276 research outputs found
Personality traits and beliefs about peers\u2019 on-road behaviors as predictors of adolescents\u2019 moped-riding profiles.
Several efforts aimed at discriminating between different degrees of on-road risky
attitudes have been devoted to the identification of personality profiles among young
drivers. However, the results are often inconsistent because of the limits of selfreport
measures. To overcome these limits, we tried to identify different profiles based
on our study participants\u2019 driving performances in a virtual environment and to look
for psychological predictors of inclusion in one of three profiles. One-hundred and
fourteen inexperienced adolescents were involved in this study, which included two
experimental sessions. During the first, before riding along five virtual courses on a
moped simulator, participants\u2019 sensation seeking, locus of control, aggressiveness and
beliefs about their peers\u2019 on-road behaviors were measured by means of self-report
tools. During the second session, the participants drove the simulator along six courses
that were different from those faced in the first session. A cluster analysis was run
on a wide number of indexes extracted from the participants\u2019 performances to detect
different riding profiles. Three profiles emerged (Imprudent, Prudent and Insecure), with
specific riding patterns. The profiles also differed in terms of riding safety, assessed
by means of the scores automatically given by the simulator to the participants\u2019
performances. Reporting an external locus of control, underestimating peers\u2019 on-road
risky behaviors and showing less concern for fate among the possible causes of crashes
are predictors that increase the risk of being included in the Imprudent profile. Low levels
of dangerous thrill seeking predict inclusion in the Prudent profile, whereas high rates
of self-reported anger play a role in discriminating the Insecure riders from the other
profiles. The study indicates that it is possible to identify riding profiles with different
degrees of on-road safety among inexperienced adolescents by means of simulated
road environments. Moreover, inclusion in these profiles is predicted by different patterns
of personality variables and beliefs. Further research is needed to verify the validity of
these conclusions in real road conditions
Long-lasting virtual motorcycle-riding trainer effectiveness
This work aimed to test the long-lasting effects of learning acquired with a virtual motorcycle-riding trainer as a tool to improve hazard perception. During the simulation, the rider can interact with other road actors and experience the most common potential accident situations in order to learn to modify his or her behavior to anticipate hazards and avoid crashes. We compared performance to the riding simulator of the two groups of participants: the experimental group, which was trained with the same simulator one year prior, and the control group that had not received any type of training with a riding or driving simulator. All of the participants had ridden a moped in the previous 12 months. The experimental group showed greater abilities to avoid accidents and recognize hazards in comparison to their performance observed a year before, whereas the performance of the control group was similar to that of the experimental group 1 year before in the first two sessions, and even better in the third. We interpreted this latter result as a consequence of their prior on-road experience. Also, the fact that the performance of the experimental group at the beginning of the follow-up is better than that recorded at the end of the training 1 year before is in line with the idea of a transfer from the on-road experience to the simulator. The present data confirm our main expectation that the effectiveness of the riding training simulator on the ability to cope with potentially dangerous situations persists over time and provides additional evidence in favor of the idea that simulators may be considered useful tools for training the ability to detect and react to hazards, leading to an improvement of this higher-order cognitive skill that persists over time. Implications for the reciprocal influence of the training with the simulator and the on-the road experience are discussed as well
Sensation seeking, non-contextual decision making, and driving abilities as measured through a moped simulator.
The general aim of the present study was to explore the relations between driving style (assessed through a moped riding simulator) and psychological variables such as sensation seeking and decision making. Because the influences of sensation seeking and decision making on driving styles have been studied separately in the literature, we have tried to investigate their mutual relations so as to include them in a more integrated framework. Participants rode the Honda Riding Trainer (HRT) simulator, filled in the Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSS V), and performed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). A cluster analysis of the HRT riding indexes identified three groups: Prudent, Imprudent, and Insecure riders. First, the results showed that Insecure males seek thrills and adventure less than both Prudent males and Insecure females, whereas Prudent females are less disinhibited than both Prudent males and Insecure females. Moreover, concerning the relations among SSS, decision making as measured by the IGT, and riding performance, high thrill and adventure seekers performed worse in the simulator only if they were also bad decision makers, indicating that these two traits jointly contribute to the quality of riding performance. From an applied perspective, these results also provide useful information for the development of protocols for assessing driving abilities among novice road users. Indeed, the relation between risk proneness and riding style may allow for the identification of road-user populations who require specific training
Measurement of change in health status with Rasch models
Background: The traditional approach to the measurement of change presents important drawbacks (no information at individual level, ordinal scores, variance of the measurement instrument across time points), which Rasch models overcome. The article aims to illustrate the features of the measurement of change with Rasch models. Methods: To illustrate the measurement of change using Rasch models, the quantitative data of a longitudinal study of heart-surgery patients (N=98) were used. The scale "Perception of Positive Change" was used as an example of measurement instrument. All patients underwent cardiac rehabilitation, individual psychological intervention, and educational intervention. Nineteen patients also attended progressive muscle relaxation group trainings. The scale was administered before and after the interventions. Three Rasch approaches were used. Two separate analyses were run on the data from the two time points to test the invariance of the instrument. An analysis was run on the stacked data from both time points to measure change in a common frame of reference. Results of the latter analysis were compared with those of an analysis that removed the influence of local dependency on patient measures. Statistics t, \u3a72 and F were used for comparing the patient and item measures estimated in the Rasch analyses (a-priori \u3b1=.05). Infit, Outfit, R and item Strata were used for investigating Rasch model fit, reliability, and validity of the instrument. Results: Data of all 98 patients were included in the analyses. The instrument was reliable, valid, and substantively unidimensional (Infit, Outfit<2 for all items, R=.84, item Strata range=3.93-6.07). Changes in the functioning of the instrument occurred across the two time, which prevented the use of the two separate analyses to unambiguously measure change. Local dependency had a negligible effect on patient measures (p 65.8674). Thirteen patients improved, whereas 3 worsened. The patients who attended the relaxation group trainings did not report greater improvement than those who did not (p=.1007). Conclusions: Rasch models represent a valid framework for the measurement of change and a useful complement to traditional approaches. \ua9 Anselmi et al
Metric qualities of the cognitive behavioral assessment for outcome evaluation to estimate psychological treatment effects
The cognitive behavioral assessment (CBA) project : Presentation and proposal for international collaboration
Aims: The main aim of this paper is to describe almost 30 years of work on psychological assessment using CBA, a research team, and to
propose collaboration with Latin countries. Methods: The acronym CBA stands for Cognitive Behavioural Assessment and indicates both an
overall approach to clinical assessment and a series of tests. Five general principles formed the basis on which the team developed their
questionnaires: (1) assessment is not a passive collection of information, but an active process similar to problem-solving; (2) horizontal
integration of questionnaires with other assessment methods; (3) vertical integration and hierarchical structure of assessment questionnaires;
(4) idiographic perspective; (5) computer support. Results: The paper briefly presents the most important tests: CBA-2.0, a broad-spectrum
Battery for patients who need counselling and/or psychotherapy; CBA-H (Hospital) for both in-patients and out-patients suffering from physical
illnesses; CBA-SPORT for professional athletes; CBA-Y (young people) for adolescents and young adults; CBD-VE (treatment benefits) to
assess the effectiveness of psychological treatment. Conclusion: These questionnaires have produced over 100 research works, published
in Italian journals or presented in conferences. In the near future, we expect important, radical changes and hope to create an international
research milieu
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