Preliminary evidence for relations between motivation and beliefs related to exercise dependence

Individuals engage in physical activity for a variety of reasons which are described by motivational determinants of behaviour. However, very little is known about the motivational antecedents of excessive exercise and exercise dependence. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between various motivating factors and specific beliefs characteristic for exercise dependence. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey in a sample of volunteer recreational athletes (31 males aged 19–23 years and 54 females aged 18–34 years). Participants completed three questionnaires: Estonian 2 × 2 Achievement Goals in Sport Questionnaire was used to measure tendency to emphasize mastery and performance goals; Modified Estonian Exercise Motivation Questionnaire-2 to measure specific exercise motives; and an original Exercise Belief Scale was designed to estimate behavioural and control beliefs characteristic for exercise dependence. Results indicated that motivational orientation was a significant predictor of beliefs related to exercise dependence. Specifically, multiple regression analysis showed that perceived importance of exercise was significantly predicted by mastery approach and performance approach goals. Withdrawal effects, a hallmark for exercise dependence, could be predicted by mastery approach goals and competitive motive. Low control beliefs indicative for exercise tolerance appeared to be related with performance approach goals and competition motive. However, mastery approach also significantly predicted intentional avoidance of overtraining. Results suggest that beliefs related to exercise dependence are strongly related to various motivational aspects. Further investigation is needed to develop psychological assessment instruments to differentiate between normal and healthy exercise motivation and markers of overtraining and exercise dependence potential

Motives and motivating leaders in aerobics classes: exercise motivation and instructors' leadership characteristics

The aim of this study was to investigate the motives of aerobics participants in relation to their perceived and preferred leadership behavior of aerobic instructors. Eighty seven aerobics participants (aged between 16–59 y) completed the cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Instruments assessed participantsʼ exercise motivation, and perceived and preferred leadership behaviour of their aerobic instructors.We found that in aerobics participants the appearance- and healthrelated dimensions of exercise motivation are higher ranked than flexibility and social motives. Although aerobics participants show relatively high levels of competitive and social motives compared with general population, the highest ranked incentive for them seems to be physical fitness. Aerobics participants perceive significantly less instructorsʼ democratic decision making, instruction, social support and positive feedback than they prefer, while they perceive significantly higher amount of autocratic decision making compared with their preference

Competition for feature selection:Action-related and stimulus-driven competitive biases in visual search

De visuele informatie die via onze ogen binnenkomt is teveel om allemaal door onze hersenen verwerkt te worden. Daarom moeten onze hersenen voortdurend keuzes maken over wat wel en wat niet in detail verwerkt wordt. Het proces van keuzes maken wordt selectieve aandacht genoemd. Deze dissertatie heeft tot doel om de relaties aan te tonen tussen doelbewuste en perceptuele effecten op de manier waarop mensen visueel zoeken naar objecten in hun omgeving. Allereerst onderzochten we hoe intenties om een visueel object te grijpen invloed uitoefent op de visuele selectie van de, voor het gedrag relevantere visuele kenmerk (de ruimtelijke oriëntatie van een object) en een neutralere eigenschap (de kleur van een object). Vervolgens hebben we voorzichtig de perceptuele gelijkenis tussen de kleuren en oriëntaties van objecten gemanipuleerd en onderzocht of ze even relevant zijn voor de visuele selectie. De resultaten leverden een sterk bewijs voor een "strijd om de aandacht" tussen de kleur- en oriëntatiekenmerken. Drie studies doen vermoeden dat visuele selectie op basis van de perceptuele informatie over de kleuren en oriëntaties van objecten – standaard – neigt naar kleur. Echter, twee van die studies ondersteunen ook de cruciale rol van een actiegerelateerd effect op de visuele selectie. De resultaten wijzen erop dat de intentie van een handbeweging van invloed is op de neiging om bij visuele selectie het, voor het gedrag relevantere kenmerk (bijv. oriëntatie) of het perceptueel meer in het oog springende kenmerk (kleur) de doorslag te laten geven

