Predicting students' intention to smoke by theory of planned behaviour variables and parental influences across school grade levels

Differences were examined in Theory of Planned Behaviour determinants of students' intention to smoke including parents' attitudes towards smoking and parents' current cigarette use among Greek students of different school grade levels. Students (N?=?763) aged 10-18 years reported their attitudes towards smoking, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, self-identity and intention to smoke while their parents (N?=?525) reported their attitudes towards smoking and their current cigarette use. All the TPB variables increased from lower to higher school grade level. Multi-sample path analyses showed that parent's attitudes towards smoking positively predicted students' intention to smoke only for elementary school children. Parents' current cigarette use did not contribute significantly. Students' attitudes, perceived behavioural control and self-identity predicted systematically intention to smoke in contrast to the subjective norm that did not contribute at all. Perceived behavioural control contributed to a higher degree in intention to smoke for senior high school students compared to the junior high school and elementary students. Self-identity contributed to a higher degree in intention to smoke for elementary compared to the junior high school students. The results of this study suggests that the determinants of smoking vary between early and late adolescence.     

Cross-sensory transfer of reference frames in spatial memory

Two experiments investigated whether visual cues influence spatial reference frame selection for locations learned through touch. Participants experienced visual cues emphasizing specific environmental axes and later learned objects through touch. Visual cues were manipulated and haptic learning conditions were held constant. Imagined perspective taking when recalling touched objects was best from perspectives aligned with visually-defined axes, providing evidence for cross-sensory reference frame transfer. These findings advance spatial memory theory by demonstrating that multimodal spatial information can be integrated within a common spatial representation.     

Selection of macroreference frames in spatial memory

Spatial memories are often hierarchically organized with different regions of space represented in unique clusters within the hierarchy. Each cluster is thought to be organized around its own microreference frame selected during learning, whereas relationships between clusters are organized by a macroreference frame. Two experiments were conducted in order to better understand important characteristics of macroreference frames. Participants learned overlapping spatial layouts of objects within a room-sized environment before performing a perspective-taking task from memory. Of critical importance were between-layout judgments thought to reflect the macroreference frame. The results indicate that (1) macroreference frames characterize overlapping spatial layouts, (2) macroreference frames are used even when microreference frames are aligned with one another, and (3) macroreference frame selection depends on an interaction between the global macroaxis (defined by characteristics of the layout of all learned objects), the relational macroaxis (defined by characteristics of the two layouts being related on a perspective-taking trial), and the learning view. These results refine the current understanding of macroreference frames and document their broad role in spatial memory.     

What do the hands externalize in simple arithmetic?

In 4 experiments, the authors examined the use of the hands in simple arithmetic tasks. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that pointing increases both accuracy and speed in counting arrays of items, whether those items are identical or distinctive. Experiment 3 demonstrated that individuals tend to nod their heads when not allowed to point and that nodding is associated with greater accuracy, suggesting that pointing is functional for reasons other than simply providing additional visual information. Experiment 4 examined changes in speech when adding arrays of digits, depending on whether participants were allowed to use their hands to manipulate the tokens on which the digits were presented. Taken together, the results of these experiments are consistent with recent research suggesting that gesture can serve cognitive functions and that the hands can support the binding of representational elements to their functional roles by providing phase markers for cyclic cognitive processes.     

Self-regulated learning in physical education: Examining the effects of emulative and self-control practice

Objective

This study examined the effectiveness of sequential practice from the emulation to the self-control level of the social cognitive model of self-regulated learning development. The model proposes that students who practice with social feedback at the emulation level first and then set goals and self-record their performance at the self-control level master sport skills effectively.

Design

The design included one between-subjects factor, the group with five levels and one within-subjects factor, time (pre-test, post-test).

Method

One hundred fifth and sixth grade students (40 boys and 60 girls) were assigned to four experimental and one control group and practiced the basketball dribble.

Results

The results showed that students of all experimental groups improved their dribbling performance from pre- to post-test. Students who received social feedback and observed repeated demonstrations at the emulation level and then set process or performance goals and self-recorded their performance at the self-control level improved their dribbling performance more than students who missed emulative practice. No improvement was found for control group students.

Conclusions

These results supported the effectiveness of the social cognitive model of self-regulated learning development, showing that this model can be used as an instructional approach for teaching sport skills in physical education.     

Egocentric updating of remote locations

The study examined whether people update remote spatial locations in unfamiliar environments during physical movement. Participants learned a layout of objects from one perspective and carried out perspective-taking trials after physically rotating to a new perspective in either the same room as learning or in an adjacent room. Prior to rotation in the adjacent room participants were instructed to visualize the objects as being around them. Responses to perspective-taking trials involved either pointing or verbal labeling. In both testing environments, participants pointed more efficiently from imagined perspectives aligned with either the initial learning perspective or their current facing orientation than from a novel imagined perspective; this indicates that they had updated the encoded spatial relations during the physical rotation and treated remote objects as immediate. Differences in performance among perspectives were less pronounced for verbal labeling in both environments, suggesting that this response mode is more flexibly used from imagined perspectives.     

Predicting students’ intention to smoke by theory of planned behaviour variables and parental influences across school grade levels

Differences were examined in Theory of Planned Behaviour determinants of students’ intention to smoke including parents’ attitudes towards smoking and parents’ current cigarette use among Greek students of different school grade levels. Students (N?=?763) aged 10–18 years reported their attitudes towards smoking, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, self-identity and intention to smoke while their parents (N?=?525) reported their attitudes towards smoking and their current cigarette use. All the TPB variables increased from lower to higher school grade level. Multi-sample path analyses showed that parent's attitudes towards smoking positively predicted students’ intention to smoke only for elementary school children. Parents’ current cigarette use did not contribute significantly. Students’ attitudes, perceived behavioural control and self-identity predicted systematically intention to smoke in contrast to the subjective norm that did not contribute at all. Perceived behavioural control contributed to a higher degree in intention to smoke for senior high school students compared to the junior high school and elementary students. Self-identity contributed to a higher degree in intention to smoke for elementary compared to the junior high school students. The results of this study suggests that the determinants of smoking vary between early and late adolescence.     

Functional equivalence of spatial representations derived from vision and language: evidence from allocentric judgments

Past research (e.g., J. M. Loomis, Y. Lippa, R. L. Klatzky, & R. G. Golledge, 2002) has indicated that spatial representations derived from spatial language can function equivalently to those derived from perception. The authors tested functional equivalence for reporting spatial relations that were not explicitly stated during learning. Participants learned a spatial layout by visual perception or spatial language and then made allocentric direction and distance judgments. Experiments 1 and 2 indicated allocentric relations could be accurately reported in all modalities, but visually perceived layouts, tested with or without vision, produced faster and less variable directional responses than language. In Experiment 3, when participants were forced to create a spatial image during learning (by spatially updating during a backward translation), functional equivalence of spatial language and visual perception was demonstrated by patterns of latency, systematic error, and variability.     

Use of cognitive versus perceptual heading during imagined locomotion depends on the response mode

Three experiments investigated whether the systematic errors previously observed in a triangle-completion task were caused by failures to form and update a cognitive heading or by use of perceived heading (even though an updated cognitive heading was available) during the response. These errors were replicated when participants indicated the origin of triangular paths they had imagined walking by turning their bodies toward the origin, but not when they responded verbally. The results indicate that participants are capable of updating their cognitive heading using imagined movements and suggest that the systematic errors previously observed were a result of the strong attachment of responses such as turns to a perceptual representation of the physical body.