Evaluating an Intervention to Reduce Risky Driving Behaviors: Taking the Fear Out of Virtual Reality.

Educational programs are the most common type of intervention to reduce risky driving behavior. Their success, however, depends on the content of the material used and the mode of delivery. In the present study, we examined the impact of fear versus positively framed road safety films and traditional technologies (2D) versus emerging technologies (VR) on young drivers' self-reported risky driving behaviors. One hundred and forty-six university students completed a similar set of questionnaires pre-intervention and post-intervention, two weeks later. In addition, they were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions (VR vs. 2D; positive vs. negative). In the VR conditions, the film was presented using an HTC VIVE Virtual Reality headset. In the 2D conditions, the film was presented on a computer screen. Measures evaluating attitudes toward risky driving behavior were completed at both time frames, questions regarding the participants' emotional arousal were asked at pre-intervention as a manipulation check, and questions regarding willingness to take risks in potentially dangerous driving situations were asked at follow-up. The findings indicate that the positively framed films significantly decreased self-reported risky driving behaviors in both modalities, but especially when viewed in VR format. In contrast, the fear appeal film, when shown in VR, failed to reduce risky driving behaviors, and in fact, increased young drivers' self-reported risky driving behaviors. Theoretical frameworks regarding the strengths and weaknesses of fear appeals and positively framed appeals are discussed to aid future research to reduce risky driving. Practical implications on the future usage of VR are also considered.

Risks of high-powered motorcycles among younger adults.

OBJECTIVES: We assessed whether policies designed to safeguard young motorcyclists would be effective given shifts in ownership toward high-powered motorcycles. METHODS: We investigated population-wide motor vehicle driver and motorcyclist casualties (excluding passengers) recorded in Britain between 2002 and 2009. To adjust for exposure and measure individual risk, we used the estimated number of trips of motorcyclists and drivers, which had been collected as part of a national travel survey. RESULTS: Motorcyclists were 76 times more likely to be killed than were drivers for every trip. Older motorcyclist age-strongly linked to experience, skill set, and riding behavior-did not abate the risks of high-powered motorcycles. Older motorcyclists made more trips on high-powered motorcycles. CONCLUSIONS: Tighter engine size restrictions would help reduce the use of high-powered motorcycles. Policymakers should introduce health warnings on the risks of high-powered motorcycles and the benefits of safety equipment.

Learning medical alarms whilst performing other tasks.

Two studies are reported which first observe, and then attempt to replicate, the cognitive demands of intensive care unit (ICU) activity whilst concurrently learning audible alarms. The first study, an observational study in an ICU ward, showed that the alarms are very frequent and co-occur with some activities more than others. The three most frequently observed activities observed in the ICU were drugs (calculation, preparation and administration), patient observation and talking. The cognitive demands of these activities were simulated in a second, laboratory-based experiment in which alarms were learned. The results showed that performance in the alarm task generally improved as participants were exposed to more repetitions of those alarms, but that performance decrements were observed in the secondary tasks, particularly when there were two or three of them. Some confusions between the alarms persisted to the end of the study despite prolonged exposure to the alarms, confusions which were likely caused by both acoustic and verbal labelling similarities. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: The cognitive demands of working in an ICU were observed and simulated whilst alarms were learned. Alarms should generally avoid sharing similar rhythmic (and other) characteristics. The simulation task described here could be used for testing alarm learning without requiring a clinical environment.

Passing crisis and emergency risk communications: the effects of communication channel, information type, and repetition.

Three experiments explore several factors which influence information transmission when warning messages are passed from person to person. In Experiment 1, messages were passed down chains of participants using five different modes of communication. Written communication channels resulted in more accurate message transmission than verbal. In addition, some elements of the message endured further down the chain than others. Experiment 2 largely replicated these effects and also demonstrated that simple repetition of a message eliminated differences between written and spoken communication. In a final field experiment, chains of participants passed information however they wanted to, with the proviso that half of the chains could not use telephones. Here, the lack of ability to use a telephone did not affect accuracy, but did slow down the speed of transmission from the recipient of the message to the last person in the chain. Implications of the findings for crisis and emergency risk communication are discussed.

