Longitudinal associations between athletes' controlled motivation,ill-being,and perceptions of controlling coach behaviors: A Bayesian latent growth curve approach

Although many scholars have argued that leadership is a dynamic process jointly produced by leaders and followers, leadership in sports is most often researched as a unidirectional process from coaches to athletes. Within self-determination theory (SDT), individual characteristics are suggested to influence how people perceive external events such as coaches' behaviors. In the present study, we examined this jointly produced leadership process by investigating longitudinal associations between athletes' controlled motivation, ill-being, and perceptions of coaches' controlling behaviors at the between- and within-person levels. The participants were 247 young elite skiers enrolled at Swedish sport high schools who responded to self-report questionnaires at three time points over the course of an athletic season. At the between-person level, increases in perceptions of coaches' controlling behaviors over the season positively predicted controlled motivation at the end of the season, and controlled motivation at the beginning of the season positively predicted ill-being at the end of the season. At the within-person level, athletes' controlled motivation positively predicted perceptions of coaches' controlling behaviors. The results at the between-person level support the unidirectional perspective and the tenets of SDT. The results at the within-person level suggest that individual characteristics such as motivation can influence how athletes perceive external events, which has been proposed theoretically but seldom examined empirically. Three plausible explanations for this reversed association are presented in the discussion.     

音乐表演训练对神经可塑性的影响:元分析研究

音乐表演是人类最复杂和精细的技能之一。通过激活似然性评估元分析,对音乐表演训练所诱发的神经可塑性进行探究。结果发现,音乐表演者与非音乐家在左侧小脑、双侧中央前回、双侧颞上回、左侧额下回、双侧顶下小叶以及右侧脑岛等脑区存在差异。这些脑区与听觉、运动以及多通道信息整合等加工有关。未来研究应从不同音乐表演训练诱发的神经适应性出发,进一步探究音乐表演训练与大脑可塑性之间的关联。     

Interval estimation of gamma for an<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>×<Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis> table

When the underlying responses are on an ordinal scale, gamma is one of the most frequently used indices to measure the strength of association between two ordered variables. However, except for a brief mention on the use of the traditional interval estimator based on Wald's statistic, discussion of interval estimation of the gamma is limited. Because it is well known that an interval estimator using Wald's statistic is generally not likely to perform well especially when the sample size is small, the goal of this paper is to find ways to improve the finite-sample performance of this estimator. This paper develops five asymptotic interval estimators of the gamma by employing various methods that are commonly used to improve the normal approximation of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). Using Monte Carlo simulation, this paper notes that the coverage probability of the interval estimator using Wald's statistic can be much less than the desired confidence level, especially when the underlying gamma is large. Further, except for the extreme case, in which the underlying gamma is large and the sample size is small, the interval estimator using a logarithmic transformation together with a monotonic function proposed here not only performs well with respect to the coverage probability, but is also more efficient than all the other estimators considered here. Finally, this paper notes that applying an ad hoc adjustment procedure—whenever any observed frequency equals 0, we add 0.5 to all cells in calculation of the cell proportions—can substantially improve the traditional interval estimator. This paper includes two examples to illustrate the practical use of interval estimators considered here.The authors wish to thank the Associate Editor and the two referees for many valuable comments and suggestions to improve the contents and clarity of this paper. The authors also want to thank Dr. C. D. Lin for his graphic assistance.     

The order-restricted association model: Two estimation algorithms and issues in testing

This paper presents a row-column (RC) association model in which the estimated row and column scores are forced to be in agreement with an a priori specified ordering. Two efficient algorithms for finding the order-restricted maximum likelihood (ML) estimates are proposed and their reliability under different degrees of association is investigated by a simulation study. We propose testing order-restricted RC models using a parametric bootstrap procedure, which turns out to yield reliablep values, except for situations in which the association between the two variables is very weak. The use of order-restricted RC models is illustrated by means of an empirical example. Francisca Galindo performed this research as a part of her PhD. dissertation project at Tilburg University.     

Long-term effect of prefrontal lobotomy on verbal fluency in patients with schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the long-term effects of bilateral prefrontal leukotomy on lexical abilities in schizophrenia subjects. METHOD: we compared performances of leukotomized (LSP), non-leukotomized schizophrenia patients (NLSP) and normal controls, using a test of verbal fluency. Multiple case and triple comparison design were implemented. i.e., the performance of each LSP was compared to that of NLSP and that of a normal control. The sample consisted of four LSP, four NLSP, and four normal subjects. Subjects were matched in sex, age, handedness, and schooling. In Addition, schizophrenia groups were matched in diagnosis and years of hospitalization. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of generated words and errors produced by subjects were carried out. RESULTS: A deficiency in both groups of schizophrenia was observed, although a better performance in LSP patients was detected. CONCLUSION: Intact Lexical ability in LSP indicates its poor relation to the frontal lobe.     

