Many information technology artefacts can be found in today’s cars. The interaction with these artefacts is the driver’s secondary task while driving the car in a safe way is the primary task. When designing interfaces for in-vehicle usage, measures have to be taken in order to make the interaction with the artefact suit the in-vehicle environment. One of these measures is to have the appropriate screen density level, which is the amount of information present on the screen. This thesis compares the usability of two integrated in-vehicle display prototypes, one with low screen density and one with high screen density. The usability comparison considers both safety and user preferences. Safety was measured by a Lane Change Test (LCT) which measures distraction of a primary task while performing a secondary task, and user preferences was measured with a questionnaire. Before the comparison was made, controls and a graphical user interface were designed. Results showed no significant difference in driver distraction between performing tasks on the high screen density display and the low screen density display. However, a vast majority of the users preferred high screen density over low. Furthermore, the distraction levels for both the high and the low screen density displays were below the proposed 0.5 meter limit for allowed driver distraction. The results indicate that in-vehicle displays can have a high level of screen density without imposing a level of distraction on the driver that is unsuitable for driving.

Today’s automobile cockpit is filled with different buttons and screen-based displays giving input and relaying information in a complex human-machine system. Following in the footsteps of the early 1970s flight industry, this thesis work focused on creating a complete glass cockpit concept in the automobile. Our automobile glass cockpit consists of three displays. A touch screen based centre console with an interface that we took part in creating during the spring of 2006. Parallel to this ongoing master thesis, a head-up display was installed by a group of students and we had the opportunity of giving input regarding the design of the graphical interface. The third display, a LCD, replaces the main instruments displaying speed, RPM, fuel level, engine temperature etc. Together with ideas on an extended allocation of functions to the area on and around the steering wheel, creating a dynamic mode based interface replacing today’s static main instruments was the focus of this project. After conducting a thorough theoretical study, a large number of ideas were put to the test and incorporated in concept sketches. Paper sketches ranging from detailed features to all-embracing concepts combined with interviews and brainstorming sessions converged into a number of computer sketches made in an image processing software. The computer sketches was easily displayed in the cockpit environment and instantly evaluated. Some parts were discarded and some incorporated in new, modified, ideas leading to a final concept solution. After the design part was concluded, the new graphical interface was given functionality with the help of a programming software. As was the case with the computer sketches, the functionality of the interface could be quickly evaluated and modified. With the help of a custom-made application our interface could be integrated with the simulator software and fully implemented in the automobile cockpit at the university simulator facilities. Using a custom made scenario, the interface underwent a minor, informal evaluation. A number of potential users were invited to the VR-laboratory and introduced to the new concept. After driving a pre-determined route and familiarizing themselves with the interface, their thoughts on screen-based solutions in general and the interface itself was gathered. In addition, we ourselves performed an evaluation of the interface based on the theoretical study.

The great amount of METH abuse all over the world causes enormous social and criminal justice problems. In the human brain the abuse of METH causes implications on both structures and functions given rise to acute as well as long term symptoms. In this essay the effects of METH abuse is described in the manner of the drug mechanism such as the impact on neurotransmitters, structural deficits with decreased and increased volumes and the implication on attention, memory, decision  making and emotions. Results from studies showing brain structural and cognitive impairments in METH abusers and in prenatal METH exposed children.

In studies on Near Death Experiences (NDE) data has been collected by using the recently developed scaling methods, the scale developed by Ring and the Greyson NDE Scale. In order to illustrate the problems in the empirical study of NDEs, my intention is to compare the Greyson NDE-scale with the most common theories on NDEs.  After series of modifications the final scale consisted of a questionnaire consisting of sixteen different questions, that yielded into four different areas, Cognitive components, Emotional components, Paranormal components, and Transcendental components. In the end the theory that has the most likely possibility to explain NDEs in the future must be the Dying Brain theory, but one should not disclose the different features of the Afterlife theory (but without the origin explanation).

Mental ljudföreställning (eng. auditory imagery) innebär att uppleva ett ljud för sitt inre i frånvaro av yttre sinnesintryck. Tidigare studier har visat att ljud­föreställning kan inverka såväl faciliterande (t.ex. Farah & Smith, 1983) som interfererande (t.ex. Okada & Matsuoka, 1992) på perceptuell ljuddetektion. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka om ljudföreställning faciliterar eller interfererar perceptuell detektion av kongruenta och inkongruenta komplexa ljud. De 39 under­sök­nin­g­­s­­deltagarna randomiserades till en av två betingelser (ljudföreställning eller ingen ljudföreställning) och fick därefter lyssna samt detektera olika ljud (varav ett var detsamma som föreställningsljudet). Resultatet visade att ljudföreställning varken hade en signifikant faciliterande eller interfererande effekt på vare sig kongruenta eller inkongruenta komplexa ljud.

