Cognitive Factors and Gender Related to Self-reported Difficulties in Older Drivers

The purpose of this study is to determine the association between selfreported driving difficulties among older drivers and scores on specific cognitive tests. A cross-sectional study of 38 car drivers (22 men and 16 women), aged 61- 81 was carried out. The participants were volunteers recruited from two senior universities and a university health program for older drivers, in the area of Lisbon, Portugal. A battery of visual, psychomotor and cognitive measures was undertaken with a questionnaire about driving difficulties in a sample of healthy older adults. Difficulties in driving were the dependent variable in this study, defined as any reported difficulty in ≥ 4 driving situations. After a multivariate analysis, the independent factors significantly associated with driving difficulties were divided attention subtest of UFOV® (p=0.013), number of trials with success in the Tower of London (p=0.015) and gender (p=0.021). The drivers that reported difficulties in ≥ 4 driving situations made significantly less trials with success in the Tower of London test, had lower performances in divided attention between central and peripheral targets, and were more frequently females. Results suggest that planning ability, divided visual attention and gender are three important factors to be considered in the analysis of driving difficulties. However, further investigation with additional cognitive tests and driving measures (staterecorded crashes, driving simulator and on-road driving performance) could be developed in order to understand the factors related to driving difficulties in healthy older drivers

When expectancies harm comprehension : Encoding flexibility in impression formation

Peer reviewedPostprin

Time-to-Arrival and Useful Field of View: Associations with Reported Driving Difficulties Among Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to determine self-reported driving difficulties related to time-to-arrival (TTA) and/or useful field of view (UFOV), to identify associations between TTA and UFOV, and to compare the TTA estimated accuracy between different vehicle speed approaches. Thirty-eight male and female active drivers ages 61 to 81 years (70,2 ± 5,0 years) participated in this study. The UFOV® test was applied. TTA was studied with a removal paradigm, using two vehicle speeds (50 and 70km/h) for data collection. A driving habits questionnaire was administered, including items concerning driving difficulties. Results showed that lower performances in divided attention (subtest 2 of UFOV®) were significantly associated with reported difficulties in hightraffic intersections, trouble seeing the signs in time to respond to them, and problems judging the speed or distance of an approaching vehicle. Concerning TTA, greater response bias and/or greater response inconsistency were significantly associated with difficulties in overtaking other cars, difficulties seeing the signs in time to react to them, difficulties in the speed or distance perception of an oncoming vehicle. Low associations were found between UFOV and TTA measures. TTA estimated accuracy increased when the vehicle traveled at higher speeds. We concluded that both TTA and UFOV seem to be important measures to identify driving difficulties in older adults. The TTA could be relevant in measuring specific aspects of visual information processing in addition to other instruments like UFOV®

Attitudes toward money and control strategies of financial behavior: a comparison between overindebted and non-overindebted consumers

This paper addresses whether overindebted and non-overindebted consumers differ in their attitude toward money (specifically, the degree to which consumers care about money and feel difficulties keeping track of their money) and how this attitude impacts three different financial behavior categories: record keeping (e.g., recording spending in writing), adjusting balance (e.g., trying to find ways to decrease one’s expenses to match income), and monitoring balance (e.g., monitoring one’s spending to see if it is in line with what is expected). Overindebted consumers were recruited via an NGO for consumer defense and were categorized (whenever possible) into two subgroups: consumers who became overindebted due to internal causes (e.g., bad financial management) and consumers who became overindebted due to external causes (e.g., unemployment). Non-overindebted consumers were a convenience sample. Non-overindebted consumers showed more positive attitudes toward money than both groups of overindebted consumers and overindebted due to external causes showed more positive attitudes than overindebted consumers due to internal causes. All groups share similar financial management behaviors except for monitoring balance, which was more frequent among non-overindebted consumers. Furthermore, a regression analysis indicates that money attitudes helped explain financial behavior differences between consumers above and beyond their indebtedness status. Consumers’ attitude predicted financial behaviors, even when controlling for relevant socioeconomic variables (education, income, age, and gender). Further analyses comparing money attitudes and financial behavior for the three subgroups (non-overindebted, overindebted due to internal causes, and overindebted due to external causes) showed no differences.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Organised turbulence over mobile and immobile hydraulically rough boundaries

