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Assessing young children’s perceptions is commonly done one on one with an interviewer. An app enables several children to complete the scale at once. The objective was to describe an app to assess children’s perceptions of movement competence and then present consistency of child responses. The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence (PMSC) has fundamental movement skill (FMS; e.g., catch) and play items (e.g., cycling). The PMSC android app has the same items and images but children complete it independently with audio. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) assessed i) test-retest reliability using the PMSC app on 18 items in 42 children (M = 6.8 yrs) and ii) consistency between measures for 13 FMS items in 44 children (M = 8.5 yrs). Over time (M = 6.9 days, SD = 0.35) the full PMSC had good consistency (ICC = 0.79, 95% CI 0.64–0.88) and the FMS items had moderate consistency (ICC = 0.68, 95% CI 0.47–0.81). There was good agreement between the app and interview for FMS items (ICC = 0.86, 95% CI 0.76–0.92). Locomotor items were less consistent. The PMSC app can generally be recommended. Future research could investigate how different forms of digital assessment affect children’s perception.

The initial study of movement confidence as a construct attempted to answer the research questions of whether confidence is more than competence and whether the determinants of confidence vary in relation to the movement situation. The study was designed as a preliminary examination of these two concerns in terms of the three components-competence, potential for enjoying moving sensations, and potential for harm—which were proposed in the model for movement confidence. Factor and regression analyses of data from 352 college students indicated that movement confidence is more than competence, and the determinants of movement confidence seem to vary in relation to movement situations and possibly in relation to gender. The major contribution of perceived level of confidence generally is a personal feeling of competence. The precise contributions of additional modifiers cannot be specified at present.

Recognizing a class of movements as belonging to a “nominal” action category, such as walking, running, or throwing, is a fundamental human ability. Three experiments were undertaken to test the hypothesis that common (“prototypical”) features of moving displays could be learned by observation. Participants viewed moving stick-figure displays resembling forearm flexion movements in the saggital plane. Four displays (presentation displays) were first presented in which one or more movement dimensions were combined with 2 respective cues: direction (up, down), speed (fast, slow), and extent (long, short). Eight test displays were then shown, and the observer indicated whether each test display was like or unlike those previously seen. The results showed that without corrective feedback, a single cue (e.g., up or down) could be correctly recognized, on average, with the proportion correct between .66 and .87. When two cues were manipulated (e.g., up and slow), recognition accuracy remained high, ranging between .72 and .89. Three-cue displays were also easily identified. These results provide the first empirical demonstration of action-prototype learning for categories of human action and show how apparently complex kinematic patterns can be categorized in terms of common features or cues. It was also shown that probability of correct recognition of kinematic properties was reduced when the set of 4 presentation displays were more variable with respect to their shared kinematic property, such as speed or amplitude. Finally, while not conclusive, the results (from 2 of the 3 experiments) did suggest that similarity (or “likeness”) with respect to a common kinematic property (or properties) is more easily recognized than dissimilarity.

The two-fold purpose of this study was to analyze the time required by a fencer to initiate a defensive action in response to a direct attack, which involves identifying when the defending fencer detects the just-noticeable difference, and, secondly, to assess the effect that an attacker’s rapid armed hand movement (feint attack) has on the time required to initiate a defensive move. Twenty-four elite fencers and a fencing master were included in the study. Four adapted force plates were installed on a scaffold used as a fencing piste. A 3D video analysis system recorded the location of 2 markers installed on the fencing master’s shoulder and sword. The results confirm that the defending fencer has a mean movement time of 0.353 ± 0.028 s to perform the defensive action, which provides an advantage over the attacking fencer. The velocity of movement in the peripheral visual field has no influence on the time required by elite fencers to initiate a defensive action. This confirms the crucial role that response inhibition processes play when nonrelevant actions are perceived. Kinematic analysis of markers suggests that the eye movements of elite fencers are not the only source of information used while observing an attack.

Even though adaption of the Voodoo Floss Band is gaining momentum, evidence-based literature on its effectiveness remains sparse. The purpose of this quantitative observational design study was to investigate the effects of the Voodoo Floss Band on soft-tissue flexibility and perception of movement. A repeated-measures ANOVA with between-subjects factor demonstrated both groups significantly improved GH flexion range of motion from pretest to post-test but there was not a statistically significant difference between the groups. Perceptions of flexibility increased more for the Voodoo Floss Band group, demonstrating a psychological increase in GH flexion, but not a physical increase.

There is evidence that adolescence is a critical period in development, most likely involving important modifications of the body schema and of the sensorimotor representations. The present study addressed this issue, by investigating the differences between adolescents and adults regarding the integration of proprioceptive information at both perceptual and postural levels and the visual recognition of human movement. Proprioceptive integration was examined using muscle-tendon vibration that evoked either a postural response or an illusory sensation of movement. The ability to recognize human movement was investigated from a paradigm where the participants had to discern between human movements performed with and without gravity. The study produced three main findings. First, the adolescents had larger postural responses to tendon vibrations than the adults, with visual information enabling them to reduce this exaggerated postural reaction. Second, the adolescents had a greater illusory perception of movement compared with the adults. Third, the adolescents had the same perceptual ability as adults in the human movement perception task. In conclusion, we were able to highlight notable differences between adolescents and young adults, which confirms the late maturation of multisensory integration for postural control and the privileged visual contribution to postural control.