Perception of Affordances for Stepping Over an Expanse With Crutches.

Perception of possibilities for behavior reflects the task-specific fit between action capabilities and environmental properties. We investigated whether this is so for a behavior that requires spontaneously and temporarily coordinating anatomical components and inert objects into a person-plus-object action system-stepping over an expanse with crutches. We found that perception of this affordance (a) scaled to an anthropometric property of primary relevance to performing this behavior (leg length), (b) reflected the ability to perform this behavior, and that (c) variability in perception decreased with practice perceiving this affordance.

Nesting in perception of affordances for stepping and leaping.

Perception of affordances for a given behavior typically reflects the task-specific action capabilities of the perceiver. However, many experiments have shown a discrepancy between the perceptual and behavioral boundaries for a given behavior. One possibility for such a discrepancy is that the context of many experimental tasks transformed what is typically a dynamic perception-action task into an analytical or reflective judgment.

Attentional Focus Effects in Standing Long Jump Performance: Influence of a Broad and Narrow Internal Focus.

The content of instructions that strength coaches give can have a significant impact on how an athlete or client performs. Research on motor learning has shown an advantage of instructions focusing on the effects of movements (external focus) over those focusing on the movements themselves (internal focus) in the performance of motor skills. Internally focused cues are abundant in coaching, therefore the purpose of this study was to test whether some internally focused cues might be more helpful than others.

Perception of maximum stepping and leaping distance: Stepping affordances as a special case of leaping affordances.

Successfully performing everyday behaviors requires perceiving affordances-possibilities for behavior that depend on the fit between environmental properties and action capabilities. Whereas affordances for some behaviors are primarily constrained by relatively static geometric properties of the perceiver (non-launching behaviors such as stepping), others are additionally constrained by dynamic force production capabilities of the perceiver (launching behaviors such as leaping). This experiment used a transfer of calibration paradigm to investigate whether visual perception of launching and non-launching behaviors represent independent perception-action tasks.

Age, task complexity, and sex as potential moderators of attentional focus effects.

The study tested whether age, sex, or task complexity moderate the effect of attentional focus on motor learning. Children (24 boys, 24 girls) and adults (24 men, 24 women) were assigned to an internal or external attentional focus, and were timed while riding either a Double Pedalo with handles (simple task) or without handles (complex task) over a distance of 7 meters. A Double Pedalo is a four-wheeled device that involves standing on two connected platforms, and alternately pushing them forward to make it move.

Relationship between socioeconomic status and physical fitness in junior high school students.

Background: Research on physical fitness often regards socioeconomic status (SES) as a confounding factor. However, few studies investigate the impact of SES on fitness. This study investigated the impact of SES on physical fitness in both males and females, with an economic-based construct of SES.

Alternating versus blocked practice in learning a cartwheel.

This investigation examined the generalizability of contextual interference to learning the cartwheel in gymnastics. 32 participants ages 17 to 26 years completed five stages of practice of two versions of the skill, one in which the left hand led and one in which the right hand led, providing a total of 192 practice trials. Practice of these two versions of the task was completed in either a blocked or alternating order.

Task duration in contextual interference.

Duration of practice trial on a pursuit rotor task in contextual interference was investigated. Participants practiced at each of 4 angular velocities, with 24 participants completing 28 trials lasting 20 sec., and 24 participants completing 112 trials of 5 sec.

Applying contextual interference to snowboarding skills.

This investigation was designed to apply contextual interference to acquisition of snowboarding skills. 20 participants completed several acquisition stages lasting about 2 hours while either alternating the direction of the turn within each stage or completing the whole stage while attempting turns in one direction, then repeating the stage for the other direction of turn. Following acquisition, all participants returned 1 wk.