This body of work is composed of three individual papers that each seek to explain individual differences in creative cognition. Paper 1 used structural equation modeling to examine the ways in which creative problem solving and creative idea generation relate or differ. Results from Paper 1 demonstrate that divergent thinking and creative problem solving are best represented as a bifactor model, bearing distinct domain-specific factors, as well as a shared domain-general factor. Though working memory and fluency of memory retrieval explained significant portions of the domain-specific constructs, they only explained ~2% of variance in the domain-general factor. Paper 2 explores the idea that domain-general creativity can be attributed to the structure of one’s knowledge. Semantic networks were developed and compared across high and low general creativity, divergent thinking, creative problem solving, and working memory. Results indicated that, in general, a looser network structure is more amenable for flexible thought processes across multiple classifications of creative ability. Paper 3 explores the idea that domain-general creativity can be attributed to one’s ability to overcome salient, prepotent responses. More specifically, Paper 3 argues that the presence of ambiguities enhances the likelihood that someone will develop a faulty mental representation that requires restructuring in order to reach the desired solution or response. Results demonstrate that overcoming ambiguities in language comprehension draws on similar processes as creative problem solving: ambiguous language comprehension predicted creative problem solving above and beyond that of working memory, fluid intelligence, or normal sentence comprehension. Importantly, this relationship was unique to creative problem solving, as the effect disappeared when predicting analytic problem solving. Together, these studies suggest that the ability to overcome ambiguities and the organization of one’s semantic knowledge are both critical components underlying creativity. More generally, this work has highlighted the ways in which domain-specific and domain-general processes are unique or shared across different measures of creativity, and researchers should be aware of these relationships as they work to advance the creativity literature.

We developed and tested a novel measure of non-rigid, ductile spatial skill using knot reasoning. In Study 1, 279 US adults (M = 30.90 SD = 5.47 years; 76% White, 48% women) recruited through Prolific completed a 73-item knot reasoning task. Using Item Response Theory, we tested the reliability of the measure and removed items with low discrimination to yield a final 54-item measure with good reliability (α = .88). In Study 2, 147 US adults (M = 20.65 SD = 2.80 years; 48% White, 56% women) recruited from a public university in the mid-Atlantic completed a battery of existing spatial skills measures, the new knot reasoning measure, a control verbal measure, and a survey of current and childhood spatial activities. We validated the knot reasoning measure: performance on this measure is significantly, positively correlated with existing measures of spatial skill (mental rotation, paper folding, bending). However, we did not find support for a continuum of spatial skills from non-rigid to rigid using a simultaneous regression and a confirmatory factor analytic approach. Finally, we replicated prior work showing a male advantage in mental rotation performance but no gender differences in other spatial skills, though this relationship differed when using a modeling approach that incorporated spatial activities experience. Using a structural equation modeling approach, we found that masculine-stereotyped spatial activities engagement mediated the relationship between gender and mental rotation and knot reasoning task performance, where men who reported fewer spatial activities had higher spatial skills. Current and childhood feminine-stereotyped spatial engagement mediated the relationship between gender and paper folding performance, with women who reported greater spatial activities had higher spatial skills. Finally, we found that spatial skills did not differ among math-intensive STEM, non-math-intensive STEM, and non-STEM majors. / Psychology

The epidemic of violence now occurring in the United States constitutes one of the nation's most important social problems. Each year the boundaries of violence extend. Because its effects now touch all areas and populations, violence has been officially declared a major pubic health issue. The intent of this study was to explore the root causes of violence as reported by the violent offender. The study contains a review of the literature which looks at violence from a historical, biological, psychological, sociological, and psycho-social point of view. However, because the majority of research does not include direct interview or the perspective of the perpetrator, this study was designed to gather this absent information present it in their own voice. Twelve men from three different correctional facilities were interviewed. Each interview was conducted face-to-face in a private setting within the prison. Each participant was asked to talk about their life experience, history of violence, understanding of their violent activities, and finally based on their insight, offer recommendations for intervention. Additionally, they were asked to complete a powerlessness survey that queried their sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy at the time of their violent offense. In order to give the reader an opportunity to hear the voice of the participants, their stories are crafted in their own words and presented in narrative form. A number of interconnected thematic characteristics emerged from the interviews and survey. In addition to illuminating and verifying many of the speculations presented in the literature review, the findings suggest the presence of deficient, inadequate, or damaging conditions which occurred during critical developmental periods in the lives of the participants. Commonality of experience was noted within the following areas: lack of safety, lack of stable relationships, lack of education, lack of power and resources, lack of respect, lack of self-esteem, lack of self-worth, lack of self-efficacy, lack of coping skills, and lack of meaning. In this study, these deficits appear as significant predictors of eventual violent behavior. Based on the above findings, implications for clinical practice, programmatic development, and future research is suggested.

