THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ERROR MANAGEMENT TRAINING WITH WORKING-AGED ADULTS

Low structure training that includes instructions about the benefits of errors typically enhances learning for college-student samples. Changes in abilities and skills that occur with age suggest that these findings may not necessarily generalize to working adults. Three training conditions, varying in structure and instructions, were examined in a sample of working-aged adults (N = 161, M_age= 39.7 years). Significant main effects of condition, cognitive ability, and age were found for training performance. An age × cognitive ability × error management instruction interaction indicated that error management instructions in high structure training were beneficial for older learners, especially when higher in ability. The importance of examining aptitude–treatment interactions in training research with working-aged adults is highlighted.     

Effects of Decision Training on Decision Making and Performance in Young Tennis Players: An Applied Research

This study examined the effectiveness of a 10-week decision training program on decision making and performance in tennis. Decision training was based on the analysis combining tactical questioning and video feedback about players own actions. A quasi-experimental design with intermediate tennis players (control group, n = 6; experimental group, n = 5) was developed over 18 weeks, divided into 3 phases: preintervention, postintervention, and retention. A total of 13,383 game play actions were analyzed to test differences. Experimental group improves significantly decision making and performance and maintained improvements during the retention phase. Video feedback combined with questioning is recommended to achieve sport expertise.     

Separating the wheat from the chaff: does discriminating between diagnostic and nondiagnostic information eliminate the dilution effect?

The dilution effect refers to the finding that judgments are often unduly influenced by nondiagnostic information, producing regressive judgment. Because the dilution effect is a problem in various domains, strategies to control the impact of nondiagnostic information were explored by drawing on a perceptual and a conversational account of the dilution effect. Three experiments (n = 259) demonstrate that explicit instructions to discriminate between diagnostic and nondiagnostic information did not reduce the dilution effect. Rather, consistent with a perceptual explanation but not consistent with a conversational explanation, the dilution effect disappeared only when participants engage in perceptual control, that is, when they actively remove nondiagnostic pieces of information before making a judgment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Junior Tennis Players’ Preferences for Parental Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to identify junior tennis players’ preferences for parental behaviors at competitions. Eleven focus groups were conducted with 42 high performance Canadian tennis players (M age = 13.5 yrs, SD = 1.2 yrs). Analysis revealed several themes describing athletes’ views of supportive parental behaviors. Specific preferences were that parents should not provide technical and tactical advice, but they should comment on effort and attitude, provide practical advice, respect tennis etiquette, and match nonverbal behaviors with supportive comments. By providing a children's perspective, these findings offer guidance to enhance parental involvement in tennis.     

Enhancing the Learning of Sport Skills Through External-Focus Feedback

The authors examined how the effectiveness of feedback for the learning of complex motor skills is affected by the focus of attention it induces. The feedback referred specifically either to body movements (internal focus) or to movement effects (external focus). In Experiment 1, groups of novices and advanced volleyball players (N = 48) practiced “tennis” serves under internal-focus or external-focus feedback conditions in a 2 (expertise) × 2 (feedback type) design. Type of feedback did not differentially affect movement quality, but external-focus feedback resulted in greater accuracy of the serves than internal-focus feedback during both practice and retention, independent of the level of expertise. In Experiment 2, the effects of relative feedback frequency as a function of attentional focus were examined. A 2 (feedback frequency: 100% vs. 33%) × 2 (feedback type) design was used. Experienced soccer players (N = 52) were required to shoot lofted passes at a target. External-focus feedback resulted in greater accuracy than internal-focus feedback did. In addition, reduced feedback frequency was beneficial under internal-focus feedback conditions, whereas 100% and 33% feedback were equally effective under external-focus conditions. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of effect-related, as opposed to movement-related, feedback and also suggest that there is a need to revise current views regarding the role of feedback for motor learning.     

