Summary.—A light finger touch can stabilize posture despite it not providing enough force to create mechanical support. The underlying mechanism may be due to the finger touch providing information in the axis with the greatest instability. The most appropriate way to test this hypothesis is a dual-axis paradigm, i.e., to remove sway-related information from touch in either anterior-posterior…
Summary .— It has been shown recently that stroboscopic visual training can improve visual-perceptual abilities, such as central fi eld motion sensitivity and anticipatory timing. Such training should also improve a sports skill that relies on these perceptual abilities, namely ball catching. Thirty athletes (12 women, 18 men; M age = 22.5 yr., SD = 4.7) were assigned to one of two types of s…
Summary .— In his last novel, Finnegans Wake , James Joyce attempted to redirect readers’ search for meaning away from traditional paths by using many non-words (combinations, foreign words, neologisms, and onomatopoeic words). Words and non-words in the novel were analyzed in terms of the emotional meanings of their constituent sounds using the model developed by Whissell where motor resp…
Summary .— The Åstrand-Ryhming Submaximal Bicycle Test is an accurate and widely used test to estimate maximal oxygen consumption. This test requires a participant to maintain a workload over a 6-min. period. The issue facing many employing this protocol is the identifi cation of an appropriate workload for the cycling regimen. The present study is designed to identify a method for determin…
Summary .— The influence of educational status on perceptual-motor performance has not been investigated. The single- and dual-task performances of 15 Low educated adults (9 men, 6 women; M age = 24.1 yr.; 6–9 yr. of education) and 15 Higher educated adults (8 men, 7 women; M age = 24.7 yr.; 10–13 yr. of education) were compared. The perceptual task consisted of verbally classifying two …
Summary .— As it is adaptive to accurately detect and localize bodily threats, it has been proposed that the brain prioritizes somatosensory input at body locations where pain is expected. To test this proposition, the detection of tactile changes on a body location was investigated to assess whether detection was facilitated by threat of pain. Healthy participants ( N = 47) indicated whether…
Summary .— The study examined the eff ect of structural composition, position of occlusion, and education background on response time and accuracy rate of adult participants in recognition of occluded Chinese characters used in graphic design. Based on 18 Chinese characters selected from the top 4,000 most commonly used characters, a recognition experiment was conducted. Results indicated th…
Summary .— The relationship between the criterion for choosing and the selfchoice eff ects (greater recall in a self-choice compared to a forced-choice condition)on intentional memory was examined. Thirty-three female nursing school volunteers were administered 24 word pairs in a 2 × 2 design to assess the infl uence of motivation upon free recall. When word pairs were presented to particip…
Summary .— Sequential strategies of digitized tablet drawings by 6–7-yr.-old children ( N = 203) of average and below-average handwriting ability were analyzed. A Beery Visual Motor Integration (BVMI) and a Bender-Gestalt (BG) pattern, each composed of two tangential shapes, were predefi ned into area sectors for automatic analysis and adaptive mapping of the drawings. Girls more often beg…
Summary .— Perturbations in Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) and speech rate were examined as sources of disruptions in speech between men and women. Fluent adult men ( n = 16) and women ( n = 16) spoke at a normal and an imposed fast rate of speech with 0, 25, 50, 100, and 200 msec. DAF. The syllable rate signifi - cantly increased when participants were instructed to speak at a fast rate, a…
Summary .— This study explored the relationship between anxiety and scuba diving performance of young individuals ( N = 44; 16.9 yr., SD = 1.2) participating in an introductory scuba diving activity. The question was whether the well-known negative correlation between anxiety and scuba diving performance found for experienced and middle-aged scuba divers will be observed in young participant…
Summary .— This study investigated the relationship between suffi cient amounts of physical activity among Brazilian adolescents and the economic and social indicators of the cities where they live. Data from a large national survey including 109,104 boys and girls ages 13 to 15 yr. (47.8% boys, 52.2% girls) were analyzed. The economic and social indicators were the Human Development Index (…
