Experience, Context, and the Visual Perception of Human Movement.

Why are human observers particularly sensitive to human movement? Seven experiments examined the roles of visual experience and motor processes in human movement perception by comparing visual sensitivities to point-light displays of familiar, unusual, and impossible gaits across gait-speed and identity discrimination tasks. In both tasks, visual sensitivity to physically possible gaits was superior to visual sensitivity to physically impossible gaits, supporting perception-action coupling theories of human movement perception. Visual experience influenced walker-identity perception but not gait-speed discrimination. Thus, both motor experience and visual experience define visual sensitivity to human movement. An ecological perspective can be used to define the conditions necessary for experience-dependent sensitivity to human movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persistence of dyslexics' phonological awareness deficits.

Examined the phonological awareness skills of dyslexic children, adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia, and good readers at various age levels. Comparisons of the dyslexics to good readers of the same age or the same reading level indicated that dyslexics do not acquire appropriate levels of phoneme awareness, regardless of their age or reading levels, although they eventually acquire appropriate levels of onset-rhyme awareness. Even adults with fairly high levels of word recognition skill show phoneme awareness deficits. For normal readers, reliable increases in phoneme awareness were associated with age and reading level, whereas for dyslexic Ss these associations were not reliable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of carbon black on tribology of blends of poly(vinylidene fluoride) with irradiated and non-irradiated ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene

Friction and wear resistance are two vital tribological properties of polymer-based materials but optimization of both is rarely attempted. We have investigated blends of 70 wt% poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)+30% ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, the latter either un-irradiated or else γ-irradiated. Each sample contained varying amounts of carbon black (CB) and also had a varied degree of crosslinking and irradiation dose. We have determined static and dynamic friction, scratch resistance, and sliding wear in multiple scratching tests. Effects of the irradiation dose and CB concentration have been quantified. The electric conductivity threshold is reflected in a drop of static friction; formation of a continuous phase of the lubricant affects tribology as well as electrical properties—both for irradiated and for un-irradiated samples. The scratch resistance as represented by the residual (healing) depth is affected by crosslinking, by the stage at which irradiation is applied (before or after blending) and by CB addition. Crosslinking by moderate amounts of irradiation provides shallower residual depths while higher doses cause adverse results. Similarly, the CB lubricant can either improve or worsen the scratch resistance. A combination of both approaches produces either better or else worse results than crosslinking alone. Lower friction seems accompanied by higher scratch resistance. A combination of a specific irradiation dose and an optimized CB concentration lowers the sliding wear significantly. Strain hardening in sliding wear determination takes place for all materials studied, irrespective of the extent or radiation-induced crosslinking and of the presence and concentration of carbon black.     

Application of virtual reality for peritoneal dialysis exchange learning in patients with end-stage renal disease and cognitive impairment

Virtual Reality - Cognitive impairment is not uncommon in patients with end-stage renal disease and can make it more difficult for these patients to carry out peritoneal dialysis (PD) on their own....     

Development of categorical representations for above and below spatial relations in 3- to 7-month-old infants.

A series of experiments examined the abilities of infants to form categorical representations for the spatial relations above and below. Exp 1 provided evidence that 3–4 mo olds can form categorical representations for above and below when a diamond shape was presented above or below a horizontal bar. Exps 2 and 3 showed that 3- and 4-mo olds did not form categorical representations for above and below when a number of discriminably different shapes (e.g., a diamond, a triangle, a dot) appeared above or below the bar. These more abstract categorical representations for above and below were formed by 6- to 7-mo olds (Exp 4). The findings suggest an experientially or maturationally based trend, from concrete to abstract, in the categorical representation of common spatial relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work-arounds and Boundary Crossing in a High Tech Optronics Company: The Role of Co-operative Workflow Technologies

This study examines how some employeescoped with the exceptions that they encountered withtheir on-going use of a co-operative workflowtechnology in an optronics company. By drawing on thecase material, this paper will indicate thatapproaches which view work as being capable of beingplanned and managed through the formal authority ofthe hierarchy are insufficient. Instead, this paperwill suggest that exception handling, work-arounds andimprovisation are more characteristic of humanactivity. Computer supported co-operative work will beconceptualised as being embedded in a dynamicrelationship between the context it is situatedwithin, and the actors that engage in it. Theprinciples underlying ethnography have informed theresearch approach.     

Using Diary Methods to Study Marital and Family Processes.

Diary methods allow researchers to study marital and family processes within the context of daily life in a way that is not possible with more traditional methods. The authors review applications of diary designs in marital and family research and detail the types of research questions that can uniquely be asked of dyadic/family diary data. Technological developments for the use of electronic palm-top devices for implementing diary methods are also reviewed. Additionally, the authors discuss specific issues relevant to the analysis of diary data that come from dyads or families. Last, the authors raise unresolved issues and directions for future research in the use of diary methods for studying marital and family processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)