Retrieval properties of negative vs. positive mental images and autobiographical memories in social anxiety: outcomes with a new measure

High (n = 41) and low (n = 39) socially anxious (SA) participants completed the Waterloo Images and Memories Interview (WIMI), a new assessment tool that measures the accessibility and properties of mental images and associated autobiographical memories that individuals may experience across both anxiety-provoking (negative) and non-anxiety-provoking (positive) social situations. Results indicated that both high and low SA individuals experience negative images and associated autobiographical memories in anxiety-provoking social situations, but the rates of endorsement of such images and memories among high SA participants were substantially lower than those reported in recent studies. Moreover, whereas low SA individuals were capable of accessing a relatively balanced array of both negative and positive self-representations that were rich in episodic detail, high SA individuals retrieved a higher, more unbalanced ratio of negative-to-positive images and memories, as well as impoverished positive images that were significantly degraded in episodic detail. Finally, negative images influenced the two groups differently, with high SA individuals experiencing more negative emotional and cognitive consequences associated with bringing such images to mind. These results are discussed in relation to theoretical models of learning and memory within the context of contemporary cognitive behavioral models of social anxiety.     

L’entraînement cognitivo-perceptif basé sur la vidéo et ses modes d’instructions

This literature review examines both the effectiveness of simulation training video to improve decision-making of athletes and secondly, the benefits of explicit, implicit and guided instructions used during video-based perceptual training. Thus, it is shown that video-based perceptual training improves cognitive and perceptual skills resulting in decrease in decision time and increase in decision's accuracy in simulations and field. Furthermore, the benefits of explicit approaches in early stage of learning to promote rapid acquisition of knowledge is highlighted. On the other hand, it is suggested that implicit approaches will be more conducive to the experts to ensure that they “reinvest” their knowledge in stressful situations. Finally, it is envisaged that guided approaches are relevant alternatives to explicit and implicit approaches.     

Specificity in practice benefits learning in novice models and variability in demonstration benefits observational practice

Considerable research has shown that both demonstration and verbal instruction can facilitate learning of a motor task in inexperienced individuals. In the current study, verbal instructions were used as a means to reduce the discovery learning process and control the amount of trial-to-trial variability in demonstrations. The task required models to learn to trace a pair of circles with a 90°-relative phase pattern between the arms. Verbal instructions directed one group of models toward a single strategy, and this group improved at a faster rate and performed better in a 24-h retention test compared to a group of models in a discovery learning context. The discovery models utilized multiple strategies throughout the practice. Each model was watched for 2 days by an observer, who was instructed that they would have to produce the 90°-relative phase pattern on day 3. Observers, who watched the discovery models, performed better than those who watched the single strategy models. The results support two primary conclusions. First, trial-to-trial variability associated with strategy selection processes in a model benefits an observer by facilitating perceptual discrimination processes that may play a key role in action generation. Second, verbal instructions that reduce discovery learning during physical practice benefit acquisition and retention performance when the task has multiple strategies wherein no one strategy guarantees the best performance outcome.     

Impact of Trained versus Spontaneous Reciprocal Peer Tutoring on Adolescent Students

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two different forms of reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) on the motor and cognitive performance of adolescents in a physical education setting. We also explored the influence of gender. We assigned 72 ninth-graders (36 M, 36 F), all novices in a table tennis task, to a 2 × 3 (Gender × Learning Condition: physical practice with trained RPT [TRPT] vs. physical practice with spontaneous RPT [SRPT]vs. physical practice without any form of RPT [PP; individual control condition]) factorial design. Results indicated superior motor performance and cognitive skills for the TRPT condition and no difference between the SRPT and PP conditions. The peer-tutor training was thus a crucial organizational variable of the success of RPT. Interestingly, our results support the assumption that females particularly benefit from a highly structured peer tutoring framework.     

Video‐game training and naïve reasoning about object motion

Naïve conceptions and associated misconceptions about object motion arise in part from limitations on perceptual experience. Certain commercial video games, such as Enigmo, provide interactive experience with realistic trajectories and practice at purposefully manipulating those trajectories. We tested the possibility that this experience could modify naïve intuitions about object motion, bringing them into closer alignment with Newtonian principles of mechanics. Fifty‐one middle‐school children were randomly assigned to play either Enigmo or a strategy game for six sessions. Only the Enigmo group improved their ability to generate realistic trajectories, but this improvement was limited to learning about the general parabolic shape of trajectories. After training, both groups received a 30‐minute tutorial on Newtonian principles which generated a much larger improvement in producing realistic trajectories than did game play. This improvement was of similar magnitude in both training groups, indicating that gaming experience provided no advantage in deriving benefits from direct instruction. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Competition, cooperation, satisfaction, and the performance of complex tasks among air force cadets

Forty-eight U.S. Air Force Academy cadets were studied to examine the effects of individual attitudes and organizational reward structures on the performance of a complex, integrative task. An attitudinal survey was used to measure each subject’s preference for cooperative or competitive situations. Distinctly different group environments were created by giving four groups of six subjectscompetitive instructions and another four groupscooperative instructions. The performance criterion was the “sum” score across eight trials of a complex arcade-type computer game which required one subject to control horizontal movement and another to control vertical movement. Although neither attitude nor reward structure alone influenced performance, their interaction was found to be very significant; subjects performed poorly when the reward structure did not match their individual orientation. Implications for military and professional training programs are discussed.     

