TY  - JOUR
A1  - Adani, Flavia
A1  - Stegenwallner-Schütz, Maja Henny Katherine
A1  - Niesel, Talea
T1  - The Peaceful Co-existence of Input Frequency and Structural Intervention Effects on the Comprehension of Complex Sentences in German-Speaking Children
JF  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - The predictions of two contrasting approaches to the acquisition of transitive relative clauses were tested within the same groups of German-speaking participants aged from 3 to 5 years old. The input frequency approach predicts that object relative clauses with inanimate heads (e.g., the pullover that the man is scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with an animate head (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). In contrast, the structural intervention approach predicts that object relative clauses with two full NP arguments mismatching in number (e.g., the man that the boys are scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with number-matching NPs (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). These approaches were tested in two steps. First, we ran a corpus analysis to ensure that object relative clauses with number-mismatching NPs are not more frequent than object relative clauses with number-matching NPs in child directed speech. Next, the comprehension of these structures was tested experimentally in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds respectively by means of a color naming task. By comparing the predictions of the two approaches within the same participant groups, we were able to uncover that the effects predicted by the input frequency and by the structural intervention approaches co-exist and that they both influence the performance of children on transitive relative clauses, but in a manner that is modulated by age. These results reveal a sensitivity to animacy mismatch already being demonstrated by 3-year-olds and show that animacy is initially deployed more reliably than number to interpret relative clauses correctly. In all age groups, the animacy mismatch appears to explain the performance of children, thus, showing that the comprehension of frequent object relative clauses is enhanced compared to the other conditions. Starting with 4-year-olds but especially in 5-year-olds, the number mismatch supported comprehension—a facilitation that is unlikely to be driven by input frequency. Once children fine-tune their sensitivity to verb agreement information around the age of four, they are also able to deploy number marking to overcome the intervention effects. This study highlights the importance of testing experimentally contrasting theoretical approaches in order to characterize the multifaceted, developmental nature of language acquisition.
KW  - relative clauses
KW  - sentence comprehension
KW  - input frequency
KW  - number
KW  - animacy
KW  - language acquisition
KW  - German
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01590
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 8
SP  - 1
EP  - 11
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Adelt, Anne
A1  - Hanne, Sandra
A1  - Stadie, Nicole
T1  - Treatment of sentence comprehension and production in aphasia
BT  - is there cross-modal generalisation?
JF  - Neuropsychological rehabilitation
N2  - Exploring generalisation following treatment of language deficits in aphasia can provide insights into the functional relation of the cognitive processing systems involved. In the present study, we first review treatment outcomes of interventions targeting sentence processing deficits and, second report a treatment study examining the occurrence of practice effects and generalisation in sentence comprehension and production. In order to explore the potential linkage between processing systems involved in comprehending and producing sentences, we investigated whether improvements generalise within (i.e., uni-modal generalisation in comprehension or in production) and/or across modalities (i.e., cross-modal generalisation from comprehension to production or vice versa). Two individuals with aphasia displaying co-occurring deficits in sentence comprehension and production were trained on complex, non-canonical sentences in both modalities. Two evidence-based treatment protocols were applied in a crossover intervention study with sequence of treatment phases being randomly allocated. Both participants benefited significantly from treatment, leading to uni-modal generalisation in both comprehension and production. However, cross-modal generalisation did not occur. The magnitude of uni-modal generalisation in sentence production was related to participants’ sentence comprehension performance prior to treatment. These findings support the assumption of modality-specific sub-systems for sentence comprehension and production, being linked uni-directionally from comprehension to production.
KW  - Sentence comprehension
KW  - sentence production
KW  - cross-modal generalisation
KW  - aphasia treatment
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2016.1213176
SN  - 0960-2011
SN  - 1464-0694
VL  - 28
IS  - 6
SP  - 937
EP  - 965
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Aloui, Ali
A1  - Tayech, Amel
A1  - Arbi Mejri, Mohamed
A1  - Makhlouf, Issam
A1  - Clark, Cain C. T.
