This thesis deals with a methodological phenomenon called order effect. This effect creates a situation where the preceding questions influence answers of the subsequent questions. During cognitive responding process, the preceding questions may evoke specific mental associations and ideas that are more easily accessible afterwards during responding of the following questions. This induced information may be used during answer selection process which may cause bias in answers. The same questions placed in different order can generate different answers. Different question order can have different cognitive burden. The aim of this thesis is cognitive burden assessment of different question orders. Data collection was conducted by cognitive interviews which helped to detect how respondents work with particular questions during questionnaire responding process, and to identify specific types of order effect. There are four types of order effect: carryover effect, backfire effect, assimilation and contrast effect. A specific question preceding a general question evokes information which is more accessible for interpretation of a general question therefore this question order is less burdensome. Also the order from negative to positive question is less burdensome than the opposite order because it evokes...

Information technology (IT) investment decision makers are required to process large volumes of complex data. An existing body of knowledge relevant to IT portfolio management (PfM), decision analysis, visual comprehension of large volumes of information, and IT investment decision making suggest Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and hypervariate display techniques can reduce cognitive load and improve decision confidence in IT PfM decisions. This dissertation investigates improving the decision confidence by reducing cognitive burden of the decision maker through greater comprehension of relevant decision information. Decision makers from across the federal government were presented with actual federal IT portfolio project lifecycle costs and durations using hypervariate displays to better comprehend IT portfolio information more quickly and make more confident decisions. Other information economics attributes were randomized for IT portfolio projects to generate Balanced Scorecard (BSC) values to support MCDM decision aids focused on IT investment alignment with specific business objectives and constraints. Both quantitative and qualitative measures of participant comprehension, confidence, and efficiency were measured to assess hypervariate display treatment and then MCDM decision aid treatment effectiveness. Morae Recorder Autopilot guided participants through scenario tasks and collected study data without researcher intervention for analysis using Morae Manager. Results showed improved comprehension and decision confidence using hypervariate displays of federal IT portfolio information over the standard displays. Both quantitative and qualitative data showed significant differences in accomplishment of assigned IT portfolio management tasks and increased confidence in decisions. MCDM techniques, incorporating IT BSC, Monte Carlo simulation, and optimization algorithms to provide cost, value, and risk optimized portfolios improved decision making efficiency. Participants did not find improved quality and reduced uncertainty from optimized IT portfolio information. However, on average participants were satisfied and confident with the portfolio optimizations. Improved and efficient methods of delivering and visualizing IT portfolio information can reduce decision maker cognitive load, improve comprehension efficiency, and improve decision making confidence. Study results contribute to knowledge in the area of comprehension and decision making cognitive processes, and demonstrate important linkages between Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to support IT PfM decision making.

As concepções empiristas de aprendizagem no ensino de História centram-se, via de regra, na transmissão de fatos e conceitos por meio da exposição do conteúdo e dos exercícios de fixação. No ensino da língua escrita, privilegiam o domínio do código e da ortografia, centrando-se mais nas estruturas do que nos usos. Opondo-se a isso, o presente estudo parte de uma revisão conceitual sobre a História e o ensino de História, a escrita e o processo de aprendizagem desse sistema de representação, instituindo-os como um paradigma educativo voltado para a formação do sujeito pensante. Com base nesse pressuposto, o presente trabalho pretende contribuir para a compreensão dos processos cognitivos movidos na complexidade das relações interdisciplinares, mais especificamente, tomando o imbricamento entre o desenvolvimento da consciência histórica e da competência narrativa. Calcada nas reflexões de Vygotsky e Bakhtin sobre a relação palavra e consciência, e de Rüsen sobre a consciência histórica enquanto aprendizagem, a pesquisa teve como objetivo mapear, nas produções escritas, as operações