User-centred car design and the role of feedback in driving

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.A survey of car manufacturers reveals an impressive list of upcoming technologies, the combined effect of which is likely to have a profound impact upon feedback to the driver. Feedback is information that the situation provides back to the driver and is specified with reference to content, source, and timing. Feedback quality is achieved when the information requirements of the task, derived from a new task analysis of driving, are matched to the sources, content, and timing of feedback provided by the environment and the vehicle. An exploratory on-road study begins by observing that better quality feedback is implicated in increasing driver's situational awareness (even though drivers have little self awareness of this fact), and optimising mental workload. The exploratory level of analysis builds into the experimental, whereby a highly controlled simulator study replicates and builds upon these findings. Feedback is again seen to positively influence situational awareness, where changes in driver's confidence ratings as to the presence or absence of feedback information in the simulation were observed, according to the modality of feedback presented. This was achieved with a probe recall paradigm, and using psychophysical techniques as a useful extension to the Situational awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAI). Similarly, an analysis of mental workload via the NASA TLX self report questionnaire demonstrates that a combination of visual, steering force feedback and auditory feedback gives rise to lower mental workload, lower driver frustration, and lower, though possibly more realistic self ratings of performance. This knowledge can be discussed with reference to a feedback framework of driving that provides the theoretical backdrop to the key psychological variables implicated in driving task performance. Overall, the findings contribute to knowledge in terms of new and imaginative ways of designing future vehicle technologies in order to maximise safety, efficiency, and enjoyment.This research is funded by the Hamilton Research Studentship

Taking the Plunge: Online Data Collection Using MTurk

Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing service created in 2005 by Amazon.com, is gaining in popularity among academics as a source of subjects for survey research. The initial attraction is based on access to a very large pool of participants who can be accessed online producing rapid response at low cost with minimal effort on the part of the researcher. For the uninitiated, however, the task of designing and running a research project on MTurk is rather daunting. This paper begins with an introduction to MTurk. We review the language of MTurk and explain how a researcher goes about setting up an online survey. Next we talke about several of the decisions that have to be made by the researcher. Decisions relate to the compensation rate to be paid, qualifications for respondents, timing decisions, and aspects of project design to aid in filtering out bad data. Such decisions are especially complicated when it comes to lengthy surveys

Peripheral inflammation is associated with altered substantia nigra activity and psychomotor slowing in humans

BACKGROUND: Systemic infections commonly cause sickness symptoms including psychomotor retardation. Inflammatory cytokines released during the innate immune response are implicated in the communication of peripheral inflammatory signals to the brain. METHODS: We used functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (fMRI) to investigate neural effects of peripheral inflammation following typhoid vaccination in 16 healthy men, using a double-blind, randomized, crossover-controlled design. RESULTS: Vaccination had no global effect on neurovascular coupling but markedly perturbed neural reactivity within substantia nigra during low-level visual stimulation. During a cognitive task, individuals in whom typhoid vaccination engendered higher levels of circulating interleukin-6 had significantly slower reaction time responses. Prolonged reaction times and larger interleukin-6 responses were associated with evoked neural activity within substantia nigra. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide mechanistic insights into the interaction between inflammatio

Vicarious Trauma Exposure and Its Effects on Mental Health among Adolescents and Adults: A Narrative Research Review

Vicarious Trauma Exposure and Its Effects on Mental Health among Adolescents and Adults: A Narrative Research Review Harris Davis, Dept. of Psychology, Angel Whitfield, Sydney Judge, Bailee Beverly, Jenna Minter, Harrison Davis, and Eryn DeLaney and Chloe Walker, Dept. of Psychology Graduate Students, with Dr. Chelsea Williams, Dept. of Psychology A narrative research review was conducted to examine studies that have tested the relation between vicarious trauma (i.e., witnessing abuse of others; Trautmann, S., Reineboth, M., Trikojat, K., Richter, J., Hagenaars, M. A., Kanske, P., & Schäfer, J. (2018). and mental health in adolescents and young adults. Using psycinfo to find research conducted to date, this review indicated that there are various types of trauma that adolescents might be exposed to (e.g., domestic abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse) and various forms of mental health issues (e.g., post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety) that might result from such trauma. (Erolin, K. S., Wieling, E., & Parra, R. E. A. (2014)., , Stowkowy, J., Goldstein, B. I., MacQueen, G., Wang, J., Kennedy, S. H., Bray, S., Lebel, C., & Addington, J. (2020). Findings from this review also suggest that there is a relation between varying types of traumatic exposure and several types of depressive symptoms (Monfort, E., Afzali M. H. (2015), Merza, K., Papp, G., & Szabó, I. K. (2015) and that there are more studies on adults than on adolescents. These effects will be discussed. Gaps in the literature will be referenced and potential future research directions will be acknowledged. In conclusion, this narrative research review emphasizes the importance of knowing the effects of vicarious trauma on adolescents and adults for preventative purposes.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1336/thumbnail.jp

Crossing Goal Lines and Borders: Engaging Black Male Student-Athletes in Education Abroad

Many Black male student-athletes suffer from identity foreclosure at rates higher than their white peers as they fail to develop salient aspects of their identity outside of the athlete role (Murphy, Petitpas, & Brewer, 1996; Beamon, 2012).  Education abroad offers the opportunity to take advantage of a holistic collegiate experience, which impedes the detrimental effects of the athletic identity foreclosure process. International educational opportunities can positively influence Black male student-athletes’ personal, academic, and professional development as they come to see the world beyond the gym and campus. This article examines the significance and value of creating education abroad opportunities for Black male student-athletes as a means of providing meaningful educational opportunities in the realm of higher education

Canalization and Symmetry in Boolean Models for Genetic Regulatory Networks

Canalization of genetic regulatory networks has been argued to be favored by evolutionary processes due to the stability that it can confer to phenotype expression. We explore whether a significant amount of canalization and partial canalization can arise in purely random networks in the absence of evolutionary pressures. We use a mapping of the Boolean functions in the Kauffman N-K model for genetic regulatory networks onto a k-dimensional Ising hypercube to show that the functions can be divided into different classes strictly due to geometrical constraints. The classes can be counted and their properties determined using results from group theory and isomer chemistry. We demonstrate that partially canalized functions completely dominate all possible Boolean functions, particularly for higher k. This indicates that partial canalization is extremely common, even in randomly chosen networks, and has implications for how much information can be obtained in experiments on native state genetic regulatory networks.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; version to appear in J. Phys.