Friction in the interstices: Emotion and landscape in Stone Butch Blues

This article analyzes the role of emotion in Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues. Widely understood as one of the first modern transgender novels, Stone Butch Blues depicts the bodily changes of its protagonist, Jess Goldberg, from living as a “he–she,” to passing as male, to living as neither male nor female. This article analyzes how Jess's body, identity, and feelings shape and are shaped by the spaces ze encounters throughout the novel. Finding that Jess experiences emotions as bodily boundaries and metaphorical geographies, I draw from the work of Sara Ahmed to argue that Jess's decision at the novel's end not to pass as female or male is a choice to push back at the gendered norms of hir world through a body and politics shaped by emotion. Turning to contemporary trans* – transgender, transsexual, and trans – movements for social change, I argue that Jess's politics of bodily and emotional abrasion can help in the development of a trans* politics of emotion.     

Letting the brush lead: Mark Cousins,film-maker of the floating world

A hill of salt in the Belfast docklands shimmers like an iceberg at sea. A laminated photograph of Sergei Eisenstein drifts in front of a camera as it moves amongst the streets of Mexico City. A grey mist hovers across Stockholm, obscuring the city behind it. These three images are from a sequence of essay films directed by Mark Cousins. In this paper, I discuss the work of Cousins in terms of its floating aesthetics and mobile methodologies. Throughout his films, Cousins's camera drifts through urban spaces, tracing the images and sounds of cityscapes that typically escape us. The films are attentive to the colours infused and refracted through their urban environments, prompting an understanding of cities as studies in fleeting colour, light and luminosity. I engage with Japanese aesthetic theories in order to draw out resonances between the historical art of urbanising Japan and the city scenes of Cousins's films. This paper offers a reflection on the capacity of Cousins's films to evoke an understanding of cities as lively, sensuous and evanescent harbours of a floating world.     

Bodies out of place: Affective encounters with whiteness

This essay foregrounds the role of affect in felt experiences of whiteness by illustrating two accounts, one that took place on 25th May 2020 between Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper in Central Park, and an encounter from the authors previous study on Black educators’ experiences of working in white spaces. In doing so, this essay is an affective attunement to the ways that felt intensities inform our experience of power relations and ultimately constrain the capacities of bodies to act.     

Captured by motion: dance, action understanding, and social cognition

In this review article, we summarize the main findings from empirical studies that used dance-related forms of rhythmical full body movement as a research tool for investigating action understanding and social cognition. This work has proven to be informative about behavioral and brain mechanisms that mediate links between perceptual and motor processes invoked during the observation and execution of spatially–temporally coordinated action and interpersonal interaction. The review focuses specifically on processes related to (a) motor experience and expertise, (b) learning and memory, (c) action, intention, and emotion understanding, and (d) audio-visual synchrony and timing. Consideration is given to the relationship between research on dance and more general embodied cognition accounts of action understanding and social cognition. Finally, open questions and issues concerning experimental design are discussed with a view to stimulating future research on social-cognitive aspects of dance.     

A dancer's well-being: The influence of the social psychological climate during adolescence

ObjectivesResearch suggests promoting task-involving dance climates is beneficial to well-being (Quested & Duda, 2009, 2010). Likewise, caring climates are integral to optimizing well-being (Fry et al., 2012). However, perceptions of a caring climate have not been examined in dance studios and little is known about the relationship between perceptions of a broader climate and aspects of psychological well-being. This study examined the relationship between perceptions of the social psychological climate (task-involving, ego-involving, and caring) and aspects of psychological well-being (positive and negative affect, body-esteem, and teacher and peer friendship quality) in adolescent dancers.DesignCross-sectional correlational design.MethodEighty-three female dancers (M age = 16.28 ± .93) self-reported well-being and perceptions of their studio's dance climate.ResultsPerceptions of task-involving and caring climates were related to better positive affect, body-esteem, and relationships with teachers and peers (r range: .33–.68). Two climate cluster profiles emerged: a Positive Climate (n = 57) with lower ego-involving and greater task-involving and caring climate perceptions and a Mixed Climate (n = 26) with higher ego-involving and lesser task-involving and caring climate perceptions. MANOVA revealed significant differences (V = 0.266, F (6, 76) = 4.59, p < .001) between the profiles on well-being. Discriminant function analysis showed dancers in the Positive Climate cluster reported greater body esteem, more friends, and less negative affect than dancers in the Mixed Climate cluster.ConclusionsPromoting a task-involving and caring climate and de-emphasizing an ego-involving climate is an effective strategy for promoting well-being in dancers.     

