The effects of physical distance between regular and sale prices on numerical difference perceptions

This paper draws upon the psychological, psycho-physiological, and numerical cognition literature(s) to suggest that numerical difference perceptions may be influenced by the physical distance between two prices. In the context of four experiments, we find that a greater horizontal separation of prices leads to greater difference (and hence price-discount) perceptions. The greater price-discount perceptions are linked to a higher perceived value and increased purchase likelihood. The effect is not observed for prices separated by large versus small vertical distances. The processing mechanisms driving our results involve the automatic and non-conscious encoding of “magnitude representations” (i.e., judgments of relative size) related to both relevant (numerical difference) and non-relevant (physical distance) dimensions.     

Information–movement coupling in developing cricketers under changing ecological practice constraints

Changing informational constraints of practice, such as when using ball projection machines, has been shown to significantly affect movement coordination of skilled cricketers. To date, there has been no similar research on movement responses of developing batters, an important issue since ball projection machines are used heavily in cricket development programmes. Timing and coordination of young cricketers (n = 12, age = 15.6 ± 0.7 years) were analyzed during the forward defensive and forward drive strokes when facing a bowling machine and bowler (both with a delivery velocity of 28.14 ± 0.56 m s⁻¹). Significant group performance differences were observed between the practice task constraints, with earlier initiation of the backswing, front foot movement, downswing, and front foot placement when facing the bowler compared to the bowling machine. Peak height of the backswing was higher when facing the bowler, along with a significantly larger step length. Altering the informational constraints of practice caused major changes to the information–movement couplings of developing cricketers. Data from this study were interpreted to emanate from differences in available specifying variables under the distinct practice task constraints. Considered with previous findings, results confirmed the need to ensure representative batting task constraints in practice, cautioning against an over-reliance on ball projection machines in cricket development programmes.     

Jump start exit criterion: Exploring a new model of service delivery for the treatment of childhood feeding problems

While the literature on the assessment and treatment of childhood feeding disorders continues to grow, little research has focused on developing new forms of service delivery. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a brief, intensive intervention for the treatment of food selectivity in three boys who had failed to progress in traditional outpatient treatment. The implications of this model of service delivery are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Everything Here is Fine: Protective Buffering by Military Spouses During a Deployment

To minimize potential distractions for deployed military service members (SMs), some nondeployed romantic partners have reported engaging in protective buffering, or intentionally withholding information or concerns to protect their deployed partner. This study assessed the associations of protective buffering and psychological distress and marital satisfaction for military couples during and after deployment. Additionally, the study explored whether protective buffering was related to SM reports of being distracted during deployment by family matters. A total of 54 couples provided data before, during, and after an Army deployment. In multilevel models, higher protective buffering by partners was associated with higher psychological distress and lower marital satisfaction for both SMs and partners during, but not after, deployment. Additionally, partners reported frequent use of protective buffering during deployment; however, protective buffering was not significantly correlated with family related distraction for SMs during deployment. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

A Presentist-Friendly Definition of “Endure”

Philosophia - It is a commonplace that things persist, though thinkers disagree over what persistence consist in. Views about time are closely related to views about persistence, though some have...     

A Response To H. O. Mounce

Wittgenstein: “If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.” (PI, p. 223) Wittgenstein bids us to be wary of trying to explain or interpret language and its use, instead of limiting ourselves – with a rigorous discipline – to describing such use as comprehensively and clearly as we can. This injunction, it seems to me, is important even when discussing ‘normal’, ‘everyday’ uses of language by fully sentient human beings, but even more so in such unique cases of sentient disability as Helen Keller’s. As the above quote suggests, explanatory extrapolation from the behaviour of animals risks even greater philosophical confusion.     

Researching self-help/mutual aid groups and organizations: Many roads, one journey

Self-help and mutual help groups are defined and the status of the literature described and reviewed. Self-help groups are different from peer and nonprofessional services under the supervision of professionals. Controlled studies of mutual help groups may be neither possible nor desirable as the method of choice by which to understand the phenomena of interest. Other approaches to research, including worldly evaluations, and ways of construing self-help organizations, that is, as normative communities and political action organizations rather than as psychological treatments, are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented.     

Early stress and social support influences on mothers' and high-risk infants' functioning in late infancy

The relationships among early stress, maternal social network supports, and mother-infant functioning during later infancy were explored in a group of 52 mothers and their high-risk premature infants. Maternal stress and support data were collected 1 month after infants were released from the hospital, and measures of parenting, mother-infant interaction, infant social and developmental competence, and infant attachment were collected at infant corrected ages of 8 and 12 months. Results indicated that stress and support from various ecological sources, including professionals, were related to parent and infant outcomes at both measurement occasions. Varying sources of support differentially predicted varying parent and infant measures where support had a stress buffering effect only under certain conditions. Professional support was found to account for significant amounts of variance in relation to some parenting factors beyond that attributable to other support sources. The results are discussed within the context of previous support findings and in relation to transactional models of high-risk infant development.     

Self-Esteem, Narcissism, and Aggression: Does Violence Result From Low Self-Esteem or From Threatened Egotism?

A traditional view holds that low self-esteem causes aggression, but recent work has not confirmed this. Although aggressive people typically have high self-esteem, there are also many nonaggressive people with high self-esteem, and so newer constructs such as narcissism and unstable self-esteem are most effective at predicting aggression. The link between self-regard and aggression is best captured by the theory of threatened egotism, which depicts aggression as a means of defending a highly favorable view of self against someone who seeks to undermine or discredit that view.     

Divine Action in the World of Physics: Response to Nicholas Saunders

Nicholas Saunders claims that, in my view, divine action requires and is confined to indeterminacies at the quantum level. I try to make clear that, in speaking of "gaps" in physical causality, I mean that the existence of intentions entails that determining law explanations alone cannot give a complete account of the natural world. By "indeterminacy" I mean a general (not quantum) lack of determining causality in the physical order. Construing physical causality in terms of dispositional properties variously realized in more or less creative ways in different contexts may be most helpful in developing an account of divine action.