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The menstrual cycle affects women’s emotional states, with estrogen and progesterone having predominant roles. However, it remains unclear whether the phases of the menstrual cycle also affect women’s motivational behaviors. In this study, the main aim was to investigate how the menstrual cycle influences approach–avoidance behavior under conditions of conscious versus unconscious processing of emotions. Briefly, after recruitment by advertisement and screening with a menstrual cycle survey questionnaire, 27 naturally cycling, healthy women participated in an improved “manikin task” and were presented both positive and negative emotional stimuli during early follicular, late follicular, and mid-luteal phases. Estrogen and progesterone levels were measured. Women in the late follicular phase exhibited the shortest response times for approaching positive stimuli, while women in the mid-luteal phase exhibited the shortest response times for avoiding negative stimuli. Estrogen and progesterone levels significantly correlated with the speed of the approach–avoidance responses observed for the women, indicating the important role that sex hormones have in mediating emotionally motivated behavior. Overall, these findings suggest that the menstrual cycle has strong and specific influences on women’s approach–avoidance behaviors that are in part mediated by estrogen and progesterone. By identifying characteristics of these behaviors in the late follicular and mid-luteal phases, greater insight can be provided to women regarding the physiological influences of the menstrual cycle on their personal growth and security.

The effect of priming on the speed and accuracy of skilled performance and on a probe-reaction time task designed to measure residual attentional capacity, was assessed. Twenty-four skilled soccer players completed a dribbling task under three prime conditions (fluency, skill-focus, and neutral) and a control condition. Results revealed changes in trial completion time and secondary task performance in line with successfully priming autonomous and skill-focused attention. Retention test data for task completion time and probe-reaction time indicated a linear decrease in the priming effect such that the effect was nonsignificant after 30 min. Results provide further support for the efficacy of priming and provide the first evidence of concurrent changes in attentional demands, consistent with promoting or disrupting automatic skill execution.

In human perception studies, visual backward masking has been used to understand the temporal dynamics of subliminal versus conscious perception. When a brief target stimulus is followed by a masking stimulus after a short interval of < 100 ms, performance on the target is impaired when the target and mask are in close spatial proximity. While the psychophysical properties of backward masking have been studied extensively, there is still debate on the underlying cortical dynamics. One prevailing theory suggests that the impairment of target performance due to the mask is the result of lateral inhibition between the target and mask in feedforward processing. Another prevailing theory suggests that this impairment is due to the interruption of feedback processing of the target by the mask. This computational study demonstrates that both aspects of these theories may be correct. Using a biophysical model of V1 and V2, visual processing was modeled as interacting neocortical attractors, which must propagate up the visual stream. If an activating target attractor in V1 is quiesced enough with lateral inhibition from a mask, or not reinforced by recurrent feedback, it is more likely to burn out before becoming fully active and progressing through V2 and beyond. Results are presented which simulate metacontrast backward masking with an increasing stimulus interval and with the presence and absence of feedback activity. This showed that recurrent feedback diminishes backward masking effects and can make conscious perception more likely. One model configuration presented a metacontrast noisy mask in the same hypercolumns as the target, and produced type-A masking. A second model configuration presented a target line with two parallel adjacent masking lines, and produced type-B masking. Future work should examine how the model extends to more complex spatial mask configurations.

Traditional theories of motor skill learning (e.g., Fitts and Posner, 1967) and many contemporary perspectives in sport psychology (see Masters and Maxwell, 2008) and cognitive neuroscience (see Yarrow et al., 2010) argue that skilled action is guided by procedural or implicit knowledge. Researchers adopting this perspective believe that skilled performance proceeds rapidly, efficiently and without the need for conscious monitoring, or a reliance on propositional knowledge (what some might term declarative or explicit knowledge) to guide an activity. However, in a recent paper published in this journal, Stanley and Krakauer (2013) present a compelling argument which offers a stern challenge to the latter of these assumptions. Drawing on evidence from famous cases in neuroscience (e.g., the case of HM) and other research on the nature of skill, Stanley and Krakauer (2013) suggest that becoming proficient at any motor task, and maintaining and improving one's skill in that activity, is heavily influenced by the use of what they refer to as “knowledge of facts” (i.e., propositional knowledge). The aim of this brief commentary is to build on Stanley and Krakauer's work by pointing to empirical evidence (e.g., Collins et al., 1999), recent theory (e.g., Shusterman, 2009) and phenomenological descriptions (e.g., Cotterill et al., 2010) which suggest that “continuous improvement” at the elite level of sport is mediated by the “ongoing accrual and improving application of knowledge of facts about an activity” (Stanley and Krakauer, 2013, p. 2). More specifically, the current paper presents evidence which demonstrates how performers use knowledge of facts in two distinct sporting situations: (1) in the training context when the performer is seeking to improve “attenuated” movement patterns and (2) during the planning and strategizing that occurs in pre-performance routines during on-line competitive performance.