Perceptual and Motor Skills

Prospect and refuge theory has usually been applied to landscapes but recent work suggests that it could also be applied to interiors. This article reports two experiments, covering 14 environments and 97 respondents, in which five hypotheses regarding prospect, refuge, and comfort were tested: H₁: the transition from small, dark, and low to large, light, and high and vice-versa; H₂: the transition from dark to light vs vice-versa; H₃: the transition from low to high vs vice-versa; H₄: the transition from small to big horizontally vs vice-versa; and H₅: width. Results varied. The effect of width on comfort was substantial (r = .35); effects for the other hypotheses were either subtle or contrary to expectations.

This study correlated norms for critical lure identification from Neuschatz, Benoit, and Payne with false recall and recognition norms from Stadler, Roediger, and McDermott. Results showed that identifiability of the critical lures did not explain the effectiveness of false memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott list presentation paradigm when explicit warnings were not given to participants. Difference between the critical lures of people's names and critical lures that are not people's names was discussed.

The present study investigated frequency of dream recall in children and their mothers. Overall, 88 mothers (M age: 38.7 yr., SD = 5.0) and their children (45 girls, 43 boys; M age: 9.9 yr., SD = 1.3) participated. A small but significant positive Pearson correlation of .19 between the frequency of dreams reported by mothers and by their children is consistent with Cohen's 1973 hypothesis of a socialization effect on the frequency of dream recall.

In this study, the effect of fitness level on perceived pain before and after a steady state exercise was investigated. Ten trained cyclists (M age = 25.2 yr., SD = 4.9) and 10 sedentary men (M age = 24.5 yr., SD = 2.2) performed a maximal graded test on a cycle ergometer. At least 48 hr. later the participants of both groups performed a 30-min. steady-state cycling test at 75% of VO₂ max. Before the steady-state exercise and 5- and 30-min. postexercise, a pressure pain stimulation test was applied on the finger of each participant. Perceived pain was measured with Borg's CR10 scale at the end of each pain stimulation. The results indicated no significant changes in perceived pain between the pre-exercise and 5- and 30-min. postexercise values (effect sizes = .07 and .19, respectively). Moreover, no significant difference in perceived pain was found between the groups for pre-exercise (ES = .02) and 5- and 30-min. postexercise (ES = .16 and .21, respectively) values. These results do not confirm the analgesic effects usually observed after steady state exercise. Therefore, it is not possible to compare the analgesic effect of this exercise mode between participants characterized by different fitness levels.

The aim of this study was to adapt the Multisource Assessment of Social Competence Scale to the Greek language. The validity and reliability of the scale were examined in three studies with 209, 192, and 147 sixth-grade students, respectively. The subscale structure of the Multisource Assessment of Social Competence Scale was supported through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The hypothesized two main dimensions, Prosocial and Antisocial behavior, were divided into two factors, Cooperating skills and Empathy for Prosocial behavior and Quick-temperedness and Disruptiveness for Antisocial behavior. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were high. Additionally, correlations between each factor and social desirability scores were nonsignificant. The resultant model of the present study is a behavior rating scale that should be considered a reliable choice for assessing Greek middle school students' social skills.

In a large sample of 722 community residents, scores on the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale were significantly associated with age, sex, and education, indicating that scores were higher for men, younger participants, and less educated participants.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of aerobic fitness, physical activity, percent body fat, and socioeconomic status on body-shape perceptions among 153 Euro-American students attending an all women's college. Using a set of nine female figure silhouette drawings arranged on an ordinal scale from very thin to very heavy, subjects chose the figure that approximated their Current, Ideal, Most Attractive shapes, and the shape they believed men found the most attractive (Male Attractive). Body Shape Dissatisfaction was assessed by the difference between Current and Ideal shapes. Several significant relationships were noted for body-shape perceptions with percent body fat, aerobic fitness, and physical activity. Overall, data indicate these relationships except for Male Attractive were confounded by percent body fat, as participants with a higher percentage of body fat preferred larger shapes and were more dissatisfied with their shape.

