Audiovisual time-to-collision estimation for accelerating vehicles: The acoustic signature of electric vehicles impairs pedestrians' judgments

To avoid collisions, pedestrians intending to cross a road need to accurately estimate the time-to-collision (TTC) of an approaching vehicle. For TTC estimation, auditory information can be considered particularly relevant when the approaching vehicle accelerates. The sound of vehicles with internal combustion engine (ICEVs) provides characteristic auditory information about the acceleration state (increasing rotational speed and engine load). However, for electric vehicles (EVs), the acoustic signature during acceleration is less salient. Although the auditory detection of EVs has been studied extensively, there is no research on potential effects of the altered acoustic signature of EVs on TTC estimation. To close this gap, we compared TTC estimates for ICEVs and for EVs with and without activated acoustic vehicle alerting system (AVAS). We implemented a novel interactive audiovisual virtual-reality system for studying the human perception of approaching vehicles. Using acoustic recordings of real vehicles as source signals, the dynamic spatial sound field corresponding to a vehicle approaching in an urban setting is generated based on physical modeling of the sound propagation between vehicle and pedestrian (listener) and is presented via sound field synthesis (higher-order Ambisonics). In addition to the auditory simulations, the scene was visually presented on a head-mounted display with head tracking. Participants estimated the TTC of vehicles that either approached at a constant speed or accelerated positively. In conditions with constant speed, TTC estimates for EVs with and without AVAS were similar to those for ICEVs. In contrast, for accelerating vehicles, there was a substantial effect of the vehicle type on the TTC estimates. For the EVs, the mean TTC estimates showed a significant overestimation. Thus, subjects on average perceived the time of arrival of the EV at their position as longer than it actually was. The extent of overestimation increased with acceleration and presented TTC. This pattern is similar to a first-order TTC estimation representing a failure to consider the acceleration, which is consistently reported in the literature for visual-only presentations of accelerating objects. In comparison, the overestimation of TTC was largely reduced for the accelerating ICEVs. The AVAS somewhat improved the TTC estimates for the accelerating EVs, but without reaching the same level of accuracy as for the ICEVs. In real traffic scenarios, overestimations of the TTC of approaching vehicles might lead to risky road-crossing decisions. Therefore, our finding that pedestrians are significantly less able to use the acoustic information emitted by accelerating EVs for their TTC judgments, compared to accelerating ICEVs, has important implications for road safety and for the design of AVAS technologies.     

INTERPRETATION NEUTRALITY FOR QUANTUM THEOLOGY

Within contemporary scientific and science-adjacent communities, it is generally accepted that quantum physics is our best theory. For this reason, it is understandable—and laudable—that scholars interested in questions at the intersection of science and theology wish to meaningfully engage with this physics. Recent work in foundations of physics has, however, importantly altered the landscape of quantum theory; in this article, my goal is to introduce these advances, then make an argument within this new landscape that I hope will be useful for certain theological inquiries. Specifically, I shall argue from grounds of the physics itself that one may, with clear philosophical conscience, access the majority of quantum theory's tools, models, and explanations while maintaining an interpretation-neutral yet realist stance toward this physics.     

Modernist Creativity and the Construction of Reality in Einstein and Kandinsky

In this article, I limn the remarkable ascent of Albert Einstein and Wassily Kandinsky into our cultural pantheon. I depict how both figures mastered and transcended their respective fields, and how they called into question long-established disciplinary assumptions and practices. I also demonstrate how the creative works of Einstein and Kandinsky constructed, and were constructed by, the reality we now call “modern.”     

The trouble with halos: Invited commentary on Kim,S., & Harris,P. L. (2014). Children prefer to learn from mind‐readers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology

This commentary on Kim and Harris (2014) addresses the authors’ interpretation of the halo effect, in which 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children preferentially agreed with an informant who could read other people's minds, regardless of domain of knowledge.     

Führt die evolutionäre Erkenntnistheorie in einen Relativismus?

