Development and validation of the Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports

ObjectiveThe objective was to develop and validate an achievement goal scale for young athletes that was aligned with the 2 (mastery/ego)×2 (approach/avoidance) achievement goal framework.MethodA total of 1675 male and female athletes ranging in age from 9 to 14 years participated in the AGSYS scale development and validation phases. Items having a readability level of grade 4 (age 9) or below were written and evaluated in a series of studies to assess the reliability, factorial validity, and construct validity of the Mastery and Ego scales.DesignBoth correlational and experimental methods were used to assess reliability and validity.ResultsExploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated factorial validity in samples of 9–10-, 11–12-, and 13–14-year-old athletes, and the subscales correlated in a predicted fashion with one another, with other sport and academic goal orientation measures and with several other theoretically relevant variables, including coach-initiated motivational climate, competitive trait anxiety, sport enjoyment, motivation, and self-esteem. Scores also changed significantly in response to a motivational climate coach intervention.ConclusionThe Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports (AGSYS) appears to be a reliable and valid measure of achievement goal approach orientations in children between the ages of 9 and 14 years. We were not successful in developing corresponding avoidance goal orientation scales that were not highly correlated, raising the possibility that children do not cognitively differentiate between mastery-avoidance and ego-avoidance orientations.     

Onset of illusory figures attenuates change blindness

We examined whether the onset of a new object defined by illusory contours is detected with greater frequency than offset when neither is associated with a unique sensory transient. Observers performed a “one-shot” change detection task in which offsetting or onsetting elements of high luminance contrast circles generated the appearance or disappearance of a Kanizsa figure. Presenting “illusory figures” via this “flicker” method ensures that (1) any unique luminance transients associated with the two types of change are eliminated, and (2) the objects themselves can only be represented at a relatively high level. Results showed that offsets were detected more frequently than onsets only when they generated the onset of a Kanizsa figure. We argue that object appearance dominates object disappearance via mechanisms that operate at the level at which objects are constructed.     

The epistemic-teleologic model of deliberate self-persuasion.

Although past theory and research point to the importance of understanding deliberate self-persuasion (i.e., deliberate self-induced attitude change), there have been no empirical and theoretical efforts to model this process. This article proposes a new model to help understand the process, while comparing the process of deliberate self-persuasion with relevant theory and research. The core feature of this model is a distinction between epistemic processes, which involve attempting to form new valid attitudes, and teleologic processes, which involve self-induced attitude change but with minimal concerns for validity. The epistemic processes employ tactics of reinterpretation, reattribution, reintegration, retesting, changing comparators, and changing dimensions of comparison. The teleologic processes include suppression, preemption, distraction, and concentration. By mapping these processes, this model helps to generate many novel and testable hypotheses about the use of deliberate self-persuasion to cope with ambivalent attitudes.     

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: Similar patterns of rehearsal and similar effects of word length,presentation rate,and articulatory suppression

In five experiments, rehearsal and recall phenomena were examined using the free recall and immediate serial recall (ISR) tasks. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with lists of eight words, were precued or postcued to respond using free recall or ISR, and rehearsed out loud during presentation. The patterns of rehearsal were similar in all the conditions, and there was little difference between recall in the precued and postcued conditions. In Experiment 2, both free recall and ISR were sensitive to word length and presentation rate and showed similar patterns of rehearsal. In Experiment 3, both tasks were sensitive to word length and articulatory suppression. The word length effects generalized to 6-item (Experiment 4) and 12-item (Experiment 5) lists. These findings suggest that the two tasks are underpinned by highly similar rehearsal and recall processes.     

Output order in immediate serial recall

In two experiments, we examined the effect of output order in immediate serial recall (ISR). In Experiment 1, three groups of participants saw lists of eight words and wrote down the words in the rows corresponding to their serial positions in an eight-row response grid. One group was precued to respond in forward order, a second group was precued to respond in any order, and a third group was postcued for response order. There were significant effects of output order, but not of cue type. Relative to the forward output order, the free output order led to enhanced recency and diminished primacy, with superior performance for words output early in recall. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 using six-item lists, which further suggests that output order plays an important role in the primacy effect in ISR and that the recency items are most highly accessible at recall.     

Nurturing Spirituality: A rationale for holistic education

In this article I examine the nature of ecological spirituality as it is discovered within the growing field of holistic education. I introduce holistic education and attempt to describe its chief characteristics by reference to the thought of Dewey and Hegel. Dewey was the ultimate progressive, yet his attachment to scientific progress and disregard for inherited wisdom mean that his work is not suitable for holistic education without adaptation. Hegel was the metaphysical philosopher of wholeness, yet his systematic, totalizing view of democracy which so alarmed Karl Popper similarly means that adaptation is again required. I argue that holistic education takes up a position between the two philosophers, experiential yet enculturated, metaphysical yet fluid and processual. I examine the ideas of both writers in relation to four key elements of holistic education and conclude by showing how they could combine to provide a rationale for the future.     

Advocacy, prejudice, and role modeling in the deaf community

Prejudiced attitudes toward deaf people are a well-established phenomenon (Higgins & Nash, 1982; Moores, 1982; Quigley & Kretschmer, 1982). In recent years, however, a new phenomenon has appeared, and some members of the deaf population now openly express prejudice against the hearing (Boros & Stuckless, 1982; Nash & Nash, 1981). The phenomenon may be an interesting example of Allport's (1954) classical analysis: The victims of the prejudice may tend to reciprocate and/or internalize the prejudice to which they have been exposed. The purpose of our analysis is to examine this phenomenon in more detail, particularly from the perspective of social learning theory as described by Bandura and Walters (1963), Walters (1966), and Bandura (1977).     

Color-naming functions for the pigeon

Six pigeons were trained to match wavelengths in a three-key matching-to-sample paradigm. Test trials were occasionally presented, where probe wavelengths appeared on the center key and choices were made to the training stimuli presented on the side keys. Color naming functions were obtained by plotting the percentage of test trials that each training stimulus wavelength was chosen for each center key probe wavelength. The wavelength where the functions intersected was interpreted as a transition point between pigeon hues. Three experiments employed different wavelengths as training stimuli. The first two experiments demonstrated that the intersection of the color-naming functions occurred in all cases at 540 nm and 595 nm. The third experiment employed 540 nm and 595 nm as two of the three training stimuli, and the relatively slow acquisition, together with the resulting color-naming functions, supported the proposition that 540 nm and 595 nm may be transition point wavelengths between pigeon hues.