Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-236).

This study sought to investigate the influence of expressive task demand, as determined by amount of face-to face social interaction, level of subjects' expressive ability, sex of subject, and sex of experimenter on subjects' digit and visual-spatial short-term memory span performance. The amount of personal contact was manipulated by the automated versus person administrations of the memory measures. The automated administration was accomplished through the use of a microcomputer.

This research explores auditory short-term memory (STM) capacity for non-linguistic sounds in 10-month-old infants. Infants were presented with auditory streams composed of repeating sequences of either 2 or 4 unique instruments (e.g., flute, piano, cello; 350 or 700. ms in duration) followed by a 500-ms retention interval. These instrument sequences either stayed the same for every repetition (Constant) or changed by 1 instrument per sequence (Varying). Using the head-turn preference procedure, infant listening durations were recorded for each stream type (2- or 4-instrument sequences composed of 350- or 700-ms notes). Preference for the Varying stream was taken as evidence of auditory STM because detection of the novel instrument required memory for all of the instruments in a given sequence. Results demonstrate that infants listened longer to Varying streams for 2-instrument sequences, but not 4-instrument sequences, composed of 350-ms notes (Experiment 1), although this effect did not hold when note durations were increased to 700. ms (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 replicates and extends results from Experiments 1 and 2 and provides support for a duration account of capacity limits in infant auditory STM.

Operational risk management has been identified as one of the primary risk types that short-term insurance companies will have to deal with on a rigorous basis in the future.

För att öka bland annat trivsel och säkerhet inom ett bostadsområde är det av av stor fördel att anlägga bostadsparkering i utkanten och på sätt minska trafikflödet inom området. En sådan parkeringslösning förutsätter dock att viss markyta inom området avsätts för att kunna ställa upp sin bil under en kortare period för att hämta eller lämna passagerare samt lasta i eller ur gods. Detta kallas för att korttidsangöra. Examensarbetet har kartlagt hur korttidsangöring används samt undersökt om behovet att angöra påverkas av avstånd till parkering och socioekonomiska faktorer inom ett område.

Several experiments are presented to evaluate the development of visuo-spatial short term memory from childhood to old age (from five-year-olds to about 70-year-olds). Visuospatial short term memory was assessed through transformational imagery tasks. The first set of experiments (chapters 3, 4 and 5) concerned the development of mental rotation abilities. A review of the literature suggested that young children (specifically so-called preoperational children) and elderly people are poor at rotating a mental image of a visual pattern. However, as some mental rotation abilities have been reported while using Shepard's paradigm, attention was focussed on the role of the first steps necessarily taken while performing a mental rotation task, specifically the maintenance of a visual pattern in STM. The second set of experiments (chapter 6) considered another imagery subsystem, namely "mental scanning". Like mental rotation, it requires the maintenance of a visual pattern in short term memory. Image maintenance ability has been assessed in reference to Kosslyn's (1994) model although Baddeley's (1986) working memory model- specifically, Logie's (1995) revision of the VSSP - has been sometimes considered while interpreting the data. These two different theoretical models suggest the existence of two related but different subsystems for sorting visual and spatial information. Most of the data presented in this thesis suggest that young children and the elderly have some difficulties maintaining spatial characteristics of a visual pattern in short term memory, i.e. the orientation of the stimulus in the mental rotation tasks and the location of targets in the mental scanning tasks. These results tend to provide some developmental evidence for a dissociation between the dorsal and ventral subsystems. It seems that the two subsystems develop at different speeds. The ventral subsystem might be better developed earlier than the dorsal subsystem. Similarly, some data suggest that the same ventral system is not yet affected by ageing when the dorsal subsystem has already begun to deteriorate.

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an instructional programme designed to improve the regulatory fit of, and lessen the working memory demand upon, students in the process of second language (L2) writing. Drawing on the theoretical understanding of regulatory focus theory (RFT) and cognitive process of writing, a quasi-experiment with control group was designed and testified on 138 secondary school students in Hong Kong over a period of 16 weeks. The findings suggest that the aforementioned instructional design is effective in promoting students’ writing performance in terms of quality, creativity and accuracy. The pretest-posttest gains exhibited in the experimental group suggest that the students were able to internalize the writing instruction, self-regulate their writing processes, and benefit from it. In hierarchical regression, working memory explained unique variances in the control group but not in the experimental group, perhaps because the writing instruction rendered working memory constraint unimportant. The results not only offer empirical support for the application of RFT in education settings, but also inspire teachers with ways to improve students’ writing performance by fine adjustment in writing activities and grading system. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

<p>Course:        Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS</p><p> </p><p>Topic:          The Impact of Strategic Purchasing on an Organization’s Profitability</p><p>                     A Case Study of Ghana Telecom Company        </p><p>                                         </p><p> </p><p>Supervisor:     Mats Viimne</p><p>Background:  The purchasing function contributes directly to the operating results and</p><p>                       profitability of an organization. It has been argued out that, the fact that</p><p>                       purchasing is responsible for spending more than 60 percent of an organization’s    </p><p>                       sales dollars highlights the profit-enhancing potentials of the purchasing on an</p><p>                       organization.</p><p> </p><p>                                 </p><p>Problem:       How can strategic purchasing affect the profitability of an organization?</p><p> </p><p>Purpose:       The purpose of this research is to describe how strategic purchasing impact on</p><p>                      the profitability of Ghana Telecom Company.    </p><p> </p><p>Method:      The author collected both primary and secondary data in order to fulfill the  </p><p>                    purpose of the paper; the primary data was gathered directly from relevant sources</p><p>                    in Ghana Telecom Company, through telephone and email interviews. The</p><p>                    secondary data was obtained from indirect sources, such as textbooks, articles, and</p><p>                    websites. The method used can be described as a qualitative.</p><p> </p><p>Conclusion: An organization’s purchasing strategy is becoming recognized as a strategic weapon</p><p>                    equal in importance to its marketing, conversion and finance strategies as pointed</p><p>                     out by Dobler et al. Ghana Telecom Company’s strategic approach to buying include</p><p>                    multiple sourcing, short-term contracting and competitive bidding as a measure</p><p>                    towards increasing its profitability by being able to source at the lowest cost, and</p><p>                    having other sourcing alternatives, which leads to cost reduction.</p>

The digit span test has long been used in the study and evaluation of memory processes in children. The study of memory processes in bilingual children has received only limited attention. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influences of bilingual interference, English proficiency, and item familiarity on a task of short-term memory. One-hundred nineteen third grade subjects were assigned to one of four groups based on their language background and ethnicity. Subjects were administered the Digit Span subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised in English as well as a test of general ability, the Coloured Progressive Matrices, and a reaction time measure, item identification. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and multiple regression procedures. Results showed that Mexican-American bilingual subjects who were proficient in English performed comparably to monolingual Mexican-American subjects. These results were discussed in terms of their support for the dual storage and independence positions of bilingual memory. Results of the data analysis also revealed a small but significant direct causal link between English proficiency level and digit span. This finding was discussed in terms of its support for the use of digit span measures with bilingual Mexican-American children providing the students have been determined to be proficient in English on a standardized measure. A final finding of the present study concerned the absence of a role for item familiarity as an intervening variable between English proficiency level and digit span. Results showed a direct association between English proficiency level and reaction time, but no significant association between reaction time and digit span. Implications of the current findings were discussed in relation to relevant theory and prior research findings.