Driving anger scale validation: Relationship of driving anger with the aberrant driving behaviour of truck drivers

Truck-related accidents in China have substantially increased. Truck driver safety issues have elicited considerable attention from transportation safety researchers. Driving anger is one of the most important factors that influence driving behaviour. However, little knowledge about the driving anger of truck drivers was available in the relevant literature. This study aimed to (1) provide empirical data about the driving anger of truck drivers, (2) examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the driving anger scale (DAS) with a sample of truck drivers and (3) explore how the driving anger of truck drivers predicts their aberrant driving behaviour. The three-part survey data from 475 randomly selected truck drivers were collected in this study. The self-reported aberrant driving behaviour that was measured with the driving behaviour questionnaire was predicted by the drivers’ DAS ratings. One-factor structure and three-factor structure of the DAS were tested for Chinese truck drivers. Results indicated that the one-factor structure of the six-item DAS was more suitable for truck drivers than the three-factor structure. The factor structure of the DAS for Chinese truck drivers was consistent with the structure of the original version by Deffenbacher, Oetting, and Lynch (1994). The internal consistency, convergent validity and criterion-related validity of the six-item DAS were acceptable. Driving anger amongst truck drivers can be used to predict their aberrant driving behaviour. This study identified several practical implications to reduce the driving anger of truck drivers and consequently improve their driving behaviour.     

Cellphone addiction explains how cellphones impair learning for lecture materials

Students' cellphone use has been related to poorer learning, possibly due to greater distraction. This study investigated whether cellphone‐related anxiety, addiction, and disconnection were related to distraction and learning as well as how practical educational policies could minimize negative effects. Participants (N = 218) watched a video lecture and were divided into two groups: cellphone‐allowed for academic use (Use‐Cellphone Group) and no cellphone instruction (No‐Instruction Group). During the lecture, participants received several anonymous text messages and overt distracted was measured. Learning was assessed via a test following the video. Our findings showed that participants in the Use‐Cellphone Group experienced a greater degree of distraction and worse test performance than those in the No‐Instruction Group. Only cellphone addiction and distractedness played key roles in impacting the effects of condition on test performance. Thus, allowing cellphones in class may exacerbate existing cellphone addiction behaviors and impair learning.     

Self-compassion,a better alternative to rumination than distraction as a response to negative mood

Self-compassion – having a healthy, mindful and kind self-attitude – may be a better way to cope with negative experiences than distraction. This was tested in 152 undergraduates who underwent a negative mood induction and then completed either a self-compassionate writing task or a distraction task. Results showed that participants who wrote self-compassionately experienced increases in positive affect while participants who distracted experienced reductions in positive affect. Both groups significantly reduced in negative affect; however, there was no significant difference between them. An interaction was found between rumination and time, demonstrating that high ruminators experienced greater reduction of sadness than low ruminators. The current findings demonstrate greater short-term benefits of approaching a negative mood using self-compassion compared to distraction and results are discussed in the context of the broaden and build theory of positive emotions.     

Disruption of short-term memory by distractor speech: Does content matter?

Four experiments replicate the finding that auditory distractors that are lexically identical to the visual target items dramatically increase the irrelevant-speech effect on serial recall. This effect was previously attributed to interference of incompatible order cues. The present results suggest that a different interpretation of this effect is required. Experiment 2 replicates the order congruence effect observed by Hughes and Jones (2005), but shows that this effect is most likely due to an attenuation of interference that is caused by strategic attention shifts to the nominally irrelevant material. Experiments 3 and 4 show that the between-stream similarity effect generalizes to a condition in which the distractor items were drawn from the same category as the targets, but were not identical to them. By showing that nonacoustic distractor features can increase interference in serial recall of lists of supposedly “meaningless” items such as digits or consonants, the results are most consistent with models that postulate an integration of short-term and long-term memory such as the embedded-processes model and the feature model and are inconsistent with classical structural accounts of memory.     

Greater priming for previously distracting information in young than older adults when suppression is ruled out

The use of previously distracting information on memory tests with indirect instructions is usually age-equivalent, while young adults typically show greater explicit memory for such information. This could reflect qualitatively distinct initial processing (encoding) of distracting information by younger and older adults, but could also be caused by greater suppression of such information by younger adults on tasks with indirect instructions. In Experiment 1, young and older adults read stories containing distracting words, which they ignored, before studying a list of words containing previously distracting items for a free recall task. Half the participants were informed of the presence of previously distracting items in the study list prior to recall (direct instruction), and half were not (indirect instruction). Recall of previously distracting words was age-equivalent in the indirect condition, but young adults recalled more distracting words in the direct condition. In Experiment 2, participants performed the continuous identification with recognition task, which captures a measure of perceptual priming and recognition on each trial, and is immune to suppression. Priming and recognition of previously distracting words was greater in younger than older adults, suggesting that the young engage in more successful suppression of previously distracting information on tasks in which its relevance is not overtly signaled.     

