Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

Key sources when formulating competitive advantages for hotel chains

Th is paper's purpose was to identify the key sources when formulating competitive advantages of hotel chains. Th e research assessed the fi nancial activities performance included in annual hospitality industry reports and on their offi cial websites; questioning of loyal and potential customers; the fi ve-point Likert scale and the Pearson correlation coeffi cient were applied to understand the possible consumer reaction to a certain competitive advantage or its absence. Th e paper confi rms the eff ectiveness of key sources used by management to win and retain competitive advantages: despite strong dependence on the economic cycle phase etc., after the devastating crisis of 2007, 2008, but also to achieve sustainable growth. All the networks examined over the last decade have expanded their presence in international markets, diversifi ed the portfolio of brands, increased the number of jobs and profi ts. It was also proved that the opinion of the fi nal consumer is still not suffi ciently taken into account in the assessment of the Pearson correlation coeffi cient (the latter allowed the authors to propose their own defi nition of the competitive advantage in the industry). Th e paper attempts for the fi rst time to consider the competitive advantages of hotel chains from the point of view not only of theorists and business practitioners, but also with the view of the opinion of the services consumer; there were identifi ed the discrepancies, which consideration would allow to increase the level of guest satisfaction and, accordingly, the effi ciency of the hotel business. In future papers, the authors plan to verify the existence of a correlation between the degree of guest loyalty to a particular hotel network and the main fi nancial results of its activities

Cognitive apprenticeship : teaching the craft of reading, writing, and mathtematics

Includes bibliographical references (p. 25-27)This research was supported by the National Institute of Education under Contract no. US-NIE-C-400-81-0030 and the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-85-C-002

An historical analysis of women’s emergence into intercollegiate athletic leadership: Eastern Michigan University, a case study

The implementation of Title IX has increased women’s participation rates in intercollegiate athletics tenfold, yet women’s representation in athletic leadership remains marginal compared to men. As such, the purpose of this study was to understand the social construction of gender as it relates to intercollegiate athletic leadership at Eastern Michigan University. The study explored the history of sporting activities as a mechanism to shape and perpetuate masculine and feminine culture. These values (i.e, competitiveness and cooperativeness) were institutionalized in higher education as sex-segregated physical education and athletic functions. This historical case study applied organizational and institutional theory analyzing the institutional, task, and cultural environments of men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletics. Men and women managed distinct athletic production functions reassured by the greater cultural environment and legitimized by regulatory bodies in the institutional environment. Changes imposed from Title IX in the institutional environment were met with opposition from the cultural environment. The task environment, however, supported the male model of intercollegiate athletics and absorbed women’s athletics as mandated by Title IX. Therefore, the majority of women athletic leaders remained in alignment with their positions as congruent to the dominant cultural environment and thus created a vacuum of coaches and administrators who once were occupying 90% of women athletic leadership. The task environment, which supported a technical core of producing competitive games, filled coaching appointments for the women’s program. Today, the cultural environment accepts participation of women in sports, yet women as intercollegiate athletic leaders still confront resistance from the cultural environment. This research provides a new perspective to women in sport while affirming the power of culture on our athletic institutions

The Boston Girls Sports & Physical Activity Project: Final Report to the Barr Foundation

The main goal of the three-year Boston Girls' Sports & Physical Activity Project (BGSPAP) was to create an integrated and sustainable network of community-based programs that use sports and physical activity to favorably influence the physical, psychological, and social development of urban girls. The BGSPAP aimed to provide economically disadvantaged urban girls with opportunities to participate in sports and physical activity. The BGSPAP also aspired to upgrade sports and physical activity programming for girls in order to overcome gender biases built into the Boston schools and community programs. The number and quality of sports and exercise programs for Boston girls were not at par with those of Boston boys

United States Elite Youth Tennis Athletes’ Use of Psychological Strategies in Competition

