scholarly journals GPS Technology and Human Psychological Research: A Methodological Proposal

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro S. A. Wolf ◽  
W. Jake Jacobs

Animal behaviorists have made extensive use of GPS technology since 1991. In contrast, psychological research has made little use of the technology, even though the technology is relatively inexpensive, familiar, and widespread. Hence, its potential for pure and applied psychological research remains untapped. We describe three methods psychologists could apply to individual differences research, clinical research, or spatial use research. In the context of individual differences research, GPS technology permits us to test hypotheses predicting specific relations among patterns of spatial use and individual differences variables. In a clinical context, GPS technology provides outcome measures that may relate to the outcome of interventions designed to treat psychological disorders that, for example, may leave a person homebound (e.g. Agoraphobia, PTSD, TBI). Finally, GPS technology provides natural measures of spatial use. We, for example, used GPS technology to quantify traffic flow and exhibit use at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Interested parties could easily extend this methodology some aspects of urban planning or business usage.  DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i1_wolf

Author(s):  
Pedro S. A. Wolf ◽  
W. Jake Jacobs

Animal behaviorists have made extensive use of GPS technology since 1991. In contrast, psychological research has made little use of the technology, even though the technology is relatively inexpensive, familiar, and widespread. Hence, its potential for pure and applied psychological research remains untapped. We describe three methods psychologists could apply to individual differences research, clinical research, or spatial use research. In the context of individual differences research, GPS technology permits us to test hypotheses predicting specific relations among patterns of spatial use and individual differences variables. In a clinical context, GPS technology provides outcome measures that may relate to the outcome of interventions designed to treat psychological disorders that, for example, may leave a person homebound (e.g. Agoraphobia, PTSD, TBI). Finally, GPS technology provides natural measures of spatial use. We, for example, used GPS technology to quantify traffic flow and exhibit use at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Interested parties could easily extend this methodology some aspects of urban planning or business usage.  DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i1_wolf


Author(s):  
Pedro S. A. Wolf ◽  
W. Jake Jacobs

Animal behaviorists have made extensive use of GPS technology since 1991. In contrast, psychological research has made little use of the technology, even though the technology is relatively inexpensive, familiar, and widespread. Hence, its potential for pure and applied psychological research remains untapped. We describe three methods psychologists could apply to individual differences research, clinical research, or spatial use research. In the context of individual differences research, GPS technology permits us to test hypotheses predicting specific relations among patterns of spatial use and individual differences variables. In a clinical context, GPS technology provides outcome measures that may relate to the outcome of interventions designed to treat psychological disorders that, for example, may leave a person homebound (e.g. Agoraphobia, PTSD, TBI). Finally, GPS technology provides natural measures of spatial use. We, for example, used GPS technology to quantify traffic flow and exhibit use at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Interested parties could easily extend this methodology some aspects of urban planning or business usage.  DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i1_wolf


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro S. A. Wolf ◽  
W. Jake Jacobs

Animal behaviorists have made extensive use of GPS technology since 1991. In contrast, psychological research has made little use of the technology, even though the technology is relatively inexpensive, familiar, and widespread. Hence, its potential for pure and applied psychological research remains untapped. We describe three methods psychologists could apply to individual differences research, clinical research, or spatial use research. In the context of individual differences research, GPS technology permits us to test hypotheses predicting specific relations among patterns of spatial use and individual differences variables. In a clinical context, GPS technology provides outcome measures that may relate to the outcome of interventions designed to treat psychological disorders that, for example, may leave a person homebound (e.g. Agoraphobia, PTSD, TBI). Finally, GPS technology provides natural measures of spatial use. We, for example, used GPS technology to quantify traffic flow and exhibit use at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Interested parties could easily extend this methodology some aspects of urban planning or business usage.  DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v1i1_wolf


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Littrell ◽  
Evan F. Risko ◽  
Jonathan Albert Fugelsang

Recent psychological research has identified important individual differences associated with receptivity to bullshit, which has greatly enhanced our understanding of the processes behind susceptibility to pseudo-profound or otherwise misleading information. However, the bulk of this research attention has focused on cognitive and dispositional factors related to bullshit (the product), while largely overlooking the influences behind bullshitting (the act). Here, we present results from four studies (focusing on the construction and validation of a new, reliable scale measuring the frequency with which individuals engage in two types of bullshitting (persuasive and evasive) in everyday situations. Overall, bullshitting frequency was negatively associated with sincerity, honesty, cognitive ability, open-minded cognition, and self-regard. Additionally, the Bullshitting Frequency Scale was found to reliably measure constructs that are: 1) distinct from lying, and; 2) significantly related to performance on overclaiming and social decision tasks. These results represent an important step forward by demonstrating the utility of the Bullshitting Frequency Scale as well as highlighting certain individual differences that may play important roles in the extent to which individuals engage in everyday bullshitting.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e047341
Author(s):  
Caroline Marra ◽  
William J Gordon ◽  
Ariel Dora Stern

