Perception of Creativity and Game Intelligence in Soccer

A questionnaire was used to investigate the perception of creativity and game intelligence of coaches (n = 34, mean age 28.6 with an average of 14.3 years of experience) and players (n = 118, belonging to the ranks U-15 and U-19). Analyses indicated that there were statistically significant differences in most creative concepts inherent in the perception of creativity on the part of coaches. The results for the perception of the players showed that there were statistically significant differences in the importance attached to creativity and game intelligence. Apparently coaches mostly associate the creativity in soccer to a kind of magical thinking, adding also the game intelligence to the ability of rationality, problem solving, and decision. There was a strong correlation between creativity and game intelligence for the players.     

Spanish validation of an emotion-eliciting set of films

One of the main difficulties in the study of emotion is the induction of a real emotional response by means of artificial techniques. The aim of the current study is to validate the Spanish version of a set of films with the capacity to induce emotions (PIE) under laboratory conditions and to analyze its capacity to provoke differentiated basic emotions. A sample of 127 subjects took part in the study; 57 excerpts of Spanish-dubbed films with capacity in previous studies to induce 7 emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, amusement, tenderness, and neutral emotion were used. Subjective emotional response was measured using the Self-Assessment Manikins and the Discrete Emotions Questionnaire. Films included showed a good capacity to induce positive and negative affects, high levels of emotional activation and variations in the perception of emotional control. They induced basic emotions of amusement and fear in a differentiated way. However, sadness and disgust could not be significantly differentiated from anger; or anger and tenderness from sadness. The PIE could be a useful tool for the experimental research of emotions in Spanish populations.     

Over-specified referring expressions impair comprehension: an ERP study

Speakers often include extra information when producing referring expressions, which is inconsistent with the Maxim of Quantity (Grice, 1975). In this study, we investigated how comprehension is affected by unnecessary information. The literature is mixed: some studies have found that extra information facilitates comprehension and others reported impairments. We used an attentional-cueing paradigm to assess how quickly participants could orient attention to an object upon hearing a referring expression, such as the red square. If there are two squares differing in color, then the modifier is required. However, if there is only one (red) square, then the modifier is unnecessary. We also recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in order to investigate online processing. Reaction times were significantly longer for referring expressions that contained extra information, and ERPs revealed a centroparietal negativity (N400) that emerged approximately 200–300 ms after modifier onset. We conclude that referring expressions with an unnecessary pre-nominal modifier impair comprehension performance.     

Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Combined With Virtual Reality Training on Balance in Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized,Controlled, Double-Blind,Clinical Trial

The authors' aim was to investigate the effects of continuous transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined with virtual reality training on static and functional balance in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Twenty children with CP (6 girls and 14 boys; M age = 7 years 6 months ± 2 years) were randomly allocated to two groups. The experimental group received active tDCS and the control group received sham stimulation during the 10 sessions of virtual reality mobility training protocols. The children were evaluated on 3 occasions (preintervention, postintervention, and 1-month follow-up). Static balance was evaluated using a force plate under 4 conditions: feet on force plate with (a) eyes open and (b) with eyes closed, and feet on foam mat with (c) eyes open and (d) with eyes closed. Functional balance was evaluated using the Pediatric Balance Scale and the Timed Up and Go Test. The analyses demonstrated statistically significant postintervention and follow-up effects favoring the experimental group over the control group with regard to the Pediatric Balance Scale, Timed Up and Go Test, and area of oscillation of the center of pressure when standing on the force plate with eyes open. The present findings suggest that tDCS can potentiate the effects of virtual reality training on static and functional balance among children with CP.     

Electromechanical delay in ballistic movement of superior limb: comparison between karate athletes and nonathletes

The aim of the study was to analyze electromechanical delay in a ballistic movement of the superior limb. 10 male karate athletes and 9 nonathletes (without karate experience) performed a motor skill as fast and powerfully as possible, with impact on a makiwara (karate training instrument). For each participant, 10 choku-zuki performances were analyzed. Kinematics and surface electromyographic (EMG) activity of the anterior and posterior portions of deltoid, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, triceps brachii, and biceps brachii were recorded. Athletes had significantly shorter delay in arm flexion agonist muscles and significantly higher delay in arm flexion antagonist muscles and in forearm extension agonists. Results suggest that enhanced performance in athletes was mainly due to motor learning.     

