Purpose. This study expands upon existing research on the psychological impact of administrative segregation on inmates by addressing several methodological limitations in this body of literature.Methods. Using a pre-post design, this study compared male general population (GP) inmates in the United States to those with up to 4 years in segregated placement across scores on the MCMI-III.Results. While segregated inmates reported higher levels of distress (particularly on measures of anxiety, depressed mood, post-traumatic stress, and somatic complaints) compared to the GP at post-assessment, scores did not reach the clinical cut-off. Further, inmates generally did not deteriorate as time in restrictive housing increased.Conclusions. Thus, compared to the GP, who showed some improvement in functioning, segregated inmates remained largely the same. Rather than causing significant psychological damage, it is more likely that segregation is a barrier to opportunities for continued growth. Study limitations and recommendations for reforms in the use of segregation are presented.

During overtaking maneuvers on two-way highways drivers must temporarily cross into the opposite lane of traffic, and may face oncoming vehicles. To judge when it is safe to overtake, drivers must estimate the time-to-contact (TTC) of the oncoming vehicle. Information about an oncoming vehicle's TTC is available in the optical expansion pattern, but it is below threshold during high-speed overtaking maneuvers, which require a large passing distance. Consequently, we hypothesized that drivers would rely on perceived distance and velocity, and that their overtaking judgments would be influenced by oncoming vehicle size. A driving simulator was used to examine whether overtaking judgments are influenced by the size of an oncoming vehicle, and by whether a driver actively conducts the overtaking maneuver or passively judges whether it is safe to overtake. Oncoming motorcycles resulted in more accepted gaps and false alarms than larger cars or trucks. Results were due to vehicle size independently of vehicle type, and reflected shifts in response bias rather than sensitivity. Drivers may misjudge the distances of motorcycles due to their relatively small sizes, contributing to accidents due to right-of-way violations. Results have implications for traffic safety and the potential role of driver-assistance technologies.

Although voice control is often considered a more natural and less physically demanding input method, caution is needed when designing visual displays for users sharing common communication channels.

In 2011, 89,000 accidents in the United States involved a vehicle passing another vehicle, which resulted in 740 deaths and 19,000 injuries (NHTSA, 2011). When passing a vehicle on a two-way highway (overtaking), a driver often must temporarily cross into the opposite lane of traffic, and may face oncoming vehicles. To avoid a collision with an oncoming vehicle, the overtaking driver must estimate the time remaining until a collision would occur with the vehicle. Although information about an oncoming vehicle's time-to-collision is theoretically available in the optical invariant tau (Lee, 1976), it is below threshold during high-speed overtaking maneuvers, which require a large passing distance. Under such conditions, we expect drivers to rely on the oncoming vehicle's apparent distance and velocity, and thus depth cues such as relative size. We used a driving simulator to determine whether overtaking judgments are influenced by an oncoming vehicle's size, and on whether such judgments differ between active driving and passive viewing. Twenty-four participants viewed computer-generated scenes in which they were following a lead vehicle on a straight, two-lane, two-way highway. At the start of each scene an oncoming vehicle (motorcycle, car, delivery truck) was visible in the opposite lane. Seven seconds after the scene an auditory tone signaled participants to make an overtaking decision. Participants in the active condition passed the lead vehicle if they thought it was safe to do so. Participants in the passive condition indicated whether it was safe to pass by pressing buttons on the steering wheel. We manipulated the participant's (and lead vehicle's) speed (48.28 km/h, 64.37 km/h, 80.47 km/h) and the oncoming vehicle's speed (72.42 km/h, 88.51 km/h, 104.61 km/h) and distance when the tone occurred (457.20 m, 609.60 m). This resulted in 9 safe and 9 unsafe temporal gaps based on an equation generated from analyses of actual overtaking performance (Gordon & Mast, 1970). Results indicated more accepted gaps and more false alarms (accepted gap when unsafe) in front of motorcycles than larger cars or trucks. The judgments made by participants in the active and passive conditions did not differ. Analyses of signal detection theory measures of sensitivity (d-prime) and response bias (beta) suggested that the effect of vehicle size was due to shifts in response bias rather than sensitivity. Results have implications for traffic safety and for the potential role of driver-assistance technologies.

Drivers typically calibrate their driving behavior with their perceived risk of the current driving situation. However, the degree of risky behavior that drivers find acceptable may be affected by individual difference factors, such as gender, cognitive ability, and personality traits. Using a publicly available dataset examining cognitive and personality variables in a sample of older American adults (CogUSA; McArdle, Rodgers, & Willis, 2015), the present study assessed the relationships between global and information processing factors and self-perceived risky driving behavior (after controlling for general self-perceived risk-taking). Global factors included gender, age, and the big five personality traits. Information processing factors were measured by scores on Visual Matching, Incomplete Words, Auditory Working Memory, and Spatial Relations tests. Results indicated that gender, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and visuo-spatial processing predicted increased self-perceived risky driving behavior. The results have implications for the assessment of driving risk factors across ages, as well as the burgeoning field of hazard perception training.