Developing Anticipation Skills in Tennis Using On-Court Instruction: Perception versus Perception and Action

On-court instruction involving either Perception–action training or Perception-only training was used to improve anticipation skill in novice tennis players. A technical instruction group acted as a control. Participants' ability to anticipate an opponent's serve was assessed pre- and posttest using established on-court measures involving frame-by-frame video analysis. The perception–action and perception-only groups significantly improved their anticipatory performance from pretest to posttest. No pretest-to-posttest differences in anticipation skill were reported for the technical instruction group. The ability to anticipate an opponent's serve can be improved through on-court instruction where the relationship between key postural cues and subsequent performance is highlighted, and both practice and feedback are provided. No significant differences were observed between the perception–action and perception-only training groups, implying that either mode of training may be effective in enhancing perceptual skill in sport.     

Does a visual reference help ballet dancers turn more successfully?

In dance, performing multiple rotations around the longitudinal axis is a complex task that can only be accomplished proficiently by highly skilled dancers. However, this extraordinary skill has been investigated sparsely. The few studies to date have focused on the biomechanical analysis of ballet rotations. However, none have investigated the influence of visual information on continuous rotations, such as Fouettés or à la Seconde turns. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the role of a visual reference on balance control and the dance-specific head coordination – spotting – during turning performance of highly skilled ballet dancers. To this end, 12 participants performed 12 Fouettés (females) or à la Seconde turns (males) with and without a visual reference. As dependent measures, we analysed balance control (i.e., supporting foot path length), spotting duration, head isolation, and orientation (i.e., deviation of pelvis from the front). A linear mixed model was performed to analyse the influence of the visual conditions overall and over the continued performance of 12 consecutive rotations. The results revealed that overall, path length was significantly smaller in the condition without a visual reference. Spotting duration and head isolation did not differ significantly between conditions. Moreover, dancers oriented themselves better towards the front in the condition with a visual reference. When looking closer into the progression of performance over each consecutive rotation, highly skilled ballet dancers significantly decreased the supporting foot path length, and improved orientation when turning with a visual reference. On the other hand, without a visual reference, the dancers increased the spotting duration over time. Additionally, dancers increased head isolation towards the end of the turns in both conditions. These findings suggest that a visual reference helps ballet dancers sustain performance of consecutive rotations, mainly in optimising balance control and orientation. Thus, the more rotations a ballet dancer must turn, the more relevant a visual reference becomes for sustaining successful performance.     

Block design as a measure of everyday spatial ability: a study of ecological validity

This study investigated the effectiveness of the WAIS-R Block Design subtest to predict everyday spatial ability for 65 university undergraduates (15 men, 50 women) who were administered Block Design, the Standardized Road Map Test of Direction Sense, and the Everyday Spatial Activities Test. In addition, the verbally loaded National Adult Reading Test was administered to assess whether the more visuospatial Block Design subtest was a better predictor of spatial ability. Moderate support was found. When age and sex were accounted for, Block Design accounted for 36% of the variance in performance (r = -.62) on the Road Map Test and 19% of the variance on the performance of the Everyday Spatial Activities Test (r = .42). In contrast, the scores on the National Adult Reading Test did not predict performance on the Road Map Test or Everyday Spatial Abilities Test. This suggests that, with appropriate caution, Block Design could be used as a measure of everyday spatial abilities.     

Goal setting in acquisition of a volleyball skill late in motor learning

To examine the effects of different types of goal setting on motor skill acquisition during advanced stages of learning. 44 female volleyball players were tested in four experimental training groups with generic goals, specific long-term goals, specific short-term goals, and as a control group. This study's pretest, training, and retention test phases used performance of a volleyball dig/forearm pass oriented to a target. Analyses yielded no significant differences among groups, although performance increased from pre- to retention test.     

Sex differences in spatial task performance of patients with and without unilateral cerebral lesions

Two visuospatial tasks, the WAIS Block Design and the Street Gestalt Completion Test, were administered to men and women with and without unilateral cerebral lesions. These two tasks represent different categories of visuospatial functions. The Street test is a visual-perceptual gestalt task, requiring the closure of fragmented pictures, whereas Block Design is an analytical, manipulospatial task requiring rotation of spatial coordinates. For the non-brain-damaged group, the men showed a nonsignificant trend toward better Block Design performance relative to the women, whereas there was no sex-related difference in Street performance. For the brain-damaged groups, patients with right hemisphere lesions performed significantly worse than patients with left hemisphere lesions on both the Street test and Block Design, indicating that both tasks were more sensitive to right hemisphere functioning. There was, however, a significant sex X side of lesion interaction on Block Design only, with the men showing a more asymmetrical pattern of scores. These results suggest that sex differences in functional lateralization may underlie sex differences in visuospatial ability, and that sex differences in functional lateralization may be present for only certain visuospatial processes.     

