Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author’s publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Adults and children are spending more time interacting with media and technology and less time participating in activities in nature. This life-style change clearly has ramifications for our physical well-being, but what impact does this change have on cognition? Higher order cognitive functions including selective attention, problem solving, inhibition, and multi-tasking are all heavily utilized in our modern technology-rich society. Attention Restoration Theory (ART) suggests that exposure to nature can restore prefrontal cortex-mediated executive processes such as these. Consistent with ART, research indicates that exposure to natural settings seems to replenish some, lower-level modules of the executive attentional system. However, the impact of nature on higher-level tasks such as creative problem solving has not been explored. Here we show that four days of immersion in nature, and the corresponding disconnection from multi-media and technology, increases performance on a creativity, problem-solving task by a full 50% in a group of naive hikers. Our results demonstrate that there is a cognitive advantage to be realized if we spend time immersed in a natural setting. We anticipate that this advantage comes from an increase in exposure to natural stimuli that are both emotionally positive and low-arousing and a corresponding decrease in exposure to attention demanding technology, which regularly requires that we attend to sudden events, switch amongst tasks, maintain task goals, and inhibit irrelevant actions or cognitions. A limitation of the current research is the inability to determine if the effects are due to an increased exposure to nature, a decreased exposure to technology, or to other factors associated with spending three days immersed in nature

Effects of Cell Phone Conversations on Driver Performance While Driving Under Highway Monotony

It has often been suggested by individuals that engaging in a cell phone conversation would help keep them awake under monotonous conditions where task underload might lead to a decrease in arousal. To further extend laboratory findings of performance in vigilance type tasks while distracted, a monotonous highway driving scenario was designed to test the anecdotal hypothesis of improved performance. Driver performance related to lane keeping and recall memory were studied under distracted and non-distracted conditions. Results of the simulator study were consistent with laboratory findings of performance decrement when dual tasking indicating that the perceived benefits from the secondary conversational task does not outweigh its costs

Potential Benefits of a Concurrent Verbal Task when Feeling Fatigued Due to Monotonous Driving Conditions

Work by Atchley and Chan (2011) reported that engaging in a concurrent verbal task might serve to alleviate performance decrements in drivers when vigilance was low. Building on previous findings, the current study investigated the potential benefits of a concurrent verbal task when drivers were likely to be fatigued due to the extended duration and monotony of a driving task. Driver performance was studied under distracted and non-distracted conditions. Results indicated that strategically engaging in a concurrent verbal task led to improved driving performance when fatigue was at its highest

Potential Benefits and Costs of Concurrent Task Engagement to Maintain Vigilance: A Driving Simulator Investigation

Permissions were not obtained for sharing the full text of this article.Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the nature of concurrent task interference during a vigilance task and to determine whether a concurrent task improves performance with decreased vigilance. Background: Research has repeatedly shown that engaging in a cell phone conversation while driving increases the risk of getting into crashes. At the same time, it has also been found that task monotony could lead to an increase in crash risk. There is evidence that suggests that engaging in a concurrent task reduces the effects of monotony, leading to an improvement in vigilance task performance. Method: A monotonous drive in a driving simulator was used to investigate the effects of a concurrent verbal task. Three task conditions were used: no verbal task, continuous verbal task, and late verbal task. Results: When engaged in a secondary verbal task, drivers showed improved lane-keeping performance and steering control when vigilance was lowest. Conclusion: A strategically placed concurrent task can improve performance when vigilance is at its lowest. Application: There is potential for the design of a countermeasure system that can be strategically activated by an automated system monitoring driver performance

The Effects of Cardio Warm Up (CW) and Dynamic Warm Up (DW) on Sprint Time in Trained Individuals

According to Sander et al., (2013) a warmup to increase sprint time should include nonspecific running, coordination exercises, stretching, and acceleration runs. According to Zhou et al., (2020), an investigation into multiple studies found that aspects such as arm motion, takeoff angle, standing posture, warm up exercises, and handheld weights improved sprint times. The purpose of this study was to determine how a dynamic warmup compared to a cardio warm up will improve sprint time in trained collegiate D-I athletes. It was hypothesized that with the addition of a broad jump at the end of a standardized dynamic warm up, that trained individuals will show an increased sprint time performance in a 20-yard sprint test compared to a cardio warm up.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/exercise-science-research-proposal-posters/1139/thumbnail.jp

