Heimat und das Fremde

Ohne ZusammenfassungKyushu Dental CollegeIch danke der Heinrich-Herz-Stiftung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen für die Finanzierung eines Forschungsaufenthalts in Wuppertal sowie den Professoren Dr. Klaus Held und Antonio Aguirre, dann Dr. Heinrich Hüni, für ihre Anregungen. Dr. Hans Rainer Sepp gab viele aufschlußreiche Hinweise und hat sich des sprachlichen Gewands dieses Aufsatzes angenommen.     

Does the contextual interference effect last over extended transfer trials?

The contextual interference effect (random practice yields better transfer and retention compared to blocked practice) detected in a study of 24 boys and 33 girls randomly selected (M age = 10.5 yr., SD = .6) performing a linear positioning motor task seemed to dissipate in extended transfer trials.     

Multiple EMG activity and intracortical inhibition and facilitation during a fine finger movement under pressure

The 1st purpose of this study was to examine multiple electromyography (EMG) during voluntary hand movements. A secondary purpose was to investigate possible effects of pressure on intracortical inhibition (ICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) functions of the motor cortex, using paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation. Twelve participants traced a 15-cm diameter target circle using a small laser pointer attached to the right index finger. After 5 acquisition trials, they performed 3 nonpressure trials followed by 3 pressure trials. The results showed that pressure had effects not only on agonist EMG activity but also on multiple muscles, such as synergist. In addition, a decrease in ICI and an increase in ICF were both observed under pressure for muscles other than the agonist.     

Relationship between sports experience and executive function in 6–12‐year‐old children: independence from physical fitness and moderation by gender

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between sports experience (i.e., tennis experience) and executive function in children while controlling for physical activity and physical fitness. Sixty‐eight participants (6–12 years old, 34 males and 34 females) were enrolled in regular tennis lessons (mean = 2.4 years, range = 0.1–7.3 years) prior to the study. Executive functions, including inhibitory control (the Stroop Color‐Word Test), working memory (the 2‐back Task), and cognitive flexibility (the Local–global Task) were evaluated. Participants’ levels of daily physical activity, ranging from moderate to vigorous, were evaluated using triaxial accelerometers. The total score for physical fitness was assessed using the Tennis Field Test. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed interaction effects between gender and tennis experience on participants’ reaction time (RT) on the switch cost of the Local–global Task after controlling for age, BMI, gender, physical activity, physical fitness, and tennis experience. Longer tennis experience was associated with shorter switch cost in males but not in females. Higher scores on physical fitness were positively associated with lower interference scores on the Stroop Color‐Word Test, RT on the 2‐back Task, and RT in the switching condition of the Local–global Task, after controlling for age, BMI, gender, and physical activity. In conclusion, all three foundational components of executive function (i.e., inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) were more strongly related to physical fitness than to physical activity in males and females, whereas greater cognitive flexibility was related to tennis experience only in the males.     

How Different Guilt Feelings Can Affect Social Competence Development in Childhood

The authors examined how the two different dimensions of guilt feelings, needed for reparation and fear of punishment, could influence social conduct, such as prosocial and aggressive behaviors, and how they are linked to popularity in childhood. The authors hypothesized a theoretical model that they tested, fitting it with empirical data obtained from a sample of 242 Italian children 9–11 years old. Both dimensions of guilt predict prosocial and aggressive behaviors. Specifically, the feeling of guilt linked to the need for reparation tends to negatively predict aggressive behaviors, and positively predict prosocial behaviors. The feeling of guilt linked to the fear of punishment, on the contrary, tends to positively affect aggressive and negatively affect prosocial conducts in children. These results highlight that the different feelings of guilt can represent a relevant risk or protective factor for the development of social competence in childhood. Limitations, strengths, and further development of the present study are discussed.     

Spatial knowledge acquisition from direct experience in the environment: individual differences in the development of metric knowledge and the integration of separately learned places

Existing frameworks for explaining spatial knowledge acquisition in a new environment propose either stage-like or continuous development. To examine the spatial microgenesis of individuals, a longitudinal study was conducted. Twenty-four college students were individually driven along two routes in a previously unfamiliar neighborhood over 10 weekly sessions. Starting Session 4, they were also driven along a short connecting route. After each session, participants estimated spatial properties of the routes. Some participants' knowledge improved fairly continuously over the sessions, but most participants either manifested accurate metric knowledge from the first session or never manifested accurate metric knowledge. Results are discussed in light of these large individual differences, particularly with respect to the accuracy and development of integrated configurational knowledge.     