The Effects of Coaching and Speeding on Big Five and Impression Management Scale Scores

We examined the effects of coaching and speeding on personality scale scores in a faking context (N = 192). A completely crossed 2 × 2 experimental design was used in which instructions (no coaching or coaching) and speeding (with or without a time limit) were manipulated. No statistically significant effects on scale scores were evidenced for speeding. Coaching participants significantly elevated scores (average d = .76) for each of the Big Five personality factors but did not significantly elevate the scores on the Impression Management scale (d = .06). Cognitive ability was significantly positively related to impression management for uncoached participants but not for coached participants. An exploratory simulation suggests that coaching would have an effect on who would be selected for a job.     

Uncertainty and visual strategies in table tennis

Ball games are characterized by perceptual uncertainty and time-pressure. Of interest is the visual-search pattern carried out when these characteristics change. This is the case in table-tennis situations when comparing a drill situation, when one kind of stroke is constantly repeated, and a match situation, when the stroke is more often unpredictable. We analysed, during play, the visual-search pattern of five expert table tennis players to examine the effect of uncertainty on visual behavior. Direction of gaze was recorded by a video-oculographic recorder (NAC Eye Mark Recorder IV). Analysis showed that (i) visual fixations towards opponent player were only systematic in a match contrary to drill where they occurred less frequently. (ii) Whatever the situation, only the first part of the ball's trajectory was visually tracked. This occurred immediately after the opponent's release of the ball. Nevertheless, visual tracking was more frequent and of longer duration in a match. (iii) Analysis of motor behavior showed that the duration of the movement preparation was longer in a match while the duration of the execution phase was unchanged.     

Do Perceptual Instructions Lead to Enhanced Performance Relative to Behavioral Instructions?

As people we commonly instruct people in terms of physical actions to carry out to perform any task. However, according to perceptual control theory (Powers, 1973 Powers, W. T. (1973). Behavior: The control of perception. Chicago, IL: Aldine. [Google Scholar]), human action serves to control perception. Using a drawing task, it was hypothesized that instructions describing the perceivable effects of the movement would result in greater accuracy of image drawing than those describing the movement. Participants were asked to draw images using different instructions; describing the expected perceptions and describing the movements. As predicted, it was found that describing the perceptual outcome of the task led to significantly more accurate drawings than describing the movements did. This highlights the importance of instructions based on desired perceptions when precise execution of a skill is necessary.     

Covert and overt rehearsal and elaboration during treatment in the development of assertive behavior

The present investigation examined the effects of covert and overt rehearsal and client elaboration of situations designed to train assertive behavior. Nonassertive clients (n = 61) received one of four treatments resulting from the 2 × 2 factorial combination of Modality of Rehearsal (covert vs overt) and Elaboration (elaboration vs no elaboration of training situations). A delayed-treatment group was included in the design to serve as a no-treatment control condition before subjects were assigned randomly to one of the above treatments. Treatment led to significant improvements on self-report and behavioral measures of assertiveness and self-efficacy. Covert and overt rehearsal were equally effective. However, elaboration of training situations significantly enhanced the effects of covert and overt rehearsal. Treatment effects were maintained up to a 6-month follow-up, transferred to novel role-playing situations, and brought clients within the range of other subjects (n = 45) who regarded themselves as adept in social situations requiring assertive behavior and who had not sought treatment.     

