The cognitive and social-emotional correlates of color deficiency in children: a literature review and analysis.

Although color deficiency is a prevalent problem in childhood, little is known about the cognitive and social-emotional variables linked to this visual deficit. A review of the literature revealed just seven empirical articles designed to explore the psychological functioning of color-deficient children, with the results yielding contradictory findings. An analysis of the literature indicated that the equivocal nature of past research may be due to an inadequate rationale explaining what outcome variables should be tied to color deficiency. This weakness can be remedied, and as a means toward that end, specific investigative recommendations are made to provide a more valid theoretical link between color deficiency and selected cognitive and social-emotional variables.     

Effects of training in visual discrimination after one year: visual analysis of volleyball skills.

Although the effects of specialized training in visual analysis of skills are well documented, whether the effects are lasting is not. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effect a visual skills training program in volleyball had on participants one year after the completion of a training intervention. Subjects received either traditional performance instruction supplemented with visual training or traditional performance instruction in volleyball only. All subjects remaining in the teacher education program from a previous study were given a visual test on diagnosing errors in three different volleyball skills (the forearm pass, the overhead pass, and the overhead serve). Subjects exposed to visual training remained significantly better at diagnosing errors for the three volleyball skills one year later as compared to those subjects who had not received visual training.     

The reliability and validity of a system for family assessment

The Darlington Family Assessment System (DFAS) is based upon the principles of multisystem-multimethod (MSMM) assessment. In practice it consists of a structured family interview with an integrated rating scale, a number of self-report questionnaries, and a task with an integrated behaviour coding system. This article summarizes the results of a series of empirical evaluations of the DFAS, which concern evaluations of the system as an aid to clinical work with families and as a method for training (at a basic level) in family assessment. The results are presented in terms of their implications for the reliability and validity of the assessment system and discussed from the perspective of their generalizability.     

Habit reversal treatment for fingernail biting

A controlled experiment was carried out on 40 habitual fingernail biters to test the following: (1) Whether or not Nunn and Azrin's (1976) ‘habit-reversal’ programme could be simplified and still be effective. (2) Whether or not the use of a competing response is essential for successful outcome. (3) Whether or not a programme of ongoing goals can enhance outcome results.The subjects were equally divided into three experimental groups and a waiting list control group. The experimental groups were: habit reversal plus nail care; habit reversal, nail care plus programme of ongoing target goals; nail care instructions plus programme of ongoing target goals. The dependent variables were length of nails in millimetres and presence or absence of nailbiting. All experimental groups showed significantly greater increases in fingernail length than the control group, but there was no significant difference between the different treatments. However, at follow-up, the two groups incorporating ‘habit reversal’ showed much lower relapse rates than the other experimental group; thus, supporting the argument that use of a competing response is a key component in effective treatment of such compulsive, maladaptive habits.     

Educated and underemployed: Refugee integration into the Canadian labour market

This study explores issues of access to high-status occupations in the Canadian labour market, with particular emphasis on refugees who were in professional or managerial positions prior to their arrival in Canada. The study is based on interviews with a sample of 525 adult refugees who were initially resettled in the province of Alberta between 1992 and 1997. About two thirds of the respondents came from former Yugoslavia, the remainder from countries in the Middle East, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Despite the generally high educational attainment of these refugees, the results show that they experience, much higher rates of unemployment, part-time employment, and temporary employment than do Canadian-born individuals. A variety of structural factors operating in a segmented Canadian labour market help to explain the downward mobility of these highly qualified refugees. The policy implications of these results are examined in detail.     

Visually guided capture of a moving stimulus by the pigeon (Columba livia)

Although the pigeon is a popular model for studying visual perception, relatively little is known about its perception of motion. Three experiments examined the pigeons’ ability to capture a moving stimulus. In Experiment 1, the effect of manipulating stimulus speed and the length of the stimulus was examined using a simple rightward linear motion. This revealed a clear effect of length on capture and speed on errors. Errors were mostly anticipatory and there appeared to be two processes contributing to response locations: anticipatory peck bias and lag time. Using the same birds as Experiment 1, Experiment 2 assessed transfer of tracking and capture to novel linear motions. The birds were able to capture other motion directions, but they displayed a strong rightward peck bias, indicating that they had learned to peck to the right of the stimulus in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 used the same task as Experiment 2 but with naïve birds. These birds did not show the rightward bias in pecking and instead pecked more evenly around the stimulus. The combined results indicate that the pigeon can engage in anticipatory tracking and capture of a moving stimulus, and that motion properties and training experience influence capture.     

Visual and response-based navigation in the tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria)

Much research has investigated spatial cognition in mammals and birds. Evidence suggests that the hippocampus plays a critical role in this; however, reptiles do not possess a hippocampus. It has been proposed that the reptilian medial cortex plays a similar role, yet little behavioral research has directly investigated this. Consequently, this study examined the role of extramaze cues in spatial navigation by the red-footed tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria) using an eight-arm radial maze. In Experiment 1 the maze was surrounded by a black curtain on which geometrical shapes were attached. After the tortoise reached above-chance performance we introduced test sessions in which the cues were removed. Performance was unaffected by cue removal. The tortoise appeared to have developed a “turn-by-one-arm” strategy. In a second experiment the curtain was removed and the tortoise was allowed access to a rich-cue environment. The use of the turn-by-one-arm strategy was significantly reduced and the tortoise appeared to be using the extramaze cues to navigate around the apparatus. This type of response-based strategy, and the specific contexts in which it was used, has not been observed in mammals and birds, suggesting that the mechanisms served by the reptilian medial cortex do not parallel exactly those of the hippocampus.     

The emotions least relevant to politics? Queering autonomous activism

Studies of emotion and activism have often attempted to uncover ‘the emotions most relevant to politics’ (Goodwin et al., 2001). This suggests that only certain feelings are productive for activism, while other emotions have less relevance for activist theory and practice. In this paper I ask if the notion of politically ‘relevant’ emotions helps perpetuate a distinction between what is considered political and what is not. This paper builds upon a case study in which I interviewed self-identified queer-activists about their experiences of autonomous activism. These interviews reveal how the everyday emotions surrounding the ‘personal’ politics of sexuality/intimacy are often seen as either less important, a distraction from, or entirely irrelevant to ‘real’ political issues. Ultimately, I want to challenge attempts to neatly separate our intimate lives from the public sphere of activism. I argue that it can never just be a matter of politics and emotion, but also the politics of emotion (Ahmed, 2004). Therefore we should not just assume that emotions matter for resistance - without first realizing the importance of resisting these hierarchies of emotion.     

A Narrative Inquiry into a Female Athlete’s Experiences with Protracted Concussion Symptoms

This article explores a female university volleyball student-athlete’s experience with protracted concussion symptoms. Through the methodology of narrative inquiry, four salient themes became apparent related to Daphnée’s experiences: (a) “I felt so alone,” (b) “I had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life,” (c) “I feel like I’m in prison,” and (d) “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel.” Overall, this study offers a rare look into the impact of concussion on an individual’s athletic and academic identities, career progression, and in turn, her imagined stories of who she was and who she was becoming.