Evaluating driver comprehension of the roadway environment to retain accountability of safety during driving automation

Driver comprehension is a substantial component of situation awareness that involves the ability of an individual to understand the significance of an object, traffic sign, or hazard while driving. An increase in crashes related to autonomous driving systems has raised a concern regarding the safety of other roadway users due to the diminishing accountability resulting from a general lack of understanding of the limitations or disregard of the safety protocols by users. To keep drivers vigilant when engaged in partial automated systems, a methodology to monitor real-time driver comprehension was proposed. A driving simulator study consisting of 90 participants, equally split between males and females, was executed to establish driver comprehension in six different variations of driving difficulty. Joint probability density functions were created by considering percent time spent gazing, answers to probe questions, and driving performance. Based on these density functions, five levels of comprehension were devised and assigned thresholds. Overall, as task difficulty increased, a non-linear deterioration in driving speed along with an increase in total gaze duration was observed before comprehension was attained. A two-step validation protocol was also proposed to ensure similar levels of comprehension to non-automated driving from the human driver, when engaged in early forms of automation. The proposed real-time driver comprehension monitoring constitutes a first step toward developing a methodology to reinstate the accountability of safety of other roadway users when engaged in driver-in-the-loop automation systems.     

Factors influencing public awareness of autonomous vehicles: Empirical evidence from Brisbane

Growing concerns, regarding transport disadvantage and increased socioeconomic disparities, demand innovative ways to improve equity and make transportation systems smarter. One of the most anticipated developments within the field of smart mobility is driving automation systems. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to improve accessibility, affordability, safety and efficiency of transport systems, but come with risks including the intensification of private vehicle travel. Understanding public awareness is an important step to determine whether motivation and intention to use AVs will impact on its potential. This paper aims to investigate factors influencing public awareness of AVs as a solution to transport disadvantage. The study applies an ordinal logistic regression analysis to analyse survey data collected from the residents of Brisbane (Australia). Our findings reveal that awareness is positively correlated within young and middle-aged adults, low-income residents, disability, public transport users, and those who feel unsafe on public transport, while an increase in the number of household vehicles is negatively correlated. The study provides insights into public awareness towards the potential benefits of AVs, and highlights potential opportunities and challenges associated with these expectations.     

语素意识、快速命名对汉字听写和抄写的作用

书写是小学阶段书面语发展的重要目标之一,受到多种认知技能的影响。采用追踪研究考察了127名小学五年级儿童的语素意识和快速命名对其五、六年级时的汉字听写和抄写的影响。控制了非言语智力、语音意识后,结果发现：(1)儿童汉字听写和抄写能力随时间发展均有显著增长;(2)五年级语素意识显著预测了五、六年级两个时间点的听写,五年级快速命名仅显著预测了五年级听写;(3)五年级语素意识和快速命名预测了五年级抄写。研究表明语素意识和快速命名对汉字听写和抄写存在不同的影响作用。     

Creators and Presses: The Person–Situation Interaction in Negative Creativity

Given the recent emphasis on exploring valence in creative behavior, this study examines negative creativity via a person–situation interactionist perspective. By manipulating goal valence (uses or misuses) and object valence (positive or negative), four conditions of an adapted Divergent Thinking task were used to predict positive and negative creativity. Participants (N = 178, 103 females, M_age = 23.82, SD = 4.03, range: 18–38) responded to a single condition along with the Big Five and Dark Triad personality scales in a between-groups design. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that goal and object valence significantly explained variance in valences of creative responses, beyond individual differences of personality. Furthermore, the congruence between goal and object valence predicted valenced creativity; that is, the positive objects and goals condition yielded more positive-original ideas, and the negative objects and goals condition yielded more negative-original ones. Object valence alone (material presses) did not contribute significantly to explaining valenced creativity. Negative-original responses were inversely related to conscientiousness, and directly to intellect/imagination and secondary psychopathy. Thus, negative creativity was attributed relatively more to person as compared to situation variables. Results are discussed from a valence-based and interactionist perspective.     

