Views on aging and emotional benefits of physical activity: Effects of an exercise intervention in older women

Objectives

This intervention study evaluated the effects of exercise in old age on views on one’s own aging and on direct approach motivation for physical activity. It further examined the mechanism between these variables.

Design

Two hundred forty-seven healthy women aged 70−93 years were randomized to an exercise course (n = 86), an active (n = 85), or a passive control group (n = 76) for a 6-month participation in Berlin, Germany. Activity interventions (3 × 1.5 h/wk) were conducted using standardized manuals.

Method

Group differences in changes of views on aging and direct approach were evaluated by analyses of covariance adjusted for baseline. A mediating effect of direct approach between exercise participation and views on aging was tested with percentile-based bootstrapping.

Results

In contrast to both the active and the passive control groups, higher direct approach, F(2, 226) = 6.97, p = .001, and less aging dissatisfaction, F(2, 225) = 5.39, p = .005, were observed in the exercise group after 6 months. Exercise had an indirect beneficial effect on aging dissatisfaction through direct approach, B = −0.31, 95% CI = −0.68 to −0.05.

Conclusion

In women above 70 years, exercise participation increases direct approach motivation which in turn leads to lower aging dissatisfaction. This shows that exercise holds the potential to overcome subjective ageist bias.     

Fixation positions after skipping saccades: A single space makes a large difference

During reading, saccadic eye movements are generated to shift words into the center of the visual field for lexical processing. Recently, Krügel and Engbert (Vision Research 50:1532?C1539, 2010) demonstrated that within-word fixation positions are largely shifted to the left after skipped words. However, explanations of the origin of this effect cannot be drawn from normal reading data alone. Here we show that the large effect of skipped words on the distribution of within-word fixation positions is primarily based on rather subtle differences in the low-level visual information acquired before saccades. Using arrangements of ??x?? letter strings, we reproduced the effect of skipped character strings in a highly controlled single-saccade task. Our results demonstrate that the effect of skipped words in reading is the signature of a general visuomotor phenomenon. Moreover, our findings extend beyond the scope of the widely accepted range-error model, which posits that within-word fixation positions in reading depend solely on the distances of target words. We expect that our results will provide critical boundary conditions for the development of visuomotor models of saccade planning during reading.     

A theoretical analysis of the perceptual span based on SWIFT simulations of the n + 2 boundary paradigm

Eye-movement experiments suggest that the perceptual span during reading is larger than the fixated word, asymmetric around the fixation position, and shrinks in size contingent on the foveal processing load. We used the SWIFT model of eye-movement control during reading to test these hypotheses and their implications under the assumption of graded parallel processing of all words inside the perceptual span. Specifically, we simulated reading in the boundary paradigm and analysed the effects of denying the model to have valid preview of a parafoveal word n + 2 two words to the right of fixation. Optimizing the model parameters for the valid preview condition only, we obtained span parameters with remarkably realistic estimates conforming to the empirical findings on the size of the perceptual span. More importantly, the SWIFT model generated parafoveal processing up to word n + 2 without fitting the model to such preview effects. Our results suggest that asymmetry and dynamic modulation are plausible properties of the perceptual span in a parallel word-processing model such as SWIFT. Moreover, they seem to guide the flexible distribution of processing resources during reading between foveal and parafoveal words.     

Accuracy of Effect Size Estimates From Published Psychological Experiments Involving Multiple Trials

The reporting of exaggerated effect size estimates may occur either through researchers accepting statistically significant results when power is inadequate and/or from repeated measures approaches aggregating, averaging multiple items, or multiple trials. Monte-Carlo simulations with input of a small, medium, or large effect size were conducted on multiple items or trials that were either averaged or aggregated to create a single dependent measure. Alpha was set at the .05 level, and the trials were assessed over item or trial correlations ranging from 0 to 1. Simulations showed a large increase in observed effect size averages and the power to accept these estimates as statistically significant increased over numbers of trials or items. Overestimation effects were mitigated as correlations between trials increased but still remained substantial in some cases. The implications of these findings for meta-analyses and different research scenarios are discussed.     

A Great Many Things to Do and Not a Minute to Spare: Can Feedback From Supervisors Moderate the Relationship Between Skill Variety,Time Pressure,and Employees' Innovative Behavior?

