Position Sense Dysfunction Affects Proximal and Distal Arm Joints in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

It is unclear, whether proprioceptive dysfunction in developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is localized affecting only specific joints or whether it is generalized affecting proximal and distal joints. Thus, this study assessed position sense acuity at the elbow and wrist in twenty children with DCD (age: 9–11 yrs.) using a joint position matching paradigm. Position sense bias (systematic error) at either joint was not significantly higher in DCD children when compared to typically developing children (TD). However, DCD children exhibited significantly lower position sense precision (random error) than TD children at both elbow and wrist. That is, response reliability to proprioceptive stimuli is altered in DCD. Our findings are consistent with a view that proprioceptive dysfunction in DCD is generalized in nature.     

Role of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor) in children with developmental coordination disorder

The purposes of this study were to examine test-retest reliability of the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (Non-Motor)-Revised (TVPS-R), to explore motor-free visual-perceptual skills, and to categorize subtypes thereof in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). One hundred and seventy-eight children, aged 9 and 10 years, identified as having DCD with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC), were assessed, along with 200 typically developing children. The results showed good test-retest reliability for the total perceptual quotient scores of the TVPS-R, but not for all subtests. Children with DCD performed significantly poorer compared to typically developing children on the visual-perceptual test, but the deficits were not common to all children with DCD. This study supported the stance that we should consider the heterogeneous characteristics of children with DCD when designing experimental studies or developing educational interventions.     

Relation of dispositional optimism with burnout among athletes

Optimism is important in enhancing human psychological and physical well-being; however, the association of optimism with burnout has received little attention in sport psychology. This study recruited 139 young volleyball players (M = 16.3 yr., SD = 0.8) to examine this relation. Athletes completed the Chinese version of the Life Orientation Test at Time 1 and 4 mo. later (Time 2). The Chinese version of the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire was also administered. Analysis showed scores on optimism were negatively related to athletes' burnout scores.     

Orthographic combinability and phonological consistency effects in reading Chinese phonograms: an event-related potential study

In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to trace the temporal dynamics of phonological consistency and phonetic combinability in the reading of Chinese phonograms. The data showed a significant consistency-by-combinability interaction at N170. High phonetic combinability characters elicited greater negativity at N170 than did low phonetic combinability characters, and the combinability effect was only found in the reading of high consistency characters. The results support the phonological mapping hypothesis of the reading-related N170 effect and suggest that the earlier stages of visual word recognition are shaped by the mapping of orthography to phonology even in Chinese. Moreover, our data revealed both consistency and combinability effects at P200 and N400, accounted for by the two-stage framework for visual word recognition. That is, characters with high combinability or high consistency facilitated the earlier stages of orthographic or phonological processing which were due to increased activation at the perceptual level; consequently, less positive P200 was demonstrated. In the later stages, high combinability or high consistency characters were associated with a larger semantic neighborhood, which increased semantic competition and exaggerated the N400 effect. These data support the assumption of radical-based inputs proposed by the lexical constituent model. However, the phonetic consistency effects found at N170 and P200 cannot be reconciled with the current framework of the lexical constituent model. A possible revision will be discussed.     

The Effect of Terminologies on Attitudes Toward Advertisements and Brands: Consumer Product Knowledge as a Moderator

Purpose  

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between advertisement terminology and consumer product knowledge in the attitudes toward advertisements and brands.     

A cognitive maze

A cognitive maze was developed to study perceptual and conceptual processes in the discovery of relationships through inductive inference and flexible shifting of mental sets adaptive to changed problems. For example, the experimenter-tester presents a list of digits in consecutive pairs; subject-testee is asked to select one digit from each pair and tester answers "right" or "wrong" according to whether the choice agrees or disagrees with the hidden principle fixed for that particular problem. After reaching criterion, the principle is stated explicitly, and a new problem involving a different principle (odd or even number, high or low value, simple or double alternation) is presented. In two pilot studies, numbers of trials and errors to criterion correlated strongly with scores on WAIS Arithmetic, Digit Span, and Block Design for a randomly selected heterogeneous group of 10 testees and with course grades for 25 college students. This maze can be administered and scored by computer. Applications are many.     

Relative effects of scopolamine and electroconvulsive shock upon habit reversal in white rats

30 adult male white rats were equally divided into control, scopolamine, and electroconvulsive shock groups to learn 20 successive reversal problems in an E-maze for water after 23 1/2 hr. of deprivation. The noncorrection method was used. After 1 mo. of preliminary training, each scopolamine animal received an intraperitoneal injection of 1 mgm of scopolamine hydrobromide per kgm of body weight while each in the shock group was given an ECS of 35 mA for .2 sec. at the end of every 10 daily trials. When a rat obtained 9 correct of 10 trials, the goal was switched to the opposite side of the maze. Controls were much superior to both experimental groups. While scopolamine animals experienced more detrimental effects initially, they caught up with the shock group and finally became superior. This shift is interpreted in terms of building tolerance to scopolamine and increasing anxiety to shock as effects of differential treatments accumulated.