The Application of Cortical Arousal Assessment to Control Neuromuscular Fatigue During Strength Training

The author's aim was to analyze the cortical arousal response during a conventional strength training session as a method to assess central nervous system fatigue. Sixteen trained men were recruited to perform the maximum number of training series composed of 6 exercises of 10 repetition each, at the intensity of 70% of the 1 maximum repetition, with a rest period of 2 min between exercises and 5 min between series, until exhaustion. Cortical arousal was measured using the critical flicker fusion threshold before, after warm-up, after each exercises series, after the recovery phase between series, and 15 min and 30 min after finishing the training session. Participants could not finish the fourth series of exercise, corresponding with a significant decrease of cortical arousal respect to the warm-up value. The assessment of cortical arousal using CFFT during a strength training session could be a fast and efficient method for assessing central nervous fatigue. Practically, coaches could modify the training protocol according to the individual cortical arousal response in order to improve training efficiency and prevent injuries.     

Home environmental influences on children's language and reading skills in a genetically sensitive design: Are socioeconomic status and home literacy environment environmental mediators and moderators?

This twin study examined how family socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy environment (HLE) contributes to Chinese language and reading skills. It included 312 Chinese twin pairs aged 3 to 11. Children were individually administered tasks of Chinese word reading, receptive vocabulary and reading‐related cognitive skills, and nonverbal reasoning ability. Information on home environment was collected through parent‐reported questionnaires. Results showed that SES and HLE mediated shared environmental influences but did not moderate genetic influences on general language and reading abilities. Also, SES and HLE mediated shared environmental contributions to receptive vocabulary and syllable and rhyme awareness, but not orthographic skills. The findings of this study add to past twin studies that focused on alphabetic languages, suggesting that these links could be universal across languages. They also extend existing findings on SES and HLE's contributions to reading‐related cognitive skills.     

Finding the Right Value: Framing Effects on Domain Experts

By defining the essence of a policy problem, an issue frame shapes how individuals think about a political issue. In this research, we investigate framing effects among domain experts, an understudied yet increasingly important set of individuals in the policymaking process. Because domain experts have extensive and highly structured knowledge on a particular topic, they are likely to actively process issue frames to which they are exposed. Consequently, we hypothesize that frames consistent with experts' values will be particularly influential, whereas frames inconsistent with their values will lead to contrast effects. We test our hypotheses on a unique set of domain experts by examining professional farmers' attitudes toward no‐till agriculture. Using an experimental design, we find evidence that environmental values interact with frames to influence farmers' interest in no‐till, especially when farmers are exposed to a novel frame.     

High-level Enactive and Embodied Cognition in Expert Sport Performance

Abstract

Mental representation has long been central to standard accounts of action and cognition generally, and in the context of sport. We argue for an enactive and embodied account that rejects the idea that representation is necessary for cognition, and posit instead that cognition arises, or is enacted, in certain types of interactions between organisms and their environment. More specifically, we argue that enactive theories explain some kinds of high-level cognition, those that underlie some of the best performances in sport and similar practices (dance, martial arts), better than representational accounts. Flow and mushin (mindfully fluid awareness) are explained enactively to this end. This results in a mutually beneficial analysis where enactivism offers theoretical and practical advantages as an explanation of high performance in sports, while the latter validates enactivism.     

On the Compatibility of Brain Enhancement and the Internal Values of Sport

Abstract

Elite athletes are characterized by their high level of performance in sport. Since the very beginnings of sport, it has been understood that physical and physiological abilities influence the performance of athletes. Advances in scientific knowledge, especially sport psychology and neuroscience, seem to confirm this intuition and consequently it is possible to characterize elite athletes as having an extraordinary combination of physical and mental abilities. Techniques and substances that contribute to enhancing physical characteristics of athletes have also been well known for ages. But it is now possible to make use of other techniques and substances that not only enhance physical abilities but also cognitive capabilities, which seem to require greater consideration given their direct impact on the athlete’s brain. In this article, we examine two such techniques, cognitive enhancers and transcranial stimulators, and highlight the potential advantages and drawbacks that applying each one may have on sport. Given the relative novelty of these enhancement techniques and substances and the absence of conclusive evidence regarding their short- and long-term effects, we deem that their use ought to be strictly governed by cautionary principles. But due to that same lack of evidence, we believe that the possibility of examining the feasibility of applying these techniques to sport should not be denied.     

