Acceptable timing error at ball-bat impact for different pitches and its implications for baseball skills

In baseball hitting, batters need high precision timing control to hit the ball with bat’s sweet spot. Knowing the acceptable range of timing error for hitting the ball in the aimed direction for various pitch types is helpful to understand whether the cause of the batter's mis-hit is a spatial or temporal error and highlight the motor skills required by the batter. The purpose of this study was to determine the acceptable timing error in different baseball pitches and the impact characteristics of mis-hits. Twenty-six high school baseball players hit a ball launched from a pitching machine with three types of pitches: fastballs, curveballs, and slowballs. We recorded the three-dimensional behavior of the ball, bat, and human body (pelvis) using an optical motion capture system. We then defined the optimal impact location based on timing accuracy, and determined the acceptable range of timing error by the interactive relationship between the horizontal orientation of the bat’s long axis at the time of ball impact and the horizontal direction of the batted ball. The ±30° width in the horizontal direction of the batted ball was set as the precondition for the tolerance of timing. The acceptable timing error was ±7.9 ms for fastballs, ±10.7 ms for curveballs, and ±10.7 ms for slowballs, and the optimal timing for outside pitches was approximately 10 ms later than that for inside pitches. The timing error was also explained 38.1% by variation in the impact location along the long axis of the bat (R² = 0.381, P < 0.001) and was minimized at a position close to the bat’s sweet spot. These results suggest that the optimal impact location and acceptable range of timing error depend on the pitching course and speed and that timing accuracy is essential to achieve the spatial accuracy required to hit the ball at the bat’s sweet spot.     

错误相关负电位（ERN）及其理论解释

错误动作发生后,在个体额叶中部可观察到一个明显的负相电位偏移,这称为“错误相关负电位”（error related negativity,ERN）。有研究者提出了“强化学习理论”,认为ERN反映了当前行为结果与预期之间的差异。与此不同的是“冲突监控理论”,认为ERN与反应冲突有关。还有研究者提出了“失匹配理论”,强调实际反应的神经表征（错误反应）与当前任务所要求的反应表征的差异产生了ERN。在阐述ERN的理论解释基础上,对三者之间的关系进行了分析与整合。     

小学儿童算术估算能力的发展

本研究深入考察了我国现阶段小学儿童算术估算能力的发展状况。通过运用自编材料对1027名儿童的团体与个别测试,发现其估算能力的发展具有如下特点：（1）明显受到题目类型的影响,但在不同年龄阶段影响又不尽相同。（2）三年级可能是整数和小数估算能力发展的一个关键期,五年级是发展分数估算能力的较好时期。（3）不同估算策略的发展进程差别相当大,不同时期都有发展的侧重点。（4）小学儿童在估算时易发生多种错误,而且不同年级均有一些典型错误。另外研究还对儿童估算能力、策略与错误类型的发展进行了深入讨论。     

错误加工意识水平与错误相关脑电成分

错误加工的意识水平包括有意识水平、无意识水平以及介于两者之间的意识水平。意识水平的划分通常通过错误报告范式实现。根据其对意识水平的划分, 可以将相关研究分为二元意识水平研究和多元意识水平研究。已有研究, 主要关注于意识水平与错误诱发的Ne、Pe的关系。两类研究一致表明, Pe受意识水平的调节, 但是并没有得到fMRI研究的一致支持。对Ne的激活是否独立于意识, 研究者们仍存在争议。还有研究考察了注意对错误意识水平的影响, 结果支持Pe与意识水平共变的观点, 但是对注意如何影响错误意识水平还存在质疑。在对以上研究进行整理与分析的基础上, 对将来的研究提出了建议。     

Learning from Our Mistakes: Error Management Training for Mature Learners

This research explored the effects of training goal (learning goal vs. performance goal) and training type (error management vs. error avoidance) on word processing skill acquisition with older workers. Sixty-seven participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions and attended two interactive tutorial training sessions. Results indicated that error management training lead to significantly higher performance test scores, learning quiz scores, and requests for assistance compared to error avoidant training. Additionally, learning goals generated significantly higher performance test scores and intrinsic motivation levels relative to performance goals. Other applications of error management training are discussed.     

A widely applicable extension of the random effects two-way layout: Its definition and statistical analysis based on group invariance

A type of data layout that may be considered as an extension of the two-way random effects analysis of variance is characterized and modeled based on group invariance. The data layout seems to be suitable for several scenarios in psychometrics, including the one in which multiple measurements are taken on each of a set of variables, and the measurements can be divided into exchangeable subsets. The algebraic structure of the model is studied, which leads to results that are applicable to such problems as estimating correlation matrix corrected for attenuation and testing symmetry hypotheses.The author would like to thank NIH for support through grants M01 RR00044 and P01 DE13539, and NSF and ASA Survey Section for a travel grant which allowed him to present this paper as an invited young researcher at the Conference in Celebration of Wayne A. Fuller's 70th birthday.     

FOK研究中一种新的标准测验——过度重复学习

提出FOK研究中一种新的标准测验形式——过度重复学习,并验证过度重复学习作为FOK研究的标准测验的可行性;另外还比较了作为标准测验,过度重复学习与再认的差别。同时,还探索了FOK判断中存在的两种错误类型——替代性错误和忽略性错误在FOK判断等级和标准测验成绩方面的差异。两个实验结果表明：FOK判断在预期随后的标准测验(过度重复学习和再认)成绩上是有准确性的;过度重复学习可以作为一种标准测验。实验结果还显示：替代性错误比忽略性错误的FOK判断等级要高;且无论是用再认还是用过度重复学习做标准测验,都能检验出两种错误类型项目在记忆激活强度上的差异。     

Prediction Errors and Attention in the Presence and Absence of Feedback

ABSTRACT— Contemporary theories of learning typically assume that learning is driven by prediction errors—in other words, that we learn more when our predictions turn out to be incorrect than we do when our predictions are correct. Results from the recording of electrical brain activity suggest one mechanism by which this might happen; we seem to direct visual attention toward the likely causes of previous prediction errors. This can happen very rapidly—within less than 200 milliseconds of the error-causing object being presented. It is tempting to infer that if learning is driven by prediction errors, then little can be learned in the absence of feedback. Such a conclusion is unwarranted. In fact, the substantial learning that is sometimes the result of simple exposure to objects can also be explained by processes of directing attention toward the likely causes of previous prediction errors.     

A primer on the understanding of meta-analysis

ObjectivesThe purpose of the present paper is to provide a primer on the understanding of meta-analysis.Design and methodAfter presenting the rationale behind meta-analysis, the present paper defines statistical artifacts of sampling error and measurement.FindingsExamples show that statistical artifacts influence the correlation coefficient. The paper also explains the notions of confidence intervals and credibility intervals and how correlations corrected for sampling error and measurement error are calculated.ConclusionsThe paper concludes by explaining the notion of second-order sampling error and moderator meta-analysis.     

INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM

This paper introduces a symposium discussing Michael Oakeshott's understanding of the relationship of religion, science and politics. Essays by Elizabeth Corey, Timothy Fuller, Byron Kaldis, and Corey Abel are followed by a review of Corey's recent book by Efraim Podoksik.