<p> The thesis investigated debated intelligence theories: Cattell&rsquo;s (1943) &ldquo;Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence&rdquo; and Gardner&rsquo;s (1983) &ldquo;Theory of M.I.&rdquo; The research asks: Which existing theory-based and hypothetically based measurement models of intelligence fit the measurement data better? How does a traditional vs. modified M.I. Theory measurement model fit? How does a combined measurement model of the theories fit? Participants (n=287) were students (age 18-25) from a top-tier East-Coast university. Approximate statistical power is .90 with effect size of .5 (<i>p</i>&le;.05). Participants were administered the <i>Reynolds Adaptable Intelligence Test and Multiple Intelligence Developmental Assessment Scales</i>. Structural equation modeling revealed better fit for the &ldquo;Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence&rdquo; data (&chi;²(4) =8.08, <i>p</i>=.09; CMIN/d.f.=2.02; RMSEA= .06; TLI= .98; CFI= .99; IFI=.99; SRMR=.0221). The traditional Theory of M.I.&rdquo; model fit was insupportable (&chi;²(300) =1441.448, <i>p</i>&lt;.000; CMIN/d.f.=4.80; RMSEA= .12; TLI= .61; CFI= .64; IFI=.65; SRMR=.2239), but alternative M.I. models were supported. A correlated M.I. model (&chi;²(264) =569.09, p&lt;.001; CMIN/d.f.=2.16; RMSEA= .06; TLI= .88; CFI= .90; IFI= .91; SRMR=.06) and 4-factor model M.I. with distinct bodily-kinesthetic and musical talent (&chi;²(267) =526.32, p&lt;.001; CMIN/d.f.=2.12; RMSEA= .06; GFI=.91; TLI= .92; CFI= .94; IFI= .94; SRMR=.06) show acceptable to good fit. A M.I. Indicator &amp; R.A.I.T. TII to <i>g</i> SCU Model shows good fit (&chi;²(120) =247.56, p&lt;.001; CMIN/d.f.=2.06; RMSEA= .06; TLI= .89; GFI=.94; CFI= .96; IFI= .96; SRMR=.10). Current findings are further discussed in relation to analogous studies.</p>

Social functioning impairments are a core, debilitating, and treatment refractory feature of schizophrenia. The mechanisms contributing to these impairments are unknown. Cognitive control mechanisms, mediated by the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), are known to influence response to interpersonal stressors in healthy individuals, thus impairments in these processes may contribute to social deficits. Deficits in cognitive control and lateral prefrontal abnormalities are well-documented in schizophrenia, but the relationship between these deficits and social interactions has received limited attention in the literature. The current dissertation presents a systematic examination of the contribution of the behavioral and neural mechanisms of cognitive control to social functioning impairments in schizophrenia. Three papers are presented. / Psychology

Suggestibility occurs when inaccurate information is incorporated into currently existing memories. The present study examined the effect of forewarning on suggestibility, including the influence of working memory capacity (WMC). The main hypotheses are that forewarnings will reduce suggestibility compared to the control group and that high-WMC will yield lower suggestibility compared to medium- and low-WMC. The final hypothesis is that WMC and forewarning will interact such that low-WMC individuals will benefit more than high-WMC individuals from the forewarning. A sample of 123 college students was recruited. Participants watched a clip of the TV-show 24. WMC was then assessed followed by the presentation of a misleading narrative. Prior to listening to the narrative, they read a set of instructions that sometimes contained the forewarning. After listening to the misleading narrative, participants took a test over their memories of the film. A 2 X 3 ANOVA was conducted and found a main effect for forewarning. No other effect was significant. The current results only support the first main hypothesis that forewarning reduces suggestibility. These results could be used to help prepare eyewitnesses to resist misinformation in the period between witnessing an event and reporting the event during a later trial.

