Decision making in sport: the effect of stimulus-response probability on the performance of a coincidence-anticipation task

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the quality of a motor response for different levels of expectancy and time constraint, in a two-choice coincidence-anticipation task. The probability of each of the two events likely to be presented were varied across different levels as well as the speed of the stimulus to be intercepted. The results indicated that neither the choice reaction time (CRT) and movement time, nor the performance of coincidence-anticipation were affected by the probability of the stimulus for the low and moderate stimulus speeds. However, when the stimulus traveled at a high speed a trade-off took place. The CRT decreased as the probability of the event increased, whilst the proportion of response initiation errors increased for the low probability events. This trade-off resulted in a better coincidence-anticipation as the probability of the event increased. The results obtained in the present experiment are clearly different from those obtained in a classic CRT-deadline paradigm, in that the trade-off observed between CRT and response initiation errors was far less pronounced in the coincidence-anticipation task. This difference was attributed to the higher negative consequences associated with a response initiation error in a coincidence-anticipation task. It is thus concluded that the tasks used to study the nature of the decision processes taking place in sports and sports-like situations must have some ecological validity to be of some help for the practitioner.     

A collective approach towards enhancing undergraduate engineering education

In this paper, we analyse a collective approach towards enhancing undergraduate Engineering Education. All the authors, both engineers and faculty developers, have, at some point in this collaboration, been involved in the vision, development or implementation. Our desire is to demonstrate the incremental nature of the process as well as evidence of impact.     

A comparison of the perceptions of Love, Anger, and Guilt in Portugal and the United States and implications for counseling

This study compared the ways that graduate and undergraduate counseling and psychology students from Portugal and the United States evaluated the feelings of Love, Anger and Guilt. Utilizing a semantic differential, a multivariate analysis of variance was employed in which the independent variables were Country and Gender and the dependent variables were the evaluative and potency scales of Love, Anger and Guilt. There was no significant main effect for gender and there was no significant interaction effect for gender by country. There was a significant main effect for country. It was found that students from the United States evaluated Anger more positively than the Portuguese students and that the Portuguese students evaluated Guilt more positively than the United States students. These findings have implications that are relevant to the counseling process.