Effects of luminance change in preview search: Offsets and onsets can be concurrently prioritized but not in isolation

Two experiments are performed to investigate how luminance change contributes to prioritized selection of new over old elements. Experiment 1 demonstrates that observers prioritize items that undergo a luminance change irrespective of the direction of that change. Experiment 2 shows that foreknowledge concerning the direction of luminance change signaling the target does not allow observers to prioritize the selection of luminance onsets over offsets and vice versa. The results suggest that prioritized selection of new over old elements is mediated by a general mechanism that is sensitive to luminance change, irrespective of its direction.     

Motivational climate and changes in young athletes’ achievement goal orientations

Development of achievement-related motives in young athletes is believed to be influenced by the motivational climate created by coaches. In a longitudinal multilevel design utilizing 47 youth basketball teams, coach-initiated motivational climate was used to predict changes in 9–13 year old athletes’ achievement goal orientations over the course of a season. Mastery climate scores on the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports were associated with significant increases in mastery goal orientation and decreases in ego orientation scores on the Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports. Ego motivational climate scores were significantly related to increases in ego goal orientation scores. These relations were not influenced by athletes’ age or gender. Intraclass correlations indicated low within-team consensus in athletes’ motivational climate scores, suggesting an individual- rather than team-level perceptual construct. These and other findings indicate that achievement goal orientation research can be extended downward to children below the age of 11.

Assessment of parents' interactions with their developmentally delayed infants

An instrument is described that is used to assess interaction style in parent-infant dyads in which the infant is handicapped or developmentally delayed. The rating scales were designed to be easy to use by professionals and trained nonprofessionals, to be applicable to children who are functioning between birth and 18 months developmental age, and to involve a minimal time commitment so that they could be used in the context of early intervention programs. The rating scales cover intrusive, responsive, and general social behavior by the parent and social and avoidant behavior by the child. Successful implementation of these scales is described.     

Consequences of aggressive threats by Betta splendens

Male Siamese fighting fish continued to approach visual stimuli associated with conspecifics in the absence of opportunities to perform threat displays or to attack. Dominant fish performed more operant responses than subordinates when such responses led to the appearance of their own mirror images, and all fish learned to delay their threat displays if these resulted in disappearance of the mirror image. In a second experiment, subjects overwhelmingly preferred to view conspecifics (to whom they frequently displayed) compared to no stimulus or members of other species (to whom they did not display). The functions of threat displays in aggressive encounters is discussed.