A champion out of the pool? A discursive exploration of two Australian Olympic swimmers' transition from elite sport to retirement

BackgroundThe transition out of elite sport can be distressing and many athletes experience a range of transition difficulties. However, the socio-cultural and discursive contexts which shape experiences remain largely unexplored in the transition literature.ObjectiveTo explore retirement and transition difficulties in a cultural context through an analysis of Australian newsprint media.Design and methodsA discursive analysis of 121 media articles reporting on post-retirement experiences of two Australian swimmers 7 and 5 years (respectively) into retirement. Data were analysed for repeated representation of transition difficulties, specifically how the cause of difficulties was attributed. The identities that were ascribed to athletes and what these functioned to accomplish were also examined.ResultsThe identities of both individuals were repeatedly constructed in terms of an athlete identity, to the exclusion of other identities. The responsibility for transition difficulties was depicted as located solely within the individual and, thereby, the sport setting and the broader socio-cultural context were overlooked.ConclusionsIn this cultural context (Australian news media), the repeated construction of limited identity positions for retired athletes and the construction of former athletes as the sole locus of transition difficulties have implications for their psychological well-being. Despite this, the role of the sporting and cultural context is rendered invisible in these accounts and more broadly, and interventions remain targeted at the individual level.     

Co-occurring motor,language and emotional–behavioral problems in children 3–6 years of age

PurposeDevelopmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) has been shown to co-occur with behavioral and language problems in school-aged children, but little is known as to when these problems begin to emerge, or if they are inherent in children with DCD. The purpose of this study was to determine if deficits in language and emotional–behavioral problems are apparent in preschool-aged children with movement difficulties.MethodTwo hundred and fourteen children (mean age 4 years 11 months, SD 9.8 months, 103 male) performed the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2nd Edition (MABC-2). Children falling at or below the 16th percentile were classified as being at risk for movement difficulties (MD risk). Auditory comprehension and expressive communication were examined using the Preschool Language Scales 4th Edition (PLS-4). Parent-reported emotional and behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).ResultsPreschool children with diminished motor coordination (n = 37) were found to have lower language scores, higher externalizing behaviors in the form of increased aggression, as well as increased withdrawn and other behavior symptoms compared with their typically developing peers.ConclusionsMotor coordination, language and emotional–behavioral difficulties tend to co-occur in young children aged 3–6 years. These results highlight the need for early intervention.     

Eye movements of monkey observers viewing vocalizing conspecifics

Primates, including humans, communicate using facial expressions, vocalizations and often a combination of the two modalities. For humans, such bimodal integration is best exemplified by speech-reading - humans readily use facial cues to enhance speech comprehension, particularly in noisy environments. Studies of the eye movement patterns of human speech-readers have revealed, unexpectedly, that they predominantly fixate on the eye region of the face as opposed to the mouth. Here, we tested the evolutionary basis for such a behavioral strategy by examining the eye movements of rhesus monkeys observers as they viewed vocalizing conspecifics. Under a variety of listening conditions, we found that rhesus monkeys predominantly focused on the eye region versus the mouth and that fixations on the mouth were tightly correlated with the onset of mouth movements. These eye movement patterns of rhesus monkeys are strikingly similar to those reported for humans observing the visual components of speech. The data therefore suggest that the sensorimotor strategies underlying bimodal speech perception may have a homologous counterpart in a closely related primate ancestor.     

A “RESOLUTE” LATER WITTGENSTEIN?

Abstract: “Resolute readings” initially started life as a radical new approach to Wittgenstein's early philosophy, but are now starting to take root as a way of interpreting the later writings as well—a trend exemplified by Stephen Mulhall's Wittgenstein's Private Language (2007) as well as by Phil Hutchinson's “What's the Point of Elucidation?” (2007) and Rom Harré's “Grammatical Therapy and the Third Wittgenstein” (2008). The present article shows that there are neither good philosophical nor compelling exegetical grounds for accepting a resolute reading of the later Wittgenstein's work. It is possible to make sense of Wittgenstein's philosophical method without either ascribing to him an incoherent conception of “substantial nonsense” or espousing the resolute readers' preferred option of nonsense austerity. If the interpretation here is correct, it allows us to recognize Wittgenstein's radical break with the philosophical tradition without having to characterize his achievements in purely therapeutic fashion.     

