Electromechanical delay in ballistic movement of superior limb: comparison between karate athletes and nonathletes

The aim of the study was to analyze electromechanical delay in a ballistic movement of the superior limb. 10 male karate athletes and 9 nonathletes (without karate experience) performed a motor skill as fast and powerfully as possible, with impact on a makiwara (karate training instrument). For each participant, 10 choku-zuki performances were analyzed. Kinematics and surface electromyographic (EMG) activity of the anterior and posterior portions of deltoid, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, triceps brachii, and biceps brachii were recorded. Athletes had significantly shorter delay in arm flexion agonist muscles and significantly higher delay in arm flexion antagonist muscles and in forearm extension agonists. Results suggest that enhanced performance in athletes was mainly due to motor learning.     

Gender Bender: Gender Errors in L2 Pronoun Production

To address questions about information processing at the message level, pronoun errors of second language (L2) speakers of English were studied. Some L2 pronoun errors—he/she confusions by Spanish speakers of L2 English—could be due to differences in the informational requirements of the speakers’ two languages, providing a window into the composition of the preverbal message that guides grammatical encoding during language production. To study this, Spanish and French speakers of L2 English were made to answer questions designed to elicit pronouns. Spanish speakers produced significantly more gender errors than any other type of pronoun error, and significantly more gender errors than French speakers. The results are as expected given that Spanish is a pro-drop language where many sentences would not have required gender to be encoded had they been uttered in the L1 instead of the L2. The implications for theories about the preverbal message are discussed.     

Not just semantics: Strong frequency and weak cognate effects on semantic association in bilinguals

To investigate the possibility that knowledge of two languages influences the nature of semantic representations, bilinguals and monolinguals were compared in a word association task. In Experiment 1, bilinguals produced less typical responses relative to monolinguals when given cues with a very common associate (e.g., given bride, bilinguals said “dress” instead of “groom”). In Experiment 2, bilinguals produced responses as typical as those of monolinguals when given cues with high-frequency associates, but not when given cues with lowfrequency associates. Bilinguals’ responses were also affected, to a certain extent, by the cognate status of the stimulus word pairs: They were more similar to monolinguals’ responses when the cue and its strongest associate were both cognates (e.g., minute-second is minuto-segundo in Spanish), as opposed to both being noncognates. Experiment 3 confirmed the presence of a robust frequency effect on bilingual but not on monolingual association responses. These findings imply a lexical locus for the bilingual effect on association responses and reveal the association task to be not quite as purely semantic as was previously assumed.     

Does cost–benefit analysis or self‐control predict involvement in two forms of aggression?

The main aim of this research was to assess the relative association between physical aggression and (1) self‐control and (2) cost‐benefit assessment, these variables representing the operation of impulsive and reflective processes. Study 1 involved direct and indirect aggression among young Indian men, and Study 2 physical aggression to dating partners among Spanish adolescents. In Study 1, perceived benefits and costs but not self‐control were associated with direct aggression at other men, and the association remained when their close association with indirect aggression was controlled. In Study 2, benefits and self‐control showed significant and independent associations (positive for benefits, negative for self‐control) with physical aggression at other‐sex partners. Although being victimized was also correlated in the same direction with self‐control and benefits, perpetration and being victimized were highly correlated, and there was no association between being victimized and these variables when perpetration was controlled. These results support the theory that reflective (cost‐benefit analyses) processes and impulsive (self‐control) processes operate in parallel in affecting aggression. The finding that male adolescents perceived more costs and fewer benefits from physical aggression to a partner than female adolescents did is consistent with findings indicating greater social disapproval of men hitting women than vice versa, rather than with the view that male violence to women is facilitated by internalized patriarchal values. Aggr. Behav. 36:292–304, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

When the victim is one among others: Empathy,awareness of others and motivational ambivalence

Feeling empathy for one person in need while being aware of others may increase the motivational ambivalence between the motive of helping the one and the motive of helping the others, and such motivational ambivalence may reduce the helping directed to the person in need. To test these hypotheses we carried out three studies in which participants were faced with a real case of a child in need. In Study 1, empathy, awareness of others and motivational ambivalence were allowed to occur naturally and subsequently measured. In Study 2, empathy and awareness of others were experimentally manipulated, and motivational ambivalence measured. In Study 3, we tested how empathy and motivational ambivalence influenced an actual helping decision. Taken together, the results supported our two hypotheses. The present research offers insight into processes not previously considered in the research, but which may influence decisions about assistance to others in need.     

Principles and criteria used by the National Evaluation Committee of Research Activity (CNEAI-Spain) for the assessment of scientific publications: 1989-2009

Study of the origins, philosophy and history of the criteria used to assess research activities in Spain by the CNEAI. The assessment criteria and quality evidence of publications is discussed. Results are presented on the temporal development of the criteria used, grouped by publication type (articles and books) and fields of knowledge. Between 1989-1996, assessment was based on the definition and goals set by the Spanish scientific framework and on general criteria. Between 1996-2004, the formulation of indicators began to be almost exclusively based on Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Success rates up to 2004 indicate that the evaluation criteria and publishing behaviour matched the "hard sciences", but not the Social Sciences and Economics. In 2005, the criteria used were further developed and reoriented with an eye to softening the preceding JCR-centrism by taking into consideration other databases and defining the quality criteria to be met by journals, books and conferences not included in JCR. Correspondingly, the success rates for 2007 indicate a dramatic recovery in Economics. In the last 4 years, Humanities and Social Sciences have consolidated the further opening of the criteria used with the addition of new benchmarks and the full integration of books.     

Factor structure and internal consistency of the Spanish version of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of Parenting Stress Index-Short Form. After translating the instrument from English into Spanish using the forward-backward translation method, it was administered to a sample of 129 mothers of children aged between 10 and 39 months olds. The exploratory factor analysis identified two factors: Childrearing Stress and Personal Distress, which accounted for 48.77% of the variance. The internal consistency of these factors was high (Childrearing Stress: .90 and Personal Distress: .87). Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Perception of the teaching-learning process and academic achievement in diverse instructional contexts of Higher Education

In Higher Education, performance and Teaching-Learning (T-L) contexts are highly current concerns. Based on the DEDEPRO model, interdependence can be established between instructional contexts and levels of performance as they relate to the T-L process. Partitipants were 2020 pupils from two Spanish universities. Measurements of both variables were used in a quasi-experimental and correlational design. The univariate and causal analyses showed the effect of context on the T-L process and on performance; thus, the interdependent relationships between the latter and perception of the T-L process. Partial interaction effects also appeared, as well as a causal model of academic performance. Results are discussed and implications for the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) are analyzed.     

Changes in cytochrome oxidase activity following spatial working memory learning in rats treated with tacrine

We evaluated change in cytochrome oxidase (COx) activity of the hippocampus and related structures of the limbic system following spatial working memory learning in rats after treatment with tacrine (8.0mg/kg). Control groups treated with saline and tacrine and an untreated group were added. Acetylcholinesterase optical density levels were also measured. The tacrine and saline groups showed similar behavioral results, but a decrease in COx activity was found in the tacrine group in the prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, anterior thalamus, hippocampus and nucleus basalis of Meynert. Similarly, acetylcholinesterase levels of the tacrine group were lower in most of the regions. Learning-related increase in COx activity was found in the prefrontal cortex and dentate gyrus in the saline group. The tacrine group presented the same increase in the anterodorsal thalamus, dentate gyrus, CA3 and mammillary nuclei. These results suggest that inhibition of the acetylcholinesterase produces a different pattern of learning-related neuronal activity in the limbic system of the rat.