Effects of time and movements of the preshot routine on free throw shooting.

This study examined the effects of length and movements of preshot routines on free throw shooting in basketball. 17 members of an intercollegiate men's basketball team attempted 20 free throws in each of four different conditions: (1) normal routine and time, (2) normal routine with altered time, (3) altered routine with normal time, and (4) altered routine with altered time. Free throw performance was measured using an objective 5-point scoring system. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated a significant effect for routine. Neither time nor routine by time was significant. Results indicated that altering the movements in the routine had a significant effect on performance while lengthening the time did not.     

The Influence of Instructions to Correct for Bias on Social Judgments

We examined how instructions to correct for bias influenced judgments of a male target person whose behavior towards a female was either negative or ambiguous. Half of the female participants with egalitarian or traditional views about gender were instructed to correct for bias prior to reading the vignette. All participants rated his negative behavior unfavorably. In the non-instructed condition, participants with a traditional bias rated the ambiguous male behavior more favorably than participants with an egalitarian bias. However, in the instructed condition, this pattern was reversed. Results demonstrate that the evaluative implications of behavior can impact correction effects.     

The Relationship Between Levels of Guilt in Thematic Stories and Unsocialized Behavior

Many previous studies on the relationship between inhibition of expression of hostility in thematic stories have focused on the severity of the punishment rather than the quality of the guilt expressed. Using a more subtle approach, it was found that an increase in the level and quality of guilt expressed in TAT stories was significantly associated with a reduction in unsocialized behavior. The results suggest that an analysis of guilt along dimensions of internalization, the concern for others, and the desire to change offers a way of dealing with thematic productions that is more consistent with our clinical observations and understanding.     

Psychological need satisfaction and thwarting: A test of Basic Psychological Needs Theory in physical activity contexts

ObjectivesTo test Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT; Deci & Ryan, 2002) to determine if psychological need thwarting experienced when physically active contributes to the understanding of well-being and ill-being.Design/methodParticipants (N = 155, 67.70% female, M_age = 37.46 years; SD_age = 19.89 years) completed assessments of psychological need satisfaction and thwarting, subjective vitality and positive/negative affect during separate testing sessions separated by 6 months.ResultsScores from the modified version of the Psychological Need Thwarting Scale (PNTS-PA; Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Ryan, & Thøgersen-Ntoumani, 2011) demonstrated discriminant evidence of validity, evidence of internal structure and minimal error variance. Changes in psychological need satisfaction positively predicted positive affect (R² = .16, p < .05), subjective vitality (R² = .13, p < .05) and negatively predicted negative affect (R² = .12, p < .05). Additional regression analyses revealed that changes in psychological need thwarting predicted negative affect (ΔR² = .11, p < .05), but not positive affect (ΔR² = .01, p > .05) or subjective vitality (ΔR² = .04, p > .05) beyond contributions made by psychological need satisfaction.ConclusionsOverall, these results extend the potential utility of the PNTS-PA as an instrument for use with BPNT beyond sport and support Deci and Ryan's (2002) contentions regarding the critical role of psychological need thwarting.     

Relationship of personalized jerseys and aggression in women's ice hockey

The present study examined the relationship between aggression and players' names on uniforms in collegiate women's ice hockey. Aggression was defined as mean penalty minutes per game. Information, i.e., win/loss record, penalties, and names on uniforms, about the 2002-2003 season women's ice hockey team was obtained via e-mail from 53 of 72 (74% return rate) sports information directors (Division I = 23, Division II = 2, Division III = 28). Analysis indicated that teams with personalized jerseys had significantly more penalty minutes per game than teams without personalized jerseys. However, as the majority of the teams with personalized jerseys were Division I teams and the majority of the teams without personalized jerseys were Division III teams, it is unclear whether results were due to personalized jersey or competition level of play.     

Perception without attention: results of a new method.

Having found by the use of a new method for examining perception without attention that grouping and texture segregation do not seem to occur (see Mack, Tang, Tuma, Kahn, & Rock (1992) Cognitive Psychology, 24, we go on to ask what is perceived without attention using this new method. Our subjects receive only one inattention trial in a sequence of trials involving a visual distraction task. In addition to the distraction task in the inattention trial, subjects received a stimulus of which they had no prior knowledge or expectation and were questioned or tested directly afterward for their perception of that stimulus. Two subsequent trials containing test stimuli serve as within-subject controls. The results of a series of experiments indicate that the presence of one or more stimulus objects and their locations are preattentively perceived, as is their color, but shape is not. Because individual items are detected without attention, we conclude that perceptual organization is initially based on a principle in which connected regions of uniform stimulation are inferred to be discrete units (the principle of uniform connectedness). One striking, unexpected finding is that without attention many subjects have no awareness at all of the stimulus object, an effect we call inattentional blindness.     

Immediate correction and adaptation based on viewing a prismatically displaced scene

It was shown that when observers view a scene of a room through displacing prisms there is an immediate correction of the prismatic distortion. Objects appear to lie in a direction closer to their true direction than to that produced by the refraction of the prisms. It was also shown that a brief period of exposure to the prismatically viewed scene, without movement or sight of the body, results in substantial adaptation to the displacement.