Age Differences in use of Strategy for Recall of Movement in a Large Scale Environment

Abstract

In order to investigate how children remember distance (route) and location (landmark) information, two experiments were conducted in a large scale environment using jogging as the means of locomotion. In Experiment 1, thirty 4-year-old and thirty 9-year-old children were randomly assigned within age to three groups which were cued prior to the jog to remember the event, location of the event or distance to the event. Results indicated that older children reproduced the location and distance better than younger children. Cueing children to remember the location resulted in more accurate estimates than the other conditions. In Experiment 2, 5-year-old, 9-year-old, and 12-year-old children (24 children of each age) were randomly divided into step counting strategy and control groups, and asked to reproduce a criterion distance jogged. Results indicated that the three strategy groups and the 12-year-old controls estimated distance with similar accuracy, but the 9- and 5-year-old controls were different, as their error was inversely related to age.     

Long-Term Effects of a Conceptual Physical Education Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes, knowledge, and activity behaviors of college graduates who completed a lecture-laboratory (concepts) course in physical education during their undergraduate study. Serving as controls were college graduates of the same university who transferred to the university and who received credit for a traditional rather than a concepts course. Both groups were compared to college graduates who “quizzed out” of the concepts course rather than enrolling in the class. Subjects were randomly selected from the 1977 and 1979 graduating classes. All those selected as subjects received a questionnaire containing an attitude test, a knowledge lest, and an activity checklist. Fifty-nine percent of the 300 questionnaires were returned. Multivariate analyses indicated that the concepts groups possessed attitude-knowledge-activity profiles which differed from those of either of the other groups. Though differences were not uniform for the two years studied, knowledge was consistently the greatest contributor to differences between transfer and concepts groups. Univariate and combined year analyses indicated that, though less consistent than the knowledge differences, attitude and activity differences among groups also existed. In general, the results suggested that a college level conceptual physical education class can have positive long term effects.     

A Tutorial on Centering in Cross-Sectional Two-Level Models

The primary purpose of this tutorial is to succinctly review some options for, and consequences of, centering Level 1 predictors in commonly applied cross-sectional two-level models. It is geared toward both practitioners and researchers. A general understanding of multilevel modeling is necessary prior to understanding the subtleties of centering decisions. A review of some high-quality journals within the broad discipline of exercise science provides evidence that multilevel modeling is used relatively infrequently in this field. Therefore, a secondary purpose is to introduce Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science readers to some core facets of multilevel modeling within the framework of this tutorial. A relevant dataset is used to demonstrate potential consequences of different centering decisions within a multilevel model. Depending on the model and the data, different centering decisions can exert non-trivial influence on the meaning of some model parameters, results from fitting the model, and subsequent conclusions.     

Physical Performance and Body Form as Related to Physical Activity of College Women

Abstract

The problems of this study were to investigate the interrelationship of selected functional and body form measures, and to examine the differences between groups varying in activity levels. The volunteers for the study, 35 college women, were placed in activity groups termed “most active” and “least active” according to their response on an activity history-recall questionnaire. Functional measures included strength and flexibility. Strength was measured with a cable tensiometer and followed the procedures outlined by H. H. Clarke. Flexibility was measured using a Leighton Flexometer. Body form measures included height, weight, percent body fat, fat free body weight, specific gravity, and ponderal index. The range, mean, and standard deviation were computed for all parameters. The Pearson product-moment correlation was employed to determine interrelationships of all variables. Equality of variances among selected parameters was determined by the F test; Cochran-Cox and two sample t tests were used to determine the equality of means among selected parameters in the activity groups. Significant differences at the .05 level were found between the means of weight, fat free body weight, trunk extension flexibility, with the most active group exhibiting higher values. The least active group showed significantly greater shoulder extension flexibility, shoulder inward rotation flexibility, and ankle flexion flexibility.     

A Comparison of Autonomic Nervous System Activity between Physically Trained and Untrained Individuals

Abstract

The study is concerned with the comparison of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity between highly trained collegiate track and field athletes and untrained individuals. An ANS test battery consisting of six individual measures of autonomic activity was used: (a) sublingual temperature, (b) salivary output, (c) volar skin resistance, (d) palmar skin resistance, (e) diastolic blood pressure, and (f) heart period. One group of athletes, track runners, were found to have a mean autonomic balance score significantly higher (at the .02 level) than the norm group of college students. The autonomic scores of field event athletes, however, were not significantly different from the norm. An analysis of the type of ANS activity demonstrated by the runners showed a dominance by the parasympathetic as compared to a mixed pattern demonstrated by the normative sample. It was concluded that highly trained track runners demonstrated a significantly higher autonomic balance score than did normal college students, and that their resting autonomic pattern was predominantly parasympathetic. There was evidence to indicate that equality of performance in the running events in track, and possibly other athletic events, may be partially predictable from autonomic balance scores.     

Effect of Divided Attention on Children's Rhythmic Response

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of selective attention in rhythmic response of children. A motor rhythmic response of grade 2 (N = 30) and grade 4 (N = 29) boys was examined with respect to the sensory modality of a secondary stimulus input. It is thought that the information processing capacity of children, as manifested in the processes of selective attention, may be a factor in the developmental changes in motor skill learning and performance. Using a rhythmic analysis system, subjects in each grade level performed ten blocks of five trials in one of three groups: control, audio interference, and visual interference. Output from a dual-channel recorder was scored to give time and space errors (AE and CE). Performance variation (VE) was calculated from the error scores. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significantly better performance by the grade 4 subjects. The treatment conditions did not significantly impair performance as measured by CE error scores. The audio input resulted in significantly less consistent temporal performance (VE).     

Age Differences in Children's Ability to Model Motor Behavior

Abstract

In order to investigate the effects of modeling behavior for seven- and nine-year-old children, 30 seven-year-old and 30 nine-year-old females were randomly assigned within age level to three groups. These groups differed according to whether a model was presented at the beginning, midway, or not at all during 12 trials on the stabilometer. Both age groups were found to be similar in performance in the no model condition and, for both age groups, the beginning model condition was found to facilitate performance. However, the introduction of the model after six trials had a detrimental effect on the performance of younger children but facilitated older children's performance. These findings were interpreted in light of a likely increase in the processing capacity of nine year olds as well as an increase in the number of movement schemes that were previously stored in the older girls.