Attractor States in Teaching and Learning Processes: A Study of Out-of-School Science Education.

In order for out-of-school science activities that take place during school hours but outside the school context to be successful, instructors must have sufficient pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to guarantee high-quality teaching and learning. We argue that PCK is a quality of the instructor-pupil system that is constructed in real-time interaction. When PCK is evident in real-time interaction, we define it as Expressed Pedagogical Content Knowledge (EPCK).

A Dynamic Network Model to Explain the Development of Excellent Human Performance.

Across different domains, from sports to science, some individuals accomplish excellent levels of performance. For over 150 years, researchers have debated the roles of specific nature and nurture components to develop excellence. In this article, we argue that the key to excellence does not reside in specific underlying components, but rather in the ongoing interactions among the components.

Psychological Momentum During and Across Sports Matches: Evidence for Interconnected Time Scales.

This study on psychological momentum (PM) in sports provides the first experimental test of an interconnection between short-term PM (during a match) and long-term PM (across a series of matches). Twenty-two competitive athletes were striving to win a prize during a rowing-ergometer tournament, consisting of manipulated races. As hypothesized, athletes who had developed long-term positive PM after two successful races were less sensitive to a negative momentum scenario in the third race, compared with athletes who had developed long-term negative PM after two unsuccessful races.

A quantitative dynamic systems model of health-related quality of life among older adults.

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a person-centered concept. The analysis of HRQOL is highly relevant in the aged population, which is generally suffering from health decline. Starting from a conceptual dynamic systems model that describes the development of HRQOL in individuals over time, this study aims to develop and test a quantitative dynamic systems model, in order to reveal the possible dynamic trends of HRQOL among older adults.

Pink Noise in Rowing Ergometer Performance and the Role of Skill Level.

The aim of this study was to examine (1) the temporal structures of variation in rowers’ (natural) ergometer strokes to make inferences about the underlying motor organization, and (2) the relation between these temporal structures and skill level. Four high-skilled and five lower-skilled rowers completed 550 strokes on a rowing ergometer. Detrended Fluctuation Analysis was used to quantify the temporal structure of the intervals between force peaks.

Associations between developmental trajectories of movement variety and visual attention in fullterm and preterm infants during the first six months postterm.

Background: During early infancy major developmental changes, both in the variety of body movements and in visual attention, help the infant to explore its surroundings. Both behaviours depend on a gradual shift from subcortical to cortical functioning.

Aims: First, to determine whether preterms reach mature levels of movement variety (the number of different movement patterns) and visual attention earlier than fullterms.

How psychological and behavioral team states change during positive and negative momentum.

In business and sports, teams often experience periods of positive and negative momentum while pursuing their goals. However, researchers have not yet been able to provide insights into how psychological and behavioral states actually change during positive and negative team momentum. In the current study we aimed to provide these insights by introducing an experimental dynamical research design.

Dysfunctional beliefs in the process of change of cognitive treatment in obsessive compulsive checkers.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is considered to be effective in the reduction of obsessive compulsive symptoms. However, questions remain as to how CBT works. Cognitive-behavioural models postulate that negative appraisals of intrusive thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs that give rise to them underlie the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Networks as complex dynamic systems: applications to clinical and developmental psychology and psychopathology.

Cramer et al.'s article is an example of the fruitful application of complex dynamic systems theory. We extend their approach with examples from our own work on development and developmental psychopathology and address three issues: (1) the level of aggregation of the network, (2) the required research methodology, and (3) the clinical and educational application of dynamic network thinking.

Here we go again: a dynamic systems perspective on emotional rigidity across parent-adolescent conflicts.

The authors used a dynamic systems theoretical approach to examine intraindividual variability in emotional responses during the transitional period of adolescence. Longitudinal diary data were collected regarding conflicts between 17 teenage girls and their mothers over a period of a year. The results revealed a reversed u-shaped relation between girls' emotional variability and the number of conflicts.