The influence of acute alcohol intoxication and hair visibility on delayed face recall

Many witnesses are intoxicated at crime scenes, yet little is known of their ability to accurately describe perpetrators to police. We therefore explored the impact of alcohol on delayed verbal face recall across two experiments. Participants were administered an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage prior to viewing either one or two unfamiliar female faces, which they described from memory the following day while in a sober state. Each to be-remembered model had long hair worn either loose (i.e., visible), or tied behind the head (i.e., concealed). Testing the hypothesis that alcohol narrows the focus of attention to the external (hairstyle) region of faces, we expected intoxicated participants to have poorer memory of internal face features (eyes, nose, mouth) than sober controls for stimulus faceswith visibly long hair. Results revealed poorer recall accuracy for internal face details following alcohol consumption (Exp. 2), but the effect was uninfluenced by hairstyle. Findings are therefore consistent with the more general view that alcohol is associated with a bias to the external (hairstyle) region of faces during face learning, irrespective of hair visibility

Content-based learning biases

Cognitive mechanisms which increase the likelihood that individuals will copy or adopt certain behaviours or mental representations based on the inherent characteristics (content) of those behaviours/representations, operating through processes of attention, memory, and/or transmissibility

Brief Mind-Body Interventions: Effects on Mood and State Mindfulness

Objectives: Two studies examined whether brief mind-body interventions could improve mood and influence state mindfulness. Exploratory analyses investigated state mindfulness and state self-compassion as potential mechanisms of action. Methods: Both studies randomly allocated participants to one of three conditions: Mindfulness, Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) or active control. Study 1 was conducted online (n = 57), and Study 2 was lab-based (n = 98). Each study was a single-session experiment with short intervention exercises (18-20 minutes). Results: Negative affect decreased after the intervention (Study 1: p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.24; Study 2: p = 0.01, ηp2 = 0.06). In Study 1 after recalling a painful or difficult situation, positive affect increased (p = 0.02, ηp2 = 0.09). In Study 2 where no mood manipulation occurred, a reduction in positive affect post intervention was found (p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.19). In both studies, only the mind-body interventions led to increases in state mindfulness (all p < 0.01). Increases in state mindfulness were related to increases in positive affect in both studies (r = 0.27 to 0.40, all p ≤ 0.01). Increases in state self-compassion were also related to increases in positive affect in Study 1 (r = 0.57, p < 0.001).Conclusions: In both studies changes in mood were not specific to the mind-body exercises; audiobook readings also had an effect. The improvements in state mindfulness and links to positive affect suggest state mindfulness may be a mechanism of action. Future research should interrogate these findings using theoretically based and adequately powered studies

Ecological Dynamics in Sport Coaching:An Essential Guide

Ecological Dynamics in Sport Coaching provides coaches and students with sport-specific guidance to coaching within the ecological dynamics framework, presenting guidance to support coaches in creating representative learning designs that will enhance skill acquisition and sport performance. Ecological Dynamics is a theoretical framework that attempts to understand how perceptual–motor skills are acquired and controlled within an environment of complex actions. This new textbook explores contemporary sport-specific research to identify the key perceptual information that is unique for each sport and combines findings with expert practitioner experience to provide guidance on how to coach using ecological dynamics.Organised in three sections, Ecological Dynamics in Sport Coaching first presents the principles of coaching with ecological dynamics. And then moves on to provide sport-specific guidance based in skill acquisition practice and performance research, to create representative learning environments.This new volume is key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, and coach practitioners in the fields of sport coaching, skill acquisition, physical education, physical activity, and movement science

Contextualizing the Upper Paleolithic of the Armenian Highlands: New data from Solak-1, central Armenia

As a potential corridor connecting Southwest Asia with western and northern Europe, the Armenian Highlands and southern Caucasus hold great potential for increasing our understanding of Upper Paleolithic behavioral and cultural variability. However, given the dearth of Upper Paleolithic sites, we lack the data necessary to answer basic questions regarding the timing and nature of the Upper Paleolithic in this region. Solak-1 is an open-air site located along the upper Hrazdan Valley (1635 m above sea level) in central Armenia. The site preserves a rich Upper Paleolithic lithic assemblage produced almost exclusively on obsidian and is just the fourth Upper Paleolithic sequence in Armenia. The goal of this study is to present geoarchaeological, chronometric, and technological analyses of the Solak-1 site to integrate the site into the regional Upper Paleolithic sequence. Solak-1 is composed of six lithostratigraphic units (LUs 1-6) comprising recently reworked (LUs 1-2), pedogenically modified (LUs 3-5), and primary (LU 6) loess. A single-grain postinfrared infrared stimulated luminescence date of 27.73 ± 3.63 ka was obtained from LU 4. This age is comparable to regional Middle Upper Paleolithic sites in Armenia and Georgia. Technotypological analyses indicate a lithic assemblage dominated by the production of bladelets and bladelet tools from formal and informal cores. Geochemical sourcing of the obsidian highlights a predominance of local raw material use, with rare transport of artifacts over 185 linear km. These results add an important new datapoint to the Upper Paleolithic record of the Armenian Highlands, offering additional insights into technotypological patterning within this period. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.