Visually focusing on the far versus the near target during the putting stroke

The purpose was to evaluate the traditional method, of visually focusing on the ball, in comparison to focusing on the hole, during the putting stroke. The study design consisted of a pretest, a 4-week practice period, and a posttest. Participants (n = 31, handicap: 18.7 ± 10.4) practised using only one of the two gaze techniques. Testing consisted of having all participants putt using both gaze techniques from both a 1.22 m and a 4 m distance. Five putts were executed for each gaze technique/putt length combination for a total of 20 putts in each testing session per participant. The kinematics of every putting stroke executed during testing (1240 strokes) were captured using a TOMI? system. There was a significant improvement in putting success for both groups following practice (P = 0.001). Practising while visually focusing on the hole, resulted in a statistically significant reduction in putter speed variability in comparison to practising while visually focusing on the ball (P = 0.017). Visually focusing on the hole did not meaningfully (nor statistically) affect the quality of impact as assessed by the variability in face angle, stroke path, and impact spot at the precise moment the putter head contacted the ball.     

浅谈军训学生思想政治教育工作的开展

思想政治教育是大学学生工作的一根红线,贯穿于学生工作的始终。学生军训工作作为学生工作的一项重要内容,应充分发挥学生思想政治教育的先导作用,充分激发学生强烈的爱国主义情感。通过对军事知识学习与军事训练的有机结合,综合调动学生知、情、意三个方面的认知体验,从而构建一个立体的思想政治教育模式。     

Book Review: Tomasevski,Katarina. 2003. Education Denied:Costs and Remedies. London: Zed Books Limited. 224 pp. ISBN 1-84277-251-1

International Review of Education -     

Counselor Education Program Development: A Communication-Information Model

The common core concept was presented as the vehicle for developing a more adaptive educational program for the counseling profession. The communication model developed was based on the assumption of common elements of role behavior for counselors across agency settings. The model also depends upon the explication of communication and information needs necessary for adequate functioning of the counselor across as well as within settings as the basis for curriculum content. An organizational structure for implementing the communication model was explicated in a training program setting to facilitate the implementation of the model.     

Errors in pigeons’ memory for number of events

In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained in a within-subjects design to discriminate sequences of light flashes (illumination of the feeder) that varied in number, but not in time (2f/4sec and 8f/4sec), and in time, but not in number (4f/2sec and 4f/8sec). Number samples required a response to one of two comparison dimensions (either color or line), whereas time samples required a response to the remaining comparison dimension. Delay testing revealed a significant choose-small bias following number samples and a significant choose-long bias following time samples. In Experiment 2, testing confirmed that in the absence of a sample, there was a bias to respond small to the number comparisons and long to the time comparisons. Additional tests indicated that the birds were discriminating time samples on the basis of the number of light flashes occurring during the last few seconds of the time samples, rather than on the basis of the total duration of the flash sequence. Consequently, the choose-long bias observed for time samples during delay testing was really a choose-small bias. In Experiment 3, the birds received baseline training with a 5-sec delay and were subsequently tested at shorter and longer delays. A choose-large bias occurred at delays shorter than the baseline training delay, whereas a choose-small bias was again observed at delays longer than the baseline delay. These findings provide additional empirical support for the conceptualizing of memory for number and time in terms of a common mechanism.