Movement variability and skill level of various throwing techniques

In team-handball, skilled athletes are able to adapt to different game situations that may lead to differences in movement variability. Whether movement variability affects the performance of a team-handball throw and is affected by different skill levels or throwing techniques has not yet been demonstrated. Consequently, the aims of the study were to determine differences in performance and movement variability for several throwing techniques in different phases of the throwing movement, and of different skill levels. Twenty-four team-handball players of different skill levels (n=8) performed 30 throws using various throwing techniques. Upper body kinematics was measured via an 8 camera Vicon motion capture system and movement variability was calculated. Results indicated an increase in movement variability in the distal joint movements during the acceleration phase. In addition, there was a decrease in movement variability in highly skilled and skilled players in the standing throw with run-up, which indicated an increase in the ball release speed, which was highest when using this throwing technique. We assert that team-handball players had the ability to compensate an increase in movement variability in the acceleration phase to throw accurately, and skilled players were able to control the movement, although movement variability decreased in the standing throw with run-up.     

Measurement of Affect Regulation Styles (MARS) expanded

An expanded Spanish version of the Measure of Affect Regulation Styles (MARS), was applied to episodes of anger and sadness, in a sample of 355 graduate students from Chile, Spain, and Mexico. The study examines the association between affective regulation, adaptation to episodes and dispositional coping and emotional regulation, and psychological well-being. With regard to perceived improvement of adaptive goals, the following adaptive affect regulation strategies were confirmed: Instrumental coping, seeking social support, positive reappraisal, distraction, rumination, self-comfort, self-control, and emotional expression were functional; whereas inhibition and suppression were dysfunctional. Adaptive strategies were positively associated with psychological well-being, reappraisal and humor as a coping strategy. Negative associations were found between adaptive strategies and suppression and alexithymia. Maladaptive strategies show the opposite profile. Confrontation, instrumental coping, social support as well as social isolation were more frequently found in anger, an approach emotion.     

Introduction to the special section on the neural substrate of analogical reasoning and metaphor comprehension

The special section on the neural substrate of relational reasoning includes 4 articles that address the processes and brain regions involved in analogical reasoning (Green, Kraemer, Fugelsang, Gray, & Dunbar, 2011; Maguire, McClelland, Donovan, Tillman, & Krawczyk, 2011) and in metaphor comprehension (Chettih, Durgin, & Grodner, 2011; Prat, Mason, & Just, 2011). We see this work as an example of how neuroscience approaches to cognition can lead to increased understanding of cognitive processes. In this brief introduction, we first situate the 4 articles in the context of prior cognitive neuroscience work on relational reasoning. We then highlight the main issues explored in these articles: different sources of complexity and difficulty in relational processing, potential differences between the roles of the 2 hemispheres, and the impact of individual differences in various cognitive abilities. The 4 articles illustrate a range of methodologies, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI; Green et al., 2011; Prat et al., 2011), event-related potentials (ERPs; Maguire et al., 2011), and different types of semantic priming (Chettih et al., 2011; Prat et al., 2011). They highlight the connections between research on analogy and on metaphor comprehension and suggest, collectively, that a cognitive neuroscience approach to relational reasoning can lead to converging conclusions.     

Politics and the Contingent: A Plea For A More Embedded Account of Freedom as Independence

This contribution defends Ripstein's attempt to reconstruct Kant's political philosophy as entirely and consistently grounded on the idea of people's innate right to freedom as independence, in particular with respect to charges of circularity raised by other contributors to this symposium. However, it also argues that, if the concept of freedom as independence is to provide a foundation for a full‐blown account of political justice, a richer interpretation of it should be provided. In other words, we must be willing to make controversial and empirically informed claims about what counts as a threat to our freedom as independence under specific circumstances. We must have a more embedded account of freedom as independence, one that engages with the contingencies of politics and of the human condition.     

Families, Gender Relations and Social Change in Brazil: Practices, Discourse, Policy

We discuss three different areas in which policies on gender and the family have been debated and formulated in Brazil, revealing both the forces of change and the many contradictions that are at work within this society today. After a brief look at the historical vicissitudes of families and family life in Brazil, as representations and as forms of social organization, we come to our more immediate context: the re-democratization processes that engulfed Brazilian society as of the 1980s and the social actors generated therein. Issues relating to gender and sexuality become increasingly visible on the broad political agenda that, notwithstanding national specificities, also converges with social, political and cultural trends emerging all over the world in the latter decades of the twentieth century. The three specific issues we discuss here—the Maria da Penha Law on domestic violence, efforts regarding the legalization of abortion and recent debates that have emerged around a bill introduced to give legal status to same-sex relationships—provide testimony of a society characterized by tensions between mechanisms sustaining restrictive definitions of family, linked to male dominance, heterosexism and hierarchical gender roles, and those that push toward more egalitarian, diverse and democratic family relations.     

