The Impact of Siblings During Talent Development: A Longitudinal Examination in Sport

Recent studies have begun to explore the potentially positive impact of siblings on sporting talent development. This study aimed to explore potential mechanisms through which siblings impact on this process. Bimonthly interviews were conducted with 4 families over a 1-year period (parents and siblings; N = 14) during the talent development process. Findings revealed several themes (regularity of interaction, emotional interpersonal skills, rivalry, resilience, and separation) aligning with previous studies, alongside two new themes: communication and skill development. The study's longitudinal nature exposed important differences of potential mechanisms across families, highlighting the complex nature of the sibling relationship.     

Perceptual automaticity in expert chess players: Parallel encoding of chess relations

A check detection task in a 5 × 5 section of the chessboard, containing a King and one or two potential checking pieces was employed. The checking status (i.e., the presence or absence of a check) and the number of attackers (one or two) were manipulated. It was found that the reaction time cost for adding a distractor was differentially greater inno trials thanyes trials for novice, but not for expert, chess players. In addition, we contrasted standard check detection trials with trials in which one of two attackers was cued (colored red) and the task was to determine the checking status of the cued attacker while ignoring the other attacker. We documented a Stroop-like interference effect on trials in which a cued nonchecking attacker appeared together with an attacker that was checking (i.e., incongruent). These findings suggest automatic and parallel encoding procedures for chess relations in experts.     

The Relationship Between Immediate Turnover and Employee Theft in the Restaurant Industry

This paper explores the relationship between immediate turnover and employee theft. Study 1 examined turnover and theft data from a large fast-food chain. The results suggested a relationship between theft and turnover rates. In Study 2, a laboratory study designed to test the causation of the relationship, participants indicated that they would be more likely to steal when they were leaving in two weeks than when leaving in two years. There was no significant interaction with management control. Results suggest that managers might reduce theft by implementing specific strategies when they are aware that employees are terminating employment.     

Effects of dizocilpine (MK801) on olfactory span in rats

NMDA receptor antagonists interfere with learning and memory in some tasks, but not others. Some recent accounts have suggested that tasks placing demands on working memory are those most likely to be affected, and the present study tested this hypothesis. The purpose of the study was to adapt a recently developed procedure designed to test working memory capacity, the olfactory memory span task, for use in behavioral pharmacology and to then determine the effects of the NMDA receptor antagonist, dizocilpine (MK801) on performance in this task. Rats were trained in a non-match-to-sample procedure under conditions in which they had to remember an increasing number of olfactory stimuli as the session progressed. Simple olfactory discrimination trials were interspersed to provide a performance control. Effects of dizocilpine (.03, .10, .17, .3mg/kg) were determined after stable performances were obtained. Rats were able to sustain stable performances on both the span and simple discrimination tasks with average spans of about 10 items. Accuracy declined as the number of stimuli to remember increased, and dizocilpine impaired accuracy in a dose-dependent and memory-load dependent fashion. The finding that the effects of dizocilpine interacted with the number of stimuli to remember is generally consistent with hypotheses linking NMDA receptors and working memory processes.     

Primary Care Physicians’ Awareness, Experience and Opinions of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing

The purpose of this study was to assess primary care physicians’ awareness, experience, opinions and preparedness to answer patients’ questions regarding direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. An anonymous survey was mailed to 2,402 family and internal medicine providers in North Carolina. Of the 382 respondents, 38.7% (n = 148) were aware of and 15% (n = 59) felt prepared to answer questions about DTC genetic tests. Respondents aged 50 or older were more likely to be aware of DTC genetic testing than those less than 40 years old (OR = 2.42). Male providers were more likely to feel prepared to answer questions than female providers (OR = 2.65). Among respondents who reportedly were aware, family practitioners were more likely than internists (OR = 3.30) to think DTC testing was clinically useful, and 18.9% had patients ask questions or bring in test results. The small percent of physicians who were aware of DTC genetic testing or felt prepared to answer questions about it suggests that education of providers will be necessary if testing becomes more widespread.     

