Browsing by Subject "Soccer"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
Diversity and Group Performance: Evidence from the World's Top Soccer League
(2014) Ingersoll, Keith; Malesky, Edmund J; Saiegh, Sebastian M
Open Access
Offside
(2011-05-02) Arnstein, Benjamin
For nearly a century football has been emblematic of the United States and its society. This will be compared against soccer, which is far and away the most popular and important sport in Europe. The United States economy is theoretically a free-market system. In contrast, Europe’s economic system is rooted in regulated and interventionist principles. Interestingly, the economic policies of soccer and football as industries do not follow the economic philosophies predominant in their respective home regions; in many ways they actually operate directly to the contrary. In both soccer and football the inflow and outflow of capital are derived primarily from the same three sources: media and televisions rights, merchandising and sponsorship rights, and player salaries. Examining these areas shows the ways in which the economic structures confound societal expectations. The four primary reasons behind this paradox are: the different structures of the governing bodies, the different ownership structures of the teams/clubs, the different levels of competition between teams in each region, and the difference in length of outlook for economic decision making by those in charge of the two sports. The current consequences are superteams causing unbalanced competition in European soccer and a potential work stoppage in the NFL.
Open Access
Stroboscopic visual training improves information encoding in short-term memory.
(Atten Percept Psychophys, 2012-11) Appelbaum, L Gregory; Cain, Matthew S; Schroeder, Julia E; Darling, Elise F; Mitroff, Stephen R
The visual system has developed to transform an undifferentiated and continuous flow of information into discrete and manageable representations, and this ability rests primarily on the uninterrupted nature of the input. Here we explore the impact of altering how visual information is accumulated over time by assessing how intermittent vision influences memory retention. Previous work has shown that intermittent, or stroboscopic, visual training (i.e., practicing while only experiencing snapshots of vision) can enhance visual-motor control and visual cognition, yet many questions remain unanswered about the mechanisms that are altered. In the present study, we used a partial-report memory paradigm to assess the possible changes in visual memory following training under stroboscopic conditions. In Experiment 1, the memory task was completed before and immediately after a training phase, wherein participants engaged in physical activities (e.g., playing catch) while wearing either specialized stroboscopic eyewear or transparent control eyewear. In Experiment 2, an additional group of participants underwent the same stroboscopic protocol but were delayed 24 h between training and assessment, so as to measure retention. In comparison to the control group, both stroboscopic groups (immediate and delayed retest) revealed enhanced retention of information in short-term memory, leading to better recall at longer stimulus-to-cue delays (640-2,560 ms). These results demonstrate that training under stroboscopic conditions has the capacity to enhance some aspects of visual memory, that these faculties generalize beyond the specific tasks that were trained, and that trained improvements can be maintained for at least a day.
Open Access
The reminiscence bump in the temporal distribution of the best football players of all time: Pelé, Cruijff or Maradona?
(Q J Exp Psychol (Hove), 2012) Janssen, Steve MJ; Rubin, David C; Conway, Martin A
The reminiscence bump is the tendency to recall more autobiographical memories from adolescence and early adulthood than from adjacent lifetime periods. In this online study, the robustness of the reminiscence bump was examined by looking at participants' judgements about the quality of football players. Dutch participants (N = 619) were asked who they thought the five best players of all time were. The participants could select the names from a list or enter the names when their favourite players were not on the list. Johan Cruijff, Pelé, and Diego Maradona were the three most often mentioned players. Participants frequently named football players who reached the midpoint of their career when the participants were adolescents (mode = 17). The results indicate that the reminiscence bump can also be identified outside the autobiographical memory domain.