Texting While Driving: Evaluation of Glance Distributions for Frequent/Infrequent Texters and Keypad/Touchpad Texters

The threat that cell-phones pose to driving has been a well researched topic. There are fewer studies of the threat that texting creates for drivers, but the risks are obvious and the few existing studies confirm this. What is not obvious is whether frequent texters will expose themselves to the same risks as infrequent texters. This is important to know because many texters, especially teens who text frequently, may consider themselves immune to the dangers of texting while driving. As such, a comparison of frequent and infrequent texters was undertaken on a driving simulator. It is also not immediately clear what effects the different types of interfaces have on driving performance while text messaging. The interfaces under evaluation included keypad or “qwerty” phones (e.g., Blackberries) and touchpad phones (iPhone). It was found that the frequent and infrequent texters were equally likely to glance at least once for more than 2s inside the vehicle while sending a text message. It was also found that touchpad texters had a larger number of glances above the 2s threshold than keypad users, though this difference was not significant. The implications of this for future public policy are discussed

Characterization of Balanced Coherent Configurations

Let $G$ be a group acting on a finite set $\Omega$. Then $G$ acts on $\Omega\times \Omega$ by its entry-wise action and its orbits form the basis relations of a coherent configuration (or shortly scheme). Our concern is to consider what follows from the assumption that the number of orbits of $G$ on $\Omega_i\times \Omega_j$ is constant whenever $\Omega_i$ and $\Omega_j$ are orbits of $G$ on $\Omega$. One can conclude from the assumption that the actions of $G$ on ${\Omega_i}$'s have the same permutation character and are not necessarily equivalent. From this viewpoint one may ask how many inequivalent actions of a given group with the same permutation character there exist. In this article we will approach to this question by a purely combinatorial method in terms of schemes and investigate the following topics: (i) balanced schemes and their central primitive idempotents, (ii) characterization of reduced balanced schemes

Comparison of Trained and Untrained Novice Drivers’ Gaze Behavior in Risky and Non-Risky Scenarios

PC-based training programs have been developed that have been shown to improve novice drivers’ hazard anticipation skills. Such programs give novice drivers information about particular driving situations (scenarios) where hidden threats could appear. We wanted to know whether this improvement in trained novice drivers’ scanning skills was simply because the trained drivers were scanning more in general or, instead, were scanning more specifically in the scenarios in which potential threats could appear. In order to evaluate this question, we trained 11 novice drivers using a PC-based program and then compared their hazard anticipation performance on a driving simulator with the hazard anticipation performance of 11 untrained novice drivers. The drivers’ eye movements were recorded for the duration of the drives. The glances of the drivers to the right (the correct response in most of the risky scenarios) were analyzed for each of the relevant risky scenarios and for stretches of non-risky situations. The trained drivers did look to the right 6.5% more in the non-risky situations than did the untrained drivers, although the difference was far from significant. However, the trained drivers looked to the right 32.7% more in the risky scenarios than in the non-risky situations, indicating they were discriminating quite well between the two situations. The untrained drivers also showed a smaller, but significant, discrimination between the risky scenarios and non-risky situations, as they looked to the right 18.9% more in the risky scenarios than in the non-risky stretches

The inconsistency of expected utility theory with certain classes of single-peaked preference functions

The "psychophysics of gambling" model, in which a person is assumed to have a single-peaked or monotonic preference function on each of the primary psychological dimensions of a gamble, is compared to the expected utility model for two-outcome gambles. Two theorems are proved, the first of which shows that expected utility (EU) theory is inconsistent with single-peaked preference functions on both skewness and variance, while the second shows that subjectively-expected utility (SEU) theory is inconsistent with single-peaked preference functions on both skewness and range. The applicability of the theorems is discussed and a weak test of SEU theory is made employing the second theorem.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33660/1/0000170.pd

The Effects of PC-Based Training on Novice Drivers\u27 Risk Awareness in a Driving Simulator

Novice drivers are almost nine times more likely to die in a crash thanmore experienced drivers. This increased risk has been found to be largely due tonovice drivers’ inability to predict the risks in the roadway ahead. A PC-basedRisk Awareness and Perception Training Program (RAPT) was developed toteach novice drivers about different categories of risky situations likely to beencountered while driving. The format was an interactive multimedia presentationwith both plan (i.e., top down) views and perspective views of roadway geometrythat illustrated generally risky scenarios along with information about the type ofrisks and the relevant areas that attention should be allocated to in order to detectthe risks. A set of novice drivers was trained with this program. The eyemovementsof the participants were then evaluated in a driving simulator todetermine whether areas of potential risk were fixated, and their performance wascompared to a separate set of untrained novice drivers. The ability of the novicedrivers to identify risks in static views improved after they completed the trainingprogram. More importantly, the trained novice drivers were significantly morelikely to correctly fixate on risk relevant areas in the simulated drivingenvironment than the untrained drivers 3-5 days after training

An eye-tracking study of reading long and short novel and lexicalized compound words

An eye-tracking experiment examined the recognition of novel and lexicalized compound words during sentence reading. The frequency of the head noun in modifier-head compound words was manipulated to tap into the degree of compositional processing. This was done separately for long (12–16 letter) and short (7-9 letters) compound words. Based on the dual-route race model (Pollatsek et al., 2000) and the visual acuity principle (Bertram & Hyönä, 2003), long lexicalized and novel compound words were predicted to be processed via the decomposition route and short lexicalized compound words via the holistic route. Gaze duration and selective regression-path duration demonstrated a constituent frequency effect of similar size for long lexicalized and novel compound words. For short compound words the constituent frequency effect was negligible for lexicalized words but robust for novel words. The results are consistent with the visual acuity principle that assumes long novel compound words to be recognized via the decomposition route and short lexicalized compound words via the holistic route

Comparison of Anticipatory Glancing and Risk Mitigation of Novice Drivers and Exemplary Drivers when Approaching Curves

Novice drivers are overrepresented in run-off-the-road crashes. Indeed, the previous literature demonstrates that novice drivers are less likely to anticipate hazards or maintain attention to the forward roadway and as a result fail to mitigate hazards by slowing. This research was an effort to compare the linked hazard anticipation and hazard mitigation behaviors of novice drivers with exemplary experienced drivers at curves, locations that are known to have a greater crash risk. Each driver navigated three drives in a driving simulator, one of which included a moderate curve left and one of which included a tightening curve right. Experienced drivers made more anticipatory glances and began slowing significantly earlier in the curves than did novice drivers. However, novice drivers who anticipated hazards were much more likely to also mitigate the hazard. The use of these results in a PC-based driver hazard mitigation training program will be discussed

Quantum Error Correcting Codes From The Compression Formalism

We solve the fundamental quantum error correction problem for bi-unitary channels on two-qubit Hilbert space. By solving an algebraic compression problem, we construct qubit codes for such channels on arbitrary dimension Hilbert space, and identify correctable codes for Pauli-error models not obtained by the stabilizer formalism. This is accomplished through an application of a new tool for error correction in quantum computing called the ``higher-rank numerical range''. We describe its basic properties and discuss possible further applications.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Rep. Math. Phys., to appea