The Impact of Leadership Style on Moral Identity and Subsequent In-Role Performance: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

This study investigated the impact of supervisors’ servant leadership (i.e., leadership that starts with a leader who wants to serve) on supervisees’ moral identity and subsequent in-role performance. Data from 226 supervisor–supervisee dyads were collected from several domestic and multinational companies operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to confirm the factorial validity of the measures that were employed in this study. The hypothesized moderated mediation model was tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Based on social learning theory, the results showed that supervisees’ moral identity served as the psychological mediating mechanism through which supervisors’ servant leadership led to supervisees’ increased in-role performance. Furthermore, the results also supported supervisees’ avoidance orientation as the dispositional boundary condition of this mediating effect. This study contributes to both the servant leadership and moral identity literatures by addressing questions with useful theoretical and managerial implications.     

Training in Timing Improves Accuracy in Golf

In this experiment, the authors investigated the influence of training in timing on performance accuracy in golf. During pre- and posttesting, 40 participants hit golf balls with 4 different clubs in a golf course simulator. The dependent measure was the distance in feet that the ball ended from the target. Between the pre- and posttest, participants in the experimental condition received 10 hr of timing training with an instrument that was designed to train participants to tap their hands and feet in synchrony with target sounds. The participants in the control condition read literature about how to improve their golf swing. The results indicated that the participants in the experimental condition significantly improved their accuracy relative to the participants in the control condition, who did not show any improvement. We concluded that training in timing leads to improvement in accuracy, and that our results have implications for training in golf as well as other complex motor activities.     

A Case of Synaesthesia

Two experiments employed Potential Performance Theory (PPT) to correct for inconsistency in a speeded task. In Experiment 1, a search task was employed whereby participants searched for a target letter among distracters. In Experiment 2, the search task was more complex and naturalistic—participants searched for enemy weapons in aerial photographs. Not surprisingly, the results revealed that longer search times led to greater accuracy. However, this improvement was due only in part to improved search strategies. Much, if not most, of the improvement was due to increased consistency. The authors demonstrate and discuss some of the advantages to be gained by considering a speeded task within the context of a clear and mathematically precise theory (PPT).     

Developmental Delays at Arrival,Early Intervention Enrollment,and Adopted Chinese Girls’ Academic Performance and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence

The author investigated the extent of developmental delays in girls adopted from China, their subsequent early intervention (EI) enrollment, and how the delays and EI were related to their academic performance and internalizing problems in adolescence. The sample included 180 adolescent girls (M = 13.4 years, SD = 2.0 years) who were adopted at 3–23.5 months (M = 11.5 months, SD = 3.7 months). Data on the adopted Chinese girls’ delays at arrival and EI enrollment in physical therapy (PT) and speech–language therapy (SLT) were collected from the adoptive mothers at the Baseline; data on the adopted Chinese girls’ present academic performance and internalizing problems were collected from the adoptive mothers and adopted girls at Wave 4 six years later. Data analyses revealed that 55% of the adoptees had moderate-to-severe delays when first arrived at the adoptive homes. Motor delays significantly increased the odds for PT (odds ratio [OR] = 3.98, 95% CI [2.18, 7.82], p <.001) and SLT (OR = 2.36, 95% CI [1.50–3.72, p <.001). Social-cognitive delays also significantly increased the odds for PT (OR = 1.90, 95% CI [1.36, 2.63], p <.001) and SLT (OR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.22, 2.17], p <.001). Motor delays were negatively associated with academic performance but positively associated with internalizing problems. General linear modeling showed that the adoptees who had developmental delays at arrival and subsequently enrolled in EI scored significantly lower on academic performance than their peers who had delays but did not enroll in EI, as well their peers who had no delays and did not enroll in EI. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Exposure to Repetitive Tasks Induces Motor Changes Related to Skill Acquisition and Inflammation in Rats