Coordination and movement pathology: models of structure and function

Here we consider the role of abstract models in advancing our understanding of movement pathology. Models of movement coordination and control provide the frameworks necessary for the design and interpretation of studies of acquired and developmental disorders. These models do not however provide the resolution necessary to reveal the nature of the functional impairments that characterise specific movement pathologies. In addition, they do not provide a mapping between the structural bases of various pathologies and the associated disorders of movement. Current and prospective approaches to the study and treatment of movement disorders are discussed. It is argued that the appreciation of structure–function relationships, to which these approaches give rise, represents a challenge to current models of interlimb coordination, and a stimulus for their continued development.     

The role of interpersonal movement synchronisation in empathic functions: Insights from Tango Argentino and Capoeira

Although evidence points to a role for kinesthetic empathy (i.e. spontaneous interpersonal movement imitation and synchronisation) in social interaction, its relationship with emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy is unknown. We compared empathy in Tango and Capoeira experts, which crucially depend on ongoing, mutual interpersonal synchronisation, with empathy in practitioners of Salsa and Breakdance, respectively, which demand less interpersonal synchronisation but are comparable concerning movements and setting. Kinesthetic empathy was increased in the Tango and Capoeira groups. Although no group differences in other aspects of empathy were detected, kinesthetic empathy correlated with emotional and cognitive empathy. Taken together, trait kinesthetic empathy varies in the general population, and appears increased in synchronisation experts.     

Emotional cartography as a window into children's well-being: Visualizing the felt geographies of place

More often than not, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) excludes emotion and qualitative analysis from studies of people-place relationships in favor of quantitative approaches. We employ emotional cartography as a form of qualitative GIS (qualGIS) to elevate emotions from the periphery to the center of dialogue about children's well-being. We highlight the ontological parallels between qualGIS, emotional cartography and children in society, and advance emotion maps as a way to visualize different spatial and emotional realities. In reflecting upon the felt geography of our own childhood places, we affirm the importance of children's emotional attachments to places as well as the centrality of ‘messy’ human experiences in GIS. To conclude, we discuss the implications of emotional cartography for researchers, planners and GIS, paying special attention to children's well-being amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this includes a call to ‘witness’ and to foster spatial empathy among those advocating for children.     

Nomadic inhibition of attention and motor responses

Klein and MacInnes [Klein, R. M., & MacInnes, W. J. (1999). Inhibition of return is a foraging facilitator in visual search. Psychological Science, 10, 346-352] posited that the function of a phenomenon known as the inhibition of return (IOR) [Posner, M. I., & Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma, & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and performance X: Control of language processes (pp. 531-554). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum] is to facilitate the foraging of food and objects in the environment. Once a target object has been identified either the location of that target in space or a movement to that target is inhibited in order to allow the performer to shift his/her attention to something new. Interestingly, in the majority of IOR studies, participants begin their search from a central home position. This research examined IOR in a nomadic target-target paradigm in which the home position randomly appeared at one of three target locations and attentional shifts/movements progressed to other locations. In Experiment 1, participants executed simple manual button presses in response to the sequential presentation of a home position and then two target stimuli. In Experiment 2, participants made manual-aiming movements in response to the same type of presentation. Results obtained from both experiments implicate perceptual-motor mechanisms over and above the inhibition of a specific target location or response. Inhibitory effects appear to be associated with both perceptual and motor processes, and depend not only on the temporal and spatial relations between potential targets, but also on the actions required to detect or engage the targets.     