lingüísticas dos alunos, das quais emergem e se transformam fragmentos da consciência histórica. O corpus da investigação foi constituído por 134 produções textuais de 67 estudantes (29 da 5ª série e 38 da 8ª série do Ensino Fundamental) de uma escola municipal de São Paulo. Com o fim de avaliar o processo de transformação da língua e da consciência histórica, a coleta incidiu na escrita e reescrita de um texto: na primeira produção, os alunos foram convidados a se pronunciar sobre um fato cotidiano, explicando a sua ocorrência no presente; na segunda, foram desafiados a reconsiderar a sua produção a partir de uma vivência que pretendeu ampliar os recursos lingüísticos e a complexidade da situação em pauta. A análise comparativa de ambas as produções foi feita com base no paradigma indiciário formulado por Guinzburg. Os resultados apontam para a pluralidade dos processos cognitivos e das estratégias de linguagem, evidenciando a natureza das relações entre a aprendizagem de História e da escrita. Nessa perspectiva, as conclusões fortalecem, indiscutivelmente, as bases para a constituição de uma educação transformadora. / The empiricist conceptions of learning in the teaching of History are centered, mostly, in the transmission of facts and concepts through the exhibition of the content and fixation exercises. In the teaching of the written language, they privilege the domain of the code and of the spelling, being centered more in the structures than in the usage. Opposed to that, the present study, which is part of a conceptual revision on the History and the teaching of History, the writing and the learning process of that representation system, instituting them as an educational paradigm turning back to the thinking subject\'s formation. Based on that presupposition, it is intended, with this research, to contribute for the understanding of the cognitive processes moved in the complexity of the interdisciplinary relationships, more specifically, taking the imbricament among the development of the historical consciousness and the narrative competence. Looking into the reflections of Vygotsky and Bakhtin on the relationship word and consciousness of Rüsen on the historical consciousness as learning, the research had as its objective, mapping the written productions, the students\' linguistic operations, of which emerge and change fragments of the historical consciousness. The corpus of the investigation was constituted by 134 textual productions of 67 students (29 of the 5th grade and 38 of the 8th grade of the secondary school) of a municipal school of São Paulo. In order to evaluate the transformation process of the language and the historical consciousness, the collection happened in the writing and in the rewriting of a text: in the first production, the students were invited to pronounce themselves on a daily fact, explaining their occurrence in the present; in the second, they were challenged to reconsider their composition starting from an existence that intended to enlarge the linguistic resources and the complexity of the situation in the agenda. The comparative analysis of both productions were made upon indicia paradigm formulated by Ginzburg. The results appear for the plurality of the cognitive processes and of the language strategies, evidencing the nature of the relationships among the History learning and writing. Under this prospect, the conclusions unquestionably strengthen the bases for the constitution of a transformed education.

This work aims at combining the Chaos theory postulates and Artificial Neural Networks classification and predictive capability, in the field of financial time series prediction. Chaos theory, provides valuable qualitative and quantitative tools to decide on the predictability of a chaotic system. Quantitative measurements based on Chaos theory, are used, to decide a-priori whether a time series, or a portion of a time series is predictable, while Chaos theory based qualitative tools are used to provide further observations and analysis on the predictability, in cases where measurements provide negative answers. Phase space reconstruction is achieved by time delay embedding resulting in multiple embedded vectors. The cognitive approach suggested, is inspired by the capability of some chartists to predict the direction of an index by looking at the price time series. Thus, in this work, the calculation of the embedding dimension and the separation, in Takens‘ embedding theorem for phase space reconstruction, is not limited to False Nearest Neighbor, Differential Entropy or other specific method, rather, this work is interested in all embedding dimensions and separations that are regarded as different ways of looking at a time series by different chartists, based on their expectations. Prior to the prediction, the embedded vectors of the phase space are classified with Fuzzy-ART, then, for each class a back propagation Neural Network is trained to predict the last element of each vector, whereas all previous elements of a vector are used as features.