The Great Eight competencies: a criterion-centric approach to validation

The author presents results of a meta-analysis of 29 validation studies (N=4,861) that uses the Great Eight competency factors (Kurz & Bartram, 2002) as the criterion measurement framework. Predictors of the Great Eight competencies based only on personality scales show moderate to good correlations with line-manager ratings for all 8 of the competencies. On their own, ability tests correlate with 4 of the 8 competencies, and together ability and personality data yield operational validities ranging from 0.20 to 0.44 for the 8 competencies. Operational validities for aggregated predictors with aggregated criteria were estimated to be 0.53. The value of differentiating the criterion space and of relating predictor variables to criterion variables in a one-to-one fashion is discussed.     

The perceptual aspect of skilled performance in chess: Evidence from eye movements

Expert and intermediate chess players attempted to choose the best move in five chess positions while their eye movements were monitored. Experts were faster and more accurate than intermediates in choosing the best move. Experts made fewer fixations per trial and greater amplitude saccades than did intermediates, but there was no difference in fixation duration across skill groups. Examining the spatial distribution of the first five fixations for each position by skill group revealed that experts produced more fixations on empty squares than did intermediates. When fixating pieces, experts produced a greater proportion of fixations on relevant pieces than did intermediates. It is argued that expert chess players perceptually encode chess configurations, rather than individual pieces, and, consequently, parafoveal or peripheral processing guides their eye movements, producing a pattern of saccadic selectivity by piece saliency.     

Individual temporal differences in precompetition anxiety and hormonal concentration

This investigation explored individual differences in hormonal concentration and directional perception of anxiety 24hrs, 2hrs and 1 hr before an important competition. Those who perceived their anxiety level as positive to performance (i.e. facilitators) showed an increase in testosterone concentration as time-to-event approached that contrasted markedly with those who perceived their anxiety intensity as negative to performance (i.e. debilitators). The facilitatory group also exhibited a lower cortisol response 2 hrs and 1 hr, relative to 24 hrs before the event, whilst the response of the debilitatory group was elevated as time-to-event approached. Finally, the facilitatory group evidenced a trend towards rapid elevations in all of the catecholamines, whilst the concentration amongst the debilitatory group remained stable as the event approached. The findings add further substance to the veracity of the directional construct in acting as the important distinguishing variable which accounts for significant individual differences. Additionally it addresses the mechanism by which the relationship between anxiety direction and performance may be brought about. Such underpinning biochemical mechanisms offer one possible yet long awaited explanation to aid our understanding of the pre-event anxiety direction response of competitive individuals.     

UCS duration and conditioned suppression: Acquisition and extinction between-groups and terminal performance within-subjects

Two experiments demonstrated a positive monotonic relation between UCS duration and conditioned suppression ranging from no suppression at 0.05 sec to nearly complete suppression at 3.0 sec. In Exp 1, 5 acquisition groups were run at 0.5 mA. No suppression occurred at the shortest duration, approximately 50% suppression by Session 3 in two intermediate groups (0.2 and 0.5 sec) and nearly complete suppression by Session 3 at the two longest durations (1.0 and 3.0 sec). The relation between UCS duration and recovery of responding during extinction followed a parallel pattern. In Exp 2, terminal performance was studied within-subjects and the same relation was replicated.     

Responding maintained by the opportunity to attack during an interval food reinforcement schedule

Pigeons responded in a two-key situation. Responses on the right key (food key) were reinforced with food presentation on a response-initiated fixed-interval schedule, (i.e., first response after a fixed period of time was reinforced); responses on the left key (target key) were reinforced on a fixed-ratio schedule (i.e., every nth response was reinforced) with the presentation of a target bird that could be attacked. When the interval value of the food reinforcement schedule was varied from 1 min to 5 min, both the rate of attack responding on the target bird and the rate of responding on the target key were a function of the interval value. Responding on the target key was not maintained by the stimulus change associated with target availability, and was successively extinguished and reconditioned by removing and returning the target bird to the restraining box. When food was delivered independently of behavior, responding on the target key either remained unchanged or decreased, but was not eliminated. Responding on the target key was not maintained in the absence of an intermittent schedule of food presentation.