Ansatsen; Deltagande design inom MDI förespråkar att användare är med under hela designprocessen, även under det tidigaste skedet, före det har skissats på någon prototyp över huvudtaget. Medverkan innebär då att användarna får klargöra sina behov, åsikter och önskemål om en produkt. En speciell deltagarteknik har utvecklats för att göra detta möjligt och heter Contextual inquiry. I detta arbete har tekniken tillämpats på hyresgäster inom Skövdebostäder och har gällt produkten elektronisk anslagstavla. Hypotesen har varit att inställningen till en produkt är mer positiv när användare har deltagit i det tidigaste stadiet i designprocessen och skulle då förklaras med hjälp av ett psykologiskt "fenomen" som kallas Hawthorne-effekten. Resultatet från studien kunde inte ge stöd för hypotesen, det fanns med andra ord ingen signifikant skillnad mellan experimentgrupp och kontrollgrupp.

The investigation aims to clarify to what extent non-conscious thought has efficacy in for instance decision making,and also examine some aspects of the question whether decisions are caused by free will. This is done by an analysisof new research in neuroscience, economics, the combination of the two within neuroeconomics, evolutionarytheory and especially the new theory of Unconscious thought (Nordgren & Dijksterhuis 2006), which will enjoyspecial scrutiny due to its recentness in the scientific field. A decision strategy ought to put high-level consciouscognition to use where it is most effective, and this is on a different level than the canonized one. Meta decisionmaking is decision making concerning which decisions ought to be made consciously. It is the area where the largestamount of freedom can be obtained wherein the largest amount of thought effort ought to be invested. There alsoseems to be no basis to assume that non-conscious decisions or for that matter emotively based decisions would beless "rational" than conscious ones. The strategy is also analyzed via happiness research to examine how to makedecisions render happiness rather than other values. The result stresses that one ought not to use economic or othermeasures in decision making, rather trust one's visceral intuitions to a larger extent since those are representations ofone's wishes. Empirical results established a connection between decision making, creativity and problem solvingpertaining to the evidence showing that also the latter benefits from unconscious thought rather than consciousthought. This new evidence ought to change our view of problem solving at large. Rather than it being a purelyconscious process one would reach better results in relying to a larger extent also on non-conscious processes.

This chapter compares spatial constructs in mental imagery to spatial constructs in non-metaphorical and metaphorical language. The study is based on a psycholinguistic survey of people’s mental imagery for paths and roads, and a previous corpus-linguistic investigation of path- and road-instances from the British National Corpus (the BNC) (see Johansson Falck 2010). The aim is to investigate if spatial path and road constructs in mental imagery focus on similar aspects as those in metaphorical language. The study shows that mental imagery and metaphorical language are more restricted than non-metaphorical language, and typically are related to the specific anticipations for bodily action that paths and roads afford. The focus is on function, which influences both direction and manner of motion. / Embodiment of Motion Metaphors

As active safety systems installed in vehicles become more common and more sophisticated, a concise method of testing them in conditions as close to real risk situations as possible becomes necessary. This study looks at the possibilities of developing use cases, using video recordings of real risk situations, obtained through naturalistic driving studies. The concept of conflicts is explored as a substitute to actual accidents. A method of finding conflicts in a large data material from looking at the acceleration signal and its derivative, referred to as jerk is also sought. These possibilities are tried on material from a previously conducted naturalistic driving study. The results are an improvement in the ability to find conflict situations automatically, and a suggestion to how use cases can be produced from video recordings of conflicts obtained through naturalistic driving studies. The DREAM framework is used and modified in order to aid with data collection and interpretation.

Användningen av datorer i arbetet har blivit en allt vanligare företeelse på arbetsplatsen, och för anställda på till exempel callcenter är datorer ett oumbärligt inslag i arbetssituationen. Med tekniken följer dock inte enbart fördelar; användningen av datorstöd kan även leda till kognitiva arbetsmiljöproblem och stress och ha en märkbart negativ inverkan på den psykosociala arbetsmiljön. Genom teoretisk genomgång och kvalitativa intervjuer med arbetsmiljökunniga konstateras dock att det saknas bra utvärderingsverktyg för att uppmärksamma denna typ avproblem. En arbetsplatsstudie på ett callcenter används för att visa på hur användningen av datorstöd kan inverka negativt på den psykosociala arbetsmiljön, och dess resultat ligger till grund för ett helt nytt utvärderingsverktyg. Detta syftar till att hjälpa organisationer och företagshälsovård att uppmärksamma kognitiva och psykosociala arbetsmiljöproblem relaterade till användningen av datorstöd, med hjälp av termer som kognitiva krav, kontroll och socialt stöd. Förhoppningen är att verktyget ska bidra till att öka medvetenheten om kognitiva arbetsmiljöproblem och teknikstress, och att i längden medverka till att förbättra datoranvändarens psykosociala arbetsmiljö.