Perceptual Estimates of Motor Skill Proficiency Are Constrained by the Stability of Coordination Patterns

This study demonstrated that motor skill proficiency ratings are constrained by the same order parameter dynamics that constrain action production and action perception processes. Participants produced rhythmic actions simulated by an animated stick figure of the human arm. The primary finding was that participants’ proficiency ratings covaried most with relative phase (φ) variability compared to mean relative phase. In-phase (φ = 0°) was produced with the least variability and received the highest proficiency rating, whereas the patterns φ = ±150° were attempted with the most variability and received the lowest proficiency ratings. A temporal delay in attempting to produce the animated pattern had a large impact on produced relative phase, yet had little impact on the proficiency ratings. Proprioceptive processes provide individuals information on motor skill proficiency. The lead or lag motion of the hand to forearm segment of the animated arm was identified consistently through visual processes and revealed asymmetries in the mapping of visual input to motor output. The results are consistent with concepts from the dynamic pattern theory of coordination and are discussed with regard to relative phase as an informational variable that constraints the perception-action system across many levels.     

Ideological analytics: A study of evolving world values

This study analyses ideologies in a comparative perspective. It does so by treating ideologies as normative mental systems interacting with environmental physical realities and following their evolution in the contemporary world. As a result, it exemplifies a systematic method of undertaking a diagnosis, anagnosis, and prognosis of the global ideological situation.

The study introduces a relevance tree reflecting the conceptual framework of ideological analytics. On this basis, it presents three levels of generality which contain the outline of a substantive analysis. The examples given therein illustrate the model and could serve as prototypes for more detailed studies.

Finally, the study draws the main conclusions from the above generalizations by identifying the dialectical process of ideological dynamics. This process together with the non‐linear development of social systems produce the macrohistorical cycles of world evolution. Thus, the proposed hypothesis of dialectichaos can contribute to a better understanding oïideosocial change.     

Outcome interdependence shapes the effects of prevention focus on team processes and performance

Although the effects of regulatory focus on individual-level performance have often been studied, relatively little is yet known about team-level effects. Filling this void, we integrate the notion that promotion-focused individuals are concerned with progress and achievement, whereas prevention-focused individuals are concerned with security and vigilance, with the insight that team processes and performance depend on outcome interdependence (individual versus team rewards). The hypothesis that prevention-focused teams react more strongly than promotion-focused teams to differences in outcome interdependence was tested among 50 teams performing an interactive command-and-control simulation. Regulatory focus and outcome interdependence were both manipulated. The results showed that prevention-focused teams working for team rather than individual rewards reported higher work engagement and less error intolerance, coordinated more effectively, and performed better. Promotion-focused teams were not influenced by outcome interdependence. We discuss the implications of our results for theory and effective team management.     

Deformation twinning and plastic recovery in Cu/Ag nanolayers under uniaxial tensile straining

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoscale multilayered Cu/Ag metals have been conducted under uniaxial tensile straining to elucidate the out-of-plane deformation behaviour relevant to tensile spallation experiments. In nanolayers with pristine architectures, plastic dissipation prior to crack nucleation is suppressed owing to the high hydrostatic tensile stress state. The presence of sources for micro-twinning partials, such as micro-cracks or columnar grain boundaries, result in abundant deformation twin lamellae across multiple Cu/Ag interlayers. Plastic recovery is observed during unloading of the nanolayers.     

History and Analysis of Delayed Discovery Statutes of Limitations in Adult Survivor Litigation

Summary

In this chapter, attorney Mary R. Williams examines how while Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) cases share many of the types of facts for which delayed discovery, mental incapacity, equitable estoppel and other legal statutes of limitations doctrines were created, the combination of factors of CSA cases, including unusual social dynamics and long-term psychological effects, does not fit exactly with any of these legal doctrines. She explores the historical development of delayed discovery statutes of limitations, evaluates the different types of statutes and case law, and analyzes the problematic use of the concept of repression in legislation. This chapter interprets her ground-breaking state-by-state tabulations of delayed discovery statutes of limitations and reported appellate decisions on limitations in CSA actions, published in this volume as appendices A, B, and C.     

How can a stereotype inconsistency bias be encouraged in communication?

