The efficacy of hazard perception training and education: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Hazard perception (HP) has been argued to improve with experience, with numerous training programs having been developed in an attempt to fast track the development of this critical safety skill. To date, there has been little synthesis of these methods. OBJECTIVE: The present study sought to synthesise the literature for all road users to capture the breadth of methodologies and intervention types, and quantify their efficacy. DATA SOURCES: A systematic review of both peer reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature was completed. A total of 57 papers were found to have met inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Research into hazard perception has focused primarily on drivers (with 42 studies), with a limited number of studies focusing on vulnerable road users, including motorcyclists (3 studies), cyclists (7 studies) and pedestrians (5 studies). Training was found to have a large significant effect on improving hazard perception skills for drivers (g = 0.78) and cyclists (g = 0.97), a moderate effect for pedestrians (g = 0.64) and small effect for motorcyclists (g = 0.42). There was considerable heterogeneity in the findings, with the efficacy of training varying as a function of the hazard perception skill being measured, the type of training enacted (active, passive or combined) and the number of sessions of training (single or multiple). Active training and single sessions were found to yield more consistent significant improvements in hazard perception. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that HP training improved HP skill across all road user groups with generally moderate to large effects identified. HP training should employ a training method that actively engages the participants in the training task. Preliminary results suggest that a single session of training may be sufficient to improve HP skill however more research is needed into the delivery of these single sessions and long-term retention. Further research is also required to determine whether improvements in early-stage skills translate to improvements in responses on the road, and the long-term retention of the skills developed through training.

Sleep disturbance mediates the link between both self-compassion and self-criticism and psychological distress during prolonged periods of stress.

Poor sleep and subsequent decline in mental health often occur during times of prolonged stress, such as a pandemic. Self-compassion is linked with improved sleep and better mental health, while self-criticism is linked with poorer sleep and psychological distress. Given there is little evidence of the interrelationships of these constructs, we examined whether higher self-compassion or lower levels of self-criticism can reduce psychological distress directly and indirectly via sleep during times of prolonged stress. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse two samples (N = 722, Study 1, and N = 622, Replication Study) of university students during different stages of the pandemic. An aggregate psychological distress construct was calculated using depression, anxiety and stress measures. We created models that showed insomnia symptoms mediated the relationship between self-compassion/self-criticism and psychological distress. Sleep partially mediated both relationships, and this was the strongest effect in both samples. This suggests that improving self-compassion and reducing self-criticism will improve sleep, leading to reduced psychological distress. As our findings are robust and held at two time points, future research should investigate broader demographics and differing stress responses.

Temperate species underfill their tropical thermal potentials on land.

Understanding how temperature determines the distribution of life is necessary to assess species' sensitivities to contemporary climate change. Here, we test the importance of temperature in limiting the geographic ranges of ectotherms by comparing the temperatures and areas that species occupy to the temperatures and areas species could potentially occupy on the basis of their physiological thermal tolerances. We find that marine species across all latitudes and terrestrial species from the tropics occupy temperatures that closely match their thermal tolerances. However, terrestrial species from temperate and polar latitudes are absent from warm, thermally tolerable areas that they could potentially occupy beyond their equatorward range limits, indicating that extreme temperature is often not the factor limiting their distributions at lower latitudes. This matches predictions from the hypothesis that adaptation to cold environments that facilitates survival in temperate and polar regions is associated with a performance trade-off that reduces species' abilities to contend in the tropics, possibly due to biotic exclusion. Our findings predict more direct responses to climate warming of marine ranges and cool range edges of terrestrial species.

Neuropsychological Deficits in Disordered Screen Use Behaviours: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Over the last few decades, excessive and disordered screen use has become more prevalent, prompting investigations into its associated consequences. The extent to which disordered screen use behaviours impact neuropsychological functioning has been reportedly mixed and at times inconsistent. This review sought to synthesise the literature and estimate the magnitude of overall cognitive impairment across a wide range of disordered screen use behaviours. We also sought to determine the cognitive domains most impacted, and whether the observed impairments were moderated by the classification of screen-related behaviours (i.e., Internet or gaming) or the format of cognitive test administration (i.e., paper-and-pencil or computerised). A systematic search of databases (Embase, PsycINFO, MEDLINE) identified 43 cross-sectional articles that assessed neuropsychological performance in disordered screen use populations, 34 of which were included in the meta-analysis. A random-effects meta-analysis revealed significant small/medium (g = .38) cognitive deficits for individuals with disordered screen use behaviours relative to controls. The most affected cognitive domain with a significant medium effect size (g = .50) was attention and focus followed by a significant reduction in executive functioning (g = .31). The classification of disordered screen use behaviours into Internet or gaming categories or the format of cognitive testing did not moderate these deficits. Additionally, excluding disordered social media use in an exploratory analysis had little effect on the observed outcomes. This study highlights a number of methodological considerations that may have contributed to disparate findings and shows that disordered screen use can significantly impact cognitive performance. Recommendations for future research are also discussed. Data for this study can be found at https://osf.io/upeha/ .

