The abstract submission portal for the 2025 NASPSPA Conference opens December 15, 2024 and will remain open through Wednesday, January 15, 2025 Sunday, January 19, 2025 (Midnight Pacific Time). Information about submitting a conference abstract is below. This information, along with step-by-step instructions can be downloaded in Word format here. When you are ready to submit your abstract, please click this link.

Conference Abstract Submission Information

• Membership: You must be a current NASPSPA member to submit your abstract. The abstract submission process requires you to login with your active membership credentials to start the process. NASPSPA memberships run on the calendar year and renewals that are made after October 1 are automatically credited for the subsequent calendar year. You can update your membership here. Be sure to update at least one day before submitting abstract.
• Authorship: An individual may be the first author on no more than two submitted abstracts (inclusive of verbal and poster presentations) each year. Additional information regarding Ethical Guidelines and the use of Non-Discriminatory Content is available in Section 2C “Guidelines for abstract submission and presentations” in the NASPSPA Policy Manual.
• Presentation types: Verbal and poster presentations and symposia will be accepted. Detailed information about presentation format will be forthcoming, but generally speaking, verbal presentations will be 12 minutes with 3 minutes for questions, and posters will be physical (paper, or similar) posters displayed on poster boards in a conference meeting room. Symposia are a collection of verbal presentations that are submitted together as a single submission. We welcome inter-disciplinary symposia across the three areas of NASPSPA (SEP, MLC, MD). You have the option of indicating your preference for a verbal or poster presentation when you submit your abstract. The same scientific and formatting content rules apply when preparing abstracts for verbal or poster presentations.
• Scientific content: Data-based, theoretical, or research review papers that have not been previously published in an archival scientific publication or presented elsewhere at a national or international conference are eligible for submission.
• Formatting content: 

• • Length: All abstracts (regardless of whether you are submitting for a verbal or poster presentation) have a maximum length of 350 words. To check the number of words in your draft in Word, select your abstract text (do not include any title or author information), click on the “Review” tab in the header, then select “Word Count”. This will give you a pop-up window with the statistics of your highlighted text.

• • Body: The abstract body should not include section headings (i.e., Introduction, Methods, etc.), the title, or author information.

• • Title: Only the first letter, first letter after a colon or sentence-ending punctuation, and acronyms/names should be capitalized in the title.

• • Example: Click here for an example of an appropriately formatted abstract.

• • Where/how to submit: To submit your abstract, click on the link below.

• Troubleshooting: If you have issues submitting your abstract, please contact our webmaster (Joel Barnes) at j@barnzilla.ca.

NASPSPA EDIA Committee 2025 Pre-Conference Workshop

Workshop Title: Navigating Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Higher Education

Workshop Time: 5:00 – 7:30 pm

Workshop Organizer: NASPSPA EDIA Committee

Purpose of the Workshop:

• To explore practical approaches to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EDIA) in higher education by leveraging diverse perspectives from students, researchers, faculty, and administrators.
• To address ongoing challenges and provide actionable strategies for enhancing EDIA in various aspects of academia, including research, teaching, and service.

Rationale for Why the Workshop is of Interest to NASPSPA Members:

• Feedback from previous NASPSPA workshops has shown strong interest in practical strategies for implementing EDIA principles. This workshop will meet this demand by bringing diverse voices together to discuss real-world EDIA applications in academia.

Key Workshop Learning Objectives:

The participants will be able to:

• develop practical strategies and actionable steps for promoting and implementing EDIA in different areas of academia, including research, teaching, and service.
• explore techniques to engage constructively and foster dialogue with students and colleagues who hold differing beliefs or perspectives on EDIA. 

Description of the Workshop Content:

This workshop is discussion-based, consisting of two parts: a panel discussion and a small group reflective discussion, with a 10-minute break in between.

Part 1: Panel Discussion (80 minutes)

The first part of the workshop will be a panel discussion

• Three to four panelists, representing various roles held by NASPSPA members (e.g., students, faculty, researchers, administrators) with experience in EDIA promotion and advocacy, will be invited.
• Each panelist will give a brief presentation (10 to 15 minutes) introducing themselves, describing their efforts to promote and improve EDIA, and sharing the challenges and solutions they have encountered in their EDIA practices.
• Following the presentations, a panel discussion will be held to explore beliefs, practices, and challenges in advancing EDIA within research, teaching, and service in academia.

Break (10 minutes)

Part 2: Reflective Discussion (60 minutes)

In the second part of the workshop, participants will engage in a small group reflective discussion to brainstorm strategies and actionable steps for their own situations.

