Social Justice in Sport and Exercise Psychology: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

There are varied approaches that have been used in sport for development (SFD) projects. This article is focused on the move by sport and exercise psychology researchers toward community-based SFD projects where marginalized groups are centralized. The authors have chosen two of their projects to exemplify different approaches to SFD. An initial project with an Aboriginal community is critically examined to reveal cultural missteps that perpetuated cultural colonization–something antithetical to community capacity building. The second project is then considered because of its closer alignment with cultural praxis and community capacity building. This second project focuses on the initial developments of a YMCA physical activity project designed to meet the needs of forced immigrants (a self-titled name developed by the refugee community members) and the staff who work with them. We culminate with five postulates proposed for SFD project teams derived from our vantage in sport and exercise psychology, where community engagement and eventual self-governance are imperatives.     

Proofreading by students: implications of executive and non-executive components of working memory in the detection of phonological,orthographical, and grammatical errors

Reading and Writing - The present research studied the role of the non-executive and executive components of working memory in the detection of phonological, orthographical, and grammatical...     

唉!我的中国同学呀!

"双语视窗"栏目从2006年开办至今,已经走过了2年的历程,这些由在华外国友人撰写的小文章,以他们在华所见所闻为切入点,生动具体地反映出东西方观念、习俗的异同,也向我们提出了一个个既有趣又值得深思的问题。栏目一再连载得益于读者反馈中的正面回应。"不识庐山真面目,只缘身在此山中",换一个角度,从外国友人目光的折射中审视一下自己,更有助于全面地了解我们自身。同时,本栏目采用英汉对照形式,这些原汁原味的英文不仅有助于加深对作者原意的理解,也是一本学习现代英语的鲜活教材。     

The puliti affair and the 1924 Paris Olympics: Geo-Political issues,National pride and fencing traditions

During the Paris Olympic Games of July 1924, there were a series of ‘incidents’ in the fencing competition that became known as the Puliti affair. At the centre of the troubles was the Italian Oreste Puliti. The ‘affair’ had to be discussed by the ‘jury d'honneur’ recently set up by the IOC. Both the IOC and the International Federation were concerned with this issue for four more years. This article uses the Puliti affair to discuss several aspects of nationalism in the mid-1920s: the growing tensions between Fascist Italy and democracies such as Hungary and France, the specific Olympic status of fencing challenged in Paris after three centuries of confrontation between the French and Italian schools of fencing, and ongoing tensions between the IOC and the international federations. Finally, the press perceptions of the incident in various countries are briefly discussed.     

Intermanual transfer of shapes in preterm human infants from 33 to 34 + 6 weeks postconceptional age

This study investigated the ability of preterm infants to learn an object shape with one hand and discriminate a new shape in the opposite hand (without visual control). Twenty-four preterm infants between 33 and 34 + 6 gestational weeks received a tactile habituation task with either their right or left hand followed by a tactile discrimination task in the opposite hand. The results confirmed that habituation occurred for both shapes and both hands. Infants subsequently held the novel shape longer in the opposite hand. The results reveal that preterm infants are capable of intermanual transfer of shape information. In spite of the immaturity of the corpus callosum in preterm infants, its development seems to be sufficient to allow some transfer of information between both hands.     

Lecture recording system in anatomy

The literature reports that using Learning Recording Systems (LRS) is usually well received by students but that the pedagogical value of LRS in academic settings remains somewhat unclear. The primary aim of the current study is to document students' perceptions, actual pattern of usage, and impact of use of LRS on students' grade in a dental gross and neuroanatomy course. Other aims are to determine if students' learning preference correlated with final grades and to see if other factors like gender, age, overall academic score on the Dental Aptitude Test (DAT), lecture levels of difficulty, type of lecture, category of lecture, or teaching faculty could explain the impact, if any, of the use of LRS on the course final grade. No significant correlation was detected between the final grades and the variables studied except for a significant but modest correlation between final grades and the number of times the students accessed the lecture recordings (r=0.33 with P=0.01). Also, after adjusting for gender, age, learning style, and academic DAT, a significant interaction between auditory and average usage time was found for final grade (P=0.03). Students who classified themselves as auditory and who used the LRS on average for fewer than 10 minutes per access, scored an average final grade of 16.43 % higher than the nonauditory students using the LRS for the same amount of time per access. Based on these findings, implications for teaching are discussed and recommendations for use of LRS are proposed. Anat Sci Educ 6: 376–384. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Learning to Read Bilingually Modulates the Manifestations of Dyslexia in Adults

According to the Grain Size Accommodation hypothesis (Lallier & Carreiras, 2017), learning to read in two languages differing in orthographic consistency leads to a cross-linguistic modulation of reading and spelling processes. Here, we test the prediction that bilingualism may influence the manifestations of dyslexia. We compared the deficits of English monolingual and early Welsh–English bilingual dyslexic adults on reading and spelling irregular English words and English-like pseudowords. As predicted, monolinguals were relatively more impaired in reading pseudowords than irregular words, whereas the opposite was true for bilinguals. Moreover, monolinguals showed stronger sublexical processing deficits than bilinguals and were poorer spellers overall. This study shows that early bilingual reading experience has long-lasting effects on the manifestations of dyslexia in adulthood. It demonstrates that learning to read in a consistent language like Welsh in addition to English gives bilingual dyslexic adults an advantage in English literacy tasks strongly relying on phonological processing.     

