A focus group study on the potential of autonomous vehicles as a viable transportation option: Perspectives from people with disabilities and public transit agencies

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is becoming one of the most promising alternatives to improve mobility for people with disabilities. Nevertheless, how people with disabilities perceive AV as transportation services has not been explored. Also, limited information exists about how public transit agencies comprehend and perceive autonomous vehicle transportation (AVT) services. This study discusses mobility issues for people with disabilities and explores the potential of AVT to serve that population, particularly those with visual impairments or physical disabilities. Researchers conducted six focus groups comprising people with disabilities (N = 23) and public transit service experts (N = 10) in Austin, Texas and Houston, Texas. Each session was audio-recorded and analyzed using conventional content analysis. This study identified people with disabilities’ mobility issues related to: (1) current transit services (including fixed-route and paratransit services) and (2) the quality of neighborhood built environments. Both people with disabilities and transit experts expected that AVT could mitigate current mobility issues, especially in improved built environments. However, participants with disabilities also expressed concerns and anxieties regarding AVT. Transit experts agreed that more targeted strategies would be needed to overcome possible barriers to AVT for people with disabilities. This study provides insights on shaping AVT strategies and policies relevant to improving mobility for people with disabilities.     

视觉空间工作记忆组间差异的神经机制

为考察视觉空间工作记忆（working memory, WM）维持和操作的组间差异及其神经机制,本研究记录了高、低WM组完成延迟再认（维持）任务和心理旋转（操作）任务时的行为和事件相关电位数据。结果发现,在操作任务中,高WM组比低WM组的反应时显著更短;高WM组的中前额叶慢波显著更正、双侧后顶区慢波显著更负,并且两者的波幅显著负相关。在维持任务中,两组被试的反应时无显著差异;高WM组的中前额叶慢波显著更正。结果表明,高WM组的执行注意能力可能更强,能通过有效调节和分配加工资源来表征视觉信息。     

青少年的同伴选择与同伴影响：基于学业投入与学业成就的纵向社会网络分析

以756名中学生为研究对象,对学业投入、学业成就、同伴团体进行追踪测量,探讨青少年同伴团体的学业投入及学业成就是否存在同伴选择与同伴影响效应。结果表明：（1）在1年的追踪时间中,青少年学业投入的发展呈下降趋势,初始水平与下降速度负相关,学业成就的发展呈上升趋势,初始水平与上升速度无显著相关;（2）学业投入与学业成就存在同伴选择效应,青少年倾向选择与自己学业投入及学业成就相似的个体构建同伴团体;（3）青少年的学业投入及学业成就与同伴逐渐趋近相似,即同伴影响效应显著。     

GROUP FORAGING SENSITIVITY TO PREDICTABLE AND UNPREDICTABLE CHANGES IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION: PAST EXPERIENCE OR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES?

The ideal free distribution theory (Fretwell & Lucas, 1970) predicts that the ratio of foragers at two patches will equal the ratio of food resources obtained at the two patches. The theory assumes that foragers have "perfect knowledge" of patch profitability and that patch choice maximizes fitness. How foragers assess patch profitability has been debated extensively. One assessment strategy may be the use of past experience with a patch. Under stable environmental conditions, this strategy enhances fitness. However, in a highly unpredictable environment, past experience may provide inaccurate information about current conditions. Thus, in a nonstable environment, a strategy that allows rapid adjustment to present circumstances may be more beneficial. Evidence for this type of strategy has been found in individual choice. In the present experiments, a flock of pigeons foraged at two patches for food items and demonstrated results similar to those found in individual choice. Experiment 1 utilized predictable and unpredictable sequences of resource ratios presented across days or within a single session. Current foraging decisions depended on past experience, but that dependence diminished when the current foraging environment became more unpredictable. Experiment 2 repeated Experiment I with a different flock of pigeons under more controlled circumstances in an indoor coop and produced similar results.     

Promoting political empowerment: evaluation of an intervention with university students

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of an intervention, focusing on the development of political empowerment, with university students. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (intervention/control) and were surveyed at two time points: before implementation of the intervention and upon completion of the intervention (or the equivalent two semester period). ANCOVA analyses reveal that individuals who participated in the empowering intervention had increased feelings of political commitment and a decreased sense of political efficacy compared to individuals who were randomly assigned to a waiting list/control group. Finally, limitations of this study are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.     

