A cross-cultural comparison of visual search strategies and response times in road hazard perception testing.

Road hazard perception is considered the most prominent higher-order cognitive skill related to traffic-accident involvement. Regional cultures and social rules that govern acceptable behavior may influence drivers' interpretation of a traffic situation and, consequently, the correct identification of potentially hazardous situations. Here, we aimed to compare hazard perception skills among four European countries that differ in their traffic culture, policies to reduce traffic risks, and fatal crashes: Ukraine, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. We developed a static hazard perception test in which driving scenes with different levels of braking affordance were presented while drivers' gaze was recorded. The test required drivers to indicate the action they would undertake: to brake vs. to keep driving. We assessed 218 young adult drivers. Multilevel models revealed that the scenes' levels of braking affordance (i.e., road hazard) modulated drivers' behavior. As the levels of braking affordance increased, drivers' responses became faster and their gaze entropy decreased (i.e., visual search strategy became less erratic). The country of origin influenced these effects. Ukrainian drivers were the fastest and Swedish drivers were the slowest to respond. For all countries, the decrement in response times was less marked in the case of experienced drivers. Also, Spanish drivers showed the most structured (least erratic) visual search strategy, whereas the Italians had the most rigid (most constant) one. These results suggest that road hazard perception can be defined cross-culturally, with cultural factors (e.g., traffic climate, legislation) modulating response times and visual search strategies. Our results also support the idea that a multimodal assessment methodology is possible for mass testing of road hazard perception and its outcomes would be relevant to understand how different traffic cultures shape driving behavior.

Measuring pain-Physiological and self-rated measurements in relation to pain stimulation and anxiety.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to investigate how emotions influence pain, measured by one subjective self-rated measure, the numeric rating scale (NRS), and one objective physiological measure, the number of skin conductance responses (NSCR). METHOD: Eighteen volunteers were exposed to conditions with pictorial emotional stimuli (neutral, positive, negative), authentic ICU-sound (noise, no-noise) and electrical stimulation (pain, no-pain) individually titrated to induce moderate pain. When using all combinations of picture inducing emotions, sound, and pain, each of these conditions (12 conditions lasting for 60 seconds each) were followed by pain ratings. Ratings of arousal (low to high) and valence (pleasant to unpleasant) were used as indicators of affective state for each condition. Mean NSCR was also measured throughout the experiment for each condition. RESULTS: Even though NRS and NSCR increased during painful stimuli, they did not correlate during the trial. However, NSCR was positively correlated with the strength of the electrical stimulation, r = 0.48, P = 0.046, whereas NRS showed positive correlations with the anxiety level, assessed by affective ratings (arousal, r = 0.61, P < 0.001, and valence, r = 0.37, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The NRS was strongly influenced by affective state, with higher pain ratings during more anxiety-like states, whereas NSCR correlated to the strength of electrical pain stimulation. That reported pain is moderated by anxiety, puts forward a discussion whether reduction of the anxiety level should be considered during analgesia treatment.