This dissertation describes the development and empirical testing of strategic asset pricing theory (STRAPT). This explains the processes by which investors form ideas and judgments about a given firm‘s competitive strategy, and their ultimate belief about the impact these strategies will have on the firm‘s future stock price. My model explicitly accounts for information investors associate with dimensions of a firm‘s pattern of competitive actions, how investors process and interpret this information, and how they form opinions about the relationship between competitive strategy and future value of the firm‘s equity shares. Thus, by accounting for observed competitive behavior, my model stands in stark contrast to asset pricing theory – which asserts that financial markets are efficient and all investors rational – and instead sides with Hirshleifer (2001) who contends some investors form biases, and that the next stage of asset pricing theory is to look at how investors form opinions about stocks. Drawing from some unique theoretical areas: information perception/salience, information processing, social judgment, and decision making, my dissertation develops a conceptual model of this process by which long-buyers and short-sellers view and react to patterns of competitive actions carried out among rivals. My findings about how long-buyers regard between-firm ―differences‖ in the pattern of competitive actions the firm carries out over time, or strategic heterogeneity, are generally supportive of Miller and Chen (1996), who posited that distinctive processes such as heterogeneous strategies may decrease the ―legitimacy‖ of the firm. They exhibit a negative relationship with stock returns. Due to a different decision-making process, short-sellers come to different conclusions. Strategic heterogeneity exhibits a U-shaped relationship with short interest. My findings pertaining to how long-buyers value the number of strategic moves carried out by a firm generally support Young, Smith, and Grimm (1996) and Ferrier (2001). Specifically, I demonstrate that these investors value exposure to a firm, and this translates into positive stock market returns. Short-sellers, on the other hand, see the value of a large number of strategic actions only to an extent. Through their systematic analysis, they subscribe to the Porter (1980) and Shamsie (1990) viewpoint that more is not always better. This results in a U-shaped relationship with short interest.

<p> Intelligence was defined by early psychometricians as capabilities that could be measured by standardized tests. This definition of intelligence is largely accepted to underlie academic achievement. More recent psychological theory posits a broader definition of human intelligence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility that the historic definition of intelligence could be expanded to include transpersonal capabilities as features of intelligence which contribute to academic achievement. This study utilized a quantitative, descriptive, and correlational method to explore the possibility of relationships between intelligence, as traditionally measured by standardized tests in academic settings, and four other psychological constructs&mdash;multiple intelligences, spiritual intelligence, concept imagery, and empathy. By its nature this type of research is exploratory only and does not reveal causal relationships. One hundred ninety-five English-speaking college undergraduates, 18 to 25 years old, attending university in the United States, were recruited via SurveyMonkey Audience. Data were gathered via Survey Monkey using the following instruments: a demographic questionnaire, the Multiple Intelligence Survey (MIS); The Integrated Spiritual Intelligence Scale (ISIS); the Style of Processing Scale (SOP); and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ). It was hypothesized that higher standardized test scores and GPA would correlate positively with concept imagery (SOP), spiritual intelligence (ISIS), empathy (TEQ), logical-mathematical intelligence (MIS), and linguistic intelligence (MIS). Findings did not support the hypothesized relationships. However, an unpredicted negative correlation, between spiritual intelligence and the ACT and SAT standardized test scores, was found. Further analysis revealed that higher ISIS scores correlated with, and predicted, lower ACT/SAT scores. This research contributes to the limited literature available that investigates the relationship between spiritual intelligence, spiritual beliefs/participation, and academic achievement. Future research is recommended to replicate these findings, and to look for causal and/or directional explanations of the negative correlation between SI and ACT/SAT scores found in this study.</p>

Recent literature in cognitive psychology depicts mental constructs through which processes and strategies are employed by the learner to facilitate learning. A remedial curriculum structured to enhance the development of the general constructs theorized, was evaluated for its effect on a cognitive component of reading. Inferential comprehension strategies of 4th-6th grade students in the experimental computer-based higher order thinking skills program and in a traditional program of drill and practice in reading skills were assessed using the strategy stories of Goodman and Burke (1980). A MANOVA design revealed a difference between the two treatment groups (p >.001) on eleven dependent measures. Univariate results indicate that the experimental students performed better on five out of the eleven individual measures. Qualitative analysis on the contextual cues utilized in forming hypotheses did not reveal great differences in the amount of contextual cues used by the two groups.

Home field advantage remains one of the least understood phenomenon in sports. Much effort has been put into testing the different components that contribute to the phenomenon, but a clear explanation is lacking. The purpose of the present paper is to provide a better understanding of home field advantage by analyzing previous literature and experiments on the topic. The paper will also organize the major components involved in home field advantage by updating Courneya and Carron’s conceptual framework. The paper will explain the importance of studying the topic and will highlight significant experiments that have produced contradictory results. Lastly, the paper will focus on the critical psychological states of the competitors, as it remains the least understood component of the aggregate study. Keywords: home advantage, athletic competition, Courneya and Carron