Motor imagery and ‘placebo-racket effects’ in tennis serve performance

ObjectivesThis study aimed at confirming whether Motor Imagery (MI) enhances tennis serve performance, and determining whether a placebo condition could affect the beneficial effects of MI.DesignThis study used a 3 × 2 factorial design. Three groups of tennis players were compared in service performance outcomes before and after a training session.MethodsTwenty-two tennis players were assigned into three groups: a control (C) and two experimental groups subjected to a similar MI intervention, one group using their regular own racket (MI group) while the other used a placebo racket (P group).ResultsAnalyses of Covariance revealed no significant group difference when comparing serve velocity after training session, but MI training improved serve accuracy and regularity. Combining placebo racket with MI further resulted in greater serve accuracy score as compared to MI alone. Players' perception of their serve quality improved after MI, and this effect was reinforced in the P group.ConclusionThese findings revealed that MI may be useful to achieve peak performance, and that the implement placebo effect might be a factor in sport performance, hence promoting the beneficial effects of alternative methods to improve tennis serve performance.     

Effectiveness Evaluation of Search and Target Acquisition Training Prototype Using Performance Metrics With Eye-Tracking Data

Despite the increased use of sensor technologies, including unmanned vehicles, the vast majority of improvised explosive device (IED) detections are made by human vision. Thus, TRAC-Monterey developed a simulation-based training prototype called the perceptual learning trainer (PLT). Fourteen novice and 5 expert IED detectors participated in human-in-the-loop experiments in which all participants were trained using the PLT tool while their eye-movement and IED detection performance were tracked in real-time. A series of 100 IED images with various degrees of difficulty was used for the training session. Pre- and posttraining assessments were conducted. Both speed and accuracy improved after just 1 session of the PLT training: RT decreased by 3.7 s for novices (p < .001) and 3.4 s for experts (p = .031), and detection probability increased by 5.9% for novices (p = .001). The PLT tool improved IED detection performance more in novice IED detectors than in experts. Novices and experts showed different visual scan patterns.     

The Effects of Warnings and Speeding on Scale Scores and Convergent Validity of Conscientiousness

We examined the effects of warnings and speeding on scale scores and convergent validity of a measure of Conscientiousness in a faking context (N = 329). A completely crossed 2 × 2 experimental design was used in which instructions (no warning or a warning) and speeding (with or without a time limit) were manipulated. No statistically significant effects on scale scores or convergent validity were evidenced for speeding. Warning participants did decrease Conscientiousness scores by almost 1 standard deviation (d = .91). Warnings also moderated the relationship between self- and observer-ratings of Conscientiousness such that the relationship between self- and observer-ratings was statistically significant and positive in the warned conditions (r _partial = .29, p < .01, n = 136), but this same relationship was statistically nonsignificant (r _partial = ?.14, p > .05, n = 148) in the unwarned conditions.     

The role of visual-auditory “compellingness” in the ventriloquism effect: Implications for transitivity among the spatial senses

A magnitude estimation response procedure was used to evaluate the strength of visualauditory intersensory bias effects under conditions of spatial discrepancy. Maj or variables were the cognitive compellingness of the stimulus situation and instructions as to the unity or duality of the perceptual event. With a highly compelling stimulus situation and single-event instructions, subjects showed a very high visual bias of audition, a significant auditory bias of vision, and a sum of bias effects that indicated that their perception was fully consonant with the assumption of a single perceptual event. This finding reopens the possibility that the spatial modalities function as a transitive system, an outcome that Pick, Warren, and Hay (1969) had expected but did not obtain. Furthermore, the results support the model for intersensory interaction proposed by Welch and Warren (1980) with respect to the susceptibility of intersensory bias effects to several independent variables. Finally, a new means of assessing intersensory bias effects by the use of spatial separation threshold was demonstrated.     

Implicit sequence learning in ring‐tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)

Implicit learning involves picking up information from the environment without explicit instruction or conscious awareness of the learning process. In nonhuman animals, conscious awareness is impossible to assess, so we define implicit learning as occurring when animals acquire information beyond what is required for successful task performance. While implicit learning has been documented in some nonhuman species, it has not been explored in prosimian primates. Here we ask whether ring‐tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) learn sequential information implicitly. We tested lemurs in a modified version of the serial reaction time task on a touch screen computer. Lemurs were required to respond to any picture within a 2 × 2 grid of pictures immediately after its surrounding border flickered. Over 20 training sessions, both the locations and the identities of the images remained constant and response times gradually decreased. Subsequently, the locations and/or the identities of the images were disrupted. Response times indicated that the lemurs had learned the physical location sequence required in original training but did not learn the identity of the images. Our results reveal that ring‐tailed lemurs can implicitly learn spatial sequences, and raise questions about which scenarios and evolutionary pressures give rise to perceptual versus motor‐implicit sequence learning.