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In the field of psychology, verbal reports are commonly used as a data source to explain human information processing. To date, few studies have investigated the accuracy of verbal reports for providing information on students’ reasoning and problem solving on educational tasks. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the consistency of verbal data, as well as the effects of student achievement, interviewer knowledge level, and item difficulty on the consistency of verbal reports. Seventy-one Grade 12 students from two high schools provided verbal responses to 15 multiple choice test items from the Alberta Pure Mathematics Diploma Examination. Results indicate higher-achieving students demonstrate greater consistencies in verbal reports than moderate achieving students. The implications of the results are discussed and the limitations of the present study are also presented. / Measurement, Evaluation and Cognition

<p>This thesis develops a cognitive approach to the venerable topic of literary genre. In particular, it uses and explores "cognitive rhetoric", Mark Turner's theoretical framework for literary inquiry; and it studies in depth the literary genre named "Menippean satire". The first chapter motivates a cognitive approach to literary inquiry while surveying the theory and criticism of satire and Menippean satire. The second chapter works out more fully and systematically than other studies the implications of a cognitive perspective on problems in the theory ofliterary genre. It argues that genres can be described as having a "prototype structure", rather than a traditional category structure, where categories are defined by necessary and sufficient conditions and arranged in general-to-specific hierarchies. It applies George Lakoff's explanation for prototype structures in categorization--his theory that thought is structured by "Idealized Cognitive Models"--to issues in genre theory and criticism. The third chapter addresses the prototype structure of Menippean satire--that is, ideas about "representativeness'' among its members, and what this implies for the category's cognitive model. Chapter four recasts recognized facts about the systematicity of metaphors for satire in terms of the conceptual theory of metaphor for the first time. It analyzes the structure of the metaphorical model for the concept of satire as it appears in talk about satire by writers and critics. Chapters five, six, and seven each analyze the structure of a key feature of Menippean satire in cognitive-rhetorical terms for the first time. Chapter eight summarizes the view of the thesis by contrasting it with the view of a recent article on "Menippean discourse", and presents an original argument for the coherence of literary genres in terms of the coherence of the image-schemas associated with cognitive models for its features.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Background. Previous studies have shown that the use of simulated social environments permits paranoid thinking to be studied. These studies have used a cognitive model of paranoia and suggest that anxiety is an important part of the paranoid experience. Additionally, research addressing the relationship of childhood trauma to psychosis indicates that psychotic symptoms are related to childhood abuse and neglect. The aim of the study was to explore the role of anxiety and childhood trauma in psychotic and anxious participants using a simulated social encounter task. Method. 15 individuals with paranoid delusions (diagnosed with a psychotic disorder), 11 with anxiety disorders and 14 non-clinical controls experienced a simulated social encounter task populated by four filmed characters instructed to behave neutrally (n=40). After the task, the participants completed questionnaires to describe their experience of the situation. 5 questionnaires were used to study paranoid thoughts. The first two were the Details of Threat questionnaire and the VR questionnaire. The other 3 were designed specifically for the study (faces, trust and power questionnaires). Additionally, the Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories and also a childhood trauma questionnaire were used as indicators of emotional distress. Results. Appraisals from the clinical participants but not from the non-clinical ones were persecutory. The psychological variables from the cognitive model that predicted persecutory ideation were anxiety and neglect. Further, over-sensitivity towards the neutral faces of the characters distinguished again, clinical and non-clinical participants. Conclusions. Paranoid thinking was elicited in clinical participants (anxious and psychotic) by a simulation of a social situation but not in normal controls. Anxiety and two forms of childhood trauma (physical and emotional neglect) were closely associated to persecutory thoughts. The results provide support for the cognitive model of paranoid delusions suggesting that anxiety and neglect underlay paranoid thinking. The study also shows the usefulness of simulations in clinical research.

This thesis is about common-sense psychology and its role in cognitive science. Put simply, the argument is that common-sense psychology is important because it offers clues to some complex problems in cognitive science, and because common-sense psychology has significant effects on our intuitions, both in science and on an everyday level. The thesis develops a theory of anthropomorphism in common-sense psychology. Anthropomorphism, the natural human tendency to ascribe human characteristics (and especially human mental characteristics) to things that aren't human, is an important theme in the thesis. Anthropomorphism reveals an endemic anthropocentricity that deeply influences our thinking about other minds. The thesis then constructs a descriptive model of anthropomorphism in common-sense psychology, and uses it to analyse two studies of the ascription of mental states. The first, Baron- Cohen et al. 's (1985) false belief test, shows how cognitive modelling can be used to compare different theories of common-sense psychology. The second study, Searle's (1980) `Chinese Room', shows 'that this same model can reproduce the patterns of scientific intuitions taken to systems which pass the Turing test (Turing, 1950), suggesting that it is best seen as a common-sense test for a mind, not a scientific one. Finally, the thesis argues that scientific theories involving the ascription of mentality through a model or a metaphor are partly dependent on each individual scientist's common-sense psychology. To conclude, this thesis develops an interdisciplinary study of common-sense psychology and shows that its effects are more wide ranging than is commonly thought. This means that it affects science more than might be expected, but that careful study can help us to become mindful of these effects. Within this new framework, a proper understanding of common-sense psychology could lay important new foundations for the future of cognitive science.

