PRECOOLING AND RUNNING ECONOMY

Precooling, or a reduction in core temperature (Tc) has been demonstrated to be a potent enhancer of endurance running performance, however there is no known mechanism for this improvement. By holding the exercise workload constant, changes in variables such as running economy (RE), heart rate, and ventilation (VE) can be determined as a result of precooling. Improved running economy, or a reduced oxygen cost of a specific workload, is linked to improved exercise performance. Purpose: To determine the changes in flexibility, RE, heart rate, VE, and Tc during running at a constant workload following cool water immersion and to determine any sex-specific responses. Methods: Fourteen well-trained runners (8 males and 6 females) completed four treadmill runs at a sex-specific velocity (8.0 mph for females and 8.6 mph for males). The first two runs served as accommodation trials. The third and fourth runs were preceded by either cool water immersion (24.8oC) for 40 minutes or quiet sitting. Oxygen consumption, heart rate, Tc, VE, and flexibility were measured during both experimental trials. Results: Running economy did not change as a result of the precooling treatment, whereas Tc and heart rate were reduced by 0.4oC and 5 beats per minute, respectively. Minute ventilation was reduced in the female subjects only (1.4 liters/min). Sex differences were apparent in Tc, heart rate, VE, and flexibility response. Conclusion: While the precooling procedure was effective in reducing Tc and heart rate, RE did not change. Thus, improvements in RE cannot explain the dramatic enhancements of endurance running performance that often occur post-cooling. Differences between male and female subjects in response to precooling were identified, most notably in VE

Later Life Moves and Movers in Germany: An Expanded Typology

"In times of ageing baby boomer cohorts and increasing regional disparities, residential choice in later life is important regarding family relations and the provision of social services. In this study, a new typology of later life moves is developed based on observed patterns and characteristics of residential changes. For this purpose, the German Socio-Economic Panel data has been linked to uniquely detailed neighbourhood information to study how aspects of both later life movers and moves are structured. The results suggest four types of moves, namely: residential improvement, family, residential adaptation and care moves. The typology expands rigid classifications based on age, health status or distance moved, and highlights intergenerational family ties, housing concerns and fragmented forms of partnership as key aspects. Family moves to one’s children are associated with the existence of grandchildren, showing that elderly people take on roles as both care-takers and care-providers. The residential consequences of being widowed or divorced are socially stratified and can lead to residential and economic instability." (author's abstract

Is Cooperative Memory Special? The Role of Costly Errors, Context, and Social Network Size When Remembering Cooperative Actions

Theoretical studies of cooperative behavior have focused on decision strategies, such as tit-for-tat, that depend on remembering a partner’s last choices. Yet, an empirical study by Stevens et al. (2011) demonstrated that human memory may not meet the requirements that needed to use these strategies. When asked to recall the previous behavior of simulated partners in a cooperative memory task, participants performed poorly, making errors in 10–24% of the trials. However, we do not know the extent to which this task taps specialized cognition for cooperation. It may be possible to engage participants in more cooperative, strategic thinking, which may improve memory. On the other hand, compared with other situations, a cooperative context may already engage improved memory via cheater detection mechanisms. This study investigated the specificity of memory in cooperative contexts by varying (1) the costs of errors in memory by making forgetting defection more costly and (2) whether the recall situation is framed as a cooperative or neutral context. Also, we investigated whether variation in participants’ social network size could account for individual differences observed in memory accuracy. We found that neither including differential costs for misremembering defection nor removing the cooperative context influenced memory accuracy for cooperation. Combined, these results suggest that memory accuracy is robust to differences in the cooperative context: Adding more strategic components does not help accuracy, and removing cooperative components does not hurt accuracy. Social network size, however, did correlate with memory accuracy: People with larger networks remembered the events better. These findings suggest that cooperative memory does not seem to be special compared with other forms of memory, which aligns with previous work demonstrating the domain generality of memory. However, the demands of interacting in a large social network may require excellent memory. Thus, modeling the evolution of cooperation requires an understanding of both the social environment in which agents interact and the cognitive capabilities of these agents

The effects of captioning videos used for foreign language listening activities

This study investigated the effects of captioning during video-based listening activities. Second- and fourth-year learners of Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, and Russian watched three short videos with and without captioning in randomized order. Spanish learners had two additional groups: one watched the videos twice with no captioning, and another watched them twice with captioning. After the second showing of the video, learners took comprehension and vocabulary tests based on the video. Twenty-six learners participated in interviews following the actual experiment. They were asked about their general reactions to the videos (captioned and noncaptioned). Results from t-tests and two-way ANOVAs indicated that captioning was more effective than no captioning. Captioning during the first showing of the videos was more effective for performance on aural vocabulary tests. For Spanish and Russian, captioning first was generally more effective than captioning second; while for Arabic and Chinese, there was a trend toward captioning second being more effective. The interview data revealed that learners used captions to increase their attention, improve processing, reinforce previous knowledge, and analyze language. Learners also reported using captions as a crutch

Serving the Less-Commonly-Trained Teacher: Perspectives from Arabic Instructors

As proficient speakers of less-commonly-taught languages seek to meet the demand for qualified instructors, they face a range of personal and professional challenges. In an effort to understand the perspectives of these instructors and their particular educational experiences and needs, we conducted a phenomenological case study of two aspiring Arabic teachers. Specifically, we sought insights into their lived experiences, their motivations for pursuing a graduate degree, their attempts to connect coursework with pedagogical practices, and their needs in terms of professional development. Our findings illuminate the intersecting objectives these instructors must achieve. They need to position themselves as qualified candidates for the available positions as instructors, but they also need to reconcile a number of different roles as they develop their teacher identities and connect their backgrounds to ambitions for students’ growth. As teacher educators, we find that we need to facilitate career placement as well as the negotiation of these roles

How captions help people learn languages: A working-memory, eye-tracking study

Captions provide a useful aid to language learners for comprehending videos and learning new vocabulary, aligning with theories of multimedia learning. Multimedia learning predicts that a learner’s working memory (WM) influences the usefulness of captions. In this study, we present two eye-tracking experiments investigating the role of WM in captioned video viewing behavior and comprehension. In Experiment 1, Spanish-as-a-foreign-language learners differed in caption use according to their level of comprehension and to a lesser extent, their WM capacities. WM did not impact comprehension. In Experiment 2, English-as-a-second-language learners differed in comprehension according to their WM capacities. Those with high comprehension and high WM used captions less on a second viewing. These findings highlight the effects of potential individual differences and have implications for the integration of multimedia with captions in instructed language learning. We discuss how captions may help neutralize some of working memory’s limiting effects on learning