Should we pass on minimum passing distance laws for cyclists? Comparing a tactical enforcement option and minimum passing distance laws using signal detection theory

Legislation mandating minimum distances for motorists passing cyclists is seen by advocates as a straightforward way to increase the perceived safety of cycling and thus remove a prominent barrier to the uptake of cycling. The evidence, however, is not as clear. The alternative to compliance-based enforcement via Minimum Passing Distance Laws (MPDLs) is performance-based enforcement as recently highlighted by UK Police forces under the name ‘Operation Close Pass’. This existing legislation and enforcement method relies on police officer judgement and discretion. For a MPDL to be introduced it has to show an improvement by identifying more manoeuvres that make cyclists feel unsafe, whilst at the same time not penalising drivers for manoeuvres that are benign. This study uses Signal Detection Theory to show that on almost every measure the current performance-based enforcement is preferable. Officer discretion is aligned more closely to cyclists’ real-world perceptions of risk than an objective, compliance-based MPDL. Any level of enforcement harshness can be achieved equally well, if not better, through officer discretion than through a fixed passing distance law, with the former being significantly easier to adjust if needed. Further discussion about the unintended effects of passing distance laws is discussed, such as the risk of a net loss to the effectiveness of cyclist safety because it is more difficult to prosecute and enforce manoeuvres which make cyclists feel unsafe than the performance-based alternative.     

主题与类属关系的距离对分类和属性推理过程的影响：来自ERP的证据

不同关系类型对归纳推理具有重要的影响,然而主题关系（如,熊猫vs.竹子）与类属关系（如,熊猫vs.羚羊）在归纳推理中的神经机制仍然不清楚。本研究采用事件相关电位（ERP）技术,通过分开呈现属性归纳推理任务中的结论类别和结论属性,探讨两种关系类型及其距离在分类过程和属性推理过程中的ERP特征。结果发现：（1）结论类别呈现阶段,N400（370～500 ms）与LNC（the late negative component）（570～700 ms）时间窗口上,无论是主题关系还是类属关系,远距离比近距离均诱发了更大的负波;前者表明N400与语义整合密切相关,后者说明LNC与语义类别信息违背和假设形成有关。（2）结论属性呈现阶段,主题关系比类属关系诱发了更大的N1;同时,近距离比远距离诱发了更大的N1,反映了类别属性特征的知觉和自动化加工。结果表明：语义类别属性归纳存在距离效应,并且语义关系在属性推理过程中具有不同的加工方式。     

Effects of Case and Transitivity on Processing Dependencies: Evidence From Niuean

We investigate the processing of wh questions in Niuean, a VSO ergative–absolutive Polynesian language. We use visual‐world eye tracking to examine how preference for subject or object dependencies is affected (a) by case marking of the subject (ergative vs. absolutive) and object (absolutive vs. oblique), and (b) by the transitivity of the verb (whether the object is obligatory). We find that Niuean exhibits (a) an effect of case, whereby dependencies of arguments with absolutive case (whether subjects or objects) are preferred over dependencies of arguments with ergative or oblique case, and (b) an effect of transitivity, whereby dependencies of obligatory objects (i.e., of transitive verbs) are preferred over dependencies of optional objects (i.e., of intransitive verbs). These results constitute evidence against theories that appeal to a universal subject advantage, or to the linear distance between filler and gap. Instead, the effect of case is consistent with a frequency‐based account: Because absolutive case has a wider syntactic distribution than ergative or oblique, absolutive dependencies are easier to process. The effect of transitivity reflects sensitivity of the parser to whether or not an argument is obligatory. We propose that these two strategies could be unified if the parser prefers dependencies with arguments that are more likely to materialize.     

The role of language in memory for actions

Languages differ with respect to how aspects of motion events tend to be lexicalized. English typically conflates MOTION with MANNER, but Japanese and Spanish typically do not. We report a set of experiments that assessed the effect of this cross-linguistic difference on participants' decisions in a similarity-judgment task about scenes containing novel animations as stimuli. In Experiment 1, which required participants to encode the stimuli briefly into memory, we observed a language effect; in Experiment 2, which required participants to analyze the same stimuli, but not remember them, the language effect disappeared. Hence, these experiments reveal a task-dependent effect, which, we argue, points to working memory as the source of the language effect observed in Experiment 1 and, potentially, other experiments that have shown a linguistic relativity effect.     

