Are transitions in human gait determined by mechanical,kinetic or energetic factors?

It is currently unclear whether it is the need to maintain metabolic efficiency, the need to keep skeletal loading below critical force levels, or simple mechanical factors that drive the walk-to-run (W-R) and run-to-walk (R-W) transitions in human gait. Eighteen adults (9 males and 9 females) locomoted on an instrumented treadmill using their preferred gait. Each completed 2 ascending (W-R) and 2 descending (R-W) series of trials under three levels of loading (0%, 15% and 30% body weight). For each trial, participants locomoted for 60 s at each of 9 different speeds--4 speeds both above and below their preferred transition speed (PTS) plus their PTS. Evidence was sought for critical levels of key kinetic (maximum vertical force, impulse, first peak force, time to first peak force and maximum loading rate), energetic (oxygen consumption, transport cost) and mechanical variables (limb lengths, strength) predictive of the gait transition. Analyses suggested the kinetic variables of time to first peak force and loading rate as the most likely determinants of the W-R and R-W transitions.     

The impact of supervisory mentoring on personal learning and career outcomes: The dual moderating effect of self-efficacy

Using survey data from 226 employees and their supervisors in four manufacturing companies in China, we found that employee self-efficacy has a dual moderating effect on the impact of supervisory mentoring on subordinate career outcomes. Path analytic tests of mediated moderation suggested that self-efficacy moderates the mediated effects of supervisory mentoring on job performance and career satisfaction through personal learning such that the mediated effect on job performance is stronger when employees have higher self-efficacy, but the mediated effect on career satisfaction is stronger when they have lower self-efficacy.     

Distinguishing voluntary from involuntary attention to emotion

This study explored whether voluntary attention to emotion is distinguishable from involuntary attention to emotion. University students (N = 166) completed self-report questionnaires, designed for this study, intended to measure voluntary and involuntary attention to one’s own emotions. Moreover, participants completed questionnaires measuring other emotional constructs and distress. Finally, participants completed a dot probe task intended to obtain a behavioral measure of voluntary attention to emotion. Affect intensity was positively correlated with both voluntary and involuntary attention to emotion. As expected, dot probe emotional bias scores were associated with self-reported voluntary attention to emotion, but not with involuntary attention to emotion. Voluntary and involuntary attention to emotion were also differentially associated with clarity of emotion, anhedonic depression, and worry. The results of this study suggest it is important to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary attention to one’s own emotions.     

A Web-based digitized video image system for the study of motor coordination

A Web-based instructional project for the study of motor coordination is presented. The project includes two components: a tutorial on motor coordination and an interactive digitized video image system developed for the analysis of motion, including topics in biomechanics, motor coordination, motor control, and motor skill. This interactive system allows for the quantitative analysis of stored video images that are accessible from the World-Wide Web. The use of this digitizing system for the measurement and analysis of human locomotion coordination patterns is presented.     

中文阅读中主题与语意信息在句子加工中的作用

采用移动窗口技术,初步探讨了主题、语意信息在句子早期加工中的作用。结果发现：（１）在中文阅读中,当主题信息比较弱时,对句子的早期加工没有作用;当主题信息比较强时,对句子的早期加工有作用。（２）句子语意信息的加工是即时的。     

Bayesian chance

This paper explores how the Bayesian program benefits from allowing for objective chance as well as subjective degree of belief. It applies David Lewis??s Principal Principle and David Christensen??s principle of informed preference to defend Howard Raiffa??s appeal to preferences between reference lotteries and scaling lotteries to represent degrees of belief. It goes on to outline the role of objective lotteries in an application of rationality axioms equivalent to the existence of a utility assignment to represent preferences in Savage??s famous omelet example of a rational choice problem. An example motivating causal decision theory illustrates the need for representing subjunctive dependencies to do justice to intuitive examples where epistemic and causal independence come apart. We argue to extend Lewis??s account of chance as a guide to epistemic probability to include De Finetti??s convergence results. We explore Diachronic Dutch book arguments as illustrating commitments for treating transitions as learning experiences. Finally, we explore implications for Martingale convergence results for motivating commitment to objective chances.     

Attitudes of Business Students’ Toward Plagiarism

This research examines the ethical orientations of students (ethical idealism, ethical relativism and Machiavellianism) towards their attitude to plagiarize. It also examines the moderating effect of religious orientation on the relationship of the independent variables toward students’ attitude towards plagiarism. Data was collected from 160 business diploma and undergraduate students from a local private college and a local public university in Malaysia. Results from the hierarchical regression analysis showed that ethical relativism and Machiavellianism had a positive relationship with students’ attitude towards plagiarism whilst ethical idealism was negatively related to students’ attitude towards plagiarism. Religious orientation was found to have no moderating effect on the relationship between the three independent variables: ethical idealism, ethical relativism and Machiavellianism and the dependent variable, students’ attitude towards plagiarism.     

Iconic store and partial report

The iconic store has recently been challenged on the grounds that data in its favor may have resulted from some procedural artifacts. The display-instruction compatibility and perceptual grouping hypotheses were reexamined in two experiments with the partial-report paradigm. When care was taken to rectify some procedural problems found in Merikle’s (1980) study, it was established that the iconic store (as a hypothetical mechanism) can still be validly entertained. This report demonstrates one important procedural point in studying the iconic store with the partial report task, namely, that subjects must be given more than token training on the partial-report task.