33rd IAHR Congress: Water Engineering for a Sustainable EnvironmentThe present work is aimed at the study of near-bed organised turbulence over mobile and immobile, porous, hydraulically rough boundaries. The bed was permeable and composed of non-cohesive sediments. Two data sets were analysed, characterised by the same u*. The mobile bed data featured generalised sediment transport for all size fractions smaller than the d90. The fixed bed was obtained as result of an armouring process. Comparison of these data sets reveals differences on such parameters of the bursting cycle as the maximum shear stress and the transported momentum. These results point to a reorganization of turbulence, in the near-bed region, when the bed is mobile. The impacts of these reorganization are discussed, namely in what concerns the third order moments of the distributions of the velocity fluctuations

Construção de uma Bateria de Problemas de Julgamento e Decisão em Língua Portuguesa

O nosso principal objetivo foi construir uma bateria de problemas de julgamento e decisão em condições de incerteza que possa ser utilizada pela investigação feita em português. A importância deste trabalho passa por construir material cuja qualidade é controlada de forma a reduzir os erros de medida associados à estrutura superficial dos problemas utilizados e, ao mesmo tempo, garantir que os resultados obtidos resultam realmente das características dos processos de julgamento. Com efeito, só desta forma é possível integrar novos dados nas atuais perspetivas de julgamento e decisão e contribuir para o desenvolvimento desta área de investigação. Para além da adaptação de problemas existentes em língua inglesa e da criação de novos itens, foram igualmente criadas versões em que existe conflito entre respostas alternativas e versões em que estas respostas convergem. Para garantir a qualidade desta nova bateria o desempenho de 117 participantes em cada uma das questões foi analisado. A bateria é composta por itens do Teste de reflexão cognitiva (Cognitive Reflection Test), problemas de raciocínio disjuntivo, silogismos, problemas de viés com base no resultado (outcome bias) e de viés retrospetivo (hidsight bias), problemas de probabilidades de partida (base rates e base rates causais), problemas de conjunção de probabilidades e, também, problemas de falácia do jogador

Perceived causes and attitudes regarding overindebtedness and their effects on public agreement with government financial aid

In order to better understand how the problem of overindebtedness is perceived from a laypeople standpoint, Study 1 inquired both overindebted and non-overindebted consumers on the perceived causes of and attitudes toward the overindebted. Situational and dispositional factors were perceived to have similar impact as causes of overindebtedness, but non-overindebted consumers showed stronger agreement with those causes than overindebted consumers. Regarding attitudes, non-overindebted consumers tended to blame overindebted people for their situation rather than perceiving them as victims, whereas overindebted consumers showed the opposite pattern. Study 2 used a sample of (non-overindebted) consumers to assess the impact of perceived causes of overindebtedness, attitudes toward the overindebted, and political orientation on public support of government policies for aiding overindebted people. We discuss the contributions of the present findings to design public policies aimed at aiding overindebted households that are more aligned with the beliefs and attitudes of the general public.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

“Identify-to-reject”: A specific strategy to avoid false memories in the DRM paradigm

[EN]Previous research using the Deese–Roediger– McDermott (DRM) paradigm has shown that lists of associates in which the critical words were easily identified as the themes of the lists produce lower levels of false memories in adults. In an attempt to analyze whether this effect is due to the application of a specific memory-editing process (the identify-to-reject strategy), two experiments manipulated variables that are likely to disrupt this strategy either at encoding or at retrieval. In Experiment 1, lists were presented at a very fast presentation rate to reduce the possibility of identifying the missing critical word as the theme of the list, and in Experiment 2, participants were pressed to give yes/no recognition answers within a very short time. The results showed that both of these manipulations disrupted the identifiability effect, indicating that the identify to-reject strategy and theme identifiability play a major role in the rejection of false memories in the DRM paradigm

Arthropods and other biota associated with the Azorean trees and shrubs : Laurus azorica (Seub) Franco (Magnoliophyta, Magnoliopsida, Laurales, Lauraceae)