• The host will provide guidance and examples to support the discussion.
• Participants will brainstorm in small groups using sticky notes to capture ideas.
• A panelist and an EDIA committee member will facilitate discussions at each table.
• Each group will share a brief summary of their discussion with the larger group.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest by the Organizers or Panelists: N/A

Estimated Duration: 2.5 hours

• Part 1: Panel discussion – 80 minutes
• Break – 10 minutes
• Part 2: Reflective discussion – 60 minutes

Additional Information:

At the end of the workshop, participants will receive a physical copy of the certificate of participation and be asked to complete a survey to share their feedback on the workshop and suggest ideas for future improvements.

Maximum Number of Participants: 50

Workshop Title: Discovering Equations of Human Movement: An Interactive Introduction to Symbolic Regression

Workshop Time: 5:00 – 8:00 pm

Presenters

Dr. Aaron D. Likens

Assistant Professor, Department of Biomechanics

University of Nebraska at Omaha

alikens@unomaha.edu

Seung Kyeom Kim

Ph.D. Student, Department of Biomechanics

University of Nebraska at Omaha

seungkyeomkim@unomaha.edu

Workshop Description

From Weber and Fechner’s logarithmic relationship between physical and perceived stimuli to Stevens’ power law of psychophysical scaling, from Hick’s law of choice reaction time to Fitts’ speed-accuracy tradeoff, psychology has uncovered mathematical patterns that capture fundamental aspects of human behavior. Those formulations, along with principles like the power law of practice and the Haken-Kelso-Bunz model of coordination, demonstrate how mathematical regularities illuminate the underlying mechanisms of human performance and learning. Just as those pioneers established milestones in psychological science by identifying patterns in human behavior, advancing scientific knowledge in motor control and learning, motor development, and exercise psychology requires interpretable, data-driven insights that can reveal similarly fundamental principles. While machine learning methods have gained popularity, they often produce “black box” models that lack transparency or fail to connect with physical or psychological principles. This workshop will introduce Symbolic Regression (SR) as a transformative approach that discovers interpretable mathematical expressions while maintaining meaningful constraints.

This three-hour workshop will provide NASPSPA members with both theoretical foundations and practical skills in SR methodology. NASPSPA members span diverse disciplines yet share a common goal: improving research and teaching in sport and physical activity. SR enables this by integrating biomechanics’ focus on movement dynamics with psychology’s emphasis on learning and adaptation. Its ability to reveal interpretable, actionable insights from complex data directly supports NASPSPA’s mission to advance understanding of human behavior and improve the quality of teaching and research in sport and physical activity.

Workshop Structure

The workshop will be organized into two main segments:

1. Foundations of Genetic Programming (Led by Dr. Likens)

•    Learn the basics of mutation, crossover, and selection
•    Participate in an interactive card game simulating these processes
•    Build intuition for how these processes drive pattern discovery

2. Practical Implementation of SR (Led by Mr. Kim)

•    Learn how SR discovers equations from data
•    Gain hands-on experience with Python-based SR graphical user interface (GUI)
•    Work with both simulated and experimental datasets
•    Learn strategies for optimizing SR outputs and ensuring validity

Learning Objectives

By the end of the workshop, participants will:

1. Understand the principles of genetic programming and symbolic regression
2. Explore SR’s role in developing interpretable models for motor control, learning, and development
3. Gain hands-on experience applying SR to diverse datasets using accessible Python tools
4. Learn strategies for optimizing SR outputs to maximize relevance and predictive power

Interactive Components

The workshop will feature:

• A conceptual card game illustrating genetic programming principles
• A mathematical game demonstrating symbolic regression in action
• Guided exercises using simulated and experimental datasets
• Peer discussions and personalized feedback to enhance research applications
• Collaborative problem-solving sessions with real movement data

This workshop will be particularly valuable for NASPSPA members as it will address a crucial challenge in motor behavior research: the need for models that are both data-driven and theoretically interpretable. SR will offer a unique solution by discovering mathematical expressions that can reveal underlying principles in movement patterns, potentially leading to new theoretical insights in motor control and learning. A remarkable feature of SR is that it does not have any a priori limitations in terms of the amount of data needed so long as the data is representative of the underlying process. For example, we have successfully modeled ~2,000 walking trials from only a single ensemble average containing 101 time series data points.

The workshop will be open to all NASPSPA members, especially researchers, clinicians, and students interested in biomechanics, motor learning, and sport psychology. While college-level algebra and basic Python familiarity will be beneficial, no prior programming or advanced math experience is required. Participants will be able to interact with a custom GUI that allows participants to access SR algorithms through a code-free interface. In addition, participants will receive pre-workshop materials and supportive resources to ensure accessibility for all skill levels.

Registration rates will remain similar to last year. Students be sure to check out opportunities for assistance through the Ambassador program (see Student Column). Registration will open soon.