Factors That Affect Drivers’ Perception of Closing and an Immediate Hazard

Objective To measure the looming threshold for when drivers perceive closing and an immediate hazard and determine what factors affect these thresholds. Background Rear-end collisions are a common type of crash. One key issue is determining when drivers first perceive they need to react. The looming threshold for closing and an immediate hazard are critical perceptual thresholds that reflect when drivers perceive they need to react. Method Two driving simulator experiments examined whether engaging in a cell phone conversation and whether the complexity of the roadway environment affect these thresholds for the perception of closing and immediate hazard. Half of the participants engaged in a cognitive task, the last letter task, to emulate a cell phone conversation, and all participants experienced both simple and complex roadway environments. Results Drivers perceived an immediate hazard later when engaged in a cell phone conversation than when not engaged in a conversation but only when the driving task was relatively less demanding (e.g., simple roadway, slow closing velocity). Compared to simple scenes, drivers perceived closing and an immediate hazard later for complex scenes but only when closing velocity was 30 mph (48.28 km/h) or greater. Conclusion Cell phone conversation can affect when drivers perceive an immediate hazard when the roadway is less demanding. Roadway complexity can affect when drivers perceive closing and an immediate hazard when closing velocity is high. Application Results can aid accident analysis cases and the design of driving automation systems by suggesting when a typical driver would respond.

Letters to our Future Selves? High-Powered Replication Attempts Question Effects on Future Orientation, Delinquent Decisions, and Risky Investments

Enhancing people's future orientation, in particular continuity with their future selves, has been proposed as promising to mitigate self-control–related problem behavior. In two pre-registered, direct replication studies, we tested a subtle manipulation, that is, writing a letter to one's future self, in order to reduce delinquent decisions (van Gelder et al., 2013, Study 1) and risky investments (Monroe et al., 2017, Study 1). With samples of n = 314 and n = 463, which is 2.5 times the original studies' sample sizes, the results suggested that the expected effects are either non-existent or smaller than originally reported, and/or dependent on factors not examined. Vividness of the future self was successfully manipulated in Study 2, but manipulation checks overall indicated that the letter task is not reliable to alter future orientation. We discuss ideas to integrate self-affirmation approaches and to test less subtle manipulations in samples with substantial, myopia-related self-control deficits.

Letter-name knowledge: Predicting reading and writing diffi culties

This study evaluated the precision of a Letter-Name Knowledge task in predicting children at risk/non-risk of reading and writing difficulties in Brazil. A second goal was to compare the precision of classification of two versions of this task: a 26 letter-task and a 15 letter-task. A total of 213 Brazilian children performed the 26 letter-task when they were in kindergarten. Of those children, 176 performed a writing task and 174 performed a reading task in 1st grade Elementary School. The choice of letters for the 15 letter-task was based on the Item Response Theory and on neural network simulation. The results based on the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis, showed that both tasks could be used for screening children with reading and writing difficulties (areas under the curve of 0.83 and 0.80).

Effects of Cell Phone Conversation on the First Driver Response to a Stopped Lead Vehicle

Despite ample research on the effects of cell phone conversations on driving, the effects of such conversations on the looming threshold for an immediate hazard are not known. Prior research on the looming threshold for an immediate hazard in the absence of cell phone conversation indicated that the rate of optical expansion at threshold was .006 radians per second. We measured the rate of optical expansion and headway distance at first driving input when participants encountered a stopped lead vehicle while completing a car-following task. Half of them concurrently completed the Last Letter Task, a cognitive task that emulates a cell phone conversation. When compared to the second, third, and fourth scenario exposures to the stopped lead vehicle, the participant’s response on the first scenario exposure occurred when the lead vehicle’s optical expansion rate was relatively smaller and headway distance was larger. However, this effect of scenario exposure occurred only when drivers were engaged in a cell phone conversation. Additionally, participants started to initiate a response when the rate of optical expansion was much lower than the looming threshold reported in previous research. Our results indicate that the first driver input, as operationalized in the current study, does not indicate when drivers first perceive an immediate hazard.

Implementasi Aplikasi Monitoring Tindak Lanjut Hasil Audit (Studi Kasus Kantor Wilayah Direktorat Bea Dan Cukai Jawa Barat)

The application of Monitoring the follow-up of Audit Results is a handy application to monitor and evaluate the performance of the auditors audit against the company or the industry ranging from the publication of the letter decision issued to Task or policies of the report on Audit results. In the implementation of monitoring follow-up on audit results there are some issues which were not able to make the monitoring information at any time and it is difficult because the data in the query should open the archive in advance so it takes a long time. To ease the process of analysis and design, authors use the Classic method of Life Cycle or also called with the method waterfall. At this stage of the design process, the model used is a structured model that includes a Context Diagram and Data Flow diagrams, while for a data model using Entity Relationship diagrams. After a phase of implementation of this monitoring application can monitor the tindaklanjut audit results, simplify the user in doing data management monitoring of the follow-up of audit results and noting each letter of assignment and a follow-up letter It is published.Keyword: Application, Monitoring, Auditing, A Letter Task

The relationship between general executive functions and bilingual switching and monitoring in language production

We examined the role of general inhibitory control and general set shifting processes in bilingual language production in 51 native Finnish speakers with English as L2, mainly learnt after the age of 7. We tested the hypothesis that inhibitory control, measured with the Simon and Flanker tasks, is central when switching into L1 (Green, 1998) and, more generally, that general set shifting processes, measured with the Number-Letter task, underlie language switching and mixing (Meuter & Allport, 1999). The results were inconsistent. The basic language switch cost effects were in line with the inhibitory control model, but the interactions with the executive tasks did not support the model and were partly contrary to it. The general set shifting hypothesis received some support. Alternative explanations of the sources of the switching and mixing cost asymmetries in bilingual language production are discussed.