Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 28, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: B, page: 3092. Adviser: Joel M. Stager.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Kinesiology, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 28, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: B, page: 3091. Adviser: Joel M. Stager.

<p> Developing research, anecdotal evidence and a growing focus on non-pharmacological interventions for veterans with post-traumatic stress support the use equine-therapy as a therapeutic outlet; however, programmatic factors that contribute to veteran&rsquo;s desire to attend such programs are under-investigated. Furthermore, evaluative processes in equine therapy for this particular population are scare and vary greatly from program to program. The use of the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) tool when applied to social services yields direct, applicable feedback of program success and relevancy. In this study, interviews with the selected population informed the evaluation tool used to assess the importance, and subsequent performance, of various program factors in a national military-specific equine therapy program. Results of this study provided insight into key factors being sought after in similar equine therapy programs to inform the development and maintenance of programs serving the veteran population. The application of the IPA, a consumer feedback tool typically reserved for market research, to the health and human services sector provided a new pathway for quality assurance and program analysis for the equine therapy field.</p><p>

This study investigated the effects of gender, competitive level, and sport type on athletes' use of the functions of observational learning (OL): skill, strategy, and performance. Similar studies on OL (as well as imagery) have either compared OL use between athletes in team and individual sports, or independent and interactive sports. However, the author of the current study felt that these classifications were too general and led to the under representation of certain sports. Therefore the current study used more precise classifications of sport type than has been used thus far. This included an Action component made up of independent and interactive levels, and a Structural component consisting of individual and team levels. The Functions of Observational Learning Questionnaire (FOLQ) was administered to 917 male (n = 465) and female (n = 452) athletes participating in a variety of sports at three levels of competition: novice (n = 410), intermediate (n = 339), and proficient (n = 178). Significant differences in OL use were found between independent and interactive sports (p &lt; .01), and a significant three way interaction was found between the Action and Structure dimensions of sport type, and the OL Function (p &lt; .05). Furthermore, a significant Competitive Level by Function interaction showed differences in the use of the skill function of OL, and a Gender by Function interaction showed a difference in the use of the skill and strategy functions of OL between males and females. Finally, support was found for the results of previous research indicating that the skill function of OL was used significantly more than both the strategy and performance function, while the strategy function was used significantly more than the performance function as well across all sport types and levels of competition.

Chronic lateral epicondylalgia (LE) is a common musculoskeletal condition which has been associated with the presence of distinct local sensorimotor abnormalities. Despite this, little is known about central motor system function and forearm/wrist kinesthetic acuity in cases of chronic LE. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether there are adaptive neurophysiological changes occurring at the corticomotor level in individuals presenting with chronic unilateral lateral epicondylalgia, and whether the same individuals present deficits in proprioceptive acuity for weight discrimination and manual dexterity. Methods. For this descriptive, case-controlled study, 14 individuals with chronic LE and 16 age- and gender-matched controls were recruited. LE-related disability was measured with the quickDASH questionnaire and proprioceptive acuity was estimated by way of a weight discrimination task. The Grooved Pegboard Test was used to derive an index of manual dexterity and transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to assess four indices of corticomotor excitability in wrist extensor muscles. Results. Proprioceptive acuity was decreased in the affected arms of LE participants (p=0.001). There were no differences in manual dexterity or indices of corticomotor excitability between arms (p > 0.05) for both groups, but manual dexterity of each the affected and unaffected arms was correlated with resting corticomotor thresholds (p=0.0001 and p=0.04, respectively) a relationship which was not found in the control group. Discussion. Proprioceptive acuity was deteriorated in our sample of chronic LE. Though the clinical significance in this population is unknown, it is hypothesized that such deficits may hamper force perception during functional activities. The relationships existing bilaterally between manual dexterity and motor thresholds suggest that "crossed" modulation of corticomotor excitability may be further influenced by the presence of musculoskeletal dysfunction and/or chronic musculoskeletal pain. While mechanisms responsible for such changes are unclear, these findings merit confirmation in larger patient samples.

Purpose. Examine the relationship between body mass index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC), performance in the Canadian Forces (CF) EXPRES test, and the Five Common Tasks (5CT) fitness test for CF members 50-59 years. Hypothesis. Increasing BMI and WC are related to lower performance in the EXPRES and 5CT. Results. For males (n=127, mean BMI=27.7 kg/m2(+/-3.4), mean WC=96.99 cm(+/-9.8 cm)), increasing BMI and WC correlated (p&lt; 0.05) with poorer results on the Land Evacuation, Low High Crawl, Sandbag Carry, VO2max, Push-Ups and Sit-Ups. Performance was significantly worse for males with an "Obese" BMI than other groups and for those with a WC&ge;102 cm. The results for females (n=27, mean BMI=25.8 kg/m2(+/-3.6), mean WC=84.5 cm(+/-9.3 cm)) were inconclusive due to the sample size. Conclusion. For males, increasing BMI and WC were related to lower performance on some components of CF physical fitness testing. Additionally, the high percent of "Obese" individuals identifies and an alarming trend towards increased health risk.

