Reflective Thinking and Simulated Driving: The Importance of Answering Questions

3noRisky driving behaviors are common among young people, who tend to exhibit excessive speeding, speeding for the thrill, driving too close to the followed vehicle, driving while using a mobile phone, and to violate other road traffic rules. Here, consistently with the question-behavior effect [1, 2 ] we ask whether a specific action of a prevention program involving reflective thinking [3] (i.e., answering a questionnaire on driving and traffic safety) can alert participants and induce a concern capable of modifying simulated driving performance. A sample of 116 high school students, including 46 with car driving licence (DL), participated in two sessions of simulated driving tests, separated by a 60-min rest period during which they answered a written questionnaire on either driving safety (24/31 with/without DL) or ICT (22/39 with/without DL). A simulator – designed by ACI safe driving center at Vallelunga – supported realistic driving experience in urban, suburban, and motorway critical situations and the recording of several test parameters: speed and braking reaction time for emergency braking; number of offences (excess speeding, unsignaled lane change, collision, traveling in the emergency lane) for motorway driving. Simulated driving behavior of young adults (with/without driving license) proved to be malleable. Participants who answered the driving safety questionnaire changed their performance towards greater carefulness in the second session, compared to participants in the control group who answered the ICT questionnaire. The Session × Questionnaire interaction was significant (p < 0.001) for both travelling speed and braking reaction time. In the pre-questionnaire session travelling speed was in the 50-52 km/h range, with licence holders driving slightly faster; in the post-questionnaire session participants who answered the driving safety questionnaire (presumably, thinking about risky behaviors and their effects) slowed down, while participants in the control group (induced to think about ICT) increased they average speed. In the second session participants who answered the driving safety questionnaire reacted to the “Brake” signal much faster (from about 860 ms to 760 ms), while participants who answered the ICT questionnaire reacted slightly slower (from about 800 ms to 830 ms). The overall number of offenses decreased in all participants, with a stronger benefit in participants who answered the driving safety questionnaire. In general, driving licence ownership had limited effects on change of simulated driving behavior during participation in a prevention program. Our study provides strong support for the occurrence of a question-behavior effect within the context of a safe driving program. Results and conclusions are consistent with previous research in which behavioral changes were self-reported [2], but constitute a more convincing source of evidence, given that in our study the dependent measures were referred to objective measures of driving performance (not subjective evaluations) and obtained effects emerged from an experimental design including a control group involved in reflective thinking on a topic only partially related to road safety. [1] Sprott,D.E., Spangenberg, E.R., Block, L.G., Fitzsimons, G.J., Morwitz, V.G., Williams, P. (2006). The question-behavior effect: What we know and where we go from here. Social Influence, 1, 128-137 [2] Falk, B. (2009). Does answering a questionnaire promote traffic safety? In Jern, S. & Näslund, J. (Eds.). (2009). Dynamics Within and Outside the Lab. Proceedings from The 6h Nordic Conference on Group and Social Psychology, May 2008, Lund, pp 67-80. [3] Porter B.E. (2011). Handbook of Traffic Psychology. Elsevier.openopenTamburini, Laura; Fantoni, Carlo; Gerbino, WalterTamburini, Laura; Fantoni, Carlo; Gerbino, Walte

The Motor Action Mood Induction Procedure Affects the Detection of Facial Emotions

Fantoni and Gerbino (2014) showed that subtle postural shifts associated with reaching can have a strong hedonic impact and affect the actor's global experience. Using a novel Motor Action Mood Induction Procedure (MAMIP), they adapted participants to comfortable/uncomfortable visually-guided reaches and obtained consistent mood-congruency effects in the identification of facial emotions: a face perceived as neutral in a baseline condition appeared slightly happy after comfortable actions and slightly angry after uncomfortable actions. Here, using a detection task, we showed that moodcongruent effects following MAMIP included sensitivity changes, indicating that action affected perception, rather than simply biasing participant’s responses. Such results suggest that models of perceived facial emotions should include action-induced mood as a predictor and support strong links between body feelings and valence of the social environment

Information-Seeking Time: Only a Subset of Home Page Elements Matters

During goal oriented web navigation does the competition for web selection depend on all navigation options or only those options which are more likely to be functional for information seeking? Here we provide evidence in favour of the latter alternative. Within a representative set of real web sites of variable breadth, the time required to reach a goal located at the depth of two clicks from the home page is accounted for by C, an objective measure of the complexity of the start page, based on the number of links weighted by the number and type of embedding web elements. Our results demonstrate how focusing on links while ignoring other web elements optimizes the deployment of attentional resources necessary to navigation

