<p> Research with human participants involves a complex combination of procedural elements in order to establish internal, external and measurement validity. Examining the accuracy of research equipment and methods that elicit similar behaviors as the general public is difficult. This research used driving as a model to address elements in the procedures that participants experience to elicit realistic behaviors. </p><p> An instrumented vehicle (IV) and driving simulator (SIM) measured experimental behaviors for average approach speed (in the 20m before the legal stop line); lateral distance from curb at 20m; lateral distance from curb at legal stop line (0m) and the stopping location (distance before or after 0m); and, compared with measured general driving public behaviors at stop-controlled intersections. The linear mixed effect analyses combined two experiments. In both, surveys were administered to gather driver&rsquo;s trait anxiety, driving anxiety and social desirability scores. Experiment One drivers (36% female) were grouped as Novice (5, 16-17 year olds who just obtained driving license), Young (4, 16-17 year olds who obtained license over a year ago) and Adult (5, 30-55 year olds licensed near age 16). Experiment Two drivers (47 SIM, 44 IV; 35% female) were College age (18-21 year olds licensed near age 16) and exposed to 1 of 16 different combinations (one of those treatments matched Experiment One&rsquo;s procedure) of procedural changes for: researcher attire (casual or formal), researcher proximity (control room, front or rear passenger seat), mode of instruction delivery (spoken, read or video) and hypothesis statement (none or explicit). At the end of Experiment Two, participants&rsquo; understanding of the experiment was coded into three debriefing variables. </p><p> Absolute behavioral validity of the IV to public behavior was achieved in one treatment (formal, front seat, spoken and no hypothesis) and including the debriefing variables in the model; no SIM combination achieved this. Trait anxiety scores appeared to explain behaviors in the IV or SIM and improved result interpretation as interactions with other independent variables. For improved research methods, it is recommended that coded debriefing variables, specific procedural elements, and trait anxiety scores be included and used to explain interactions or differences in participant behaviors. </p>

<p> The field of petrochemical refining could prevent incidents and improve processes through the application of measures of Situation Awareness (SA). Currently there are multiple measures of SA, with the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) and the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) being the most promising based on a number of theoretical and objective assessments. As researchers seek to apply measures of SA to the field of petrochemical refining, they will need more information on the applicability of these measures. To this end, this research sought to examine specific objective qualities of SAGAT and SPAM when used to assess petrochemical plant operator SA in a medium fidelity simulator. Hydrocracking plant operators participated in a simulation of a loss of hydrogen to their simulated plant, where SA was assessed in addition to a set of performance variables, and workload. Results of this investigation showed SAGAT Accuracies to be predictive of certain performance variables. Although SPAM and SAGAT were not sensitive to differences in task workload, neither measure was significantly intrusive on primary task performance suggesting that these metrics can be used in future experiments in petrochemical refining.</p>

Three experiments are presented that investigated the effects of distracting information on the processing of stimuli for younger and older adults. The first two experiments were controlled laboratory experiments, in which the flanker paradigm was used to investigate whether older and younger adults were affected differently by response compatible or incompatible information. Typically performance measures indicate better performance in terms of reaction times if distracting information is response compatible and reduced performance if distracting information is incompatible with a response to be executed. As an additional variable, the stimulus-to-response mapping was manipulated to investigate whether younger but not older adults were able to reduce the influence of interfering information. The stimulus-to-response mapping was either consistent or varied, and it was assumed that varied but not consistent mapping allowed subjects to reduce the interfering effects of response-incompatible information. The data in the first experiment indicated no differences between younger and older adults. However, the data in the second experiment showed that younger but not older adults were able to reduce the processing of irrelevant information. A reduction of interference in the varied mapping condition could be observed only for younger but not for older adults. Subsequently, the results of these experiments were modeled by means of a connectionist network. The test of the network using linear regression indicated a good fit between the model and the empirical data, separated by each age group, indicating the appropriateness of the theoretical assumptions of the model. The third experiment investigated the effect of compatibility using realistic stimuli, i.e., traffic signals and signs, in order to determine how compatibility governs performance in a more applied setting. No specific age-related performance deficits were observed, however, both age groups benefited from compatible information. This allowed us to derive recommendations for the design of traffic signals and signs.