Between sport and tragedy: Hemingway's passion for bullfighting

ABSTRACT

‘It is a sport’ writes Hemingway on the subject of bullfights in public places, ‘a very wild and primitive sport and, mainly, a true sport of amateurs. I fear however that because of danger of death which it implies, it never has great success among the sporting-men of America and England’ (Death in the afternoon, Gallimard, 1938, p. 27). Hemingway was interested in sport since his young age: athletic, a follower of sports at Oak Park's High School, fascinated by horse racing and later an enthusiast for deep sea fishing, hunting, boxing etc, in other words what we would call today the ‘extreme sports’, he had a passion for bullfighting in Spain, which he tested, although unsuccessfully. In his papers for the Toronto Weekly Star, his novel The Sun also rises published in 1926, and especially in his essay Death in the afternoon, a true treaty of bullfighting, he undertakes a close study of the specific techniques of this very particular sport; yet what interests him most of all is its artistic value. Art or sport? Such is the key question that he poses throughout the pages of this work, which are actually a deep reflection on the origins of the sport and the finality of art; the relations between sport and art are quite complex and, according to him, have to be reconsidered, since writing for him is also linked to moral and physical effort, and is even a kind of ‘intimate bullfighting’.     

American Sammys and French Poilus in the Great War: sport, masculinities and vulnerability

The violence and duration of fighting throughout the Great War created an intense feeling of vulnerability among the men engaged in battle, which challenged their perception of manliness. When the Americans joined the war in 1917, the balance between the two opposing armies was modified and the psychological crises of French soldiers brought to an end. The confidence shown by the American soldiers and their first successes on the battlefield changed the way the French Poilus perceived their new allies. From scepticism to admiration, Frenchmen's feelings extended beyond the fighting. Indeed, by living with American soldiers in the trenches and camps behind the front, French soldiers discovered a new culture where games and sport played a major role and contributed to building manliness. The Foyers Franco-Americains du Soldat (Franco-American hostels for soldiers) provided an ideal place for the cultural transfer of a model of masculinity from Sammys to Poilus. The foyers were managed by the American YMCA and eventually reached the number of 1,500 in France during the war. These hostels afforded soldiers numerous opportunities to develop cultural and sports practices, by bringing together Americans and Frenchmen. Mainly based on the archives of the American Expeditionary Forces, the YMCA and the French Army, the paper argues that the Foyers du Soldat brought to light a new model of masculinity based on sport, which challenged the Frenchmen's vision. It aims to show the rapid transformation of masculine identity within a context of extreme vulnerability and confirms the changes in representations of men in French society at this time.     

Emotional pictures impact repetitive sprint ability test on cycle ergometre

Abstract

This study investigated the interaction between emotion-eliciting pictures and power output during a repetitive supra-maximal task on a cycle ergometre. Twelve male participants (mean (±SD) age, height and weight: 28.58 ± 3.23 years, 1.78 ± 0.05 m and 82.41 ± 13.29 kg) performed 5 repeated sprint tests on a cycle ergometre in front of neutral, pleasant or unpleasant pictures. For each sprint, mechanical (peak power and work), physiological (heart rate) and perceptual (affective load) indices were analysed. Affective load was calculated from the ratings of perceived exertion, which reflected the amount of pleasant and unpleasant responses experienced during exercise. The results showed that peak power, work and heart rate values were significantly lower (P < 0.05) for unpleasant pictures (9.18 ± 0.20 W ? kg^?1; 47.69 ± 1.08 J ? kg^?1; 152 ± 4 bpm) when compared with pleasant ones (9.50 ± 0.20 W ? kg^?1; 50.11 ± 0.11 J ? kg^?1; 156 ± 3 bpm). Furthermore, the affective load was found to be similar for the pleasant and unpleasant sessions. All together, these results suggested that the ability to produce maximal power output depended on whether the emotional context was pleasant or unpleasant. The fact that the power output was lower in the unpleasant versus pleasant session could reflect a regulatory process aimed at maintaining a similar level of affective load for both sessions.