Development and initial validation of the Role Strain Questionnaire for Junior Athletes (RSQ-JA)

In a series of related studies, the relevance of a role strain framework to interpret the difficulties junior elite athletes experience in their multiple life domains was assessed. Here, the Role Strain Questionnaire for Junior Athletes (RSQ-JA) was developed to measure the role strain experienced by junior athletes. In Study 1, role strain was explored via interviews with 20 elite junior athletes. Based on themes emerging from these interviews, an initial 65-item pool for the RSQ-JA was created and subjected to an exploratory factor analysis in Study 2. The factors derived in Study 2 were tested for factorial validity using confirmatory factor analysis in Study 3. Results supported a 22-item five factor structure for the RSQ-JA. These factors reflected the salient sources of role strain, namely; (i) overload in school, (ii) overload in sport and between roles, (iii) between-role conflict, (iv) underload, and (v) ambiguity. The RSQ-JA therefore provides the initial validation of the first measure of role strain experienced by junior elite athletes.     

Classifying the variability in impact and active peak vertical ground reaction forces during running using DFA and ARFIMA models

The vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) during rear-foot striking running typically exhibits peaks referred to as the impact peak and the active peak; their timings and magnitudes have been implicated in injury. Identifying the structure of time-series can provide insight into associated control processes. The purpose here was to detect long-range correlations associated with the time from first contact to impact peak (TIP) and active peak (TAP); and the magnitudes of impact (IPM) and active peaks (APM) using a Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, and Auto-Regressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average models. Twelve subjects performed an 8 min trial at their preferred running speed on an instrumented treadmill. TIP, TAP; IPM, and APM were identified from the VGRF profile for each footfall. TIP and TAP time-series did not demonstrate long-range correlations, conversely IPM and APM time-series did. Short range correlations appeared as well as or instead of long range correlations for IPM. Conversely pure powerlaw behaviour was demonstrated in 11 of the 24 time series for APM, and long range dependencies along with short range correlations were present in a further 9 time series. It has been hypothesised that control mechanisms for IPM and APM are different, these results support this hypothesis.     

Social influences on cognitive processing in enacted social support: effects on receivers’ cognitive appraisals,emotion, and affiliation

Background and objectives. Social support is linked with psychological health, but its mechanisms are unclear. We examined supporters’ influence on recipients’ cognitive processing as a mechanism of effects of support on outcomes associated with depression.

Design/methods. 2?×?2 between-subjects experiment. 147 participants (1) experienced a negative event (false feedback); (2) received social support modeling one of two contrasting cognitive processing modes (abstract/evaluative or concrete/experiential); (3) generated explanations for the event, later coded for processing mode and internal/external causal attribution; and (4) reported on emotion, perceptions of self and future, and social affiliation. To examine relational effects, half of participants were led to perceive the supporter as similar to themselves via a shared birthday manipulation.

Results. Support condition influenced participants’ processing mode and causal attributions as predicted. Abstract/evaluative support led to more positive emotion and self-perceptions, and less pessimistic expectancies for the future than concrete/experiential support. Perceived similarity moderated effects on beliefs about an upcoming social interaction, magnifying positive affiliation outcomes of abstract/evaluative versus concrete/experiential support.

Conclusions. Processing modes that are generally maladaptive at the intrapersonal level may be adaptive (and vice versa) when they are interpersonally influenced, and perceived similarity may facilitate interpersonal effects of processing mode on affiliation.     

Do Programmers Prefer Predictable Expressions in Code?

Source code is a form of human communication, albeit one where the information shared between the programmers reading and writing the code is constrained by the requirement that the code executes correctly. Programming languages are more syntactically constrained than natural languages, but they are also very expressive, allowing a great many different ways to express even very simple computations. Still, code written by developers is highly predictable, and many programming tools have taken advantage of this phenomenon, relying on language model surprisal as a guiding mechanism. While surprisal has been validated as a measure of cognitive load in natural language, its relation to human cognitive processes in code is still poorly understood. In this paper, we explore the relationship between surprisal and programmer preference at a small granularity—do programmers prefer more predictable expressions in code? Using meaning-preserving transformations, we produce equivalent alternatives to developer-written code expressions and run a corpus study on Java and Python projects. In general, language models rate the code expressions developers choose to write as more predictable than these transformed alternatives. Then, we perform two human subject studies asking participants to choose between two equivalent snippets of Java code with different surprisal scores (one original and transformed). We find that programmers do prefer more predictable variants, and that stronger language models like the transformer align more often and more consistently with these preferences.     

