Effects of changes in size, speed, and distance on the perception of curved 3-D trajectories

Previous research on the perception of 3-D object motion has considered time to collision, time to passage, collision detection, and judgments of speed and direction of motion but has not directly studied the perception of the overall shape of the motion path. We examined the perception of the magnitude of curvature and sign of curvature of the motion path for objects moving at eye level in a horizontal plane parallel to the line of sight. We considered two sources of information for the perception of motion trajectories: changes in angular size and changes in angular speed. Three experiments examined judgments of relative curvature for objects moving at different distances. At the closest distance studied, accuracy was high with size information alone but near chance with speed information alone. At the greatest distance, accuracy with size information alone decreased sharply, but accuracy for displays with both size and speed information remained high. We found similar results in two experiments with judgments of sign of curvature. Accuracy was higher for displays with both size and speed information than with size information alone, even when the speed information was based on parallel projections and was not informative about sign of curvature. For both magnitude of curvature and sign of curvature judgments, information indicating that the trajectory was curved increased accuracy, even when this information was not directly relevant to the required judgment.     

Differences in cognitive control in children and adolescents with combined and inattentive subtypes of ADHD

The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder-combined subtype (ADHD-C) and predominantly inattentive subtype (ADHD-PI) to direct their attention and to exert cognitive control in a forced attention dichotic listening (DL) task. Twenty-nine, medication-naive participants with ADHD-C, 42 with ADHD-PI, and 40 matched healthy controls (HC) between 9 and 16 years were assessed. In the DL task, two different auditory stimuli (syllables) are presented simultaneously, one in each ear. The participants are asked to report the syllable they hear on each trial with no instruction on focus of attention or to explicitly focus attention and to report either the right- or left-ear syllable. The DL procedure is presumed to reflect different cognitive processes: perception (nonforced condition/NF), attention (forced-right condition/FR), and cognitive control (forced-left condition/FL). As expected, all three groups had normal perception and attention. The children and adolescents with ADHD-PI showed a significant right-ear advantage also during the FL condition, while the children and adolescents in the ADHD-C group showed a no-ear advantage and the HC showed a significant left-ear advantage in the FL condition. This suggests that the ADHD subtypes differ in degree of cognitive control impairment. Our results may have implications for further conceptualization, diagnostics, and treatment of ADHD subtypes.     

Luck Egalitarianism,Universal Health Care,and Non-Responsibility-Based Reasons for Responsibilization

In recent literature, there has been much debate about whether and how luck egalitarianism, given its focus on personal responsibility, can justify universal health care. In this paper we argue that, whether or not this is so, and in fact whether or not egalitarianism should be sensitive to responsibility at all, the question of personal responsibilization for health is not settled. This is the case because whether or not individuals are responsible for their own health condition is not all that is relevant when considering whether we should somehow hold them responsible for their own health condition, e.g. cost-wise. There may also be efficiency-based reasons to hold them responsible, and there may even be egalitarian reasons. Defining universal health care as an insurance system where everyone’s deductible and premium is 0, we will argue that efficiency-based reasons for cost-responsibilization are not convincing, but that there are egalitarian reasons for cost-responsibilization. Luck egalitarianism, therefore, cannot, at least not on its own term, justify universal health care.

     

Die Ausbildung der mathematischen Zeichensprache und ihr Einfluss auf die Entwicklung der mathematischen Problemstellung

Ohne ZusammenfassungStark gekürzte Fassung.     

Health psychology's contribution to addressing the cancer problem: update on accomplishments

Each year approximately 1.5 million Americans are stricken with or die from cancer. In recent years, more psychologists have begun study of the psychological and behavioral aspects of cancer, and the rate, quality, and integration of findings are accelerating. This article provides an update on the major areas of accomplishment, with the findings grouped into disease-relevant time points.     

Visual attention modulates audiovisual speech perception

Speech perception is audiovisual, as demonstrated by the McGurk effect in which discrepant visual speech alters the auditory speech percept. We studied the role of visual attention in audiovisual speech perception by measuring the McGurk effect in two conditions. In the baseline condition, attention was focused on the talking face. In the distracted attention condition, subjects ignored the face and attended to a visual distractor, which was a leaf moving across the face. The McGurk effect was weaker in the latter condition, indicating that visual attention modulated audiovisual speech perception. This modulation may occur at an early, unisensory processing stage, or it may be due to changes at the stage where auditory and visual information is integrated. We investigated this issue by conventional statistical testing, and by fitting the Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception (Massaro, 1998) to the results. The two methods suggested different interpretations, revealing a paradox in the current methods of analysis.     

It Pays to Pay Attention: A Mindfulness-Based Program for Injury Prevention With Soccer Players

The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which a mindfulness-based program could reduce the number of sport injuries in a sample of soccer players. A total of 41 junior elite soccer players were randomly assigned to the treatment or the attentional control group. The treatment group took part in a 7-session program based on the mindfulness, acceptance, and commitment approach. The attentional control group was offered 7 sessions of sport psychology presentations with a particular focus on soccer. There were no statistically significant differences in injury rates between the two groups, U(39) = 149.50, z = ?1.77, p =.077, but there was a medium effect size (adjusted Cohen's d = ? 0.59), approx. 80% confidence interval for d [?0.37, ?0.74]. Moreover, 67% of the players in the mindfulness group remained injury free in comparison to 40% in the control group. This result implies that an intervention program focusing on strategies for improving attention could decrease injury risk. Recommendations include applying mindfulness exercises in athletes’ daily training to help lower injury risk.     

When Sport psychology consultants and graduate students are impaired: Ethical and legal issues in training and supervision

Abstract

Impaired sport psychology consultants, that is, professionals and graduate students whose behavior, inadequate training, personal situations, or psychopathology are having a negative influence on the delivery of services, have the potential to do harm to athlete-clients, damage their own professional standing, and bring disrepute to the field. The applied sport psychology literature is replete with guidelines and suggestions for referring athletes for counseling or psychotherapy when appropriate (e.g., Heyman & Andersen, 1998), but the ethical, legal, and procedural problems associated with sport psychology consultants whose training or mental conditions suggest the need for remediation, rehabilitation, or psychotherapy, and possible removal from seeing clients, has not been addressed. We describe a variety of situations where student and professional functioning might be impaired, discuss the possible ramifications (legal, ethical) of impairment, and provide suggestions for ways to proceed when sport psychology consultants are in psychological difficulty.