This exploratory case study was undertaken to obtain a greater understanding of the difficulties that physics students face when solving image-object projections in optics problems. This was carried out by studying the students’ reasoning when facing new kinds of problem settings using the refraction of light and the position of the virtual image and the real object as the frame for the research. The results show that there is more than one reasoning possibility that is feasible for students to use when dealing with the same problem. The results also illustrate how several different ways of reasoning may be simultaneously needed to solve a refraction problem. The different kinds of reasoning have been referred to as reasoning categories in this study. The analysis illustrates how the categories complement each other, and the use of many reasoning categories is shown to be fruitful. However, the vast majority of the participants made contradicting answer selections when solving similar problems by using contradicting reasoning approaches. This lack of consistency in the participants’ reasoning could indicate that they have a fragmentary understanding of optics in general. Both the capability to link reasoning approaches together, as well as the affordances that different modes of representations offer, are needed for the construction of a better conceptual understanding. Only mastering a few ways of reasoning and a few modes of representation could lead to fragmented knowledge, which, in turn leads to making problem solving really challenging. One purpose of this study was to find out if reasoning categories and modes of representations are essentially linked. If so, then the reasoning categories would be determined by the representation of the problem. The analysis shows that there is a connection, but that there are also other factors at play.

As concepções empiristas de aprendizagem no ensino de História centram-se, via de regra, na transmissão de fatos e conceitos por meio da exposição do conteúdo e dos exercícios de fixação. No ensino da língua escrita, privilegiam o domínio do código e da ortografia, centrando-se mais nas estruturas do que nos usos. Opondo-se a isso, o presente estudo parte de uma revisão conceitual sobre a História e o ensino de História, a escrita e o processo de aprendizagem desse sistema de representação, instituindo-os como um paradigma educativo voltado para a formação do sujeito pensante. Com base nesse pressuposto, o presente trabalho pretende contribuir para a compreensão dos processos cognitivos movidos na complexidade das relações interdisciplinares, mais especificamente, tomando o imbricamento entre o desenvolvimento da consciência histórica e da competência narrativa. Calcada nas reflexões de Vygotsky e Bakhtin sobre a relação palavra e consciência, e de Rüsen sobre a consciência histórica enquanto aprendizagem, a pesquisa teve como objetivo mapear, nas produções escritas, as operações lingüísticas dos alunos, das quais emergem e se transformam fragmentos da consciência histórica. O corpus da investigação foi constituído por 134 produções textuais de 67 estudantes (29 da 5ª série e 38 da 8ª série do Ensino Fundamental) de uma escola municipal de São Paulo. Com o fim de avaliar o processo de transformação da língua e da consciência histórica, a coleta incidiu na escrita e reescrita de um texto: na primeira produção, os alunos foram convidados a se pronunciar sobre um fato cotidiano, explicando a sua ocorrência no presente; na segunda, foram desafiados a reconsiderar a sua produção a partir de uma vivência que pretendeu ampliar os recursos lingüísticos e a complexidade da situação em pauta. A análise comparativa de ambas as produções foi feita com base no paradigma indiciário formulado por Guinzburg. Os resultados apontam para a pluralidade dos processos cognitivos e das estratégias de linguagem, evidenciando a natureza das relações entre a aprendizagem de História e da escrita. Nessa perspectiva, as conclusões fortalecem, indiscutivelmente, as bases para a constituição de uma educação transformadora. / The empiricist conceptions of learning in the teaching of History are centered, mostly, in the transmission of facts and concepts through the exhibition of the content and fixation exercises. In the teaching of the written language, they privilege the domain of the code and of the spelling, being centered more in the structures than in the usage. Opposed to that, the present study, which is part of a conceptual revision on the History and the teaching of History, the writing and the learning process of that representation system, instituting them as an educational paradigm turning back to the thinking subject\'s formation. Based on that presupposition, it is intended, with this research, to contribute for the understanding of the cognitive processes moved in the complexity of the interdisciplinary relationships, more specifically, taking the imbricament among the development of the historical consciousness and the narrative competence. Looking into the reflections of Vygotsky and Bakhtin on the relationship word and consciousness of Rüsen on the historical consciousness as learning, the research had as its objective, mapping the written productions, the students\' linguistic operations, of which emerge and change fragments of the historical consciousness. The corpus of the investigation was constituted by 134 textual productions of 67 students (29 of the 5th grade and 38 of the 8th grade of the secondary school) of a municipal school of São Paulo. In order to evaluate the transformation process of the language and the historical consciousness, the collection happened in the writing and in the rewriting of a text: in the first production, the students were invited to pronounce themselves on a daily fact, explaining their occurrence in the present; in the second, they were challenged to reconsider their composition starting from an existence that intended to enlarge the linguistic resources and the complexity of the situation in the agenda. The comparative analysis of both productions were made upon indicia paradigm formulated by Ginzburg. The results appear for the plurality of the cognitive processes and of the language strategies, evidencing the nature of the relationships among the History learning and writing. Under this prospect, the conclusions unquestionably strengthen the bases for the constitution of a transformed education.

