Enhancing Athletic Performance Using Digital Video in Consulting

Video has been used successfully in psychosocial interventions to help train communication skills, document behaviors, and as a feedback tool for behavior modification strategies. The need for equipment portability, together with editing expertise, has limited video use in sport psychology. Newer digital video systems help overcome these problems, meaning that sport psychologists can readily use this technology in the field. We discuss and provide experiential observations of how digital video can be used to improve player, coach, and team performance. Also reviewed are new consultation opportunities for sport psychologists with video skills. These new areas center on perceptual skills training and talent identification using perceptual skills testing.     

Lessons for Dynamic Touch From a Case of Stroke-Induced Motor Impairment

LW, an individual with a stroke-related motor impairment, was asked to perceive the lengths of rods of different mass distributions by dynamic touch. His impairment dictated that wielding was primarily about the shoulder rather than the wrist. Although perceived rod lengths were in the range of actual rod lengths, scaling to the objects' mass moments was atypical for both the affected and unaffected limbs. A group of healthy young adults asked to mimic his wielding style yielded the same atypical scaling. The typical scaling was restored when LW's wielding was fixed about a mechanical axis. Discussion considered what frame of reference is suitable for revealing an object's mass moments relevant to a given task. In particular, it appears that individuals can exploit alternative forms of interaction with environmental objects that leave invariant the parameters specifying to-be-perceived properties. Perception by dynamic touch is not a function of particular neuromuscular patterns but of information made available to the haptic system during limb-object interactions.     

Perception of Maximum Reaching Height When the Means of Reaching Are No Longer in View

Previous research has shown that perception of maximum reaching height is relative to reaching ability even when the means of performing this behavior would bring about (future) changes in reaching ability. Two experiments investigate whether this continues to be the case even when the means of reaching are no longer in view. The results show perception of maximum reaching height reflects impending changes to reaching ability both when the means of performing the reaching task (and changing reaching ability) are present and when they are no longer in view. The results are discussed in the context of prospectivity, retrospectivity, and flexibility—3 fundamental hallmarks of goal-directed behavior.     

Perception of Affordances for Walking Under a Barrier From Proximal and Distal Points of Observation

We investigated perception of affordances for a given behavior from points of observation other than that from which the behavior is to be performed. Participants viewed a horizontal barrier from different points of observation and reported whether they would be able to walk under that barrier. In Experiment 1, they viewed the barrier both while standing on the floor and while sitting on the floor. In Experiment 2, they viewed the barrier both while standing on the floor and while standing on a step stool. The results show that although perception of this affordance is body-scaled regardless of point of observation, there are subtle differences in the perceptual boundaries in each case. Such differences are likely due to differential attunement to the information specifying the affordance at each point of observation.     

Erratum

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted the central role of disgust in the etiology and maintenance of contamination aversion (CA). Data would also suggest that, although amendable to the treatment of choice for CA (exposure and response prevention [ERP]), disgust is resistant to habituation. However, with regard to CA, it is not yet known if disgust's resistance to habituation is an artifact of the emotion or the disorder. Specifically, research has not yet indicated if severity of CA moderates the effect of ERP on disgust. Utilizing an undergraduate convenience sample (n=33), the present study compared emotional responding (disgust and fear) with repeated exposure to a disgusting contamination-relevant stimulus between participants who are high in contamination aversion (HCA; n=17) and low in contamination aversion (LCA; n=16). Results indicated that, habituation of disgust was slower than fear within the HCA group but not the LCA group. Contrasts revealed that the decay of fear across trials was faster for HCA participants when compared with LCA participants, although decay of disgust was similar between groups. These results indicate that habituation of disgust is slower than fear when elevated CA is present.     

The Beck Depression Inventory: Item Order and the Impact of Response Sets

The lack of subtle content in the item groups of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the consistency in the ordering of the items from least to most pathological make this instrument unduly susceptible to either defensive or malingering response sets. Two experimental forms were developed for the BDI: a backwards version (a simple reversal of the order of items within each group) and a random-order version. These forms, together with the original item order, were given to college undergraduate women along with the Depression scale from the MMPI and the Burks-Martin Questionnaire covering recent life changes and current stressful situations. The random order BDI results in a significantly higher depression score than did either the original or backwards version. Correlations with the other instruments were comparable for all three forms. The random order of items within each set appears to break up a response set to endorse either the first or last item and is, therefore, recommended.     

Personality,Demographic, and Intellectual Variables Associated with Readiness for Discharge from Psychiatric Treatment

This study examined the relationship between staff rated discharge readiness and patient personality, demographic, and intellectual variables. Chi square and t test analyses were performed on data of 88 male and female adult patients of a short-term residential psychiatric treatment program. Patient diagnosis, trait anxiety level, marital status, age, and abstract intelligence scores assessed at admission were found to be significantly associated with staff ratings of patients’ readiness for discharge following six weeks of treatment. Findings were discussed in terms of prior process and outcome literature and implications for future research.     

Preface

This article introduces the topic for this issue of the journal: “Social Justice and the Health Professions: Ethical and Experiential Issues.”     

Propositional unity: what’s the problem, who has it and who solves it?

At least since Russell’s influential discussion in The Principles of Mathematics, many philosophers have held there is a problem that they call the problem of the unity of the proposition. In a recent paper, I argued that there is no single problem that alone deserves the epithet the problem of the unity of the proposition. I there distinguished three problems or questions, each of which had some right to be called a problem regarding the unity of the proposition; and I showed how the account of propositions formulated in my book The Nature and Structure of Content [2007 Oxford University Press] solves each of these problems. In the present paper, I take up two of these problems/questions yet again. For I want to consider other accounts of propositions and compare their solutions to these problems, or lack thereof, to mine. I argue that my account provides the best solutions to the unity problems.     

An Investigation of the Accuracy of Standardized Path Coefficients

The present study investigated potential sex differences in preferences for spicy, hot or unusual foods and in food aversions or neophobia. This study also reexamined the issue of a gender difference in preference for sweet foods. Questionnaires concerning past and current food use and preferences as well as food and condiment use in one actual meal were completed by 148 people between 17 and 32 years of age. Their responses clearly support the prediction that men tend to have a stronger preference than women for spicy, hot foods. The results also support the prediction that men are more likely than women to seek unusual and new foods. Both sexes showed the same degree of preference for condiment use.