Summary .— The objective of this study was to demonstrate the sequential process (i.e., social factors ➔ mediators ➔ motivation ➔ consequences) underlying the Hierarchical Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation at the contextual level in instruction using three teaching tools, modifi ed balls, a high net, and colored balls and cones in a college-level tennis class in South Korea. 1…
Summary.—Understanding the developmental levels of fundamental movement skills has a critical role in the improvement of motor competence in childhood. In this respect, the use of Microsoft Kinect to assess vertical jumping skill and to predict developmental levels in 9- to 12-yr.-old children was evaluated. 41 boys and girls repeated the countermovement jump test three times. Vertical jumpi…
Summary .— A study by Witchalls, et al . (2013 ) mentioned that the addition of focal vision to proprioception testing with walking produces greater proprioceptive acuity than peripheral vision alone (measured ankle proprioception in athletes with or without chronic ankle instability during a stepping task on the Active Movement Extent Discrimination Apparatus; AMEDA). According to this study…
Summary .— The associations between subjective ratings and objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were examined in normal,and overweight and obese, pubertal boys and compared with their parents' reports. In total, 224 boys ( M age = 12.2 yr.) completed the self-report questionnaire and wore an accelerometer for 7 consecutive days. Questionnaire-based indexes of ph…
Summary .— Adequate profi ciency at object control skills, which is infl uenced by biological and environmental constraints, underlies the development of more complex sport-specifi c skills. This study describes profi ciency at six object control skills and demographic correlates associated with each skill and each skill criteria in 9- to 10-year-old children who were randomly selected from 2…
Summary .— Girls are said to outperform boys in the human fi gure drawing, but some disagreement exists among studies regarding such sex diff erences, and the reasons for these sex diff erences are unclear. The study examined how sex, age,and graphic fl uency aff ect scores at the human fi gure drawing in large sample of children aged fi ve to 12 years. To that end, the Draw-a-Person Test was…
Summary .— The objective was to determine whether gait is symmetric in healthy children 6–7 years of age and to assess the eff ects of laterality and the anatomical zone of the foot. 46 children were subjected to gait symmetry analysis in which the plantar and lateral pressures associated with kicking a ball, static balance, and dynamic support were measured. There were no signifi cant diff…
Summary .— This study tested the hypotheses that loading the ankle with a 2.3 kg weight would modify deviation (unilateral loading) and distance (unilateral and bilateral loading) during three blind navigation tasks. Ankle loading increased the distance traveled while navigating toward a previously seen target at an 8 m distance and reduced the undetected fore-aft displacement while stepping …
Summary .— Use of coloured lighting in interior spaces has become prevalent in recent years. Considerable importance is ascribed to coloured lighting in interior and lighting design. The eff ects of colour on the perception of interior spaces have been studied as surface colour; but here, the eff ects of three diff erent types of chromatic light were investigated. The lighting diff ered in co…
Summary .— The study investigated the eff ects of chunking and perceptual patterns that guide the drawings of Rey complex fi gure. Ten adult participants ( M age = 22.2 yr., SD = 4.1) reproduced a single stimulus in four drawing modes including delayed recall, tracing, copying, and immediate recall across 10 sessions producing a total of 400 trials. It was hypothesized that the eff ect of chu…
Summary .— This study examined how a physical activity course based on the Trans-Contextual Model aff ected the variables of perceived autonomy support, autonomous motivation, determinants of leisure-time physical activity behavior,basic psychological needs satisfaction, and leisure-time physical activity behaviors. The participants were 70 Turkish university students ( M age = 23.3 yr., SD =…
Summary .— Dominant (right) and nondominant (left) hand diff erences in motor performance variables were investigated during targeted rapid aiming unimanual and bimanual (to two separate targets) speed-accuracy tasks. The performance of the dominant and nondominant hands were compared during rapid targeted unimanual and bimanual reaching tasks (50 repetitions) in adult, neurologically intact…
Summary .— The goal of this study was to investigate the diff erences in physical fi tness in relation to urban or rural living environment and between two countries:Italy and Croatia. Over 14,000 students were tested during physical education (PE) lessons. Croatian students were taller and heavier than Italian students, with women achieving better results in fl exibility. Urban students were…
