Psychologists involved in sport and exercise context have to collect and process data habitually in unusual situations (e.g. during competitions, travels, etc.). Athletes and trainers judge often psychological tests boring and useless to provide significant information to monitor and improve the physical training. Therefore they are less willing to assess daily implications of psychological factors, although are aware pf theirs importance. The AA suggest to introduce the use of handheld computers for psychological assessment as a tools to affect simultaneously flexibility of employ, motivation to accomplish, and to provide immediate feedbacks. Actually handheld computers are inexpensive, portable and enough autonomous in battery, to represent a valid support for field research. The advantages of Handheld-Computer-Assisted Self-Administered Interviews (H-CASI) are outlined about potential development and administration of tailored tests and compilation of electronic diary. To assess the perceived utility of this devices in sport and exercise context, the AA. Have conducted an exploratory study to examine the most interesting applications according to athletes, trainers and managers with different levels of athletic experience. The results show people who already use software to monitor via desktop computer the training program evaluate better this device; workers, compared to students, indicate a greater expected utility of handheld computers to monitor athletic performances.

The AA. tested the level of skill of basketball players in shooting at a basket correlates with their ability to recognize and to predict the outcome of basketball shots observed in a movie. Moreover, by a means of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS),the AA tested whether the skill level correlates with the level of motor system excitability as well.

Ten expert basketball players(Ital Professional League),10 intermediate players and 10 non expert, participated to the experiment. Twelve videoclips of free basket shots were presented. For six videos the ball landed into the basket (IN shots). While for the other six the ball landed out of the basket (OUT shots). In addition, the videos were presented under the following conditions of visual occlusion: no occlusion, occlusion of the player's wrist and occlusion of the player's lower legs. Each video was divided into 10 consecutive frames and at each frame the subject had to answer by pressing keys such that 1 corresponded to "yes the ball is entering the basket", 2 "no the ball is not entering the basket" or 3:"I d not know yet". Totally the AA recorded 360 answers per subject (12 throws, 3 visual occlusion and 10 frame conditions). The AA. Measured accuracy (A), reaction time (RT), and thresholds of accuracy (TA) as the temporal frame of the correct responses above he 33.3% probability.

Ten experts and 10 novices participated at the second part of the experiment, Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) to TMD were recorded from the right abductor digiti minimi (ADM) and flexor carpi radicalis (FCR) during observation of videos representing : a) static images of a basketball player; b) basketball shots and c) soccer throws to a goal.

Experts and Intermediate presented more accuracy and at earlier frame than novice; already at the 3rd frame experts presented 50%, Intermediate 40% and Non Expert just 10% of accuracy. Experts and Intermediate presented lower RT, earlier TA and sensitivity to the hidden information such that, contrarily than Novice, they decreased the performance when the lower legs and the wrist were not shown. Expert and Intermediate performed better for the non correct shots as compared to the correct ones while Novice didn't show any difference between the two types of shots.

Fir the TMS results the AA. Found that MEPs amplitudes during observation of basketball throws were higher as compared to the soccer ones and to static images, The above facilitation was present only in the Expert group, Moreover, significantly lower facilitation was recorded for the correct shots as compared to the non-correct ones.

Our findings indicate that elite basketball players present both a higher ability to predict the outcome of free basket shots observed on a video and a higher excitability of the brain contingent upon observation of actions and scenes related to their domain-specific patterns

The main aim of the study was to evacuate whether behavioural intentions toward doping use in adolescents could be predicted by the variables considered within the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Two variables have been added to the basic model: past use of ergogenic supplements and a moral disengagement measure. A total of 952 Italian students participated in the study. A multi-group confirmatory approach was considered, testing whether theoretical relationship hypothesized in the model were stable across gender and across type of involvement in sport. The model fit data satisfactorily. Regression coefficients resulted to be stable across gender and type of involvement in sport. Attitudes were the strongest perceived behavioural control gave a small, albeit significant, contribution. Pas use of supplements and moral disengagement significantly predicted the intention to use doping substances

Aim of the study is testing the hypothesis that elementary visuo-motor functions involved in visual scanning are better in high level shooters than in non-athletes. The AA. Compared a) fixation stability during prolonged visual observation and b) saccadic latency in shooters and in control subjects.

Shooters showed a substantial advantage in both tasks. They had a more stable fixation than controls, showing no sign of fatigue also when distracters were present in the visual display. In the saccadic test two conditions were used: simple reaction to target onset and discrimination between targets and distracters. Shooter had faster saccadic latency to targets than controls in both conditions. Finally, to evaluate the effect of exercise in saccadic latency, the AA trained one control subject to saccade to a target displayed at a constant spatial position. At the end of the training, saccadic latency reached a value comparable to that recorded in shooters. Overall, results show the role of attention in the tasks and indicate that shooter training may improve visuo-motor functions involved in visual scanning

The study examined gender stereotypes in sport in three groups of Italian university students enrolled in a program on motor science and sport. Each group was administered a series of 16 profiles of hypothetical student from their program. For one group (baseline group),the profiles summarized information about the student's physical or athletic characteristics. In the second and third group, information about either students' gender or the students' masculine o feminine characteristics was added onto the profiles. All participating students were then asked to judge the target students on six academic and sport performance items. The result of the study indicated that target female or feminine were not necessarily judged more negatively, and the judgements varied with the context of the sport discipline being considered.