Learning to detect error in movement timing using physical and observational practice

Three experiments assessed the possibility that a physical practice participant's ability to render appropriate movement timing estimates may be hindered compared to those who merely observed. Results from these experiments revealed that observers and physical practice participants executed and estimated the overall durations of movement sequences similarly and more accurately than those who were not privy to any previous practice. This was true for a case in which (a) the execution demands for the physical practice participant were relatively high when multiple movement sequences were practiced with a consistent relative time structure but different overall durations (Experiment 1) and (b) the execution demands were relatively modest when only a single sequential motor task was learned (Experiment 2). Moreover, this general set of findings remained true for individuals who had previous experience with physical or observational practice, even when timing estimations were made during tests with no execution demands (Experiment 3). Thus, executing a movement sequence does not appear to interfere with the development of a learner's subjective evaluation of overall timing performance. Specifically, these data provided evidence that recognizing error in movement timing can be accomplished via observation, and, more generally, they add to the growing evidence supporting the claim that observational practice is a legitimate method facilitating the acquisition of sequential movement behaviors.     

Convention and Conversion: The Saracen Ending of the Taill of Rauf Coilzear

Uniquely among representatives of the "king-and-commoner" plot type (a king takes refuge with a humble fellow, who is then summoned to court for a reward), the fifteenth-century Taill of Rauf Coilzear adjoins a lengthy encounter between the newly knighted "hero" and a Saracen opponent. The narrative logic of this continuation has resisted explanation. I argue that the inclusion of the Saracen ending and other material derived from popular romance is motivated by the poet's desire to represent Rauf's entry into the nobility not as idle fantasy or as mere absorption, but as an ideal synthesis consistent with his pre-existing code of personal, and class, honour. In his assertive, temperamental otherness Rauf resembles the stock figure of the Saracen champion. The poet builds on this analogy (notably in a scene opposing Rauf to the martial-elitist Roland), so that the eventual conversion of the Saracen - presented conventionally as a matter requiring no ideological reconstruction - supplies the model for Rauf's own decidedly unconventional transition from commoner to aristocrat.     

The contribution of elaborative processing to the contextual interference effect.

This study examined the influence of supplemental intertask and intratask processing on the retention of three motor sequences practiced in conditions of high and low contextual interference. Subjects practiced in either a blocked or random practice format and experienced additional intratask processing, intertask processing, or no additional processing. Each of three movement sequences were practiced for 18 trials. The subjects were required to perform the sequences as fast and as accurately as possible. Retention performance and recall of the movement sequences were assessed after a 21-day retention interval. The results replicated those of Wright (1991), indicating a benefit for individuals engaging intertask processing during a low contextual interference practice condition. Furthermore, supplementing random practice with additional intertask processing not only slowed the rate of task acquisition, but also resulted in retention performance that was significantly poorer than that exhibited by individuals exposed to random practice with no additional processing. This suggests there may be a limit to the extent of interference that can be established during practice that will lead to a facilitation in retention performance.     

Counselling in Educational Settings: Past Experience, Current Practice and Future Implications

In this paper, Jean Wright and Ann Beynon discuss their past and present experience of counselling in schools and colleges. They reflect on the way counselling in schools has declined whilst at the same time growing significantly in sixth forms and colleges of further education. Drawing on these experiences and one of the writers' recent experience of the approach to counselling in the USA, they argue that a reconsideration is needed of the value of counselling approaches in schools.