Humans are limited in their capacity to process information about the environment; to choose the most salient details to process, we have to make rapid value appraisals and prioritize our attentional resources. In this proposed study, it is expected that attention is required to learn from affective information. Learning is measured by the difference between update (the difference between the first and second estimation) and the estimation error (the difference between the average likelihood and the first estimation). Using a belief-updating paradigm, participants will be asked to estimate their likelihood of encountering a negative event, once before and once after they receive the average likelihood information. By comparing the difference in estimations after being exposed to desirable or undesirable information and a positive or negative reinforcer across three levels of attentional load, the effects of attention on learning from affective reinforcement can be examined. It is proposed that attention mediates learning from affective information. This is demonstrated by the failure to learn differentially from affective information under high attentional load, while in a no load condition participants will learn differentially according to the type of news and affective reinforcer that they receive. The expected result would indicate that attention is a necessity for optimal learning outcomes, especially when learning from affective information. This has implications in the effectiveness of communicating affective information, such as in the health care field.

An investigation is conducted into the cognitive effects of using different computer based instructions media in acquisition of specific novel human skills. With recent rapid advances in computing and multimedia instructional delivery, several contemporary research have focussed on the best practices for training and learning delivered via computer based multimedia simulations. More often than not, the aim has been cost minimisation through an optimisation of the instructional delivery process for efficient knowledge acquisition. The outcome of such research effort in general have been largely divergent and inconclusive. The work reported in this thesis utilises a dual prong methodology to provide a novel perspective on the moderating effects of computer based instructional visualisations with a focus on the interaction of interface dynamism with target knowledge domains and trainee cognitive characteristics. The first part of the methodology involves a series of empirical experiments that incrementally measures/compares the cognitive benefits of different levels of instructional interface dynamism for efficient task representation and post-acquisition skilled performance. The first of these experiments utilised a mechanical disassembly task to investigate novel acquisition of procedural motor skills by comparing task comprehension and performance. The other experiments expanded the initial findings to other knowledge domains as well as controlled for potential confounding variables. The integral outcome of these experiments helped to define a novel framework for describing multimodal perception of different computer based instruction types and its moderating effect on post-learning task performance. A parallel computational cognitive modelling effort provided the complementary methodology to investigate cognitive processing associated with different instructional interfaces at a lower level of detail than possible through empirical observations. Novel circumventions of some existing limitations of the selected ACT-R 6.0 cognitive modelling architecture were proposed to achieve the precision required. The ACT-R modifications afforded the representation of human motor movements at an atomic level of detail and with a constant velocity profile as opposed to what is possible with the default manual module. Additional extensions to ACT-R 6.0 also allowed accurate representation of the noise inherent in the recall of spatial locations from declarative memory. The method used for this representation is potentially extendable for application to 3-D spatial representation in ACT-R. These novel propositions are piloted in a proof-of-concept effort followed by application to a more complete, naturally occurring task sequence. The modelling methodology is validated with established human data of skilled task performances. The combination of empirical observations and detailed cognitive modelling afforded novel insights to the hitherto controversial findings on the cognitive benefits of different multimodal instructional presentations. The outcome has implications for training research and development involving computer based simulations.

In this thesis I examine a number of topics that bear on explanation and understanding in molecular and cell biology, in order to shed new light on explanatory practice in those areas and to find novel angles from which to approach relevant philosophical debates. The topics I look at include mechanism, emergence, cellular complexity, and the informational role of the genome. I develop a perspective that stresses the intimacy of the relations between ontology and epistemology. Whether a phenomenon looks mechanistic, or complex, or indeed emergent, is largely an epistemic matter, yet has an objective basis in features of the world. After reviewing several concepts of mechanism I consider the influential recent account of Machamer, Darden and Craver (MDC). That account makes interesting proposals concerning the relationship between mechanistic explanation and intelligibility, which are consistent with the results of the investigation I undertake into the science surrounding protein folding. In relation to a number of other issues pertaining to biological systems I conclude that the MDC account is insufficiently nuanced, however, leading me to outline an alternative approach to mechanism. This emphasizes the importance of structure—function relations and addresses issues raised by reflection on the nature of cellular complexity. These include the distinction between structure and process and the different possible bases on which system organization may be maintained. The account I give of emergence construes the phenomenon in terms of psychological deficit: phenomena are emergent when we lack the capacity to trace through and model their causal structures using our cognitive schemas. I conclude by developing these ideas into a preliminary and partial account of explanation and understanding. This aspires to cover the significant fraction of work in molecular and cell biology that correlates biological structures, processes and functions by visualizing phenomena and making them imaginable.