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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 B42 / Master of Science / Psychological Sciences

This study investigated the effects of assessment context on state anxiety and attention according to the Mirsky (1996) model of attention. Context varied in the physical testing environment, demeanor of the assessor, and explanation of the purpose of testing. A relaxed condition (RC) and structured medical condition (SMC) distinction was made prior to data collection and the two contexts were designed to reflect contrasting practices of neuropsychologists. Elements of attention evaluated included Encoding (Digit Span), Focusing/Executing (Visual Search and Attention Test), Shifting (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: Computerized Version 2), Sustaining, and Stabilizing (Continuous Performance Test-Identical Pairs). Eighty healthy adult females participated in the study. The findings suggest that the SMC caused higher levels of anxiety and lower valence than the RC, which in turn caused poorer sustained attention and superior shifting attention for this condition. Such interpretations are consistent with several theories on the effects of anxiety on attention. It should be noted, however, that differences observed in attention were limited to select measures. Factor analysis also indicates that the encode, shift, and sustain elements of attention were largely consistent with the factor solution proposed by Mirsky, while findings on the focus/execute and stabilize elements bring into question the construct validity of these aspects of the model. Findings from the study are considered relevant to those interested in attention theory and particularly researchers and clinicians involved in the administration of neuropsychological testing.

This study builds the constructs of three kinds (four types) of gated news to explore how online users pay attention to three online mainstream news sites by defining online users from marketing, democratic, and technological perspectives. Editors’ news cues, people-gated news cues, and news characteristics of four types of gated news are examined in explaining online users’ most popular news attention. The results show that several news types contain distinctive news characteristics; in addition, editors’ news cues, peoples’ news cues, and news characteristics significantly explain online users’ news attention. / text

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The latent variable structure of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) test (Sheslow & Adams, 1990) has been suggested to contain an attention factor comprised of the subtests: Finger Windows, Number/Letter, and Sentence Memory. The multidimensional nature of the attention construct has not been addressed in previous studies with the WRAML. The present investigation was designed to investigate the relationship between the WRAML subtests and a diverse battery of attention tests. Three competing latent variable models of the attention construct were developed in which the WRAML subtests were hypothesized to be affected by different components of attention. The battery, administered to 120 males between 9 and 14 years of age consisted of the WRAML subtests, Digit Span, Arithmetic, Coding, Trails A, Trails B, Category Test, Speech Sounds Perception Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and a Continuous Performance Test.Significant correlations were obtained between all the tests in the battery. Confirmatory factor analysis results suggested that a four factor model of attention (Focus-Execute, Shift, Sustain, Encode) similar to that obtained by Mirsky and others, (1991) was the best data fit. The WRAML subtests were affected by the Encode element of attention in the current analysis. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate a proposed neurophysiological model for Necker cube reversals by using electroencephalography. It is suggested that Necker cube reversals are mediated by sustained focused attention to the overall drawing with visual selective attention to vertices of the cube. The main hypotheses were that deliberate attention would increase Necker cube reversals over passive attention, there would be greater high theta power during the deliberate focusing of attention than during passive attentional processing, and there would be greater theta power in the right hemisphere. Thirty undergraduate psychology students had monopolar EEG recorded bilaterally from frontal and parietal electrode sites. The subjects viewed computer presentations of the Necker cube under two different experimental conditions: a passive condition in which they were not instructed to influence reversals, and an active condition in which subjects deliberately shifted their focus of attention. / Master of Science

Two continuous performance tests were administered to normal adult subjects. The mode of presentation (visual or auditory) and the type of task (vigilance or distractibility) were varied, and their effects on performance measured. Data were collected on eighty-two subjects, and results indicated that auditory presentation of stimuli increased the difficulty of both tasks. Results also suggest that the distractibility task administered in either mode was more difficult than the vigilance task. Intercorrelations among the four continuous performance tasks are provided. Normative data are presented on all four tasks administered. A measure of symptoms of attention-deficit disorder in adults, the Adult Behavior Checklist, was found to correlate significantly with another measure of pathology, the SCL-90-R.

The purpose of this investigation was to compare associative and dissociative psychological strategies of attentional focus for their effects on self - report ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and heart rate during endurance exercise. Trained cyclists (n = 7) performed three 60 minute experimental rides on a bicycle ergometer which consisted of an association ride (attention focused on heart rate feedback), a dissociation ride (attention focused on responding to a cue word on a videotape), and a control condition ride in which focus of attention was not purposely manipulated. Results indicated that the deliberate application of a cognitive strategy designed to encourage an individual to associate or dissociate did not differentially effect either actual efficiency (heart rate) or perception of exercise intensity (RPE scores). Overall, it was concluded that there was a trend for the dissociation condition to result in higher RPE scores than the association condition or control condition. / School of Physical Education