Sleep-dependent consolidation of procedural motor memories in children and adults: the pre-sleep level of performance matters

In striking contrast to adults, in children sleep following training a motor task did not induce the expected (offline) gain in motor skill performance in previous studies. Children normally perform at distinctly lower levels than adults. Moreover, evidence in adults suggests that sleep dependent offline gains in skill essentially depend on the pre-sleep level of performance. Against this background, we asked whether improving children's performance on a motor sequence learning task by extended training to levels approaching those of adults would enable sleep-associated gains in motor skill in this age group also. Children (4-6 years) and adults (18-35 years) performed on the motor sequence learning task (button-box task) before and after ~2-hour retention intervals including either sleep (midday nap) or wakefulness. Whereas one group of children and adults, respectively, received the standard amount of 10 blocks of training before retention intervals of sleep or wakefulness, a further group of children received an extended training on 30 blocks (distributed across 3 days). A further group of adults received a restricted training on only two blocks before the retention intervals. Children after standard training reached lowest performance levels, whereas in adults performance after standard training was highest. Children with extended training and adults after reduced training reached intermediate performance levels. Only at these intermediate performance levels did sleep induce significant gains in motor sequence skill, whereas performance did not benefit from sleep in the low-performing children or in the high-performing adults. Spindle counts in the post-training nap were correlated with performance gains at retrieval only in the adults benefitting from sleep. We conclude that, across age groups, sleep induces the most robust gain in motor skill at an intermediate pre-sleep performance level. In low-performing children sleep-dependent improvements in skill may be revealed only after enhancing the pre-sleep performance level by extended training.     

Motor and cognitive proficiency of learning disabled and normal children

Motor and cognitive skills of learning disabled (N = 32) and normal (N = 32) boys were compared on the Modified Lincoln-Oseretsky Motor Development Scale and on the WISC-R Vocabulary and Block Design subtests. Eight learning disabled and eight normal boys were tested at four age levels from 8 to 11 years. All boys were of normal intelligence. Motor and cognitive skills of the learning disabled boys were significantly below those of the normal boys and below those of the normative group. Chronological age was not a significant factor in relationship to either motor or cognitive skills. Intercorrelations indicated that in the learning disabled group Block Design, but not Vocabulary, was significantly related to motor scores at the 8- and 9-year ages. These results suggest that a common factor relating to perceptual-motor coordination and efficiency may be involved on the Lincoln-Oseretsky and Block Design subtest for young learning disabled children but not for older learning disabled children or for normal children.     

Media influence and body dissatisfaction in preadolescent ballet dancers and non-physically active girls

ObjectivesThe present study analysed media influences and body dissatisfaction in preadolescent non-professional female ballet dancers and non-physically active girls.DesignCross-sectional design.MethodParticipants were 135 Italian preadolescent girls: 67 non-professional ballet dancers (M = 12.28 years) and 68 non-physically active girls (M = 12.56 years). Participants completed a questionnaire assessing body mass index (BMI), perceived media pressure to reach the societal body ideal, thin-ideal internalization, athletic internalization and body dissatisfaction.ResultsNo significant differences between ballet dancers and non-dancers emerged on age; however, dancers had a significantly lower BMI. Therefore, BMI was used as a covariate. No significant difference between the two groups emerged on perceived media pressure or thin-ideal internalization. Ballet dancers reported a higher level of athletic internalization and were more dissatisfied with their bodies than non-physically active girls. BMI emerged as the most important predictor of preadolescents' body dissatisfaction for both groups. Among non-dancers, perceived media pressure predicted body dissatisfaction both directly and indirectly via thin-ideal internalization. Among dancers, perceived media pressure predicted body dissatisfaction both directly and indirectly via athletic internalization but not via thin-ideal internalization.ConclusionsMedia influence emerged as an important predictor of body dissatisfaction for both groups, although the internalization of an athletic body ideal was more salient for the ballet dancers. These findings are noteworthy because they offer some clues for possible intervention programs aimed at promoting healthier body images in preadolescent ballet dancers and non-dancers and extend the existing literature on ballet dancers' body dissatisfaction.     

Adult Age Differences in Tower of Hanoi Performance: Influence From Demographic and Cognitive Variables

We examined performance in a five-disk version of the Tower of Hanoi (TOH) puzzle, assumed to reflect executive functioning, in population-based samples ranging in age from 35 to 85 years (N ?=?2798). Univariate analyses revealed significant age effects across three TOH measures as reflected by an age-related increase in moves to solution, a gradual slowing of performance, and an increase in rule violations with advanced age. The age-related influence was eliminated, or reduced considerably, when controlling for demographic and cognitive background variables. Across the dependent measures, Block Design and a measure of episodic memory (recall) were the consistent predictors. No effects of education were detected, while significant gender differences, favoring males, were observed for two TOH measures. Taken together, the results suggest that age-related deficits observed in TOH performance reflects an age-related impairment in visuospatial ability in addition to impairments in executive functions.     

Computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program: effective direct intervention for children with ADHD.

We tested the efficacy of a pioneering intervention program grounded in a contemporary theoretical framework of attention and designed to directly improve the various attentional functions of children with ADHD. The computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program is composed of four sets of structured tasks that uniquely activate sustained attention, selective attention, orienting of attention, and executive attention. Performance was driven by tight schedules of feedback and participants automatically advanced in ordered levels of difficulty contingent upon performance. Twenty 6- to 13-year-old children with ADHD were assigned to the experimental group and received the CPAT sessions twice a week over an 8-week period. Sixteen age-matched control children with ADHD were assigned to the control group and participated in sessions of the same frequency, length, and format except that instead of performing the training tasks they played various computer games during the session. The experimental participants showed a significant improvement in nontrained measures of reading comprehension, and passage copying as well as a significant reduction of parents' reports of inattentiveness. No significant improvements were observed in the control group. We thus concluded that the above academic and attentional improvements were primarily due to the CPAT.     

Sport Skill–Specific Expertise Biases Sensory Integration for Spatial Referencing and Postural Control

The authors asked how sport expertise modulates visual field dependence and sensory reweighting for controlling posture. Experienced soccer athletes, ballet dancers, and nonathletes performed (a) a Rod and Frame test and (b) a 100-s bipedal stance task during which vision and proprioception were successively or concurrently disrupted in 20-s blocks. Postural adaptation was assessed in the mean center of pressure displacement, root mean square of center of pressure velocity and ankle muscles integrated electromyography activity. Soccer athletes were more field dependent than were nonathletes. During standing, dancers were more destabilized by vibration and required more time to reweigh sensory information compared with the other 2 groups. These findings reveal a sport skill–specific bias in the reweighing of sensory inputs for spatial orientation and postural control.     

On-the-Job Experience and Skill at Detecting Deception1

The role of on-the-job experience in fostering skill at detecting deception was examined. A deception-detection test was administered to three samples of more than 100 subjects each: a group of undergraduates with no special experiences at detecting deceit; a group of new recruits to a federal law enforcement training program, who had some limited on-the-job experience at detecting deceit; and a group of advanced federal law enforcement officers, with years of experience working at jobs in which the detection of deception is very important. Although the officer samples were more confident about their judgments of deceptiveness than were the students, they were no more accurate than the students. None of the three groups showed a significant improvement in deception-detection success from the first half to the second half of the test; however, the advanced officers felt increasingly confident about their performance as they progressed through the test. Correlational analyses of the relationship between accuracy and confidence provided further evidence that experience does not improve people's awareness oi the accuracy or inaccuracy of their judgments. The findings from this research are compared to the results of research on other kinds of professional decision-makers (e.g., clinical psychologists), and several theoretical perspectives on the role of experience in decision making are discussed.     

Computerized Progressive Attentional Training (CPAT) Program: Effective Direct Intervention for Children with ADHD

We tested the efficacy of a pioneering intervention program grounded in a contemporary theoretical framework of attention and designed to directly improve the various attentional functions of children with ADHD. The computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program is composed of four sets of structured tasks that uniquely activate sustained attention, selective attention, orienting of attention, and executive attention. Performance was driven by tight schedules of feedback and participants automatically advanced in ordered levels of difficulty contingent upon performance. Twenty 6- to 13-year-old children with ADHD were assigned to the experimental group and received the CPAT sessions twice a week over an 8-week period. Sixteen age-matched control children with ADHD were assigned to the control group and participated in sessions of the same frequency, length, and format except that instead of performing the training tasks they played various computer games during the session. The experimental participants showed a significant improvement in nontrained measures of reading comprehension, and passage copying as well as a significant reduction of parents' reports of inattentiveness. No significant improvements were observed in the control group. We thus concluded that the above academic and attentional improvements were primarily due to the CPAT.     

Relation of dance skills to body cathexis and locus of control orientation

33 subjects provided measures on extent of dance training, dance performance, locus of control orientation, and three measures of body cathexis. Pearson product-moment correlations yielded significant, though modest, positive relations between three measures of body cathexis and performance, and between time dancing and the Levenson Internal scale; and a negative relation between body cathexis and the Levenson Chance scale.     