Young athletes are routinely faced with stressors and competitive structures that collegiate and adult athletes face. Psychological skills training (PST) can provide young athletes with strategies and skills to cope with these stressors and ultimately influence sport performance (Vealey, 2007). To date, the only study exploring in-competition experiences of young athletes was with participants between 16 and 18 years of age (Van Raalte, Brewer, Rivera, & Petitpas, 1994). The current study is the first investigation on the in-competition experiences of children and adolescents in sport. Twelve elite young tennis athletes (M[subscript]age = 11.83) who trained within a Player Development program in the Northeastern United States and had been exposed to a PST program participated in this study. Match observations and post-match interviews were used to capture athletes’ match experience and in-competition psychological strategy use. As a result of thematic content analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006), eight themes and 19 subthemes emerged. These eight themes included (a) pre-match feelings, (b) pre-match preparation, (c) competition was used to practice skills and strategies, (d) in-match feelings, (e), in-match use of and rationale for psychological strategies, (f) athletes’ thoughts and behaviors during changeovers, (g) frequency of psychological strategy use, and (h) psychological strategy learning process. Findings support for the notion that early adolescent athletes are capable of understanding their thoughts, focus, and feelings during competitions and are able to use psychological strategies to regulate their emotions and positively influence psychological and physical performance outcomes. In addition, the results of this study provide compelling evidence for the effectiveness of the PST program

An Exploratory Study Into the Construction of \u27Self\u27 in College-Aged Female Athletes

With the passage of Title IX legislation women have gradually integrated a space that had been an exclusively male domain, simultaneously upsetting and renegotiating the traditional social arrangements found within it (Lipsyte, 1979; Adams, Schmitke, and Franklin, 2005). This integration is an ongoing process, impeded or smoothed by the cultural ideologies of the historical moment. Rather than being simply an athlete, the modifier of ‘female’ often carries with it expectations of behavior, appearance, and values that may be in conflict with those same expectations of ‘athlete.’ Thus, while social norms and attitudes as well as legal mandates may now clearly permit and facilitate female athletes’ entrance into that historically male space, one can still question the process through which young women reconcile potentially contradictory identities. This thesis reports on a study of thirteen college-aged female athletes at two liberal arts colleges, that sought to understand the various identities they negotiate in settings such as on the field, in the classroom, and in the dorm. Using a poststructuralist framework for discourse analysis, this study explored the self-positions that subjects adopted and the conflicting discourses they utilized to reveal the multiple subjectivities the women take up in order to make sense of themselves and their lives

Innovation and Strategic Renewal in Mature Markets: A Study of the Tennis Racket Industry

This paper presents a study of successive new product introductions in the mature tennis racket industry. The inquiry examines novel design\u27s important role in strategic renewal, under the assumption that innovation includes not only the development, production, and launch of new products, but also communication between firms and market. We explore this industry\u27s transformation through the strategic actions of innovative firms and subsequent competitive contagion. A tennis racket innovation triggers competitors\u27 imitative reactions and sways the market toward a new de facto standard when the new product launch includes marketing such as product endorsement by high-profile professional players and advertising. Our results indicate that innovators should actively manage various industry participants as an integral part of their strategic renewal efforts, especially when facing rivalry with “me-too” peers. We suggest the interface between firms and consumers as a next focus for research on strategic renewal

Essays in Behavioral Economics

This dissertation is on topics in behavioral economics. It contains two chapters that are methodologically and topically distinct. The first chapter is entitled “Quitting: The Downside of Great Expectations in Competitions.” This research examines ranked professional athletes who compare themselves with their opponents. Athletes with better rankings than their competitors are called “favorites” and are expected to win. Athletes with worse rankings than their competitors are called “underdogs” and are expected to lose. Favorites enjoy many advantages over other competitors, but this chapter demonstrates that favorites are also more likely to quit in competition than underdogs. This is particularly true when competitors face adversity. When favorites begin to lose, they may attempt to save face by quitting, and thereby manage the impressions that others form of them. This chapter reports on an analysis of 328,425 men’s professional tennis matches and demonstrates that favorites are discontinuously more likely to quit mid-match than underdogs. It also contains results from surveys and interviews of athletes that support an impression management account for the observed quitting pattern. The second chapter in this dissertation is entitled “The Role of Incentive Salience in Habit Formation.” This research consists of analysis of data from a behavioral intervention related to exercise. In this intervention, pedometer wearers received incentives for every step they took over the course of a two week period. Users were randomly assigned to a “salient” condition, in which incentives were announced and explained in repeated emails, and a “non-salient” condition, in which information about incentives could be easily accessed, but was not sent to users via email. The purpose of the experiment was to compare the average daily steps in the “salient” and the “non-salient” conditions after the intervention period concluded to determine if longer-lasting post-intervention walking habits were induced when enhanced incentives were highlighted. Results indicate that the salience manipulation was successful and led to greater daily steps during the intervention, and to habits that persisted after the end of the intervention. Together, the chapters in this dissertation contribute to the substantial and growing literature on individual decision making