Integration of posture and movement: contributions of Sherrington, Hess, and Bernstein

Neural mechanisms that integrate posture with movement are widespread throughout the central nervous system (CNS), and they are recruited in patterns that are both task- and context-dependent. Scientists from several countries who were born in the 19th century provided essential groundwork for these modern-day concepts. Here, the focus is on three of this group with each selected for a somewhat different reason. Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) had innumerable contributions that were certainly needed in the subsequent study of posture and movement: inhibition as an active coordinative mechanism, the functional anatomy of spinal cord-muscle connectivity, and helping set the stage for modern work on the sensorimotor cortex and the corticospinal tract. Sadly, however, by not championing the work of his trainee and collaborator, Thomas Graham Brown (1882-1965), he delayed progress on two key motor control mechanisms: central programming and pattern generation. Walter Hess (1881-1973), a self-taught experimentalist, is now best known for his work on CNS coordination of autonomic (visceral) and emotional behavior. His contributions to posture and movement, however, were also far-reaching: the coordination of eye movements and integration of goal-directed and "framework" (anticipatory set) motor behavior. Nikolai Bernstein (1896-1966), the quintessence of an interdisciplinary, self-taught movement neuroscientist, made far-reaching contributions that were barely recognized by Western workers prior to the 1960s. Today, he is widely praised for showing that the CNS's hierarchy of control mechanisms for posture and movement is organized hand-in-hand with distributed and parallel processing, with all three subject to evolutionary pressures. He also made important observations, like those of several previous workers, on the goal focus of voluntary movements. The contributions of Sherrington, Hess, and Bernstein are enduring. They prompt thought on the philosophical axioms that appear to have driven their research, and the continual need for emphasis on interdisciplinary, comparative, and transnational approaches to advance movement neuroscience.     

Hand dominance influences the processing of observed bodies

In motor tasks, subgroups of lefthanders have been shown to differ in the distribution of attention about their own bodies. The present experiment examined whether similar attentional biases also apply when processing observed bodies. Sixteen right handers (RHs), 22 consistent left handers (CLHs) and 11 relatively ambidextrous inconsistent left handers (ILHs) performed an own body transformation task in which they were instructed to make speeded left–right judgements about a schematic human figure. Attentional biases associated with handedness were found to extend to observed bodies: CLHs’ judgements were faster to the figure’s left side, while ILHs, like RHs, showed facilitated performance to the figure’s right side. These results demonstrate a novel embodiment effect whereby the processing of a static schematic human figure is modulated by an individual’s personal motor capabilities. This finding suggests that motor simulation may contribute to whole body perception in the absence of actual or implied actions.     

Temporal binding during apparent movement of the human body

Alternating between static images of human bodies with an appropriate interstimulus interval (ISI) produces apparent biological motion. Here we investigate links between apparent biological motion and time perception. We presented two pictures of the initial and final positions of a human movement separated by six different ISIs. The shortest movement path between two positions was always biomechanically impossible. Participants performed two tasks: In an explicit task, participants judged whether they saw the longer, feasible movement path between the two postures, or the shorter, biomechanically impossible path. In an implicit task, participants judged the duration of a white square surrounding the picture sequence. At longer ISIs participants were more likely to see a longer, feasible movement path (explicit task) and underestimated the duration of body picture pairs, compared to trials displaying degraded body pictures (implicit task). We argue that perceiving apparent biological motion involves temporal binding of two static pictures into a continuous movement. Such temporal binding may be mediated by a top-down mechanism that produces a percept of biological motion in the absence of any retinal motion.     

Coupling kinematics of memory and kinematics of movement: the conditions for a psychological relativity

The organization of spatial and temporal information relative to memory-movement interactions was studied in a recall task. Stimuli consisted of four different configurations of eight dots, presented sequentially. In two configurations, the stimuli were spatiotemporal congruent, with (constant or variable) inter-stimulus distances corresponding to (constant or variable) inter-stimulus time intervals. In the other two configurations, the stimuli were spatiotemporal incongruent, with (constant or variable) inter-stimulus distances not corresponding to (variable or constant) inter-stimulus time intervals. After a learning phase consisting of 20 presentations of the target configuration, participants performed a series of pointing movements to reproduce both spatial and temporal characteristics of the stimulus 60 times in succession without ever re-examining the target configuration. Classically, in incongruent spatiotemporal conditions, the reproduction of, respectively, constant distances or constant time intervals are strongly disturbed by the simultaneous perception of variable inter-stimulus time intervals (Tau effect) or variable distances (Kappa effect). We assume that these spatiotemporal dependencies, which occur when the response relates to one dimension only, crucially depend on the non-integration of motoric aspects in memory.     