The knowledge and cognitive process dimensions of Technology teachers’ lesson objectives This study employs both quantitative and qualitative enquiry, which seeks to establish the nature and quality of the lesson objectives intended by Technology teachers. Technology teachers are frequently faced with the need to use technological knowledge and its methodological approaches in their development of lesson plans and in their teaching. The methodological aspect and technological knowledge of these teachers should be reflected in the framing of lesson plans containing explicit statements of lesson objectives or learning outcomes. The cognitive levels to which the objectives lead are important because of the demands placed on learners by the subject of technology. Technology inherently requires mastery of some scientific knowledge, and procedures of the technological process from needs establishment to design and fabrication of artefacts. This requires learners to achieve at the upper levels of Bloom‟s taxonomy. This is the important goal of education. The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge and cognitive process dimensions of the lesson objectives in lesson plans of Technology teachers. These dimensions of Technology teachers‟ lesson objectives were mapped using the Taxonomy Table adapted from the Revised Bloom‟s Taxonomy. This study used a primarily qualitative research approach, with some quantitative analysis of data. A survey research design with limited scope was used to obtain lesson plans from Technology teachers in order to establish the nature and qualities of their lesson objectives. Lesson plans were collected from 19 teachers in three districts of Mpumalanga. These lesson plans were analysed, interpreted and discussed with sampled teachers in a focus group. With regard to the knowledge and cognitive domains of the Technology teachers‟ lesson objectives, findings from this study suggest that teachers tend to focus more on factual knowledge and less towards metacognitive knowledge, and operate at low-order level in the cognitive domain. In other words, technology learners are being taught factual knowledge at the low-order level of thinking. Technology teachers tend to have lesson objectives that are known only to them. This might imply that teaching in technology occurs without proper specific objectives. Measures need to be put in place to intensify support to Technology teachers so that they realise the importance of the formulation of lesson objectives that cover all the levels in the knowledge and cognitive domains. Furthermore, Technology teachers should be encouraged to state their lesson objectives explicitly. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

Nous analysons l’identification des opportunités d’investissement dans le cas spécifique du financement de l’amorçage des firmes porteuses d’innovation. L’absence d’informations pertinentes et objectives au démarrage remet en cause la capacité postulée des investisseurs à évaluer objectivement la rentabilité des firmes entrepreneuriales. Ainsi, nous étudions la vraie stratégie psycho-cognitive sous-jacente à la création du sens autour du potentiel des projets en se focalisant sur un acteur spécifique, le Business Angel (BA). Nous postulons que cet investissement suit un processus de jugement intuitif. L’analyse qualitative des notes d’observation et des entretiens permet de construire un modèle décrivant la manière dont le BA produit in situ de nouveaux construits utiles dans sa perception. Nous mettons aussi en évidence des comportements réflexifs réduisant l’erreur dans sa décision. Ainsi, l’intuition du BA doit être vue comme une réelle approche de transformation situationnelle d’indicateurs à travers des manipulations langagières. Nous offrons une nouvelle perspective dans la compréhension du comportement des capital-risqueurs qui sont susceptibles d’accompagner financièrement les firmes innovantes dès leur phase de démarrage. Nos résultats sont aussi généralisables à des contexte où l’aptitude intuitive devant une source d’efficience décisionnelle. Nous faisons des propositions théoriques qui orienteront les études futures. / We analyze the investment opportunities’s identification in the specific case of the innovative firm financing. The absence of relevant and objective informations at the early stage weaken the investor’s postulated ability inestimating objectively the profitability of the entrepreneurial firms. Then, we study the real cognitivestrategy underlying the sensemaking process around the potential of the projects by focusing on a specific actor, the Business angel (BA). We argue that this investment follows a process of intuitive judgment.The research design is a qualitative inductive approach with data collected by observation and interviews. We build a model of how the BA cognitively interpret the innovative firm’s potential in order to invest. We highlight also cognitive practices in reducting biais and errors during the sensemaking process. The BA’s intuition atearly stage must be viewed as a processus of meaning construction through labelling and speech articulation. This thesis contributes to a better understanding ofventure capitalist behaviors at early stage as well as a better comprehension of how meaning can be created intuitively in uncertain context. Theoretical propositions are made for future researchs.

