Reduced attentional focus and the influence on expert anticipatory perception

The anticipatory memory encodings of expert and novice basketball players were examined under conditions of both full (attended condition) and reduced (unattended condition) attention (see also Gorman, Abernethy, & Farrow in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 75, 835–844, 2013a). Participants completed a typical pattern recall task using dynamic playing sequences from basketball, and their responses were compared to both the original target pattern as well as to the series of patterns that occurred immediately after and immediately before the target image. The latter had not previously been employed in a pattern recall task when examining the anticipatory encoding of pattern information. Results revealed that the overall extent of the forward displacement for both the attended and unattended patterns was generally significantly greater for the experts, with the expert advantage tending to be most prominent for the attacking patterns. The novel addition of both forward and backward scenes may provide a more precise measure of the anticipatory effect, suggesting that future research in this domain should use a similar methodological design.     

Questions of Athletic Excellence and Justice in Sport

This essay delineates and analyzes two kinds of questions that sport ethicists tend to ask: (1) questions about athletic excellence and (2) questions about justice. To pass ethical judgements when delving into questions concerning athletic excellence, sportspeople rely largely on a sport’s internal values, primary skills, or sport-specific athletic excellences. In contrast, questions about justice do not and should not include the reference or application of principles derived from the nature of a sport. Instead, sportspeople must refer to general theories, most often based on the rights and obligations of fellow citizens. There are multiple benefits to pointing out this distinction. First, it can help sportspeople and sport philosophers recognize the normative standards most appropriate within specific debates. Second, the distinction may explain why some disputes in sport philosophy remained unresolved. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, an awareness of the differences between these types of questions enables us to pose a further query. To which of the two discourses about sport ethics should sport philosophers lend the majority of their efforts? By adopting Susan Okin’s analysis of the role of morality in families, this paper suggests that questions about justice in sport carry greater moral import and should be resolved prior to questions of athletic excellence.     

Happiness is Flextime

We study how work a schedule flexibility (flextime) affects happiness. We use a US General Social Survey (GSS) pooled dataset containing the Quality of Worklife and Work Orientations modules for 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. We retain only respondents who are either full-time or part-time employees on payrolls. For flextime to be associated with greater happiness, it has to be more than just sometimes flexible or slight input into one’s work schedule, that is, little flextime does not increase happiness. But substantial flextime has a large effect on happiness–the size effect is about as large as that of household income, or about as large as a one-step increase in self-reported health, such as up from good to excellent health. Our findings provide support for both public and organizational policies that would promote greater work schedule flexibility or control for employees.     

Congenital heart disease: A primer for the pediatric neuropsychologist

Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects millions of people worldwide, including over one million children in the United States. Approximately 25% of children born with CHD require intensive surgical intervention within the first year of life. Despite improved rates of survival into adulthood – rates that exceed 90% in the modern era – children and adolescents with CHD remain at risk for neurological injury and a range of neurobehavioral and psychosocial challenges that pose a threat to quality of life across the lifespan. Consequently, as experts in both clinical psychology and brain development, neuropsychologists are becoming increasingly involved in cardiac follow-up and monitoring to promote optimal developmental outcomes. The primary objective of this paper is to provide an evidence-based, clinically-oriented primer on CHD for pediatric neuropsychologists working with this growing population of survivors. Following an introduction to current standard-of-care guidelines for managing children and adolescents with CHD, we present an overview of brain development within the context of CHD, review neuropsychological outcomes, examine factors influencing variability in outcomes, and discuss implications and strategies for clinical assessment.     

Positive and negative intergroup contact: Interaction not asymmetry

This research reports a novel investigation into the comparative effects of positive and negative direct and extended intergroup contact on intergroup orientations. It tested the generality of the positive–negative asymmetry effect among majority (N = 357) and minority (N = 101) group members in Iceland. Little evidence of asymmetry was observed: the beneficial effects of positive contact were mostly as strong as the detrimental effects of negative contact, for both direct and extended contact. However, evidence was found for alternative interaction models in which positive contact buffers the negative effects of negative contact, and negative contact enhances the benefits of positive contact. These interaction effects were found only for direct contact and principally in the majority group, but were also found for the minority group, though more weakly. No interaction was observed for extended contact. It appeared that differential group salience elicited by positive and negative contact could partly contribute to the explanation of the observed effects, at least in the majority sample.     

Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty in a South African University: A Q-Methodology Approach

The prevalence of academic dishonesty is a matter of considerable concern for institutions of higher education everywhere. We explored students’ perceptions of academic dishonesty using Q methodology, which provides insights that are different from those obtained through surveys or interviews. South African students ranked 48 statements, giving reasons why students cheat, on an 11-column grid, anchored by strongly agree and strongly disagree. Q factor analysis was used to identify groups of individuals who share the same perspective. The three perspectives that emerged viewed academic dishonesty as (a) moral transgressions, (b) pressure transgressions, or (c) confused transgressions. These suggest different approaches to addressing the issue.     

Program Components of Psychosocial Interventions in Foster and Kinship Care: A Systematic Review

Foster children frequently experience early trauma that significantly impacts their neurobiological, psychological and social development. This systematic review examines the comparative effectiveness of foster and kinship care interventions. It examines the components within each intervention, exploring their potential to benefit child and carer well-being, particularly focussing on child behaviour problems, and relational functioning. Systematic searches of electronic databases included PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection, the Cochrane Collaborations Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and Scopus to identify randomised or quasi-randomised trials of psychosocial foster/kinship care interventions, published between 1990 and 2016. Seventeen studies describing 14 interventions were included. Eleven studies reported comparative benefit compared to control. Overall, effective interventions had clearly defined aims, targeted specific domains and developmental stages, provided coaching or role play, and were developed to ameliorate the effects of maltreatment and relationship disruption. Interventions effective in reducing behaviour problems included consistent discipline and positive reinforcement components, trauma psychoeducation, problem-solving and parent-related components. Interventions effective in improving parent–child relationships included components focussed on developing empathic, sensitive and attuned parental responses to children’s needs. Given the prevalence of both behaviour problems and relational difficulties in foster families, targeting these needs is essential. However, interventions have tended to measure outcomes in either behavioural or relational terms. A more coordinated and collaborative research approach would provide a better understanding of the association between parent–child relationships and child behaviour problems. This would allow us to develop, deliver and evaluate programs that combine these components more effectively. Protocol Registration Number: PROSPERO CRD42016048411.