Footedness in world soccer: an analysis of France '98.

Most football players and coaches agree that players are capable of learning to use both feet with equal frequency and efficiency--that is, become 'two-footed'. There is also some consensus that two-footed play is associated with skill in individual players. If these assumptions are true, then the world's elite football players should be substantially less 'one-footed' than the rest of the population. To examine this issue, we quantified the pattern of foot use in a sample of 236 players from 16 teams in the 1998 World Cup (France '98). Our findings indicate that World Cup players are as right-footed as the general population (approximately 79%). The remaining players were largely left-footed and as biased towards the use of their preferred foot as their right-footed counterparts. Very few players used each foot with equal frequency. Remarkably, both left- and right-footed players were as skilled, on average, with their non-preferred foot as they were with their preferred foot, on the rare occasions when they used it. Therefore, it is unlikely that infrequent use of one foot compared to the other foot can be accounted for by skill differences between the feet. Players were most asymmetrical for set pieces; nevertheless, first touches, passes, dribbles and tackles were rarely performed with the non-preferred foot as well. Our results support a biological model of foot preference and performance, as well as demonstrating the usefulness of soccer for studies of lateral asymmetries.

Sex differences on Bartel's task: an investigation into perception of real and depicted distances.

A new method derived from Bartel's (1958) studies was used to investigate sex differences in spatial perception. Bartel employed two related tasks; one of these tasks called for responses to a pictorial stimulus representing spatial arrangement in perspective and the other for responses to an analogous task presented in three dimensions. Modified forms of both these tasks were used. Consistent differences between men and women were found, the men showing greater distance constancy in relation both to real and to depicted distances. In addition a decline of such constancy with age was observed. The pictorial task was also used to test two groups of students of architecture: one relatively inexperienced and the other more experienced with the discipline, on the assumption that experience of spatial judgments might influence performance on this task. It was found that whilst familiarity did not affect responses there was a consistent difference between responses of men and women.

Nucleotide sequence of barley stripe mosaic virus RNA alpha: RNA alpha encodes a single polypeptide with homology to corresponding proteins from other viruses.

The complete nucleotide sequence of RNA alpha from the Type strain of barley stripe mosaic virus has been determined. The RNA is 3768 nucleotides long and contains a single open reading frame which codes for a polypeptide of 1139 amino acids (mw 129,634). The open reading frame is flanked by a 5'-terminal sequence of 91 nucleotides and a 3'-nontranslated region composed of a short poly(A) tract followed by a 238-nucleotide tRNA-like structure. The amino acid sequence of the polypeptide (alpha a) encoded by the open reading frame has homology with the TMV 126K protein and with related polypeptides from other viruses. The carboxy-terminal portion of the alpha a polypeptide also has limited homology with the 58K (beta b) protein encoded by BSMV RNA beta and includes a consensus sequence found in mononucleotide-binding polypeptides.

Similarity effects in face recognition.

Three experiments are described which examine the effects of similarity on face recognition using a new application of hierarchical clustering analysis (HCS). Experiments I and II employed a within-groups design where subjects attempted to recognize targets among decoys from the same and different cluster to the target. Common cluster membership accounted for 72% and 84%, respectively, of all false alarms in the two experiments. Absolute error rates were affected by the number of targets actually present in the array and the style of the instructions given to subjects but were not influenced by whether successive or simultaneous test presentation was employed. Experiment III used a between-subject design where targets were embedded in arrays composed from same or different clusters. False alarm rates were significantly higher for the same cluster condition, but hit rates were unaffected by recognition context. The significance of these findings for theories of face identification is discussed.

Identification of familiar and unfamiliar faces from internal and external features: some implications for theories of face recognition.

Three experiments are reported in which recognition of faces from whole faces or internal or external features was compared. In the first experiment, where the faces were of famous people, an advantage was found for identification from internal features. In the second experiment involving unfamiliar faces, however, no difference was found in recognition rates when subjects were given the internal or the external features. In a third experiment famous faces were presented and mixed with other famous faces for a recognition test. As in experiment 1, better recognition occurred from internals as compared with external features. It is argued that the internal representation for familiar faces may be qualitatively different from that for face seen just once. In particular some advantage in feature saliency may accrue to the internal or 'expressive' features of familiar faces. The implications of these results are considered in relation to general theories of face perception and recognition.

Recognition of upright and inverted faces presented in the left and right visual fields.

Pictures of upright and inverted faces were unilaterally presented in either the left or right visual field. Subsequent recognition performance was found to be superior for faces falling in the left visual field regardless of orientation. The results are discussed in relation to Yin's (1970) ideas concerning a face-specific recognition system located in the right hemisphere.