Changing attitudes and intentions related to doping: An analysis of individual differences in need for cognition

ABSTRACT

Research has shown that athletes’ attitudes towards the use of banned performance-enhancing substances are reliable predictors of their intentions to use these substances, which in turn can be relevant predictors of their actual doping behaviours. Despite the important role played by attitudes and intentions in doping, research analysing how to change those attitudes and intentions is relatively scarce. The present study examined how individual differences in Need for Cognition (NC, Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) influenced doping-related attitude change and subsequent behavioural intentions. Participants were randomly assigned to read a persuasive message either against or in favour of legalising the use of several banned substances, including anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) and Erythropoietin (EPO). In addition, participants completed the NC scale, and finally reported their attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding the legalisation proposal. As hypothesised, results showed that participants who received an anti-legalisation message had significantly more unfavourable attitudes towards the proposal than participants who received a pro-legalisation message, regardless of NC. However, as predicted, NC moderated the relationship between individuals’ attitudes and their intentions. That is, high-NC participants showed greater attitude-intention correspondence than low-NC participants.     

Interactions among Dietary Pattern,Physical Activity and Skinfold Thickness

Abstract

This study was designed to assess the effects of a specifically designed perceptual-motor training program on the level of perceptual-motor development, self-concept, and academic ability of kindergarten children. Subjects for the study were 40 kindergarten children randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups. Each group received the same kindergarten program with one exception, the experimental group was exposed to a specifically designed perceptual-motor program 30 min daily for 5 mo, while the control group received a free play period for 30 min daily. Results of the study indicated that the data tended to support the specificity of training concept. The variables showing the greatest change were the perceptual-motor tests which measured changes on specific aspects of the training program. There appeared to be some immediate transfer to academic abilities but this was not pronounced enough to suggest that perceptual-motor training was of real benefit in developing academic abilities for normal kindergarten children. In addition the follow-up test indicated no long term effects on academic performance.     

Reliability and validity of the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 in young soccer players

Abstract

The present study investigated the test-retest reliability from the Yo-Yo IR1 (distance and heart rate responses), and the ability of the Yo-Yo IR1 to differentiate between elite and non-elite youth soccer players. A total of 228 youth soccer players (11–17 years) participated: 78 non-elite players to examine the test-retest reliability within 1 week, added with 150 elite players to investigate the construct validity. The main finding was that the distance covered was adequately reproducible in the youngest age groups (U13 and U15) and highly reproducible in the oldest age group (U17). Also, the physiological responses were highly reproducible in all age groups. Moreover, the Yo-Yo IR1 test had a high-discriminative ability to distinguish between elite and non-elite young soccer players. Furthermore, age-related standards for the Yo-Yo IR1 established for elite and non-elite groups in this study may be used for comparison of other young soccer players.     

Weaving a New 'Net: A Mesh-Based Solution for Democratizing Networked Communications

Although the Internet is largely decentralized in its communication and social patterns, its technical and regulatory apparatuses are highly centralized and hierarchical. Consequently, digital communications are vulnerable to a degree of surveillance and censorship that would be unthinkable in traditional social arenas, threatening “Internet freedom” and cyberliberties in both democratic and politically repressed societies. We believe a new architecture is required in order to protect the continuance of civil liberties in networked society. In this article, we propose 10 “social specifications” describing the requirements of such a network, and outline an architecture called MondoNet that meets these specifications using ad hoc, wireless mesh networking technologies. We also address the legal and technical challenges facing the MondoNet project, and anticipate future developments in this field.     

A toy model that predicts the qualitative role of bar bend in a push jerk

In this work, we describe a simple coarse-grained model of a barbell that can be used to determine the qualitative role of bar bend during a jerk. In simulations of this model, we observed a narrow time window during which the lifter can leverage the elasticity of the bar in order to lift the weight to a maximal height. This time window shifted to later times as the weight was increased. In addition, we found that the optimal time to initiate the drive was strongly correlated with the time at which the bar had reached a maximum upward velocity after recoiling. By isolating the effect of the bar, we obtained a generalized strategy for lifting heavy weight in the jerk.     

Effects of psycholinguistic instruction on spelling performance

Two studies were conducted in which phonology‐based instructional strategies designed for improving spelling skills of elementary school children were compared against instruction strategies that relied only on visual exposure of words. The first study involved a total of 93 children. Of these, 46 were instructed by drawing their attention to the psycholinguistic nature of their spelling errors. The remaining 47 children in the comparison group were shown the correct version of all the words. In study II 15 children were placed in a treatment group and were taught phoneme awareness, and 15 children were placed in a comparison group and were exposed to printed words only. In both studies, posttests showed that children taught through psycholinguistic and phoneme awareness methods significantly outperformed the visual training groups. Further, these gains were retained after a period of 2 weeks. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Heat and Kinetic Theory in 19th-Century Physics Textbooks: The Case of Spain

Spain was a scientifically backward country in the early 19th century. The causes were various political events, the War of Independence, and the reignof Fernando VII. The introduction of contemporary physics into textbooks was thereforea slow process. An analysis of the contents of 19th-century Spanish textbooks is presented here, centred on imponderable fluids, the concept of energy, the mechanicaltheory of heat, and the kinetic theory of gases.     

Learning design and learning analytics in mobile and ubiquitous learning: A systematic review

Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning (m/u-learning) are finding an increasing adoption in education. They are often distinguished by hybrid learning environments that encompass elements of formal and informal learning, in activities that happen in distributed settings (indoors and outdoors), across physical and virtual spaces. Despite their purported benefits, these environments imply additional complexity in the design, monitoring and evaluation of learning activities. The research literature on learning design (LD) and learning analytics (LA) has started to deal with these issues. This paper presents a systematic literature review of LD and LA, in m/u-learning. Apart from providing an overview of the current research in the field, this review elicits elements of common ground between both communities, as shown by the similar learning contexts and complementary research contributions, and based on the research gaps, proposes to: address m/u-learning beyond higher education settings, reinforce the connection between physical and virtual learning spaces, and more systematically align LD and LA processes.     

Developmental dyslexia: Is it different from other forms of reading disability?

A controversy whether developmental dyslexia is qualitatively different from other forms of reading disability has existed among reading specialists for many years. In the present study, the hypothesis that the etiology of dyslexia is different from that of other forms of reading disability because of differences in the components that malfunction was tested. A number of studies have shown that the two components that contribute to a large proportion of variance in reading are decoding and comprehension. It is, therefore, possible that a breakdown of different components could lead to different forms of disabilities. College students who were poor readers were assigned to two groups on the basis of their IQ. Conforming to the traditional criterion of dyslexia, those who had an IQ of 95 and above were considered as dyslexic. Those who had an IQ of 85 or below were placed in the Nonspecific Reading-Disabled group. These two groups of poor readers and a group of normal readers were administered a large number of reading-related tests. It was found that the two reading-disabled groups differed from each other in six of the seven areas assessed. There was very little overlap of scores between the two groups in these areas. The results were interpreted to suggest that poor decoding skill is the etiology of developmental dyslexia and that it differs from other forms of reading disability which are caused by generalized cognitive deficits.