How long do the short‐term violent video game effects last?

How long do the effects of the initial short‐term increase in aggression and physiological arousal last after violent video game play? Study 1 (N=91) had participants complete pre‐ and postvideo game measures of aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and heart rate. Then, participants completed Time 3 measures after 4 min or 9 min of delay. Study 2 employed a similar procedure, but had participants (N=91) complete the hot sauce paradigm to assess aggressive behavior after a 0, 5, or 10 min delay. First, results indicated that aggressive feelings, aggressive thoughts, aggressive behavior, and heart rate initially increased after violent video game play. Second, results of the delay condition revealed that the increase in aggressive feelings and aggressive thoughts lasted less than 4 min, whereas heart rate and aggressive behavior lasted 4–9 min. Aggr. Behav. 35:225–236, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Shared focus in mother—child joint activity in the second year of life

Shared focus between mother and child during joint activity was examined. Ten dyads were observed at 16 and 20 months. We found that the level of conventionality expressed by shared focus increases with age. The activity becomes more oriented towards the cultural aspects of the objects than to material aspects, and social games become more oriented towards symbolic and linguistic aspects than to practical ones. Moreover, we found that the content of the game influences the function of the child's utterances both at 16 and at 20 months. These results point to the cultural specification of joint activity, which can be viewed as mediating the development of intersubjectivity as well as individual behaviour.     

THE USE OF SELF-MODELING TO IMPROVE THE SWIMMING PERFORMANCE OF SPINA BIFIDA CHILDREN

The use of edited videotape replay (which showed only “positive” behaviors) to improve the water skills of three spina bifida children, aged 5 to 10 years was examined. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used, and behavioral changes were observed to occur in close association with intervention. One child was given successive reapplications of videotaped self-modeling with continuing improvements. It appears that a useful practical technique has been developed.     

Enumeration versus multiple object tracking: the case of action video game players

Here, we demonstrate that action video game play enhances subjects' ability in two tasks thought to indicate the number of items that can be apprehended. Using an enumeration task, in which participants have to determine the number of quickly flashed squares, accuracy measures showed a near ceiling performance for low numerosities and a sharp drop in performance once a critical number of squares was reached. Importantly, this critical number was higher by about two items in video game players (VGPs) than in non-video game players (NVGPs). A following control study indicated that this improvement was not due to an enhanced ability to instantly apprehend the numerosity of the display, a process known as subitizing, but rather due to an enhancement in the slower more serial process of counting. To confirm that video game play facilitates the processing of multiple objects at once, we compared VGPs and NVGPs on the multiple object tracking task (MOT), which requires the allocation of attention to several items over time. VGPs were able to successfully track approximately two more items than NVGPs. Furthermore, NVGPs trained on an action video game established the causal effect of game playing in the enhanced performance on the two tasks. Together, these studies confirm the view that playing action video games enhances the number of objects that can be apprehended and suggest that this enhancement is mediated by changes in visual short-term memory skills.     

“The interviewer is a machine!” Investigating the effects of conventional and technology-mediated interview methods on interviewee reactions and behavior

Despite the growing number of organizations interested in the use of asynchronous video interviews (AVIs), little is known about its impact on interviewee reactions and behavior. We randomly assigned participants (N = 299) from two different countries (Switzerland and India) to a face-to-face interview, an avatar-based video interview (with an avatar as a virtual recruiter), or a text-based video interview (with written questions) and collected data on a set of self-rated and observer-rated criteria. Overall, we found that whereas participants reported more negative reactions towards the two asynchronous interviews, observer ratings revealed similar performance across the three interviews and lower stress levels in the two AVIs. These findings suggest that despite technology-mediated interview methods still not being well-accepted, interviewees are not at a disadvantage when these methods are used in terms of how well interviewees perform and how stressed they appear to external observers. Implications are discussed.     

The effect of justified video game violence on aggressive behavior and moderated immersion: An experimental approach

The effect of violent video games on aggressive behavior is an important topic in the field of game research. Recently, growing evidence suggests that justified game violence decreases feelings of guilt caused by in-game immoral behavior. However, little is known about the impact on aggressive behavior, and whether other factors moderate this effect. In a two-factor experiment, we tested the impact of justification of video game violence on aggressive behavior, and whether this effect would be enhanced by game immersion. Pilot experiment 1 (N = 60) and pilot experiment 2 (N = 40) demonstrated that the justification of violence and game immersion was successfully controlled by avatar and graphics quality. In the Main experiment, 123 participants played one of four conditions of a video game (2 [justification: justified vs. unjustified violence] × 2 [immersion: high vs. low immersion]) and it was found that participants who played in the justified violence condition reported greater aggressive behavior than those in the unjustified violence condition. In addition, participants who played in high immersion reported greater aggressive behavior than those in low immersion. However, game immersion did not moderate the effects of justified violence. This unexpected effect is likely due to participants' distancing themselves from and identifying less with their violent avatars.     

提高教师课堂教学能力方法的实验研究

从教师课堂教学能力、教师能力自我概念、学生对教师课堂教学能力的评价及学生的思维品质等方面探讨了角色改变、摄象自我评价、现场指导三种方法对提高教师课堂教学能力的有效性、结果表明：角色改变、摄象自我评价、现场指导三种方法的合理结合是提高教师课堂教学能力的较好方法;教师课堂能力的不同维度其发展速度不同,依次为：认知能力、操作能力和监控能力;教师课堂教学能力的发展是受其自我概念发展水平影响的;教师课堂教学能力的提高促进了学生思维的深刻性、灵活性、独创性、批判性等思维品质的发展。     

自我录像示范干预学龄初期儿童课堂学业自立的个案研究

为了探讨自我录像示范对学龄初期儿童课堂学业自立养成的影响,研究采用单个被试的A-B实验设计,用自我录像示范对一名学龄初期儿童的课堂学业自立进行干预。结果表明:自我录像示范的干预能提高个案的课堂学业自立水平,在干预期和追踪期出现高课堂学业自立行为的频次均高于基线期。结论:自我录像示范能够促进学龄初期儿童课堂学业自立的养成。儿童对于示范录像中目标行为的习得和运用可以泛化到日常生活中类似的其他情境中,且情景越相似,效果越佳。     

Contextual information in situations of uncertainty: The value of explicit-information provision depends on expertise level,knowledge acquisition and prior-action congruency

In behavioral control, contextual information is used alongside incoming sensory inputs to reduce uncertainties about the unfolding situation. However, our understanding of this weighting process is limited; particularly regarding the applied question of whether individuals should be provided with information or whether they should rather generate it by themselves. We thus compared the provision of more or less valid (i.e., “true”) contextual information with a self-generation condition by examining the performance of elite and near-elite youth handball players (N = 30 + 27) in a virtual-reality defensive task. We measured response correctness, positioning as a function of the teammates’ defensive behaviors and the degree to which the experimentally induced patterns in the teammates’ strengths were detected. The results show that providing individuals with uncertain information neither enhances nor harms performance decisively. However, valid information enhances performance in congruent situations while degrading performance in incongruent situations, more pronouncedly in elite than in near-elite players. Consequently, individuals should be provided with explicit contextual information only if (i) their expertise level is not adequate enough to rely on self-generation, (ii) the situation-specific knowledge base cannot be sufficiently self-generated, and (iii) the instructor is sufficiently certain that the explicit information actually meets the upcoming situation.