<p> One of the quintessential properties of the human semantic system is its ability to flexibly combine the meanings of smaller pieces into larger wholes. However, not all smaller conceptual pieces are created equal; concepts differ in the extent to which they can drive meaning composition. Some concepts can drive semantic composition by establishing relationships with other concepts, while others cannot. For example, we know the concept labelled by &ldquo;friend&rdquo; can drive composition, since one cannot be a friend without being <i>someone</i>&rsquo;s friend, while an animal can be a cat without standing in a similar relationship. We can thus divide the conceptual space of humans into two sections: relational concepts labelled by words like &ldquo;friend&rdquo;, and non-relational concepts like the one labelled by &ldquo;cat&rdquo;. </p><p> Evidence in favor of this division indicates that in early childhood humans are aware of the relationality of concepts (Smiley and Brown 1979; Mirman and Graziano 2012), and as we age, relational concepts remain extremely common in our lexicon, making up nearly half of the adult English vocabulary (Asmuth and Gentner, 2005; Gentner, 2005). Some relational words have been extensively studied by cognitive psychologists and formal linguists alike. One relatively mature set of investigations utilizes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural basis of relational verb meaning, and finds that relational (i.e., transitive) verbs drive activity in left perisylvian cortical regions more than their intransitive counterparts (Meltzer-Asscher et al., 2015; Thompson et al., 2010, 2007; Bornkessel et al., 2005; Ben-Shachar et al., 2003). These investigations attribute this activity to verb-specific or event-specific information that is stored as part of the verb&rsquo;s conceptual representation. Some support for this comes from Binder and Desai 2011 that holds that the left AG is a main semantic hub that specializes in event processing. However, formal linguistic investigations suggest that relationality should be independent of verbhood or eventivity; it is an independent abstract property of some lexical items which enables them to establish relationships and drive semantic composition. The neural basis of relationality and whether it can be independent of verbhood and eventivity is still relatively underexplored. As relationality straddles the boundary between syntax and semantics, disentangling the contributions of various linguistic features, such as syntactic category, eventivity, and plurality to left AG activity becomes a crucial exercise&mdash;one that a linguist is uniquely poised to address. </p><p> A main candidate region for relational processing is the left Angular Gyrus (lAG), because prior literature suggests it is sensitive to at least some of the features that a region that processes relationality would be sensitive to. In addition to being implicated in tasks that probe the argument structure of verbs, the left AG was found to be the most consistently activated region across numerous semantic tasks in a recent, large-scale meta-analysis (Binder and Desai, 2011), prompting it to be dubbed a domain-general &rdquo;semantic&rdquo; hub (Bonner et al., 2013; Binder and Desai, 2011). Because of this, this dissertation reports the results of three MEG experiments and one computational experiment, and focuses on the left AG and surrounding perisylvian cortical regions, and uses Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate its role in relational processing. </p><p> Chapter 2 asks whether left AG tracks relationality, the eventivity of verbs, or a word&rsquo;s combinatorial context, and finds a main effect of relationality from 170&ndash;260 ms after the visual presentation of the target noun, and no other effects of the other factors, suggesting that it is indeed relationality and not eventivity (or context) that drives left AG argument structure findings. </p><p> Chapter 3 asks whether relationality effects could be driven by something other than the relationality of concepts, namely, by the quantity of concepts. In addition to being activated for numerous number-related tasks (see Dehaene et al. 2003 a.o., for a review), the left posterior perisylvian cortex has been found to be differentially active for plurals as opposed to for singulars (Domahs et al., 2012), suggesting that the lAG might track semantic information about plurality. Contrasting plural and singular nouns that vary in relationality, I replicate the relationality effect, and find no interaction with plurality, suggesting that, indeed, left posterior perisylvian relationality effects cannot be explained as a type of quantity processing. </p><p> Chapter 4 presents a filler experiment to the second experiment, which investigates the mass-count distinction and asks whether left AG activity is sensitive to countability and whether it interacts with plurality. I observed a main effect of countability (count nouns > mass nouns), in a broad swath of left hemisphere from 295&ndash;465 ms after noun presentation, and additionally observe a left frontal effect of plurality (bare nouns > plurals), paralleling what I found in Chapter 3. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.) </p><p>