A Strategically Timed Verbal Task Improves Performance and Neurophysiological Alertness During Fatiguing Drives

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original publication is available at http://hfs.sagepub.com/content/56/3/453.Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate if a verbal task can improve alertness and if performance changes are associated with changes in alertness as measured by EEG. Background: Previous research has shown that a secondary task can improve performance on a short, monotonous drive. The current work extends this by examining longer, fatiguing drives. The study also uses EEG to confirm that improved driving performance is concurrent with improved driver alertness. Method: A 90-min, monotonous simulator drive was used to place drivers in a fatigued state. Four secondary tasks were used: no verbal task, continuous verbal task, late verbal task, and a passive radio task. Results: When engaged in a secondary verbal task at the end of the drive, drivers showed improved lane-keeping performance and had improvements in neurophysiological measures of alertness. Conclusion: A strategically timed concurrent task can improve performance even for fatiguing drives. Application: Secondary-task countermeasures may prove useful for enhancing driving performance across a range of driving conditions

A Survey of Taxi Drivers’ Aberrant Driving Behavior in Beijing

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original publication is available from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19439962.2013.799624#.VD_cxxYXNWs.Taxis are an important component in Beijing's urban integrated transport system. They provide passengers with convenient, comfortable, and efficient service. However, aberrant driving behaviors occur frequently among Beijing taxi drivers, leading to frequent violations and passenger complaints. This study explores Beijing taxi drivers’ aberrant driving behaviors and the factors influencing them. Questionnaires were designed to obtain different views of taxi drivers’ aberrant driving behaviors from taxi drivers, traffic police, and passengers, and to sample problems in the Beijing taxi industry. Responses from 52 professional taxi drivers, 40 traffic police officers, and more than 500 taxi passengers were obtained. The results show that taxi drivers generally under-report their own aberrant driving behaviors, whereas passengers and police appear to have a very negative impression of taxi drivers’ driving behaviors. Environmental influences such as economic pressure, ownership of taxi management, and the nature of the complaint system were found to contribute to taxi drivers’ aberrant driving behaviors. Some suggestions to increase the efficiency and safety of the taxi system in Beijing were proposed, such as improving drivers’ working and economic conditions, developing a better passenger loading system, establishing more effective license and termination policies for drivers, and improving the complaint system

Improving Highway Work Zone Safety

Highway work zones disrupt normal traffic flow and can create severe safety problems. Due to the rising needs in highway maintenance and construction in the United States, the number of work zones is increasing nationwide. With a total of 1,010 fatalities and more than 40,000 injuries occurring in 2006, improvements in work zone safety are necessary. The three primary objectives of this research project included: 1) to determine the effectiveness of a Portable Changeable Message Sign (PCMS) in reducing vehicle speeds on two-lane, rural highway work zones; 2) to determine the effectiveness of a Temporary Traffic Sign (TTS), (W20-1, “Road Work Ahead”); and 3) to determine motorists’ responses to the signage. To accomplish these objectives, field experiments were conducted at US-36 and US-73 in Seneca and Hiawatha, Kansas, respectively. During the field experiments, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the PCMS was conducted under three different conditions: 1) PCMS on; 2) PCMS off, but still visible; and 3) PCMS removed from the road and out of sight. The researchers also divided the vehicles into three classes (passenger car, truck, and semitrailer) and compared the mean speed change of these classes based on three different sign setups: PCMS on, PCMS off, and the use of the TTS (W20-1, “Road Work Ahead”). A survey was also conducted at the experimental work zones to obtain a general understanding of the motorists’ attitudes as they traveled through the construction areas. Based on the data analysis results, researchers concluded that the presence of the PCMS effectively reduced vehicle speeds on two-lane highway work zones. A slow speed is more likely to reduce the probability of a crash or the severity of a crash. In addition, researchers performed a univariate analysis of the variance test to determine if a significant interaction existed between motorists’ responses and the sign conditions. The results showed a significant interaction between the signs and passenger car vehicles