Verbal aggressiveness and state anxiety of volleyball players and coaches

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation of verbal aggressiveness and state anxiety (somatic, cognitive, and self-confidence) in sports settings based on the ratings by volleyball coaches and their athletes. The sample consisted of volleyball athletes (n=208; 98 men and 110 women) and their coaches (n=20; 16 men and 4 women). Analysis showed that male volleyball players rated somatic anxiety higher and were more affected by the verbal aggressiveness of their coaches than female volleyball players. No mean differences were significant for male and female coaches on somatic or cognitive anxiety, self-confidence, or verbal aggressiveness. Also, correlation between subscale scores for male and female volleyball players and coaches was found. The correlations of verbal aggressiveness with self-confidence and anxiety were positive for these athletes, leading them to better behavior. This relationship needs further examination in sport settings.     

Pseudoneglect: evidence for both perceptual and attentional factors

When neurologically normal individuals bisect a horizontal line as accurately as possible, they reliably show a slight leftward error. This leftward inaccuracy is called pseudoneglect because errors made by neurologically normal individuals are directionally opposite to those made by persons with visuospatial neglect (Jewell & McCourt, 2000). In the current study, normal right-handed observers bisected horizontal lines that were altered to bias line length judgments either toward the right or the left side of the line. Non-target dots were placed on or near the line stimuli using principles derived from a theory of visual illusions of length called centroid extraction (Morgan, Hole, & Glennerster, 1990). This theory argues that the position of a visual target is calculated as the mean position of all stimuli in close proximity to the target stimulus. We predicted that perceptual alterations that shifted the direction of centroid extraction would also shift the direction of line bisection errors. Our findings confirmed this prediction and support the idea that both perceptual and attentional factors contribute to the pseudoneglect effect.     

Conceptual priming for environmental sounds and words: an ERP study

In this study we examined conceptual priming using environmental sounds and visually displayed words. Priming for sounds and words was observed in response latency as well as in event-related potentials. Reactions were faster when a related word followed an environmental sound and vice versa. Moreover both stimulus types produced an N400-effect for unrelated compared to related trials. The N400-effect had an earlier onset for environmental sounds than for words. The results support the theoretical notion that conceptual processing may be similar for verbal and non-verbal stimuli.     

Dependence of illusory motion on directional consistency in oblique components

Pinna and Brelstaff (2000 Vision Research 40 2091-2096) reported a motion illusion on viewing two concentric circles consisting of quadrangular components with black and white sides on a grey background. Our results suggest that the illusion is based on the integration of motion signals derived from oblique components, and on the consistency in the direction among those components. Furthermore, arrays of these oblique components can elicit the perception of motion not only for the oblique components themselves, but also for other objects in the picture. We propose that the motion illusion depends not only upon detection of the illusory motion signal at each local oblique component, but also upon the accumulation of the signal all over the stimulus configuration.     

Cuing and stimulus probability effects on the P3 and the AB

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the relation between the attentional blink (AB), a deficit in reporting the second of two targets when it occurs 200-500 ms after the first, and the P3 component of the event-related potential. Consistent with the view that the AB reflects a limited ability to consolidate information in working memory and that the P3 reflects working memory updating, increasing the amplitude of the P3 elicited by a first target (T1) by varying T1 probability (Experiment 1) or T1 cue validity (Experiment 2) led to an increase of the AB. Overall, the P3 elicited by T1 was greater when T2 was not identified than when it was. However, the correlation between P3 and AB magnitude across participants was not significant, leaving open the question of how direct the relationship between the P3 and the AB is.     

Gender differences in victimized homeless adolescents

Most of what we know about sexual abuse comes from efforts to examine female children victimized by men. Although some researchers have identified similarities between male and female victims of sexual abuse, few studies have examined gender-specific factors associated with sexual health practices among homeless adolescents. The aim of this study was to explore how gender and history of sexual abuse influence cognitive-perceptual and behavioral factors associated with sexual health practices of homeless adolescents. This study was a secondary analysis of data collected for a cross-sectional study of the sexual health practices of homeless adolescents. The sample consisted of 414 youths (104 males who reported sexual abuse and 124 who did not; and 95 females who reported sexual abuse and 75 who did not; 16 did not provide these data). Homeless adolescent females with a history of sexual abuse scored higher (indicating a shorter perspective) on a measure of future time perspective than females with no sexual abuse. Males who reported no sexual abuse scored higher than abused females on perceived health status and higher than abused males on assertive communication. With respect to perceived health status, males who reported no sexual abuse scored significantly higher than females who reported sexual abuse (p = .04). Males with no sexual abuse had significantly higher assertive communication scores than did males who had experienced sexual abuse (p = .015). We found that male and female abuse victims differ in terms of their cognitive-perceptual and behavioral factors associated with sexual health practices. Early identification of those who have been abused is critical so that interventions can be developed. Effective short-term interventions are needed for the adolescent victims of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), particularly those who are homeless and prone to further sexual victimization.     

Continuity of temperament from infancy to middle childhood

Continuity of temperament from 6 months (the IBQ) to 5.5 years (the CBQ) was explored in Finnish children (n = 231) within the theoretical framework deviced by Rothbart. Activity level, smiling and laughter, distress to limitations and fear showed significant differential homotypic and heterotypic continuity, while soothability and duration of orienting showed significant differential heterotypic continuity. On the level of latent superconstructs, infant positive and negative affectivity accounted for 4.6, 22.3, and 6.0% of the variance in childhood extraversion, effortful control and negative affectivity, respectively. Infant and childhood temperament clustered into profile types named “resilient”, “undercontrolled”, and “overcontrolled” mirroring ipsative continuity. These findings give empirical credence to Rothbart's theory by replicating and extending previous findings in significant ways.     

Preference for peers in infancy

Previous findings suggest that infants prefer other infants from among individuals of various ages. There are two explanations for this: one is that like adults, infants prefer babyish characteristics; the other is that infants prefer individuals who are similar to themselves. We examined whether infants respond differently to same-age infants from among older or younger infants. This might allow the possibility of methodologically separating the two explanations for peer preference in infancy. The results revealed that 9-month-olds showed peer preference when they saw movies of infants. Further experiments showed that 6- and 9-month-olds preferred static images of same-age infants. The lack of preference of 6-month-olds for movies of same-age infants could be related to their ability to process information. Thus, the cue for peer preference may be physical similarity to oneself, rather than the strength of babyish characteristics reflecting a particular developmental stage.     

The effect of encoding time on retention by infants and young children

Using a Visual Recognition Memory (VRM) procedure, we examined the effect of encoding time on retention by 1- and 4-year olds. Irrespective of age, shorter familiarization time reduced retention, and longer familiarization time prolonged retention. The amount of familiarization that yielded retention after a given delay decreased as a function of age.