This study compared balance, sway, and weight shift among golfers with different skill levels. Participants (N = 52) were right-handed, male golfers between the ages of 18 and 55 and were divided into 3 groups based on their official handicap (Group 1 = 0-9, Group 2 = 10-16, Group 3 = 17+). Postural sway velocity was recorded unilaterally for each leg and bilaterally. Weight shift as assessed by limits of stability was measured as movement velocity and directional control. During testing, participants stood on a virtual center square as illustrated by a monitor placed directly in front of them. On command participants initiated movement about eight target squares located in a circle around the center square and attempted to move quickly and accurately to the targets. Means from the three forward, three backward, three left, and three right targets were analyzed by group. While significant condition means existed for each of the analyzed means, no significant group differences were found for bilateral or unilateral postural sway, and no significant group differences were found for movement velocity or directional control. In conclusion, as measured in the current study, balance and weight shift are not significantly different among golfers with different skill.

Declines in metacognitive ability occur more with aging and HIV such that some people aging with HIV may be even less able to report accurately on the status of their cognitive functioning. This is problematic because clinicians and allied health professionals rely on clients' self-reports of cognition to help judge if they are developing cognitive impairments. Such self-reports of cognition may be moderated by mood disturbance, histories of alcoholism or drug abuse, or even limited educational achievement. In this review, implications of this phenomenon and suggestions for researching this topic and assessing at-risk clients are posited.

Effects of repetitive index finger abductions on excitability changes in the human primary motor cortex (M1) are assumed to be dependent on practice conditions of the task. To address how different effects occur dependent on various practice conditions, motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited from the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle were investigated. Practice effects on the index finger abduction were examined for changes in excitability of first dorsal interosseous muscle under three forearm position changes (neutral vs prone) and two muscle contraction modes (isometric vs isotonic). Analysis showed that after practice MEP amplitude increased in the prone position but not in the neutral position and MEP increases in the isotonic contraction were larger than those in the isometric mode. These results suggest that use-dependent excitability changes are largely dependent on practice conditions because the amount of afferent input depends on the practice conditions.

The purpose of this study was to obtain the optimal pedaling rate in bicycle ergometer exercise by measuring probe reaction time, which is a good indicator of attention demand, by changing workloads and pedaling rates, and to discuss the relevant rhythm of lower limb movement. Subjects were 19 healthy men whose M age was 22.8 yr. They were instructed to pedal a bicycle ergometer, and their reaction time at different workloads and pedaling rates was measured to estimate an optimal pedaling rate. Probe reaction time was measured under the conditions as follows: pedaling rate of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 rpm at each workload of 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 watts. The estimated values obtained by regression analysis for pedaling rate to give the minimum probe reaction time were 63.5 rpm for 40 watts, 58.8 rpm for 60 watts, 61.3 rpm for 80 watts, 63.4 rpm for 100 watts, and 64.8 rpm for 120 watts. These results indicated that the optimal pedaling rate was approximately 60 rpm regardless of the workload.

To investigate the interference effect in volleyball players and nonathletes (ns=10) when they executed both saccadic and key-press reaction time (RT) tasks concurrently, the two groups responded to the onset of peripheral visual stimuli as quickly as possible in single and dual conditions. In the single condition, subjects responded with either saccadic eye or key-press movement. In the dual condition, they responded concurrently with both saccadic eye and key-press movements. In both groups, the key-press RT was longer in the dual condition than in the single condition. However, the amount of key-press RT delay was remarkably smaller for the volleyball players than for nonathletes. This suggests the motor command to initiate manual movement of volleyball players might be less interfered with by a concurrent oculomotor command to initiate saccadic eye movement when compared to that of nonathletes.

This study was designed to examine the effects of exercise on indices of emotional well-being of 584 college students enrolled in either a lecture-only health course or one of six health-fitness courses, each using a different mode of exercise including cross-training, aerobics, yoga, circuit weight training, swimming, and walk/jog. Each participant completed the Self-perception Profile for College Students developed by Neeman and Harter. Analysis yielded significant differences on five indices of emotional well-being (Global Self-worth, Appearance, Romantic Relationships, Social Acceptance, and Athletic Competence) between pre- and posttest scores of participants enrolled in the health-fitness courses, while no differences were found between pre- and posttest scores of participants enrolled in the lecture-only health course. Of the seven subscales examined, a significant interaction effect was found between sex/time and Romantic Relationships/Athletic Competence, with women reporting greater gains than men.

