Are fame and fortune the kiss of death?

Trade and scholarly publishers often urge academic authors to reach out to an audience beyond their peers. One obstacle to expanding the audience for new scholarship is the widespread belief that it requires "pandering to the lowest common denominator," or "dumbing down," and that the scholar turned "popularizer" will be shunned by the academy. Where did this academic myth come from? Is there any truth behind it? What can an editor say to the academic author who fears that publishing success will spell the end of academic respectability?     

The motor core of speech: a comparison of serial organization patterns in infants and languages

Comparison of serial organization of infant babbling and early speech with that of 10 languages reveals four movement-related design features reflecting a deep evolutionary heritage: (1) the cyclical consonant-vowel alternation underlying the syllable, a "Frame" for speech consisting of mandibular oscillation, possibly evolving from ingestive cyclicities (e.g., chewing) via visuofacial communicative cyclicities (e.g., lipsmacks); (2) three intracyclical consonant-vowel co-occurrence preferences reflecting basic biomechanical constraints-coronal consonants-front vowels, dorsal consonants-back vowels, and labial consonants-central vowels; (3) a developmental progression from above-chance to below-chance levels of intercyclical consonant repetition; (4) an ease-related labial consonant-vowel-coronal consonant sequence preference for word initiation. These design features presumably result from self-organizational responses to selection pressures, primarily determined by motor factors. No explanation for these design features is available from Universal Grammar, and, except for feature 3, perceptual-motor learning seems to have only a limited causal role in acquisition of any design feature.     

Author Index, Volume 24

Authors Index

Author Index, Volume 24     

The Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test: a field test that simulates the activity pattern of soccer

The aims of this study were to describe and determine the test-retest reliability of an exercise protocol, the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (the LIST), which was designed to simulate the activity pattern characteristic of the game of soccer. The protocol consisted of two parts: Part A comprised a fixed period of variable-intensity shuttle running over 20 m; Part B consisted of continuous running, alternating every 20 m between 55% and 95% VO2max, until volitional fatigue. Seven trained games players (age 21.5+/-0.9 years, height 182+/-2 cm, body mass 80.1+/-3.6 kg, VO2max 59.0+/-1.9 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1); mean +/- s(x)) performed the test on two occasions (Trial 1 and Trial 2), at least 7 days apart, to determine the test-retest reliability of the sprint times and running capacity. The physiological and metabolic responses on both occasions were also monitored. The participants ingested water ad libitum during the first trial, and were then prescribed the same amount of water during the second trial. The 15 m sprint times during Trials 1 and 2 averaged 2.42+/-0.04 s and 2.43+/-0.04 s, respectively. Run time during Part B was 6.3+/-2.0 min for Trial 1 and 6.1+/-1.3 min for Trial 2. The 95% limits of agreement for sprint times and run times during Part B were -0.14 to 0.12 s and -3.19 to 2.16 min respectively. There were no differences between trials for heart rate, rating of perceived exertion, body mass change during exercise, or blood lactate and glucose concentrations during the test. Thus, we conclude that the sprint times and the Part B run times were reproducible within the limits previously stated. In addition, the activity pattern and the physiological and metabolic responses closely simulated the match demands of soccer.     

Student activity levels, lesson context, and teacher behavior during middle school physical education

There is little research on students' engagement in physical activity in middle school physical education (PE). We observed student activity, lesson context, and teacher behavior in 430 PE lessons taught by 126 teachers in 24 schools. Variables were analyzed by mixed-model nested analyses of covariance. Boys were more active than girls overall and during skill drills, game play, and free play. Student activity varied by lesson context, with fitness activities producing the most activity. Class size was negatively associated with student activity. Daily PE contributed a weekly total of 25 min of vigorous activity and 83 min of moderate-to-vigorous activity--much less than national objectives. Results suggest that numerous opportunities exist for increasing student physical activity during middle school PE.     

From novice to no know-how: a longitudinal study of implicit motor learning

The aim of this study was to ascertain whether the performances of implicit and explicit learners would converge over an extended period of learning. Participants practised a complex motor skill--golf putting--for 3000 trials, either with a concurrent secondary, tone-counting task (implicit learning) or without such a task (explicit learning). The cognitive demands of the secondary task were predicted to prevent the accumulation of verbalizable rules about the motor task. The implicit group reported significantly fewer rules than the explicit group on subsequent verbal protocols. The performance of the implicit group remained below that of the explicit group throughout the learning phase. However, no significant differences were found between groups during a delayed retention test. Additionally, for the participants in the explicit group only, a Reinvestment Scale score correlated positively with the number of rules accrued and negatively with overall putting performance during the learning phase. We use the results to argue against the excessive use of verbal instruction during skill acquisition, which might be unnecessary and ultimately might hamper performance under stressful conditions.     

Microtechnology Processes and Cooperative Behavior of Third Grade Children

This study investigates four variations of a microtechnology process and its effect on the development of cooperative behavior in 96 third grade children. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. The treatments were the complete microtechnology process and three variations of the process. Findings suggest that: cooperative behavior can be significantly (p < .01) increased by use of microtechnology techniques; the microtechnology process is effective without the self-confrontation component; and the behavior developed exhibited short-term retention.