Perceptual and Motor Skills

Our purpose with this study was to analyze trail runners' psychological variables of mental toughness (MT) and resilience, and their associations with runners' performances within a quantitative cross-sectional study. In total, we analyzed data from 307 Portuguese trail runners (60 female, 247 male), aged between 20 to 66 years ( M age = 41.98; SD = 7.74). The results showed that the measurement model, including the factors of MT, resilience, and performance variables, exhibited an adequate fit to the data: χ 2 = 150...

The development of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has gained importance in the context of goals to spur a new generation of people intent upon improving human health. Physical education (PE) is a suitable curriculum subject in which to train EI. Therefore, our aim in this review is to summarize existing literature pertaining to EI within PE, while seeking particular guidance on how to best teach EI. We systematically reviewed PubMed, ERIC, Education Database, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, Cochrane, and FECYT (i.e., Web of Sciences, CCC, DIIDW, KJD, MEDLINE, RSCI, and SCIELO) databases up to January 24, 2022...

Prior research has suggested relevance to anthropometric variance of youth athletes at various stages of their maturation, and prior studies of youth players' soccer skills have failed to consider their interdependent interactions during play. Accordingly, to address both of these separate research omissions, we aimed in this study to analyze the relationships between young (U-13 and U-15 groups) soccer players' bone age and body size indicators and centrality measures of their pass interactions during small sided games...

While previous studies found that origami, when used for cognitive training and education, can improve spatial ability, the underlying mechanisms of this change, presumably associated with the origami folding process, remain unclear. In the present study, we focused on origami imagery in which participants imagined the process of folding paper to create a work of art; and we examined the cognitive factors involved in the imagery process and their association with mental transformations and the extent to which visual imagery was vivid...

Cerebral palsy (CP) involves trunk impairment, leading to decreased postural control that is an important contributor to problems maintaining daily activities without undue fatigue. Our aim in this research was to determine the effects of trunk impairment on fatigue and balance in children with hemiplegic CP. We included 65 ambulatory children with CP in this cross-sectional study, and we grouped them into those with greater trunk impairment (Group 1, n = 33) and lesser trunk impairment (Group 2, n = 32) according to their scores on the Trunk Imparment Scale (TIS)...

In this study we examined changes in a psychological skill set, defined as crucial for the growth of talented athletes, through repeated assessments of the six-factor Psychological Characteristics of Development Excellence Questionnaire (PCDEQ). In a first phase of this study, we built and evaluated a French adaptation of the PCDEQ: the PCDEQ-SV (18 items). After confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha revealed that scales for its six factors ranged from very good to just below minimally acceptable as a model fit...

Altitude hypoxia can impair sensory and cognitive functions, from causing slowed responses to sensory hallucinations. In a field study, we tested 12 expeditioners at varied altitudes (low: 1696 m; high: 4556 m) with a simple auditory detection task and a dichotic listening paradigm in which a voice was presented, lateralized, within a binaural white noise stream. Slower reaction times and a reduced right ear advantage might be expected at high (vs. low) altitude, due to hypoxia. The participants' performances on both tasks did not differ between conditions, revealing that these functions are resistant to short-term hypoxia in young healthy adults...

While the ability to coordinate movements temporally with rhythmic auditory stimuli is universal, previous investigators showed that accurate rhythm reproduction depends on temporal complexity. To date, the effect of multiple pitches on the timing of rhythmic movements has been assumed. Exploring a possible sustained entrainment effect of auditory stimuli on sequential movement might further elucidate the role of temporal complexity and its interaction with multiple pitch engagement. Thus, we investigated the sustained effect of auditory entrainment and the interaction between temporal complexity and pitch on predefined sequential tapping with tapping sequences predefined before a synchronization-timekeeping task...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

We investigated recent trends in relative age effect (RAE) findings of top-level female soccer players in Japan, using data from the 2016 to 2020 seasons. We conducted two main analyses: (a) An examination of RAE for all registered players in the Japan Women's Soccer League (Nadeshiko League) from 2016 to 2020; and (b) an examination of RAE of newly registered players in the league from 2017 to 2020. In the first analysis, we found a significant difference between the number of players born in Q1 (April-June) versus Q4 (January-March), with the number of players born in Q1 greater and with the ratio between these groups ranging from 1...