The study was designed to examine the sport achievement orientations of male wheelchair basketball athletes who differed by onset of experienced disability (congenital and acquired). The full Sport Orientation Questionnaire was administered to 166 U.S. national athletes. Athletes with congenital disabilities had higher mean scores than their peers with acquired disabilities on the three subscales of the full form and on the extraction items as a short form (Competitiveness, Win Orientation, and Goal Orientation). Multivariate analysis of variance yielded no significant differences between groups. Significant differences on Competitiveness and Goal Orientation, with a higher mean were found for the group with congenital disabilities than for the group with acquired disabilities. The results are discussed in relation to the literature, nature of wheelchair basketball, and application of the test to such athletes.

This study analyzed psychophysical data from younger and elderly people on the influence of spacing between vertical lines, exposure time, and number of vertical lines in a stimulus for visual performance. A total of 50 elderly people and 31 graduate students participated in the experiment. Nine levels of spacing between lines (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 29 points), three exposure times (0.2, 0.6, and 1.0 sec.), and five sets of numbers of lines (4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) were manipulated. Analysis showed enhanced spacing between lines and exposure time improved discrimination of separation. However, although performance on discrimination of separation increased as spacing between lines increased up to 21 points, it was degraded at higher values. A positive effect of number of lines on discrimination of separation was also observed, and performance increased as the number of lines decreased. The effect of age group, i.e., elderly versus younger, on performance was significant. The accuracy of the younger was greater than that for the elderly group. Moreover, three interactive two-way effects were found: group × spacing between lines, number of lines × spacing between lines, and number of lines × exposure time. The present findings could be used as a practical reference in the design of instrument displays in which the operator has to consider the scale and markings on a dial, especially if the display is operated in an emergency or is manipulated by elderly people.

The purpose of this study was to compare reaction times and electromechanical delay between reactions to increase force from rest and reactions to decrease force from an active state in the quadriceps femoris of healthy young adults. Force, position, and electromyographic data were recorded from 35 subjects reacting to a forced knee-flexion perturbation. Electromechanical delay was assessed through cross-correlation of the filtered EMG and force data. Reaction time to increase force (M = 159.9 msec., 95% CI = 149.9–169.9 msec.) was significantly longer than RT to decrease force (M = 124.4 msec., 95% CI = 118.7–130.1 msec.). This difference was partially caused by a difference in electromechanical delay (RT to increase force electromechanical delay was 63 msec., 95% CI = 60–67 msec., greater than the RT to decrease force electromechanical delay of 49 msec., 95% CI = 46–52 msec.). This difference in reaction time could be important in identifying and interpreting physiologically meaningful changes in muscle force and in intermuscular coordination during movement.

This pilot study examined test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities of original and modified formats of the Exercise Self-efficacy Scale in college-age women. 30 completed original and modified versions of the scale. Data from both tests, administered 1 wk. apart, were analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to assess test-retest reliability and Cronbach coefficient alpha for internal consistency. Scores for both versions correlated .96. Cronbach coefficients alpha for the original scale were .96 for Time 1 and .98 for Time 2. Cronbach coefficients alpha for the revised scale were .95 for Time 1 and .98 for Time 2. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency remained consistently high for both versions of the scales within this sample. Implications for use of this scale and recommendations for research are given.

Disturbed sleep may be associated with a multitude of environmental, medical, and psychological conditions. Since sleep disturbances are leading manifestations of major depression, a common potentially fatal disorder, persons with disturbed sleep must be screened for depression. Different forms of disturbed sleep are associated with specific subtypes of depression. Those with evidence of depression must then be referred for prompt treatment to abort serious adverse outcomes, including suicide.

In samples of undergraduates in Kuwait (ns = 70 men, 70 women) and the U.S. (ns = 37 men, 81 women), scores on the F Scale were positively correlated with scores on the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire.

This study investigated the possibility of promoting fluency of performance, i.e., a performance independent of caregiver's guidance and without serious interruptions, during morning dressing in two adults with multiple disabilities. The intervention program relied on the use of assistive technology including optic and pressure sensors to monitor the participants' task responding and tape players to present preferred stimuli in relation to such responding, as well as messages of encouragement. Analysis showed that the intervention program was effective with both participants. In fact, they became capable of performing the dressing sequence with only occasional guidance from research assistants, and the time they required for dressing dropped significantly from baseline levels. Implications of the results are discussed.