Groups to Resolve Conflicts Between Groups: Diplomacy with a Therapeutic Dimension

The group self, an individual's self-perception as a member of a group, is distinguished from the group's self, a personification of the group as a person with a self. The perceived group's self of an opposing other group is often a repository for attributes group members are not ready to recognize in their own group's self. Theoretically, the need for an adversarial other to hold one's own group's unwanted attributes—and thus to complete one's own group's self—contributes, however unconsciously, to the apparent intractability of intergroup disputes. In dealing with these issues, I compare intergroup conflict resolution (ICR) groups with therapy groups, on the one hand, and advocacy groups on the other. All of this sets the stage for a presentation of two ICR projects and their analysis in group-developmental terms.     

Envy and Generosity Between Co-Therapists

This paper explores the dynamics of envy and generosity between co-therapists. Generally speaking, co-therapists can be drawn into the same social comparisons (overt and covert), competitiveness, and envy as their group members. The list of valued resources can include the group's affection, appreciation, and recognition, or, more generally, one's status, popularity, creativity, sensitivity, understanding, or parental functioning. The group in turn, will sometimes tend to divide the therapists into the good one and the bad one in order to serve its own developmental needs. This process can increase the tension between the therapists, and feed their envy. I present an argument for processing those feelings and assert that awareness of co-therapist envy can promote the expression of generosity and enhance the capacity of group members for similar experiences. Clinical material will be presented to demonstrate how this works.     

Cultural Identity and Groups of Belonging

Research into the cultural foundations of psychic structure must take place simultaneously at the individual, group, and psychosocial level of analysis. Identity, as both an individual and a collective phenomenon, and the primacy of the group dimension become manifest in the imaginary space created by groups, in Bion's protomental system. Cultural incorporates function like somatic processes and establish the synchrony of all cultural interactions. Individuation would thus emerge from the shared common base, which in turn is related to the individual's internalization of his group of belonging. A distinction is drawn between primary groups of belonging, which are extensions of family structure and supply the group's cultural identity, and secondary belonging groups, which are instituted by the society. The relationship between transcultural experiences, aiming at achieving unity, and intercultural experiences, which recognize limits and differences, is a source of tension for the individual and the group. Examples are given of the function of excitation screens within instituted groups and of the cultural dimension of the analytic setting.     

Post-decision consolidation: group members in different social settings compared to individual decision makers

Two experiments were conducted to examine how making decisions in a 3-member group affects the degree of post-decision consolidation, defined as attractiveness changes in favor of the chosen alternative. Both experiments were conducted in two sessions one week apart. In the first session (decision phase), participants estimated the importance of each of four different attributes describing two decision alternatives. They were then shown predetermined attractiveness ratings on each of the attributes and were to decide on the two alternatives, either individually or as a group. In the second session (post-decision phase), the participants were to attempt to recall the attractiveness ratings for the attributes as presented to them in session one. In both experiments, significant post-decision consolidation was found for individual decision makers but not for group members. In experiment 2, this result was replicated, no difference in consolidation being found between group members with face-to-face interaction and without.     

Making a Difference: The Social Ecology of Social Transformation

A multidisciplinary and multilevel framework for social transformation is proposed, encompassing four foundational goals: capacity-building, group empowerment, relational community-building, and culture-challenge. Intervention approaches related to each goal are presented at the setting, geographic community, and societal levels. Four exemplars of social transformation work are then discussed: the Accelerated Schools Project, Meyerhoff Program, ManKind Project, and women's movement. These examples illustrate the synergistic relationship among the four transformational goals, within and across levels of analysis, which is at the heart of the social transformation process. The paper concludes with three challenges to guide our efforts as we enter the new century: (1) to move social transformation to the center of our consciousness as a field; (2) to articulate jointly with allied disciplines, organizations, and citizen groups an encompassing, multidisciplinary, and multilevel framework for social transformation; and (3) to do the above with heart, soul, and humility.