermal activity (EDA), in a driving simulator with driving events prompting negative emotions. The Multidimensional Driving Style Inventory (MDSI) was employed to determine the driving style of participants.ResultsCorrelation analysis was engaged for data analysis. The results showed, firstly, a significant relationship between the participants’ driving style and their biological behavior and, secondly, the highest correlation between the EEG signal and driving style. Moreover, participants with a nervous and anxious style showed maximum change in biological behavior, while those with a reckless style displayed minimum alterations in biological behavior at the time of unpleasant events during driving.ConclusionConduction of such research can help better understand the behavior of different people while facing unpleasant driving events.     

Drivers’ and cyclists’ safety perceptions in overtaking maneuvers

Drivers overtaking cyclists on rural roads are a safety concern, as drivers need to handle the interaction with the cyclist and possibly an oncoming vehicle. Improving the maneuver’s outcome requires an understanding of not only the objective, measurable safety metrics, but also the subjective, perceived safety of each road user. Previous research has shown that the perceived safety of the cyclist is most at risk at the passing moment, when driver and cyclist are closest to each other. However, to develop safety measures, it is necessary to know how both road users perceive safety, by understanding the factors that influence their perceptions during the overtaking maneuver. This study measured the perceived safety of drivers in a test-track experiment in Sweden and the perceived safety of cyclists in a field test in Spain. For both drivers and cyclists, we developed Bayesian ordinal logistic regression models of perceived safety scores that take as input objective safety metrics representing the different crash risks at the passing moment. Our results show that while drivers’ perceived safety decreases when there is an oncoming vehicle with a low time-to-collision, cyclists’ perceived safety is reduced by a small lateral clearance and a high overtaking speed. Although our datasets are heterogeneous and limited, our results are in line with previous research. In addition, the Bayesian models presented in this paper are novel and may be improved in future studies once more naturalistic data become available. We discuss how our models may support infrastructure development and regulation, policymaking, driver coaching, the development of active safety systems, and automated driving by providing a possible method for predicting perceived safety.     

Sexual behaviours among dyadic vehicle occupants

Sexual activity while driving is a risky behaviour frequently found across media. However, much is unknown about the practices and roles that dyadic occupants of vehicles (i.e. a driver and passenger) perform when engaging in sexual activity while driving. To cover this gap, a content analysis of sexually explicit media (SEM) was conducted on a sample of 208 videos taken from Pornhub.com. The videos portrayed a naturalistic driving situation of a driver of a moving vehicle engaging in sexual activity with a passenger. Videos were coded for sexual behaviours and characteristics of the vehicle occupants (gender and role). Drivers were generally male, while passengers were female. A range of sexual activities while driving were coded, including oral sex, unclothed and clothed masturbation, varying levels of nudity, and ejaculation. Drivers appear to be the focus of sexual attention, as they are generally the ones receiving sexual acts from the passenger, and predominantly ejaculating. Additionally, female passengers perform oral sex on drivers more often than male passengers, and female vehicle occupants tend to have greater levels of nudist exposure than males. This study highlights the complexities of sexual activity while driving and patterns for consideration when developing interventions.     

The implications of situation and route familiarity for driver-pedestrian interaction at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks

Most routine daily trips take place along the same route, a fact that previous studies have not investigated together with the repeated situation of conflicting with other road users. Consequently, our study addresses driver behaviour by separating the driving experience into three categories: (i) drivers unfamiliar with the route, (ii) those route-familiar, and (iii) situation-familiar drivers. The specific case of driver-pedestrian interaction at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks is investigated. A multi-level factorial experiment including (i) crosswalk design (linear sidewalk and curb extension), (ii) driver familiarity, and (iii) pedestrian time gap acceptance (4, 6, and 8 s) was conducted using a driving simulator. Fifty-two participants were divided into four groups and stratified by age, gender, and driving experience. The minimum instantaneous time to collision, post-encroachment time, maximum car deceleration, and maximum car speed were all used as surrogate safety measures (SSM).Route-familiarity led to higher speed, while situation-familiarity positively affected driving behaviour making drivers more inclined to decrease their speed at circa 100 m before a crosswalk. The curb extension layout enhanced pedestrian safety and mitigated any adverse effects due to familiarity, with a particularly relevant impact on SSM at low accepted time gaps for pedestrians. Situation- and route-familiarity treatment protocols lead to different behaviours among drivers, indicating a clear need to account for these two familiarity levels in experiments on safety-related countermeasures.