Field testing anti-speeding messages

PurposeDetermine whether anti-speeding messages displayed on roadside variable message signage (VMS) influence drivers’ speed choice selections.MethodSpeed detection tubes were installed across a single carriageway 60 km/h limit road section at positions prior to, immediately after, and at a longer distance from VMS display of anti-speeding messages during study Week2. Bi-directional vehicle speed data were collected continuously during the week prior to VMS installation (Week1), throughout the week that the anti-speeding messages were displayed (Week2), and a post-display week (Week3).ResultsOf six separately measured locations, Week2 southbound mean speeds (facing signage) and percent of drivers/riders exceeding the signed speed limit were consistently below those recorded during Week1 for all time periods. Aggregated Week3 (post-VMS) southbound data for all time periods, showed consistent patterns for mean speed and percent of drivers exceeding the signed speed limit, being higher than in Week2 (VMS displayed) but lower than during Week1 (pre-VMS).DiscussionCompared with Week1, messages influenced aggregate driver speed selection during Week2, with a residual positive effect (slower speeds) in Week3. While all three messages had positive effects, differences occurred in relative effectiveness between daytime (school and non-school hours) and night-time periods. Separately disaggregated data revealed differential effects for the three messages.ConclusionsFindings demonstrated the value of implementing theoretically informed message content and provided evidence for the impact that roadside road safety messaging can have on driver speed selection.     

The temporal structure of goal-directed and habitual operant behavior

Operant behavior can reflect the influence of goal-directed and habitual processes. These can be distinguished by changes to response rate following devaluation of the reinforcing outcome. Whether a response is goal directed or habitual depends on whether devaluation affects response rate. Response rate can be decomposed into frequencies of bouts and pauses by analyzing the distribution of interresponse times. This study sought to characterize goal-directed and habitual behaviors in terms of bout-initiation rate, within-bout response rate, bout length, and bout duration. Data were taken from three published studies that compared sensitivity to devaluation following brief and extended training with variable-interval schedules. Analyses focused on goal-directed and habitual responding, a comparison of a habitual response to a similarly trained response that had been converted back to goal-directed status after a surprising event, and a demonstration of contextual control of habit and goal direction in the same subjects. Across experiments and despite responses being clearly distinguished as goal directed and habitual by total response rate, analyses of bout-initiation rate, within-bout rate, bout length, and bout duration did not reveal a pattern that distinguished goal-directed from habitual responding.     

Using behavioral economics to optimize safer undergraduate late-night transportation

Many universities sponsor student-oriented transit services that could reduce alcohol-induced risks but only if services adequately anticipate and adapt to student needs. Human choice data offer an optimal foundation for planning and executing late-night transit services. In this simulated choice experiment, respondents opted to either (a) wait an escalating delay for a free university-sponsored “safe” option, (b) pay an escalating fee for an on-demand rideshare service, or (c) pick a free, immediately available “unsafe” option (e.g., ride with an alcohol-impaired driver). Behavioral-economic nonlinear models of averaged-choice data describe preference across arrangements. Best-fit metrics indicate adequate sensitivity to contextual factors (i.e., wait time, preceding late-night activity). At short delays, students preferred the free transit option. As delays extend beyond 30 min, most students preferred competing alternatives. These data depict a policy-relevant delay threshold to better safeguard undergraduate student safety.     

Cross-cultural comparison of ADHD symptoms among Japanese and US university students

Problems related to attention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness are known to impact social, academic, and vocational success. When the problems begin in childhood and lead to impaired functioning, the syndrome is identified as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Symptoms of the syndrome persist into adolescence and adulthood for many individuals, but less is known about characteristics of adults compared to children, especially adults attending university. Furthermore, there is little cross-national and cross-cultural research. This study compared DSM-IV-TR ADHD symptoms of US university students (N=271) to Japanese peers (N=712). Comparison of group means on a DSM-IV-TR-based checklist indicated that Japanese students reported more problems with inattention (and overall ADHD symptoms) but not hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. Although differences were statistically significant, effect sizes were small, indicating that for practical purposes, the students reported similar levels of symptoms. Japanese students reported higher rates of meeting or exceeding symptom counts that comprise diagnostic criteria for ADHD, but differences were quite small. Using DSM-IV-TR thresholds, 5.70% of US students and 6.27% of Japanese students reported enough symptoms to meet the cut-off for inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, or combined type during childhood. With regard to recent problems, 2.66% of US students and 4.52% of Japanese students reported enough symptoms to meet the cut-off for one of the three subtypes. Comparisons using other methods of calculating rates are also provided. This research adds to the limited knowledge of ADHD symptoms in university students across countries and it supports the view that ADHD is not merely a cultural construct. This study is among the first to identify potential attention problems in Japanese university students.     

Conflict Transformation, Stigma, and HIV-Preventive Structural Change

Over the prior decade, structural change efforts have become an important component of community-based HIV prevention initiatives. However, these efforts may not succeed when structural change initiatives encounter political resistance or invoke conflicting values, which may be likely when changes are intended to benefit a stigmatized population. The current study sought to examine the impact of target population stigma on the ability of 13 community coalitions to achieve structural change objectives. Results indicated that coalitions working on behalf of highly stigmatized populations had to abandon objectives more often than did coalitions working for less stigmatized populations because of external opposition to coalition objectives and resultant internal conflict over goals. Those coalitions that were most successful in meeting external challenges used opposition and conflict as transformative occasions by targeting conflicts directly and attempting to neutralize oppositional groups or turn them into strategic allies; less successful coalitions working on behalf of stigmatized groups struggled to determine an appropriate response to opposition. The role of conflict transformation as a success strategy for working on behalf of stigmatized groups is discussed.     

