Automation bias: decision making and performance in high-tech cockpits

Automated aids and decision support tools are rapidly becoming indispensable tools in high-technology cockpits and are assuming increasing control of"cognitive" flight tasks, such as calculating fuel-efficient routes, navigating, or detecting and diagnosing system malfunctions and abnormalities. This study was designed to investigate automation bias, a recently documented factor in the use of automated aids and decision support systems. The term refers to omission and commission errors resulting from the use of automated cues as a heuristic replacement for vigilant information seeking and processing. Glass-cockpit pilots flew flight scenarios involving automation events or opportunities for automation-related omission and commission errors. Although experimentally manipulated accountability demands did not significantly impact performance, post hoc analyses revealed that those pilots who reported an internalized perception of "accountability" for their performance and strategies of interaction with the automation were significantly more likely to double-check automated functioning against other cues and less likely to commit errors than those who did not share this perception. Pilots were also lilkely to erroneously "remember" the presence of expected cues when describing their decision-making processes.     

Brief training to promote the use of less intrusive prompts by nursing assistants in a dementia care unit

We evaluated the efficacy of a brief staff-training procedure to increase the use of graduated prompting by 2 certified nursing assistants (CNAs) while they helped to dress 3 persons with dementia in a seven-bed dementia care unit. The multiple baseline design across participants showed that CNAs dressed residents with minimal resident involvement during baseline observations. Following brief in-service training, CNAs provided graduated prompts and praise appropriately, suggesting that CNAs can promote active involvement in personal care routines by older adults with dementia.     

A note on item analysis and the criterion of internal consistency

The implications contained in Richardson's article on item analysis in March 1936 issue ofPsychometrika are examined in the light of multiple factor theory. It is shown that item analysis is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for the construction of a test which shall measure a single trait. The intercorrelations of certain items selected by a method of item analysis are examined, found to contain many zero and some negative correlations. Multiple factor analysis showed that eight traits were measured by the items which had been asserted to measure only one.     

Children's Pets and Adults' Self-Concepts

Self-concepts of adults were related to the age when they had their first pet. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) (Fitts, 1965) Total Positive self-concept scores were higher if subjects were under 6 years or over 10 years old than if they were between 6 and 10 years old when they had their first pet. Similar results were found for the TSCS Physical and Social subscales. Whereas gender effects were also found, no significant pet ownership or other childhood Companion Animal Bonding Scale (Poresky, Hendrix, Mosier, & Samuelson, 1987) effects were found.     

Determining a simple structure when loadings for certain tests are known

A rigorous and an approximate solution are found for the problem: Given a primary trait matrix forn tests andr ₁ traits, and a matrix for the samen tests andr ₂ reference axes, to discover the transformation which will transform the second matrix into the first, or primary trait matrix. Formulas for determining the limits of the effect of using the approximate solution are presented. The method is applied to a set of twenty hypothetical tests, defined by their loadings on four orthogonal primary traits. After factoring the inter-correlations of these variables by Thurstone's centroid method, approximating the diagonals, the original hypothetical matrix is reproduced with a root mean square discrepancy of .014 by assuming as known the primary trait loadings of only the first eight tests. The method is applied to the results of factoring two batteries of 14 tests, having 8 tests in common, to give the factor loadings of the two batteries on the same reference axes. The method provides a means of comparing directly and quantitatively the results of two different factor studies, provided they have tests in common, and of testing the stability of simple structure under changes in the battery. The relations of the method here developed to certain problems in multiple correlation are shown.     

A factor analysis of certain neurotic symptoms

In an attempt to investigate the concept of neurotic tendency thirty-nine of the forty-two most discriminative items in the Thurstone Neurotic Inventory were administered as a questionnaire to a group of five hundred male college students. An analysis of the table of intercorrelations by Thurstone's centroid method showed that eight factors were sufficient to account for the observed intercorrelations with negligible residuals. The eight centroid factors were then transformed into a simple structure. It is concluded that a single trait of neurotic tendency cannot be postulated and tentative hypotheses are formed as to the nature of the primary traits revealed by the analysis.Readministering the same test to the same students a week later showed a high consistency of response both on the test as a whole, and on the individual items.     

Short-Term Violent Video Game Play by Adolescents Alters Prefrontal Activity During Cognitive Inhibition

Prior research has indicated an association between exposure to violent media and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior, potentially as a result of effects on inhibitory mechanisms. However, the role of violence in video games in modulating subsequent neural activity related to cognitive inhibition has received little attention. To examine short-term effects of playing a violent video game, 45 adolescents were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes immediately prior to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During the fMRI procedure, participants performed a go/no-go task that required them to press a button for each target stimulus and withhold the response for non-target stimuli. Participants who played the violent game demonstrated a lower BOLD response in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when responses were appropriately inhibited. The DLPFC is involved with executive functioning, including suppression of unwanted thoughts and behaviors. In addition, responses in the DLPFC demonstrated stronger inverse connectivity with precuneus in the nonviolent game players. These results provide evidence that playing a violent video game can modulate prefrontal activity during cognitive inhibition.     

Curricular Treatments of Length Measurement in the United States: Do They Address Known Learning Challenges?

Extensive research has shown that elementary students struggle to learn the basic principles of length measurement. However, where patterns of errors have been documented, the origins of students’ difficulties have not been identified. This study investigated the hypothesis that written elementary mathematics curricula contribute to the problem of learning length measurement. We analyzed all instances of length measurement in three mathematics curricula (grades K–3) and found a shared focus on procedures. Attention to conceptual principles was limited overall and particularly for central ideas; conceptual principles were often presented after students were asked to use procedures that depended on them; and students often did not have direct access to conceptual principles. We also report five groupings of procedures that appeared sequentially in all three curricula, the conceptual principles that underlie those procedures, and the conventional knowledge that receives substantial attention by grade 3.     

Privileged treatment of toddlers: cultural aspects of individual choice and responsibility

This study examined the idea that toddlers in some communities are accorded a privileged status in which they are allowed what they want, assumed not yet to "understand" how to cooperate. U.S. middle-class and Guatemalan Mayan mothers and 3- to 5-year-old siblings were observed while the siblings and toddlers (14-20 months) both sought access to attractive objects. The Mayan toddlers' desires were usually respected by both the mothers and the siblings, who often voluntarily cooperated without mothers' intervention. In contrast, the U.S. middle-class toddlers seemed to be expected to follow the same rules for sharing (with some leniency) as the older children. The Mayan pattern fits a cultural model prioritizing both responsibility and respect for others' freedom of choice.