Role of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor) in children with developmental coordination disorder

The purposes of this study were to examine test-retest reliability of the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (Non-Motor)-Revised (TVPS-R), to explore motor-free visual-perceptual skills, and to categorize subtypes thereof in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). One hundred and seventy-eight children, aged 9 and 10 years, identified as having DCD with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC), were assessed, along with 200 typically developing children. The results showed good test-retest reliability for the total perceptual quotient scores of the TVPS-R, but not for all subtests. Children with DCD performed significantly poorer compared to typically developing children on the visual-perceptual test, but the deficits were not common to all children with DCD. This study supported the stance that we should consider the heterogeneous characteristics of children with DCD when designing experimental studies or developing educational interventions.     

Measuring attention in the hemispheres: the lateralized attention network test (LANT)

The attention network test (ANT) is a brief computerized battery measuring three independent behavioral components of attention: Conflict resolution (ability to overcome distracting stimuli), spatial Orienting (the benefit of valid spatial pre-cues), and Alerting (the benefit of temporal pre-cues). Imaging, clinical, and behavioral evidence demonstrate hemispheric asymmetries in these attentional networks. We constructed a lateralized version of the ANT (LANT), with brief targets flashed in one or the other visual hemifield. We also modified the tests by including invalid spatial cues in order to measure the cost component of Orienting. In a series of experiments, we investigated the efficiency of the attention networks separately in each hemisphere. Participants exhibited significant estimates of all networks measured by the LANT, comparable to the ANT. The three networks were represented in each hemisphere separately and were largely comparable across the two hemispheres. We suggest that the LANT is an informative extension of the original ANT, allowing for measurement of the three attention networks in each hemisphere separately.     

Responding to negativity: How a risky tactic can serve a vigilant strategy

Regulatory focus theory distinguishes between two motivational systems—a promotion system concerned with nurturance and advancement and a prevention system concerned with security and safety [Higgins, E. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280-1300]. In signal detection terms, a preference for eager strategies within the promotion system has been equated with a “risky” bias, whereas a preference for vigilant strategies within the prevention system has been equated with a “conservative” bias. However, we propose that when prevention-focused individuals face negative input, they should be willing to incur false alarms to ensure that negative stimuli are correctly identified. Across six studies, we found for negative stimuli a reversal of the traditional finding that prevention participants show a conservative bias in information processing. In these studies, prevention participants consistently exhibited a risky bias when the input was negative. We suggest that this new tactic—a risky bias in response to negativity—best serves the prevention strategy of vigilance.     

Dyadic processes of disclosure and reciprocity in bargaining with communication

We offer a study revealing the mechanisms through which communication helps actual bargaining behavior outperform economic predictions. The possibility of individually strategic behavior in the presence of private information leads to game‐theoretic predictions of less than full efficiency. We present a one‐stage, simultaneous offers bargaining game in which buyers and sellers have independent, privately held valuations for the item being sold (i.e. a bilateral auction with two‐sided private information). In three communication treatments, parties are: (a) allowed face‐to‐face communication prior to submitting offers; (b) allowed written communication prior to submitting offers; or (c) allowed no‐communication prior to submitting offers. When parties are allowed pre‐play communication, we find nearly full efficiency (98%). We examine two systematically predictable aspects of dyadic interaction—disclosure and reciprocity—to explain how negotiators achieve this efficiency. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the rabbit hole of possibilities by myself or with my group: The benefits and liabilities of activating counterfactual mind‐sets for information sharing and group coordination

The current experiment explored the effect of activating a counterfactual mind‐set on the discussion of unique information and group judgment accuracy. Evidence suggests that a counterfactual mind‐set is characterized by a focused, analytic mental state and, when activated at the group level, improves group judgment accuracy in the murder mystery paradigm (a hidden profile task). We hypothesized that the beneficial effect of the counterfactual mind‐set would only help group problem‐solving tasks if the mind‐set had been activated at the group level, allowing the analytical mind‐set to play out in an atmosphere of synergistic coordination. In contrast, if this highly focused mental state is activated at the individual level, it could impair group judgment quality because inwardly focused analytical individuals may fail to coordinate their behavior with other group members. Consistent with our hypothesis, activating a counterfactual mind‐set at the individual level had a debilitating effect on the group judgment task, whereas activating a counterfactual mind‐set at the group level had a facilitative effect, increasing information sharing, synergistic coordination and judgment accuracy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Visual and tactile action effects determine bimanual coordination performance

Effect-based models of motor control assign a crucial role to anticipated perceptual feedback in action planning. Two experiments were conducted to test the validity of this proposal for discrete bimanual key press responses. The results revealed that the normally observed performance advantage for the preparation of two responses with homologous rather than non-homologous fingers becomes inverted when homologous fingers produce non-identical visual effects, and non-homologous fingers produce identical visual effects. In the second experiment the finger homology effect was strongly reduced when homologous fingers produced non-identical tactile feedback. The results show that representations of to-be-produced visual and tactile action effects both contribute to action planning, though possibly to a varying degree. Implications of these results for effect-based models of motor control are considered.     

