The effects of training on performance and performance-related states in individual elite athletes: A dynamic approach

Abstract

There are difficulties undertaking controlled training studies with elite athletes. Thus, data from non-elite performers are often presented in scientific journals and subsequently used to guide general training principles. This information may not be transferable or specific enough to inform training practices in an individual elite athlete. However, the nature of athletic participation at elite levels provides the opportunity to collect training data, performance-related variables, and performance data of elite athletes over long periods. In this paper, we describe how dynamic linear models provide an opportunity to use these data to inform training. Data from an elite female triathlete collected over a 111-day training period were used to model the relationship between training and self-reported fatigue. The dynamic linear model analysis showed the independent effects of the three modes of triathlon training on fatigue, how these can change across time, and the possible influence of other unmeasured variables. This paper shows the potential for the use of dynamic linear models as an aid to planning training in elite athletes.     

Fractionated Reaction Time Responses to Auditory and Electrocutaneous Stimuli

Abstract

It is well documented that simple reaction time (RT) varies inversely with stimulus intensity, but there is disagreement as to which stimulus modality produces the fastest simple RT. An investigation was conducted to equate two stimulus modalities, auditory (A) and electrocutaneous (EC), using varying stimulus intensities in a simple RT protocol. A second investigation was then conducted to examine neuromotor characteristics of stimulus-evoked responses using previously equated A and EC stimuli of varying intensity from the first investigation. Results showed that RT, premotor time (PMT), and motor time (MT) were all inversely related to stimulus intensity, while maximum displacement (MAXD) was directly related to stimulus intensity, and movement time was not affected by stimulus intensity. We conclude that: (a) both central and peripheral components of RT are altered by varying stimulus intensities, and (b) rapid movements are enhanced by increasing stimulus intensity.     

Teachers' Perspectives on the Challenges of Teaching Physical Education in Urban Schools

The purpose of this study was to analyze how the challenges of urban schools influence physical education teachers' emotional understanding and connections with their students and the implications on their teaching. Sixty-one elementary physical educators from an urban school district in the midwestern U.S. were interviewed multiple times (N = 136) over 3 years using interpretive methodology. Teachers reported five unique challenges that significantly shaped their thinking about students and their careers, along with strategies they used to overcome or manage those challenges. The challenges were: (a) insufficient instructional resources, (b) implementing culturally relevant pedagogy, (c) dealing with community violence, (d) integrating more games in curricula, and (e) teaching in a culture of basketball. Implications centered on the guilt-inducing nature of urban teaching, developing an informed and realistic vision of urban physical education, and the role of teacher preparation and professional development.     

Efficacy of Fast ForWord training on facilitating acquisition of reading skills by children with reading difficulties—A longitudinal study

We explored the effects of Fast ForWord (FFW) training on reading and spoken language skills in children with difficulties in phonemic awareness and word identification. Gains were examined both immediately after treatment and over a period of two years. In the short term, children who received FFW training were compared to children who received Orton Gillingham (OG) training. The FFW group was also compared to a matched longitudinal control group (LC); all participants in the FFW and LC groups received similar multisensory structured language instruction over two academic years. The FFW and OG groups made similar gains in phonemic awareness. However, the children who received FFW training did not show significant gains in word identification or word attack whereas the children who received OG training made significant gains in word attack. Immediately after treatment, the FFW group showed significant gains in speaking and syntax, but these gains were not maintained over two years. The FFW group did not differ significantly from the LC group in any areas over the two years. Children in both groups made significant progress in phonemic awareness and reading.     

Agencies,educators, communities and wildfire: partnerships to enhance environmental education for youth

We studied seven programs that engage youth from 10 to 18 years old in wildfire risk reduction in their communities in the United States through in-depth interviews to examine the nature and role of community-school partnerships in resource-focused environmental education. While the programs use a variety of strategies, from Scout badge to summer school, they exhibit several common dimensions: they all engage youth in community projects; they all arise from partnerships between resource agencies, community organizations, and educators; they all began when people familiar with both wildfire and youth education saw an opportunity to improve the community and educate youth through action; and all partners are able to contribute to the common program yet retain their individual identity as they meet their own mission-based goals. We use themes and quotes to illustrate these common dimensions for establishing community-school partnerships that could build action competence through environment-based education projects.     

Maternal Responses to Infant Distress: Linkages Between Specific Emotions and Neurophysiological Processes

Objective. The goals of the current article were to test the presence of an association between mothers’ neural activity (measured by frontal cortical alpha asymmetry) and their specific emotions (measured by observed facial expressions) in response to infant distress and the moderation of this relation by mothers’ appraisal processes (measured by sense of parenting efficacy). Design. Mothers of 5- to 8-month-olds (n = 26) watched videos of their own infants expressing distress while their brain activity was recorded via electroencephalogram and their facial expressions were videotaped for later microcoding. Mothers also completed a questionnaire measure of parenting efficacy. Results. Greater neurophysiological withdrawal in response to infant distress videos, indexed by frontal alpha asymmetry, was associated with longer sad and tense expressions in mothers with average or below average parenting efficacy, but not in those with above average efficacy. Conclusions. Previous research showing that patterns of parents’ brain activity in response to child stimuli are associated with parenting behavior often interpret results in relation to parental emotion, but rarely measure specific concurrent emotions. The current study helps fill this gap in the literature by showing that maternal neurophysiological withdrawal (together with parenting efficacy) was associated with simultaneously measured facial expressions of negative emotion in response to infant distress stimuli.     

Adolescents' and Parents' Conceptions of Parental Authority and Personal Autonomy

Conceptions of parental authority and ratings of adolescent-parent conflict were assessed in 68 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their parents. Boundaries of adolescent personal jurisdiction and conflict over these boundaries were examined. Participants judged the legitimacy of parental authority and rated the frequency and intensity of conflict regarding 24 hypothetical moral, conventional, personal, multifaceted (e.g., containing conventional and personal components), prudential, and friendship issues. Adolescents and parents agreed that parents should retain authority regarding moral and conventional issues. Parents treated multifaceted, friendship, prudential, and personal issues as more contingent on parental authority than did adolescents, based on conventional, prudential, and psychological reasons, whereas adolescents treated these issues as under personal jurisdiction, based on personal concerns. Personal reasoning and judgments increased with age. Multifaceted issues were discussed more than all other issues, but moral and conventional conflicts were more intense than all other conflicts. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research on parental authority and adolescent-parent conflict during adolescence.     

Noncontingent and contingent no-choice intervals and concurrent performance

Pigeons responded to changeover-key concurrent variable-interval variable-interval reinforcement schedules while there were intervals during which the changeover key was inoperative (no-choice intervals). In Experiment 1, a multiple schedule on the changeover key signaled choice and no-choice intervals. All subjects showed near-perfect discrimination during initial discrimination training and rapid reacquisition of discrimination following contingency reversals. In Experiment 2, the onset of no-choice intervals was unsignaled and contingent on interchangeover time. The temporal distribution of changeover-key responses conformed to the temporal distribution of choice intervals. The results of both experiments suggest that changeover responding is modifiable as a function of its immediate consequences. The results of Experiment 2, in particular, suggest that time or some correlate of time since the last changeover response can determine subsequent changeover behavior.