Summary .— Given that children with low movement skill competence engage in less physical activity, it is important to understand how children’s perceptions relate to actual movement competence. This study examined relationships between (i) children’s self-perception and objective assessments of their movement skills (object control and locomotor) and (ii) parents’ perceptions of the c…
Summary .— The purpose of the study was to investigate the eff ects of researcharticle writing motivation and use of self-regulatory writing strategies in explaining second language (L2) research-article abstract writing ability, alongside the L2 literacy eff ect. Four measures were administered: a L2 literacy test, a research abstract performance assessment, and inventories of writing motiv…
Summary .— Self-controlled feedback on a variety of tasks are well established as eff ective means of facilitating motor skill learning. This study assessed the eff ects of self-controlled feedback on the performance of a serial motor skill. The task was to learn the sequence of 18 movements that make up the Taekwondo Poomsae Taegeuk fi rst, which is the fi rst beginner's practice form learne…
Summary .— Regular aerobic exercise and milk consumption have been found to have positive eff ects on certain cognitive functions such as short-term memory and sustained attention. However, aggregated eff ects of combining these modalities have not been explored. This study examined the combined eff ects of milk supplementation and aerobic exercise on the short-term memory and sustained atte…
Summary .— This study examined the eff ects of audio-visual aids on anxiety,comprehension test scores, and retention in reading and listening to short stories in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. Reading and listening tests, general and test anxiety, and retention were measured in English-major college students in an experimental group with audio-visual aids ( n = 83) and a con…
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Summary .— The goal of this study was to investigate diff erences in physical activity (PA) levels between early, average, and late maturing boys and the eff ect of chronological age, body mass index, and fat mass. PA was measured by accelerometry in 10–14-yr.-old boys ( N = 265) during seven consecutive days. Biological maturation groups (early, average, and late) were created. Average an…
Summary .— There have been ongoing debates as to whether the syllable frequency eff ect is dependent purely on phonological representation or is also aff ected by the orthographic representation of the syllable. In two experiments, the authors investigated the eff ect of the phonologic and orthographic frequencies on the syllable frequency eff ect by manipulating the fi rst syllable's phonolo…
Summary .— Previous research has indicated that exercise can lead to decreased depression symptoms. The relationship of depression with right frontal lobe activity and self-image (body, eating, and exercise) were investigated as reasons why depressive symptoms might lead to decreased exercise. 120 college students (79 women) completed design fl uency tasks followed by a set of questionnaires…
Summary .— The purpose of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Sensory Profi le (SP), which is used to measure sensory processing abilities of children ages of 3–10 years, and test its reliability and validity for use with Turkish children with autism. A cross-cultural adaptation process was carried out by bilingual experts, following typical guidelines. The test-retest rel…
Summary .— This study examined whether parental attachment mediates the relationship between parental social support and self-esteem in Korean middle and high school athletes. 591 sports athletes attending middle and high schools that specialize in sport volunteered. Parental social support and parental attachment had a signifi cant positive eff ect on self-esteem; parental attachment had a g…
Summary .— This study evaluated whether the judogi colour (blue or white)could infl uence a combat outcome (victory or defeat) in 1,233 judo offi cial combats. Sex, age group, and level of competition were also considered in the analysis. Binomial probability tests showed a higher probability of an athlete's winning a combat wearing blue judogi for both sexes, levels of competition (regional …
An article published by Suminski, Wasserman, Mayfi eld, and Mc-Clain in the August 2013 issue of Perceptual & Motor Skills highlighted the infl uence of adult perceptions about environmental infl uence on physical activity. Interviews with both women and men between the ages of 18 and 91 years provided self-reported information about their own physical activities in their neighborhoods, as wel…