Prediction of weightlifter’s motor behavior to evaluate snatch weightlifting techniques based on a new method of investigation of consumed energy

Using proper technique in different sports is an inevitable factor. In this study, available techniques for snatch weightlifting are mathematically evaluated. The optimal motion trajectory is a technique used by weightlifters, which could be determined based on minimizing specific object functions. Object functions based on total kinetic energy, total torque and total power and some new multiobjective functions are minimized using genetic algorithm and the minimax principle. Some important motion characteristics of 13 professional weightlifters were extracted and used to validate the mathematical results. The double knee bending (DKB) technique was studied as a benchmark test. Some important movement features of the technique were shown by the mathematical analysis when applying an object function, that minimized joint torques and powers of different muscles independently. An object function based on joint forces did not show these features.     

A gentle reminder that mean does not imply modal behavior: Few are in-group biased in minimal groups

Previous research reports that people organized into newly formed, arbitrary groups (i.e., minimal groups) are on average in-group biased. However, that people on average behave in a certain way does not imply that most people behave that way. Here, I report four studies (n = 224) demonstrating in-group biased average behaviors driven by a minority of about 30% participants. Further, only 14% reported allocating resources in a group-biased manner because they “favored the in-group.” I investigate and discuss how methodological issues related to non-normally distributed data, not taking participants’ intentions into account, and using fixed response matrices can lead to overestimations of how widespread in-group bias is in minimal groups.     

La reprise d’études universitaires : entre continuité et rupture

The presented study pursued the objective to analyze the dialectic break/continuity susceptible to cross the transition of resumption of studies to the university, of the decision-making in the real-life experience of the first one-month of training. For that purpose, two models were summoned, that of motivations Push/Pull, Antipush/Antipull of Mullet, Lunch, Lemaire, Raiff and Barthorpe (2000) and that of the transitional processes proposed by Perret-Clermont and Zittoun (2002), as well as the concept of perceived social support completed of the notion of perceived social brake. The analysis of semi-directive conversations led with 10 adults in resumption of studies in a university of Île-de-France first brought to the foreground four motivational, certain dynamics more marked with the seal of the break (early or consummate), others more registered in a professional continuity (to develop or to install). Then, the analysis identified the most notable upheavals of the experience of the first months of training (identity plan and management of the various spheres of activity). Finally, it appeared that the social supports perceived, although important throughout the transition, vary in nature and function in each of the two periods of transition studied (decision, beginning of training). The results are particularly discussed in terms of Amartya Sen's capability approach.     

Unrealistic representations of “the self”: A cognitive neuroscience assessment of anosognosia for memory deficit

Three cognitive components may play a crucial role in both memory awareness and in anosognosia for memory deficit (AMD): (1) a personal data base (PDB), i.e., a memory store that contains “semantic” representations about the self, (2) monitoring processes (MPs) and (3) an explicit evaluation system (EES), or comparator, that assesses and binds the representations stored in the PDB with information obtained from the environment.We compared both the behavior and the functional connectivity (as assessed by resting-state fMRI) of AMD patients with aware patients and healthy controls. We found that AMD is associated with an impoverished PDB, while MPs are necessary to successfully update the PDB.AMD was associated with reduced functional connectivity within both the default-mode network and in a network that includes the left lateral temporal cortex, the hippocampus and the insula. The reduced connectivity between the hippocampus and the insular cortex was correlated with AMD severity.     

The relationship between information processing style and information seeking,and its moderation by affect and perceived usefulness: Analysis vs. procrastination

We examined the relationship between information processing style and information seeking, and its moderation by anxiety and information utility. Information about Salmonella, a potentially commonplace disease, was presented to 2960 adults. Two types of information processing were examined: preferences for analytical or heuristic processing, and preferences for immediate or delayed processing. Information seeking was captured by measuring the number of additional pieces of information sought by participants. Preferences for analytical information processing were associated positively and directly with information seeking. Heuristic information processing was associated negatively and directly with information seeking. The positive relationship between preferences for delayed decision making and information seeking was moderated by anxiety and by information utility. Anxiety reduced the tendency to seek additional information. Information utility increased the likelihood of information seeking. The findings indicate that low levels of anxiety could prompt information seeking. However, information seeking occurred even when information was perceived as useful and sufficient, suggesting that it can be a form of procrastination rather than a useful contribution to effective decision making.