Agreement and movement: a syntactic analysis of attraction

This paper links experimental psycholinguistics and theoretical syntax in the study of subject-verb agreement. Three experiments of elicited spoken production making use of specific characteristics of Italian and French are presented. They manipulate and examine its impact on the occurrence of 'attraction' errors (i.e. incorrect agreement with a word that is not the subject of the sentence). Experiment 1 (in Italian) shows that subject modifiers do not trigger attraction errors in free inverted VS (Verb Subject) structures, although attraction was found in VS interrogatives in English (Vigliocco, G., & Nicol, J. (1998). Separating hierarchical relations and word order in language production. Is proximity concord syntactic or linear? Cognition, 13-29) In Experiment 2 (in French), we report stronger attraction with preverbal clitic object pronouns than with subject modifiers. Experiment 3 (in French) shows that displaced direct objects in the cleft construction trigger attraction effects, in spite of the fact that the object does not intervene between the subject and the verb in the surface word order (OSV). Moreover, attraction is stronger in structures with subject-verb inversion (...). These observations are shown to be naturally interpretable through the tools of formal syntax, as elaborated within the Principles and Parameters/Minimalist tradition. Three important constructs are discussed: (1) the hierarchical representation of the sentence during syntactic construction, and the role of intermediate positions by which words transit when they move; (2) the role of specific hierarchical (c-command) but also linear (precedence) relations; and (3) the possibility that agreement involves two functionally distinct components. A gradient of computational complexity in agreement is presented which relates empirical evidence to these theoretical constructs.     

Learning to like it: Aesthetic perception of bodies,movements and choreographic structure

Appreciating human movement can be a powerful aesthetic experience. We have used apparent biological motion to investigate the aesthetic effects of three levels of movement representation: body postures, movement transitions and choreographic structure. Symmetrical (ABCDCBA) and asymmetrical (ABCDBCA) sequences of apparent movement were created from static postures, and were presented in an artificial grammar learning paradigm. Additionally, “good” continuation of apparent movements was manipulated by changing the number of movement path reversals within a sequence. In an initial exposure phase, one group of participants saw only symmetrical sequences, while another group saw only asymmetrical sequences. In a subsequent test phase, both groups rated all sequences on an aesthetic evaluation scale. We found that posture, movement, and choreographic structure all influenced aesthetic ratings. Separate ratings for the static body postures presented individually showed that both groups preferred a posture that maximized spatial symmetry. Ratings for the experimental sequences showed that both groups gave higher ratings to symmetrical sequences with “good” continuation and lower ratings to sequences with many path reversals. Further, participants who had been initially familiarized with asymmetrical sequences showed increased liking for asymmetrical sequences, suggesting a structural mere exposure effect. Aesthetic preferences thus depend on body postures, apparent movement continuation and choreographic structure. We propose a hierarchical model of aesthetic perception of human movement with distinct processing levels for body postures, movements and choreographic structure.     

Meanings of movement,place and home at Walsingham

This paper examines the revival, over the past 100 years, of the Catholic pilgrimage site of Walsingham. It argues that, for some habitual pilgrims, the site is akin to a second ‘home’, constituting a place for ‘dwelling in movement’. Contemporary pilgrimage practices not only establish links between local parishes and the Walsingham shrines, but also incorporate specific forms of mobility that express connections with personal, collective and institutional representations of the past. An examination of the site encourages the blurring of analytical distinctions between ‘local’ and ‘visitor’, and also poses questions concerning the relationship between culture, place and forms of belonging.     

