Brooke Thompson

Associative and Dissociative Imagery Effects on Perceived Exertion and Task Duration

The study was designed to examine the effects of associative and dissociative imagery interventions on reported ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and task-duration across a handgrip-squeezing task. Sixty adults (Mage = 22.19 years) were randomly assigned to three groups: associative imagery, dissociative imagery, and control (non-imagery). Participants were instructed to perform a 30% maximal handgrip-squeezing task until volitional fatigue. During the squeezing task, RPE and attention allocation were measured every 30 seconds. A series of RM MANOVA procedures revealed that (a) RPE increased linearly across all three groups as a function of increased effort output, (b) as compared to control participants, RPE was lower in participants using either associative or dissociative imagery, and (c) as compared to control participants, participants using either imagery remained longer on task. While the effects of imagery use on RPE and task-duration were descriptively evident, not all effects were significant. Future studies must examine imagery applications for tasks that vary in workload intensities. Findings shed light on interventions that can possibly render exercise experience more pleasant and less exertive for the general population.

Not so risky business: the use of planning within rock climbing

To understand precautionary behaviour within risk sport, the present study assessed participants’ (n = 72) degree of planning for a rock climbing task and its impact on task performance. Participants with varying degrees of climbing experience were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) planning-inhibited, (b) planning, or a (c) control. Results indicated significantly (p < 0.01) more planning behaviour by planning and control participants than by those who were planning-inhibited. Additionally, inexperienced participants reported significantly (p < 0.01) more pre-task thoughts and mental preparation than experienced participants. Although climbing times were not significantly different among conditions, descriptively planning-inhibited participants climbed the slowest, while participants prompted to plan climbed the fastest. Results suggest that while participants appeared to engage in a degree of planning, the practice did not affect performance. Discussion concerns the use of planning as a precautionary behaviour in rock climbing.

The judgement of research quality: a response to John Smith

The paper by John Smith (2009) relies on the assumption that positivists’ proPopperian methodology of making science is historically rooted in some kind of a social-political-religious conspiracy aimed at exhibiting power of respective institutions. It remains, however, the mainstream methodology today though it is not explicitly claimed to be attributed to the same reasons. The conclusions of the article are somewhat different from sharing the ‘conspiracy theory’, and are based more on familial experiences, and their personal interpretations. The main question after reading the article remains: How can we distinguish between good and ‘not so good’ scientific inquiries, and does this article provide us with better tools to do so? I will briefly share with the readers my impressions and reflections. It is claimed that well-known scientists, such as Galton and Pearson, among others, developed their scientific methods and tools to justify the interests and policies of the formal institution about the distribution of intelligence among human beings. To do so, also the statistical methods of observing and analysing data, which pertain to intelligence, were developed to satisfy the ‘power intentions’ of policy-makers, who happen to belong of course to the upper class. To make justice to this view, one may assume that political interests indeed govern research preference; this is the case also with US NIH and NSF grants today. However, does this indicate that the research method adapts accordingly to political preferences? Isn’t it more reasonable to assume that the first statisticians in the UK, headed by Fisher, were driven more by developing statistical tools which better fit the data and phenomenon under investigation than by ‘power and dominance’ needs? Say this tools would not be developed, can we assume that intelligence is NOT normally distributed in the population? What exactly one tries to say here: Is the distribution of intelligence in the population dependent on institutional power interest? Of course, the arguments about political and institutional power are valid today as they were in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but the making of science and the development of scientific tools were independent of these needs, unless one comes and presents hard evidence of this conspiracy theory. This of course is not aimed at disputing the new trend of using qualitative and mixed methods in social and behavioural sciences. Just as rigorous are the methods in the life and natural

Impact of Direction of Unloading Influence on Template Rate of Perceived Exertion

Abstract Greer, BK, Young, PR, Thompson, B, Rickert, BJ, and Moran, MF. Impact of direction of unloading influence on template rate of perceived exertion. J Strength Cond Res 32(12): 3407–3413, 2018—It is suggested that exercisers engage in a process of teleoanticipation and create an exercise template based on previous experience with the exercise task that guides their perceptions of the amount of effort required for task completion. This study examined how altering workload intensity during a positive-pressure treadmill task may impact Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE). In a counterbalanced design, 15 collegiate cross-country runners (7 men and 8 women) performed 2 25-minute runs at a constant velocity, while body mass (BM) was either increased from 60 to 100% (low-to-high progression trial [INC]) or decreased from 100 to 60% (high-to-low progression trial) in 5-minutes increments. Oxygen consumption (V[Combining Dot Above]O2), heart rate (HR), and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) were collected. RPE was recorded at the end of each stage, and energy expenditure (EE) was calculated with V[Combining Dot Above]O2 and RER data. There were no significant differences between direction of loading conditions for V[Combining Dot Above]O2, EE, HR, and RER (p > 0.05). Between-trial differences in RPE at 100, 90, and 80% BM were statistically significant (p < 0.001), with higher RPEs observed during the INC. Differences in RPE observed between conditions cannot be explained by physiological mechanisms. These findings suggest that RPE is a multifaceted construct that can be impacted by subjectively based anticipatory factors such as exercise intensity.