The authors elucidate exposure-response relationships between repetitive tasks, inflammation, and motor changes with work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Using a rat model of reaching and handle pulling, they examined effects of performing a high-repetition, low-force (HRLF); low-repetition, high-force (LRHF); or high-repetition, high-force (HRHF) task (2 hr/day, 3 days/week, 12 weeks) on reach rate and force, percentage of successful reaches, duration of participation, and grip strength. Reach rate and reach force improved with HRLF, and percentage success increased in all groups in Week 9, and in HRLF and HRHF in Week 12, indicative of skill acquisition. Duration and grip strength showed force-dependent declines with task performance. A subset of HRHF rats received ibuprofen in Weeks 5–12. Ibuprofen significantly improved reach rate, reach force, and duration in treated rats, indicative of an inflammatory influence on reach performance. Ibuprofen improved percentage of successful reaches in Week 9, although this increase was not sustained. However, declines in grip strength, a nocifensive behavior, were not prevented by ibuprofen. Examination of cervical spinal cords of untreated and ibuprofen treated HRHF rats showed increased IL-1beta, an inflammatory cytokine, in neurons. These findings suggest that only a preventive intervention could have addressed all motor declines.     

Influence of Instruction on Velocity and Accuracy in Soccer Kicking of Experienced Soccer Players

ABSTRACT. The authors’ aim was to investigate the speed-accuracy tradeoff in soccer kicking with the dominant and nondominant foot by using different types of instructions prioritizing speed or accuracy in experienced soccer players. Ten male soccer players were randomly given 1 of the 4 instructions that differed in aspects of the kick they should emphasize and what the secondary aim would be (speed or accuracy). It was found that ball velocity was affected by instruction in the expected way: emphasis on accuracy and ball velocity reduced for both kicking feet. In addition kicking accuracy increased when emphasizing this, but only with the dominant foot indicating that Fitts’ law only was found in kicks with the dominant foot.     

The Effects of Eight-Month Physical Activity Intervention on Vigilance Performance in Adult Obese Population

We aim to analyze the effects of an 8-month physical activity intervention on cardiorespiratory fitness, body mass index (BMI), and vigilance performance in an adult obese population. We conducted an 8-month physical activity intervention based on dance and rhythmic activities. The weekly frequency was 2 sessions of 1 hr per day. Training sessions were divided into 3 phases: a 10-min warm-up, 40 min of dance and rhythmic activities, and 10 min to cool-down. To assess cardiorespiratory fitness, participants performed a modified version of the 6-min walk test from the Senior Fitness Test battery (Larsson & Mattsson, 2001; Rikli & Jones, 1999). Vigilance performance was measured by means of the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). Two measurements were performed immediately before and after the intervention. The results revealed that participants improved their cardiorespiratory fitness, BMI, and vigilance performance after the intervention. All in all, findings contribute new empirical evidence to the field that investigates the benefits of physical activity intervention on cognitive processes in obese population.     

Knowledge About Hand Shaping and Knowledge About Objects

Our two experiments investigated associations between cognitive representations of objects and hand-shape categories. Hand configurations were partitioned according to prehensility and the size of the contacting surface, resulting in the classes: pinch, poke, palm, and clench. Experiment 1 elicited object names in response to configuration-name cues, provided ratings of the relevance of each configuration to a set of objects, and probed for the functions determining such relevance. Cueing with a configuration class elicited an associated object category with substantial intersubject agreement, and vice versa. Both the object categories and the functions associated with the four hand-configuration classes differed substantially, although the same object could be associated to some extent with multiple configurations, given variations in function. Experiment 2 elicited the names of hand-configuration classes in response to unfamiliar forms, which varied systematically in depth and the size of the projecting picture-plane surface. The modal response, response time, and degree of intersubject agreement were directly related to these variables. These structural variables, however, did not adequately predict shaping responses to real objects, as ascertained from Experiment 1. The results have implications for cognitive representation of motor categories and hand shaping in response to objects.     

Preference for Sex of Child Among Primiparous Women

Primiparous American women (N = 140) were questioned during their third trimester concerning their choice of sex of offspring and their willingness to use sex preselection techniques (if available). Eighty-two women expressed no preference for sex of offspring; of the remaining 58, 33 chose girls and 25 chose boys. Of the 26 women who indicated they would have used preselection technology, 13 chose boys and 13 chose girls. Fifty-three percent of the sample indicated they would not have used preselection techniques; 29% were undecided. These results were at variance with earlier studies that indicated a consistent choice of male firstborns, especially in nonpregnant samples. The discrepancy is discussed in terms of a move from boy preference to no preference and a gradual weakening of societal bias against women.