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The present study investigates diagnostic skills of German teachers in estimating basic reading capacities of sixth graders and the way they relate to achievement heterogeneity of the judged student group and to students' language background.
The data were obtained from a sample of 39 German teachers and their classes in the context of the Berlin Longitudinal Reading Study. Judgements on different levels were analysed (achievement of sixth graders in general and of individual students). Diagnostic skills were investigated using different indicators: the personal judgement error and tendency and the accuracy in identifying achievement differences between individual students (rank component). The accuracy in estimating reading capacities of students with and without a different language background was investigated by means of achievement level matched pairs.
The outcomes indicated, among others, an overestimation of students' general achievement level and on average an acceptable accuracy in identifying achievement differences between individual students. They showed equal difficulties in judging performances of students with and without a different language background.
Synchronization transitions in coupled time-delay electronic circuits with a threshold nonlinearity
(2011)
Experimental observations of typical kinds of synchronization transitions are reported in unidirectionally coupled time-delay electronic circuits with a threshold nonlinearity and two time delays, namely feedback delay tau(1) and coupling delay tau(2). We have observed transitions from anticipatory to lag via complete synchronization and their inverse counterparts with excitatory and inhibitory couplings, respectively, as a function of the coupling delay tau(2). The anticipating and lag times depend on the difference between the feedback and the coupling delays. A single stability condition for all the different types of synchronization is found to be valid as the stability condition is independent of both the delays. Further, the existence of different kinds of synchronizations observed experimentally is corroborated by numerical simulations and from the changes in the Lyapunov exponents of the coupled time-delay systems.
Objectives: Eating disorders are more prevalent in aesthetic sports such as figure skating or gymnastics. While many descriptive studies on their prevalence already exist, more and more studies are now examining the reasons for the specific risk of these athletes. The purpose of this study was to focus on sport-specific variables in aesthetic sports and to examine their relation to disordered eating.
Design: Cross-sectional.
Method: 96 Elite athletes from aesthetic sports (61 girls, 35 boys) were compared to a control group of 96 sex-matched non-athletes. The mean age of participants was M = 14.0 years (SD = 2.2). The questionnaire package included disordered eating, general body dissatisfaction, sports-related body dissatisfaction, desire to be leaner to improve sports performance and social pressure to be lean from sports environment.
Results: Athletes from aesthetic sports displayed more eating disorder symptoms but did not differ from the control group with respect to general body dissatisfaction. For athletes in aesthetic sports, the desire to be leaner to improve sports performance was a significant predictor for disordered eating, and mediated the relationship between social pressure from the sports environment and disordered eating.
Conclusions: The results suggest that sports-related parameters are relevant for understanding eating disorder symptomatology in aesthetic sports. Athletes from aesthetic sports seem to be more at risk if they perceive the possibility to enhance sports performance through weight-regulation, which appears to be triggered by social pressure to be lean from sports environment.
Sports-related correlates of disordered eating a comparison between aesthetic and ballgame sports
(2011)
Prevalence rates for disordered eating vary between different types of sports (Sundgot-Borgen & Torstveit, 2004). In this study, athletes of sports with a high risk and low risk for disordered eating were compared regarding potential sports-related risk factors for disordered eating. One hundred and seventy-one aesthetic and ballgame sports athletes participated in this study (mean age 14.1 +/- 1.8 years). Aesthetic sports athletes reported more disordered eating behaviors, sports-related body dissatisfaction, a greater desire to be leaner to improve sports performance and greater social pressure from the sports environment than did ballgame sports athletes. Emotional distress resulting from missed exercise sessions and the desire to be leaner to improve sports performance predicted disordered eating in both sport types. The results suggest that the kinds of risk factors for disordered eating are equal among sport types, but some potential risk factors are more prevalent in aesthetic sports.
