Time‐of‐day variation of visuo‐spatial attention

Time‐of‐day variation of visuo‐spatial attention in relation to body temperature and subjective arousal was assessed. At five different times of day, alertness, covert, and overt orienting of attention were assessed in fifteen healthy subjects. Based on previous studies reporting a tight coupling of alerting and orienting the present study investigates potential attentional asymmetries induced by diurnal variations of arousal. Both covert and overt orienting of attention improved in the course of the day. However, no asymmetries between left and right visual hemifields could be detected. Covert orienting additionally covaried with body temperature, indicating a quite close relation between the attentional arousal and orienting system. Conversely, overt orienting only improved due to repeated testing but did not correlate with body temperature suggesting a partial independence of both modes of attentional orienting. It can be assumed that due to limited diurnal variations of arousal in the participants and practice effects caused by repeated testing, no attentional asymmetries could be provoked.     

Stay Cool,Hang Loose,Admit Nothing 1 : Race,Intergroup Contact,and Public-Police Relations

Research on cognitive dissonance has fallen into several traditions. One, stimulated by Festinger and Carlsmith (1959), exposes subjects to experiences of induced compliance. A second, reflecting Brehm (1956), requires subjects to choose among alternative courses of action. It is argued that choice-among-alternatives experiments reflect only inconsistent preferences, whereas induced-compliance experiments involve normative elements, and that we should not expect these two traditions to generalize equally to all populations. Our hypotheses were tested with two subject populations: university undergraduates and older church members (the latter chosen for greater sensitivity to norms). Results confirmed that older church members were more likely to resolve dissonance when subjected to an induced-compliance design but indicated that the members were only minimally affected by a choice-among-alternatives design. Result are discussed for their theoretical and practical implications.     

Establishing Standards for Basketball Elite Referees' Decisions

Basketball referees' decisions in ambiguous situations are supposed to adhere to common standards. We propose that standards can be established by video training-programs. Thirty-three German elite basketball referees participated in an online experiment. Feedback during a learning phase influenced decisions (foul vs. no call) in a subsequent test phase. These results provide a starting point for further investigations into establishing standards for referees. They suggest that establishing standards for referees' decisions in ambiguous situations may be a worthwhile approach for improving the quality of referees' decisions.     

A Video-Based Training Method for Improving Soccer Referees’ Intuitive Decision-Making Skills

The purpose of this study was to investigate coaches’ perceptions on the impact of a coach training program designed to promote youth developmental outcomes. Participants were coaches of youth sport teams. Multiple methods were used to collect data. Coaches reported many benefits for themselves, their athletes, and their teams. They reported an increase in knowledge and a better understanding of their players. Participants perceived that the activities promoted cohesion and communication, while also contributing to the development of athlete competence, confidence, connection, and character/caring. The results provide guidance for creating and delivering coach training programs designed to promote youth developmental outcomes.     

Infants prefer motionese to adult‐directed action

In two studies, we investigated infants’ preference for infant‐directed (ID) action or ‘motionese’ ( Brand, Baldwin & Ashburn, 2002 ) relative to adult‐directed (AD) action. In Study 1, full‐featured videos were shown to 32 6‐ to 8‐month‐olds, who demonstrated a strong preference for ID action. In Study 2, infants at 6–8 months (n= 28) and 11–13 months (n= 24) were shown either standard ID and AD clips, or clips in which demonstrators’ faces were blurred to obscure emotional and eye‐gaze information. Across both ages, infants showed evidence of preferring ID to AD action, even when faces were blurred. Infants did not have a preference for still‐frame images of the demonstrators, indicating that the ID preference arose from action characteristics, not demonstrators’ general appearance. These results suggest that motionese enhances infants’ attention to action, possibly supporting infants’ learning.     

Accuracy of effect size estimates from published psychological research

A Monte-Carlo simulation was used to model the biasing of effect sizes in published studies. The findings from the simulation indicate that, when a predominant bias to publish studies with statistically significant results is coupled with inadequate statistical power, there will be an overestimation of effect sizes. The consequences such an effect size overestimation will then have on meta-analyses and power analyses are highlighted and discussed along with measures which can be taken to reduce the problem.