School profiles of at-risk student concentration: Differential growth in oral reading fluency

The present study provides a data-driven approach to identifying groups of schools based on the concentration of at-risk students the school serves. The percentage of English language learners, minority students, and students eligible for free or reduced priced lunch were used as indicators in a latent profile analysis of 569 schools. The goal of the present study was to determine whether school-level average student reading performance varied as a function of the groups identified in the latent profile analysis. To do so, groups extracted by the latent profile analysis were used as school-level predictors of growth in oral reading fluency, which was modeled at the within-student level of a three-level hierarchical growth curve model. Oral reading fluency was measured at four points during the year in a large cross-sectional sample of first-, second-, and third-grade students. Results indicated that schools were able to be classified into four distinct groups based on their concentrations and types of at-risk students. Further, in all three grades, there were significant differences between the four identified groups observed in average reading fluency scores at the beginning of the year, the end of the year, and growth during the year indicating that groups based on school-concentration of at-risk students were significantly related to average student achievement in reading ability.     

The cognitive profile of Chinese children with mathematics difficulties

This study examined how four domain-specific skills (arithmetic procedural skills, number fact retrieval, place value concept, and number sense) and two domain-general processing skills (working memory and processing speed) may account for Chinese children’s mathematics learning difficulties. Children with mathematics difficulties (MD) of two age groups (7-8 and 9-11 years) were compared with age-matched typically achieving children. For both age groups, children with MD performed significantly worse than their age-matched controls on all of the domain-specific and domain-general measures. Further analyses revealed that the MD children with literacy difficulties (MD/RD group) performed the worst on all of the measures, whereas the MD-only group was significantly outperformed by the controls on the four domain-specific measures and verbal working memory. Stepwise discriminant analyses showed that both number fact retrieval and place value concept were significant factors differentiating the MD and non-MD children. To conclude, deficits in domain-specific skills, especially those of number fact retrieval and place value understanding, characterize the profile of Chinese children with MD.     

Flowing Within the Text: A Discussion on He Lin’s Explanation of Zhu Xi’s Method of Intuition

The author examines He Lin’s interpretation of Zhu Xi’s method of intuition from a phenomenological-hermeneutical perspective and by exposing Zhu’s philosophical presuppositions. In contrast with Lu Xiangshan’s intuitive method, Zhu Xi’s method of reading classics advocates “emptying your heart and flowing with the text” and, in this spirit, explains the celebrated “exhaustive investigation on the principles of things (ge wu qiong li).” “Text,” according to Zhu, is therefore not an object in ordinary sense but a “contextual region” or “sensible pattern” that, when merged with the reader, generates meanings. Furthermore, by discussing the related doctrines of Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, Hua-Yan Buddhism, Zhou Dunyi, and Zhu Xi’s own “One principle with many manifestations (li yi fen shu),” the author identifies the philosophical preconditions of Zhu’s method. Based on this analysis, the author goes on to illustrate Zhu’s understanding of “observing potential yet unapparent pleasure, anger, sorrow and happiness” and “maintaining a serious attitude (zhu jing).”     

当前阅读研究中眼动指标述评

文章重点介绍了阅读研究中常用的眼动指标,它们包括注视时间、眼跳、回视和瞳孔直径等,从字和区域这两个方面探讨了这些眼动指标所反映的认知加工过程,以及选择这些指标时应该注意的问题。最后对眼动指标的选择和使用等问题提出了几点看法。     

中学生好胜心培养的实验研究

以积极的归因训练、表扬与奖励和适当的竞赛等手段对中学生的好胜心进行培养,通过一个学期三个阶段的培养,结果发现,实验班学生的好胜心水平增量显著高于对照班学生,实验班学生的学习成绩增量也显著高于对照班学生,好胜心水平与学习成绩存在着显著的正相关。研究表明,积极的归因训练、表扬与奖励、适当的竞赛是培养中学生好胜心的有效措施。     

Descartes on the distinction between primary and secondary qualities

ABSTRACT

Descartes did not use the terms ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ qualities, but a similar distinction emerges from his texts: certain qualities of objects (such as size and shape) are intrinsic properties of matter, whereas others (like colours and smells) are products of the interaction with a perceiver. A common interpretation states that the division between primary and secondary qualities is explained by the way in which we are acquainted with them: an idea of a primary quality is similar to its physical causes, and it is clearly and distinctly perceived by the intellect. An idea of a secondary quality is dissimilar to its physical causes and it is obscurely and confusedly perceived by the senses. This view receives the name of ‘bifurcation reading’ (Simmons, A. ‘Descartes on the Cognitive Structure of Sensory Experience’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LXVII, no. 3 (November 2003)). While it integrates well some textual occurrences, it creates a problematic fragmentation within single acts of perception. This paper contends that this reading is incorrect. It presents several arguments for the claim that the distinction of qualities is due to the different ways in which our ideas of them misrepresent their physical causes. Then, Descartes’ dissimilarity thesis between physical objects and our ideas of them remains a structural feature of his theory of sensory perception and not a local phenomenon affecting only ideas of secondary qualities.