A hierarchy category of socially assistive robots' functions: Insights from older adults.

Socially assistive robots (SARs) are increasingly recognized for their potential in helping older adults age in place. Effectively meeting the diverse needs of older adults requires a proper classification of SARs' functions. However, existing function categories are primarily proposed from the perspective of researchers, rarely from older adults themselves.

The Development of the Smartphone Proficiency Questionnaire for Chinese Older Adults (SPQ-COA).

While mobile technology is rapidly evolving, it remains a challenge for some older adults to use smartphones worldwide. To address this issue through tailored skill training and product design, this study developed a questionnaire to assess the smartphone proficiency of older adults. The Smartphone Proficiency Questionnaire for Chinese Older Adults (SPQ-COA) assessed proficiency based on 30 up-to-date tasks (e.

Use of minimal working memory in visual comparison: An eye-tracking study.

In this study, we used a novel application of the previous paradigm provided by Pomplun to examine the eye movement strategies of using minimal working memory in visual comparison. This paradigm includes two tasks: one is a free comparison and the other is a single sequential comparison. In the free comparison, participants can freely view two horizontally presented stimuli until they judge whether the two stimuli are the same or not.

Pedestrians' road-crossing behavior towards eHMI-equipped autonomous vehicles driving in segregated and mixed traffic conditions.

Pedestrians' road-crossing behavior can be influenced by eHMIs (external Human-Machine Interfaces) on autonomous vehicles (AVs). In this research, we developed a novel eHMI concept that aimed to support pedestrians' risk evaluation by displaying predicted real-time risk levels. In a virtual reality environment, we measured pedestrians' road-crossing behavior when they encountered AVs with this eHMI and manual-driven vehicles (MVs) in the same lane.

Food word processing in Chinese reading: A study of restrained eaters.

Food-related attentional bias refers that individuals typically prioritize rewarding food-related cues (e.g. food words and food images) compared with non-food stimuli; however, the findings are inconsistent for restrained eaters.

Dynamic attentional bias for pictorial and textual food cues in the visual search paradigm.

Previous studies have found that individuals have an attentional bias for food cues, which may be related to the energy level or the type of stimulus (e.g., pictorial or textual food cues) of the food cues.

Advantages of graphical nutrition facts label: faster attention capture and improved healthiness judgement.

Consumers have to rely on the traditional back-of-package nutrition facts label (NFL) to obtain nutrition information in many countries. However, traditional NFLs have been criticised for their poor visualisation and low efficiency. This study redesigned back-of-package NFLs integrated with bar graphs (black or coloured) to visually indicate nutrient reference values (NRVs).

Development and Validity of a General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (GNKQ) for Chinese Adults.

Nutrition knowledge refers to understanding concepts and processes related to nutrition and health, proven to be an essential determinant of healthy eating. However, partially due to the lack of nutrition knowledge and unhealthy eating patterns, more and more Chinese people face overweight, obesity, and a high risk of suffering from various chronic diseases. This study aimed to develop a general nutritional knowledge questionnaire (GNKQ) in a Chinese context to diagnose and improve nutrition knowledge education for Chinese people.

Transparent Windows on Food Packaging Do Not Always Capture Attention and Increase Purchase Intention.

Transparent windows on food packaging can effectively highlight the actual food inside. The present study examined whether food packaging with transparent windows (relative to packaging with food- and non-food graphic windows in the same position and of the same size) has more advantages in capturing consumer attention and determining consumers' willingness to purchase. In this study, college students were asked to evaluate prepackaged foods presented on a computer screen, and their eye movements were recorded.

Nutrition label processing in the past 10 years: Contributions from eye tracking approach.

Healthy eating plays a critical role in preventing diet-related chronic diseases. To promote healthy eating, nutrition labels have been mandated to certain foods in many countries. To test how different designs of nutrition labels affect consumer behavior, eye tracking technique has been increasingly used to overcome the limitations of subjective report which are susceptible to different biases and a poor indicator of nutrition label use in reality.

Pedestrian estimation of their crossing time on multi-lane roads.

Estimation of one's own crossing time is an important process in making road-crossing decisions. This study evaluated the pedestrian's (esp. the elderly) ability to estimate crossing time in a field experiment.

Do visual word segmentation cues improve reading performance in Chinese reading？.

It is controversial whether providing visual word segmentation cues can improve Chinese reading performance. This study investigated this topic by examining how visual word segmentation cues such as grey highlighting, red colour and interword spacing influence global sentence reading and local word recognition during reading Chinese text in three experiments. The results showed that interword spacing could facilitate local word recognition but could not increase reading speed.

Shorten pedestrians' perceived waiting time: The effect of tempo and pitch in audible pedestrian signals at red phase.

Long waiting time at red light leads to negative experiences and red-light running behaviors. To shorten pedestrians' experienced waiting time, this study explores how the tempo and pitch in audible pedestrian signals influence time estimation. In a simulated task of waiting at the red light, we compared pedestrians' estimation of waiting time for three durations (30 s, 45 s, 60 s) while the tempo (40 bpm, 60 bpm, 120 bpm, bpm as the number of beats per minute) and pitch (175 Hz, 350 Hz, 700 Hz) of the tone were manipulated.

Display of required crossing speed improves pedestrian judgment of crossing possibility at clearance phase.

At crosswalks with countdown timers, pedestrians arriving at the clearance phase tend to start crossing when the remaining time is too short. It is unclear whether this phenomenon is due to errors in judging the possibility to finish crossing before signal lights turning red. This study evaluated and compared pedestrians' accuracy in judgment of crossing possibility based on two cues: the amount of remaining time, and the minimum required speed to finish crossing within clearance phase (road width / remaining time).

Cross or wait? Pedestrian decision making during clearance phase at signalized intersections.

Pedestrians arriving at clearance phase (Flashing Don't Walk) face different levels of risk depending on behavioral choice afterwards. However, few studies have focused on the choices pedestrians make during this phase. This field study analyzed pedestrian choices after arrival, evaluated safety of the choices, and built a model to identify the predictors of pedestrian choices.

Pedestrian gestures increase driver yielding at uncontrolled mid-block road crossings.

To protect pedestrians, many countries give them priority at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks or pedestrian crossings. However, the actual driver yielding rate is not always satisfactory (only 3.5% in this study).

Pedestrians' crossing behaviors and safety at unmarked roadway in China.

Pedestrians' crossing out of crosswalks (unmarked roadway) contributed to many traffic accidents, but existing pedestrian studies mainly focus on crosswalk crossing in developed countries specifically. Field observation of 254 pedestrians at unmarked roadway in China showed that 65.7% of them did not look for vehicles after arriving at the curb.