Depuis la fin du XXe siècle, notre monde a été affecté par une grande mutation des activités humaines. Dans cette mutation, les sciences de la cognition jouent sans doute un rôle central. Le développement des sciences cognitives, surtout depuis sa phase de Seconde Cybernétique, fait émerger de nouveaux paradigmes et offrent au monde humain la nouvelle génération des technologies de l'informatique – le numérique. En parallèle avec les technologies numériques qui ont profondément transformé le rapport sensible de l’être humain au monde, les dispositifs scientifiques et conceptuels mis en œuvre dans la Seconde Cybernétique ont également provoqué un grand retentissement dans tous les domaines scientifiques et philosophiques occidentaux. Ces dispositifs nous conduisent à ré-évaluer les connaissances déjà modélisé dans le cadre de la modernité à partir d’une approche totalement nouvelle, celle du système évolutif. Le retentissement de la Seconde Cybernétique a un impact fort dans le domaine de l'art. D'une part, les technologies numériques offrent à la création artistique de nouveaux moyens techniques de modélisation de l'œuvre d'art en s'accompagnant de l'apparition de nouvelles expressions artistiques, de nouvelles esthétiques et de nouveaux enjeux pour les représentations artistiques. D'autre part, les dispositifs conceptuels et scientifiques mis en place par la Seconde Cybernétique ont conduit les théoriciens de l'art et les esthéticiens à réévaluer les phénomènes artistiques (l’œuvre d’art, l’activité artistique, la perception esthétique, l’évolution culturelle de l’art, etc.) dans une perspective totalement nouvelle de l’esprit : le naturalisme de l’esprit. Mes travaux tentent de proposer une réflexion sur l’œuvre d’art en relation avec la cognition à partir des dispositifs scientifiques, technologiques et conceptuels constitués dans le cadre de la Seconde Cybernétique, mais aussi à partir des dispositifs conceptuels issus de l’art lettré traditionnel chinois. Les deux paradigmes de pensées du réel, tout en étant à l'origine de deux cultures très éloignées et très différentes, révèlent par contre un même principe de l'appréhension du monde. À partir de ce principe, la réalité doit être analysée en tant que phénomène d’émergence en cours relevant d'un rapport d'interaction ; le monde se définirait comme réseau des relations dynamiques capables de s'auto-organiser pour l’émergence de nouvelles structures. Cette approche du réel nous conduit à reposer la question de l’œuvre d’art, à la fois en tant qu’objet de création et en tant qu’objet de réception esthétique, à partir des nouveaux paradigmes liés aux processus d’émergence comme processus biologiques ou processus numériques. Cette thèse peut être résumée par les quatre points suivants : 1. L’art relève d’une capacité cognitive créatrice qui résulte de la phylogenèse de l’espèce humaine et qui est individualisé par le développement ontologique de chaque personne. 2. L’art, comme culture, relève d’un système d’appréhensions cognitives du réel ; ce système s’organise dans le même principe que l’algorithme évolutionniste basé sur la variation, l’accumulation, la sélection darwinienne et l’hérédité. 3. L’œuvre d’art relève d’une extériorisation expressive de l’artiste, de ses états mentaux, de son imaginaire du réel se produisant dans son cerveau ; la création de l’œuvre d’art s’inscrit dans un processus d’émergence qui relève d’un rapport dialectique s’effectuant entre un schéma mental se produisant dans le cerveau de l’artiste et son extériorisation progressive en œuvre d’art par les actions. 