Individual Differences in the Encoding Processes of Egocentric and Allocentric Survey Knowledge

This study examined how different components of working memory are involved in the acquisition of egocentric and allocentric survey knowledge by people with a good and poor sense of direction (SOD). We employed a dual‐task method and asked participants to learn routes from videos with verbal, visual, and spatial interference tasks and without any interference. Results showed that people with a good SOD encoded and integrated knowledge about landmarks and routes into egocentric survey knowledge in verbal and spatial working memory, which is then transformed into allocentric survey knowledge with the support of all three components, distances being processed in verbal and spatial working memory and directions in visual and spatial working memory. In contrast, people with a poor SOD relied on verbal working memory and lacked spatial processing, thus failing to acquire accurate survey knowledge. Based on the results, a possible model for explaining individual differences in spatial knowledge acquisition is proposed.     

Everyday aesthetics in action: Parkour eyes and the beauty of concrete walls

Parkour is a physical discipline practised in public and semi-public spaces, most often in urban environments. In this article, the potential of parkour to open up new perspectives on everyday surroundings will be considered. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which practitioners of parkour (traceurs) build unique and highly embodied relationships with their daily space. Emotions that they attach to their environments and their aesthetic appreciation of mundane surroundings will be explored. The interpretations are based on in-depth interviews with traceurs in two cities in Finland, Helsinki and Jyväskylä. For them, the most inspiring environments combine different heights with solid structures that provide a good grip. Concrete is considered the ideal material, and suburban landscapes, which are often thought of as boring or even ugly by other urban dwellers, are highly valued among traceurs. Traceurs speak of ‘parkour eyes’, a specific way of looking; gradually, places which have not previously been seen as attractive or appealing start to reveal interesting details and opportunities for inventive practice. Although parkour does not leave any physical traces on the environment, it has the potential to make mundane environments visible as well as to reveal some of the aesthetic potential imbedded therein. In doing so, parkour questions established ideas of interesting and valuable environments and reassesses the aesthetic values of our everyday environments.     

Do bantams (Gallus gallus domesticus) amodally complete partly occluded lines? An analysis of line classification performance

Humans perceive a line touching an edge of a large rectangle longer than the reality. Kanizsa (1979) has suggested that this illusion occurs because we perceive that the line is partly "hidden" behind the rectangle and automatically completes it. We tested whether bantams (Gallus gallus domesticus) would experience this perceptual phenomenon using a line classification task on the touch monitor, which was used in our previous study with rhesus monkeys and pigeons (Fujita, 2001). We trained three bantams to classify six lengths of black target lines into two categories, "short" or "long," ignoring a gray rectangle (Experiment 1) or a gray area (i.e., a left or a right half of the monitor was filled with gray; Experiment 2) located at the same distance (8 pixels) from the target line. In the test, the gap between the line and the gray rectangle (or area) sometimes changed (0, 4, or 8 pixels; we labeled these stimuli as G0, G4, and G8 respectively). Both of the two successfully trained bantams showed an illusion for G0, but the direction of illusion was reversed; that is, they judged the line in G0 to be "shorter" than that in G4 and G8. Further analyses proved that neither the gaps between the target line and the gray rectangle nor the total widths of the stimuli could account for the bantams' responses. These results suggest that bantams do not complete the "occluded" portion even when identification of its shape is not required.     

An application of DSM-IV's outline for cultural formulation: Understanding conduct disorder in Latino adolescents

In the established guidelines for providers of services to ethnic, linguistic, and culturally diverse populations, the American Psychological Association addressed the need for practitioners to consider the role that culture and ethnicity plays in the psychosocial development of culturally diverse populations. Currently, there are over 24 million Latinos in the United States, and this population is expected to quadruple in size to over 81 million in the year 2050. This discussion of a case example highlights the appropriateness of utilizing the outline for cultural formulation in working with Latino adolescents diagnosed with Conduct Disorder. As indicated by the DSM-IV's outline for cultural formulation, this discussion addresses the importance of assessing the following: 1) Cultural identity of the individual; 2) Cultural explanations of the individual's illness; 3) Cultural factors related to psychosocial environment and levels of functioning; 4) Cultural elements of the relationship between the individual and the clinician; 5) Overall cultural assessment for diagnosis and care. In particular, the discussion focuses on specific reasons why the utilization of the outline for cultural formulation can greatly assist the clinician in understanding many psychosocial elements unique to treating Conduct Disorder in the Latino adolescent.