Increasing accuracy of rock-climbing techniques in novice athletes using expert modeling and video feedback

Several studies have examined the efficacy of behavior analytic coaching strategies in sports to increase performance fluency. Rock climbing is a multifaceted sport requiring mastery of several complex behavior chains in order to successfully navigate climbing surfaces. To date, most investigations have focused on the physiological aspects of rock climbing, as opposed to training specific rock-climbing movements. In this replication and extension, researchers used a multiple baseline design across skills to examine an expert video modeling plus video and verbal feedback training package on foundational rock-climbing skills of novice adult climbers. Results demonstrated that all participants showed an increase in accurate performance for all three skills that were targeted in the intervention.     

Moore’s proof,theory-ladenness of perception,and many proofs

Philosophical Studies - I argue that if we allow that Moore’s Method, which involves taking an ordinary knowledge claim to support a substantive metaphysical conclusion, can be used to...     

Towards Including End-Users in the Design of Prosthetic Hands: Ethical Analysis of a Survey of Australians with Upper-Limb Difference

Science and Engineering Ethics - Advances in prosthetic design should benefit people with limb difference. But empirical evidence demonstrates a lack of uptake of prosthetics among those with limb...     

Nonmonetary and nonreciprocal freecycling: Motivations for participating in online alternative giving communities

This research examines consumers' participation in a nonmonetary, nonreciprocal form of online consumer exchange wherein consumers may decide to give only, receive only, or both give and receive. Given the lack of financial incentives or relational norms that would traditionally drive participation in this societally beneficial consumption activity for which we advance the term alternative giving, this research examines consumers' participation motivations. Are consumers, as prior research suggests, motivated to participate in alternative giving activities on the basis of prosocial motives or for other reasons? Through a content analysis of the online Freecycle Network, we found that participation is driven primarily by fundamental consumer needs and wants, though other prosocial, less materialistic factors are also drivers. Our findings also identify an inconsistency in product categories between what givers offer and what receivers seek, suggesting that supply–demand imbalances can emerge within alternative giving communities.     

Reviews: Books, Art

POLITICS ON THE COUCH: CITIZENSHIP AND THE INTERNAL LIFE. By Andrew Samuels, 235 pp. New York: Karnac (Other Press). $16.00. MARTHA, MARTHA: HOW CHRISTIANS WORRY. By Elaine Leong Eng, M.D. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc., 2000. $14.95. SPILT MILK: PERINATAL LOSS AND BREAKDOWN. Edited by Joan Raphael-Leff. 100 pp. London: Institute of Psychoanalysis, 2000. MOTHERHOOD AND SEXUALITY. By Marie Langer, 305 pp. New York: Other Press, 2000. $30.00. BRANCHING STREAMS FLOW IN THE DARKNESS: ZEN TALKS ON THE SANDOKAI. By S. Suzuki. Eds: M. Weitsman and M. Wegner. 193 pp. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. $22.50. RESTORED HARMONY: AN EVIDENCE BASED APPROACH FOR INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE INTO COMPLEMENTARY CANCER CARE. By Stephen Sagar, MD. xviii + 134 pp. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: Dreaming Dragonfly Communications, 2001. $19.95 (US); $29.95 (Can.), paperback. (ISBN: 0-9689488-0-4). CHIYO-NI, WOMAN HAIKU MASTER. By Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi, 184 pp. Boston: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1998. $16.95. THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB: A STORY OF IDEAS IN AMERICA. By Louis Menand, 442 pp. New York: Farrrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001. $27.00. BUDDHISM WITHOUT BELIEFS: A CONTEMPORARY GUIDE TO AWAKENING. By Stephen Bachelor, 127 pp. Riverhead Books, 1997. $21.95. Video Art is Dead, Long Live Video Art     

Coincident induction of long-term facilitation at sensory-motor synapses in Aplysia: presynaptic and postsynaptic factors

Induction of long-term synaptic changes at one synapse can facilitate the induction of long-term plasticity at another synapse. Here we show that if Aplysia sensory neuron (SN) somata and their remote motor neuron (MN) synapses are simultaneously exposed to serotonin (5HT) pulses, which at either site alone are insufficient to induce long-term facilitation (LTF), processes activated at these sites interact to induce LTF. Coincident induction of LTF requires: (1) that the synaptic pulse occurs within a brief temporal window of the somatic pulse and (2) that local protein synthesis occurs immediately at the synapse, followed by delayed protein synthesis at the soma. LTF at the SN-MN synapses can also be induced with cell-wide application of repeated pulses of 5HT. However, these two forms of LTF differ mechanistically: (1) coincident LTF requires protein synthesis in the postsynaptic motor neuron, whereas repeated 5HT LTF does not, and (2) repeated 5HT LTF is accompanied by intermediate-term (3 h) facilitation, whereas coincident LTF is not. Thus LTF expressed in the same temporal domain can result from different underlying mechanisms.     

Magnitude estimation of conceptual data dimensions for use in sonification

Sonifications must match listener expectancies about representing data with sound. Three experiments showed the utility of magnitude estimation for this. In Experiment 1, 67 undergraduates judged the sizes of visual stimuli and the temperature, pressure, velocity, size, or dollars they represented. Similarly, in Experiment 2, 132 listeners judged the pitch or tempo of sounds and the data they represented. In both experiments, polarity and scaling preference depended on the conceptual data dimension. In Experiment 3, 60 listeners matched auditory graphs to data created with the results of Experiment 2, providing initial validation of scaling slopes. Magnitude estimation is proposed as a design tool in the development of data sonifications, with the level of polarity preference agreement predicting mapping effectiveness.     

Bracing for loss

People find unexpected bad news aversive and often brace themselves by predicting the worst. Three experiments examined whether the pessimism is influenced by personal need. Students who differed in financial need learned that a billing error meant that some students would receive an additional bill from their university. Financially needy students were consistently pessimistic in predicting their likelihood of receiving a bill, whereas non-needy students were not. In addition, the experiments reveal that (a) the pessimism occurred for potential losses but not potential gains, (b) needy students were pessimistic about their own chances but not the chances of a friend, (c) the pessimism was not attributable to needy students' being more readily primed by the news of a possible bill or to needy students' having more experience with billing errors, and (d) the pessimism was specific to monetary losses and did not generalize to other events.     

Body checking and avoidance and the core features of eating disorders among obese men and women seeking bariatric surgery

This study examined two aspects of body checking and avoidance, and their relations to the core psychopathology of eating disorders (EDs), in severely obese men and women seeking bariatric surgery. A consecutive series of 260 (44 male and 216 female) gastric bypass candidates were administered measures to assess body checking and avoidance, binge eating, restraint, and overevaluation of weight and shape. The majority of patients reported regularly pinching areas of their body to check for fatness and avoided wearing clothing that made them particularly aware of their body. Significant associations were observed between checking and restraint, and between avoidance and binge eating. Both checking and avoidance behaviors were significantly associated with overevaluation of weight and shape. The positive associations between each of the two behaviors (body checking and avoidance) with overevaluation of weight/shape remained significant even after controlling for the effects of avoidance on body checking and vice versa. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that binge eating, body checking, and avoidance behaviors made significant unique contributions and jointly accounted for 22-25% of the variance in overevaluation of weight and shape, respectively. This study documents the presence of eating disorder psychopathology among severely obese patients seeking bariatric surgery. The findings support the view that body checking and avoidance behaviors are manifestations of overevaluation of weight and shape and disordered eating.