Object Rotation Effects on the Timing of a Hitting Action

Abstract

We investigated how perturbing optical information affects the guidance of an unfolding hitting action. Using monocular and binocular vision, six participants were required to hit a rectangular foam object, released from two different heights, under four different approach conditions, two with object rotation (to perturb the viewed surface area) and two without. Participants made more misses under monocular conditions, and the presence of rotation had a significant effect on the duration between the arm's peak velocity and its contact with the object. We conclude that binocular information contributes to the timing of interceptive tasks. In addition, the guidance of interceptive actions does not appear to be based solely on object expansion information picked up from the viewed surface area.     

Effects of Montessori Education on the Academic,Cognitive, and Social Development of Disadvantaged Preschoolers: A Randomized Controlled Study in the French Public-School System

Previous research on Montessori preschool education is inconsistent and prone to analytic flexibility. In this preregistered study, disadvantaged preschoolers in a French public school were randomly assigned to either conventional or Montessori classrooms, with the latter being adapted to French public education. Adaptations included fewer materials, shorter work periods, and relatively limited Montessori teacher training. Cross-sectional analyses in kindergarten (N = 176; M_age = 5–6) and longitudinal analyses over the 3 years of preschool (N = 70; M_age = 3–6) showed that the adapted Montessori curriculum was associated with outcomes comparable to the conventional curriculum on math, executive functions, and social skills. However, disadvantaged kindergarteners from Montessori classrooms outperformed their peers on reading (d = 0.68). This performance was comparable to that of advantaged children from an accredited Montessori preschool.     

What makes a good reader? Worldwide insights from PIRLS 2016

Reading and Writing - Using hierarchical linear models, this study probes into student, family, teacher, and schools’ variables that can explain the variation in Progress in International...     

Does Religious Education as an examination subject work to promote community cohesion? An empirical enquiry among 14- to 15-year-old adolescents in England and Wales

This study begins by examining the way in which, in both England and Wales, Religious Education has become implicated in political discussion regarding the role of education in promoting community cohesion. The relationship between taking Religious Education as an examination subject and attitude towards religious diversity (as an affective indicator of community cohesion) is then explored among 3052 14- to 15-year-old students. After controlling for contextual factors (school type and geographical location), personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion) and religious factors (Christian affiliation, worship attendance, personal prayer and belief in God), a small but significant positive association was found between taking Religious Education as an examination subject and attitude towards religious diversity. This finding may be interpreted as supporting the view that Religious Education works to promote community cohesion, although the wider debate that the community cohesion agenda has generated among religious educators needs further exploration.     

Dependency-aware unequal erasure protection codes

Classical unequal erasure protection schemes split data to be protected into classes which are encoded independently. The unequal protection scheme presented in this paper is based on an erasure code which encodes all the data together according to the existing dependencies. A simple algorithm generates dynamically the generator matrix of the erasure code according to the packets streams structure, i.e., the dependencies between the packets, and the rate of the code. This proposed erasure code was applied to a packetized MPEG4 stream transmitted over a packet erasure channel and compared with other classical protection schemes in terms of PSNR and MOS. It is shown that the proposed code allows keeping a high video quality-level in a larger packet loss rate range than the other protection schemes.     

A Review of the Cross-Cultural Equivalence of Frequently used Personality Inventories

Personality inventories are frequently used for career guidance. Some should theoretically depend on cultural context, while others are supposed to be universal. The cross-cultural equivalence is only partial for culture-dependent models, as the locus of control. Concerning models that are supposed to be universal like the one proposed by Cattell or the Five-Factor Model, a partial and a full structural equivalence are, respectively observed. The extent of the scalar equivalence is difficult to assess indicating that more studies should be conducted to understand how culture affects processes underlying the evaluation of personality.

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Résumé. Un examen de l’équivalence transculturelle de plusieurs inventaires de personnalité fréquemment utilisés Les inventaires de personnalité sont fréquemment employés en orientation professionnelle. Certains devraient théoriquement dépendre du contexte culturel, alors que d’autres sont censés être universels. Pour les modèles qui dépendent de la culture, comme le lieu de contrôle, l’équivalence transculturelle est seulement partielle. Pour ce qui concerne les modèles qui sont censés être universels, comme celui proposé par Cattell ou comme le Modèle à Cinq Facteurs, on observe une équivalence structurale respectivement partielle et totale. Il est difficile d’évaluer l’ampleur de l’équivalence des échelles, ce qui montre que davantage d’études devraient être entreprises pour comprendre comment la culture affecte les processus sous-tendant l’évaluation de la personnalité.Zusammenfassung. Eine Betrachtung der interkulturellen Entsprechungen einiger häufig verwendeter Pesönlichkeits-Inventarien Persönlichkeits-Inventarien werden in er Berufsberatung häufig verwendet. Einige sollten theoretisch von kulturellen Kontexten abhängig sein, während andere als universell betrachtet werden. Die interkulturelle Vergleichbarkeit für kulturabhängige Modelle, wie etwa der Kontrollüberzeugung, besteht nur teilweise. Im Hinblick auf Modelle, die universell sein sollen wie das von Cattell vorgeschlagene Modell oder das Fünf-Faktoren-Modell, können sowohl partielle als auch vollstrukturelle Entsprechungen vorgefunden werden. Das Ausmaß er graduellen Entsprechungen ist kaum zu bewerten, was darauf hinweist, dass weitere Untersuchungen zu der Frage durchgeführt werden sollten in welcher Weise die Kultur diejenigen Prozesse beeinflusst, die der Beurteilung der Persönlichkeit zu Grunde liegen.Resumen. Revisión de la equivalencia cross-cultural de diversos inventarios de personalidad frecuentemente utilizados Los inventarios de personalidad suelen usarse con frecuencia en la orientación para la carrera. Algunos deberían depender teóricamente del contexto cultural, mientras que otros se supone que son universales. La equivalencia cross-cultural sólo es parcial en los modelos dependientes de la cultura, como el locus of control. Respecto a los modelos supuestamente universales como el propuesto por Cattell, o el Modelo de Cinco Factores, se observa una equivalencia parcial y una equivalencia total estructural respectivamente. El grado de la equivalencia escalar es difícil de medir, lo que indica que deberían realizarse más estudios de este tipo para entender cómo la cultura afecta a los procesos subyacentes en la evaluación de la personalidad.