A negative association between having a Taoist orientation to life and death anxiety was found for a sample of 99 American students but not in a sample of 100 Turkish students

A two-dimensional view of arousal was operationalized by controlling gradient and intensity of exercise-induced arousal in two experiments with 80 undergraduate men. Significant cognitive performance decrement on a visual-search task occurred at high arousal intensity in the steep-gradient arousal conditions. The rate at which arousal increased, not intensity of arousal, led to decrement in performance. Exp. 2 eliminated the alternative explanation that increased movement and exertion demands in the steep-gradient condition of Exp. 1 led to decrement in performance. Analysis indicated no significant differences in participants' affect, and no significant correlations between participants' affect and performance in either experiment.

This study aimed to compare characteristics of body excursion of healthy elderly and elderly people with disorders. The participants were 38 healthy elderly who were at home (Healthy Elderly group) and 24 elderly people with disorders. The latter consisted of two groups: 12 in the Central Nervous System Disorders group with vestibular organ or central nervous system disorders, and 12 in the Other Disorders group with other system disorders. 34 parameters were selected from six domains: distance, distribution of amplitude, area, velocity, power spectrum, and vector. When compared with the Healthy Elderly group, the Central Nervous System Disorders group was judged abnormal on many parameters and showed large and quick body excursion characteristics, particularly in left-right excursion. The Other Disorders group showed different characteristics in the size of the left-right excursion and velocity of the front–back excursion. However, compared with the Central Nervous System Disorders group, very few people in the Other Disorders group were judged abnormal, and they showed slower velocity for front–back excursion.

Replicating work of Arnett, males reported more frequent Reckless Behavior than females, and 27 high school and 48 college students did not differ in scores on Sensation Seeking or Aggression. As anticipated by Arnett, the 35 adults had significantly lower Sensation Seeking and Aggression scores than the two younger groups and less Reckless Behavior as well. In contrast to Arnett, Reckless Behavior did not rise for college students, and Sensation Seeking, but not Aggression, correlated with Reckless Behavior in all samples.

This study investigated the effect of different types of distractions related to use of a hands-free phone on driving performance. The study used three types of verbal distractors: casual conversation, simple arithmetic number guessing, and number adding, in the phone conversation. 12 adults were instructed to follow a lead vehicle on a closed-course highway in a fixed-based driving simulator. The results showed that use of a hands-free cellular phone involving verbal and cognitive distractions impaired driving performance and skill. Types of distraction produced significantly different effects on several dependent variables: the driving speed, headway (distance between the lead car and the manipulated car), brake reaction time, and number of collisions with the lead car. In general, the higher the cognitive load involved in the dialogue, the worse the driving performance.

The psychological relevance of large-scale musical structures has been a matter of debate in the music community. This issue was investigated with a method that allows assessing listeners' detection of musical incoherencies in normal and scrambled versions of popular and contemporary music pieces. Musical excerpts were segmented into 28 or 29 chunks. In the scrambled version, the temporal order of these chunks was altered with the constraint that the transitions between two chunks never created local acoustical and musical disruptions. Participants were required (1) to detect on-line incoherent linking of chunks, (2) to rate aesthetic quality of pieces, and (3) to evaluate their overall coherence. The findings indicate a moderate sensitivity to large-scale musical structures for popular and contemporary music in both musically trained and untrained listeners. These data are discussed in light of current models of music cognition.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of imagining favorable or unfavorable foods on the amplitude of EGG recordings. 40 subjects were assigned to Favorable food and Unfavorable food groups in which they were asked to imagine eating a list of favorable foods or unfavorable foods. Subjects sat in a chair for 16 min. of baseline measurement prior to the 16 min. of food imagining. Electrogastrographic (EGG) activities were recorded continuously throughout. Using Fast Fourier Transform analysis, the spectral power of EGG activity of 3 cycles per minute (cpm) was calculated, and the ratios of EGG 3 cpm spectral power for the period of food imagining and baseline were obtained. The EGG amplitude at 3 cpm during imagining eating a list of unfavorable food was significantly lower than that of the baseline period and the EGG ratio between the food-imagining and baseline periods was significantly lower in the Unfavorable group than in the Favorable food group. It appears that imagining eating unfavorable food significantly inhibited gastric motility as indexed by decreased power of EGG activities at 3 cpm.

From 2001 to 2005, students showed an increase in the range of purchases made online, and their attitudes toward online shopping became more positive.