This study explores the composition and structure of species communities associated with the native Azorean tree species Laurus azorica (Seub) Franco (Magnoliophyta, Magnoliopsida, Laurales, Lauraceae). Communities were sampled in six Islands covering the occidental (Flores), central (Faial, Pico, Terceira) and eastern (São Miguel, Santa Maria) groups of Azores Archipelago during the BALA project, using standardised sampling protocols for surveying canopy arthropod fauna. In addition, the study characterises the distribution of species regarding their colonisation status and feeding modes and, finally, compares communities of different Islands. Ninety-four arthropod species totalling 10,313 specimens were collected on L. azorica. The Arthropod community was dominated by Hemiptera species, most of them being herbivores. Endemic and native species showed a very high abundance representing about 94% of the total species abundance. However, despite introduced species being represented by few individuals (6% of the total abundance), their diversity was remarkable (28 species and no significant difference with diversity found in endemic and native species communities). Analysis of rarity patterns revealed a stable community of endemic species (alpha gambin SAD model approaching a log-normal shape), intermediate stable community of native species (alpha SAD gambin model approaching a poisson log-normal) and a less stable community of introduced species (alpha SAD gambin model approaching a log-series shape). A dissimilarity analysis revealed high similarity between communities of Terceira and Pico and high dissimilarity between Flores and Faial communities. We observed a clear individualisation of the different islands when considering endemic species, whereas we observed high overlap when considering native and introduced species groups. Canopy community distribution confirms the results obtained in a previous study which suggest the stability of native and endemic arthropods species communities over introduced species community in native forests fragments. Arthropod species were richer than bryophytes, lichens and vascular plants species. We found that L. azorica serve as the substrate for very few vascular plants species (four epiphytes species), which were present in all Islands, except Elaphoglossum semicylindricum, which does not occur in Santa Maria. L. azorica shelters a significant number of bryophytes and lichens species. Thirty-two lichens and 92 bryophyte species, including 57 liverworts and 35 mosses, are referred to this phorophyte. Five bryophyte species, all Azorean endemics, are considered Endangered by IUCN Criteria. L. azorica harbours a poor community of epiphyte vascular plant species and all of them were ferns, but the community of bryophytes and lichens are not negligible although very low compared to the community found on other previously studied Azorean trees, the Azorean cedar Juniperus brevifolia. The present study shows that most islands present particular species distribution patterns without geographical correlation and that conservation programmes should be adapted to each Island. The study, therefore, calls for a specialisation of conservation programmes for each of the Islands.NT and MTF are currently funded by the project LIFE BEETLES (LIFE 18 NAT/PT/000864) at "Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e Alterações Climáticas". PAVB, RE and RG are funded by the project AZORESBIOPORTAL-PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145FEDER-000072) (2019).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estudo de avaliação do ensino artístico

A essência do problema deste estudo de avaliação decorre do facto de ser imprescindível conhecer com rigor as realidades do ensino artístico especializado para que se possam conceber estratégias e medidas de política destinadas a superar as suas eventuais dificuldades e debilidades. Qualquer processo que vise transformar, expandir e/ou melhorar aquela modalidade de ensino deverá apoiar-se em informação credível acerca dos seus processos de funcionamento, dos seus projectos, das ideias dos seus dirigentes e professores, ou dos resultados que é capaz de produzir. Mas também deverá apoiar-se em informações relativas aos processos de funcionamento da própria administração que lhe permitam reflectir e pôr em marcha novas e inovadoras formas de se relacionar com uma modalidade de ensino que, num certo sentido, é pouco e mal conhecida e em torno da qual se foi construindo um conjunto de ideias que urge analisar e compreender com profundidade. Nestas condições, parece óbvio que de algum modo se sentiu que a informação disponível não reunia os elementos relevantes para que qualquer intervenção possa, por exemplo, vir a ter efeitos desejáveis ao nível da integral inserção da educação e do ensino artístico no sistema educativo, da expansão da oferta de certas modalidades de ensino artístico e da qualidade do ensino que é prestado às crianças e aos jovens. Consequentemente, é necessário obter essa informação para que possa ser analisada e interpretada