A1  - Granacher, Urs
A1  - Zouhal, Hassane
A1  - Ben Abderrahman, Abderraouf
T1  - Reliability and Validity of a New Taekwondo-Specific Change-of-Direction Speed Test With Striking Techniques in Elite Taekwondo Athletes: A Pilot Study
JF  - Frontiers in Physiology
N2  - The purpose of this study was to examine the test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminative validity of a new taekwondo-specific change-of-direction (COD) speed test with striking techniques (TST) in elite taekwondo athletes. Twenty (10 males and 10 females) elite (athletes who compete at national level) and top-elite (athletes who compete at national and international level) taekwondo athletes with an average training background of 8.9 ± 1.3 years of systematic taekwondo training participated in this study. During the two-week test-retest period, various generic performance tests measuring COD speed, balance, speed, and jump performance were carried out during the first week and as a retest during the second week. Three TST trials were conducted with each athlete and the best trial was used for further analyses. The relevant performance measure derived from the TST was the time with striking penalty (TST-TSP). TST-TSP performances amounted to 10.57 ± 1.08 s for males and 11.74 ± 1.34 s for females. The reliability analysis of the TST performance was conducted after logarithmic transformation, in order to address the problem of heteroscedasticity. In both groups, the TST demonstrated a high relative test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients and 90% compatibility limits were 0.80 and 0.47 to 0.93, respectively). For absolute reliability, the TST’s typical error of measurement (TEM), 90% compatibility limits, and magnitudes were 4.6%, 3.4 to 7.7, for males, and 5.4%, 3.9 to 9.0, for females. The homogeneous sample of taekwondo athletes meant that the TST’s TEM exceeded the usual smallest important change (SIC) with 0.2 effect size in the two groups. The new test showed mostly very large correlations with linear sprint speed (r = 0.71 to 0.85) and dynamic balance (r = −0.71 and −0.74), large correlations with COD speed (r = 0.57 to 0.60) and vertical jump performance (r = −0.50 to −0.65), and moderate correlations with horizontal jump performance (r = −0.34 to −0.45) and static balance (r = −0.39 to −0.44). Top-elite athletes showed better TST performances than elite counterparts. Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that the TST effectively discriminated between top-elite and elite taekwondo athletes. In conclusion, the TST is a valid, and sensitive test to evaluate the COD speed with taekwondo specific skills, and reliable when considering ICC and TEM. Although the usefulness of the TST is questioned to detect small performance changes in the present population, the TST can detect moderate changes in taekwondo-specific COD speed.
KW  - taekwondo-specific testing
KW  - sport-specific performance
KW  - striking combat sports
KW  - sensitivity
KW  - taekwondo electronic scoring system
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.774546
SN  - 1664-042X
VL  - 13
SP  - 1
EP  - 15
PB  - Frontiers
CY  - Lausanne, Schweiz
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Apel, Jens K.
A1  - Revie, Gavin F.
A1  - Cangelosi, Angelo
A1  - Ellis, Rob
A1  - Goslin, Jeremy
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Attention deployment during memorizing and executing complex instructions
JF  - Experimental brain research
N2  - We investigated the mental rehearsal of complex action instructions by recording spontaneous eye movements of healthy adults as they looked at objects on a monitor. Participants heard consecutive instructions, each of the form "move [object] to [location]''. Instructions were only to be executed after a go signal, by manipulating all objects successively with a mouse. Participants re-inspected previously mentioned objects already while listening to further instructions. This rehearsal behavior broke down after 4 instructions, coincident with participants' instruction span, as determined from subsequent execution accuracy. These results suggest that spontaneous eye movements while listening to instructions predict their successful execution.
KW  - Assembly task
KW  - Eye movements
KW  - Overt attention
KW  - Rehearsal
KW  - Sequential instruction
KW  - Working memory
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2827-4
SN  - 0014-4819
VL  - 214
IS  - 2
SP  - 249
EP  - 259
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Arazi, Hamid
A1  - Asadi, Abbas
A1  - Khalkhali, Farhood
A1  - Boullosa, Daniel
A1  - Hackney, Anthony C.
