Visual and Proprioceptive Determinants of Space Perception and Movement

The present study determined the relationship between perception of the upright in 2-dimensional space and movement accuracy. 161 female Ss were administered the Rod and Frame Test, and 30 Ss, whose scores indicated the greatest and least error in perceptual differentiation, were assigned to 2 experimental groups and measured on accuracy of postural pursuit tracking. The effects of direction of movement and visual field conditions on accuracy of performance were determined by a coordinate postural platform and hybrid computer methods. A direct relationship existed between perception of the vertical in space and accuracy of motor responses and that perceptual integration was affected by the direction of movement and the presence of a stable visual field.     

Measuring Postural Sway in Sitting: A New Segmental Approach

Global measures of trunk sway are traditionally used even though the trunk comprises a multiple number of segments. The authors’ aim was to measure the seated sway of typically developing children using a multisegment approach. Twenty typically developing children divided into 2 groups, older and younger than 10 years old, participated in this study. The children sat unsupported for 30 s while their posture and sway were quantified using stereophotogrammetry. The tendency in both age groups was to sit with a backward tilted pelvis and a kyphotic trunk. The sitting position was most varied in the younger group. Marker sway amplitude and velocity in sitting were age dependent, with reduced sway amplitude and velocity with increased age for all segments. Anteroposterior intersegmental angular sway was not age dependent. The difference in marker sway in the anteroposterior direction for the younger group appeared to result from an equally stable trunk supported on a less stable pelvis. Mediolateral marker sway and intersegmental angular sway showed a clearer age dependency. Trunk postural control does not appear to differ between children older and younger than 10 years old, but sagittal plane pelvic stability can explain the increased sway reported in younger children.     

How do generic statements impact performance? Evidence for entity beliefs

Generic statements about the abilities of children's social groups (e.g. ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game’) negatively impact children's performance – even if the statements are favorable towards children's own social groups. We explored the mechanism by which generic language impairs children's performance. Across three studies, our findings suggest that generic statements influence children's performance by creating an entity belief (i.e. a belief that a fixed ability determines performance). Children who were exposed to a generic statement about their social group's ability performed worse than children in control conditions. This effect hurt children's performance even when the person who made the generic statement was no longer present and a new person not privy to the statement replaced them. However, when children heard a generic statement paired with an effort explanation (i.e. ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game because they try really hard when they draw’) they performed better than children who heard the generic statement with no explanation (i.e. just ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game’) and children who heard the generic statement paired with a trait explanation (i.e. ‘Girls/Boys are good at this game because they are smart and really good at drawing’). This work uncovers when and how generic statements that refer to the ability of one's social group hinder performance, informing the development of practices to improve student motivation and learning.     

Attentional control in OCD and GAD: specificity and associations with core cognitive symptoms

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are both defined by excessive negatively-valenced cognitions. Although obsessional thoughts are considered essential to OCD and perseverative worry is considered essential to GAD, these excessive cognitions have been found to co-occur in both disorders. Accordingly, a common diathesis may influence the emergence of excessive thoughts in both disorders. The present study examined deficits in attentional control as a cognitive vulnerability that may contribute to both obsessional thought and perseverative worry. Patients with OCD (n = 30), GAD (n = 29), and non-clinical controls (NCC; n = 29) completed measures of obsessional thoughts, perseverative worry, and attentional control. Deficits in self-reported attentional control were found in both OCD and GAD relative to the NCC. However, attentional control was only related to excessive cognition in the GAD patient group, where deficits were associated with increased perseverative worry. Mediational modeling suggested that trait anxiety mediated the relationship between attentional control and perseverative worry in GAD. Implications of these findings for conceptualizing the role of attentional control in the genesis of excessive cognitions in OCD and GAD are discussed.     

Physical fitness of South African primary school children, 6 to 13 years of age: discovery vitality health of the nation study

Basic physical fitness was measured using 8 different measures for 10,295 South African children and youths (5,611 boys, 4,684 girls) ages 6 to 13 years. These measurements included height, weight, Body Mass Index, standing long jump, shuttle run, sit-and-reach, sit-up (EUROFIT testing battery), and cricket ball throw scores. Due to the effects of earlier apartheid laws on separating communities, it was hypothesized that scores for different ethnic groups may differ. Therefore, in addition to the calculation of basic norms and sex differences, ethnic differences were also tested. Height and weight, relative to age, were different between the various ethnic groups (Black, White, and Mixed ancestry) for boys, with Black boys being shorter and lighter than White boys. There were no differences in sit-and-reach flexibility scores between the groups. With the exception of the cricket ball throw for girls, White children had higher scores in most tests. Although not significantly different from the White children, in the majority of cases, the children of mixed ancestral origin had scores that ranged between the other two ethnic groups. These results suggest a need for encouraging fitness in school children, and the reintroduction of formal physical education into the South African school curriculum, especially into schools in which Black children predominate.     

