Emotional expressions facilitate human–human trust when using automation in high-risk situations

This study investigated the utility of emotional expression for human decision aids, when human aids conflict with an automated decision support system (DSS). The increasing presence of automation in society has resulted in critical, and often life threatening, situations when information from human and automated sources disagree. It has been known that reliance on human aids decrease during high-risk situations, while reliance on automated aids increase. However, it is also possible that human decision aids gain credibility from users when they embody the charismatic and emotionally expressive gesticulations seen in successful organizational leaders. The present study tested how a human agent's expressiveness when providing information would influence participants' behavioral reliance. Using the program Convoy Leader, participants (n=56) engaged in three decision-making scenarios where risk was manipulated as a within-subject factor and emotional expression as a between-subject factor. Emotional susceptibility, perceived risk, and trust for human as well as automated aids were measured. Overall trust was higher for the automated tool than human decision aid, and that pattern was amplified in conditions without an emotionally expressive human aid. Reliance was greater for emotionally expressive human aids, than stoic human aids, particularly during high risk conditions. The findings suggest that emotional expression of a human aid significantly impacts both reliance and trust of a decision aid, especially at higher risk levels. Emotionally expressive human agents should be utilized in decision conflicts where the automated system has certainly failed.     

Using System-Wide Trust Theory to Make Predictions About Dependence on Four Diagnostic Aids

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether performance on a subsequent exam was affected when two lessons were as similar as possible except that one was presented in class and the other was presented online. In a hybrid course, half of the lessons were presented in the classroom as narrated Power Point presentations and half of the lessons were presented online as narrated Power Point presentations. Online student–teacher interaction took place in a chatroom. Furthermore, for each question on the midterm or final examination, the students had answered a pre-lesson and post-lesson question, integrated with the appropriate lesson, which queried the same fact statement as the exam question. Students performed better on post-lesson questions asked in class than post-lesson questions asked online. They also performed better on exam questions on classroom lessons than exam questions on online lessons. The results support the conclusion that social interaction aids learning.     

Depicting Caribbean Theological Libraries

Theological libraries in the Caribbean have suffered from invisibility, so this study aims to bring these libraries to the fore. It presents key features of the libraries and seeks to determine if these are influenced by the libraries’ denominational affiliation, geographic location, and size. Geographically speaking, the target area was twenty-nine Caribbean territories. Data was gathered using a questionnaire containing mainly open-ended questions in English and Spanish, which was mostly administered face-to-face. The general results are offered first: the number of libraries found, their geographic location—whether in the English, Spanish and Dutch-speaking Caribbean—their denominations, and their size. These results are followed by a more detailed presentation focusing on classification schemes, subject headings, automation, and staffing at the supervisory level. The findings are then analyzed by denomination, location, and size. The article ends with a discussion of the results, comparing theological libraries in the Caribbean with theological libraries in the United States, Asia, and Europe. The study concludes that denomination and location have not affected the findings; but size has to some extent. Also, in some areas, Caribbean theological libraries resemble those in North America, while in others they resemble those in Asia and Europe.     

Use of Level 1 and 2 driving automation on horizontal curves on interstates and freeways

Little is known about how the actual use of Level 1 and 2 driving automation systems may be affected by geometric road characteristics in naturalistic driving environments. This study examined the use of these systems on horizontal curves on interstates and freeways. It used travel data collected in a field operational test conducted with two 2016 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque vehicles equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) and two 2017 Volvo S90 vehicles equipped with ACC and Pilot Assist (PA). Logistic regression models estimated changes in the likelihood of ACC use associated with horizontal curvature in the Evoque vehicles, and of PA and ACC use in the S90 vehicles, while accounting for traffic conditions. Drivers were less likely to drive with ACC or PA on as horizontal curves became sharper. In the Evoque vehicles, the likelihood of using ACC was 71.6% lower on the sharpest category of horizontal curves (those with a degree of curvature>2.5 degrees per 100 feet of arc or a radius smaller than 2,292 feet), compared with straight road segments or the flattest horizontal curve category (those with a degree of curvature <= 1.5 degrees per 100 feet of arc or a radius no <3,820 feet). In the S90 vehicles, the likelihood of using PA and ACC declined 74.6 and 66.3%, respectively, on the sharpest curves. Many driving automation systems face challenges on horizontal curves, even within their operational design domain. Future implementations that improve functionality may enhance driver experience and boost drivers’ confidence in these systems, which should increase their use and maximize the safety benefits these systems might offer.     

