Heuristic Reasoning and the Observer's View: The Influence of Example-Availability on ad-hoc Frequency Judgments in Sport

Drawing upon evidence from broader social psychology, and an illustrative study of frequency-estimation during a simple, sport-specific observe-and-recall task, this paper makes the case for the more thorough investigation of the availability heuristic (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973 Tversky, A. and Kahneman, D. 1973. Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5: 207–232. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) on practical state-of-play reasoning in largely observational sporting activities. It is argued that this evidence particularly substantiates a need for a more robust body of research in two primary domains: (a) the gatekeeping tasks pertinent (and usually preliminary) to an individual's sporting performance such as talent scouting, team selection, and substitution decisions, and (b) the business of officiating in high-tempo environments.     

The Effect of Disguise on Novice and Expert Tennis Players’ Anticipation Ability

Skilled performers interpret cues in the preparatory movements of their opponents to anticipate future events in many sports. Little work has tested whether these cues can be disguised. Using a temporal occlusion paradigm, this paper examines the effect of disguise on an Australian sample of expert (16 male, 2 female, age M = 24.67, SD = 9.47 years) and novice players’ (24 male, 38 female, age M = 22.26, SD = 5.24 years) anticipation of tennis ground strokes. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that expert anticipation was more accurate than novice overall (p < .001), and disguise reduced accuracy (p = .001). The disguise effect differed by expertise across occlusion points (p = .027). The experts’ anticipatory advantage was removed by disguise at 40 ms before contact. Novice performance was significantly below chance for disguise shots occluded at contact. These results indicate that disguise is an important topic for research and practice.     

Incorporating Handheld Computers into a Public Science Center: A Design Research Study

ABSTRACT

The feasibility of using handheld computers to customize learning opportunities was explored using a design research process with 68 visitor groups to a small interactive science museum and aquarium. The authors discuss the iterations of the research process, reasons given for both using and not using the handheld computers, and findings related to participants' prior use of handheld computers and their perception of the effects of using the device on their visit. The authors discuss the findings in light of current research on visitor motivations and identities, as well as models of customization. Recommendations for practitioners interested in implementing similar programs, and suggestions for further research are included.     

Age differences in visuospatial working memory

In two visuospatial working memory (VSWM) span experiments, older and young participants were tested under conditions of either high or low interference, using two different displays: computerized versions of a 3 x 3 matrix or the standard (randomly arrayed) Corsi block task (P. M. Corsi, 1972). Older adults' VSWM estimates were increased in the low-interference, compared with the high-interference, condition, replicating findings with verbal memory span studies. Young adults showed the opposite pattern, and together the findings suggest that typical VSWM span tasks include opposing components (interference and practice) that differentially affect young and older adults.     

Where’s the difficulty in standardized reading tests: The passage or the question?

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the extent to which item and text characteristics predict item difficulty on the comprehension portion of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests for the 7th–9th and 10th–12th grade levels. Detailed item-based analyses were performed on 192 comprehension questions on the basis of the cognitive processing model framework proposed by Embretson and colleagues (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987). Item difficulty was analyzed in terms of various passage features (e.g., word frequency and number of propositions) and individual-question characteristics (e.g., abstractness and degree of inferential processing), using hierarchical linear modeling. The results indicated that the difficulty of the items in the test for the 7th–9th grade level is primarily influenced by text features—in particular, vocabulary difficulty—whereas the difficulty of the items in the test for the 10th–12th grade level is less systematically influenced by text features.     

Communicating a Protesting Protestant Heritage

This article opens by wondering, as many critics did during and after World War II, why a tradition named for its protesting impetus is today often marked by complacency and quietism. In conversation with political theorist William Connolly and Rev. Dr. William Barber's activism, this article suggests that Luther's unique articulation of the communicatio idiomatum might offer a compelling and coherent model for Lutheran ethical‐political agency that can provide an alternative to—rather than reinforcing—the modern isolated subject cum homo economicus often associated with idealized images of Luther's protest before the Diet of Worms.     

Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and the Problem of “OOMPH”

Thomas Reid developed an important theory of freedom and moral responsibility resting on the concept of agent-causation, by which he meant the power of a rational agent to cause or not cause a volition resulting in an action. He held that this power is limited in that occasions occur when one's emotions or other forces may preclude its exercise. John Martin Fischer has raised an objection – the not enough ‘Oomph’ objection – against any incompatibilist account of freedom and moral responsibility. In this essay I argue that Fischer's not enough ‘Oomph’ objection fails to provide any reasons for rejecting Reid's incompatibilist, agent-causation account of freedom and moral responsibility.