Changes in step variability of new walkers with typical development and with Down syndrome

Models of human gait are based on adult locomotion. C. E. Bauby and A. D. Kuo (2000) proposed that adults rely on passive mechanisms at the spinal level to control motion in the anteroposterior direction and rely on direct monitoring of postural control in the lateral direction. The authors' purpose in this study was to determine if that model applies to control at the onset of walking in typically developing toddlers (n = 9) and in toddlers with Down syndrome (n = 6). Their longitudinal data suggested that toddlers control gait in a distinctly different manner than adults do. An adult pattern of control emerges with experience. In addition, the effect of experience on the emergence of that pattern is magnified by task-specific early intervention. The present data support the emergence and discovery of efficient patterns of control in this fundamental human behavior.     

Mode of grasp, materials, and grooved chopstick tip on gripping performance and evaluation

This study evaluated the effects of the mode of grasping, chopstick materials, and the groove of the chopstick-tip on gripping performance of 32 participants, among whom 16 were accustomed to using chopsticks with a pliers-grasping mode and the other 16 with a scissors-grasping mode. Based on a random sequence, 8 kinds of chopsticks with different combinations (materials: bamboo, wood, plastic, and stainless steel, with and without grooves in the chopstick-tip) were used to carry out the action of gripping two different objects (peanuts and longan). The time to finish gripping 50 pieces of peanut and longan, the number which fell on the table when gripping, the subjective effort and the subjective preference were measures of efficiency of pinching for 8 kinds of chopsticks. Analysis showed that chopstick materials significantly affect time of gripping. The large object (such as longan) could be gripped more easily with the pliers-grasping mode or gripped with the grooved chopstick-tip. However, for small objects (such as peanuts), there was no significant difference in performance whether the chopstick-tip was grooved or not. A combination of bamboo chopsticks with grooved tips used with a pliers-grasping seem preferrable for more favorable gripping performance.     

The Effects of Collectivistic and Individualistic Values on Conflict and Decision Making: An Experiment in China

In an experiment with 80 participants in China, protagonists with opposing views in organizations that valued collectivism, compared to individualism, were found to develop cooperative goals, were confident that they could work, sought to understand, and demonstrated that they understood the opposing arguments, accepted these arguments as reasonable, and combined positions to create an integrated decision. The inductions comparing participants who valued harmony as a goal or a technique in which they pretended to agree were only partially effective and did not yield significant differences on conflict dynamics and outcomes. Findings challenge traditional theorizing that collectivistic values lead to conflict avoidance, and support recent arguments that strong, cooperative relationships promote the productive discussion of opposing views in decision making.     

教师职业倦怠与归因的关系探讨

教师职业倦怠问题越来越受到国内外教育研究者的关注。本研究检验归因对教师倦怠的影响。采用教师职业倦怠量表与归因问卷调查170名中学教师。结果表明,中学教师的情绪倦怠程度并不高,但仍有一定比例的教师体验较严重的倦怠状态;内控性与机遇两个控制源与倦怠3个维度之间的相关达到显著水平,权势只与去个性化维度之间的相关达到显著水平;并且,只有内控性与机遇显著地预测了职业倦怠的三个维度。     

进食障碍影响因素的探讨

神经性厌食症和神经性贪食症是主要的进食障碍症状。进食障碍的影响因素有社会文化因素（例如媒体和同伴的影响）、家庭因素（如困惑和冲突）、消极情绪、低自尊水平和对自身的不满及认知和生物方面的因素等。     

Gratitude Enhances Change in Athletes’ Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Trust in Coach

Self-esteem is a positive evaluation of oneself that can facilitate optimal functioning. However, little research has focused on its antecedents in sport. Accordingly, we adopted an interactionism perspective and proposed that gratitude, a dispositional factor, will enhance an athlete's self-esteem and affective trust in coach, a situational factor, will strengthen such a positive effect. Athletes completed measures of gratitude, affective trust in coach, and self-esteem at Time 1 and self-esteem at Time 2 after 6 months. Results showed that athletes with higher levels of gratitude increased their self-esteem over time when they had higher affective trust in their coaches.     

Increasing Students' Scientific Creativity: The “Learn to Think” Intervention Program

The “Learn to Think” (LTT) Intervention Program was developed for raising thinking abilities of primary and secondary school students. It has been implemented in more than 300 schools, and more than 200,000 students took part in the experiment over a 10‐year span. Several longitudinal intervention studies showed that LTT could promote the development of students' thinking ability, learning motivation, and learning strategy as well as raise academic performance in primary schools. This article describes a study of the influence and the delayed effects of LTT on the scientific creativity of secondary school students. One hundred and seven students were selected from a secondary school, 54 of them participated in the LTT every 2 weeks and the rest had not. The intervention lasted 2 years, and the delayed effect was explored half a year after terminating the intervention. The Scientific Creativity Test for Secondary School Students was used four times from pre‐test to delayed post‐test. The results indicated that the LTT did promote the development of scientific creativity of secondary school students, and the effects on the scientific creativity were not necessarily immediate, but tended to be long‐lasting.     

Do knee concentric and eccentric strength and sagittal-plane knee joint biomechanics differ between jumpers and non-jumpers in landing?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences of knee concentric and eccentric strength and impact related knee biomechanics between jumpers and non-jumpers during step-off landing tasks. Ten male college swimming athletes (non-jumpers) and 10 track and volleyball athletes (jumpers) were recruited to participate in two test sessions: a muscle strength testing session of concentric and eccentric extension for dominant knee joint at 60 °/s and 180 °/s and a landing testing session. The participants performed five trials of step-off landing in each of four conditions: soft and stiff landing from 0.4 m and 0.6 m landing heights. The three-dimensional kinematics and ground reaction force were recorded simultaneously during step-off landing conditions. The results showed that the jumpers had significantly greater peak knee eccentric extension and concentric flexion torques compared to the non-jumpers. No significant group effects were found for peak vertical ground reaction force and knee range of motion during landing. The jumpers had significantly greater knee contact flexion angle, maximum knee flexion angle and initial knee extension moment compared to the non-jumpers. These results suggest that these athletes adopted a favorable impact attenuation strategy that is related to the greater knee eccentric muscle strength and training.     

Combining Instructional Activities for Sense-Making Processes and Perceptual-Induction Processes Involved in Connection-Making Among Multiple Visual Representations

Abstract

Connection-making among multiple representations is a crucial but difficult competence in STEM learning. Prior research has focused on one type of learning process involved in connection-making: sense-making processes leading to conceptual understanding of connections. Yet, other research suggests that a second type of learning process is important: inductive learning processes leading to perceptual intuitions about connections. We investigate whether combining instructional activities designed to support sense-making processes for understanding of connections (understanding activities) and instructional activities that support inductive processes for perceptual intuitions about connections (perception activities) enhances students’ learning of chemistry knowledge. A laboratory-based experiment with 117 undergraduate students compared students in (a) a control condition that received only conventional activities that did not require connection-making; (b) a condition that received conventional and understanding-activities; (c) a condition that received conventional and perception-activities; and (d) a combined condition that received conventional, understanding-activities, and perception-activities. Results show that only the combined condition outperformed the control condition on a test of chemistry knowledge. Eye-gaze data and verbal reports show that understanding-activities and perception-activities have complementary effects on how students integrate information from multiple representations during the learning phase. Finally, we found that students’ spatial skills moderate their benefit from understanding-activities and perception-activities.