Feeling time in nature: The influence of directed and undirected attention on time awareness

In the present study, we examined the impact of the interaction of environmental and task-induced attentional focus on time perception, specifically awareness of the time flow. We tested 48 participants in either a natural or urban setting over three 25- to 35-min sessions. We manipulated the within-subjects factor task by means of two tasks—one requiring directed attention on the task itself, the other undirected attention on the environment—alongside a control condition with no specific task. We measured time awareness, passage of time judgments, felt time judgments, and estimated time as dependent variables. For time awareness, we found an interaction between environment and task: in the natural environment, only a task requiring directed attention reduced time awareness; whereas, in the urban environment, both tasks reduced time awareness compared to the control condition. The results suggest that natural environments increase time awareness unless we focus our attention on a task.     

Are errors detected before they occur? Early error sensations revealed by metacognitive judgments on the timing of error awareness

Errors in choice tasks are not only detected fast and reliably, participants often report that they knew that an error occurred already before a response was produced. These early error sensations stand in contrast with evidence suggesting that the earliest neural correlates of error awareness emerge around 300 ms after erroneous responses. The present study aimed to investigate whether anecdotal evidence for early error sensations can be corroborated in a controlled study in which participants provide metacognitive judgments on the subjective timing of error awareness. In Experiment 1, participants had to report whether they became aware of their errors before or after the response. In Experiment 2, we measured confidence in these metacognitive judgments. Our data show that participants report early error sensations with high confidence in the majority of error trials across paradigms and experiments. These results provide first evidence for early error sensations, informing theories of error awareness.     

Discrepancy in internalized values of workers in extreme situations: Consequences for soldiers and risk for the organization

IntroductionIn the present paper, we address the double-edged role of values among Army personnel and how they can be used in information warfare. We suggest that value discrepancy may impact the agent's trust and consequently, affect behaviour and ultimately destabilize the organization.ObjectivesBased on cognitive dissonance theory and the meaning maintenance model, we hypothesized that exposing trained soldiers to information which confronts their core values and involves both their peers and their institution could promote an overwhelming reaction that could finally alter their trust in the organization.MethodTo examine the proposed model, interviews were conducted with 38 active-duty soldiers that permits to stress the importance of values for their personal life. To complete the interviews, a staged observation was led with the second set of participants (n = 21). Its goal was to evaluate the soldiers’ reaction to a message aiming at their values.ResultsQualitative and quantitative analysis of the Interviews confirmed both the importance of the said values and stressed the ambivalence toward their institution. The results of the staged observation suggested that a low credibility source of information aiming at their central values could lead to a direct emotional reaction, that could potentially lead to a decrease in institutional trust, and therefore ultimately in the organisation performance.ConclusionThe discussion focuses on the consequences of this mechanism, the fundamental necessity for the organization of taking this process into account. Finally, we suggest ways to cope with this risk which can alter strategy deployment and goal achievement.     

Comparative Perspectives on Solutions for the Problem of Other Minds

This paper aims to establish a dialogue between contemporary research on the problem of other minds and classical Chinese philosophical theories. It first explores the idea, inspired by the recent discovery of the mirror neuron mechanism, that a direct exchange of experience may occur between the observer and the observed. Next, it analyzes the ways in which the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi and Confucian thinkers reflected on the problem of other minds, which are quite similar to the idea inspired by the latest research on mirror neurons. In these thinkers’ views, knowledge of other minds is the result of mental activity and what it provides is, to a large extent, something related not to epistemology but rather to a situational understanding of other minds from the perspective of value theory. The author points out that this solution takes two aspects, humans’ innate nature and human experience, into consideration simultaneously. In terms of humans’ innate nature, the body of a human being is a body that represents the unity of man and nature, and it has something in common with the natural world, which lays a foundation for the perception of other minds. In terms of human experience, human beings have such actual needs as emotions, pursuits, and desires, and their behaviors need to conform to certain norms. It is in a body of this kind that the mind of human beings can be formed and enjoy the potential to develop. Effective interpersonal communication can thus be achieved.