Skill differences in visual anticipation of type of throw in team-handball penalties

ObjectivesVisual identification and anticipation of an opponent's action intentions is crucial for successful performance in interactive situations such as team-handball penalties. We conducted two experiments to examine experienced and novice team-handball goalkeepers' ability to predict the type of throw in handball penalties and to identify the observers' reliance on local versus globally distributed spatial cues.Design and methodsIn Experiment 1, following a 2 (Skill) × 5 (Temporal Occlusion Condition) factorial design participants were provided with videos of team-handball penalties where the amount of viewing time was varied. In Experiment 2, another sample of experienced and novice goalkeepers watched videos of spatially manipulated penalties where specific parts of the thrower's body or the ball were either removed or presented in isolation (2 [Skill] × 9 [Display Condition] factorial design).ResultsIn Experiment 1, experienced goalkeepers outperformed novices and both groups similarly improved their performances with later occlusion conditions. In Experiment 2, experienced goalkeepers were again superior to novices, and local cues (e.g., ball and hand) were sufficient for better than chance predictions in both groups. Moreover, experienced in contrast to novice goalkeepers (i) suffered from the removal of and (ii) benefited from the addition of distal (i.e., throwing arm and ball) as well as proximal (i.e., upper body) kinematic features.ConclusionsOur research is in line with previous findings on perceptual-cognitive expertise in sports and suggests that experienced team-handball goalkeepers rely on multiple, globally distributed cues when making anticipatory judgments.     

Individual differences and measures of aggression in laboratory studies

After inducing hostility toward a confederate by threatening subjects' self-esteem, subjects were then given the opportunity either to deliver shocks (Experiment 1) or to withhold rewards (Experiment 2) from their confederate. Physiological measures were taken prior to the hostility induction, shortly after the induction and, finally, after the opportunity to aggress. Measures of individual differences relating to aggressive behavior were also considered. While the experimental manipulation was the best predictor in the ‘withholding rewards’ condition, measures of dissipation-rumination tendencies and emotional vulnerability were the best predictors in the ‘shock administration’ condition. In both conditions, systolic blood pressure seemed to reflect differences in arousal as a function of the hostility induction procedure, while subjects in the withhold rewards procedure also showed a decrease in systolic pressure after having an opportunity to aggress toward the confederate. It was concluded that not only is the withholding of rewards a more ethically acceptable procedure than shock administration, but it is also more likely to reflect experimental rather than individual difference affects.     

Individual differences in psychophysiological responsiveness in laboratory tests of deception

The study examined the interrelationship of a number of measures of electrodermal activity under varying degrees of task demand and their relationship to differential electrodermal responding to critical questions in either a card test (n=126) or a mock agent test (n=84) of deception. The data indicated two dimensions of electrodermal responsiveness: one, a reactivity dimension, related predominantly to differences in base level, and the other, a lability dimension, related to differences in response frequency. A third dimension reflecting differences in the extent to which the electrodermal system was the most responsive relative to other systems was not independent of the second. Both the reactivity and lability dimensions related to indices of differential responding in the laboratory tests of deception, with the second increasing the predictive power of the first. The results were interpreted in terms of two-factor theories of the orienting response relevant to the physiological detection of deception.     

Sex differences in cognitive strategic preference among medical students

The cognitive strategic preferences of first-year medical students (42 men and 31 women) were assessed using the Word-Shape Sorting Test, on which subjects may adopt a verbal or visuospatial approach to problem-solving. 24 (77%) women, but only 25 (60%) men, exhibited a clear preference for a particular information-processing strategy. Some factors contributing to confusion in the literature on cognitive style are discussed.     

Age differences in everyday memory: laboratory analogues of telephone number recall

Three experiments were conducted to examine age differences in memory for telephone numbers by adults ranging from 18 to 85 years of age. In the first 2 studies, using visual simultaneous presentation, age declines in immediate recall were evident on 10-digit numbers, but not on 3-digit numbers. With 7-digit numbers, the youngest group performed significantly better than the oldest (70-85 years) group. In the second study, more marked age declines occurred when subjects had to redial a number after a busy signal. The third experiment replicated the observed aging pattern with auditory sequential presentation. Also, chunked presentation of local telephone numbers resulted in high performance for old and young in sequential recall. The findings were discussed in relation to task processing demands and practical issues related to telephone number recall.     

Sex differences in the professional orientation of first-year medical students

This article, presenting the findings from a 1975 survey of first-year medical students in the state of North Carolina, explores the relationship between students' sex and professional orientations considered relevant to current health care problems. The professional orientations concern four problem areas: (1) physicians' relationships with patients, (2) political and economic change in the medical profession, (3) the treatment of women physicians and women patients, and (4) geographic and specialty mal-distribution of physicians. Substantial sex differences are found for some professional orientations. As hypothesized, women orient more highly than men to humanizing physician-patient relationships, political and economic change in medicine, the problems facing women physicians and patients, and expecting an inner-city practice. Implications of the findings for health care and medical education are discussed.This report is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, Boys and Girls in White: Professional Orientation of the Student Physician Department of Sociology, Duke University, 1976. The author would like to express appreciation to Jim House for his continued guidance and encouragement as dissertation advisor.     