Multitimescale dynamical interactions between speech rhythm and gesture

Temporal patterns in human movement, and in speech in particular, occur on multiple timescales. Regularities in such patterns have been observed between speech gestures, which are relatively quick movements of articulators (e.g., tongue fronting and lip protrusion), and also between rhythmic units (e.g., syllables and metrical feet), which occur more slowly. Previous work has shown that patterns in both domains can be usefully modeled with oscillatory dynamical systems. To investigate how rhythmic and gestural domains interact, an experiment was conducted in which speakers performed a phrase repetition task, and gestural kinematics were recorded using electromagnetic articulometry. Variance in relative timing of gestural movements was correlated with variance in rhythmic timing, indicating that gestural and rhythmic systems interact in the process of planning and producing speech. A model of rhythmic and gestural planning oscillators with multifrequency coupling is presented, which can simulate the observed covariability between rhythmic and gestural timing.     

THE MAGICIAN IN THE WORLD: BECOMING, CREATIVITY, AND TRANSVERSAL COMMUNICATION

This essay interprets the meaning of one of the cards in aTarot deck, "The Magician," in the context of process philosophy in the tradition of Alfred North Whitehead. It brings into the conversation the philosophical legacy of American semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce as well as French poststructuralist Gilles Deleuze. Some of their conceptualizations are explored herein for the purpose of explaining the symbolic function of the Magician in the world. From the perspective of the logic of explanation, the sign of the Magician is an index of nonmechanistic, mutualist or circular, causality that enables self-organization embedded in coordination dynamics. Its action is such as to establish an unorthodox connection crossing over the dualistic gap between mind and matter, science and magic, process and structure, the world without and the world within, subject and object, and human experience and the natural world, thereby overcoming what Whitehead called the paradox of the connectedness of things. The Magician represents a certain quality that acts as a catalytic agent capable of eliciting transmutations, that is, the emergence of novelty. I present a model for process∼structure that uses mathematics on the complex plane and the rules of projective geometry. The corollary is such that the presence of the Magician in the world enables a particular organization of thought that makes pre-cognition possible.     

Cracks in a postdisaster service delivery network

Poor linkage cracks are defined and identified empirically in a postdisaster service delivery network. These cracks exist when essential services are provided only by isolated or peripheral clusters of organizations. Network analysis is used to identify the isolated and peripheral clusters of organizations. Measures of experience in responding to disasters and service capacity are used to identify the organizations whose services are essential in the network. Cracks prevent the network from responding effectively in the aftermath of a disaster. Suggestions are made for using network analysis to identify cracks and to improve planning and coordination in all kinds of service networks. Collection of the data for this work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Societal Response to Earthquake Hazards Mitigation Program, Grant No. CEE-8314421. The analysis and writing were accomplised with support from the National Science Foundation, Grant No. BCS-8920472. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. An early version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Midwest Sociological Society, Des Moines, Iowa, April 1991. This paper was distinctly improved through our response to extensive and perceptive suggestions given by the editor and reviewers of theAmerican Journal of Community Psychology. We thank them for the help.     

Effects of physical fatigue and cognitive challenges on the potential for low back injury

There is no question that the motor control system will adapt under fatiguing conditions; however, there is documented evidence showing that when fatigued or challenged, the motor control system will, on occasion, perform inappropriate muscle sequencing, increasing the risk of injury, or directly causing injury. Knowing that inappropriate muscle activations can lead to injury, the purpose of this study was to investigate motor patterns during cognitive and physical challenges. Rather than ensure change with severe challenges, milder challenges were purposefully chosen. Eight male subjects performed a low external load task performed near end ROM while in an unchallenged state, and while in three challenged states: passive tissue creep, muscle fatigue and cognitive distraction. Data were collected using EMG of the trunk muscles and angular displacement of the lumbar spine. Comparison of motor control patterns between the unchallenged state and each of the three challenged conditions showed no systematic differences. However, several random anomalies were observed. A case study of a single subject was chosen to show inappropriate motor control during one trial under the cognitive distraction conditions. The response of the motor control system is very individualized and does on occasion produce inappropriate motor patterns. This supports the notion that injury may also occur as the result of random motor control errors as well as predictable, systematic changes.