In judo, making the opponent uncertain requires the mastery of several throws in 3 or 4 different directions and a firm grasp to secure the throw. The system of attacks for 28 judoka (18 men, 10 women) during their 185 respective matches over the competition season of 2001–2002 was analyzed. Practice was regional or interregional. The mean number of matches was 3.3 ± 1.1. The mean number of successful directions of attack was 2.5 ± 1.3. The mean number of grasps was 1.4 ± 0.5, and the mean time for matches was 08:04 ± 03:12. Analysis showed mean number of directions of attack was about 3 and was lower for higher competition although the mean time of matches did not vary significantly. Numbers of directions of attacks were constant for the higher classified judoka. The number of grasps used remained constant. Progress at this level of skill occurs by methodical learning of throws in a coordinated system of attacks. Throws must be complementary to other throws and initiated with one or several grasps.

Developmental transition of EEG spectra to alpha band of 14 children with developmental disabilities (from 7 yr. and 3 mo. to 16 yr. and 1 mo. of age at the first EEG recording: M = 13.2, SD = 2.6; 6 girls and 8 boys) was studied by auto-power spectrum analysis longitudinally. The results showed the mean age (14.1 yr. to 14.8 yr. in the four regions of the frontal, central, parietal, and occipital regions) for subjects and their mean frequency (4.2 Hz to 4.7 Hz in the 4 regions) at which EEG shift started from theta band, and those means (15.1 yr. to 15.7 yr. and 9.5 Hz to 9.6 Hz in the 4 regions) at which EEG shift reached the alpha band. Prior EEG research on healthy children has shown that approximately 10 years of age is critical for developmental transition of EEG spectra to alpha frequencies. It is suggested that the present data showed a delay of this critical age for this sample of children with developmental disabilities relative to 10 years for healthy children reported by Katada, et al. and Benninger, et al.

Using rating scales no associations were found between having a Taoist orientation to life, death anxiety, and the perception that one's self is unified (versus fragmented) in a sample of southeastern Asian students (18 women and 12 men).

In the present study, the extent to which the early component of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and the Hoffmann (H-) reflex induced by stimulation of the posterior tibial nerve are altered during the ascending and descending phases of fast plantarflexion was investigated. SEPSs and H-reflex of the soleus following tibial nerve stimulation were examined during fast plantarflexion when performed by nine normal subjects. The analyses focused on differences in amplitude modulation of the P30-P40 component of SEP and the H-reflex between the ascending and descending phases of full-wave rectified and averaged soleus electromyographic (EMG) activity. The H-reflex amplitude was significantly increased and decreased during the ascending and descending phases more than under resting control conditions, respectively. The reduction of SEP amplitude was 49% for the ascending phase and 83% for the descending phases with respect to the resting situation. Modulation of SEP during the ascending and descending phases was robustly retained even during ischemic nerve blockade of large diameter afferent fibers. These findings suggest that the transmission of afferent inputs from muscle spindles to motoneurons and to the somatosensory cortex during fast isometric contraction of the plantar flexor is regulated in a time-dependent fashion by descending commands.

The aim of this study consists of the application of an experimental protocol that allows information to be obtained about the visual search strategies elaborated by swimming coaches. 16 swimming coaches participated. The Experienced group (n = 8) had 16.1 yr. (SD = 8.2) of coaching experience and at least five years of experience in underwater vision. The Nonexperienced group in underwater vision (n = 8) had 4.2 yr. (SD = 4.0) of coaching experience. Participants were tested in a laboratory environment using a video-projected sample of the crawl stroke of an elite swimmer. This work discusses the main areas of the swimmer's body used by coaches to identify and analyse errors in technique from overhead and underwater perspectives. In front-underwater videos, body roll and mid-water were the locations of the display with higher percentages of fixation time. In the side-underwater slow videos, the upper body was the location with higher percentages of visual fixation time and was used to detect the low elbow fault. Side-overhead takes were not the best perspectives to pick up information directly about performance of the arms; coaches attended to the head as a reference for their visual search. The observation and technical analysis of the hands and arms were facilitated by an underwater perspective. Visual fixation on the elbow served as a reference to identify errors in the upper body. The side-underwater perspective may be an adequate way to identify correct knee angles in leg kicking and the alignment of a swimmer's body and leg actions.

This study examined the effects of wrist rest and forearm support on reducing computer operators' activities using the trapezius, deltoid, biceps brachii, extensor carpi radialis longus, and extensor digitorum. 12 young (M = 25.9 yr., SD = 2.4) men were asked to perform both static and dynamic mouse operations in four conditions, two using a wrist rest and two using a forearm support. Analysis showed that use of the forearm support had a significant effect on reducing the EMG activity in muscles of the trapezius, deltoid, biceps brachii, extensor carpi radialis longus, and extensor digitorum. However, the wrist rest only significantly reduced deltoid and extensor carpi radialis longus activities.