Are phonological influences on lexical (mis)selection the result of a monitoring bias?

A monitoring bias account is often used to explain speech error patterns that seem to be the result of an interactive language production system, like phonological influences on lexical selection errors. A biased monitor is suggested to detect and covertly correct certain errors more often than others. For instance, this account predicts that errors that are phonologically similar to intended words are harder to detect than those that are phonologically dissimilar. To test this, we tried to elicit phonological errors under the same conditions as those that show other kinds of lexical selection errors. In five experiments, we presented participants with high cloze probability sentence fragments followed by a picture that was semantically related, a homophone of a semantically related word, or phonologically related to the (implicit) last word of the sentence. All experiments elicited semantic completions or homophones of semantic completions, but none elicited phonological completions. This finding is hard to reconcile with a monitoring bias account and is better explained with an interactive production system. Additionally, this finding constrains the amount of bottom-up information flow in interactive models.     

Taking a new look at looking at nothing

A crucial question in cognitive science is how linguistic and visual information are integrated. Previous research has shown that eye movements to objects in the visual environment are locked to linguistic input. More surprisingly, listeners fixate on now-empty regions that had previously been occupied by relevant objects. This 'looking at nothing' phenomenon has been linked to the claim that the visual system constructs sparse representations of the external world and relies on saccades and fixations to extract information in a just-in-time manner. Our model provides a different explanation: based on recent work in visual cognition and memory, it assumes that the visual system creates and stores detailed internal memory representations, and that looking at nothing facilitates retrieval of those representations.     

Team climate,climate strength and team performance. A longitudinal study

We tested the hypothesis that the relationship between team climate and team performance is moderated by climate strength. The study sample was composed of 155 bank branches, and a two‐wave panel design was implemented. We measured four team climate facets (support, innovation, goal achievement and enabling formalization). We obtained two subjective indicators of team performance (ratings provided by team members and by team managers) and a financial indicator of team performance. Seven out of the 12 interaction effects tested were statistically significant and showed the expected sign. When financial team performance was the criterion, only the interaction term was significant. This suggests that only strong climates are related to financial team performance over time.     

ENSEMBLE RECORDINGS IN AWAKE RATS: ACHIEVING BEHAVIORAL REGULARITY DURING MULTIMODAL STIMULUS PROCESSING AND DISCRIMINATIVE LEARNING

To meet an increasing need to examine the neurophysiological underpinnings of behavior in rats, we developed a behavioral system for studying sensory processing, attention and discrimination learning in rats while recording firing patterns of neurons in one or more brain areas of interest. Because neuronal activity is sensitive to variations in behavior which may confound the identification of neural correlates, a specific aim of the study was to allow rats to sample sensory stimuli under conditions of strong behavioral regularity. Our behavioral system allows multimodal stimulus presentation and is coupled to modules for delivering reinforcement, simultaneous monitoring of behavior and recording of ensembles of well isolated single neurons. Using training protocols for simple and compound discrimination, we validated the behavioral system with a group of 4 rats. Within these tasks, a majority of medial prefrontal neurons showed significant firing‐rate changes correlated to one or more trial events that could not be explained from significant variation in head position. Thus, ensemble recordings can be combined with discriminative learning tasks under conditions of strong behavioral regularity.     

Priming Sentence Production in Adolescents and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyper-Activity Disorder

Theoretical accounts of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) posit a prominent role for problems in response inhibition (Nigg 2006). A key avenue for impulsivity in children with ADHD is inappropriate language expression. In this study, we sought to determine whether poor inhibitory control affects language production in adolescents and adults with ADHD. One hundred and ninety-five participants (13–35 years old; 65% male) were presented with two pictures and a verb, and their task was to form a sentence. If deficits in response inhibition affect language production, then participants with ADHD should be more likely than non-ADHD controls to begin speaking before having formulated a plan that will allow a grammatical continuation. The results showed that the ADHD-combined subtype, in particular, was more likely to produce an ungrammatical sequence. Effects were not moderated by age or gender. These data suggest that response suppression deficits in ADHD adversely affect the basic processes of sentence formation.