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.

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.

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.

Learning medical alarms whilst performing other tasks.

Unlabelled: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.