言语表情标记在儿童寓言故事理解中的作用

运用听读理解测验的方法探讨言语表情标记对6～8岁儿童寓言故事理解的影响。结果表明。言语表情标记能促进各年龄组儿童对故事的理解,这种促进作用在6、7岁儿童身上表现得非常显著。男、女儿童对有、无言语表情标记的故事的理解不存在显著差异。     

Linguistic intergroup bias in Japan

This study examined linguistic intergroup bias in Japan. Linguistic intergroup bias is the tendency to describe positive in‐group and negative out‐group behaviors more abstractly than negative in‐group and positive out‐group behaviors. Participants were 26 Japanese high school students. Fans of the participants' favorite professional baseball team were employed as in‐groups and those of their least‐favorite professional baseball team as out‐groups. The students described the negative behaviors of out‐groups more abstractly than the negative behaviors of in‐groups, but there was no intergroup bias with regard to positive behaviors. It is suggested that linguistic intergroup bias contributes to the formation and maintenance of negative out‐group stereotypes in Japan.     

汉字通透性算法以及对结构方式效应的解释

在先前提出的汉字通透性算法中 ,包括了水平通透性和垂直通透性 ,而汉字作为整体 ,其通透性也应该是一个整体 ,所以 ,当前研究对这一算法进行了更正 ,然后运用新的算法对先前实验材料和基本汉字集 (6 72 4 )中的配对上下字和左右字进行通透性分析 ,证明了它的可行性。在实验研究中 ,采用新算法选择实验用字 ,以达到使上下字的通透性大于左右字的通透性或者使它们相等的目的 ,以此为前提观察到了逆转的结构方式效应以及结构方式效应消失。这一实验结果表明 ,结构方式本身并不影响汉字识别 ,影响汉字识别的直接因素是隐藏在结构方式之下的汉字通透性     

Distance patterns and disposal sites in rural area homicides committed in Finland

The present study examined offender characteristics, distance patterns, and the nature of disposal sites in rural area homicides. Pre‐trial investigation files of cases where victims' bodies were found in rural areas in 1994–2005 (n = 46) and forensic psychiatric examination reports of the offenders were content‐analysed. Psychopathy Check List‐Revised was used to assess psychopathy. Investigators of these homicides filled out a questionnaire on the offender's familiarity with the body disposal area, and MapInfo was used to measure offender/victim‐residence‐to‐crime‐to‐body‐disposal‐site distances. Rural area homicides more frequently involved multiple offenders who were significantly younger than offenders in other homicides. Of the victims, 73% were found in woods and 27% in water. Offenders were familiar with disposal sites in over half of the cases. The victim's gender, close relationship with the offender, and the offender's violent crime history were associated with longer homicide‐scene‐to‐body‐disposal‐site distances. The number of inhabitants and offender's violent crime history were related to longer offender‐residence‐to‐body‐disposal‐site distances. Offender's age, intelligence, or psychopathology bore no significant association with the distance patterns. The results can be applied when searching missing persons in homicide investigations and in prioritising suspects in rural area homicides. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dissimilarity cumulation theory and subjective metrics

We present a new mathematical notion, dissimilarity function, and based on it, a radical extension of Fechnerian Scaling, a theory dealing with the computation of subjective distances from pairwise discrimination probabilities. The new theory is applicable to all possible stimulus spaces subject to the following two assumptions: (A) that discrimination probabilities satisfy the Regular Minimality law and (B) that the canonical psychometric increments of the first and second kind are dissimilarity functions. A dissimilarity function Dab for pairs of stimuli in a canonical representation is defined by the following properties: (1) a≠b?Dab>0; (2) Daa=0; (3) If and , then ; and (4) for any sequence {a_nX_nb_n}_n∈N, where X_n is a chain of stimuli, Da_nX_nb_n→0?Da_nb_n→0. The expression DaXb refers to the dissimilarity value cumulated along successive links of the chain aXb. The subjective (Fechnerian) distance between a and b is defined as the infimum of DaXb+DbYa across all possible chains X and Y inserted between a and b.     

Number processing of Arabic and Hebrew bilinguals: Evidence supporting the distance effect

In the current study, a direct assessment of the effect of language lexical‐syntactic structure and magnitude semantic access on numerical processing was made by contrasting the performance of Arabic/Hebrew bilinguals in a digital (Hindi‐digits/Arabic‐digits) and verbal numerical comparison task (Arabic, an inverted language: Units‐Decades, Hebrew, a non‐inverted language: Decades‐Units). Our data revealed in the digital presentation format (Experiment 1) a regular distance effect in Arabic language‐Hindi digits and Hebrew language‐Arabic digits, characterized by an inverse relation between reaction times and numerical distance with no difference in the mean reaction times of participants in Arabic‐L1 and Hebrew‐L2. This indicates that both lexical digits of two‐digit numbers in L1 and L2 are similarly processed and semantically accessed. However in the verbal presentation format (Experiment 2) a similar pattern of distance effect was found, but the mean reaction times in Arabic were lower than in Hebrew in each numerical distance. This indicates that the processing of two‐digit number words in L1 and L2 is semantically accessed and determined by the syntactic structure of each language.