Spatial configurations: Erikson reexamined

In a 1951 study, Erik Erikson reported differences in preadolescents' play constructions. He claimed that his findings reflected differences between males and females in their experience and perception of space. The present study replicated but also expanded the original design. In order to control for possible sex bias of materials, a constructed scene using only blocks was added to Erikson's original design. The results failed to replicate Erikson's findings. In fact, in the construction of scenes from blocks, more females than males built erected structures; this was true across all ages. These findings are in direct contrast to Erikson's results, and they lead to the conclusion that the materials provided, not innate anatomical sex differences, account for the resulting spatial configurations.The research reported here was part of the first author's dissertation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of Holy Innocents Episcopal School and Georgia State University.     

Comprehension and production of body part labels in 2‐ to 3‐year‐old children

This study examined which body part labels children could (i) produce when the experimenter touched different locations on her own body, asking each time ‘What's this?’ and (ii) comprehend by touching the correct locations on their own bodies in response to the experimenter asking ‘Where's the [body‐part label]?’. Seventeen children aged between 26 and 41 months, tested in a repeated measures procedure, were presented with 50 different body part stimuli in 200 test trials per child. Overall, the children produced fewer body part labels than they could comprehend. The accuracy of children's responses depended on (i) the location or extent of each body part (facial and broad body features were better known; joints and features in or attached to broad body parts the least well known); (ii) the amount of sensory (but not motor) representation each body part has in the human cortex; and (iii) whether a body part was commonly named by caregivers. These results present a precise mapping of the body parts that young children are able to name and locate on their own bodies in response to body part names; they suggest several possible determinants of lexical‐semantic body knowledge and add to the understanding of how it develops in childhood.     

Embodiment of motor skills when observing expert and novice athletes

If people are shown a dynamic movie of an action such as kicking a soccer ball or hitting a tennis ball, they will respond to it faster if it requires the same effector. This standard congruency effect was reported to reverse when participants viewed static images of famous athletes not actually performing an action. It was suggested that the congruent response was inhibited because of a social contrast effect, based on an implied action, whereby responders viewed themselves as comparatively worse than the professional athlete. The present study recorded hand and foot responses when identifying static images of both famous and novice athletes in soccer and tennis. The action was either explicit or implied. In Experiment 1, a standard congruency effect was found for all images. In Experiment 2, when a response was based on the identity of the athlete rather than their expertise, the standard congruency effect was enhanced for images of novice athletes, but was eliminated for experts, suggesting a social contrast effect. Our study is the first to show that embodiment effects can be seen for implied and explicit action images of both novices and experts, and that static images are capable of eliciting priming effects associated with sport-relevant effector pairings.     

Predicting performance times from deliberate practice hours for triathletes and swimmers: what, when, and where is practice important?

In Studies 1 and 2, the authors evaluated deliberate practice theory through analyses of the relationship between practice and performance for 2 populations of athletes: triathletes and swimmers, respectively. In Study 3, the authors obtained evaluations of practice from athletes' diaries. Across athletes, length of time involved in fitness activities was not related to performance. For the triathletes, a significant percentage of variance in performance was captured by practice. This was not so for sprint events for the swimmers, in which gender was a significant predictor. In the diaries, physical activities were perceived as enjoyable. In contrast to the results obtained from questionnaires, enjoyment did not covary with an activity's relevance to improving performance. Although these findings highlight the importance of sport-specific practice, the authors question a domain-independent account of expertise based on deliberate practice.     

The Relationship Between the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) and Indicators of Functioning

We investigated the relationship between scores on the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) and several indicators of functioning assessed in the national evaluation of the demonstration grants funded by the Center for Mental Health Services System of Care Initiative. The sample included 3187 youths, ranging in age from 4 to 23, with serious emotional disturbance (SED) who were evaluated at intake. At 6 month post-intake, 873 of these youths were re-evaluated. As predicted, higher CAFAS scores were associated with previous psychiatric hospitalization, more serious psychiatric diagnoses, and more restrictive living arrangements. Youths in residential inpatient settings were significantly more impaired than youths living in their own home or in regular foster care. Below average school performance, poor attendance, and contact with law enforcement personnel were also associated with greater impairment. Youth's total CAFAS scores decreased significantly from intake to 6 months. These results indicate that the CAFAS is a measure of functioning which has both statistical and clinical significance.     

Reading between the minds: the use of stereotypes in empathic accuracy

An ideal empathizer may attend to another person's behavior in order to understand that person, but it is also possible that accurately understanding other people involves top-down strategies. We hypothesized that perceivers draw on stereotypes to infer other people's thoughts and that stereotype use increases perceivers' accuracy. In this study, perceivers (N = 161) inferred the thoughts of multiple targets. Inferences consistent with stereotypes for the targets' group (new mothers) more accurately captured targets' thoughts, particularly when actual thought content was also stereotypic. We also decomposed variance in empathic accuracy into thought, target, and perceiver variance. Although past research has frequently focused on variance between perceivers or targets (which assumes individual differences in the ability to understand other people or be understood, respectively), the current study showed that the most substantial variance was found within targets because of differences among thoughts.