The memory system is adaptive in so far as it is able to provide the most robust predictions of what will happen next in our environment. Three means through which it can do this are: arbitrating between temporally embedded recollections and generalized knowledge; rescuing remote memories that are learned to be behaviorally relevant; and updating existing memories if they provide invalid predictions of the outside world. Here, I cover three studies that probe these functions in behavior and in the brain. In Chapter 1, I show how a data-driven parcellation reveals non-linear gradients in measures of signal heterogeneity across the body of the hippocampus, suggesting novel areas of investigation into how the memory system flexibly constructs fine- and coarse-grained memories. In Chapter 2, I then explore how memories might be rescued by later aversive experiences, finding novel evidence that the online inferences participants make as to what current stimuli are relevant to their arousal subtly shapes what previous stimuli they retroactively maintain in memory. Finally, in Chapter 3, I show that signals from the ventral tegmental area modulate the effect of replaying memories on the eventual updating of those memories. Each of these provides novel pieces of evidence into the neural and behavioral markers of how memories are constructed, strengthened, or updated in the brain.

Yes / The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretical connections between the cognitive consequences of power on self-perception and the behaviours of leaders. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review was carried out to investigate the psychological consequences of power in terms of self-perception, perspective taking abilities, emotions and behaviours. The literature reviewed is further integrated in a theoretical model, and a series of propositions suggesting a relation between power, perspective taking, self-construal and leadership are introduced. Findings – This paper argues that power creates both temporary and enduring cognitive changes that transform the way individuals assimilate and differentiate their self from others. This transforms the way individuals in power behave as leaders, as well as followers. Individuals’ self-construal and perspective taking seem to play a mediating role in determining the behaviours of powerful and powerless individuals. This relation is moderated by organizational culture and structure, as well as personality traits. Research limitations/implications – Further research is needed to test these propositions, including the existence of cross-cultural differences in the power – self-construal relation, and the consequences of holding different types of power on an individual's self-construal. For employees and consultants working in organizational development and organizational change, understanding the potential consequences of power in terms of self-perception will improve the understanding of promoting individuals to higher positions. The present research also bears implications for scholars interested in understanding cross-cultural and gender differences in leadership. Originality/value – This conceptualization of self-construal as an interface between power and leadership reconcile the individual dynamics of trait theories of leadership and the environmental positions of situational theories of leadership. The paper discusses elements considered critical for design of leadership programs in the workplace, professional development and programs to shape the design of leadership.