Sex differences in urinary odors produced by young laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Responses of adult female rats to male and female pup urine were examined in three experiments. Investigatory sniffing of male and female pup urine deposits by maternal rats was compared in a series of simultaneous choice tests given at 3-day intervals between Day 2 and Day 17 postpartum. Male urine was consistently preferred. Introduction of male, but not female, pup urine to the nest was also found to significantly elevate maternal licking of anogenital regions of pups. Thus, urine from pups of various ages contains sex-identifying odors that differentially elicit spontaneous maternal interest. The odor of male urine may provide a sufficient stimulus to account for the greater anogenital licking that males of this species normally receive. Nonmaternal, naive, adult females behaved like maternal rats, preferring male urine in the choice test. This indicates that the maternal condition of a dam is not necessary either for the olfactory discrimination or for the male odor preference.     

Skill in expert dogs

The motor control of novice participants is often cognitively demanding and susceptible to interference by other tasks. As people develop expertise, their motor control becomes less susceptible to interference from other tasks. Researchers propose a transition in human motor skill from active control to automaticity. This progression may also be the case with nonhuman animals. Differences in performance characteristics between expert, advanced, intermediate, and novice dogs competing in the sport of agility were investigated. There were statistically significant differences between dogs of varying competitive levels in speed, motor control, and signal detections suggestive of increasing motor control automaticity in highly skilled, or expert, dogs. The largest sequential motor control difference was between novice and intermediate dogs, d = .96, whereas the largest sequential signal detection difference was between advanced and expert dogs, d = .90. These findings have two significant implications for expertise researchers: first, the observed similarities between dogs and humans may enable dogs to be used as expert models; and second, expertise science and methods may be profitably employed in the future to create more proficient canine workers.     

Skill in Work and Play

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Skill in Interviewing Reduces Confirmation Bias

Interviewers given prior information are biassed to seek it from interviewees. We examined whether the detrimental impact of this confirmation bias in terms of leading question use was moderated by interviewers' demonstrated ability to adhere to open questions. We classified interviewers' adherence as ‘good’ or ‘poor’ in an independent interview before they interviewed children about a staged event. Half the interviewers were given biassing true and false information about the event; half were given no information. As predicted, only poor interviewers showed the effect of bias. Poor interviewers asked fewer open questions in the biassed condition than the non‐biassed condition; good interviewers asked the same (high) proportion of open questions in both conditions. Poor interviewers asked more leading questions in the biassed condition than the non‐biassed condition; good interviewers asked the same (low) proportion of leading questions in both conditions. These results demonstrate that interviewers' skill in adhering to open questions reduces the detrimental impact of confirmation bias on question type. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Music Sight-Reading Skill in Flute Players

This article reports an investigation of factors related to music sight-reading skill. Flute players (N = 30) performed six tasks: (a) sight-reading standard music, (b) sight-reading random music, (c) recall of music notation, (d) recall of letters, (e) eye-performance span, and (f) choice reaction time for playing individual notes. Sight-reading ability was significantly correlated with eye-performance span (.85), and music recall (.80), but not with letter recall (-.39), thus replicating results of previous work with pianists. Sight-reading skill was correlated with choice reaction time to notes (- .54), and there was a significant partial correlation between sight-reading skill and eye-performance span, with music-reading ability controlled. These results are consistent with the idea that increased skill involves both the speed-up of individual processing stages, and an increase in the degree to which these stages operate in parallel.     

Hand Skill Asymmetry in Professional Musicians

Hand skill asymmetry on two handedness tasks was examined in consistent right-handed musicians and nonmusicians as well as mixed-handed and consistent left-handed nonmusicians. Musicians, although demonstrating right-hand superiority, revealed a lesser degree of hand skill asymmetry than consistent right-handed nonmusicians. Increased left-hand skill in musicians accounted for their reduced asymmetry. Musicians predominantly playing keyboard instruments demonstrated superior tapping performance than musicians playing predominantly string instruments, although they did not differ with respect to hand skill asymmetry. Since the diminished tapping asymmetry in musicians was related to early commencement but not duration of musical training, results are interpreted as an adaptation process due to performance requirements interacting with cerebral maturation during childhood.     

技艺与德性中的实践智慧——基于亚里士多德伦理学与当代伦理学自然主义的比较

亚里士多德在其古典伦理学中讨论了作为制作活动的技艺与作为实践活动的德性以及二者所依赖的实践智慧的联系与区别。基于亚里士多德的思想以及当代认知科学,这一类比研究延续到当代自然主义伦理学及其反思中。自然主义伦理学主张技艺与德性及其实践智慧之间存在着某种类同关系,源于亚里士多德德性伦理学的辩护者则主张技艺行为与德性行为的实践智慧在诸多方面存在区别。更进一步的研究表明,技艺行为和德性行为的实践智慧应当有效地整合,即技艺行为的实践智慧可能使人们对整体生活目标的反思更为正确,同时,技艺行为的实践智慧也同时应当遵从基于"好的人类生活"的更高规范标准。