Misperception of rigidity from actively generated optic flow

It is conventionally assumed that the goal of the visual system is to derive a perceptual representation that is a veridical reconstruction of the external world: a reconstruction that leads to optimal accuracy and precision of metric estimates, given sensory information. For example, 3-D structure is thought to be veridically recovered from optic flow signals in combination with egocentric motion information and assumptions of the stationarity and rigidity of the external world. This theory predicts veridical perceptual judgments under conditions that mimic natural viewing, while ascribing nonoptimality under laboratory conditions to unreliable or insufficient sensory information\u2014for example, the lack of natural and measurable observer motion. In two experiments, we contrasted this optimal theory with a heuristic theory that predicts the derivation of perceived 3-D structure based on the velocity gradients of the retinal flow field without the use of egomotion signals or a rigidity prior. Observers viewed optic flow patterns generated by their own motions relative to two surfaces and later viewed the same patterns while stationary. When the surfaces were part of a rigid structure, static observers systematically perceived a nonrigid structure, consistent with the predictions of both an optimal and a heuristic model. Contrary to the optimal model, moving observers also perceived nonrigid structures in situations where retinal and extraretinal signals, combined with a rigidity assumption, should have yielded a veridical rigid estimate. The perceptual biases were, however, consistent with a heuristic model which is only based on an analysis of the optic flow

Mid-level Priming by Completion vs. Mosaic Solutions

We report two experiments on the role of mid-level processes in image segmentation and completion. In the primed matching task of Experiment 1, a cue!prime sequence was presented before the imperative stimulus consisting of target shapes with positive versus negative contour curvature polarity and one versus two axes of mirror symmetry. Priming shapes were included in two composite occlusion displays with the same T-junction information and different geometric features supporting a distinct balance between completion and mosaic solutions. A cue, either congruent or incongruent with targets, preceded the presentation of the composite priming display. Matching performance was affected by primes in the expected direction, while cue congruency participated only in a marginally significant three-way interaction, and prime duration had no effect. In Experiment 2, the cue!prime sequence was replaced by a fixation cross to control for the priming effect obtained in Experiment 1. The study confirmed that contour connectability and curvature polarity are effective structural factors capable of competing with symmetry in mid-level image segmentation and completion processes

Systematic distortions of perceived planar surface motion in active vision

Recent studies suggest that the active observer combines optic flow information with extra-retinal signals resulting from head motion. Such a combination allows, in principle, a correct discrimination of the presence or absence of surface rotation. In Experiments 1 and 2, observers were asked to perform such discrimination task while performing a lateral head shift. In Experiment 3, observers were shown the optic flow generated by their own movement with respect to a stationary planar slanted surface and were asked to classify perceived surface rotation as being small or large. We found that the perception of surface motion was systematically biased. We found that, in active, as well as in passive vision, perceived surface rotation was affected by the deformation component of the first-order optic flow, regardless of the actual surface rotation. We also found that the addition of a null disparity field increased the likelihood of perceiving surface rotation in active, but not in passive vision. Both these results suggest that vestibular information, provided by active vision, is not sufficient for veridical 3D shape and motion recovery from the optic flow

Long-term radiographic and clinical-functional outcomes of isolated, displaced, closed talar neck and body fractures treated by ORIF: the timing of surgical management

Background: The main purpose of this retrospective case series study was to evaluate long-term radiographic and clinical outcomes of a consecutive series of patients diagnosed with isolated, displaced, closed talar neck or body fractures treated by open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF). Secondly, the aim was to verify the influence of the location of talar fractures on the outcomes, the prognostic value of the Hawkins sign, whether operative delays promote avascular necrosis (AVN) and if the fractures require emergent surgical management. Methods: From January 2007 to December 2012, at our institution, 31 patients underwent ORIF through the use of screws. On the basis of Inokuchi criteria, the injuries were divided between neck and body fractures, which were classified according to Hawkins and Sneppen, respectively. The patients included were divided into two groups in relation to fracture location and complexity. Radiographic assessment focused on reduction quality, bone healing, the Hawkins sign and post-traumatic arthritis (PTA) development. For the clinical evaluation, clinical-functional scores (AOFAS Ankle-Hindfoot Score; MFS; FFI-17; SF-36) and VAS were determined, and statistical analysis was performed. Results: 27 patients, 19 males and 8 females, mean age 38.3 years, were included with an average follow-up period of 83.2 months (range 49\u2013119). There were 9 neck and 19 body fractures; their reduction was anatomical or nearly anatomical in 22 cases, and all reached radiographic consolidation after a mean period of 3.4 months (range 1.7\u20137). The Hawkins sign was observed in 9 cases, in which necrosis did not develop. With a 0\u201311 day surgical timing interval, more than 60% of the patients obtained good or fair results with different scores, while 18 (66.7%) were completely satisfied (VAS: 9\u201310). The early complications included malunions (21.4%) and wound problems (25%); the late complications involved AVN (25%) and PTA (78.6%). Conclusions: Despite a high rate of long-term complications, satisfactory clinical results were achieved. Talar fracture location did not influence the outcomes, the Hawkins sign was confirmed as a positive prognostic factor, and operation timing did not influence AVN development. Hence, these injuries do not require emergent surgical management by ORIF