Sequential dependencies in driving

The effect of recent experience on current behavior has been studied extensively in simple laboratory tasks. We explore the nature of sequential effects in the more naturalistic setting of automobile driving. Driving is a safety-critical task in which delayed response times may have severe consequences. Using a realistic driving simulator, we find significant sequential effects in pedal-press response times that depend on the history of recent stimuli and responses. Response times are slowed up to 100 ms in particular cases, a delay that has dangerous practical consequences. Further, we observe a significant number of history-related pedal misapplications, which have recently been noted as a cause for concern in the automotive safety community. By anticipating these consequences of sequential context, driver assistance systems could mitigate the effects of performance degradations and thus critically improve driver safety.     

性别二态线索对男性面孔吸引力影响的方法差异之争

性别二态线索(男性化-女性化线索)对男性面孔吸引力的影响一直存在不一致的结果,研究者主要从方法差异对此不一致性进行解释.本文首先对操作男性化面孔刺激的不同计算机图像处理技术进行了阐述,主要包括性别二态技术、感知男性化技术和青春期发展技术,并进一步梳理了以往采用不同技术进行比较的相关研究,最后对未来研究提出了展望.     

Emotion development system by interacting with human EEG and natural scene understanding

In this paper, we propose a mental development system for understanding the emotional status of humans, and sharing emotions with human subjects. According to the relationship between emotional factors and characteristics of an image, we incorporate the fuzzy concept to extract emotional features using L^*C^*H^* color and orientation information. On the other hand, we also consider the EEG signals which are stimulated by natural stimuli to form the semantic emotional features as well. Emotionally relevant features are firstly clustered into two categories with degrees of belongingness to each cluster to initialize the membership functions of a neuro-fuzzy system. The IF-THEN rules of a neuro-fuzzy system to understand the positive and negative human emotions will be constructed by interacting with human. Then the system attempts to extend the number of understandable emotion. Through the time, the system sub-clusters the emotional features so that the number of membership function of the neuro-fuzzy network will increase to incorporate more complicated human expertise considering more human emotions. Using such a developmental process, the proposed system can develop a mental ability to understand more complex human emotions by mining the characteristics of emotional features and interacting with its environment.     

Changes in verbalizations during sandplay: an empirical study

This is a quantitative study of an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with major depression who in all but one session made a sandplay. A computerized system was used to analyse the written verbalizations on four dimensions of positive and negative: emotions, contracts (psychosocial agreements, relationships, etc.), performance (behaviour) and rewards. It was hypothesized that the verbalizations made by the patient (recorded by the therapist) would become more positive and less negative during the course of therapy. The positive and negative values of the four dimensions were correlated with the session number. This was supported on two (performance & contract) of the four positive dimensions (statistically significant). The hypothesis that the negative dimensions would become less negative was supported on all four dimensions (statistically significant). Thus, six of the eight hypotheses were supported. This uninvestigated area of research illustrates verbal interactions between patient and therapist were an important aspect of sandplay therapy. Through reanalysing the sessions for quantitative content, written recording of direct quotes and observation of behaviour, data was entered into a valid and reliable coding system to quantitatively analyze the verbalizations. This analysis of verbalizations of the patient and observations made by the therapist indicates sandplay therapy is multifaceted.     

Individual differences in reading aloud: A mega-study,item effects,and some models

Normal individual differences are rarely considered in the modelling of visual word recognition – with item response time effects and neuropsychological disorders being given more emphasis – but such individual differences can inform and test accounts of the processes of reading. We thus had 100 participants read aloud words selected to assess theoretically important item response time effects on an individual basis. Using two major models of reading aloud – DRC and CDP+ – we estimated numerical parameters to best model each individual’s response times to see if this would allow the models to capture the effects, individual differences in them and the correlations among these individual differences. It did not. We therefore created an alternative model, the DRC-FC, which successfully captured more of the correlations among individual differences, by modifying the locus of the frequency effect. Overall, our analyses indicate that (i) even after accounting for individual differences in general speed, several other individual difference in reading remain significant; and (ii) these individual differences provide critical tests of models of reading aloud. The database thus offers a set of important constraints for future modelling of visual word recognition, and is a step towards integrating such models with other knowledge about individual differences in reading.     

“Walking the talk”: the role of frontline supervisors in preventing workplace accidents

ABSTRACT

Most existing safety research focuses on climate and leadership, with most leadership studies investigating transformational leadership, which is likely to be more impactful when exhibited by executives that by frontline supervisors. Therefore, focusing on frontline supervisors, we investigate how leaders who “walk the talk”, by directly modelling safety behaviours, might encourage subordinates to behave more safely. Using a three-level sample consisting of 579 employees and their supervisors working in 161 groups within 53 organizations, we test a multisource multilevel indirect effects model. Results indicate that safety climate and supervisors modelling safety compliance explain unique variance in safety outcomes. We then addressed an unanswered question concerning whether safety climate is best conceptualized as a group or organizational-level phenomenon, finding that the group-level assessment of safety climate explained more variance in safety outcomes than the organizational-level assessment of safety climate. Both sets of results are consistent with social information processing theory and social learning theory, which highlight the immediate social environment’s influence on employees’ behaviour.     

Simulation and multi‐attribute utility modelling of life cycle profit

Investments on capital goods are assessed with respect to the life cycle profit as well as the economic lifetime of the investment. The outcome of an investment with respect to these economic criteria is generally non‐deterministic. An assessment of different investment options thus requires probabilistic modelling to explicitly account for the uncertainties. A process for the assessment of life cycle profit and the evaluation of the adequacy of the assessment is developed. The primary goal of the assessment process is to aid the decision‐maker in structuring and quantifying investment decision problems characterized by multiple criteria and uncertainty. The adequacy of the assessment process can be evaluated by probabilistic criteria indicating the degree of uncertainty in the assessment. Bayesian inference is used to re‐evaluate the initial assessment, as evidence of the system performance becomes available. Thus authentication of contracts of guarantee is supported. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate features of the described life cycle profit assessment process. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.