This study aimed to investigate what conditions can lead to a bias for communicating stereotype inconsistent (SI) information, relative to stereotype consistent (SC) information. Sixty‐three undergraduate university students (22 males, 41 females; M_age = 21.25) read a story about an Arab man who exhibited characteristics consistent and inconsistent with the stereotype of Arab men. The story was transmitted through 21 three‐person communication chains; each participant rewrote the story from memory for the next person in the chain to read, with only the first participant in each chain reading the original story. As hypothesized, when a surprising category conjunction was formed by pairing the primary stereotype (Arab men) with a secondary stereotype of a contradictory nature (kindergarten teachers), SC information was circulated less than SI information. This was also the case when a causal explanation was provided that accounted for the unexpected SI information. Findings indicate the potential of techniques that elicit cognitive elaboration of SI information to encourage an SI bias in communication, and show promise for exploring ways to reduce the impact of negative stereotypical information in the long term.     

Sentence comprehension affects the dynamics of bimanual coordination: Implications for embodied cognition

Recent work in embodied cognition has demonstrated that language comprehension involves the motor system (e.g., Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002). Such findings are often attributed to mechanisms involving simulations of linguistically described events (Barsalou, 1999; Fischer & Zwaan, 2008). We propose that research paradigms in which simulation is the central focus need to be augmented with paradigms that probe the organization of the motor system during language comprehension. The use of well-studied motor tasks may be appropriate to this endeavour. To this end, we present a study in which participants perform a bimanual rhythmic task (Kugler & Turvey, 1987) while judging the plausibility of sentences. We show that the dynamics of the bimanual task differ when participants judge sentences describing performable actions as opposed to sentences describing events that are not performable. We discuss the general implications of our results for accounts of embodied cognition.     

Journal Reviews

Covington, Coline. 'Learning how to forget – repeating the past as a defence against the present'.
Grotstein, James. 'Bion, the Pariah of O'.
Hinshelwood, R. D. 'The elusive concept of "internal objects" (1934–1943): its role in the formation of the Klein Group'.
Lippmann, Paul. 'On dreams and interpersonal psychoanalysis'.
Renik, Owen. 'Conscious and unconscious use of the self'.
Schaverien, Joy. 'Men who leave too soon: reflections on the erotic transference and countertransference'.
Williams, Gianna, 'Reflections on some dynamics of eating disorders: "no entry" defences and foreign bodies'.
Slavin, Malcolm & Kriegman, D. 'Why the analyst needs to change: towards a theory of conflict, negotiation, and mutual influence in the therapeutic process'.     

Temporal control in rats: analysis of nonlocalized effects from short interfood intervals.

The present experiment analyzed temporal control of postreinforcement pause duration during within-session changes in the criterion for reinforcement (interfood interval, IFI). Analysis of interval-by-interval changes in the pause revealed localized and nonlocalized effects from short intervals that caused specific changes in performance. In Phase 1, rats were presented with five consecutive 15-s IFIs intercalated into a series of 60-s IFIs. The 15-s set decreased the pause in adjacent and more remote 60-s intervals. In Phase 2, two sets of 15-s intervals were intercalated. The spacing between the two sets varied so that 0, 5, 10, or 15 60-s IFIs separated the sets. The postreinforcement pause tracked all changes in the IFI duration, and the localized effect from a short set extended beyond the next interval to the next few 60-s IFIs. Effects from one set, however, did not combine with a second set: Changes in the pause after two sets were the same regardless of the spacing between sets.     

Forum: Crafting the Introductory Course in Religious Studies

This series of short essays considers the complex choices and decision‐making processes of instructors preparing to teach, and continuing to teach, introductory courses in religious studies. In a paper originally presented in the University of Chicago's “The Craft of Teaching in the Academic Study of Religion” series, Russell McCutcheon explores a “baker's dozen” of such choices and the larger pedagogical problems with which they are entwined, ranging from classic questions of skill development and content coverage to philosophical concerns around students' identification with their topics of study and institutional concerns around governance and assessment. Aaron Hollander provides a brief introduction and four doctoral students at the University of Chicago Divinity School respond to McCutcheon's essay, widening its scope, testing its applicability, and interrogating its undergirding suppositions from the perspective of early‐career educators in the field.