Narcissism and Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

This review aimed to examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and trait narcissism, and whether the strength of this relationship differs depending on narcissism type (grandiose or vulnerable), the type of violence perpetrated, or the perpetrator's gender. Scopus, Medline, PsycInfo, and Academic Search Complete databases were searched on August 11, 2022. Studies were included if they were in English, measured IPV perpetration and trait narcissism, and examined the relationship between trait narcissism and IPV perpetration. Studies were excluded if they were review papers, conference extracts, book chapters, or if the data was not specific to trait narcissism. The AXIS tool was used to assess the quality and risk of bias of the studies. Twenty-two studies (N = 11,520 participants) were included in the random effects meta-analysis revealing a significant, weak, positive relationship between trait narcissism and IPV perpetration, r = .15. Subgroup analyses revealed physical IPV perpetration was not significantly related to trait narcissism while cyber and psychological IPV perpetration were significantly, positively, weakly related to trait narcissism. No significant difference in the strength of the relationship with IPV perpetration was found between males and females. The relationship between trait narcissism and IPV perpetration was significantly greater for vulnerable narcissism than grandiose narcissism. Overall, the quality of the included studies was high, and risk of bias was low. All measures were self-report and underreporting could be present given both narcissistic traits and IPV perpetration are considered socially undesirable. Future research examining these relationships should specify IPV and narcissism types.

Understanding University Students during COVID-19: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Analysis of Their Experiences of Online Learning, Mental Health, Academic Engagement, and Academic Self-Efficacy.

INTRODUCTION: Research has consistently demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic, and resulting sudden shift to online learning (OL), had detrimental impacts on the motivation and mental health of university students. To date however this research has been cross-sectional and quantitative. METHOD: This study employed a mixed-methods design to examine the experiences of students at a large national Australian University both at the outset of the pandemic in 2020 (n = 824) and again 6 months later (n = 254) at the conclusion of their academic year. RESULTS: Key findings from this study highlighted that despite quantitative findings suggesting poorer attitudes toward learning during the pandemic, qualitatively students perceived both positives and negatives to studying online. The qualitative results further highlighted that this experience was not the same for all and suggests the need to reconsider the standard approaches to offering support for students. CONCLUSION: Students reported poor mental health in both time points, but outlined avenues which improved not only their mental health but also their motivation for studying such as increased peer engagement and self-care activities. Students reported that OL negatively impacted on both their engagement with studies and their mental health, highlighting the need for universities to prioritize supporting their students' mental health as much as their development of academic skills.

Emotion Recognition and Traumatic Brain Injury: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to impairments in emotion recognition that can present considerable challenges to social communication and the maintenance of interpersonal relationships. This review aimed to estimate the magnitude of emotion recognition impairments in TBI patients overall, and at the emotion category level, and to determine if the magnitude of observed impairments were moderated by modality (e.g., face, voice, multi-modal) of emotional expression, and severity of injury. Searches of PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Medline databases identified 17 studies which satisfied strict inclusion and exclusion criteria for the systematic review (comparing TBI patients to matched controls). Of these studies, 15 were included in the meta-analysis (NTBI = 474; NControl = 461). Moderate/large average deficits emerged for TBI patients relative to controls (Hedges' g = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.61 - 0.96, p < .001; Q = 22.53, p = .068, τ2 = 0.04, I2 = 37.84; indicating low heterogeneity). TBI patients were impaired across all emotion categories, with moderate/large effect sizes observed for fear and anger, moderate effect sizes for disgust, neutral and sadness, while effect sizes for happiness and surprise were small. The magnitude of impairment for individuals with TBI severity classified as moderate/severe TBI was moderate, whereas severe TBI was large. Moderate/large effect sizes were observed across the different modalities of presentation. This meta-analysis provides evidence for marked global impairments in emotion recognition, with the magnitude of impairment greatest for negative emotions (i.e., anger and fear). This meta-analysis provided no evidence to suggest that the magnitude of impairment is influenced by injury severity or modality of stimulus presentation. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

Widespread vulnerability of flowering plant seed production to pollinator declines.