ObjectivesIn an effort to mitigate COVID-19 related challenges for clinical research, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new guidance for the conduct of ‘virtual’ clinical trials in late March 2020. This study documents trends in the use of connected digital products (CDPs), tools that enable remote patient monitoring and telehealth consultation, in clinical trials both before and after the onset of the pandemic.DesignWe applied a comprehensive text search algorithm to clinical trial registry data to identify trials that use CDPs for remote monitoring or telehealth. We compared CDP use in the months before and after the issuance of FDA guidance facilitating virtual clinical trials.SettingAll trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov with start dates from May 2019 through February 2021.Outcome measuresThe primary outcome measure was the overall percentage of CDP use in clinical trials started in the 10 months prior to the pandemic onset (May 2019–February 2020) compared with the 10 months following (May 2020–February 2021). Secondary outcome measures included CDP usage by trial type (interventional, observational), funder type (industry, non-industry) and diagnoses (COVID-19 or non-COVID-19 participants).ResultsCDP usage in clinical trials increased by only 1.65 percentage points, from 14.19% (n=23 473) of all trials initiated in the 10 months prior to the pandemic onset to 15.84% (n=26 009) of those started in the 10 months following (p<0.01). The increase occurred primarily in observational studies and non-industry funded trials and was driven entirely by CDP usage in trials for COVID-19.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that in the short-term, new options created by regulatory guidance to stimulate telehealth and remote monitoring were not widely incorporated into clinical research. In the months immediately following the pandemic onset, CDP adoption increased primarily in observational and non-industry funded studies where virtual protocols are likely medically necessary due to the participants’ COVID-19 diagnosis.


Author(s):  
Zhenghong Peng ◽  
Guikai Bai ◽  
Hao Wu ◽  
Lingbo Liu ◽  
Yang Yu

Obtaining the time and space features of the travel of urban residents can facilitate urban traffic optimization and urban planning. As traditional methods often have limited sample coverage and lack timeliness, the application of big data such as mobile phone data in urban studies makes it possible to rapidly acquire the features of residents’ travel. However, few studies have attempted to use them to recognize the travel modes of residents. Based on mobile phone call detail records and the Web MapAPI, the present study proposes a method to recognize the travel mode of urban residents. The main processes include: (a) using DBSCAN clustering to analyze each user’s important location points and identify their main travel trajectories; (b) using an online map API to analyze user’s means of travel; (c) comparing the two to recognize the travel mode of residents. Applying this method in a GIS platform can further help obtain the traffic flow of various means, such as walking, driving, and public transit, on different roads during peak hours on weekdays. Results are cross-checked with other data sources and are proven effective. Besides recognizing travel modes of residents, the proposed method can also be applied for studies such as travel costs, housing–job balance, and road traffic pressure. The study acquires about 6 million residents’ travel modes, working place and residence information, and analyzes the means of travel and traffic flow in the commuting of 3 million residents using the proposed method. The findings not only provide new ideas for the collection and application of urban traffic information, but also provide data support for urban planning and traffic management.


2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramzi Suleiman

My main argument is that the advice offered to experimental psychologists by Hertwig & Ortmann overlooks fundamental differences between the goals of researchers in psychology and economics. Furthermore, it is argued that the reduction of data variability is not always an end to be sought by psychologists. Variability that originates in individual differences constitutes valuable data for psychological research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1897
Author(s):  
Shaodong Wang ◽  
Yanbin Liu ◽  
Wei Zhi ◽  
Xihua Wen ◽  
Weihua Zhou

With the rapid development of communication and transportation technologies, the urban area is increasingly becoming an ever more dynamic, comprehensive, and complex system. Meanwhile, functional polycentricity as a distinctive feature has been characterizing urban areas around the world. However, the spatial structure of the urban area has yet to be fully comprehended from a dynamic perspective, and understanding the spatial organization of polycentric urban regions (PUR) is crucial for issues related to urban planning, traffic control, and urban risk management. The analysis of polycentricity strongly depends on the spatial scale. In order to identify functional polycentricity at the intra-unban scale, this paper presents a traffic flow-embedded and topic modeling-based methodology framework. This framework was evaluated on real-world datasets from the Wujiang district, Suzhou, China, which contains 151,419 records of taxi trajectory data and 86,036 records of points of interest (POI) data. This paper provides a novel approach to examining urban functional polycentricity via combining urban function distribution and spatial interactions. This proposed methodology can help urban authorities better understand urban dynamics in terms of function distribution and internal connectedness and facilitate urban development in terms of urban planning and traffic control.


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