This essay is a discussion of Eve-Marie Engels' view on Evolutionary Epistemology (EE). In the first part two of the main doctrines of EE are criticized: (1.) that validity of human knowledge is to be explained as the result of evolutionary adaptation; yet (2.), that human cognitive capacities had been adequate to our ancestors life conditions but fail in relevant situations of modern world. In the second part the concept of reality underlying EE's adaptational view is discussed and compared with Jean Piaget's concept of reality. Finally, it is held that some of the questions recently raised by proponents of EE, far from being new, have been dealt with already in historical epistemology.

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Diese Arbeit entstand im Rahmen des Projekts Nr. 11-2224.87 des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds.     

Poverty and Wealth in the Orthodox Spirituality (with special reference to St. John Chrysostom)

Abstract : This essay deals with the right relation we should have to material wealth in modern society, a society often marked by rank consumerism. Material goods are given to humans only to be managed for the benefit of all people, regardless of faith or race. This ethical stance does not attack or seek to abolish the right to private property, but restores it to its proper place. Specifically, patristic spirituality, such as that articulated by St. John Chrysostom, does not invalidate the principle of individual ownership, but corrects it, meaning that, while owners are owners in relation to the poor, they are only managers of wealth in relation to God.     

The two time vectors of Nachträglichkeit in the development of ego organization: Significance of the concept for the symbolization of nameless traumas and anxieties1

The author describes Freud ’s conception of Nachträglichkeit as an active process that bridges the gap between past affective vicissitudes and the cognitive present by way of meaning. Symbolization is thereby subsequently [nachträglich] conferred on early traumatic events, which thus become susceptible to omnipotent control. The two time vectors of Nachträglichkeit are discussed: the first is a causal process operating in the forward direction of time against the background of a factual reality, while the second is a backward movement that permits an understanding of unconscious scenes and phantasies taking place at primary-process level. This twofold temporal motion was observed and described by Freud early on. However, its significance often remained hidden prior to his study of Moses. It was mostly overlooked in English and French translations, thus giving rise to a one-sided understanding of the concept in the various psychoanalytic cultures, as either deferred action or après-coup. Freud ’s Moses study addresses both temporal aspects of Nachträglichkeit, seeking not only to reconstruct a past event on a causal, deterministic basis, but also to understand the subjective truth of that event in the transference along the retrograde time line. The decisive criterion for the conceptual and clinical separation of the two time vectors is the development of ego organization and the capacity for symbolization. The two vectors should not be separated on the factual level, as both aspects of Nachträglichkeit are essential to the understanding of unconscious processes, combining as they do in a relationship of circular complementarity.     

从《战国策》看战国时期社会风气与思想倾向

《战国策》中的思想极其复杂，被称作“畔经离道之书”。《战国策》暴露出人类最原始、最本能的一面——追求物质利益的最大化。仁义廉耻等儒家通常所谓的美德，跟很多战国策士的价值观格格不入。但是，也正是在这样宽松自由的时代背景下，人们的思想与意识由百家争鸣渐渐向儒家的标准合拢，价值观由多元化向一元化靠拢。儒家的价值观正在悄然地受到尊重。汉代“罢黜百家，独尊儒术”有着一定的社会背景和思想意识基础。     

内插材料加工范式下语义加工水平(量)对内隐记忆影响的实验研究

基于内插材料加工对内隐记忆的干扰的研究范式(Martens＆Wohers．2002)所带来的启示，满足启动材料与目标词在语义线索上的匹配要求，根据启动材料的数量来控制语义加工水平(量)的大小，探索意识条件下和无意识条件下(阈限下)语义加工水平(量)对内隐记忆的影响。结果表明，无论是意识条件下．还是无意识条件下，内隐记忆成绩随语义加工水平的提高而提高。内插材料加工范式无疑是一种从更微观的角度探讨加工水平对内隐记忆的影响的较好的途径。