Despite evidence of pollinator declines from many regions across the globe, the threat this poses to plant populations is not clear because plants can often produce seeds without animal pollinators. Here, we quantify pollinator contribution to seed production by comparing fertility in the presence versus the absence of pollinators for a global dataset of 1174 plant species. We estimate that, without pollinators, a third of flowering plant species would produce no seeds and half would suffer an 80% or more reduction in fertility. Pollinator contribution to plant reproduction is higher in plants with tree growth form, multiple reproductive episodes, more specialized pollination systems, and tropical distributions, making these groups especially vulnerable to reduced service from pollinators. These results suggest that, without mitigating efforts, pollinator declines have the potential to reduce reproduction for most plant species, increasing the risk of population declines.

The mere presence of a mobile phone: Does it influence driving performance?

The ubiquity of mobile phones has led to a rapid increase in its presence and use in vehicles, especially among young adults (up to 25 years), who are generally the least experienced group of drivers. The potential for phones to draw attention away from the main driving task has significant consequences for road safety. Previous studies have found that the mere presence of a mobile phone can be distracting by impairing attention in experimental non-driving contexts. However, the effect of phone presence, independent to usage, has not yet been examined in the context of driving. As such, the present study examined whether the mere presence of a mobile phone, its proximity to the driver, and power status (on/off) influenced the driving performance of young drivers. Additionally, this study assessed whether the effects of phone presence and proximity were moderated by an individual's level of dependence on, or emotional attachment to, their phone. A sample of 127 undergraduate psychology students (M = 19.76, SD = 1.63) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) phone absent (control), (2) phone on, in holder, (3) phone off, in holder, and (4) phone on, in pocket. They all completed the same simulated drive, and were measured for degree of phone dependence and phone emotional attachment. Overall, drivers in all the phone present conditions made significantly more driving errors (speeding and collision) compared to those in the phone absent (control) condition, irrespective of proximity to the phone and whether it was on or off. Phone dependence, but not phone emotional attachment, moderated the effect of phone presence on speeding behaviour. These findings suggest that the mere presence of a phone is distracting for drivers, especially so for those who are highly dependent on their phone, which may place them at a greater risk of a distraction induced crash.

Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties.

Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties. Datasets were required, at a minimum, to include abundance or biomass of earthworms at a site. Where possible, site-level species lists were included, as well as the abundance and biomass of individual species and ecological groups. This global dataset contains 10,840 sites, with 184 species, from 60 countries and all continents except Antarctica. The data were obtained from 182 published articles, published between 1973 and 2017, and 17 unpublished datasets. Amalgamating data into a single global database will assist researchers in investigating and answering a wide variety of pressing questions, for example, jointly assessing aboveground and belowground biodiversity distributions and drivers of biodiversity change.

The myriad of complex demographic responses of terrestrial mammals to climate change and gaps of knowledge: A global analysis.

Approximately 25% of mammals are currently threatened with extinction, a risk that is amplified under climate change. Species persistence under climate change is determined by the combined effects of climatic factors on multiple demographic rates (survival, development and reproduction), and hence, population dynamics. Thus, to quantify which species and regions on Earth are most vulnerable to climate-driven extinction, a global understanding of how different demographic rates respond to climate is urgently needed. Here, we perform a systematic review of literature on demographic responses to climate, focusing on terrestrial mammals, for which extensive demographic data are available. To assess the full spectrum of responses, we synthesize information from studies that quantitatively link climate to multiple demographic rates. We find only 106 such studies, corresponding to 87 mammal species. These 87 species constitute <1% of all terrestrial mammals. Our synthesis reveals a strong mismatch between the locations of demographic studies and the regions and taxa currently recognized as most vulnerable to climate change. Surprisingly, for most mammals and regions sensitive to climate change, holistic demographic responses to climate remain unknown. At the same time, we reveal that filling this knowledge gap is critical as the effects of climate change will operate via complex demographic mechanisms: a vast majority of mammal populations display projected increases in some demographic rates but declines in others, often depending on the specific environmental context, complicating simple projections of population fates. Assessments of population viability under climate change are in critical need to gather data that account for multiple demographic responses, and coordinated actions to assess demography holistically should be prioritized for mammals and other taxa.

