title: The impacts of liquor outlets in Manukau City: Summary report

authors: Cameron, Michael Patrick

subjects: liquor outlets

abstract: There has been significant recent debate over the impact of liquor outlets on communities in New Zealand. This report summarises the key results from a research project undertaken between 2008 and 2010. Media analysis and research with community stakeholders confirm that the issue is a focus of concern among communities in New Zealand. In Manukau City, off-licence liquor outlets tend to be located in areas of high social deprivation and high population density, while on-licence liquor outlets tend to be located in main centres and areas of high amenity value. Higher off-licence density is associated with lower alcohol prices and longer opening hours. The density of both off-licence and onlicence liquor outlets is associated with a range of social harms, including various police events and motor vehicle accidents. However, these results are context specific and care should be taken in applying them to other locations.

text: The impacts of liquor outlets in Manukau City: Summary report There has been significant recent debate over the impact of liquor outlets on communities in New Zealand. This report summarises the key results from a research project undertaken between 2008 and 2010. Media analysis and research with community stakeholders confirm that the issue is a focus of concern among communities in New Zealand. In Manukau City, off-licence liquor outlets tend to be located in areas of high social deprivation and high population density, while on-licence liquor outlets tend to be located in main centres and areas of high amenity value. Higher off-licence density is associated with lower alcohol prices and longer opening hours. The density of both off-licence and onlicence liquor outlets is associated with a range of social harms, including various police events and motor vehicle accidents. However, these results are context specific and care should be taken in applying them to other locations.

year: 2010-03

title: The Influence of Analogy Instructions on Motor Skills: Processing, Preference and Performance

authors: van Duijn, Tina

abstract: When teaching a movement to novices, communicating knowledge about the movement by comparison with a similar, well-known concept (an analogy) may be effective, as no other verbal instructions or rules need to be provided. The aim of this PhD thesis was to investigate the potential underlying mechanisms that influence motor performance after analogy instruction. This may help guide the development of appropriate and useful analogies in clinical and other practical settings. Five chapters discuss experiments conducted in early learning of complex motor skills. In order to investigate the mechanism of analogy learning in children, Chapter 2 investigated children’s acquisition of a golf-chipping task. We asked whether an analogy presented after initial, explicit practice has an influence on performance, and whether this effect is moderated by the propensity to consciously control the mechanics of one’s movements (movement specific reinvestment). Movement-specific reinvestment predicted improvement in chipping accuracy after introduction of the analogy, indicating that children’s motor learning by analogy may depend on personal characteristics associated with conscious control. 
A reliable and objective measure to deduct underlying conscious processes during movement is electroencephalography (EEG). Chapter 3 explored the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity, cortico-cortical communication (EEG high-alpha power and coherence), and propensity for conscious control of movement (movement specific reinvestment) during novice performance of a complex motor task. Results revealed that the capacity for short-term storage and processing of visuo-spatial information is an important factor in early motor control. 
Analogies allegedly reduce reliance on verbal information processes during motor planning, which is a feature of psychomotor efficiency. In Chapter 4, we investigated whether analogy instructions promote higher psychomotor efficiency, characterised by greater high-alpha power in the left hemisphere of the brain and reduced coactivation between the verbal processing (T7) and motor planning regions of the brain (Fz) during motor performance. Hockey push-pass accuracy during a combined task (passing coupled with decision-making) was significantly better following practice using an analogy instruction compared to explicit instructions, and left-temporal EEG high-alpha power was significantly higher in the analogy condition. The analogy instruction may have influenced verbal aspects of information processing without impacting on efficiency of motor planning, and may thus promote cognitive, rather than psychomotor, efficiency. 
Individual characteristics of information processing may have an influence on how analogy instructions are interpreted and used. Chapters 5 and 6 investigated the associations between analogy learning and verbal or visuomotor processing as measured by EEG coherence, visual-verbal instruction preference, and performance. While Chapter 5 tentatively suggests that analogy learning may be of greater benefit to people who tend to rely on visual processes during motor planning, Chapter 6 suggests that changes in information processing (measured by EEG high-alpha power) and in performance after analogy instruction, depended on verbal preference. The findings are discussed with respect to the implicit motor learning framework and theories of movement automaticity. The thesis is rounded off by suggesting future studies and providing some guidelines for the use of analogy instructions in different groups of learners.

