Ouch! – a logotherapeutic discourse of butch and tattooed in China

• This is a study of a small group of self‐identified butch lesbians in their consumption of tattoos. The emotion‐laden experience of negotiating social symbolism and self‐identity (Elliott, 1997 ) in the context of hyperrealism (Baudrillard, 1983 ) has given rise to what Frankl ( 1984 ) has described as “existential vacuums.” Frankl suggested that these “existential vacuums” can be filled with a higher level of meaning. An artifact of consumption, the tattoo, is used by the informants in this study as a component of bricolage in the DIY process of constructing a new self (Elliott, 1997 ), with the entire process of being tattooed – particularly the hyper‐stimulation and pain of the procedure – further “existentializing” a new existence of “imagined masculinity.” This new existence that transcends suffering and assigns new meaning to life is the principle idea of Frankl's logotherapy (Frankl, 1984 ; Barnes, 2000 ; Blair, 2004 ).

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using “War Stories” to Train for Adaptive Performance: Is it Better to Learn from Error or Success?

On s’est demandé, dans cette recherche, si un séminaire exploitant les erreurs pouvait améliorer les performances. 59 pompiers expérimentés en formation sur les problèmes de commandement ont participéà cette étude. Des scènes de guerre ont été conçues à partir d’évènements réels pour illustrer des décisions hiérarchiques dont les suites furent heureuses ou malheureuses. Deux méthodes de formation ont été comparées et évaluées. Un premier groupe a été confrontéà des études de cas contenant des erreurs de management aux conséquences graves sur l’intervention contre l’incendie (formation avec erreurs) alors qu’un second groupe était soumis à la même série d’études de cas, sinon que les cas décrivaient des situations gérées correctement avec leurs conséquences (formation sans erreur). Les résultats confortent l’hypothèse qu’il vaut mieux apprendre à partir des erreurs des autres plutôt qu’à partir de leurs réussites. On analyse les leçons à en tirer pour la formation. The study examines whether error exposure training can enhance adaptive performance. Fifty‐nine experienced fire‐fighters undergoing training for incident command participated in the study. War stories were developed based on real events to illustrate successful and unsuccessful incident command decisions. Two training methodologies were compared and evaluated. One group was trained using case studies that depicted incidents containing errors of management with severe consequences in fire‐fighting outcomes (error‐story training) while a second group was exposed to the same set of case studies except that the case studies depicted the incidents being managed without errors and their consequences (errorless‐story training). The results provide some support for the hypothesis that it is better to learn from other people's errors than from their successes. Implications for training are discussed.     

The influence of advance information about target location and visual feedback on movement planning and execution.

This study was designed to determine if movement planning strategies incorporating the use of visual feedback during manual aiming are specific to individual movements. Advance information about target location and visual context was manipulated using precues. Participants exhibited a shorter reaction time and a longer movement time when they were certain of the target location and that vision would be available. The longer movement time was associated with greater time after peak velocity. Under conditions of uncertainty, participants prepared for the worst-case scenario. That is, they spent more time organizing their movements and produced trajectories that would be expected from greater open-loop control. Our results are consistent with hierarchical movement planning in which knowledge of the movement goal is an essential ingredient of visual feedback utilization.     

The Importance of Affective Beliefs and Attitudes in the Theory of Planned Behavior: Predicting Intention to Increase Physical Activity1

Standard theory of planned behavior (TPB) questions to elicit salient behavioral beliefs may elicit instrumental consequences of behavior, and overlook affective consequences. Two hundred thirteen English adults (35 to 75 years of age) completed a questionnaire that contained closed measures of TPB constructs, and open‐ended questions that asked not only about advantages and disadvantages, but also what respondents would like or enjoy and dislike or hate about being more physically active. Beliefs elicited by affective questions were associated more strongly with a closed affective attitude scale. Beliefs elicited by instrumental questions were associated more strongly with a closed instrumental attitude scale. Closed measures of the standard TPB variables explained 48% of the variance in intention to increase physical activity, while affective attitude explained an additional 11% of the variance. Applications of the TPB should consider affective and not just instrumental determinants of behavior.     

Short-term memory for the timing of auditory and visual signals.

Short-term memory for the timing of irregular sequences of signals has been said to be more accurate when the signals are auditory than when they are visual. No support for this contention was obtained when the signals were beeps versus flashes (Experiments 1 and 3) nor when they were sets of spoken versus typewritten digits (Experiments 4 and 5). On the other hand, support was obtained both for beeps versus flashes (Experiments 2 and 5) and for repetitions of a single spoken digit versus repetitions of a single typewritten digit (Experiment 6) when the subjects silently mouthed a nominally irrelevant item during sequence presentation. Also, the timing of sequences of auditory signals, whether verbal (Experiment 7) or nonverbal (Experiments 8 and 9), was more accurately remembered when the signals within each sequence were identical. The findings are considered from a functional perspective.