<p> The present study compared the validity of a new graphic probe presentation technique for the Situation Awareness Present Method (SPAM) with the established traditional text-based probe presentation method. Three primary research questions were to be answered: 1) Which method of assessing situation awareness will best predict air traffic controller (ATCo) performance? 2) Will the method of probe administration, graphics-based vs. text-based, affect the time to respond to the question?, and 3) Will the method of administration, graphics-based vs. text-based, affect the accuracy of probe responses? Participants performed a simulated air traffic control task using a Multi Aircraft Control System (MACS), which is a simulated mid-fidelity ATCo environment. SPAM probe questions were presented on an adjacent computer. Two manipulations were used during the course of this study: 1) the amount of aircraft in the sector at a given time (traffic density), and 2) the probe presentation technique (Graphic vs. Text-based), with the traditional SPAM dependent variables of probe accuracy, subjective workload, workload latency, and probe question latency. First, the findings of the present study show the shorter response time of text-based probes. Second, the findings of the present study show text-based probes to generate more accurate participant responses. Lastly, the findings of the present study suggest both text-based and graphic probes predict aspects of ATCo performance. However, only specific text-based probe questions predict Losses of Separation, the primary measurement of ATCo safety. While significant findings were discovered during the course of the present experiment, further research is needed to determine the validity and reliability of the present findings.</p><p>

<p> During an extravehicular activity (EVA), the role of an astronaut involves a multitude of complex tasks. Whether that task is a science experiment aboard the International Space Station, or traversing extraterrestrial terrain &ndash; attention, communication, and instruction are essential. As an aid, augmented reality (AR) can portray suit informatics and procedures within line-of-sight while minimizing attentional loss. Currently, there exists little research highlighting the human systems considerations to qualify AR systems for space suit applications. This study quantifies user interface (UI) and human performance measures for an AR prototype on the Mark III space suit. For user testing, 21 military pilots and personnel (11 men, 10 women) evaluated UI search tasks and completed a series of AR-instructed EVA dexterity tasks in an elevated luminosity, background clutter, and workload scenario. UI results suggest correlations for readability and usability; whereas, human performance results provide situational awareness, workload, and task performance data.</p><p>

<p> This exploratory study was designed to establish a foundation for understanding the relationship between college students&rsquo; epistemic fluency, the need (self-concordance); want (self-determination); and ability (self-efficacy) to think about their learning; their regulatory mode orientation (locomotion versus assessment), and their academic goals. A novel instrument measuring both epistemic fluency and regulatory mode orientation was constructed for this purpose. </p><p> Self-efficacy may be the most important element of epistemic fluency as well as the most important moderating factor in goal pursuit. Assessment, a mode of regulatory orientation, and goal activity are inextricably linked. Goal activity may be a metacognitive byproduct of regulatory mode orientation. The differential expression of epistemic fluency and regulatory mode orientation was observable through participant identified academic goals. Personal characteristics such as self-identified racial or gender identity were important moderators in the expression of both epistemic fluency and regulatory mode orientation. Minority or female students had higher factor scores. The extent to which a goal signals intrinsic motivation (value) governs the dynamic allocation of self-regulatory resources more so than the differential time horizons of goals</p><p>

abstract: In sports, athletes reach new levels every day and are truly masters of their own bodies. Yet, when placed under pressure, the pin-point accuracy and elite level of performance can begin to wane.  Despite plentiful literature investigating the effects of pressure on performance, the underlying mechanisms behind decreased performance in sport are not yet clear.  The current research discusses possible theories for “choking under pressure”, the specific mechanisms through which pressure has its effects, and methods to prevent “choking.”  Fourteen current and former basketball players shot free throws with two primary predictor variables: the presence/absence of performance pressure and the restriction/non-restriction of movement during the pre-shot routine. Results were analyzed using 2x2 Within-Subjects Analysis of Variance. For shooting performance, there was an interaction (approaching significance) such that participants were more affected by pressure when allowed to execute their pre-shot routine. For kinematic variables, significant interactions between pressure and movement restriction were found for elbow-knee cross correlations and there were significant main effects of variability of the acceleration of both the elbow and knee angles. In all kinematic measures, participants exhibited more “novice-like” patterns of movement under pressure when movement was not restricted during the pre-shot routine. Primary results indicate promising evidence that motor control may be a mediating variable between pressure and performance and bring into question the value of a pre-shot routine in basketball. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Applied Psychology 2017

