Can skilled performers readily change technique? An example, conventional to wave action breaststroke

There has been a paucity of research that has investigated whether skilled performers of a complex sports skill can readily change their technique. This study was designed to investigate whether swimmers skilled in the conventional breaststroke technique could adjust readily to the wave action technique. Nine masters swimmers with well established and stable movement patterns for the conventional technique were coached in the wave action breaststroke technique. The swimmers were videotaped from the side during maximum speed trials of the conventional breaststroke technique before coaching and the wave action technique after ten 45-minute coaching sessions. The amplitude and phase of the waveforms comprising the vertical displacements of the body parts were determined by Fourier analysis. In response to the coaching, the amplitude of the fundamental frequency of the vertex of the head, shoulders, hips, and knees increased significantly (p < 0.01). The percentage of power contained in the fundamental frequency of the shoulder and hip vertical displacements also increased significantly (p < 0.01). All subjects changed the relative phase of the fundamental frequencies of the vertex, shoulder, and hip vertical displacements. It was concluded that in this complex skill, major changes to the low frequency waveforms comprising the motion were achieved readily.     

Util-izing animals

ABSTRACT Biomedical experimentation on animals is justified, researchers say, because of its enormous benefits to human beings. Sure, animals suffer and die, but that is morally insignificant since the benefits of research incalculably outweigh the evils. Although this utilitarian claim appears straightforward and relatively uncontroversial, it is neither straightforward nor uncontroversial. This defence of animal experimentation is likely to succeed only by rejecting three widely held moral presumptions. We identify these assumptions and explain their relevance to the justification of animal experimentation. We argue that, even if non-human animals have considerably less moral worth than humans, experimentation is justified only if the benefits are overwhelming. By building on and expanding on arguments offered in earlier papers, we show that researchers cannot substantiate their claims on behalf of animal research. We conclude that there is currently no acceptable utilitarian defence of animal experimentation. Moreover, it is unlikely that there could be one. Since most apologists of animal experimentation rely on utilitarian justifications of their practice, it appears that biomedical experimentation on animals is not morally justified .     

The content of mother stereotypes

Although there is considerable empirical support for the existence of social stereotypes about different types of mothers, the content of those stereotypes is less clear. The purpose of this study was to identify the content of stereotypes related to different types of mothers. Stereotyped attributes of married mothers, stepmothers, divorced mothers, and never married mothers were generated by several samples and combined into one list. A subsequent sample was asked to indicate the percentage of each type of mother possessing each characteristic. The content of mother stereotypes was examined, and the results discussed in light of effects on social interactions, the self-image of women, and future attempts to assess family-related stereotypes.     

Size and orientation of objects in explicit and implicit memory: A reversal of the dissociation between perceptual similarity and type of test

Memory of size and orientation of objects was tested in explicit and implicit memory tests. Explicit memory was tested by object recognition and by recognition of the congruency of the changed sensory features. Implicit memory was tested by size assessment (Exps. 1 and 2), orientation judgement (Exps. 4 and 5), picture-fragment naming (Exp. 6), and classification (Exps. 3 and 7). Memory of sensory features was investigated by the comparison of performances of test-congruent with test-incongruent stimuli (i.e., same size or orientation vs. different size or orientation). The main result was a dissociation between these two tasks pertaining to the influence of sensory congruency on performance. However, it was in opposition to the usual relationship between the type of test and the perceptual similarity from study to test. In this study explicit, but not implicit, memory depended on sensory congruency. In the explicit tests performances were better when the stimuli were congruent than when they were incongruent. In the implicit test this variation had no influence. To get a repetition effect, it was important only that the object was repeated, and the size of this effect did not depend on sensory congruency. However, a change in another sensory feature — distortions of shape — strongly influenced the size of the repetition effect in the implicit test. Neither transfer-appropriate processing nor a system approach can easily explain this pattern of results. A multi-level, multi-token model is proposed to account for the different effects of sensory features in explicit and implicit memory.     

A preliminary scale to measure connected and separate knowing: The Knowing Styles Inventory

The present investigation reported the development and validation of the Knowing Styles Inventory (KSI), a scale to measure connected and separate knowing [M. F. Belenky, B. M. Clinchy, N. R. Goldberger, and J. M. Tarule (1986), Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind New York, Basic Books]. In Study 1, principal components analyses for samples of females (N = 300) and males (N = 253) yielded two components, Connected and Separate Knowing. Studies 2 and 3 focused on females exclusively. The results indicated adequate test—retest reliability and internal consistency for both components. Additionally, Connected Knowing was positively correlated with empathic concern, perspective-taking, social desirability, and the femininity factor of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Separate Knowing was positively correlated with the masculinity factor of the BSRI and negatively correlated with social desirability. Suggestions for future research were presented.The authors wish to thank Jill Mattuck Tarule for the insight that she offered in the early stages of this project, and they wish to acknowledge the contribution of Nicole Bressler who participated in item development.     

MATERNITY LEAVE AND WOMEN'S MENTAL HEALTH

The Wisconsin Maternity Leave and Health Study addresses an important policy issue, parental leave, by investigating the work status, maternity leave, and mental health of 570 women. In the longitudinal design, the women, all of whom were living with a husband or partner, were interviewed during the fifth month of pregnancy, 1 month postpartum, and 4 months postpartum. At 4 months postpartum, full-time workers, part-time workers, and homemakers did not differ in depression or anger, but full-time workers showed elevated anxiety compared with the other two groups. In multiple regression analyses, length of leave interacted significantly with marital concerns when predicting depression; women who took a short leave (6 weeks or less) and were high on marital concerns had the highest depression scores. Short maternity leave can be conceptualized as a risk factor that, when combined with other risk factors such as marital concerns, places women at greater risk for depression.     

Certification of Specialties: Not If,But How

The guest editorial and featured articles have established the fact of counseling specialties and also that counselors have no clear or consistent scheme to recognize professional specialization. If counselors expect external recognition of and respect for their credentials, the credentials first must be recognized and understood by counselors. The experiences of other professions suggest strategies, but counselors must determine their own way of recognizing specialties without denying counselors' common identity. The profession and practice of counseling will be strengthened if all counselors have a minimum foundation of counseling knowledge and competencies and build accepted specializations on that foundation. The counseling profession must distinguish among work settings, professional interests, and specializations as a prerequisite to a coherent scheme of recognizing specialties.     

Telling stories: metaphors of the Human Genome Project

Scientists of the Human Genome Project tend to rely on three metaphors to describe their work, each of which implicitly tells much the same story. Whether they claim to interpret the ultimate “book,” to fix a flawed “machine,” or to map a mysterious “wilderness,” they invariably cast the researcher as one who dominates and exploits the Other. This essay, which explores the ways such a story conflicts with feminist values, proposes an alternative.     

A DEVELOPMENTAL DEFICIT IN LOCALIZING OBJECTS FROM VISION

Abstract— We describe a college student, A. H., with a developmental deficit in determining the location of objects from vision. The deficit is selective in that (a) localization from auditory or tactile information is intact, (b) A H reports the identity of mislocalized objects accurately, (c) visual localization errors preserve certain parameters of the target location, and (d) visual localization is severely impaired under certain stimulus conditions, but nearly intact under other conditions. These results bear on the representation and processing of location information in the visual system, and also have implications for understanding developmental dyslexia.