A study with 199 Polish adolescents explored the prominence of risk factors of sexual aggression as part of the sexual scripts for consensual sexual encounters and as predictors of the acceptance of sexual aggression. Distinguishing between general scripts, attributed to the age group as a whole, and individual scripts, reflecting personal standards, sexual scripts were linked to the normative endorsement of the risk factors and to the acceptance of sexual aggression. Individual scripts contained fewer risk factors of sexual aggression than general scripts. The more prominently the risk elements featured in the individual (but not in the general) scripts, the more they were seen as acceptable. For boys, risk scores in individual scripts were correlated with sexual behaviour and linked to the acceptance of sexual aggression via their normative endorsement. The distinction between individual and general scripts as guidelines for behaviour is discussed in terms of its significance for the understanding of sexual aggression.
We examine how the size of saccadic under-/overshoot and target eccentricity influence the latency, amplitude and orientation of secondary (micro-)saccades. In our experiment, a target appeared at an eccentricity of either 6 degrees or 14 degrees of visual angle. Subjects were instructed to direct their gaze as quickly as possible to the target and hold fixation at the new location until the end of the trial. Typically, increasing saccadic error is associated with faster and larger secondary saccades. We show that secondary saccades at distant in contrast to close targets have in a specific error range a shorter latency, larger amplitude, and follow more often the direction of the primary saccade. Finally, we demonstrate that an undershooting primary saccade is followed almost exclusively by secondary saccades into the same direction while overshooting primary saccades are followed by secondary saccades into both directions. This supports the notion that under- and overshooting imply different consequences for postsaccadic oculomotor processing. Results are discussed using a model, introduced by Rolfs, Kliegl, and Engbert (2008), to account for the generation of microsaccades. We argue that the dynamic interplay of target eccentricity and the magnitude of the saccadic under-/overshoot can be explained by a different strength of activation in the two hemispheres of the saccadic motor map in this model.
Die neuen Anforderungen an Schulleitungen im Zuge gesellschaftlicher, schulpolitischer und schulinterner Entwicklungen sind erheblich (Huber, 2008). Diese in der Literatur breit geteilte Einschätzung schlägt sich bislang nicht ausreichend in Forschungsaktivitäten zur Gesundheit schulischer Führungskräfte nieder – im Unterschied zu der ausgiebigen Forschung zur Lehrergesundheit, die für die Lehrer durchgängig eine kritische Gesundheitslage feststellt. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit erzielte dabei die Potsdamer Lehrerstudie (Schaarschmidt, 2004). Sie belegte unter anderem auch die Einflussmöglichkeiten der Schulleitung auf die Lehrergesundheit. Die vorliegende Arbeit verfolgt zwei Ziele: Erstens wird die aktuelle Schulleitungsforschung um empirische Daten zur gesundheitlichen Situation von n = 484 Schulleitungen aus Brandenburg und Baden-Württemberg ergänzt. Zweitens wird die Bedeutung der Schulleitung für die Lehrergesundheit näher untersucht, indem empirische Daten aus Führungsfeedbackverfahren mit n = 12 Schulleitungen und n = 332 Lehrern in Baden-Württemberg und Hessen herangezogen werden. Das diagnostische Verfahren AVEM (“Arbeitsbezogenes Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster“, Schaarschmidt & Fischer, 1996/2003) dient als methodische Grundlage. Es erhebt Selbsteinschätzungen zum arbeitsbezogenen Verhalten und Erleben und weist auf mögliche Risiken im Sinne psychischer oder psychosomatischer Gefährdung hin. Das Instrument erfasst mit 66 Items 11 Dimensionen (z.B. Distanzierungsfähigkeit). Auf diese Weise ist es möglich, die befragte Person einem von vier arbeitsbezogenen Verhaltens- und Erlebensmustern zuzuordnen: Muster G (Gesundheitsideal), Muster S (Schonungstendenz gegenüber beruflichen