Effect of phonetics training on lingual awareness

This investigation assessed the effect of phonetics training on lingual awareness in normal adult speakers of English. The study also compared Trained subjects' scores from a study in 2000 by Lohman and Fucci to subjects' posttraining scores in this investigation. Subjects were 36 students (M age=19.7, SD=.7) enrolled in an undergraduate phonetics class. All passed a speech and hearing screening. A pretest-posttest design was used. Subjects received approximately 40 hours of phonetics training over a 10-wk. period. The lingual awareness test required subjects imitate seven syllables and respond to four multiple-choice questions about each syllable. Subjects were aided by a line drawing of the oral cavity. A significant improvement in lingual awareness was found following training. However, scores for only two phonemes (sh and k) improved significantly. No significant difference was found between posttest scores and scores from Lohman and Fucci's Trained group.     

Sex differences in cognition: the role of testosterone and sexual orientation

The performance of both heterosexual and homosexual males and females was compared on four cognitive tasks which have been shown to reveal evidence of sexual dimorphism. In one spatial and one verbal task, significant sex and orientation effects were found. Significant relationships were also found between salivary free-testosterone levels and performance on both spatial tasks, but no significant associations were found for performance on the two verbal tasks. The present study revealed both within- and between-sex differences in cognition and indicates that these differences may be partly accounted for by the activational effects of free testosterone.     

Visuospatial competency, handedness, and cerebral dominance

The present study addressed the question of Levy's (1974, Psychobiological implications of bilateral assymetry. In S. Dimond &; J. G. Beaumont, Hemispheric function in the human brain, NY: Halstead. Pp. 121–183.) proposal that left handers would have lowered spatial skills relative to verbal skills. In the first part of the study, performance on the PMA (visuospatial subtest) and WAIS Block Design subtest were compared between right and left handed high school and college samples. No support could be found for deficient visuo-spatial performance in the left handers. In the second part of the experiment, no relative impairment of visuospatial skills was found when subjects were classified into predicted speech dominance groups on the basis of a dichotic listening task and/or a visual half-field task. An extreme groups comparison of the most left dominant and most right dominant groups again yielded no significant differences in visuo-spatial performance. Finally, the relationship between degree of speech lateralization and visuo-spatial skills was examined. Only partial support for differences in cerebral organization for speech in left handers was found in the college sample.     

A multilevel analysis of effort, practice, and performance: effects; of ability, conscientiousness, and goal orientation

This article examines the relationship between motivation and performance during skill acquisition. The authors used multilevel analysis to investigate relationships at within- and between-person levels of analysis. Participants were given multiple trials of practice on an air traffic control task. Measures of effort intensity and performance were taken at repeated intervals. As expected, the relationship between effort and performance increased with practice. Furthermore, the rate at which this effect strengthened was faster for individuals with high-ability or low-performance orientation. There was also an interaction between learning and performance orientations that only emerged after practice. By the end of practice, the negative effects of performance orientation were stronger for individuals with high learning orientation. Results highlight the importance of adopting a multilevel framework to enhance understanding of the link between motivation and performance.     

An above real time training intervention for sport decision making

ObjectivesA speeded video-based decision-making training intervention was used to assess the impact of above real time training on decision-making skill in sport.Design and methodsThree groups completed pre tests and either five weeks of fast speed video training, normal speed video training or no training, followed by a post test and two retention tests in subsequent weeks. Decision accuracy was measured by awarding three, two, one, or no point(s) based on independent coach ratings of each situation.ResultsResults revealed that those trained in above real time improved performance earlier in the training intervention compared to those trained in normal speed. The above real time group also retained more of the performance improvements. The transfer test for decision accuracy showed improvement following the training intervention for all groups, trends in the data reflected a higher retention rate for the fast speed group choosing the bet option more frequently than normal and control groups.ConclusionsThe results lend support to the general use of video-based decision-making training for team invasion sports. A greater impact is that they provide a new paradigm by adapting above real time training to decision making, to create a more game-like training scenario.     

What is Wrong with Husserl's Scientific Anti-Realism?

It is widely thought that focusing on highly skilled movements while performing them hinders their execution. Once you have developed the ability to tee off in golf, play an arpeggio on the piano, or perform a pirouette in ballet, attention to what your body is doing is thought to lead to inaccuracies, blunders, and sometimes even utter paralysis. Here I re-examine this view and argue that it lacks support when taken as a general thesis. Although bodily awareness may often interfere with well-developed rote skills, like climbing stairs, I suggest that it is typically not detrimental to the skills of expert athletes, performing artists, and other individuals who endeavor to achieve excellence. Along the way, I present a critical analysis of some philosophical theories and behavioral studies on the relationship between attention and bodily movement, an explanation of why attention may be beneficial at the highest level of performance and an error theory that explains why many have thought the contrary. Though tentative, I present my view as a challenge to the widespread starting assumption in research on highly skilled movement that at the pinnacle of skill attention to one's movement is detrimental.