The relation between risk perceptions and physical activity among older adults: a prospective study

Past studies have found that risk perceptions of suffering from diseases play an important role in the development of intentions to perform physical activity (PA). According to the behaviour motivation hypothesis, perceived risk could be positively and directly related to PA, but this possibility has been ignored and/or underestimated. Accounting for recent methodological developments on the importance of study design and risk perception assessment, the purpose of the present study was to examine the risk-perceptions-PA relationship among older adults. Participants (N=143) aged from 61 to 70 years initially underwent measurement of risk perceptions, baseline PA, socio-demographic and health factors. Six months later, they were asked about their PA participation. Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived risk of suffering from diseases and conditions without regular PA participation was an independent positive predictor of later PA, over and beyond baseline behaviour, socio-demographic and health variables. This study fills a gap in the existing literature on the PAs of older adults and reveals that risk perceptions are directly linked to their participation. In addition, it extends existing knowledge in health psychology on the behaviour motivation hypothesis, and emphasises the necessity of methodological adjustments when assessing the risk-perception-behaviour relationship.     

Observation and physical practice: coding of simple motor sequences

An experiment was conducted to determine the coordinate system used in the development of movement codes during observation and utilized on later physical practice performance of a simple spatial-temporal movement sequence. The task was to reproduce a 1.3-s spatial-temporal pattern of elbow flexions and extensions. An intermanual transfer paradigm with a retention test and two transfer tests was used: a mirror transfer test where the same pattern of muscle activation and limb joint angles was required and a nonmirror transfer test where the visual-spatial pattern of the sequence was reinstated on the transfer test. The results indicated a strong advantage for participants in the physical practice condition when transferred to the mirror condition in which the motor coordinates (e.g., pattern of muscle activation and joint angles) were reinstated relative to transfer performance when the visual-spatial coordinates were reinstated (visual and spatial location of the target waveform). The observation group, however, demonstrated an advantage when the visual-spatial coordinates were reinstated. These results demonstrate that codes based in motor coordinates can be developed relatively quickly for simple rapid movement sequences when participants are provided physical practice, but observational practice limits the system to the development of codes based in visual-spatial coordinates. Performances of control participants, who were not permitted to practise or observe the task, were quite poor on all tests.     

Relating different perspectives on how outcomes of behavior influence behavior

Many researchers have tackled the question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes. Some have adopted a nonmechanistic (functional) perspective that attempts to describe the influence of outcomes on behavior. Others have adopted a mechanistic (cognitive) perspective that attempts to explain the influence of outcomes on behavior. Orthogonal to this distinction, some have focused on the influence of outcomes that a behavior had in the past, whereas others also consider the influence of outcomes that a behavior might have in the future. In this article, we relate these different perspectives with the goal of reducing misunderstandings and fostering collaborations between researchers who adopt different perspectives on the common question of how behavior is influenced by its outcomes.     

Intention in motor learning through observation

The purpose of this experiment was to assess whether learning an action through observation is enhanced by the intention to reproduce the observed behaviour. Two groups of participants observed a model practise a timing task and performed a 24-hour delayed retention test. Participants in the first group of observers were explicitly instructed that they would be required to execute the timing task that they had observed as accurately as possible during the delayed retention test. Observers in the second group were instructed that they would be required to describe as accurately as possible the behaviour that they had observed. A control group of participants, who did not observe the model, was also administered the delayed retention test. The results of the retention test indicated that absolute timing (parameterization) was learned by the observers to the same extent with or without intention to reproduce the task. Indeed, on the retention test absolute timing for the two groups of observers was as effective as that for the models. However, observing with an intention to reproduce the task was beneficial for learning the movement's relative timing structure. Results are discussed with respect to a potential mechanism by which intention enhances observation.     

Perceived employability and employee strain: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis addresses the association between perceived employability (PE) and employee strain (k = 34). Consistent with expectations, PE was negatively related to strain (ρ = −.12, 95% CI = −.16 to −.08). Moderator analysis showed that this relationship was stronger post-2008 (ρ = −.20, 84% CI = −.23 to −.17) versus pre-2008 (ρ = −.06, 84% CI = −.08 to −.05) and in high (ρ = −.17, 84% CI = −.21 to −.14) versus low (ρ = −.07, 84% CI = −.09 to −.06) uncertainty avoidant cultures. Our results suggest that career competency development interventions can be effective for reducing employee strain and that national uncertainty avoidance need be incorporated into models of boundaryless careers, especially as it relates to employee health and well-being.     

An enhanced experimental procedure to rationalize on the impairment of perception of action capabilities

It is well documented that changes in the physiological states of the perceiver–actor influence the perception of action capabilities. However, because experimental procedures of most studies involved a limitless availability for stimuli visual encoding and perceptual strategies, it remains difficult to adopt a single position among the large range of alternative interpretations for impaired perception. A reaching-to-grasp paradigm under breathing restriction was adapted from Graydon et al. (Cogn Emot 26:1301–1305, 2012) to standardize the time for encoding of stimuli information and narrowed the involvement of perceptual strategies. In the present study, we propose a highly controlled environment where the discrete information is presented during 300 ms, congruently with neurophysiological studies focused on visuomotor transformation. An underestimation of the perception of action capabilities is found under breath restriction, suggesting that 300 ms for stimuli encoding is sufficient to induce altered visuomotor brain transformations when limiting the involvement of perceptual strategies. This result suggests that such behavior could refer to an impaired brain potentiation of the perceptual occurrence, providing strong hypotheses on the brain dynamics of sensorimotor integration that underlie impaired perception of action capabilities in stressful situations.