Designing trend-monitoring sounds for helicopters: methodological issues and an application.

This article explores methodological issues in sonification and sound design arising from the design of helicopter monitoring sounds. Six monitoring sounds (each with 5 levels) were tested for similarity and meaning with 3 different techniques: hierarchical cluster analysis, linkage analysis, and multidimensional scaling. In Experiment 1, similarity ratings for the top and bottom levels of the sounds were obtained. In Experiments 2 and 3, the stimuli were rated along adjectives relevant to their application. The different sound groupings that resulted from the different clustering techniques are discussed, as is the potentially contradictory relationship between acoustic dimensions and adjectival descriptors. Generally, the results validate the design of the sounds and show that increases in stimulus value are more salient than are decreases.

Auditory warnings in noisy environments.

Auditory warnings are used throughout industry, transport, and the medical world. Despite the fact that auditory warnings frequently have to compete with intense and complex noise backgrounds, their use is widespread. This article reviews research and practice in the area of auditory warning design and implementation with particular emphasis on noisy environments. Auditory and visual modalities as warning senses are compared, and ergonomic methods of producing warnings which are acoustically tailored to their environments are reviewed. Developments in design approaches are reviewed with examples of both traditional types of warnings and digital, contemporary warning styles. Other issues such as false alarms and the minimisation of warning numbers are briefly considered.

Overestimated crash risks of young and elderly drivers.

BACKGROUND: Young and elderly drivers are reported to have markedly greater crash rates than drivers of other ages, but they travel less frequently and represent a minority of road users. Consequently, many crashes involving young or elderly drivers also involve drivers of middle age ranges who travel more frequently. PURPOSE: To examine crash rates of young and elderly drivers, controlling for ages of all drivers involved in collisions. METHODS: A retrospective longitudinal study conducted on population-wide two-vehicle crashes reported in Great Britain from 2002 through 2010 for driver age ranges (17-20, 21-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, ≥70 years) and individual driver ages among those aged 17-20 years. Annual trips made, recorded as part of a National Travel Survey, were used to estimate trip-based driver crash rates. RESULTS: Crash rates of drivers aged 17-20 years were not significantly different from crash rates of drivers aged 21-29 years (rate ratio=1.14; 95% CI=0.96, 1.33) when controlling for ages of both drivers involved in two-car collisions, and drivers aged 17 years had the lowest crash rate among drivers aged 17-20 years. Crash rates of drivers aged ≥70 years equaled crash rates of drivers aged 60-69 years (rate ratio=1.00; 95% CI=0.77, 1.32) and were 1.40 times (95% CI=1.10, 1.78) lower than crash rates of drivers aged 50-59 years. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings are in contrast with reports of high crash risks among young and elderly drivers, and suggest that previous reports may have overestimated the crash risks of these drivers by failing to control for ages of all drivers involved in collisions.

Risk of fatal injury in older adult drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.

OBJECTIVES: To compare risk of fatal injury in elderly road users (drivers, passengers, pedestrians) with that of younger age groups and to assess the contribution of elderly road users to the number of reported fatalities in the population. DESIGN: Fatality age was categorized as 21 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, or 70 and older, and road user was categorized as driver, passenger, or pedestrian. Estimated number of trips made by each age group was used to adjust for exposure and to measure individual risk. SETTING: Fatalities recorded in Britain between 1989 and 2009. PARTICIPANTS: Population-wide fatal injury counts in Britain. MEASUREMENTS: Age of fatally injured drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Estimated number of trips made per year by drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. RESULTS: Risk of fatal injury, but not fatality numbers in the population, were higher for older adult (≥ 70) drivers than for younger age groups. Risk of fatal injury was also high for older adult passengers and pedestrians, who represented the majority of older adult fatalities. CONCLUSION: Previous emphasis on driver impairment in older age has unduly focussed attention on elderly drivers, who represent a minority of all driver fatalities. Older adults represent a much larger proportion of passenger and pedestrian fatalities. Additional policy schemes and initiatives should be targeted at safeguarding older adult passengers and making the road environment safer for elderly pedestrians.

