Effects of increased participation on veteran running performance

Contrary to elite performance that is approaching an asymptote, recent analyses suggested a trend for improvement in veterans. This might be attributable to a disproportionate increase in older age-group participation. We extracted 26 years (1987–2012) of men’s results of a running event in Switzerland, “La Course de l’Escalade” (7.25 km). We investigated trends in performance by five-year age-groups, taking the 10, 20, 30, and 50 fastest in each group, and then the 1^st, 5^th, and 10^th percentiles. Taking the 10, 20, 30 or 50 fastest runners there was a trend for improvement ranging from 0.07 to 0.22 min·year^?1 (p < .0001; 95% CI ?0.083 to ?0.049 and p < .0001; 95% CI ?0.250 to ?0.196 respectively) in the elder age-groups. Taking the 1^st, 5^th, and 10^th percentiles there were no trends for improvement, and actual deteriorations up to 0.13 (p < .0001; 95% CI +0.119 to +0.138) min·year^?1. Mixed-effect models with repeated measures for runners, confirmed a global deteriorating trend with an estimate of +0.11 min·year^?1 (p < .0001; 95% CI +0.107 to +0.116). The results suggest that increases in performance in older runners arise from modifications of sampling from a growing population.     

The Otis and Otisennon Tests: Their Contributions

After tracing the development of the Otis test series from 1918 to the present, the author argues that there will be a continuing demand for group-administered general mental ability tests in education. Nevertheless, he foresees a need for better ways of relating ability test scores with skills and achievements to make them more educationally useful.     

Representation of space and students' conceptions at high school level

At high school level, the teaching of space geometry makes use of graphical representations of objects. But usually the only function of these figures is to illustrate, they are stereotyped and have no real mathematical status, as a study of textbooks shows. They contain many implicit conventions, of different kinds, which can lead students to misconceptions about geometrical objects if they are not mastered. However they can, at a low educational cost, serve as an efficient tool to be used for problem solving. To achieve this I propose to base such drawings explicitly on parallel projection, a principle which produces representations of various types, often coinciding with the usual figures, close to perceptive images, and on which important properties of the objects represented are retained.     

Emergent Team Roles in Organizational Meetings: Identifying Communication Patterns via Cluster Analysis

Previous team role taxonomies have largely relied on self-report data, have focused on functional roles and have described individual predispositions or personality traits. Instead, this study takes a communicative approach and proposes that team roles are produced, shaped and sustained in communicative behaviors. To identify team roles communicatively, 59 regular organizational meetings were videotaped and analyzed. Cluster analysis revealed five emergent roles: the solution seeker, the problem analyst, the procedural facilitator, the complainer, and the indifferent. In terms of meeting outcomes, solution seekers were beneficial to idea longevity, whereas complainers were harmful for meeting satisfaction and idea longevity. Future research directions and managerial implications are highlighted.