Anforderungen), Risikomuster A (überhöhtes Engagement), Risikomuster B (Resignation). Zudem werden Fragen zu schulischer Führung eingesetzt, die sich aus vorhandenen Fragebögen speisen. Mit Hilfe einer exploratorischen Faktorenanalyse können sechs Faktoren identifiziert werden: Persönliche emotionale Wertschätzung und Fürsorge, optimistische Zukunftsorientierung, konstruktives Management des Schulbetriebs, Förderung von Weiterbildung und pädagogischem Diskurs, Präsenz/Ansprechbarkeit und Partizipationsorientierung. Zu der ersten Fragestellung zeigt sich für die befragten Schulleitungen im Mittel ein gesundheitlich recht positives Bild – gerade im Kontrast zu den befragten Lehrern. Für die befragten Schulleitungen wird eine signifikant günstigere AVEM-Musterkonstellation festgestellt: Der Anteil des Musters G ist bei den Schulleitungen deutlich höher, der Anteil des Musters B deutlich niedriger und der Anteil des Musters A in etwa gleich groß. Die AVEM-Ergebnisse schlagen sich bei den befragten Schulleitungen in unmittelbaren Gesundheitsindikatoren nieder. Für bestimmte Untergruppen herrscht allerdings ein gesundheitlich vergleichsweise kritisches Bild vor, nämlich tendenziell für Schulleitungen in Brandenburg, für weibliche Schulleitungen und Schulleitungen an Grund- und Förderschulen. Eine hohe Unterrichtsverpflichtung ist mit einem größeren Anteil an Risikomustern verbunden. Ein hohes Maß an erlebter Autonomie – insbesondere im sozial-interaktiven Bereich mit den Lehrern (d.h. bei Auswahl, Einstellung und Beurteilung von Lehrern sowie bei der innerschulischen Arbeitsorganisation und kollegialen Zusammenarbeit) – geht dagegen mit jeweils günstigeren AVEM-Musterkonstellationen einher. Zur Beantwortung der zweiten Fragestellung wird eine methodisch anspruchsvolle Mehrebenenanalyse durchgeführt, die die hierarchische Anordnung der Daten angemessen behandelt. Für die wahrgenommene soziale Unterstützung durch die Schulleitung wird dabei eine negative Beziehung zur subjektiven Bedeutsamkeit der Arbeit und der Verausgabungsbereitschaft der befragten Lehrer gefunden. Hingegen ergibt sich ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen der erlebten Förderung von Weiterbildung und pädagogischem Diskurs und dem Erfolgserleben der befragten Lehrer. Ebenso hängt die wahrgenommene Führung durch die Schulleitung in ihrer Gesamtheit in positiver Weise mit der Lebenszufriedenheit der befragten Lehrer zusammen. Es sei betont, dass ausschließlich Effekte nachgewiesen werden, die auf die individuelle Ebene der Lehrer zurückgehen, d.h. es scheint – was den Zusammenhang zwischen erlebter Führung und Lehrergesundheit angeht – auf die subjektive Wahrnehmung des Führungsverhaltens der Schulleitung durch den/die jeweilige(n) Lehrer/in anzukommen. Eine erste theoretische Skizze zu wesentlichen Determinanten von Schulleitungsgesundheit wird vorgeschlagen. Empfehlungen für die Schulleitungspraxis umfassen die Reduzierung der Unterrichtsverpflichtung, die Erweiterung von Autonomie im sozial-interaktiven Bereich mit den Lehrern und die systematische Etablierung von Mitarbeitergesprächen zur Ausgestaltung individueller Führungsbeziehungen zwischen Schulleitungen und Lehrern.
Saccades move objects of interest into the center of the visual field for high-acuity visual analysis. White, Stritzke, and Gegenfurtner (Current Biology, 18, 124-128, 2008) have shown that saccadic latencies in the context of a structured background are much shorter than those with an unstructured background at equal levels of visibility. This effect has been explained by possible preactivation of the saccadic circuitry whenever a structured background acts as a mask for potential saccade targets. Here, we show that background textures modulate rates of microsaccades during visual fixation. First, after a display change, structured backgrounds induce a stronger decrease of microsaccade rates than do uniform backgrounds. Second, we demonstrate that the occurrence of a microsaccade in a critical time window can delay a subsequent saccadic response. Taken together, our findings suggest that microsaccades contribute to the saccadic facilitation effect, due to a modulation of microsaccade rates by properties of the background.