Merits of using color and shape differentiation to improve the speed and accuracy of drug strength identification on over-the-counter medicines by laypeople.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the utility of using color and shape to differentiate drug strength information on over-the-counter medicine packages. Medication errors are an important threat to patient safety, and confusions between drug strengths are a significant source of medication error. METHOD: A visual search paradigm required laypeople to search for medicine packages of a particular strength from among distracter packages of different strengths, and measures of reaction time and error were recorded. RESULTS: Using color to differentiate drug strength information conferred an advantage on search times and accuracy. Shape differentiation did not improve search times and had only a weak effect on search accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Using color to differentiate drug strength information improves drug strength identification performance. Color differentiation of drug strength information may be a useful way of reducing medication errors and improving patient safety.

A review of human factors principles for the design and implementation of medication safety alerts in clinical information systems.

The objective of this review is to describe the implementation of human factors principles for the design of alerts in clinical information systems. First, we conduct a review of alarm systems to identify human factors principles that are employed in the design and implementation of alerts. Second, we review the medical informatics literature to provide examples of the implementation of human factors principles in current clinical information systems using alerts to provide medication decision support. Last, we suggest actionable recommendations for delivering effective clinical decision support using alerts. A review of studies from the medical informatics literature suggests that many basic human factors principles are not followed, possibly contributing to the lack of acceptance of alerts in clinical information systems. We evaluate the limitations of current alerting philosophies and provide recommendations for improving acceptance of alerts by incorporating human factors principles in their design.

What determines auditory similarity? The effect of stimulus group and methodology.

Two experiments on the internal representation of auditory stimuli compared the pairwise and grouping methodologies as means of deriving similarity judgements. A total of 45 undergraduate students participated in each experiment, judging the similarity of short auditory stimuli, using one of the methodologies. The experiments support and extend Bonebright's (1996) findings, using a further 60 stimuli. Results from both methodologies highlight the importance of category information and acoustic features, such as root mean square (RMS) power and pitch, in similarity judgements. Results showed that the grouping task is a viable alternative to the pairwise task with N > 20 sounds whilst highlighting subtle differences, such as cluster tightness, between the different task results. The grouping task is more likely to yield category information as underlying similarity judgements.

The perceived urgency of speech warnings: semantics versus acoustics.

The relationship between the semantics of words and the acoustics of the way they are spoken is explored. Actors spoke warning signal words in an urgent, nonurgent and monotone style, and participants rated the urgency of the words. Results showed effects for signal word and style of presentation. Acoustic analysis showed that the urgent words were spoken at higher frequency with a broader pitch range and were louder than the nonurgent or monotone words. These acoustic differences were used to synthesize artificial versions of signal words in urgent and nonurgent formats. The urgent words were rated as more urgent than the nonurgent words, a finding attributable to their differing acoustics. Within each speaking style the words were acoustically the same, yet effects for signal word were found, suggesting that semantics is also important in urgency perception. This research has implications for the design and implementation of speech warning systems, particularly those in which urgency mapping is required.

Linguistic and location effects in compliance with pesticide warning labels for amateur and professional users.

Three studies explored amateur and professional users' compliance with pesticide warning labels. Professionals were classified as people working in a profession in which the use of pesticides is a necessary part of their job. Amateurs used pesticides only in their leisure time. The first study showed that the wording used affected perception of the appropriateness of hazard statements, one of the most effective variations being the use of the personal pronoun (statements beginning "You should..."). The location of warning information was also found to affect actual compliance: Compliance increased when warning information was presented in the directions for use section. A supplemental directive increased compliance only for professional users. In a final study, "best-case" and "worst-case" linguistic variations were combined with best-case and worst-case locations for safety information. Instruction statements using the personal pronoun and presented in the directions for use section resulted in the highest levels of compliance. The differences in compliance between amateur and professional users are interpreted within the framework of Rasmussen's (1986) distinction among skill-, rule-, and knowledge-based behavior. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of warning labels and safety information.