This study analyzed the effects of self-controlled practice on learning cognitive decision-making skills, focusing primarily on how participants used the time available to them during the practice sessions. 30 college students (10 women) ages 22 to 29 years volunteered to practice the game of tic-tac-toe under one of two conditions, self-controlled practice and a yoked-control condition. Learning and retention performance (game success, mean decision-making time) were assessed on tic-tac-toe game performance before training, immediately, and 3 wk. after training. Analysis showed considerable learning and retention in both groups. No differences were found during acquisition, but the self-controlled practice group had better performance than the yoked-control group on the retention test.

This study examined the combined effects of caffeine and the personality attribute of trait-anger on the speed of psychomotor vigilance performance during sleep deprivation. 23 young adult soldiers (19 male) were administered the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory–2 when well-rested. Participants were then sleep deprived for three consecutive nights (77 hours total) during which they completed repeated psychomotor vigilance testing. Half of the participants received four doses of oral caffeine (200 mg every 2 hr.; 800 mg total) each night, while the other half were administered a placebo. For the first night, higher scores on trait-anger, outward anger expression, and intensity of anger expression predicted better sustained overnight vigilance performance, but only for those volunteers receiving caffeine. These correlations were not significant for the subsequent nights. Findings suggest a possible synergistic effect between personality traits associated with arousal of the central nervous system and vigilance-promoting effects of caffeine.

The purpose of the experiment was to investigate the effects of chromaticity combination on reading speeds and subjective preference ratings for small Chinese characters. The experiment was 7 (text chromaticity) × 7 (background chromaticity) split-plot design. Analysis of variance showed that the text chromaticity was not significant, but background chromaticity was. The findings suggested that achromatic color was the most effective background chromaticity with lower reading time and had a higher preference rating; however, the highly saturated short-wavelength blue was least effective.

Between 2000 and 2004, 125 recreational parachuting fatalities were reported in the USA. Each was categorized using a previously reported taxonomy. While patterns of skydiving fatality were largely unchanged since the last such analysis of fatalities from 1993–1999, some variations were noted. As in previous analyses, most of the recent skydiving fatalities were the direct result of human error. Some examples of commonplace human error fatalities were turning low to the ground resulting in a hard landing, accidentally colliding with other skydivers resulting in entangled parachutes, and failure to deploy the reserve parachute correctly in the event of malfunctioning main parachute.

Ability to recognize a runner as a teammate from only a brief visual exposure is suggested from research on gait recognition with point-light displays and has particular importance for ball-passing in sports. 15 touch football players of mean age 20 yr. (SD = 0.7), on two teams of 7 wk. standing, observed 31 400-msec. video clips of running individuals whose familiarity varied from high to low. These were their teammates, players from the other team, or nonfootball players. After viewing each clip, participants rated their certainty that each running player was a teammate. Despite the brevity of the visual display, overall performance at discriminating teammates from other runners was significantly better than chance, and accuracy did not differ between colour or black-and-white formats. Recognition of teammates was better if familiar nonteammates were removed from the set of analyzed clips and worse if unfamiliar nonplayers were removed.

This study analyzed the long-term effects of practice schedule on shooting performance in basketball during actual field training. 32 college students (16 female) ages 20 to 29 years completed voluntary basketball training in one of two equal-sized groups employing either constant versus random training. The constant practice group took 160 shots from the free throw line, while the variable practice group took 160 shots from different positions around the restricted area. Learning and transfer (variation of throwing distance and size of the ball) performance was assessed with the Basketball-Shooting Test before and after training and on a retention test 1 yr. later. Significant measures in performance were attributed to learning and transfer in both training groups at all measurement times. Constant training groups had better acquisition and random training groups had better retention. The anticipated transfer effect in the random group was not found.

