Life Sciences Commons^™

What Is An Endangered Species?: Judgments About Acceptable Risk, Thomas Offer-Westort, Adam Feltz, Jeremy T. Bruskotter, John A. Vucetich

Michigan Tech Publications

Judgments about acceptable risk in the context of policy may be influenced by law makers, policy makers, experts and the general public. While significant effort has been made to understand public attitudes on acceptable risk of environmental pollution, little is known about such attitudes in the context of species' endangerment. We present survey results on these attitudes in the context of United States' legal-political apparatus intended to mitigate species endangerment. The results suggest that the general public exhibit lower tolerance for risk than policy makers and experts. Results also suggest that attitudes about acceptable risk for species endangerment are importantly …

“Musical Exercise” For People With Visual Impairments: A Preliminary Study With The Blindfolded, Ridwan Ahmed Khan, Myounghoon Jeon, Tejin Yoon

Michigan Tech Publications

Performing independent physical exercise is critical to maintain one's good health, but it is specifically hard for people with visual impairments. To address this problem, we have developed a Musical Exercise platform for people with visual impairments so that they can perform exercise in a good form consistently. We designed six different conditions, including blindfolded or visual without audio conditions, and blindfolded or visual with two different types of audio feedback (continuous vs. discrete) conditions. Eighteen sighted participants participated in the experiment, by doing two exercises - squat and wall sit with all six conditions. The results show that Musical …

Reliability And Validity Of Neurobehavioral Function On The Psychology Experimental Building Language Test Battery In Young Adults, Brian J. Piper, Shane Mueller, Alexander R. Geerken, Kyle L. Dixon, Gregory Kroliczak, Reid H. Olsen, Jeremy K. Miller

Michigan Tech Publications

Background. The Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL) software consists of over one-hundred computerized tests based on classic and novel cognitive neuropsychology and behavioral neurology measures. Although the PEBL tests are becoming more widely utilized, there is currently very limited information about the psychometric properties of these measures.

Methods. Study I examined inter-relationships among nine PEBL tests including indices of motor-function (Pursuit Rotor and Dexterity), attention (Test of Attentional Vigilance and Time-Wall), working memory (Digit Span Forward), and executive-function (PEBL Trail Making Test, Berg/Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Iowa Gambling Test, and Mental Rotation) in a normative sample (N = 189, …

Subject Assessment Of In-Vehicle Auditory Warnings For Rail Grade Crossings, Steven Landry, Jayde Croschere, Myounghoon Jeon

Michigan Tech Publications

Human factors research has played an important role in reducing the incidents of vehicle-train collisions at rail grade crossings over the past 30 years. With the growing popularity of in-vehicle infotainment systems and GPS devices, new opportunities arise to cost-efficiently and effectively alert drivers of railroad crossings and to promote safer driving habits. To best utilize this in-vehicle technology, 32 auditory warnings (16 verbal, 7 train-related auditory icons, and 9 generic earcons) were generated and presented to 31 participants after a brief low-fidelity driving simulation. Participants rated each sound on eight dimensions deemed important in previous auditory warning literature. Preliminary …