Teaching self-protection to young children

Self-protective behaviors were taught to three preschool children in order to prevent the opportunity for abduction. An analogue measure of self-protection was developed in which confederate adults approached and verbally attempted to lure each child from the setting, before, during, and after training. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used. During baseline, all the children displayed susceptibility to the lures. Training procedures included modeling, behavior rehearsal, and social reinforcement. Within 1 week after training began, all children displayed appropriate responses to all of the lures both in the training setting and in the community.     

RESPONDING MAINTAINED UNDER INTERMITTENT SCHEDULES OF ELECTRIC-SHOCK PRESENTATION: “SAFETY” OR SCHEDULE EFFCTS?

Four experiments were conducted in which lever pressing by squirrel monkeys was maintained under multiple, mixed, or chained schedules of electric-shock presentation. In the first two experiments, a multiple schedule was employed in which a fixed-interval schedule of shock presentation alternated with a signaled two-minute component. Initially, no events were scheduled during the two-minute component (a safety period). In the first experiment, the safety period was “degraded” by introducing and systematically increasing the frequency of periodic shocks presented during that component. In the second experiment, the proportion of overall safe time to unsafe time was decreased by decreasing the value of the fixed-interval schedule while holding constant shock frequency during the two-minute component. In the third experiment, the overall arrangement was changed from a multiple to a mixed schedule in an attempt to determine whether fixed-interval responding would be maintained when a single exteroceptive stimulus was associated with both components. In the fourth experiment, the overall arrangement was changed from a multiple to a chained schedule in an effort to determine whether fixed-interval responding would be maintained when its consequence was presentation of a signaled “unsafe” period. Fixed-interval responding was well maintained under all experimental conditions; the varied relationships obtained lend more support to conceptualizations of shock-maintained behavior as exemplifying schedule-controlled behavior than to suggestions that such behavior may be readily accounted for by “safety theory.”     

EMPIRICALLY DERIVED INJURY PREVENTION RULES

This study describes a set of empirically derived safety rules that if followed, would have prevented the occurrence of minor injuries. Epidemiologists have criticized behavioral interventions as increasing “safe” behavior but failing to demonstrate a decrease in injury. The present study documents retrospectively the link between safe behavior and injury. It demonstrates that these empirically derived rules are very similar to rules for the prevention of serious injury. The study also shows that these rules are not widely accepted and implemented by parents. Suggestions for future research in this area are advanced.     

Socialising epistemic risk: On the risks of epistemic injustice

Epistemic risk is of central importance to epistemology nowadays: one common way in which a belief can fail to be knowledge is by being formed in an epistemically risky way, that is, a way that makes it true by luck. Recently, epistemologists have been expanding this rather narrow conception of risk in every direction, except arguably the most obvious one—to enable it to accommodate the increasingly commonplace thought that knowledge has an irreducibly social dimension. This paper fills this lacuna by bringing issues of epistemic injustice to bear on epistemic risk. In particular, it draws on the phenomenon of white ignorance, to sketch a more social notion of epistemic risk, on which the interests of one's epistemic community partly determine whether a belief-forming procedure is epistemically risky.     

Positive Psychological States and Employee Creativity: The role of Ethical Leadership

This study explores a new theoretical model of employee creativity by investigating the impact of ethical leadership on creativity mediated by creative self-efficacy and psychological safety. Data collected from 200 supervisor–subordinate dyads in Pakistan reveal that ethical leadership is positively related to creativity. Further, psychological safety partially mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and creativity. However, creative self-efficacy is found insignificant in the relationship between ethical leadership and creativity. The study discusses research and practical implications of the proposed new theoretical framework with regard to employee creativity.     

Do drivers differ in their attitudes on speed limit compliance between work and private settings? Results from a group of Nigerian drivers

Existing evidence suggests that drivers, particularly those who work in companies with strong road safety cultures exhibit different sets of speeding attitudes and behaviours in work and private driving. Using Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1980) Theory of Planned behaviour (TPB) and on-road driving experiments, this study examined the self-reported and objective behaviour of driving within posted speed limits for a sample of fleet drivers. The findings show that the TPB explained up to 24% of the variance in intention to comply with speed limits. Drivers’ attitude emerged as the most significant predictor and strongest correlate with intentions to comply with the speed limit in both work and private vehicle.Further analysis revealed participants had a higher intention to comply with speed limits in their work than private vehicle. Also, investigation of the relationship between TPB variables and observed speeding behaviour suggests that participants with higher intention to comply with the speed limit or high perceived behavioural control (PBC), exceeded the speed limit less often than those with lower intention to comply with the speed limit or low PBC. The findings have important theoretical and applied implications for development of better speed limit compliance interventions to improve driving behaviour, and road safety in general.     

Development and validation of the Drivers’ Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EMOVIAL)

Road fatalities involving young road users have become a global health issue. Although human factors are known to be involved in road fatalities, little research has examined the way in which emotional competencies may affect road accidents. With the aim of filling this gap we describe the development and validation of a scale for measuring emotional intelligence when driving. The EMOVIAL inventory consists of nine items distributed across three dimensions (attention to emotions while driving, clarity of emotions while driving, and emotional regulation while driving). Analysis of its psychometric properties showed it to be valid and reliable. The paper discusses how the scale may be used to improve road safety.     

Safe on the road – Does Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems Use affect Road Risk Perception?

A major goal of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) deployment is higher road safety. However, these systems are only as safe as users handle them. This article presents a study evaluating the links between the use of ADAS and road risk perception. 101 drivers were invited to evaluate accident probability and risk controllability and to indicate whether they were using ADAS or not. Results show that the use of ADAS decreases perceived accident probability and increases perceived controllability for risky driving situations. Since the degree of automation in ADAS is still low nowadays, it is important to discuss the importance of human factors for the purpose of a safer implementation.     

Surrogate safety indicator for unsignalised pedestrian crossings

ProblemAlthough the road safety situation in Poland is generally improving, the number of accidents at pedestrian crossings has not decreased in the last four years. This paper presents the results of the MOBIS research project, the aim of which was to develop surrogate safety indicators, based on detection of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts using video analysis.MethodPedestrian and vehicle traffic was filmed at two unsignalised pedestrian zebra crossings in Warsaw and Wrocław for over 40 days. Motion trajectories of vehicles and pedestrians were determined based on video processing. Several variables describing pedestrian-vehicle interactions were calculated, such as speed, post-encroachment time, distance between the participants, decelerations, etc. Classification of encounters was based on interactions of pedestrians and vehicles i.e. drivers yielding to pedestrians, vehicles passing just in front of, or behind pedestrians.Results and discussionCriteria for identification of dangerous encounters were selected with the assumption that it should be possible to automate the assessment process. The selected variables were: pedestrian-vehicle passing distance and the vehicle speed at that moment. Other criteria were used in cases of abrupt braking – deceleration exceeding 4 m/s² and vehicle speed. A Dangerous Encounter Index is proposed as a surrogate safety indicator for pedestrian crossings. It relates the occurrence of dangerous events to exposure, defined as the number of pedestrian-vehicle encounters.Practical applicationsThe proposed index shows that crossing two lanes involves more risk than crossing one lane, given similar traffic flow. Some improvement of safety at both types of crossing was observed after active signage involving blinking lights had been introduced. The proposed method is a step towards automation of safety assessment.     

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.