Singular thoughts and singular propositions

A singular thought about an object o is one that is directly about o in a characteristic way—grasp of that thought requires having some special epistemic relation to the object o, and the thought is ontologically dependent on o. One account of the nature of singular thought exploits a Russellian Structured Account of Propositions, according to which contents are represented by means of structured n-tuples of objects, properties, and functions. A proposition is singular, according to this framework, if and only if it contains an object as a constituent. One advantage of the framework of Russellian Structured propositions is that it promises to provide a metaphysical basis for the notion of a singular thought about an object, grounding it in terms of constituency. In this paper, we argue that the attempt to ground the peculiar features of singular thoughts in terms of metaphysical constituency fails, and draw some consequences of our discussion for other debates.     

The two sides of adversity: the effect of distant versus recent adversity on updating emotional content in working memory

Previous research suggests that adversity can have both adaptive and maladaptive effects, yet the emotional and working memory processes that contribute to more or less adaptive outcomes are unclear. The present study sought to investigate how updating emotional content differs in adolescents who have experienced past, recent, or no adversity. Participants who had experienced distant adversity (N?=?53), no adversity (N?=?58), or recent adversity only (N?=?20) performed an emotion n-back task with emotional facial expressions. Results revealed that the distant adversity group exhibited significantly faster reaction times (RTs) than the no adversity and recent adversity only groups. In contrast, the recent adversity only group exhibited significantly slower RTs and more errors than the distant adversity and no adversity groups. These results suggest an emotion and executive control pathway by which both the benefits and negative effects of adversity may be conferred. Results also highlight the importance of time in assessing the impact of adversity.     

Phantom Behavioral Assimilation Effects: Systematic Biases in Social Comparison Choice Studies

ABSTRACT Consistent with social comparison theory (SCT), Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, and Kuyper (1999) and Huguet, Dumas, Monteil, and Genestoux (2001) found that students tended to choose comparison targets who slightly outperformed them (i.e., upward comparison choices), and this had a beneficial effect on subsequent performance—a behavioral assimilation effect (BAE). We show (Studies 1 and 2) that this apparent BAE is due, in part, to uncontrolled measurement error in pretest achievement. However, using simulated data (Study 3), these phantom BAEs were eliminated with latent‐variable models with multiple indicators. In Studies 4 and 5, latent‐variable models were applied to the Blanton et al. and Huguet et al. data, resulting in substantially smaller but still significantly positive BAEs. More generally in personality research based on correlational data, failure to control measurement error in pretest/background variables will positively bias the apparent effects of personality variables of interest, but widely applicable approaches demonstrated here can correct for these biases.     

Individuals and environments: Linking ability and skill ratings with interests

Holland's (1997) theory of corresponding person and work environment structures was evaluated by comparing the integration of individual and occupational ratings of interests, abilities, and skills. Occupational ratings were obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database (U.S. Department of Labor, 2007). College students (494 women, 526 men) provided self-ratings of their interests, abilities, and skills. Property vector fitting was used to embed ability and skill ratings into the Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC) interest structure, and bootstrapping was used to generate confidence intervals for the angles of the vectors and the magnitude of their fit to the Holland model. Across the individual and occupational ratings, 18 of 45 (40%) ability vectors and 41 of 48 (85%) skill vectors were fit into the RIASEC model. No significant gender differences were found in the integration of self-rated abilities and skills into the RIASEC circumplex; however, some differences were found between individual and environmental ratings. Obtained results highlight the potential utility and limitations of using Holland's model for representing both individual and occupational data in a common structure.     

Academic success in adolescence: Relationships among verbal IQ,social support and emotional intelligence

The objective of this study was to examine, by gender, whether emotional intelligence (EI), peer social support, and/or family social support partially mediated the influence of verbal IQ on Grade 10 grade point average (GPA) for 192 students (96 male, 96 female). For male students, EI and peer social support predicted GPA and EI mediated the association between verbal IQ and GPA. For female students, EI, peer social support, and family support predicted GPA but did not mediate the association between verbal IQ and GPA. This study further examined whether subscales of EI (intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, and stress management abilities), peer social support and family social support (emotional, socialising, practical, financial, and advice) added to the prediction of GPA after verbal IQ, gender, and socioeconomic status were controlled. Adaptability, stress management and practical family social support each added to the explanation of variability. None of the peer social support subscales predicted additional variance in GPA.