Remindings--the retrieval and use of examples from episodic memory--have been characterized as a problem solving strategy indicative of individuals who do not understand the principle underlying a problem's solution (Ross, 1984). Whereas past research has provided insight into how learners in a new domain notice and use examples, the question of whether the use of examples continues after the individual has acquired an abstract understanding of the problem's underlying structure has not been adequately addressed. In Experiment 1, subjects were differentially trained such that half developed an abstract understanding of elementary probability principles, and half did not. Moreover, the existence of the knowledge difference was demonstrated. Similarly in Experiment 2, subjects learned pragmatic inferential reasoning rules, and evidence of rule acquisition was demonstrated. In both experiments, evidence that individuals who understood the principle underlying the problem's solution nonetheless solved the problem by analogy to an earlier example was demonstrated by the emergence of a negative transfer effect. That is, subjects who understood the problem's underlying principle were more likely to use an inappropriate solution procedure when the test problem's story line reminded them of a training problem that used a related but different principle, than when the test problem's story line was new to the experiment. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 1 indicated that memory of an earlier example also influenced how individuals who understood the problem's underlying structure applied the principle to the test problem. The results are discussed in terms of the use of a heuristic by which problems appear similar on the surface are solved using the same solution procedure. / Graduate

abstract: Recognition memory was investigated for naturalistic dynamic scenes. Although visual recognition for static objects and scenes has been investigated previously and found to be extremely robust in terms of fidelity and retention, visual recognition for dynamic scenes has received much less attention. In four experiments, participants view a number of clips from novel films and are then tasked to complete a recognition test containing frames from the previously viewed films and difficult foil frames. Recognition performance is good when foils are taken from other parts of the same film (Experiment 1), but degrades greatly when foils are taken from unseen gaps from within the viewed footage (Experiments 3 and 4). Removing all non-target frames had a serious effect on recognition performance (Experiment 2). Across all experiments, presenting the films as a random series of clips seemed to have no effect on recognition performance. Patterns of accuracy and response latency in Experiments 3 and 4 appear to be a result of a serial-search process. It is concluded that visual representations of dynamic scenes may be stored as units of events, and participant's old/new judgments of individual frames were better characterized by a cued-recall paradigm than traditional recognition judgments. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2014

abstract: Categories are often defined by rules regarding their features. These rules may be intensely complex yet, despite the complexity of these rules, we are often able to learn them with sufficient practice. A possible explanation for how we arrive at consistent category judgments despite these difficulties would be that we may define these complex categories such as chairs, tables, or stairs by understanding the simpler rules defined by potential interactions with these objects. This concept, called grounding, allows for the learning and transfer of complex categorization rules if said rules are capable of being expressed in a more simple fashion by virtue of meaningful physical interactions. The present experiment tested this hypothesis by having participants engage in either a Rule Based (RB) or Information Integration (II) categorization task with instructions to engage with the stimuli in either a non-interactive or interactive fashion. If participants were capable of grounding the categories, which were defined in the II task with a complex visual rule, to a simpler interactive rule, then participants with interactive instructions should outperform participants with non-interactive instructions. Results indicated that physical interaction with stimuli had a marginally beneficial effect on category learning, but this effect seemed most prevalent in participants were engaged in an II task. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2014

<p> The study investigated the potential role of individual &ldquo;ways of knowing&rdquo; in participatory program evaluation. Ways of knowing refer to individual styles and preferences for creating and testing knowledge in a group setting. These implicit preferences were hypothesized to influence perceptions of credible research methods, appropriate meeting discourse approaches, and prioritized learning outcomes of evaluation. Researchers have identified three ways of knowing most directly relevant to the study: &ldquo;separate knowing,&rdquo; or playing &ldquo;devil&rsquo;s advocate&rdquo;; connected knowing, or playing the &ldquo;believing game&rdquo;; and &ldquo;constructed knowing,&rdquo; or combining both approaches according to context. To identify participants&rsquo; preferred &ldquo;ways of knowing,&rdquo; the study applied Q methodology, guiding participants to rank a series statements according to which are most descriptive of them. These rankings were analyzed through by-person factor analysis to group participant preferences. The application of Q methodology took place early on within a broader action research case study, in which the researcher facilitated a participatory program evaluation with a team of five stakeholders from a non-profit organization. Results of the case study were compared with Q findings to explore the Q tool&rsquo;s usefulness for understanding participants' actual behaviors and perceptions of the evaluation process. </p><p> The Q tool developed and refined for use in the study served to differentiate the three theoretical ways of knowing among participants, in a more nuanced fashion than extant Likert-scale surveys. The results of the tool were useful for understanding case study participants&rsquo; discursive preferences, particularly between argumentative and narrative styles. Hypothesized relationships between ways of knowing and evaluation design and learning outcomes were not supported in this study; rather, the evaluation context was paramount in shaping these decisions. The Q tool represents the primary practical contribution of the study, and it may be adapted and applied to future studies, and to the practice of participatory evaluation. The study also revealed potential relationships between ways of knowing and other phenomena of interest that might be investigated further. The conceptual distinction among the three ways of knowing can inform our understanding of group dialogue, and how best to promote it among diverse participants.</p><p>