Navigation is a task that involves processing two-dimensional light patterns on the retinas to obtain knowledge about how to move through a three-dimensional environment. Therefore, modifying the basic characteristics of the two-dimensional information provided to navigators should have important and informative effects on how they form their representations of the environment. Despite this, few basic research studies have examined the effects of systematically modifying the available levels of spatial visual detail on mobility performance. In this study we tested the effects of a range of visual blur levels---approximately equivalent to various degrees of low-pass spatial frequency filtering---on participants" route learning performance using desktop virtual renderings of the Hebb-Williams mazes. Our findings show that the function of blur and time to finish the mazes follows a sigmoidal pattern, with the inflection point around +2 diopters of blur. This suggests that visually guided route learning is fairly robust to blur, with the threshold level being just above the limit for legal blindness. These findings have implications for models of route learning, as well as for practical situations in which humans must navigate under conditions of blur.

The three essays in this dissertation present field experiments exploring phenomena in behavioral and public economics in real-world settings. The first essay outlines a field experiment that uses mailers with peer rank information to motivate water conservation. The essay contributes some of the first pieces of evidence on how comparisons with specific peers might influence behavior. The main finding is that while competitive framing of peer information has positive impacts on efficient homes, it has simultaneous negative impacts on inefficient homes, which are larger in magnitude. In particular, the essay finds that households who rank last in a displayed peer comparison are demotivated by their poor performance, and increase their water use relative to controls. The second essay studies the impact of signing an explicit promise statement at loan initiation on ensuing loan repayment behavior. The essay provides one of the first field tests of a phenomenon observed in laboratory studies, namely that making a promise can change people's ensuing behavior. Interestingly, the essay does not find support for this claim, and shows the potential difficulty in generalizing laboratory results to real-world settings. The third essay focuses on decision making about risk. Specifically, it presents two field studies that use quasi-random, real-world events to explore how emotions influence risk decisions. These studies are among the first field tests of the relationship between emotion and risk preferences. The essay offers mixed results, finding that negative emotions seem to increase risk aversion only when the emotions derive from events linked to individual self-responsibility. / Public Policy

<p> As adolescents transition to middle school, math confidence and performance declines (Eccles et al., 1993; Lee, Statuto, &amp; Kadar-Voivodas, 1983). These declines are typically attributed to social and maturational changes (Eccles, Lord, &amp; Midgley, 1991; Simmons &amp; Blyth, 1987). In this dissertation, I explore the hypothesis that low parent support for schoolwork is also responsible.</p><p> Latino-American adolescents are especially at risk for math difficulties. Maintaining adolescents&rsquo; engagement and performance in math are important goals for mothers because high levels of both are requisites for many professional careers. This dissertation will focus on Latino-American families to determine if mothers&rsquo; homework involvement is associated with changes in children&rsquo;s math-related outcomes across the transition to secondary school.</p><p> Parental involvement in math homework is assumed to mitigate declines in math performance during this transition. Cognitive models suggest that involved parents utilize scaffolding (Rogoff &amp; Gardner, 1984) and instruction to ensure math achievement (Pomerantz &amp; Moorman, 2010). Motivational models suggest that involved parents foster math engagement by bolstering child confidence, modeling management strategies, and promoting values that encourage children to work hard (Grolnick &amp; Slowiaczek, 1994; Simpkins, Fredricks, &amp; Eccles, 2015). However, empirical evidence in support of the importance of parents in math achievement is limited. While positive forms of involvement co-occur with better math outcomes (Bhanot &amp; Jovanovic, 2005; Rice et al., 2013), no studies have examined such associations longitudinally. Children who are uninterested in math may be more susceptible to the effects of parental homework involvement because they lack internal motivation for mastery that underlies performance in other children.</p><p> The present study examines the extent to which Latina-American mothers&rsquo; involvement in math homework is effective in preventing declines in child math-related outcomes (i.e., perceptions of math ability, etc) during the transition to middle school. Child math interest was postulated to moderate this association. Results indicated that low maternal homework involvement predicts worsening child math-related outcomes, but only for children who were intrinsically uninterested in math.</p><p> The findings hold important implications for parents, who must work to ensure that they remain engaged in their children&rsquo;s activities, especially if children appear uninterested in math.</p><p>

Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

Major depressive disorder is a devastating disease characterized by intense and prolonged sadness and feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. While developments in drug therapy have provided some insight into the mechanisms underlying depression, investigations employing animal models have provided another strategy for studying the neurobiology of depression. The first generation of these models evolved to evaluate the therapeutic potential of novel drugs, and included the reserpine reversal test, forced swimming test, and the brain-stimulation reward (BSR) procedure. The rationale in the case of the latter was that since one of the core symptoms of depression is a decreased capacity to experience pleasure, interventions that relieve these symptoms in humans will enhance reward transmission; in animals, this was interpreted from decreases in thresholds for BSR. In the first experiment, we evaluated the effects of paroxetine, an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class, on BSR thresholds and observed only modest decreases in thresholds. These results mimicked the minimal mood altering effects that antidepressants are reported to have in "normal" individuals. Next, as a means of inducing a depressive state in rats, the chronic mild stress (CMS) procedure, developed to model anhedonia, a core symptom of depression, was employed in the subsequent experiments. Its consequences were measured on several indices of depressive behaviours, sucrose consumption (1 and 24h intake and preference), BSR thresholds, and the forced swim test. Genetic variation was considered by comparing male and female rats of two outbred strains. While CMS produced little change in BSR thresholds, its effects on sucrose consumption were varied; in male rats, we observed an initial reduction in 1h sucrose intake in Long Evans exclusively, while a CMS-induced reduction on the 24h intake measure was evident in both strains of female rats, with a greater effect in the Sprague-Dawley group. In evaluating the effects of CMS on forced swimming behaviour, we saw no group or strain difference in the female rats and a notable strain difference in male rats. Long Evans animals with a history of stress significantly reduced the duration of the test engaged in escape-type behaviours on the second exposure to forced swim, as would be expected in animals experiencing learned helplessness, a behaviour characteristic of depressed individuals. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Abstract not available.

The purpose of this study was to explore how asking for general music preferences compares to asking for music preferences that relate to the intended objective (in this case, relaxation), and to determine if one of these types of preferred music was more effective than the other in eliciting relaxation. Participants, who were undergraduate non-music majors (N = 71), took part in a music listening study in which their perceived relaxation and galvanic skin response (GSR) levels were recorded. Participants were placed in one of three groups: the participant-selected preferred music group (PM), the participant-selected preferred relaxing music group (PRM), or the unfamiliar, non-preferred music group (NPM). Results indicate that participants in the PM and PRM groups experienced significant increases in perceived relaxation and significant decreases in GSR levels, but there was not a significant difference between the two groups in the amount of change. Therefore, preferred music and preferred relaxing music appear equally effective in increasing relaxation responses. These findings provide support for the continued use of patient-preferred music in music therapy settings and offer alternative suggestions for assessing music preferences. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. / Summer Semester 2015. / July 13, 2015. / galvanic skin response, music preference, music therapy, relaxation / Includes bibliographical references. / John Geringer, Professor Directing Thesis; Jayne M. Standley, Committee Member; Dianne Gregory, Committee Member.

The current studies focus on individual difference predictors of the phenomenon inattentional blindness (IB; when observers fail to notice a salient but unexpected event when attention is occupied by another task). Study 1 (conducted on Mechanical Turk) explicitly examined unexpected object salience as the moderator between the potential relationship between working memory capacity and IB. Salience was varied in two ways: 1) the color of the unexpected item (gray vs. red) and also the distance of the unexpected item from fovea (near vs. far). A second lab-based study explored the degree to which attentional control is an important individual difference predictor of IB, with the idea that individuals more susceptible to attention capture will be more likely to notice the unexpected event, and individuals who are better able to filter irrelevant information will miss it more. Study 2 tested this hypothesis by examining the relationship between four classic measures of attentional control (measuring implicit capture of attention using reaction time) and IB (measuring explicit detection of an unexpected object using participant report). Contrary to hypotheses, working memory capacity was not a significant predictor of IB, even in instances in which the unexpected object was highly salient (Study 1). Moreover, Study 2 found no relationship between classic measures of implicit capture (based on RT) and explicit capture (participant report of noticing an unexpected event). Instead, age, processing speed, and conscientiousness demonstrated predictive ability in distinguishing noticers and non-noticers. Results suggest that attentional control (measured via working memory capacity or classic measures of attention capture) is unrelated to explicit detection of an unexpected stimulus. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2015. / July 17, 2015. / Attentional Control, Attention Capture, Distraction, Inattentional Blindness, Selective Attention, Working Memory / Includes bibliographical references. / Walter Boot, Professor Directing Dissertation; Betsy Becker, University Representative; Neil Charness, Committee Member; Jonathan Folstein, Committee Member; Arielle Borovsky, Committee Member.