Influence of Information and Instructions on Human Behavior in Tunnel Accidents: A Virtual Reality Study

Human behavior is a major factor modulating the consequences of road tunnel accidents. We investigated the effect of information and instruction on drivers' behavior as well as the usability of virtual environments to simulate such emergency situations. Tunnel safety knowledge of the general population was assessed using an online questionnaire, and tunnel safety behavior was investigated in a virtual reality experiment. Forty-four participants completed three drives through a virtual road tunnel and were confronted with a traffic jam, no event, and an accident blocking the road. Participants were randomly assigned to a control group (no intervention), an informed group who read a brochure containing safety information prior to the tunnel drives, or an informed and instructed group who read the same brochure and received additional instructions during the emergency situation. Informed participants showed better and quicker safety behavior than the control group. Self-reports of anxiety were assessed three times during each drive. Anxiety was elevated during and after the emergency situation. The findings demonstrate problematic safety behavior in the control group and that knowledge of safety information fosters adequate behavior in tunnel emergencies. Enhanced anxiety ratings during the emergency situation indicate external validity of the virtual environment.

Verbal instructions and top-down saccade control.

Few studies have addressed the interaction between instruction content and saccadic eye movement control. To assess the impact of instructions on top-down control, we instructed 20 healthy volunteers to deliberately delay saccade triggering, to make inaccurate saccades or to redirect saccades--i.e. to glimpse towards and then immediately opposite to the target. Regular pro- and antisaccade tasks were used for comparison. Bottom-up visual input remained unchanged and was a gap paradigm for all instructions. In the inaccuracy and delay tasks, both latencies and accuracies were detrimentally impaired by either type of instruction and the variability of latency and accuracy was increased. The intersaccadic interval (ISI) required to correct erroneous antisaccades was shorter than the ISI for instructed direction changes in the redirection task. The word-by-word instruction content interferes with top-down saccade control. Top-down control is a time consuming process, which may override bottom-up processing only during a limited time period. It is questionable whether parallel processing is possible in top-down control, since the long ISI for instructed direction changes suggests sequential planning.

The impact of absolute importance on prospective memory: Instructions matter

Prospective memory (ProM) is the ability to remember and carry out a planned intention in the future. ProM performance can be improved by instructing participants to prioritize the ProM task over the ongoing task. However, the improvement of ProM performance by emphasizing the relative importance typically restricted to situations in which the overlap between processing requirements of the ProM task and the ongoing task is low. Thus, additional processing resources are allocated to the ProM task and consequently, a cost emerges for the ongoing task. The aim of the present study was to further investigate this relationship. Participants were asked to respond to either semantic or perceptual ProM cues, which were embedded in a complex ongoing short term memory task. We manipulated absolute rather than relative importance by emphasizing the importance of the ProM task to half of the participants (i.e., without instructing them to prioritize it over the ongoing task). The results revealed that importance boosted ProM performance independent of the processing overlap between the ProM task and the ongoing task. Moreover, no additional cost was associated with absolute importance. These results challenge the view that importance always enhances the allocation of resources to the ProM task.

Ludwig Rottenberg, Maximilian Fleisch, Max Friedländer und weitere Mitglieder der Jury des 3. Wettstreits Deutscher Männergesangsvereine, Gruppenbildnis, Frankfurt a. M.: Festhalle, 1909

Signatur des Originals: S 36/F12213

Les instructions e ordinacions perals nouament conuertits del regne de Valencia

Existe emisión con pie de imp.: Estampada en Valencia : en casa de Joan Mey : venense en casa de Sanahuja, 1566

Instructions to S.C., [1797?]

Undated, two-page list of instructions written by Croswell presumably to Samuel Cheney with directions for paying bills and delivering books.

The entomologist's useful compendium; or, An introduction to the knowledge of British insects, comprising the best means of obtaining and preserving them, and a description of the apparatus generally used; together with the genera of Linné, and the modern method of arranging the classes...according to the views of Dr. Leach...with instructions for collecting and fitting up objects for the microscope.

1821

Instructions for printing the Hebrew Grammar, [ca. 1735]

A one-page handwritten list of instructions, in President Benjamin Wadsworth's hand, for printing, distributing, and collecting revenue on the Hebrew Grammar.

Copy of Gov[erno]r Philips's additional instructions about settling some Palatine families in Nova Scotia: Copy Col. Dunbar's additional instruction about settling some Irish families in Nova Scotia : manuscript, [1730]

Copies of two documents, approved 20 Apr. 1730; instructions to Richard Philips state that a number of Protestant Irish and Palatine families have been granted land in Nova Scotia, to be surveyed by David Dunbar; and instructions to Dunbar to survey and lay out land for the families.