Herbaceous perennial plants with short generation time have stronger responses to climate anomalies than those with longer generation time.

There is an urgent need to synthesize the state of our knowledge on plant responses to climate. The availability of open-access data provide opportunities to examine quantitative generalizations regarding which biomes and species are most responsive to climate drivers. Here, we synthesize time series of structured population models from 162 populations of 62 plants, mostly herbaceous species from temperate biomes, to link plant population growth rates (λ) to precipitation and temperature drivers. We expect: (1) more pronounced demographic responses to precipitation than temperature, especially in arid biomes; and (2) a higher climate sensitivity in short-lived rather than long-lived species. We find that precipitation anomalies have a nearly three-fold larger effect on λ than temperature. Species with shorter generation time have much stronger absolute responses to climate anomalies. We conclude that key species-level traits can predict plant population responses to climate, and discuss the relevance of this generalization for conservation planning.

The evolution of critical thermal limits of life on Earth.

Understanding how species' thermal limits have evolved across the tree of life is central to predicting species' responses to climate change. Here, using experimentally-derived estimates of thermal tolerance limits for over 2000 terrestrial and aquatic species, we show that most of the variation in thermal tolerance can be attributed to a combination of adaptation to current climatic extremes, and the existence of evolutionary 'attractors' that reflect either boundaries or optima in thermal tolerance limits. Our results also reveal deep-time climate legacies in ectotherms, whereby orders that originated in cold paleoclimates have presently lower cold tolerance limits than those with warm thermal ancestry. Conversely, heat tolerance appears unrelated to climate ancestry. Cold tolerance has evolved more quickly than heat tolerance in endotherms and ectotherms. If the past tempo of evolution for upper thermal limits continues, adaptive responses in thermal limits will have limited potential to rescue the large majority of species given the unprecedented rate of contemporary climate change.

Diel-scale temporal dynamics in the abundance and composition of pollinators in the Arctic summer.

Our understanding of how pollinator activity varies over short temporal scales is limited because most research on pollination is based on data collected during the day that is then aggregated at a larger temporal scale. To understand how environmental factors affect plant-pollinator interactions, it is critical that studies include the entire diel cycle to examine patterns and processes that cause temporal variations. Further, there is little information from the Arctic, where environmental conditions that influence pollinator activity (e.g. temperature and solar radiation), are less variable across the diel cycle during the summer compared to locations from lower latitudes. We quantified abundance, composition and foraging activity of a pollinator community in Finnish Lapland at a diel scale over two summers, one of which was an extreme heat year. Pollinators showed a robust pattern in daily foraging activity, with peak activity during the day, less to no activity at night, and an absence of typically night active Lepidoptera. Abundance and composition of pollinators differed significantly between the years, possibly in response to the extreme heat in one of the years, which may particularly harm muscid flies. Our results showing strong diel and interannual abundance patterns for several taxa of pollinators in the Arctic summer have important implications for our understanding of temporal dynamics of plant-pollinator interactions.

Land use and pollinator dependency drives global patterns of pollen limitation in the Anthropocene.

Land use change, by disrupting the co-evolved interactions between plants and their pollinators, could be causing plant reproduction to be limited by pollen supply. Using a phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis on over 2200 experimental studies and more than 1200 wild plants, we ask if land use intensification is causing plant reproduction to be pollen limited at global scales. Here we report that plants reliant on pollinators in urban settings are more pollen limited than similarly pollinator-reliant plants in other landscapes. Plants functionally specialized on bee pollinators are more pollen limited in natural than managed vegetation, but the reverse is true for plants pollinated exclusively by a non-bee functional group or those pollinated by multiple functional groups. Plants ecologically specialized on a single pollinator taxon were extremely pollen limited across land use types. These results suggest that while urbanization intensifies pollen limitation, ecologically and functionally specialized plants are at risk of pollen limitation across land use categories.

Pollinator dependence but no pollen limitation for eight plants occurring north of the Arctic Circle.