Relations between vocabulary development and verbal short-term memory: The relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and item information

Although many studies have shown an association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development, the precise nature of this association is not yet clear. The current study reexamined this relation in 4- to 6-year-olds by designing verbal STM tasks that maximized memory for either item or serial order information. Although empirical data suggest that distinct STM processes determine item and serial order recall, these were generally confounded in previous developmental studies. We observed that item and order memory tasks were independently related to vocabulary development. Furthermore, vocabulary development was more strongly associated with STM for order information in 4- and 6-year-olds and with STM for item information in 5-year-olds. These data highlight the specificity of verbal STM for serial order and item information and suggest a causal association between order STM processes and vocabulary development, at least in 4- and 6-year-olds.     

A fMRI study of word retrieval in aphasia

The neural mechanisms underlying recovery of cognitive functions are incompletely understood. Aim of this study was to assess, using functional magnetic resonance (fMRI), the pattern of brain activity during covert word retrieval to letter and semantic cues in five aphasic patients after stroke, in order to assess the modifications of brain function which may be related to recovery. Four out of five patients had undergone language recovery, according to standard testing, after at least 6 months of rehabilitation. The cerebral activation of each patient was evaluated and compared with the activation pattern of normal controls studied with the same fMRI paradigm. In the patients, the pattern of brain activation was influenced by the site and extent of the lesion, by the degree of recovery of language, as reflected by task performance outside the scanner, and by task requirements. In the case of word retrieval to letter cues, a good performance was directly related to the activation in Broca's area, or in the right-sided homologue. On the other hand, in the case of semantic fluency, the relationship between performance level and activation was less clear-cut, because of extensive recruitment of frontal areas in patients with defective performance. These findings suggest that the performance in letter fluency is dependent on the integrity of the left inferior frontal cortex, with the participation of the homologous right hemispheric region when the left inferior frontal cortex is entirely of partially damaged. Semantic fluency, which engages the distributed network of semantic memory, is also associated with more extensive patterns of cerebral activation, which however appear to reflect retrieval effort rather than retrieval success.     

The relationship between executive function and verbal memory in Parkinson's disease

A growing body of evidence suggests that the various cognitive symptoms found in Parkinson's disease (PD) are secondary to executive dysfunction. Studies addressing this possibility for memory impairment specifically have not included measures of working memory nor have they ruled-out potential mediating variables such as overall level of cognitive impairment or depression. The purpose of this study was to include measures of these variables in determining the relationship between multiple aspects of executive function and delayed verbal recall in 32 idiopathic PD patients. Results were consistent with the original hypothesis and further suggest that working memory is a key factor in recall memory and may mediate the relationship between other executive measures and recall in PD.     

How something can be said about telling more than we can know: on choice blindness and introspection

The legacy of Nisbett and Wilson’s classic article, Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes (1977), is mixed. It is perhaps the most cited article in the recent history of consciousness studies, yet no empirical research program currently exists that continues the work presented in the article. To remedy this, we have introduced an experimental paradigm we call choice blindness [Johansson, P., Hall, L., Sikström, S., &; Olsson, A. (2005). Failure to detect mismatches between intention and outcome in a simple decision task. Science, 310(5745), 116–119.]. In the choice blindness paradigm participants fail to notice mismatches between their intended choice and the outcome they are presented with, while nevertheless offering introspectively derived reasons for why they chose the way they did. In this article, we use word-frequency and latent semantic analysis (LSA) to investigate a corpus of introspective reports collected within the choice blindness paradigm. We contrast the introspective reasons given in non-manipulated vs. manipulated trials, but find very few differences between these two groups of reports.     

Multiple timescales of body schema reorganization due to plastic surgery

Plastic surgery modifies the distribution of mass centers of a person’s body segments, changing his or her posture. The functional reorganization processes that lead subjects to re-integrate these body changes into a new stable body (posture) schema is poorly understood but current theories suggest the possible contribution of two components: a feedback mechanism that strongly depends on sensory input and an internal model that is relatively less dependent on sensory input and improves posture control, for example by compensating for delayed feedback. To assess the relative contributions of these two mechanisms during the functional reorganization of a posture scheme, we have conducted a longitudinal postural study in a population of healthy adults who were subject to breast plastic surgery to reduce or augment body weight. We measured participants’ orthostatic posture and ground reaction force immediately after, after 4 months, and 1 year after the surgery. To investigate the role of visual sensory information in the reorganization process we tested the participants with eyes open and closed. Our results indicate that participants find a new dynamical equilibrium within a few days. However, posture maintenance remains sub-optimal long after the center of masses and the resultant of ground reaction force stop changing; in some cases, for more than 4 months. Furthermore, the re-adaptation process is faster and more efficient in the eyes-open than in the eyes-closed condition. These results suggest that the reorganization involves different subsystems (responsible for the biomechanical changes, the re-calibration of feedback mechanisms, and the re-adaptation of internal models), which act at different timescales.