Level walking in adults with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder: An analysis of movement variability

Several studies have shown that Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a condition that continues beyond childhood. Although adults with DCD report difficulties with dynamic balance, as well as frequent tripping and bumping into objects, there have been no specific studies on walking in this population. Some previous work has focused on walking in children with DCD but variation in the tasks and measures used has led to inconsistent findings. The aim of the current study therefore was to examine the characteristics of level walking in adults with and without DCD. Fifteen adults with DCD and 15 typically developing (TD) controls walked barefoot at a natural pace up and down an 11 m walkway for one minute. Foot placement measures and velocity and acceleration of the body were recorded, as well as measures of movement variability. The adults with DCD showed similar gait patterns to the TD group in terms of step length, step width, double support time and stride time. The DCD group also showed similar velocity and acceleration to the TD group in the medio-lateral, anterior–posterior and vertical direction. However, the DCD group exhibited greater variability in all foot placement and some body movement measures. The finding that adults with DCD have a reduced ability to produce consistent movement patterns is discussed in relation to postural control limitations and compared to variability of walking measures found in elderly populations.     

Quadrupedal movement training improves markers of cognition and joint repositioning

IntroductionExercise, and in particular balance and coordination related activities such as dance, appear to have positive effects on cognitive function, as well as neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Quadrupedal gait training is a movement system requiring coordination of all four limbs that has previously been associated with cognitive development in children. There is currently little research into the effect of complex QDP movements on cognitive function in adults.PurposeTo determine the effects of a novel four-week quadrupedal gait training programme on markers of cognitive function and joint reposition sense in healthy adults.MethodsTwenty-two physically active sports science students (15 male and 7 female) were divided into two groups: a training group (TG) and a control group (CG). All participants completed the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) and were tested for joint reposition sense before and after a four-week intervention, during which time the TG completed a series of progressive and challenging quadrupedal movement training sessions.ResultsParticipants in the TG showed significant improvements in the WCST, with improvements in perseverative errors, non-perseverative errors, and conceptual level response. This improvement was not found in the CG. Joint reposition sense also improved for the TG, but only at 20 degrees of shoulder flexion.ConclusionsPerformance of a novel, progressive, and challenging task, requiring the coordination of all 4 limbs, has a beneficial impact on cognitive flexibility, and in joint reposition sense, although only at the specific joint angle directly targeted by the training. The findings are consistent with other studies showing improvements in executive function and joint reposition sense following physical activity.     

Handwriting on a tablet screen: Role of visual and proprioceptive feedback in the control of movement by children and adults

Tablets are increasingly being used in schools for a variety of handwriting tasks. Given that the control of handwriting relies on both visual and proprioceptive feedback, especially in younger writers, this raises the question of whether the texture of the tablet surface affects graphomotor execution. A series of recent studies found that when the smoothness of a tablet screen modifies proprioceptive feedback, the impact on graphomotor execution varies according to the level of the writer’s handwriting skills. However, as the writing on the screen remained visible in these studies, participants may have compensated for the decrease in proprioceptive feedback by relying more heavily on visual information. The aim of the present study was therefore to unravel the respective contributions of different types of sensory feedback during handwriting development and, consequently, the compensatory role of visual information when children and adults have to write on a tablet. To this end, we asked second and fifth graders and adult participants to write letters and pseudowords on a plastic board placed on top of a tablet screen. Participants wrote on either the smooth or the granular side of the plastic board (manipulation of surface friction), and with normal vision or behind a shield that hid the hand and handwriting from direct view (manipulation of vision). Kinematic parameters and legibility were recorded to assess handwriting performances. Results revealed a significant interaction between proprioceptive and visual feedback on letter size, pen speed and legibility, regardless of participants’ age. Furthermore, reducing the visual and proprioceptive feedback had a greater effect on the children’s handwriting performances than on those of adults. Overall, the present study provides new insight into the contribution of the different types of sensory feedback and their interaction with handwriting development. In addition, our results on the impact of tablet surface on graphomotor execution will serve as useful pointers for improving the design of this tool for children, such as increasing the degree of friction of the screen surface.