A1  - Granacher, Urs
A1  - Zouhal, Hassane
T1  - Association Between the Acute to Chronic Workload Ratio and Injury Occurrence in Young Male Team Soccer Players
BT  - A Preliminary Study
N2  - This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the acute to chronic workload ratio (ACWR), based upon participant session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE), using two models [(1) rolling averages (ACWRRA); and (2) exponentially weighted moving averages (ACWREWMA)] and the injury rate in young male team soccer players aged 17.1 ± 0.7 years during a competitive mesocycle. Twenty-two players were enrolled in this study and performed four training sessions per week with 2 days of recovery and 1 match day per week. During each training session and each weekly match, training time and sRPE were recorded. In addition, training impulse (TRIMP), monotony, and strain were subsequently calculated. The rate of injury was recorded for each soccer player over a period of 4 weeks (i.e., 28 days) using a daily questionnaire. The results showed that over the course of the study, the number of non-contact injuries was significantly higher than that for contact injuries (2.5 vs. 0.5, p = 0.01). There were also significant positive correlations between sRPE and training time (r = 0.411, p = 0.039), ACWRRA (r = 0.47, p = 0.049), and ACWREWMA (r = 0.51, p = 0.038). In addition, small-to-medium correlations were detected between ACWR and non-contact injury occurrence (ACWRRA, r = 0.31, p = 0.05; ACWREWMA, r = 0.53, p = 0.03). Explained variance (r²) for non-contact injury was significantly greater using the ACWREWMA model (ranging between 21 and 52%) compared with ACWRRA (ranging between 17 and 39%). In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the ACWREWMA model is more sensitive than ACWRRA to identify non-contact injury occurrence in male team soccer players during a short period in the competitive season.
KW  - training load
KW  - rate of perceived exertion
KW  - rolling averages
KW  - weighted moving averages
KW  - football
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00608
SN  - 1664-042X
VL  - 11
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Arazi, Hamid
A1  - Asadi, Abbas
A1  - Khalkhali, Farhood
A1  - Boullosa, Daniel
A1  - Hackney, Anthony C.
A1  - Granacher, Urs
A1  - Zouhal, Hassane
T1  - Association Between the Acute to Chronic Workload Ratio and Injury Occurrence in Young Male Team Soccer Players
BT  - A Preliminary Study
JF  - Frontiers in Physiology
N2  - This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the acute to chronic workload ratio (ACWR), based upon participant session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE), using two models [(1) rolling averages (ACWRRA); and (2) exponentially weighted moving averages (ACWREWMA)] and the injury rate in young male team soccer players aged 17.1 ± 0.7 years during a competitive mesocycle. Twenty-two players were enrolled in this study and performed four training sessions per week with 2 days of recovery and 1 match day per week. During each training session and each weekly match, training time and sRPE were recorded. In addition, training impulse (TRIMP), monotony, and strain were subsequently calculated. The rate of injury was recorded for each soccer player over a period of 4 weeks (i.e., 28 days) using a daily questionnaire. The results showed that over the course of the study, the number of non-contact injuries was significantly higher than that for contact injuries (2.5 vs. 0.5, p = 0.01). There were also significant positive correlations between sRPE and training time (r = 0.411, p = 0.039), ACWRRA (r = 0.47, p = 0.049), and ACWREWMA (r = 0.51, p = 0.038). In addition, small-to-medium correlations were detected between ACWR and non-contact injury occurrence (ACWRRA, r = 0.31, p = 0.05; ACWREWMA, r = 0.53, p = 0.03). Explained variance (r 2) for non-contact injury was significantly greater using the ACWREWMA model (ranging between 21 and 52%) compared with ACWRRA (ranging between 17 and 39%). In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the ACWREWMA model is more sensitive than ACWRRA to identify non-contact injury occurrence in male team soccer players during a short period in the competitive season.
KW  - training load
KW  - rate of perceived exertion
KW  - rolling averages
KW  - weighted moving averages
KW  - football
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00995
SN  - 1664-042X
VL  - 11
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Baayen, Harald R.
T1  - Resource requirements for neo-generative modeling in (psycho)linguistics
JF  - Potsdam cognitive science series
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-62318
SN  - 2190-4545
SN  - 2190-4553
IS  - 3
SP  - 5
EP  - 8
PB  - Universitätsverlag Potsdam
CY  - Potsdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Beurskens, Rainer
A1  - Haeger, Matthias
A1  - Kliegl, Reinhold
A1  - Roecker, Kai
A1  - Granacher, Urs
T1  - Postural Control in Dual-Task Situations
BT  - Does Whole-Body Fatigue Matter?