Pets as safe havens and secure bases: The moderating role of pet attachment orientations

We examined the extent to which a pet functions as an attachment figure. In Study 1, 165 pet owners performed a goal exploration task, assessing the number of life goals generated and confidence in goal attainment. In Study 2, 120 pet owners performed a distress-eliciting task while assessing blood pressure. In both studies, participants were divided into three conditions: pet physical presence, pet cognitive presence, and no pet presence. As compared to no pet presence, physical or cognitive pet presence increased the number of life goals generated and self-confidence in goal attainment and reduced blood pressure during the distress-eliciting task. The findings confirm the ability of a pet to provide a safe-haven and a secure-base and the moderating role of attachment insecurities.     

Explorations on the Notion of Legal Tolerance

This article builds on the notion of legal tolerance and analyzes the scope of its definition. It situates the notion in the complex set of relations occurring between the major systems of society. Generally, legal tolerance, as a concept, is understood in light of the possibilities of the legal system of influencing other major systems’ responses. On the other hand, tolerance is also the response of the legal system in respect to other major systems’ communications. Although there is a common understanding of tolerance as “under punishing bias” in criminology or as political tolerance in political science, ¹ 1. There is also a distinct field in political science, where the issue is political tolerance. In this view, political tolerance is defined as “Political tolerance typically refers to individual-level attitudes that permit groups to express opinions or maintain practices that a majority finds objectionable.” See Allison Harrell, The limits of tolerance in diverse societies: Hate speech and political tolerance norms among youth. Canadian Journal of Political Science 43 (2010), 407–432. See also C. W. Collier, A legal theory of tolerance and perspective. ARSP. Archiv. für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie 84(1) (1998), 59–86. Still within criminology, an antonym for legal tolerance would be the notion of “Rationalité Pénale Moderne”; see Pires, Alvaro Pires, “Beccaria, l’utilitarisme et la rationalité pénale moderne,” in Christian Debuyst, Françoise Digneffe, Jean-Michel Labadie, and Alvaro P. Pires, eds., Histoire des savoirs sur le crime et la peine. Tome II : La rationalité pénale et la naissance de la criminologie, Première partie: “La formation de la rationalité pénale moderne au XVIIIe siècle,” (Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, De Boeck Université, 1998), chapter 3, 83–143. Collection: Perspectives criminologiques. the focus of this article is different. The central points here are, first, the analysis of legal tolerance as part of systemic communications and, second, the historicity of the transformations of the nation-state in its ability to cope with the growth of separate, distinct and partial systems of society. Tolerance seems relational and raises questions such as: “How much can the legal system tolerate?” And also, “Which societal topics belong to the social system's domain-matter?” These questions are relevant given that the concept of legal tolerance depends on the possibilities of a given system to steer, to direct or to influence other major systems’ behavior, or to resist, respond or to address other systems, which are in its environment.

The concept of legal tolerance requires an analysis of a cluster of related definitions to assess the implications of the concept. These definitions are the following: (1) The concepts that result from the historical process of structuration and that explain the emergence of social systems. (2) The definition of reflexivity and its relation with the “second order cybernetics dilemma.” This is the place where heuristic and epistemological problems are found. Such problems result from both the problem of representation and from the ontological status of the real. This analysis will show why reflexivity is a key concept to explaining the transformations suffered by such systems. Then, legal tolerance is a newer development in respect to the idea of planning. As an alternative to hard planning, legal tolerance creates a fostering environment. Instead of a single system directing other systems, legal tolerance is relational and created collectively by the organizational national state using its (limited) power of legal creation. Legal tolerance also stems from the concerned subsystems of the society (economy, law, politics, science, along with others) by means of a variety of legislative products, public policies, alliances, and legal and other scientific communications that emerge as coordinating mechanisms among the alluded major subsystems.     

Working memory training: improving intelligence--changing brain activity

The main objectives of the study were: to investigate whether training on working memory (WM) could improve fluid intelligence, and to investigate the effects WM training had on neuroelectric (electroencephalography - EEG) and hemodynamic (near-infrared spectroscopy - NIRS) patterns of brain activity. In a parallel group experimental design, respondents of the working memory group after 30 h of training significantly increased performance on all tests of fluid intelligence. By contrast, respondents of the active control group (participating in a 30-h communication training course) showed no improvements in performance. The influence of WM training on patterns of neuroelectric brain activity was most pronounced in the theta and alpha bands. Theta and lower-1 alpha band synchronization was accompanied by increased lower-2 and upper alpha desynchronization. The hemodynamic patterns of brain activity after the training changed from higher right hemispheric activation to a balanced activity of both frontal areas. The neuroelectric as well as hemodynamic patterns of brain activity suggest that the training influenced WM maintenance functions as well as processes directed by the central executive. The changes in upper alpha band desynchronization could further indicate that processes related to long term memory were also influenced.     

儿童歧视知觉模型述评

Brown和Bigler提出了儿童歧视知觉模型,分析了歧视知觉的三个影响因素:认知因素、情景因素和个体差异因素,每个因素都包含了多个影响儿童歧视知觉的子因素。该模型展示了这些因素影响儿童歧视知觉的机制。完善该模型需要探讨其与信息加工理论、发展群际理论、主观群体动力学模型的兼容性。歧视知觉的类型需要进一步细化,因此在综合主观群体动力学模型和发展模型的基础上提出了歧视知觉的分类方案。未来研究还要进一步探讨情绪、文化以及年龄因素对儿童歧视知觉的影响,并探讨该模型对歧视干预的意义。