Our purpose in this study was to analyze perceptual and cardiovascular responses in low-load resistance training (RT) sessions associated with a fixed non-elastic band compressed to the proximal region of the arms (p-BFR) versus a pneumatic cuff inflated to a pressure of 150 mmHg (t-BFR). Participants (16 healthy trained men) were randomly assigned to two conditions of low-load RT (20% one repetition maximum [1RM]) with BFR (p-BFR or t-BFR). In both conditions, the participants performed five exercises (4 sets/30-15-15-15) for the upper-limbs, but in one of the conditions, the exercises were performed with a p-BFR induced by a non-elastic band, while in the other, the exercises were performed with a t-BFR using a device with similar width...

In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of executive functions (EF) on motor adaptation. We compared the motor performance of adults with and without EF deficits. Those with EF deficits ( n = 21) were individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) under medical treatment, and those without EF deficits ( n = 21) comprised a control group (CG) of participants who were also without neurological or psychiatric diagnoses. Both groups performed a complex coincident timing motor task and various computerized neuropsychological tests for assessing EF...

We examined the construct validity and reliability of the previously developed Psychological and Social modules of the Portuguese Physical Literacy Assessment Questionnaire (PPLA-Q) using Mokken Scale Analysis in a sample of 508 Portuguese adolescents in public schools in Lisbon. We used a retest subsample ( n = 73) to calculate the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. Eight PPLA-Q scales can be interpreted as moderate-to-strong Mokken scales (H = .47-.66) with good total-score reliability (ρ = .83-.94), and moderate-to-excellent test-retest reliability (ICC95%CI = ...

Affective responses have been considered key determinants for exercise adherence, but research on affective responses to stretching activities is scarce. Given the role of these responses in exercise adherence, our aim in this review was to explore (a) the utility and feasibility of core affect in stretching-related activities as measured by the Feeling Scale (FS) and/or the Felt Arousal Scale (FAS); (b) the timing of administering these scales; and (c) the scales' applicability and interpretability in this context...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Our main aim in this study was to investigate cognitive functioning in young gymnasts. The study group consisted of 86 children, aged 10-12 years: (a) a criterion group of 41 juvenile athletes ( M age = 11.23; SD age = 0.93) who trained six times per week; and (b) a comparison group of 45 children ( M age = 11.11; SD age = 0.61) who were not involved competitively in sports but who were mostly quite physically active. We measured attention, memory processes, and bioelectrical brain activity in the central region (Cz; where there are connections to motor control, movement, and sensation)...

The 6-Minute Step Test (6-MST) is a simple, inexpensive field test that is increasingly used to evaluate cardiorespiratory fitness. Whether sufficient performance is revealed by this test and the effect on it of motivational factors such as music is unknown. In this cross-sectional, randomized, and crossover research design, we aimed to analyze 6-MST performance and test outcomes in different music-related auditory conditions of non-musical/non-rhythmic [NM/NR], musical/non-rhythmic [M/NR], and musical/rhythmic [M/R])...

Motor competence (MC) has been extensively examined in children and adolescents, but has not been studied among adults nor across the lifespan. The Test of Motor Competence (TMC) assesses MC in people aged 5-85 years. Among Iranians, aged 5-85 years, we aimed to determine the construct validity and reliability of the TMC and to examine associations between TMC test items and the participants' age, sex, and body mass index (BMI). We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate the TMC's factorial structure by age group and for the whole sample...

The COVID-19 pandemic forced governments to implement measures that disrupted the daily routines of many families worldwide. We studied how the COVID-19 lockdown affected children's routines in Portugal (PT), Brazil (BR), and Italy (IT) to determine if children's age and country impacted their physical activity (PA) and sedentary time. We launched an anonymous online survey to assess how 3-12 years old children adjusted their daily routines to this situation. Parents reported the times each child was engaged in different activities throughout the day, and we used these data to calculate separately overall sedentary and physical activity time...

High scores on Harm Avoidance (HA) on Cloniger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) have been identified as a risk factor for depression. Group cognitive-behavioral therapy (GCBT) has been found effective in preventing depression and improving depressive symptoms among university students. However, no randomized controlled trials of GCBT have been conducted with university students with high HA. Although we initiated a randomized controlled trial in this study, some participants submitted incomplete questionnaires at baseline interfering with assured randomization; therefore, we report this study as a non-randomized controlled trial...