Can infrastructure improvements mitigate unsafe traffic safety culture: A driving simulator study exploring cross cultural differences

This paper presents the results of a cross-cultural study to investigate the influence of traffic safety culture and infrastructure improvements on driver behaviour. To achieve this, the driving style of UK drivers was compared with that of Nigerians with and without experience of driving in the UK. A driving simulator experiment compared the actual driving style of these three groups of drivers in different safety critical scenarios. The simulated road environment varied depending on how much infrastructure was provided (low or high infrastructure). In addition, the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire was used to collect self-reported data on violations, errors and lapses. It was hypothesised that Nigerian drivers with no experience of driving in a UK road system would report and engage in more unsafe driving behaviour compared to the other two groups, and that increasing infrastructure would have little positive benefit. Overall, the results supported these hypotheses, indicating that the behaviours of drivers are interpretable in relation to their traffic safety culture, compared to changes in their driving environment.     

Planet Braitenberg: Experiments in virtual psychology

Braitenberg vehicles are simple robotic platforms, equipped with rudimentary sensor and motor components. Such vehicles have typically featured as part of thought experiments that are intended to show how complex behaviours are apt to emerge from the interaction of inner control mechanisms with aspects of bodily structure and features of the wider (extra-agential) environment. The present paper describes a framework for creating Braitenberg-like vehicles, which is built on top of a widely used and freely available game engine, namely, the Unity game engine. The framework can be used to study the behaviour of virtual vehicles within a multiplicity of virtual environments. All aspects of the vehicle’s design, as well as the wider virtual environment in which the vehicle is situated, can be modified during the design phase, as well as at runtime. The result is a general-purpose simulation capability that is intended to provide the foundation for studies in so-called computational situated cognition—a field of study whose primary objective is to support the computational modelling of cognitive processes associated with the physically-embodied, environmentally-embedded, and materially-extended mind.     

Factors associated with adherence to the muscle-strengthening activity guideline among adolescents

PurposeWe aimed to explore associations between guideline-concordant muscle-strengthening activity (MSA) and demographic, biological, psychosocial, and behavioral factors among Australian adolescents.MethodsWe used baseline data from the ‘Resistance Training for Teens’ cluster randomized controlled trial (collected April–June 2015). Adolescents (n = 602, mean age = 14.1 ± 0.5 years, 50% female) from 16 schools in New South Wales, Australia self-reported their sex, primary language spoken at home, postal code (for socioeconomic status), resistance training (RT) self-efficacy, motivation for RT, perceived strength, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), screen-time, and sleep. Participants also completed tests of height, weight, cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, flexibility, and RT skills. MSA was self-reported and participants were dichotomized as ‘meeting’ (3–7 days) or ‘not meeting’ (0–2 days) the MSA guideline. Binary logistic regression with odds ratios (OR) was used to determine associations with adolescents' MSA.ResultsAnalyses for each variable group explained a small-to-moderate proportion of the variance in MSA. Sex, muscular fitness, RT self-efficacy, perceived strength, and total MVPA emerged as statistically significant factors. However, only RT self-efficacy (OR = 2.48 [1.37 to 4.50]) and total MVPA (OR = 1.48 [1.22 to 1.79]) were associated with guideline-concordant MSA in the full model, which explained 52% of the variance.ConclusionsOur study adds to the limited understanding of adolescents' MSA behavior. RT self-efficacy and total MVPA were independently associated with guideline-concordant MSA among Australian adolescents. The findings have implications for the design and delivery of future interventions targeting adolescents’ MSA behavior.     

Presence and search for meaning in sport: Initial construct validation

According to Frankl (1959), the will to meaning is a fundamental human motive. Perceiving life as meaningful is associated with a number of sources and positive outcomes. Similar findings emerged when looking at domain-specific meaning, such as work. Surprisingly, sport-specific meaning is yet to be empirically investigated or measured. Therefore, the purpose of this two-study project was to examine the psychometric properties of the Meaning in Sport Questionnaire (MSQ), a sport-specific meaning measure. Survey responses (n = 329) from Study 1 were used to assess factorial validity and measurement invariance for the MSQ. Results from Study 2 with a different sample (n = 402) supported initial convergent validity for the two subscales of presence and search for meaning in sport. The MSQ is a new measure that can be used to investigate the extent to which athletes perceive their sport to be meaningful and search for such meaning.