text: The Influence of Analogy Instructions on Motor Skills: Processing, Preference and Performance When teaching a movement to novices, communicating knowledge about the movement by comparison with a similar, well-known concept (an analogy) may be effective, as no other verbal instructions or rules need to be provided. The aim of this PhD thesis was to investigate the potential underlying mechanisms that influence motor performance after analogy instruction. This may help guide the development of appropriate and useful analogies in clinical and other practical settings. Five chapters discuss experiments conducted in early learning of complex motor skills. In order to investigate the mechanism of analogy learning in children, Chapter 2 investigated children’s acquisition of a golf-chipping task. We asked whether an analogy presented after initial, explicit practice has an influence on performance, and whether this effect is moderated by the propensity to consciously control the mechanics of one’s movements (movement specific reinvestment). Movement-specific reinvestment predicted improvement in chipping accuracy after introduction of the analogy, indicating that children’s motor learning by analogy may depend on personal characteristics associated with conscious control. 
A reliable and objective measure to deduct underlying conscious processes during movement is electroencephalography (EEG). Chapter 3 explored the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity, cortico-cortical communication (EEG high-alpha power and coherence), and propensity for conscious control of movement (movement specific reinvestment) during novice performance of a complex motor task. Results revealed that the capacity for short-term storage and processing of visuo-spatial information is an important factor in early motor control. 
Analogies allegedly reduce reliance on verbal information processes during motor planning, which is a feature of psychomotor efficiency. In Chapter 4, we investigated whether analogy instructions promote higher psychomotor efficiency, characterised by greater high-alpha power in the left hemisphere of the brain and reduced coactivation between the verbal processing (T7) and motor planning regions of the brain (Fz) during motor performance. Hockey push-pass accuracy during a combined task (passing coupled with decision-making) was significantly better following practice using an analogy instruction compared to explicit instructions, and left-temporal EEG high-alpha power was significantly higher in the analogy condition. The analogy instruction may have influenced verbal aspects of information processing without impacting on efficiency of motor planning, and may thus promote cognitive, rather than psychomotor, efficiency. 
Individual characteristics of information processing may have an influence on how analogy instructions are interpreted and used. Chapters 5 and 6 investigated the associations between analogy learning and verbal or visuomotor processing as measured by EEG coherence, visual-verbal instruction preference, and performance. While Chapter 5 tentatively suggests that analogy learning may be of greater benefit to people who tend to rely on visual processes during motor planning, Chapter 6 suggests that changes in information processing (measured by EEG high-alpha power) and in performance after analogy instruction, depended on verbal preference. The findings are discussed with respect to the implicit motor learning framework and theories of movement automaticity. The thesis is rounded off by suggesting future studies and providing some guidelines for the use of analogy instructions in different groups of learners.

year: 2018

title: What (actually) matters in literacy education: Contributions from community psychology

authors: Furness, Jane Amanda

subjects: Family literacy

abstract: This paper describes the critical role community psychology theories played in reframing literacy research involving mainly Māori and Pacific peoples’ extended families and communities. Within a critical social constructionist paradigm, ecological systems theory and holistic, integrative theories of wellbeing brought much-needed new thinking to how family-focused adult literacy education might be theorised and practiced. This reframing marks a challenge to and movement away from still-dominant Western individualistic, behavioural orientated, skills-based and formal economy-focused ways of thinking about people’s literacy abilities. It highlights the important role of community psychology in developing theory, informing policy and enhancing practices in culturally diverse education settings to achieve both educational and quality of life aims. Improving quality of life is not possible through literacy education in and of itself, but rather through the inculcation in programme design and delivery of those things which are fundamental and critical to the participants’ overall wellbeing and welfare.

text: What (actually) matters in literacy education: Contributions from community psychology This paper describes the critical role community psychology theories played in reframing literacy research involving mainly Māori and Pacific peoples’ extended families and communities. Within a critical social constructionist paradigm, ecological systems theory and holistic, integrative theories of wellbeing brought much-needed new thinking to how family-focused adult literacy education might be theorised and practiced. This reframing marks a challenge to and movement away from still-dominant Western individualistic, behavioural orientated, skills-based and formal economy-focused ways of thinking about people’s literacy abilities. It highlights the important role of community psychology in developing theory, informing policy and enhancing practices in culturally diverse education settings to achieve both educational and quality of life aims. Improving quality of life is not possible through literacy education in and of itself, but rather through the inculcation in programme design and delivery of those things which are fundamental and critical to the participants’ overall wellbeing and welfare.

year: 2013