Aligning Perceptual Preference with Instructional Method in a Recreational Environment

Aligning instructional modality with students’ perceptual preference (PP) or learning style is trending in educational research. However, there is little data to support this claim when instruction is geared toward a recreational activity, such as fly casting. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of implementing matched or unmatched instructional methods with student PP. There was no difference in casting performance between groups matched with their learning preferences versus those who were not matched. The data support Hanson’s theory stating instruction should be dictated based on the content structure, not the learner’s PP. The researchers recommend a systematic, multifaceted approach to teaching novel motor skills such as fly casting. Further, this approach could be utilized for similar motions in sport and recreation. Subscribe to JOREL

Specificity and incremental predictive validity of implicit attitudes: studies of a race-based phenotype

Four studies involving 2552 White American participants were conducted to investigate bias based on the race-based phenotype of hair texture. Specifically, we probed the existence and magnitude of bias in favor of Eurocentric (straight) over Afrocentric (curly) hair and its specificity in predicting responses to a legal decision involving the phenotype. Study 1 revealed an implicit preference, measured by an Implicit Association Test (IAT), favoring Eurocentric over Afrocentric hair texture among White Americans. This effect was not reducible to a Black/White implicit race attitude nor to mere perceptual preference favoring straight over curly hair. In Study 2, the phenotype (hair) IAT significantly and uniquely predicted expressions of support in response to an actual legal case that involved discrimination on the basis of Afrocentric hair texture. Beyond replicating this result, Studies 3 and 4 (the latter preregistered) provided further, and even more stringent, evidence for incremental predictive validity: in both studies, the phenotype IAT was associated with support for a Black plaintiff above and beyond the effects of two parallel explicit scales and, additionally, a race attitude IAT. Overall, these studies support the idea that race bias may be uniquely detected by examining implicit attitudes elicited by group-based phenotypicality, such as hair texture. Moreover, the present results inform theoretical investigations of the correspondence principle in the context of implicit social cognition: they suggest that tailoring IATs to index specific aspects of an attitude object (e.g., by decomposition of phenotypes) can improve prediction of intergroup behavior.

Lexical stress assignment preferences in L2 German

Assigning stress to the appropriate syllable is consequential for being understood. Despite the importance, second language (L2) learners’ stress assignment is often incorrect, being affected by their first language (L1). Beyond the L1, learners’ lexical stress assignment may depend on analogy with other words in their lexicon. The current study investigates the respective roles of the L1 (English, French) and analogy in L2 German lexical stress assignment. Because English, like German, has variable stress assignment and French does not, participants included English- and French-speaking German L2 learners who assigned stress to German nonsense words in a perceptual preference and a production task. Results suggest a role of the L1, with English-speaking German L2 learners performing more like L1 German speakers. While French-speaking German L2 learners’ performance could not be predicted by other factors, L2 German proficiency and the ability to produce analogous words were predictive of English-speaking German L2 learners’ production performance.

Directional Bias for Vertical Integration of Motion Trajectories

Here we report a new ambiguous continuous motion display, in which two objects appear at the diagonally opposite corners of an imaginary square, move along the diagonal axis toward each other, and after meeting in the center, shift their trajectories to the other two diagonal corners. This display can be seen as two objects’ colliding and bouncing off each other, with two competing interpretations of trajectory configuration requiring either vertical or horizontal integration of trajectory segments. Despite the fact that both percepts are equally plausible, the current study revealed a perceptual preference toward a vertical integration interpretation. We compared this bias with the similar vertical bias in a bistable apparent motion quartet, which suggests that the directional anisotropy found here is quite a new, and distinct phenomenon in both its perceptual characteristics and underlying mechanism.

A Probe into the Path of the Moral Issues From the Perspective of Marxist Philosophy’s Practical Existence Theory

<em>In the present era of the rapid development of market-oriented economy, the strangeness between people, the division of production and the diversity of occupations, and the different thinking ways of individual lead everyone to stand in their own position. As a result, the western tragedy appears and the social moral problems are becoming more and more serious. Marx turns his philosophical attention to the way of human existence—practical activities and their historical development. This paper analyzes the current moral problems from the perspective of Marxist practical existentialism. The rational path of virtue is to regard people as a rational being and its acquirement mainly depends on the intellect to overcome the perceptual preference. The spiritual path of virtue regards human as a spiritual being and its acquisition is through dialectical deduction of spirit itself. The practical path of virtue is to emphasize human’s perceptual activity and understand and manage things through practical activities.</em>