Physical activity,motor ability,and school readiness of 6-yr.-old children

The aim of this investigation was to study the relationships between physical activity, motor ability, and school readiness in 6-yr.-old children. In total, 294 healthy children from Tartu were studied (161 boys and 133 girls). The physical activity of children was reported by parents and teachers using the questionnaire of Harro. The motor ability of children was evaluated using various tests from the Eurofit test battery as well as the 3-min. endurance shuttle run test. The Controlled Drawing Observation rest was used as a predictor of school readiness and development of mental abilities. Indoor physical activities predicted 19-25% of total variance in motor scores for these preschool children. Motor ability tests, which demand children's total attention and concentration, appear related to the chosen measures of school readiness.     

When ecology and sociology meet: the contributions of Edward A. Ross

Edward A. Ross, a key figure in the early history of American sociology, developed a conceptualization of natural and social changes of the material environment that is virtually forgotten today. In this paper, these topics are discussed and located vis-à-vis Ross's intellectual contemporaries and their general take on the nature/society relationship. It is argued that ecological and sociological ideas in the early twentieth century influenced one another and, in the case of Ross, produced a perspective of social change that tried to include the dynamics of nature.     

Gender and handedness effects on hedonicity of laterally presented odours

The effect of lateral presentation of odours on the hedonic evaluation is reported using a range of different substances. The hypothesis that hedonic evaluation of odours depends on stimulated nostril and on gender and handedness is tested using psychophysical methodology. A total of 51 untrained subjects evaluated 16 substances with different hedonic valences. Each odour substance was presented to the subjects four times, twice at each nostril using a balanced experimental design. Effects of gender and handedness, and interactions, are observed. Some parallels with the perception of visual emotional stimuli are suggested. Hedonic processing of odour stimuli is concluded to be an emotional, rather than an analytical task.     

Object-based selection operates on a grouped array of locations

In two experiments, space- and object-based selection effects were investigated, using variants of the ring-cuing paradigm of Egly and Homa (1984). The results revealed significant cuing modulation for nonring configurations of target locations spanning a range of retinal eccentricities, with the cuing effects independent of eccentricity and confined to the configuration of locations (rather than extending to locations within the space enclosed by the cued configuration). These results are consistent with object-based selection operating on a grouped spatial array (Vecera & Farah, 1994). Object selection may be based on a supradimensional saliency map representation of the field, modulated by feature-specific segmentation mechanisms (e.g., an object may be made salient on the basis of its color). Complex objects may be represented by grouped saliency signals. In this way, a two-dimensional spatial (saliency) representation may provide the common format for object-based selection, prior to full object definition.     

n-Variable Bisection

This paper deals with the measurement problem of deriving an overall evaluation of stimuli by n-component bisection. Reflexivity and a generalised form of bisymmetry for two variables will be shown to characterise n-component bisection in terms of quasilinear means, unique up to linear transformations of their generating functions. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Brain Potentials in the Processing of Complex Sentences: An ERP Study of Control and Raising Constructions

In the present study we made use of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to examine raising and subject control constructions in German. Our most salient result is that the ERPs elicited at the empty subject position of a raising construction are clearly different from those elicited at the corresponding position of an otherwise identical subject control construction, the former producing a stronger P600. We argue that this result provides an electrophysiological correlate of the theoretical distinction between NP trace and PRO.     

Implicit and explicit learning of event sequences: evidence for distinct coding of perceptual and motor representations

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) of 21 subjects were recorded in a choice reaction time task with a repeating eight-element long stimulus sequence. The regular event sequence was sometimes interrupted by 'perceptual' or by 'motor deviants' which both replaced an expected stimulus but either preserved or violated the sequence of motor responses. Response times confirmed that all subjects had acquired some knowledge of the sequential dependencies. By means of a post-experimental free recall and recognition test, subjects were classified as having either explicit or implicit knowledge of the event sequence. The ERPs showed different effects for different types of stimuli and the two groups. In the group of explicit learners, a larger N200 component was evoked by both types of deviants and a larger P300 by motor deviants only. In the group of implicit learners these 'perceptual components' remained unaffected. In contrast, in both groups of subjects the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) which accompanied motor deviants revealed a partial activation of the to be expected but incorrect response, i.e. motor learning. These results suggest that explicit learners acquire knowledge about both, stimulus and response dependencies while implicit learners acquire knowledge about response dependencies only.     

Family perception of interpersonal behavior as a predictor in eating disorders: a prospective, six-year followup study

This study assessed family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior in families with a daughter diagnosed with an eating disorder 6 years after treatment that used a prospective design. Family perception patterns of patients found to have a poor outcome at followup (n = 15) were compared with patients with a good outcome (n = 23), as well as a control group (n = 36). Using the system of multiple level observation of groups (SYMLOG), all 238 family members evaluated themselves and each other. The index patients with a poor outcome perceived themselves as friendlier and more positive than they were perceived by their families. In comparison to parents of daughters with a good outcome and the control group, parents of daughters in the poor outcome group perceived themselves to be less friendly than their partners perceived them to be. A rigid polarization of the perception of the index patient by family members and a discrepancy in this perception between the index patient and the rest of the family were found to be indicative of a poor prognosis. Implications for treatment based on family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior are discussed.     

Evidence for 40-Hz oscillatory short-term visual memory revealed by human reaction-time measurements

Four experiments show that presentation of a synchronous premask frame within a 40-Hz, flickering premask matrix primes subsequent detection of a Kanizsa-type square by generation of a 40-Hz prime. Reaction time (RT) priming effects indicated a 150-200-ms prime duration following premask display. RTs were also found to be sensitive to the phase relationship between offset of the premask display relative to the onset time of the target: Priming effects were maximal when the target was presented out of phase with premask presentation (i.e., at interstimulus intervals displaced by 180 degrees relative to the 40-Hz rhythm of premask-frame presentation). Taken together, these results demonstrate the existence of a very short-term visual memory that oscillates at 40 Hz. The findings are discussed in the context of complementary psychological and neurophysiological findings related to visual-object coding and the role of gamma-band activity in the brain.     

Modularity of object and place memory in children

The present study investigated modularity of object and place memory in children with the reaction time/accuracy paradigm. The memory task was presented in two spatial arrays, a frame with landmarks and a grid. Modularity was tested using perceptual size judgment (what-interference) and movement direction judgment (where-interference). Latencies of object memory were increased by same-system what-interference in all age groups indicating limited capacity of an object memory system. With respect to accuracy of object and place memory, only young children's performance was susceptible to same-system interference of perceptual judgment.