Retention of Quiet Eye in Older Skilled Basketball Players

There is mounting research to suggest that cognitive and motor expertise is more resistant to age-related decline than more general capacities. The authors investigated the retention of skills in medium-aged skilled (n = 14) and older-aged skilled (n = 7) athletes by comparing them with medium-aged less skilled (n = 15) and older-aged less skilled (n = 15) participants. Participants performed basketball free throws and dart throws as a transfer task under standardized conditions. Motor performance (accuracy) and perceptual performance (quiet eye) were examined across the four groups. There were significant differences between skill groups and age groups in throwing accuracy on both throwing tasks. Skilled players outperformed less skilled and medium-aged players outperformed older-aged players in basketball and dart throws. There were no significant differences in quiet eye duration across the skill or age groups in either task. These results indicate expertise in a perceptual motor task such as the basketball free throw can be retained in older athletes and that present models of skill maintenance should be re-evaluated to consider the issue of transfer.     

THE DIMENSIONALITY PARADOX IN COMPARATIVE JUDGMENT: A RESOLUTION

S jöberg , L. The dimensionality paradox in comparative judgment: a resolution. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1968, 9, 97–108. — It has often been possible to erect unidimensional scales although stimuli have been clearly multidimensional. This fact is surprising since one expects the multidimensional structure to be reflected in data. It is suggested that this structure might be recovered from dispersions of comparative judgments. The suggestion is shown to be valid on three sets of paired comparison data. Implications for uni- and multidimensional scaling are discussed.     

THREE MODELS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SUBJECTIVE RATIOS

SJÖBERG, L. Three models for the analysis of subjective ratios. Scand. J. Psychol. , 12, 217–240.–Circular area and heaviness were judged under four response modes: free ratio, per cent, similarity, and multiple estimation. Three log linear models were suggested for these data, each new model bringing in more free parameters to be fitted and assuming less strict types of invariance of subjective values. The most demanding, and traditional, model frequently had to be rejected. This "inconsistency" could be attributed both to the factor of relative size of the two stimuli in a comparative judgment and to the fixed vs. free factor. As a byproduct it was found that the Eisler-Ekman "similarity equation" was not supported by these data.     

THE LAW OF COMPARATIVE JUDGMENT: A case not assuming equal variances and covariances

S jöberg , L. The law of comparative judgment: a case not assuming equal variances and covariances. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1962, 3 , 219–225.—Anew case of the law of comparative judgment is described. It utilizes information contained in the tetrachoric correlations between pairs of stimuli. A multivariate normal distribution of subjective values is assumed. A second assumption is that covariances are unaffected by changes in 'surrounding' stimuli. The computational work is rather heavy but programs for two Swedish computers are now available in Algol code.     

DIFFERENTIATION OF CHARACTER NEUROSIS AND SYMPTOM NEUROSIS ON THE BASIS OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TWO SERIAL EXPERIMENTS

The difference between two serial tests as regards signs of hysteria and obsession-compulsion is compared with differences in number of symptoms reported by the patient. Signs in the more formal colour-word test, measuring habitual behaviour patterns, correspond to fewer symptoms than signs in a tachistoscopic test revealing more of the perceptual representation (content) of behaviour disorders. This difference is supposed to reflect important aspects of the difference between character neurosis and symptom neurosis.     

SUCCESSIVE INTERVALS SCALING WITH UNEQUAL VARIANCES AND COVARIANCES

The paper describes a solution for scale values in successive intervals scaling which does not assume equal covariances and variances. A more restrictive distribution assumption is made, however. Advantages and disadvantages of the method are discussed in relation to the two available conventional scaling techniques for scaling with unequal variances.     

Successive intervals scaling of paired comparisons

In this paper a method is developed for analyzing data resulting from the use of a modification of the usual paired comparisons procedure which allows for ratings of size of difference. The scaling model is essentially an extension of the Thurstonian successive intervals model. The method is applied to scaling of a set of nine immoral actions and the results agree rather well with those from conventional successive intervals scaling of the same stimuli.This study was supported by a grant from the Swedish Council for Social Science Research.