Effective interactions between plants and pollinators are essential for the reproduction of plant species. Pollinator exclusion experiments and pollen supplementation experiments quantify the degree to which plants depend on animal pollinators and the degree to which plant reproduction is pollen limited. Pollen supplementation experiments have been conducted across the globe, but are rare in high latitude regions. To fill this knowledge gap, we experimentally investigated the dependence on animal pollinators and magnitude of pollen limitation in eight plant species north of the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Finland. Our findings show that all plant species were pollinator dependent, but not pollen limited. We discuss several mechanisms that might buffer our focal plants from pollen limitation, including plant and pollinator generalization, and attractive plant traits. Our results demonstrate that many plant species north of the Arctic Circle are currently receiving adequate pollinator service and provide a baseline for future comparisons of pollinator dependence and pollen limitation in the Arctic across space and time.

Towards an integrative understanding of soil biodiversity.

Soil is one of the most biodiverse terrestrial habitats. Yet, we lack an integrative conceptual framework for understanding the patterns and mechanisms driving soil biodiversity. One of the underlying reasons for our poor understanding of soil biodiversity patterns relates to whether key biodiversity theories (historically developed for aboveground and aquatic organisms) are applicable to patterns of soil biodiversity. Here, we present a systematic literature review to investigate whether and how key biodiversity theories (species-energy relationship, theory of island biogeography, metacommunity theory, niche theory and neutral theory) can explain observed patterns of soil biodiversity. We then discuss two spatial compartments nested within soil at which biodiversity theories can be applied to acknowledge the scale-dependent nature of soil biodiversity.

Road user hazard perception tests: A systematic review of current methodologies.

BACKGROUND: Poor hazard perception, or the ability to anticipate potentially dangerous road and traffic situations, has been linked to an increased crash risk. Novice and younger road users are typically poorer at hazard perception than experienced and older road users. Road traffic authorities have recognised the importance of hazard perception skills, with the inclusion of a hazard perception test in most Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) systems. OBJECTIVES: This review synthesises studies of hazard perception tests in order to determine best practice methodologies that discriminate between novice/younger and experienced/older road users. DATA SOURCES: Published studies available on PsychInfo, Scopus and Medline as at April 2018 were included in the review. Studies included a hazard perception test methodology and compared non-clinical populations of road users (car drivers, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians), based on age and experience, or compared methodologies. RESULTS: 49 studies met the inclusion criteria. There was a high degree of heterogeneity in the studies. However all methodologies - video, static image, simulator and real-world test-drive were able to discriminate road user groups categorised by age and/or experience, on at least one measure of hazard perception. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst there was a high level of heterogeneity of studies, video methodology utilising temporal responses (e.g. press a button when detecting the potential hazard) are a consistent measure of hazard perception across road user groups, whereas spatial measures (e.g. locate potential hazard in the scenario) were inconsistent. Staged footage was found to discriminate as well as unstaged footage, with static images also adding valuable information on hazard perception. There were considerable inconsistencies in the categorising of participants based on age and experience, limited application of theoretical frameworks, and a considerable lack of detail regarding post hoc amendments of hazardous scenarios. This research can guide further developments in hazard perception testing that may improve driver licensing and outcomes for road users.

Thermal tolerance patterns across latitude and elevation.

Linking variation in species' traits to large-scale environmental gradients can lend insight into the evolutionary processes that have shaped functional diversity and future responses to environmental change. Here, we ask how heat and cold tolerance vary as a function of latitude, elevation and climate extremes, using an extensive global dataset of ectotherm and endotherm thermal tolerance limits, while accounting for methodological variation in acclimation temperature, ramping rate and duration of exposure among studies. We show that previously reported relationships between thermal limits and latitude in ectotherms are robust to variation in methods. Heat tolerance of terrestrial ectotherms declined marginally towards higher latitudes and did not vary with elevation, whereas heat tolerance of freshwater and marine ectotherms declined more steeply with latitude. By contrast, cold tolerance limits declined steeply with latitude in marine, intertidal, freshwater and terrestrial ectotherms, and towards higher elevations on land. In all realms, both upper and lower thermal tolerance limits increased with extreme daily temperature, suggesting that different experienced climate extremes across realms explain the patterns, as predicted under the Climate Extremes Hypothesis. Statistically accounting for methodological variation in acclimation temperature, ramping rate and exposure duration improved model fits, and increased slopes with extreme ambient temperature. Our results suggest that fundamentally different patterns of thermal limits found among the earth's realms may be largely explained by differences in episodic thermal extremes among realms, updating global macrophysiological 'rules'. This article is part of the theme issue 'Physiological diversity, biodiversity patterns and global climate change: testing key hypotheses involving temperature and oxygen'.