Forgiving Computers: The Rise of Automation and Implications for Counseling

It is becoming common for decisions with serious consequences to be made by automation. Therefore, it is important for counselors to consider the challenges of working with clients who are affected. If a high‐consequence decision that leads to tragedy is made by a computer, does this change the counseling process? This article starts this discussion by investigating forgiveness therapy as it applies to computers. First, forgiving a human is qualitatively different from forgiving a computer. Next, examples of automated decisions are presented. Finally, the authors discuss issues that clients wishing to forgive a computer face, suggest interventions, and propose a research agenda.     

A sleep physiologist's view of the drowsy driver

Drowsy driving is dangerous because of the impairment of driving skills that it causes. Unfortunately, the conceptual basis that underlies much of the multi-disciplinary research on this topic is muddled. The same poorly defined terms, such as fatigue and sleepiness, are used differently by different disciplines and researchers. Some new definitions and concepts are proposed here which may be helpful, as least as a stimulus for discussion by others. Drowsiness, sleepiness and fatigue are distinguished. A new conceptual model of sleepiness is outlined, based on a mutually inhibitory interaction between a putative sleep drive and a wake drive. Sleepiness, defined as sleep propensity, is a function of the relative strengths, not the absolute strengths, of the sleep and wake drives. The measurement of sleepiness requires some new variables such as instantaneous sleep propensity, to be distinguished from either the situational or the average sleep propensity. A subject's instantaneous sleep propensity depends on many variables including his average sleep propensity in daily life, the time of day, the duration of prior wakefulness, the subject's posture, physical and mental activity at the time, and individual differences based on psychophysiological traits. The relationship between dozing at the wheel while driving and crashing the vehicle may not be as straightforward as it appears at first.     

Study of unique merging behavior under mixed traffic conditions

Roads in developing countries carry mixed traffic with wide variations in static and dynamic characteristics of vehicles. The traffic flow is also generally devoid of lane discipline, with vehicles occupying any available road space ahead. In such a regime of traffic flow, the phenomena of merging of vehicles at intersections of two roads is complex, warranting further study. The merging maneuvers at T-intersections under congested traffic conditions were studied microscopically through video-recording. In congested situations, the merging vehicle attempts a complex merging maneuver to enter the main traffic stream. Two unique merging processes are commonly observed in mixed traffic: group and vehicle cover merging (these are generally not observed in countries such as US). The author is using these words first time in this study. These reflect the different types of driver behavior – merging in groups, and by taking cover of another vehicle. Probabilistic models for group and vehicle cover merging are developed that capture this unique merging behavior. Comprehensive microscopic data collection and extraction were carried out to study the merging process at T-intersection under congested conditions. Merging models were then estimated using maximum likelihood method with disaggregate data that was collected for a case study T-intersection in Chennai city, India. Such models can find applications in simulation of highly congested traffic flow in a realistic manner under mixed traffic conditions. They can also give insights on devising better traffic control measures at such intersections.     

五论以用户为中心的设计:从自动化到智能时代的自主化以及自动驾驶车

综述人因学在人-自动化交互、人-自主化(autonomy)交互以及人机组队(human-machine teaming)方面的研究,梳理了自动化与自主化的人因学特征和问题,通过建立一个自主化、自动化与人工干预三者之间关系的概念模型来表征自主化人因学的问题空间。总结了智能自主化技术所带来的新型人机合作关系,促使采用新的人因学研究和应用范式,重新评估现有的人因学理论、方法以及今后的研究。针对自主化技术的应用,分析当前自动驾驶车设计中的人因学问题。呼吁在自动驾驶车研发中要重视人因学问题,人因学要提供学科支持和完整的人因学解决方案。