Search

In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of visual realism on soccer players' memorization of soccer tactics according to their level of expertise and visuospatial abilities. We divided 48 volunteers into novice and expert soccer players and had them first perform a multitask visuospatial abilities (VSA) test and then undergo training with three dynamic soccer scenes, each presented with varied levels of realism (schematic, moderately realistic, and highly realistic). We then tested players' memorization and reproduction of the soccer scenes and measured their visual processing with eye-tracking glasses to identify their cognitive processes during memorization. We found that reducing visual realism improved visual processing and memorization when compared to higher realism (p <.001). Second, both higher (vs. lower) player expertise and higher (vs. lower) VSA influenced visual processing and enhanced memorization efficiency (p <.001). Third, there were significant interaction effects between visual realism, player expertise, and player VSA (p <.001) such that players with high VSA benefited more from reduced (vs. accentuated) visual realism than did players with low VSA. Thus, increasing visual realism can hinder tactical learning effectiveness, especially for learners who lack domain expertise and visuospatial abilities. Practically speaking, coaches and educators might improve their communications by tailoring tactical instructions to learners' cognitive skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The experience of menopause can vary strongly from one society to another: frequency of hot flushes, other somatic and psychological symptoms, and changes in family and social relations. Several studies have shown that country of residence, country of birth, ethnicity, and social class all play roles in these variations. But few comparative anthropological studies have analysed the social processes that construct the experience of menopause or considered menopausal women''s social and financial autonomy. To study the impact of the social status accorded to menopausal women and their social resources, during 2007 and 2008 we conducted a series of 75 in-depth interviews with women in different sociocultural settings: Tunisian women in Tunisia, Tunisian women in France, and French women in France, all aged from 45 to 70 years. Our methodological approach to the data included content analysis, typology development and socio-demographic analysis. Quite substantial differences appeared, as a function of social class and cultural environment. We identified three principal experiences of menopause. Tunisian working class women, in Tunisia and France, experience menopause with intense symptoms and strong feelings of social degradation. Among Tunisian middle-class women in both countries, menopause was most often accompanied by a severe decline in aesthetic and social value but few symptoms. For most of the French women, menopause involved few symptoms and little change in their social value. The distribution of types of experiences according to social but not geographic or national factors indicates that, in the populations studied here, the differences in symptoms are not biologically determined. Different experiences of menopause are linked to social class and to the degree of male domination. A given level of independence and emancipation allows women an identity beyond their reproductive function and a status unimpaired by menopause. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]