We tested the hypothesis that quiet eye the final fixation before the initiation of a movement in aiming tasks, is used to scale the movement's parameters. Two groups of 12 participants (N=24) threw darts to targets in the horizontal and vertical axes under conditions of higher (random) or lower (blocked) target variability. Supporting our predictions, random practice and target changes in the vertical axis led to longer quiet eye duration than did blocked practice and target changes in the horizontal axis. Our data suggest that quiet eye is not simply a mediating factor in accuracy, but is responsive to the task's programming demands, being influenced by the necessity to reparameterize the movement from one trial to the next.

The think-aloud method promotes critical thinking and clinical reasoning. Think-aloud encounters can be used to assess student learning. Think-aloud method involves modeling of expert decision making.

Context: Knowledge and experience may be important factors for understanding expertise based upon a clinician's ability to select and execute an appropriate response as a clinician during injury evaluation.Objective: To describe how collegiate male certified athletic trainers represent injury-evaluation domain knowledge during a situational interview using a think-aloud protocol.Design: Qualitative. Setting: National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and II colleges in National Athletic Trainers' Association District 3.Patients or Other Participants: A total of 20 male certified athletic trainers (n ¼ 10 with less than 2 years of experience in the college setting and n ¼ 10 with at least 10 years of experience in the college setting) participated in the study.Data Collection and Analysis: We collected data using a situational interview and questionnaire. Data were transcribed, reduced to meaningful units, and analyzed using verbal analysis procedures. Member checks, triangulation of data, field journaling, and peer-debriefing techniques were used to ensure trustworthiness of the data. Knowledge concepts were enumerated to describe differences between experts and novices.Results: Compared with novices, experts had more knowledge concepts of patient history and predictions and fewer concepts of situation appraisal.Conclusions: Expertise in athletic training shares traits with other areas in health care. Athletic training education and professional development may benefit from our understanding which cognitive processes differentiate expert practice. Future investigators should attempt to describe other settings and study diagnostic problem solving in a natural environment.

The traditional sit-up may be a poor choice for core strength training due to its focus on hip flexion. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in abdominal and hip flexor muscle activation and trunk and hip kinematics between the traditional U.S. Army sit-up and a modified sit-up focusing on trunk flexion. Eighteen trained males performed 30 seconds of repetitions of each sit-up style, while muscle activation of the rectus abdominis (RA), external oblique (EO), and rectus femoris (RF) was recorded using electromyography (EMG). Trunk and hip kinematics were measured using 2-D videography. Maximum and mean muscle activation, integrated EMG (iEMG), and trunk and hip flexion were compared using a repeated-measures design. Maximum EMG of the RF and EO and mean EMG and iEMG of the RF were greater during the traditional sit-up. In contrast, mean EMG and iEMG of the RA and EO were greater during the modified sit-up. Peak trunk flexion was greater during the modified sit-up, and peak hip flexion was greater during the traditional sit-up. The greater RF EMG activity and peak hip flexion during the traditional sit-up suggest a greater emphasis on hip flexion during this sit-up style, which may result in lumbar hyperextension. The greater RA and EO activity and peak trunk flexion during the modified sit-up suggest a greater emphasis on trunk flexion during this exercise, which may decrease the lumbar spine load. Therefore, the modified sit-up may be a better exercise selection to train the abdominal muscles.

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