Development and learning: a TASC-based perspective of the acquisition of perceptual-motor behaviors

The concepts of development and learning are discussed in terms of different theoretical orientations to the study of motor behavior. It is argued that although these concepts are commonly used to discuss various aspects of change across the life span, there is little agreement regarding the definition of these terms and even whether these are useful concepts for researchers studying change over time. A theoretical approach, the TASC-based approach is presented as an alternative account for examining change over time. The TASC label stands for a focus on particular tasks, adaptation and selection of behaviors as a function of constraints. This account is grounded in evolutionary theory and assumes that variability, selection, and adaptation are central to change over time within individuals. Emphasis is placed on the tasks individuals attempt to solve in achieving particular goals given the constraints of the local environment and the organism. An alternative manner to conceptualize the concepts of development and learning are presented within the TASC-based approach.     

A dynamical systems interpretation of epigenetic landscapes for infant motor development

This paper presents a unified dynamical systems theory of motor learning and development and addresses the normative order and timing of activities in the infant motor development sequence. The emphasis is on the role of intention in modulating the epigenetic landscapes to the emerging forms of infant motor development and how the evolution of attractor landscape dynamics in infancy arises from the multiple time scales of constraints to action. The development of prone progression in infancy is exemplified as a case study and experimental hypotheses of the theory of attractor landscape dynamics and infant motor development are provided.     

“I think you did it!”: Examining the effect of presuming guilt on the verbal output of innocent suspects during brief interviews

Innocent suspects interviewed by a guilt‐presumptive versus innocence‐presumptive or neutral interviewer may tend more to display non‐verbal behaviours which neutral judges consider indicative of guilt. We examined the effects of interviewer's presumption of guilt on innocent mock suspects' alibis. Participants (N = 90) provided an alibi to convince an interviewer of their innocence of a theft after she implied that she believed that they were guilty or innocent or that she had no belief about their veracity. On the basis of existing conflicting findings for suspects' verbal behaviour during accusatory interviews, we predicted that alibis in the guilt‐belief condition would contain the highest or lowest number of correct details with overall higher or poorer accuracy rates, respectively. Although participants perceived the interviewer's presumptive approach, the number of correct details provided and accuracy rates of alibis did not differ significantly between conditions. We propose explanations to these findings and future research paths.     

Suicide Intervention Skills and Related Factors in Community and Health Professionals

Health and community professionals have considerable exposure to suicidal people and need to be well skilled to deal with them. We assessed suicide intervention skills with a Dutch version of the SIRI in 980 health and community professionals and psychology students. Suicide intervention skills clearly differed among professional groups and were strongly related to experience, especially suicide‐specific experience. Some community professionals scored below acceptable levels on their ability to respond appropriately to suicidal people they encounter, and tended to overestimate their skills level. Training is therefore indicated for these groups, and may be useful to more highly experienced groups too.     

Aussagenlogik im Mittelalter

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