Idea generation and design-by-analogy are core parts of design. Designers need tools to assist them in developing creative and innovative ideas. Analogy is one such tool that helps designers solve design problems. It is a stimulus that helps generate innovative solutions to a design problem. It is used to generate novel ideas by transferring information (i.e. mapping elements) from a known domain (base) to an unknown domain (target). Multiple solutions can be developed based on a single analog and designers derive principles of design from the analogs (products) they experience. There is little research that discusses creating multiple solutions from a single analog or how multiple analogs can assist designers in mapping high level principles of design. Multiple paths are available to improve the design-by-analogy process and help designers understand the process better. This thesis explores two phases of design-by-analogy in which designers have difficulty generating multiple inferences from a single source analog and identifying high level principles given multiple example analogs in the presence of noise. Two hypotheses are proposed to explore the importance of analogies in design. 1. A lone designer is able to generate multiple inferences from a single source analog when instructed to do so. 2. The mapping of high level principles increases with the increase in the number of example analogs and decreases with the amount of noise. Two experiments, "Multiple Solutions" and "Multiple Analogies" are conducted to answer the proposed research questions and to understand how designers can become better analogical reasoners. The results from the "Multiple Solutions" experiment show that engineers, when directed to, can create multiple solutions from a single analog. Results from the "Multiple Analogies" experiment also satisfy the hypothesis that the mapping of high level principles increases with an increase in the number of analogs and decreases with distracters. A significant interaction is also observed between these two factors. The results indicate more future work with a greater sample size.

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FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de NÃvel Superior / Este estudo propÃe analisar as concepÃÃes de VIOLÃNCIA emergentes no discurso de jovens de 11-13 anos, estudantes de duas escolas situadas nas cidades de Fortaleza, Cearà e Libourne, FranÃa. A leitura e a anÃlise dos dados basearam-se nos aportes teÃricos da LinguÃstica Cognitiva, em especial, da SemÃntica Cognitiva com foco na Teoria dos Modelos Cognitivos Idealizados âTMCI. A TMCI permite uma sistematizaÃÃo analÃtica, pautada na linguagem em uso; propÃe que o raciocÃnio humano à amparado e caracterizado por estruturas de conhecimento organizadas e construÃdas socioculturalmente a partir da interaÃÃo do ser humano com o ambiente. O trabalho foi realizado com base na pesquisa qualitativa, tendo como eixo um estudo comparativo que possibilita analisar a heterogeneidade, a singularidade e a complexidade do processo de construÃÃo da categoria VIOLÃNCIA em termos sociocognitivos e culturais. O corpus analÃtico à constituÃdo de trechos de entrevistas realizadas com 24 estudantes, divididos em 06 grupos de 04 integrantes (12 brasileiros e 12 franceses). Em relaÃÃo Ãs estratÃgias de registro, todas as atividades foram gravadas em Ãudio e vÃdeo. A partir da anÃlise do corpus, verifica-se nos dois grupos, a recorrÃncia da violÃncia com dano fÃsico perceptÃvel, cujo Modelo de esquema de imagem cinestÃsico estruturante da categoria à FORÃA FÃSICA, seguidos do esquema ORIGEM-PERCURSO-META, CONTATO e o esquema de imagem RECIPIENTE. No entanto, observamos uma evocaÃÃo significativa da violÃncia verbal com danos morais e psicolÃgicos, como insultos mais recorrentes nos grupos de estudantes franceses. Os Modelos Cognitivos Proposicionais do tipo frame evocaram os seguintes cenÃrios referentes à violÃncia urbana no Brasil: trÃfico de drogas, assaltos, tiroteios, briga entre gangues, vinculados Ãs experiÃncias diretas e Ãs indiretas dos estudantes. Para os participantes franceses os frames foram: terrorismo polÃtico, terrorismo religioso, fatos histÃrios como Escratura de Negros na AmÃrica e Guerras â os adolescentes franceses acionaram situaÃÃes gerais de violÃncia nÃo prÃximas de sua realidade cotidiana â estas emergeram de seus conhecimentos de mundo alÃm de conhecimentos aprendidos na escola. Os modelos metonÃmicos mais frequentes nos dois grupos foram efeitos pela causa e parte pelo todo. Tanto no grupo de brasileiros quanto no de franceses a projecÃo metonÃmica, efeito pela causa, foi estruturada em termos corpÃreos: como sangue e morte. Apesar de os dois grupos conceitualizarem violÃncia de forma metonÃmica parte pelo todo, as motivaÃÃes socioculturais foram diferenciadas â no grupo de brasileiros, os exemplos salientes foram aqueles repercutidos pela mÃdia e exemplos advindos de experiÃncias diretas ou