An analysis of verbal language in Saturday morning children's programs

Content analyses of program variables and verbal content features were conducted on Saturday morning children's programming. Three tools were developed for the study which assessed general context features, supportive and defensive language, and other verbal language features. The results describe the verbal climate of Saturday morning programs.     

Influence of a stressing constraint on stiffness and damping functions of a ski simulator's platform motion

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of stress on a previously acquired motor coordination. Following a longitudinal learning experiment, four participants performed oscillations on a ski simulator, either in normal or stressful conditions. The results showed that the amplitude of the oscillations decreased under stress, but no significant effect was seen regarding coordination, suggesting the strong resistance to stress of overlearned behaviour. Nevertheless, for one participant, a transient regression towards a former stage of learning was observed. This result was consistent with the regression hypothesis formulated by Fuchs (1962).     

Analysis of performance in orienteering with treadmill tests and physiological field tests using a differential global positioning system

The aim of this study was to determine the physiological responses to orienteering by examining the interrelationships between the information provided by a differential global positioning system (dGPS) about an orienteer's route, speed and orienteering mistakes, portable metabolic gas analyser data during orienteering and data from incremental treadmill tests. Ten male orienteers completed a treadmill threshold test and a field test; the latter was performed on a 4.3 km course on mixed terrain with nine checkpoints. The anaerobic threshold, threshold of decompensated metabolic acidosis, respiratory exchange ratio, onset of blood lactate accumulation and peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) were determined from the treadmill test. Time to complete the course, total distance covered, mean speed, distance and timing of orienteering mistakes, mean oxygen uptake, mean relative heart rate, mean respiratory exchange ratio and mean running economy were computed from the dGPS data and metabolic gas analyser data. Correlation analyses showed a relationship between a high anaerobic threshold and few orienteering mistakes (r = - 0.64, P < 0.05). A high threshold of decompensated metabolic acidosis and VO2peak were related to a fast overall time (r = -0.70 to -0.72, P < 0.05) and high running speed (r = 0.64 to 0.79, P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively), and were thus the best predictors of performance.     

Un inventaire des notions impliquées dans un enseignement général de mathématique à l'école secondaire

Sans résumé