Objectively measured school-based physical activity interventions for 6–12-year-old children in 2009–2014: a systematic review

Physical inactivity of children and youth is a growing problem all over the world. Th e promotion of physical activity (PA) is an essential strategy to improve the physical and mental health of students. The school setting is a good environment for population-based PA interventions. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether school-based PA interventions have influence on the PA level of children aged 6- to 12 years and to describe the main components of PA interventions. A literature selection was carried out including original articles describing school-based PA interventions for 6- to 12 years old children, objectively measured by accelerometers or pedometers, published 2009–2014. Seventeen relevant trials of sufficient quality performed in 10 different countries were identified. The analyses of articles revealed that active recess was the most wide-spread component of PA interventions, followed by activity breaks in lessons and PE lessons. Increase of PA was achieved in 16 analyzed studies, but multicomponent interventions and interventions, containing mandatory elements, seemed to be most effective

Preview of partial stimulus information in search prioritizes features and conjunctions, not locations

Contains fulltext : 216040.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Visual search often requires combining information on distinct visual features such as color and orientation, but how the visual system does this is not fully understood. To better understand this, we showed observers a brief preview of part of a search stimulus - either its color or orientation - before they performed a conjunction search task. Our experimental questions were (1) whether observers would use such previews to prioritize either potential target locations or features, and (2) which neural mechanisms might underlie the observed effects. In two experiments, participants searched for a prespecified target in a display consisting of bar elements, each combining one of two possible colors and one of two possible orientations. Participants responded by making an eye movement to the selected bar. In our first experiment, we found that a preview consisting of colored bars with identical orientation improved saccadic target selection performance, while a preview of oriented gray bars substantially decreased performance. In a follow-up experiment, we found that previews consisting of discs of the same color as the bars (and thus without orientation information) hardly affected performance. Thus, performance improved only when the preview combined color and (noninformative) orientation information. Previews apparently result in a prioritization of features and conjunctions rather than of spatial locations (in the latter case, all previews should have had similar effects). Our results thus also indicate that search for, and prioritization of, combinations involve conjunctively tuned neural mechanisms. These probably reside at the level of the primary visual cortex.13 p

features

colour search renders other objec

Eesti õpilaste liikumisaktiivsus koolipäeva jooksul

Taust ja eesmärgid. Aktiivne liikumine peaks kuuluma kõigi laste ja noorte igapäevaellu, kuna see toetab mitmekülgselt nende arengut ja heaolu. Uuringu eesmärk oli kirjeldada I ja II kooliastme õpilaste liikumisaktiivsuse (LA) taset ja kehaliselt mitteaktiivse aja (KMA) osakaalu koolipäeva eri osades.Metoodika. LA taseme selgitamiseks viidi detsembrist 2014 kuni maini 2015 läbi mõõtmised I ja II kooliastme õpilaste hulgas üle-eestilise juhuvalimi põhjal valitud 13 koolis. Õpilased (n = 636) kandsid aktseleromeetrit ja täitsid liikumispäevikut seitsmel järjestikusel päeval.Tulemused. I kooliastmes liikus LA soovituste kohaselt 29,3% ja II kooliastmes 17,5% (p = 0,003) õpilastest ning KMA moodustas kogu ärkveloleku ajast vastavalt 54,8% ja 62,7% (p < 0,001). Koolis viibitud ajast moodustas mõõdukas kuni tugev liikumisaktiivsus (MTLA) ligikaudu veerandi kogu päeva MTLAst (I kooliaste 23,6%; II kooliaste 28,5%). Kehalise kasvatuse tunnist 28,3% moodustas MTLA ning 29,5% oli KMA.Järeldused. Laste aktiivse liikumise osa koolipäeva jooksul moodustab olulise osa kogu päeva liikumisaktiivsusest, kuid siiski on õpilaste üldine LA tase madal. Seetõttu on vaja planeerida ja ellu viia tõenduspõhiseid sekkumisi, mis toetaks õpilaste liikumisaktiivsust ning vähendaks KMAd koolipäeva eri osades.Eesti Arst 2016; 95(11):716–72