recontadas por colegas, entretanto, no grupo de franceses a parte evocada metonimicamente diz respeito aos sentimentos decorrentes de empatia pelas vÃtimas de cenas inespecÃficas de violÃncia como horror, pavor, terror. Em virtude da categoria VIOLÃNCIA envolver noÃÃes de bem-estar e mal-estar, estas vinculadas à moralidade, o Sistema da MetÃfora da Moral surgiu nos Modelos Cognitivos referentes ao julgamento de aÃÃes violentas ou Ãs aÃÃes de promoÃÃo a nÃo violÃncia â como no grupo de brasileiros DEUS à JUIZ, e no de franceses MORALIDADE DA BONDADE ABSOLUTA, expressa pelo ato de perdoar, PERDÃO GERA CRÃDITO MORAL. Foi identificada a MetÃfora OntolÃgica, ESTADOS EMOCIONAIS SÃO ENTIDADES DENTRO DE UMA PESSOA, metÃfora recorrente de base corpÃrea nos dois grupos ao comunicarem sentimentos associados a atos de violÃncia como a dor e a tristeza. Por fim, o nosso estudo mostrou que a construÃÃo de sentidos para VIOLÃNCIA emerge de estruturas diretamente significativas baseadas em experiÃncias fÃsicas e socioculturais, a violÃncia à vista de forma predominante como um dano fÃsico e moral, embora inserida em cenÃrios distintos nos dois paÃses a partir de modelos socioculturalmente motivados. / This study proposes to analyze the conceptions of VIOLENCE that emerges from 11-13 â year old â young peopleâs â speech, students from two schools located in Fortaleza, Cearà and Libourne, France. Reading and data analysis were based on Cognitive Linguistics theoretical framework, especially Cognitive Semantics focusing on the Theory of Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMT). ICMT allows for an analytical systematization of the data, based on language in use; it proposes that human reasoning is supported and characterized by knowledge organized structures socioculturally constructed from human interaction with the environment. The work was carried out based on qualitative research, considering a comparative study that enables to retrieve the heterogeneity, the singularity and the complexity of the socio-cognitive and cultural construction process of the VIOLENCE category. The analytical corpus consists of excerpts from interviews with 24 students, divided into 06 groups of 04 members (12 Brazilian and 12 French). Regarding the registration strategies, all the activities were recorded on audio and video. From corpus analysis, it is seen in both groups, the recurrence of violence as an apparent physical damage, whose category kinesthetic image schema is PHYSICAL STRENGTH, followed by the schema SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, CONTACT and the image schema RECIPIENT. However, we noticed a significant evocation of verbal violence with moral and psychological harm, such as insults more recurent in the French students group. Frame Propositional Cognitive Models evoked the following scenarios related to urban violence in Brazil: drug traffic, assaults, shootings, gang fights, linked to direct and indirect studentsâ experiences. For the French participants frames were: political terrorism, religious terrorism, historical facts as slavery of blacks in America and wars â French adolescents set violent general situations not close to their reality â these ones emerge from their world knowledge besides knowledge learned at school. The most frequent metonymic models in both groups were effects for the cause and part for the whole. In both Brazilian and French groups the metonymic projection, effect for the cause, was structured in corporeal terms: as blood and death. Although both groups conceptualize violence in the metonymic form part for the whole, the sociocultural motivations were differentiated - in the Brazilian group, the prominent examples were those reverberated by media and examples from direct experiences or reported by friends, on the other hand, in the French group the part evoked metonymically refers to feelings arising out of empathy towards victims of nonspecific violent scenes as horror, dread, terror. Due to, the fact that the VIOLENCE category involves notions of well-being and malaise, related to morality, the System of Moral Metaphor appeared in the Cognitive Models for the judgment of violent actions or actions to promote non-violence. For exemple, in the Brazilian group GOD IS JUDGE, and in the French one MORALITY IS ABSOLUTE KINDNESS, expressed by the act of forgiveness, FORGIVENESS GENERATES MORAL CREDIT. The Ontological Metaphor, EMOTIONAL STATES ARE ENTITIES WITHIN A PERSON, was identified as a recurrent metaphor of corporeal basis in both groups when communicating feelings associated with violent acts such as pain and sorrow. Finally, our study showed that the construction of meanings for VIOLENCE emerges from structures directly significant to the individual, based on physical and sociocultural experiences. Violence is, thus, seen predominantly as a physical and moral harm, although inserted in different scenarios in both countries from socioculturally motivated models.