<p> El prop&oacute;sito general del estudio fue investigar si difieren significativamente los perfiles cognitivos de adultos puertorrique&ntilde;os con y sin s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n. Esta investigaci&oacute;n fue de naturaleza cuantitativa, y se utiliz&oacute; un dise&ntilde;o transversal. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 229 adultos puertorrique&ntilde;os (62% mujeres) de la comunidad mayores de 50 a&ntilde;os (M = 63.07, DE = 9.34). La muestra fue dividida en dos grupos, adultos sin s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n (n = 175) y adultos con s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n (n = 54). Los resultados mostraron diferencias significativas en el estado cognitivo general (ECG) de los grupos con y sin s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n, t(227) = 3.46, p = .001, d = 0.22, 95% IC [0.97, 3.54]; siendo el ECG del grupo con s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n significativamente menor. Al explorar diferencias entre los grupos por funciones cognitivas, se observ&oacute; que el grupo con s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n present&oacute; un desempe&ntilde;o cognitivo significativamente m&aacute;s bajo que el grupo sin s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n en las funciones: atenci&oacute;n, concentraci&oacute;n y memoria de trabajo, t(227) = 3.23, p &lt; .01, d = 0.21, 95% IC [0.29, 1.20], funciones ejecutivas, t(76.84) = 2.52, p &lt; .05, d = 0.28, 95% IC [0.10, 0.86], y lenguaje, t(227) = 2.92, p &lt; .01, d = 0.19, 95% IC [0.18, 0.91]. Al realizar an&aacute;lisis de regresi&oacute;n lineal m&uacute;ltiple para evaluar si las variables edad, sexo, escolaridad y s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n permiten explicar la variabilidad en el ECG de la muestra total, se observ&oacute; que la variable sexo no aport&oacute; de forma significativa. Dejando la variable sexo fuera del modelo, se observ&oacute; que las variables edad, escolaridad y s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n permitieron explicar el 38.9% de la varianza en el ECG de la muestra. Se concluy&oacute; que los d&eacute;ficits cognitivos en adultos puertorrique&ntilde;os con s&iacute;ntomas de depresi&oacute;n se caracterizan por bajo funcionamiento del ECG y de las funciones atencionales, ejecutivas y de lenguaje. Para un tratamiento eficaz de la depresi&oacute;n y/o el deterioro cognitivo, es clave un diagn&oacute;stico diferencial. Finalmente, se recomienda el desarrollo de programas de pol&iacute;tica p&uacute;blica, as&iacute; como m&aacute;s investigaciones en la isla sobre la relaci&oacute;n depresi&oacute;n y deterioro cognitivo.</p><p>

<p> Autism spectrum disorder is a neuropsychiatric condition characterized by abnormal interactions, communicative deficits, and perseverative thoughts and behaviors. In addition to these core symptoms, autism is associated with a cognitive endophenotype of spared and impaired executive abilities. People with other neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia also show executive dysfunction. Intact executive function requires prefrontal cortex and its connections to other cortical areas. Measures of executive control in adults with neuropsychiatric disorders are predictive of adaptive functioning, so research should seek methods for minimizing these impairments. A helpful tool in this search is the laboratory mouse. Mice possess homologous prefrontal cortex and assays exist for quantifying rodent cognition. The core domains of autistic behavior can be evaluated in mice as well. Mouse models can therefore be used to investigate neuropsychiatric symptoms. BTBR, <i>LgDel</i>, and <i>Cntnap2</i> mice are valid models of neuropsychiatric disorder. Using visual discrimination tasks presented in an automated operant touchscreen apparatus, three separate studies on these models were performed to determine the cognitive profiles of these mice. BTBR mice and C57 mice were assessed on a series of tasks. BTBR did not differ from C57 on the acquisition or reversal of the visual discrimination. They did, however, show deficits on a novel task that required contextual inhibition of a prepotent response. <i> LgDel</i> mice and wildtype littermates were tested on the visual discrimination acquisition and reversal. <i>LgDel</i> mice were impaired on one measure of the acquisition and several measures of reversal, including learning errors which is thought to depend on medial prefrontal cortical circuitry. Additionally, frequency of layer 2/3 projection neurons in this region significantly correlated with cognitive performance. Lastly, <i>Cntnap2</i> null mice were compared on touchscreen tasks to wildtype and heterozygous littermates. Like <i>LgDel</i>, <i>Cntnap2</i> null mice were impaired on a measure of acquisition and some reversal measures including learning errors. Separately, these studies contribute validation to the behavioral phenotypes of the three mouse models of neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorder. Together, they also provide evidence of the utility of computer-automated touchscreen systems for revealing subtle cognitive deficits that correlate with prefrontal cortical structures.</p><p>