Repression and sensitization as situational modes of coping with anxiety were examined as predictors of trait measures of cognitive avoidance and vigilance. In this study, 303 undergraduates saw a violent film clip to elicit anxiety. Increases in skin conductance level (SCL) and state anxiety (STA) from baseline were measured to identify repressors (high SCL, low STA) and contrast them with sensitizers (low SCL, high STA) and genuinely low anxious individuals (low SCL, low STA). State anger was also recorded. Trait measures of vigilance and cognitive avoidance were collected 2 weeks earlier. Significant SCL x STA interactions indicated that repressors scored higher on cognitive avoidance and lower on vigilance compared to sensitizers and low anxious participants. Repressors were less likely than sensitizers to report gaze avoidance during the clip. The anger by SCL interaction was nonsignificant, suggesting that repressors and sensitizers differ specifically in the processing of anxiety rather than negative affect in general.
The present study examines whether the use of different frequency scales in questionnaires about physical activity influences respondents' own estimation of their activity, as well as subsequent measurements of health- und sport-related cognitions and evaluations. Using a randomized research design we recruited a sample of 118 participants. One group received a high frequency scale for assessing their exercise frequency with the response categories "never", "less often", "once a month", "once a week", or "most days." The other group answered with a medium frequency scale with the alternatives "never", "less often", " once every few months", "once a month", and " once a week or more often." As dependent variables all participants judged the subjective importance of physical activity and their health-related quality of life (WHO-QOL-bref). Results indicate the expected response errors, owing to the fact that using a high-frequency scale produces higher levels of self-reported physical activity (Cramer's V = .30). Corresponding to this the subjective importance of physical activity increased (d = .37) and the health-related quality of life was judged to be better (d = .36). Such artefacts might be eliminated by using standardized formulations such as "I exercise... times per week/month for... minutes."
Evidence from animal research has revealed that less maternal care results in disturbed emotionality in the offspring. In the present study, the long-term impact of maternal responsiveness and stimulation during early mother child interaction on depressive psychopathology was examined until adulthood. Data are from an epidemiological cohort study of the long-term outcome of early risk factors assessed at birth. At age 3 months, mothers and infants were videotaped during a nursing and playing situation. Maternal responsiveness and stimulation as well as infant responsiveness were evaluated by trained raters. At age 19 years, 314 participants (145 males, 169 females) were characterized on measures of depression through interview and questionnaire. In addition, measures of depression and anxiety were available from assessments in childhood. Results indicated that less maternal stimulation during early interaction was associated with a higher risk of depression in the offspring until the age of 19 years. In addition, children of less stimulating mothers showed more depressive symptoms at age 19 years and displayed more anxiety and depressive symptoms between the ages of 4.5 and 15 years. In contrast, maternal responsiveness was unrelated to children's outcome. In accordance with findings from animal research, the present study provides first longitudinal evidence in humans of a continuous and long-term influence of early maternal interaction behavior on the offspring's psychological adjustment until adulthood. The results suggest that the amount of maternally initiated contact behavior in a very early developmental stage may be crucial for children's mental health, regardless of child and maternal responsiveness.