Distraction while driving: The case of older drivers

As the impairment of older drivers is especially found in perception and attention, one could assume that they are especially prone to distraction effects of secondary tasks performed while driving. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of age on driving performance as well as the compensation strategies of older drivers under distraction. 10 middle-aged and 10 older drivers drove in a simulator with and without a secondary task. To assess driving performance the Lane Change Task (Mattes, 2003) was used. This method aims at estimating driver demand while a secondary task is being performed, by measuring performance degradation on a primary driving-like task in a standardized manner. The secondary task – a self-developed computer-based version of “d2 Test of Attention” was presented both with and without time pressure. The results show that older participants’ overall driving performance (mean deviation from an ideal path) was worse in all conditions as compared to the younger ones. With regard to lane change reaction time both age groups were influenced by distraction in a comparable manner. However, when the lane keeping performance (standard deviation of the lateral position) was examined, the older participants were more affected than the younger ones. This pattern could be explained by compensation strategies of the older drivers. They focused on the most relevant part of the driving task, the lane change manoeuvres and were able to maintain their performance level in a similar way as did younger drivers. The driving performance of the older participants was not additionally impaired when the secondary task imposed time pressure. Overall, subjective rating of driving performance, perceived workload and perceived distraction was found to be similar for both age groups. The observed trends and patterns associated with distraction while driving should contribute to the further research or practical work regarding in-vehicle technologies and older drivers.     

Why are auditory novels distracting? Contrasting the roles of novelty, violation of expectation and stimulus change

Past studies show that novel auditory stimuli, presented in the context of an otherwise repeated sound, capture participants’ attention away from a focal task, resulting in measurable behavioral distraction. Novel sounds are traditionally defined as rare and unexpected but past studies have not sought to disentangle these concepts directly. Using a cross-modal oddball task, we contrasted these aspects orthogonally by manipulating the base rate and conditional probabilities of sound events. We report for the first time that behavioral distraction does not result from a sound’s novelty per se but from the violation of the cognitive system’s expectation based on the learning of conditional probabilities and, to some extent, the occurrence of a perceptual change from one sound to another.     

事故驾驶员与安全驾驶员人格特征的比较研究

本研究采用柳井晴夫等人编制的新性格检查问卷,对６０名公交车驾驶员的人格特征进行了测量．结果表明：（１）事故组驾驶员与安全组驾驶员在五个人格特征上存在显著性差异,其中事故组驾驶员攻击性、神经质倾向较强,而持久性、协调性和同情性较差．（２）男性事故组驾驶员与安全组驾驶员在四个人格特征上存在显著性差异,其中事故组驾驶员攻击性和神经质倾向较强,但持久性和协调性较差。（３）女性事故组驾驶员与安全组驾驶员在两个人格特征上存在显著性差异,前者较后者攻击性强,但缺乏同情性．（４）性别在１２项人格特征上无显著性差异．本研究结果可为设计制定专门应用于交通领域的人格测验,以及对驾驶员的选拔、培训、教育和管理提供一定的理论依据．     

HIGH SCHOOL DRIVER EDUCATION USING PEER TUTORS,DIRECT INSTRUCTION,AND PRECISION TEACHING

The authors investigated the combined effects of direct instruction and precision teaching by peer tutors in a high school driver education curriculum. Learners (N = 4) included students with intellectual and learning disabilities and students without disabilities. Peer tutoring was associated with immediate increases in correct responding and a simultaneous and rapid deceleration of errors. Three learners passed the written tests in the driver education classroom, obtained driver's licenses, and produced similar or better driving records than students who did not require assistance. This program is being continued and expanded by school personnel without assistance from the authors.     

THE USE OF PHYSICAL RESTRAINT IN THE TREATMENT OF SELF-INJURY AND AS POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

Two experiments investigated the effects of a treatment package on the self-injurious behavior of three profoundly retarded persons who appeared to enjoy the physical restraints used to prevent their self-injury. The treatment package included physically restraining subjects contingent on increasing periods of time during which no self-injury occurred, and providing them with toys and attention during intervals between restraints. A reversal and multiple-baseline analysis documented that the rapid and complete reduction in self-injury by all subjects was due to this treatment package. Because these results suggested that physical restraint might function as a positive reinforcer, in a third experiment physical restraint was applied contingent on a marble placement response with one subject. A reversal design demonstrated that toy play systematically increased when each response resulted in restraint. The experiments have implications for the nonaversive remediation of self-injury in individuals who are restrained, as well as for the development and maintenance of self-injury in natural settings.