Resonance interventions are aimed at developing awareness of how one wants to feel, how to prepare to feel this way, the obstacles that get in the way of that desired feel, and how to reconnect with it through individual or group sessions led by a consultant (Newburg, Kimiciek, Durand-Bush, & Doell, 2002; Arcand, Durand-Bush, & Miall, 2007). The purpose of this study was to examine how a coach developed and applied the process of resonance with his team through a resonance intervention facilitated by a researcher/consultant and continued nurturing this process once the intervention was completed. The participants included a varsity volleyball team comprising a 39 year old male coach and 16 female athletes aged between 18-24 years. The 26-week study comprised three phases: a 6-week pre-intervention phase involving interviews and observations; a 14-week intervention phase involving four team sessions, individual consultations with the coach, participant journaling, and observations; and a 6-week post-intervention phase involving interviews. The results are presented as a narrative (Polkinghorne, 1995) to tell the story of how the researcher/consultant worked with the team as a group and also individually with the coach to help them learn and apply their personal resonance process and enhance their performance, leading them to a OUA Championship title.

Canada's National Coaching Certification Program has been undergoing a re-structuring, resulting in a coaching education program that will be based more on enabling coaches to develop various coaching competencies, rather than on simply the teaching or provision of information that the coaches may or may not actually be able to implement with their athletes. In the sport of alpine skiing, for a coach to become certified within this new program, he or she must also participate in a mentoring process, where the focus is on the on-going learning of coaches. The mentoring process involves being mentored by a more experienced coach and having this mentor sign off on particular tasks over the course of the season. The purpose of the present study was to explore the learning process of two pairs of coaches in a formalized mentoring relationship within the context of a competitive alpine ski club, and to gain a better understanding of the interpersonal relationship between a coach and his or her mentor. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field notes, and a series of on-hill observations. Findings from this study have indicated that (a) through the process of mentoring, coaches can become more reflective thinkers, (b) a clear separation of the mentoring process from the certification process is necessary, (c) the training session for the mentor evaluator coaches was a valuable learning opportunity, and (d) not only is mentoring a complex process with many facets but it also appears to be a personal dynamic and one mentoring relationship can be very different from another.

Are the neural and behavioural mechanisms underlying the tracking of another human's movement different from that of tracking the movement of a non-biological system? In an experiment by Kilner, Pauligan, Blakemore, (2003) an interference effect was found during the observation and tracking of incongruent biological movements (another human performing a different action), but not so with incongruent nonbiological movements (a robot performing a different action). They defined this interference effect as the degree of change in the movement trajectory of the observer due to observed movement. Recent studies have shown that interference of this kind was subject to both biological and non biological stimuli. However, the question of whether a similar interference effect is present during the observation of movements that possess the same invariant characteristics of human movement such as minimum jerk trajectories with bell-shaped velocity profiles but are not produced by a human (Flash & Hogan, 1985) has not been previously addressed. The present experiment asked eight participants to perform vertical and horizontal movements either congruently or incongruently to novel non-biological movement stimuli sets that resemble human movement (added invariant characteristics) ranging from point light displays to 3D virtual models of humans. This was followed by an interpersonal task while tracking the movements of a human experimenter. Results demonstrated that a congruency effect was observed where incongruent human movements exhibited the most interference. In other conditions, similar congruency effects were observed where the magnitude of the interference was dependent on the biological similarity of the stimuli to actual human movement. Also a main effect of "biologicalness" (Sinusoidal vs. Sinusoidal with noise vs. Minimum Jerk), type (3d human vs. Human) and a main interaction of type and congruency (3d human vs. Human) were observed. We argue that the central nervous system is highly attuned to biological characteristics at the most deep-rooted level. It seems that biological characteristics such as movement optimality leading to the abstract representation of human movement are tightly coupled as they elicit similar interference effects as tracking movements performed by a human.

Purpose. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the nonthermoregulatory control of cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC) and sweating during recovery from exercise-induced hyperthermia as well as to determine possible sex-related differences during the recovery period. It was hypothesized that an active and passive recovery would maintain mean arterial pressure (MAP), CVC and sweat rate at higher levels than an inactive recovery and result in a faster rate of esophageal temperature (Tes) decay. It was also hypothesized that changes in MAP, CVC and sweat rate would be sex dependent. Methods. Eighteen participants (9 males, 9 females) were rendered hyperthermic by exercise (i.e. Tes = 39.5&deg;C) and recovered in one of three recovery modalities for 60-min: (1) active, (2) inactive or (3) passive. Tes, CVC, sweat rate, cardiac output, stroke volume, heart rate, total peripheral resistance, and MAP were recorded at baseline and 2, 5, 12, 20 and every 10-min until the end of recovery. Results. Both active and passive recoveries were equally effective in maintaining MAP, CVC and sweat rate at greater levels compared with an inactive recovery (p &le; 0.05). A significantly lower Tes was subsequently observed during passive recovery at 20-min and for the rest of recovery compared to the active mode (p &le; 0.05). Sex did not affect any of the measured variables at any time point during any recovery mode, with the exception of sweat rate which was significantly higher in males throughout the recovery period (p &le; 0.05). Conclusion. We conclude that despite an important thermal drive, nonthermal input remains an important influence in the modulation of postexercise heat loss responses. Further, action of the muscle pump/mechanoreceptors is the main nonthermal determinant in the postexercise modulation of MAP, CVC and sweat rate irrespective of sex.