Many decisions require us to actively interrogate the world using our senses. Based on what we perceive, we may commit to an immediate course of action or plan for future actions. The neuroscience of perceptual decision-making examines how the brain gathers sensory information and uses it to guide behavior. A widely accepted model represents this decision process as the gradual accumulation of sensory evidence until a threshold or criterion is reached. For decisions about the direction of random-dot motion (RDM) stimuli, extensive research has described the mechanisms of evidence accumulation in association areas such as the lateral intraparietal area (LIP). Recent studies have also made progress in identifying the biological basis of the decision threshold. For overt decisions marked by an immediate saccadic response, neurons in the superior colliculus (SC) are thought to set this threshold by initiating eye movements when LIP activity is sufficiently elevated. Additionally, reversible inactivation of SC neurons has been shown to prolong evidence accumulation in LIP, suggesting that SC neurons play a causal role in terminating the decision process. However, it remains unknown whether SC neurons also contribute to covert decision termination, where commitment results in a planned, rather than an immediate, eye movement. To address this gap, I recorded neural activity from two rhesus macaques as they performed a RDM discrimination task, where I varied the length of the stimulus and delay periods from trial to trial. This design required the animals to make a covert commitment to a choice on each trial, which they later reported with a saccade following the delay period. Using high channel-count electrodes, I recorded simultaneously from large populations of neurons in SC, LIP, and the dorsal pulvinar of the thalamus (dPul) unilaterally. In a majority of trials, SC neurons exhibited non-saccadic bursts — bursts of activity not associated with eye movements or specific trial events. The timing of these non-saccadic bursts suggested they might signal the moment of decision termination. Testing this hypothesis, I found that non-saccadic bursts effectively divided each trial into an early deliberation phase, where sensory evidence informed the decision, and a later commitment phase, where further sensory evidence was ignored. Additionally, the timing of non-saccadic bursts in the SC corresponded with the end of evidence accumulation in LIP. Finally, I identified a population of neurons in dPul that may relay this termination signal from SC to LIP. This study advances our understanding of perceptual decision-making by broadening the function of the SC in decision termination. Beyond its established role in terminating overt decisions with an immediate saccadic report, these findings suggest that the SC also contributes to decision termination following covert commitments, where the saccade occurs after a delay. The results have important implications for systems neuroscience by offering a clear example of serial computations occurring across dedicated cortical and subcortical areas to guide flexible behavior. While the path from sensation to deliberation to commitment is far from fully understood, these results lay the groundwork for future research — both to explore the role of additional nodes in the decision-making network and to investigate the local circuits that give rise to distinct functions within each node. In Chapter 1, I provide historical context on the neurobiology of perceptual decision-making, introduce the bounded evidence accumulation model, and discuss its application to both overt and covert decisions. I also motivate the present study by introducing the superior colliculus and its known role in the decision-making network. In Chapter 2, I investigate physiological markers of decision commitment in the SC. I describe non-saccadic bursts, which are physiological events that occur on single trials, and demonstrate how these events relate to covert decision termination. In Chapter 3, I examine how non-saccadic bursts in the SC might be involved in terminating the process of evidence accumulation in LIP and show how neurons in dPul might mediate this effect. Chapter 4 presents closing considerations and outlines directions for future research.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Eric A. Bernard / Typical aspects of a zoo’s mission are conservation of wildlife and habitats. As part of conservation efforts zoos provide opportunities for visitors to learn about animals and their environments. Ultimately their goal is visitor understanding leading to conservation behavior. While documented zoo design methods such as landscape immersion, cultural resonance and interpretation elements provide opportunities to learn, current literature stops short of explaining how visitors learn. This research intends to bridge this gap through an innovative mixed methods approach under the hypothesis: if designers understand how visitors learn, their design approach will change to integrate learning and cognitive process theories, resulting in exhibit designs which engage visitor’s cognitive processes increasing learning, thereby increasing the potential for conservation behavior. A thorough literature review revealed cognitive psychology and learning theories vital to exhibit design. Cognitive processes are the mental processes visitors use to learn, think and act (Leonard, 2002). To design for visitor’s cognitive processes designers need to be concerned with visitor’s attention, perception, recall, understanding and memory (Koran, 1983). A personal design exercise testing novel approaches for incorporating cognitive processes into theoretical exhibits yielded potential new guidelines and typologies for exhibit design. To test these personal insights, integrated survey and participatory methods were envisioned to engage zoo design professionals. Professional zoo exhibit designers attended two workshops where they learned about cognitive processes and learning theories, discussed and sketched ideas for learning in zoos, and focused on how to integrate theories in design. The interactive charrette engaged zoo design professional’s cognitive processes to uncover new approaches and typologies for zoo exhibit design. Participants completed pre and post-surveys to measure design approach changes. Chan’s (Chan, 2001) five components of an individual’s design style are used as a framework for the survey questions. Results from the workshop suggest participants augmented their design approach by increasing the influence of cognitive processes in their design approach and concepts. Participants also showed an increased ability to create goals for learning and an increased ability to form constraints along with improvements in existing mental imagery. Additionally, participants demonstrated increases in their search pattern and order in typical design stages of research, site analysis and design development. From the workshop analysis of the surveys, discussions, and sketches, new design strategies emerged to guide the design of exhibits in engaging and facilitating visitor’s cognitive processes. A triangulation analysis methodology validated the design strategies creating 53 design guidelines for learning by comparing design strategies in the workshop, personal charrette and literature. The design guidelines are compiled into an interactive PDF for other zoo designers and professionals use. To assist the reader in employing the design guidelines most effectively learning principles explain the fundamental learning concepts grounding the guideline. Also, seven example projects illustrate the use of the guidelines. The guidelines, learning principles and example projects are hyperlinked to facilitate learning and application.