Cognitive psychology is traditionally interested in the interaction of perception, cognition, and behavioral control. Investigating eye movements in reading constitutes a field of research in which the processes and interactions of these subsystems can be studied in a well-defined environment. Thereby, the following questions are pursued: How much information is visually perceived during a fixation, how is processing achieved and temporally coordinated from visual letter encoding to final sentence comprehension, and how do such processes reflect on behavior such as the control of the eyes’ movements during reading. Various theoretical models have been proposed to account for the specific eye-movement behavior in reading (for a review see Reichle, Rayner, & Pollatsek, 2003). Some models are based on the idea of shifting attention serially from one word to the next within the sentence whereas others propose distributed attention allocating processing resources to more than one word at a time. As attention is assumed to drive word recognition processes one major difference between these models is that word processing must either occur in strict serial order, or that word processing is achieved in parallel. In spite of this crucial difference in the time course of word processing, both model classes perform well on explaining many of the benchmark effects in reading. In fact, there seems to be not much empirical evidence that challenges the models to a point at which their basic assumptions could be falsified. One issue often perceived as being decisive in the debate on serial and parallel word processing is how not-yet-fixated words to the right of fixation affect eye movements. Specifically, evidence is discussed as to what spatial extent such parafoveal words are previewed and how this influences current and subsequent word processing. Four experiments investigated parafoveal processing close to the spatial limits of the perceptual span. The present work aims to go beyond mere existence proofs of previewing words at such spatial distances. Introducing a manipulation that dissociates the sources of long-range preview effects, benefits and costs of parafoveal processing can be investigated in a single analysis and the differing impact is tracked across a three-word target region. In addition, the same manipulation evaluates the role of oculomotor error as the cause of non-local distributed effects. In this respect, the results contribute to a better understanding of the time course of word processing inside the perceptual span and attention allocation during reading.
Past research indicates an association in adults and young people of emotional and contextual factors with a higher risk for the development of eating disorders or obesity. Few studies focus on problematic eating patterns in childhood, especially in association with parental feeding strategies. 482 mothers completed a questionnaire about eating behaviors and the weight status of their 1- to 10-year-old child as well as their own feeding strategies. A classification of the child's eating behavior (food responsiveness, emotional eating, external eating, eating time and meal structure) using hierarchical cluster analysis revealed a conspicuous eating pattern (10 %) showing above-average values in all eating behaviors. Controlling for weight and demographic variables mothers of children with conspicuous eating patterns were characterized by restrictive strategies and were less likely to encourage or facilitate their child to control his or her eating. Similar problematic eating patterns were also identified in early childhood. The association of maternal feeding strategies - beyond weight control issues - with conspicuous eating patterns in children might indicate a possibility of early prevention through parent training.
Objective: The delineation of developmental pathways to juvenile depressive symptoms is of major clinical interest because these are known to be predictive for adult mood disorders and for a range of other mental health problems. This study investigates the impact of child temperament and early maternal distress, both of which are known to influence children's emotional development, on preadolescent depression. Methods: In a prospective, longitudinal at-risk sample (163 boys, 178 girls), we assessed temperament at the age of 3 months and at 2 years, 4.5 years, and 8 years, respectively, and chronic maternal distress during infancy. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to investigate the prediction of depressive symptoms at the age of 11 years measured by the Child Depression Inventory. In addition, we controlled for psychosocial and obstetric perinatal risks and gender. Results: Psychosocial risks and self-control temperament made significant independent contributions to preadolescent depression, whereas fearful, difficult temperament and obstetric risks were unrelated to depressive outcome. Interestingly, a clear gender difference emerged with a significant prediction from maternal distress only in girls. Conclusions: Our data extend previous findings of a concurrent association between regulative temperament and juvenile depression to a predictive view. Furthermore, the results point toward gender-specific pathways to preadolescent depression and support earlier findings indicating that subclinical maternal distress may exert as detrimental effects on child development as clinical depression.
The link between pornography use, normative acceptance of sexual aggression, and the presence of risk factors of sexual aggression in sexual scripts for consensual sexual interactions was studied in a sample of 197 adolescents in Germany. Risk factors included sex after only a short acquaintanceship, alcohol and drug use in sexual interactions, and ambiguous communication of sexual intentions. In addition to a measure of overall pornography use, exposure to portrayals of consensual sex, coerced sex and degrading sex was measured. Almost all participants had seen pornografic material at least once, just under half had seen depictions of coerced sex. Significant correlations were found between all measures of pornography use and the presence of risk factors of sexual aggression in consensual sexual scripts. Violent pornography usage showed a positive correlation with the normative acceptance of sexual aggression that was partly accounted for by sexual scripts. The findings are discussed with regard to the significance of pornografic media contents in the process of adolescents' sexual socialization.