Workplace changes necessitate employees' innovative behavior. Developing and implementing new ideas can be enhanced by focusing on situational characteristics and adjusting them to improve employees' working conditions. To date, mostly interactions between situational and personal characteristics on innovative behavior have been researched. This study focused explicitly on the interaction between 3 situational characteristics: time pressure, skill variety, and feedback from supervisors. A questionnaire study was administered to 81 employees (age range 40–64 years) from different organizations. Results indicated direct positive correlations between time pressure and skill variety with idea generation and implementation. Feedback from supervisors moderated the positive relationships while controlling for effects of creative thinking abilities. Implications are explored.     

Microdevelopment in Parent-Child Conversations: From Global Changes to Flexibility

In previous studies we demonstrated that the speech of a language-acquiring child and that of her parent can be characterized as a transactional process of dynamic adaptation. We reported a striking attunement between child and parent in the global development of mean length of utterance and utterance length between the ages of 1.5 and 2.5 years.

Here we present a reanalysis of these data, focusing on the utilization of different categories of utterance length. In particular we analyzed the temporal structure of the dialogue on the linguistic level using the technique of cross-recurrence quantification. This type of analysis enabled us to study the interaction between interlocutors at the microlevel, revealing the dynamics of child-parent conversation and how this changes over time.

Results showed decreasing values for measures quantifying the vertical line structures as well as an increasing average length of the diagonal lines in the recurrence plot. This was interpreted as indicating an increasing flexibility in the patterns of parent-child dialogue over the period of 1 year.     

Teacher Burnout in Hong Kong and Germany: A Cross-Cultural Validation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory

Teacher burnout is a world-wide phenomenon that draws the attention of educational psychologists and stimulates efforts in construct elaboration and measurement. Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (cynicism), and lack of personal accomplishments are three dimensions that constitute the burnout syndrome. Levels of this burnout syndrome were compared among 542 German and Chinese teachers. It turned out that there were only minor differences between the Germans and the Chinese, but major differences between those two groups and the U.S. American normative data. Moreover, stress resource factors were measured, namely perceived self-efficacy and proactive attitude. Their negative intercorrelations with burnout supported the validity of the burnout measure, although the associations were much closer in the German subsample. An attempt to replicate the American three-factorial structure of the burnout construct failed in both subsamples, which is in line with previous evidence and calls for a revision of the original measure.     

Eating Disorders: A Bond between Medicine,Culture and Psychoanalysis

Action in connection with the therapeutic process is often equated with acting out. The subtle behaviour that belongs to ?the complicated system of transmitting and receiving unconscious signals? (Sandler), with which the patient attempts to make the analyst behave as the object of transference or to fulfill an unconscious desire, is also described as acting out or micro-acting out (Treurniet). This fine-grained action, however, means nothing; it is not symbolic or communicative action. Its intention is, rather, to trigger effects and induce interactions. It occurs not only on the side of the analysand but also on that of the analyst, and is part of the unconscious communication in the therapeutic process. Presented here are some of the various interactive ways and means with which the analyst is prompted into unconscious action and certain, unnoticed, ways in that he turn ?treats? the patient. The analyst's action responses can bear the character of interpretations with which he may unintentionally reveal how he regards the behaviour of the patient.     

Optimism,goals, and threats: How to conceptualize self-regulatory processes in the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors

Abstract

How individuals control themselves and their health behaviors can be better understood by examining their self-beliefs in terms of threats and goals. The distinction between self-regulatory threat appraisals and self-regulatory goal attainment may help to explain when individuals fall prey to defensive optimism and when they are guided by functional optimism. To underscore the notion of process-specific self-beliefs, a further distinction is made between goal-setting self-efficacy, action self-efficacy, coping self-efficacy, and recovery self-efficacy.     

Left or right carotid endarterectomy in patients with atherosclerotic disease: ipsilateral effects on cognition?

We evaluated hemispheric functions ipsilateral to the side of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in patients with a severe stenosis in the left or right carotid artery. Assessments took place 1 day before and 3 months after CEA. Only right-handed males were included. Nineteen patients underwent surgery of the left carotid artery and 17 of the right. Valid instruments for hemispheric function were included, such as verbal dichotic listening, finger tapping, and a lateralised test for motor planning. Results showed that, preoperatively, patients had lower scores compared to norms on the laterality tests, and on a visuoconstructive test. There was no evidence of ipsilateral improvement related to side of surgery. Left ear dichotic listening improved, which was seen in both left and right surgery groups. Also in both groups, left- and right-hand movement speed in the motor planning test decreased. Conclusion is that beneficial ipsilateral cognitive change after CEA in patients with severe stenosis in one of the carotid arteries may not be demonstrated, even if valid instruments for hemispheric function are included.