Summary .— Current accounts of the Ebbinghaus illusion emphasize either size contrast or contour interaction processes. To assess these alternatives, four variants of the Ebbinghaus fi gure were constructed using 1, 5, 9, or 13 small circles dispersed along the perimeter of larger contextual circles. 30 observers ranked the perceived size of the central circles and a single control circle. Th…
Summary .— This study identifi ed several physiological indices that can accurately monitor mental workload while participants performed multiple tasks with the strategy of maintaining stable performance and maximizing accuracy. Thirty male participants completed three 10-min. simulated multitasks: MATB (Multi- Attribute Task Battery) with three workload levels. Twenty-fi ve commonly used men…
Summary .— This study assessed whether video self-modeling improves running performance and infl uences the rate of perceived exertion and heart rate response. Twelve men ( M age = 26.8 yr., SD = 6; M body mass index = 22.1 kg.m –2 , SD = 1) performed a time to exhaustion running test at 100 percent maximal aerobic velocity while focusing on a video self-modeling loop to synchronize their …
Summary.—The goal was to study reaction time and maximal velocity of upper limbs of healthy young adults of both sexes during transition from a simple to a more involved task. Performance of dominant and non-dominant arms was recorded. Participants were 43 healthy, right-handed, untrained men (n = 22) and women (n = 21),18–22 years old. The simple task required a single jerk-like movement. …
Summary .— According to social cognitive theory, group cohesion and selfeffi cacy have been identifi ed as important environmental and individual elements in students’ physical activity. This study examined the correlations among group cohesion, exercise self-effi cacy, perceived interest, and physical activity among 143 le college students ( M age = 21.2 yr., SD = 4.2) enrolled in aerobic…
Summary.—This study examined choking in basketball by identifying the effects of game outcome and situational variables during the last 5 min. and overtimes of close games. The sample consisted of two 5 min. segments (last 5 min. of the game, n = 147, of which 97 did not go into overtime; 5 min. of overtime, n = 50) drawn from 147 games from the Spanish Professional Basketball League (2007 to…
Summary .— This cross-sectional study examined fundamental movement skill competency among deprived preschool children in Northwest England and explored sex diff erences. A total of 168 preschool children (ages 3–5 yr.) were included in the study. Twelve skills were assessed using the Children's Activity and Movement in Preschool Motor Skills Protocol and video analysis. Sex diff erences we…
Summary .— The present study examined human-computer interactions in which the operator has to detect errors made by software designed to automatically recognize technical documents. The goal was to assess the eff ect of user-initiated interruptions of the recognition process to correct these errors. Participants were asked to check the interpretations, either with or without the possibility …
Summary .— This study assessed the concurrent and construct validity of the Borg 6–20 Scale and WHEEL Scale during arm ergometry exercise stress testing in ( n = 24) adolescents and adults with spina bifi da. Signifi cant, moderate, positive correlations were observed between power output and relative heart rate and power output to relative VO 2 peak. Further, a moderate, signifi cant corre…
Summary .— Sensory information from the environment is used for body orientation and maintaining posture for eff ective movement, and the eff ects of specifi c senses on orientation and posture can be tested by removing input. In the present study, fi eld dependence was used to evaluate the importance of vision in the perception of verticality when an upside-down posture was adopted under wat…
Summary .— Visual fi xation patterns were analyzed to gain insight into developmental changes in attention allocation in a cross-modal task. Two patterns that have been associated with increased task diffi culty, gaze aversion and fi xation duration,were recorded using an eye-tracker. In this exploratory study, 37 elementary age children ( M age 7–10 yr.) and 23 undergraduates engaged in vi…
Summary .— The motor skill required to decrease the variability in muscle force steadiness can be challenging. The purposes of this study were to determine whether muscle force steadiness improved following repeated trials and whether the number of trials varied for healthy younger adults, healthy older adults, and older adults who have fallen to obtain stable muscle force steadiness measure…