The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex "Frontal Lobe" tasks: a latent variable analysis.

Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

Freshwater biodiversity is the over-riding conservation priority during the International Decade for Action - 'Water for Life' - 2005 to 2015. Fresh water makes up only 0.01% of the World's water and approximately 0.8% of the Earth's surface, yet this tiny fraction of global water supports at least 100000 species out of approximately 1.8 million - almost 6% of all described species. Inland waters and freshwater biodiversity constitute a valuable natural resource, in economic, cultural, aesthetic, scientific and educational terms. Their conservation and management are critical to the interests of all humans, nations and governments. Yet this precious heritage is in crisis. Fresh waters are experiencing declines in biodiversity far greater than those in the most affected terrestrial ecosystems, and if trends in human demands for water remain unaltered and species losses continue at current rates, the opportunity to conserve much of the remaining biodiversity in fresh water will vanish before the 'Water for Life' decade ends in 2015. Why is this so, and what is being done about it? This article explores the special features of freshwater habitats and the biodiversity they support that makes them especially vulnerable to human activities. We document threats to global freshwater biodiversity under five headings: overexploitation; water pollution; flow modification; destruction or degradation of habitat; and invasion by exotic species. Their combined and interacting influences have resulted in population declines and range reduction of freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Conservation of biodiversity is complicated by the landscape position of rivers and wetlands as 'receivers' of land-use effluents, and the problems posed by endemism and thus non-substitutability. In addition, in many parts of the world, fresh water is subject to severe competition among multiple human stakeholders. Protection of freshwater biodiversity is perhaps the ultimate conservation challenge because it is influenced by the upstream drainage network, the surrounding land, the riparian zone, and - in the case of migrating aquatic fauna - downstream reaches. Such prerequisites are hardly ever met. Immediate action is needed where opportunities exist to set aside intact lake and river ecosystems within large protected areas. For most of the global land surface, trade-offs between conservation of freshwater biodiversity and human use of ecosystem goods and services are necessary. We advocate continuing attempts to check species loss but, in many situations, urge adoption of a compromise position of management for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, and human livelihoods in order to provide a viable long-term basis for freshwater conservation. Recognition of this need will require adoption of a new paradigm for biodiversity protection and freshwater ecosystem management - one that has been appropriately termed 'reconciliation ecology'.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/96AA265E3D88C95FB802E7A73CCB4332/S1464793105006950a.pdf/div-class-title-freshwater-biodiversity-importance-threats-status-and-conservation-challenges-div.pdf

Freshwater biodiversity: importance, threats, status and conservation challenges

Part I. Experimental Studies: 2. Experiment in psychology 3. Experiments on perceiving III Experiments on imaging 4-8. Experiments on remembering: (a) The method of description (b) The method of repeated reproduction (c) The method of picture writing (d) The method of serial reproduction (e) The method of serial reproduction picture material 9. Perceiving, recognizing, remembering 10. A theory of remembering 11. Images and their functions 12. Meaning Part II. Remembering as a Study in Social Psychology: 13. Social psychology 14. Social psychology and the matter of recall 15. Social psychology and the manner of recall 16. Conventionalism 17. The notion of a collective unconscious 18. The basis of social recall 19. A summary and some conclusions.

Remembering. A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology, Cambridge (University Press) 1964.

http://download.neurosky.com/docs/papers/bcq/Klimesch_1999_EEG_alpha_and_theta_oscillations_reflect_cognitive_and_memory_performance.pdf

EEG alpha and theta oscillations reflect cognitive and memory performance: a review and analysis

Multiple resource models suggest that there will be less interference between tasks that do not share the same processing resources or modalities. Most in-vehicle navigational systems rely on some type of auditory modality, which can be problematic in situations with high levels of background noise or when one is engaged in a secondary auditory task, such as talking on a cell phone. The haptic or tactile sensory modality may be an effective alternative for presenting important navigational information in a vehicle. The current study compared the effectiveness of auditory vs. tactile navigational instructions to the operator of a moving vehicle. Tactile shear cues were provided to the participants' index fingers as they gripped the steering wheel. These tactile cues provided directional information that coincide with the direction of the applied skin displacement. In single task driving, participants made accurate lane changes in response to both auditory and tactile instructions. In dual-task driving, whe...

Bypassing the Bottleneck: The Advantage of Fingertip Shear Feedback for Navigational Cues:

In this article we develop a model of the relationship between crash risk and a driver's situation awareness. We consider a driver's situation awareness to reflect the dynamic mental model of the driving environment and to be dependent upon several psychological processes including Scanning the driving environment, Predicting and anticipating hazards, Identifying potential hazards in the driving scene as they occur, Deciding on an action, and Executing an appropriate Response (SPIDER). Together, SPIDER is important for establishing and maintaining good situation awareness of the driving environment and good situation awareness is important for coordinating and scheduling the SPIDER-relevant processes necessary for safe driving. An Order-of-Processing (OP) model makes explicit the SPIDER-relevant processes and how they predict the likelihood of a crash when the driver is or is not distracted by a secondary task. For example, the OP model shows how a small decrease in the likelihood of any particular SPIDER activity being completed successfully (because of a concurrent secondary task performance) would lead to a large increase in the relative risk of a crash.

Modeling Situation Awareness and Crash Risk

This report presents the results from a driving study that evaluated the mental demands of simple auditory-vocal vehicle commands using five 2013 and one 2012 model year OEM infotainment systems. Participants in this research completed a series of voice-based music functions and phone dialing tasks while driving an on-road course. Each participant drove six vehicles on a seven – nine minute loop through a residential neighborhood in which they were periodically instructed to dial a 10 digit number, call a contact, change the radio station, or play a CD. All interactions took place using “hands-free” voice systems which were activated with the touch of a button on the steering wheel. Evaluated systems included: A Ford equipped with MyFord Touch, a Chevrolet equipped with MyLink, a Chrysler equipped with Uconnect, a Toyota equipped with Entune, a Mercedes equipped with COMAND, and a Hyundai equipped with Blue Link. Mental workload was also assessed in a single-task baseline drive and during a demanding mental math task, which respectively formed the low and high workload baselines. Across these eight conditions (6 OEM systems interactions + low and high workload baselines), measures of mental workload were derived from reaction time, subjective assessments, and heart rate.

/pdf/mental-workload-of-common-voice-based-vehicle-interactions-2mnpct7up6.pdf

Mental Workload of Common Voice-Based Vehicle Interactions across Six Different Vehicle Systems

The discovery of multitasking masterminds is revealing how the brain works when it strives to do several things at once

Supertaskers and the Multitasking Brain

/pdf/new-tools-for-analyzing-time-series-relationships-and-trends-2ja1izote3.pdf

David L. Strayer

Papers

Bypassing the Bottleneck: The Advantage of Fingertip Shear Feedback for Navigational Cues:

Modeling Situation Awareness and Crash Risk

Mental Workload of Common Voice-Based Vehicle Interactions across Six Different Vehicle Systems

Supertaskers and the Multitasking Brain

New Tools for Analyzing Time Series Relationships and Trends