When humans decide whether two visual stimuli are identical or mirror images of each other and one of the stimuli is rotated with respect to the other, the time discrimination takes usually increases as a rectilinear function of the orientation disparity. On the average, males perform this mental rotation at a faster angular speed than females. This experiment required the rotation of both mirror-image-different and non-mirror-different stimuli. The polygonal stimuli were presented in either spatially unfiltered, high-pass or low-pass filtered versions. All stimulus conditions produced mental rotation-type effects but with graded curvilinear trends. Women rotated faster than men under all conditions, an infrequent outcome in mental rotation studies. Overall, women yielded more convexly curvilinear response functions than men. For both sexes the curvilinearity was more pronounced under the non-mirror-different, low-pass stimulus condition than under the mirror different, high-pass stimulus condition. The results are considered as supporting the occurrence of two different mental rotation strategies and as suggesting that the women were predisposed to use efficiently an analytic feature rotation strategy, while the men were predisposed to employ efficiently a holistic pattern rotation strategy. It is argued that the overall design of this experiment promoted the application of an analytic strategy and thus conferred an advantage to the female participants.

Psychotherapeutic outpatients (10 men, 20 women) were tested with the Inner Images of Parental Figures. Each subject imagined first his mother and then his father. Questions were asked about size, look, and spatial and emotional distance of the imagined parent. The patient was then asked to describe the personality of each parent by underlining at least 20 of 85 adjectives in a list called Family Climate Scale. This originally consisted of four factors, Closeness, Spontaneity, Distance, and Chaos, but the two administered were Factor I (positive traits) and Factor II (negative traits). Emotional distance correlated positively with Factor I and negatively with Factor II. For the maternal figure there was a correlation with distance in metres and Factor I scores. The Inner Images of Parental Figures may be a valuable complement in psychotherapy, mapping out emotional relations between patients and their parents.

An analysis of pause distribution for 12 subjects on a controlled copying task suggests that pause-based measures used to assess writing processes should reflect individual differences in typing.

Education and rehabilitation research with persons with developmental disabilities is often based on single-case designs (with small numbers of ordinal data points collected at irregular intervals) and relies upon graphic display and visual inspection of the data. This paper (a) provides a brief account of some statistical tests, which may serve to supplement the visual inspection process and (b) underlines some of their strengths and limitations to help education and rehabilitation personnel make a reasonable choice among them.

This study assessed the intercorrelations of scores on the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, the locally standardized Copying Test, and teachers' ratings of scholastic skills in a South African multi-ethnic preschool sample. The study also investigated whether cultural and socioeconomic factors might influence test data. Participants were 71 Black, 101 Coloured, and 66 White children attending preschools in a semirural district. Participants' ages ranged from 4 yr., 9 mo. to 7yr., 0 mo. (M = 5.8 yr., SD = 0.3 yr.). Analysis yielded a correlation of .75 between the test scores and supports the suitability of the widely used Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration in a multi-ethnic sample. Scores on the Copying Test correlated higher with teachers' ratings. However, significant differences in test performance among groups by race and socioeconomic status suggest the rate of perceptual-motor development may be related to cultural factors. Normative data are reported for groups by race and socioeconomic status.

This study aimed to objectively summarize the parameters for evaluating the center-of-foot pressure and to select useful parameters with high reliability and validity with 220 healthy university students. In addition, 50 healthy university students were selected to examine cross validity. The measurement of center-of-foot pressure was carried out 3 times with a 1-min. rest and the mean of Trials 2 and 3 was used for the analysis. The data sampling frequency was 20 Hz. 34 parameters were selected from 6 domains: distance, distribution, area, velocity, spectrum, and vector. As a result of factor analysis the following four factors were interpreted: unit time sway, front-back sway, left-right sway and high frequency band sway. Their intraclass correlation coefficients were very high (ICC = .89–.95). Five parameters representing each factor were selected using stepwise selection by regression analysis. There were no significant differences between the mean factor scores estimated by the above five parameters in the original and in cross-validity groups, and relationships between factors in both groups were very high. The center-of-foot pressure may be predicted and systematically evaluated by the above four factors. Five parameters selected from each factor are considered to be useful ones with high validity and practicability.

To test the door-in-the-face technique for a private solicitation, 53 men and 37 women in several bars were engaged. In one condition, a female confederate asked the subject to buy her drink because her boyfriend had left without paying the bill. After the subject refused, the confederate requested only 2 or 3 coins. In the control condition, the latter request was the only one. Analysis showed a dramatic increase in compliance for the door-in-the-face condition. A positive effect of the door-in-the-face technique was also observed for the average amount of the donation. The accentuation of the solicitor's dependency in the door-in-the-face condition seemed relevant for explanation.