It’s About Scientific Secrecy, Dummy: A Better Equilibrium Among Genomics Patenting, Scientific Research and Health Care

This paper offers a different pragmatic and patent-based approach to concerns regarding the negative effects of genetic-based patenting on advancing scientific research and providing adequate and accessible health care services. At the basis of this approach lies an explication of a mandatory provisional patented paper procedure (PPPA), designed for genetic-based patents and administered by leading scientific journals in the field, while officially acknowledged by the USPTO, and subsequently by other patent offices as well. It is argued that the uniqueness of PPPAs lies in subsequently mitigating the negative ramifications of genetic patents on scientific research and genetic-based health care services, while basing such mitigation on a patents?? advocate viewpoint that neither discards the patent system nor jeopardizes its integrity.     

Fast and accurate calculations for cumulative first-passage time distributions in Wiener diffusion models

We propose an improved method for calculating the cumulative first-passage time distribution in Wiener diffusion models with two absorbing barriers. This distribution function is frequently used to describe responses and error probabilities in choice reaction time tasks. The present work extends related work on the density of first-passage times [Navarro, D.J., Fuss, I.G. (2009). Fast and accurate calculations for first-passage times in Wiener diffusion models. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53, 222–230]. Two representations exist for the distribution, both including infinite series. We derive upper bounds for the approximation error resulting from finite truncation of the series, and we determine the number of iterations required to limit the error below a pre-specified tolerance. For a given set of parameters, the representation can then be chosen which requires the least computational effort.     

Twelve-Month-Old Infants Generalize Novel Signed Labels,but Not Preferences Across Individuals

By the end of the 1st year, infants expect spoken labels to be extended across individuals and thus seem to understand words as shared conventional forms. However, it is unknown whether infants' willingness to extend labels across individuals is constrained to familiar forms, such as spoken words, or whether infants can identify a broader range of symbols as potential conventions. The present study tested whether 12-month-old infants will extend a novel sign label to a new person. Results indicate that 12-month-olds expect signed object–label relations to extend across agents but restrict object preferences to individuals. The results suggest that infants' expectations about conventional behaviors and linguistic forms are likely broad at 12 months. The implications of these findings for infants' early conceptions of conventional behaviors as well as our understanding of the initial state of the learner are considered.     

Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats: Possible Animal Model of Sleep-Related Movement Disorders

Clinical experience suggests that restless legs syndrome (RLS), periodic leg movement (PLM), and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may co-occur in both children and adults. The purpose of the present study was to provide an electrocorticography and electromyography evaluation of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) to investigate the potential of this rat strain as an animal model of RLS–PLM. Initial work focused on evaluating sleep patterns and limb movements during sleep in SHR, having normotensive Wistar rats (NWR) as control, followed by comparison of two treatments (pharmacological–dopaminergic agonist treatment and nonpharmacological–chronic physical exercise), known to be clinically beneficial for sleep-related movement disorders. The captured data strengthen the association between SHR and RLS–PLM, revealing a significant reduction on sleep efficiency and slow wave sleep and an increase on wakefulness and limb movements for the SHR group during the dark period, as compared to the NWR group, effects that have characteristics that are strikingly consistent with RLS–PLM. The pharmacological and nonpharmacological manipulations validated these results. The present findings suggest that the SHR may be a useful putative animal model to study sleep-related movement disorders mechanisms.     

Measuring Social Peer Rejection during Childhood: Development and Validation

This article defines the construct of social peer rejection and describes the development of the Social Peer Rejection Measure. Social peer rejection entails being rejected, excluded, ostracized, or criticized by one's peers; lack of active sympathy and active dislike on the part of one's peers; ignoring; preventing access to friends, playtime activities, toys, or important information; verbal aggression; commands; and blaming the rejected child. Evidence for the validity and reliability of the scale is presented. Results indicated strong content validity, construct validity, and criterion-referenced validity. Differences were found between females and males in terms of insult, accusation, and reported levels of physical attack.