JF  - PLoS one
N2  - Postural control is important to cope with demands of everyday life. It has been shown that both attentional demand (i.e., cognitive processing) and fatigue affect postural control in young adults. However, their combined effect is still unresolved. Therefore, we investigated the effects of fatigue on single- (ST) and dual-task (DT) postural control. Twenty young subjects (age: 23.7 ± 2.7) performed an all-out incremental treadmill protocol. After each completed stage, one-legged-stance performance on a force platform under ST (i.e., one-legged-stance only) and DT conditions (i.e., one-legged-stance while subtracting serial 3s) was registered. On a second test day, subjects conducted the same balance tasks for the control condition (i.e., non-fatigued). Results showed that heart rate, lactate, and ventilation increased following fatigue (all p < 0.001; d = 4.2–21). Postural sway and sway velocity increased during DT compared to ST (all p < 0.001; d = 1.9–2.0) and fatigued compared to non-fatigued condition (all p < 0.001; d = 3.3–4.2). In addition, postural control deteriorated with each completed stage during the treadmill protocol (all p < 0.01; d = 1.9–3.3). The addition of an attention-demanding interference task did not further impede one-legged-stance performance. Although both additional attentional demand and physical fatigue affected postural control in healthy young adults, there was no evidence for an overadditive effect (i.e., fatigue-related performance decrements in postural control were similar under ST and DT conditions). Thus, attentional resources were sufficient to cope with the DT situations in the fatigue condition of this experiment.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147392
SN  - 1932-6203
VL  - 11
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 15
PB  - PLoS
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Beurskens, Rainer
A1  - Mühlbauer, Thomas
A1  - Granacher, Urs
A1  - Gollhofer, Albert
A1  - Cardinale, Marco
T1  - Effects of heavy-resistance strength and balance training on unilateral and bilateral leg strength performance in old adults
JF  - PLoS one
N2  - The term “bilateral deficit” (BLD) has been used to describe a reduction in performance during bilateral contractions when compared to the sum of identical unilateral contractions. In old age, maximal isometric force production (MIF) decreases and BLD increases indicating the need for training interventions to mitigate this impact in seniors. In a cross-sectional approach, we examined age-related differences in MIF and BLD in young (age: 20–30 years) and old adults (age: >65 years). In addition, a randomized-controlled trial was conducted to investigate training-specific effects of resistance vs. balance training on MIF and BLD of the leg extensors in old adults. Subjects were randomly assigned to resistance training (n = 19), balance training (n = 14), or a control group (n = 20). Bilateral heavy-resistance training for the lower extremities was performed for 13 weeks (3 × / week) at 80% of the one repetition maximum. Balance training was conducted using predominately unilateral exercises on wobble boards, soft mats, and uneven surfaces for the same duration. Pre- and post-tests included uni- and bilateral measurements of maximal isometric leg extension force. At baseline, young subjects outperformed older adults in uni- and bilateral MIF (all p < .001; d = 2.61–3.37) and in measures of BLD (p < .001; d = 2.04). We also found significant increases in uni- and bilateral MIF after resistance training (all p < .001, d = 1.8-5.7) and balance training (all p < .05, d = 1.3-3.2). In addition, BLD decreased following resistance (p < .001, d = 3.4) and balance training (p < .001, d = 2.6). It can be concluded that both training regimens resulted in increased MIF and decreased BLD of the leg extensors (HRT-group more than BAL-group), almost reaching the levels of young adults.
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118535
SN  - 1932-6203
PB  - Public Library of Science
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Beurskens, Rainer
A1  - Steinberg, Fabian
A1  - Antoniewicz, Franziska
A1  - Wolff, Wanja
A1  - Granacher, Urs
T1  - Neural Correlates of Dual-Task Walking
BT  - Effects of Cognitive versus Motor Interference in Young Adults
JF  - Neural plasticity
N2  - Walking while concurrently performing cognitive and/or motor interference tasks is the norm rather than the exception during everyday life and there is evidence from behavioral studies that it negatively affects human locomotion. However, there is hardly any information available regarding the underlying neural correlates of single- and dual-task walking. We had 12 young adults (23.8 ± 2.8 years) walk while concurrently performing a cognitive interference (CI) or a motor interference (MI) task. Simultaneously, neural activation in frontal, central, and parietal brain areas was registered using a mobile EEG system. Results showed that the MI task but not the CI task affected walking performance in terms of significantly decreased gait velocity and stride length and significantly increased stride time and tempo-spatial variability. Average activity in alpha and beta frequencies was significantly modulated during both CI and MI walking conditions in frontal and central brain regions, indicating an increased cognitive load during dual-task walking. Our results suggest that impaired motor performance during dual-task walking is mirrored in neural activation patterns of the brain. This finding is in line with established cognitive theories arguing that dual-task situations overstrain cognitive capabilities resulting in motor performance decrements.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8032180
VL  - 2016
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Hindawi
CY  - New York
ER  -