4. Les systèmes numériques, à la fois en tant qu’outils technologiques autant que paradigme de représentations du monde, constituent une interface d’interaction entre les différentes cultures dans le cadre de la création artistique. / Since the end of 20th century, our world has been affected by a grand mutation of human activities. The cognitive science plays the central role without any doubt in this mutation. The development of the cognition science, especially since its second cybernetic phase, does emerge new paradigms and offers a new computer science generation, digitization, to the world. In parallel with the digital technologies that has profoundly transformed human senses to the world, the scientific and conceptual devices implemented in the second cybernetics have also caused a great impact in almost all scientific and occidental philosophic aspects. These devices made determinant concepts for all contemporary theories of evaluative system in the world. We propose to, based on this concept, revaluate all modelled knowledge in the context of modernity. The impact of the second cybernetics has a strong impact in the art’s field, as well as in the theoretical studies of the art in the creation of art’s works. On one hand, digital technology, especially the artificial intelligence systems and devices from the second cybernetics, provides the artistic creation of new techniques for modelling the artwork accompanied by the emergence of new arts, new look and new challenges for the performing arts. On the other hand, conceptual and scientific arrangements put in place by the second cybernetics, led the art theorists and designers to evaluate the artistic phenomena (the work of art, the artistic aesthetic perception, cultural evolution, art, etc.) in a totally new perspective in mind: naturalism of spirits. My work attempts to propose a reflection on the work of art related to cognition which based on scientific, technological and conceptual devices, set up within the framework of the second network device, but also from the ancient chinese concept from the mind, especially taoist and chinese lettered thoughts.The two paradigms of thinking, while the origin of the two cultures are very remote and different, but released from the same principle of the understanding of the world. Based on this principle, the reality must be analysed as a phenomenon of the emergence ; the world would be defined as a network of relationships and self organize to the emergence of new structures.This approach leads us to raise the question on the issue of work of art, at the same time as a subject of creation, as an object of esthetic reception and an artifact which is a network of intersubjective relations (culture), based on the new paradigms associated with processes of emergence like biological processes or digital processes. This thesis can be conclute by the four following points: 1. art is a creative cognitive ability, which is the result of the phylogeny of human beings and is tailored to the ontological development of each individual. 2. Art, like culture, releases a real concern cognitive system. this system is on the same principle as the evolutionary algorithm based on the change, the accumulation, darwinian selection and heredity. 3. the work of art is an representation of the artist's expression, of his mental states, of his imagination of the real occurring in his brain; the creation of a work of art is a part of the process of development which releases a dialectical relationship between a mental pattern produced in artist’s brain and his progressive expression of work of art. 4. the digital systems, at the same time as technological tools as well as the paradigm of representations of the world, build up an interface of interaction between different cultures in the context of artistic creation.

La sinestesia se ha visto involucrada en distintos ámbitos de la sociedad moderna, desde lo psicológico hasta lo artístico, es en este último punto, donde tiene un desarrollo más amplio. Es por esa razón, que siendo la publicidad parte del desarrollo artístico, puede tener como método creativo, el uso de la sinestesia para desarrollar mensajes publicitarios de distintos tipos y de esta forma estimular algunos sentidos del receptor. El siguiente trabajo, analiza la percepción de jóvenes de 25 a 30 años del sector socioeconómico “A”, ante el uso de la sinestesia como recurso creativo en la campaña de Coca-Cola “The first print you can hear”. El presente análisis, se origina ante el interés de querer indagar como la sinestesia puede llegar a ser un recurso potente en la creación de mensajes publicitarios visuales, el cual, a su vez, dirigido al público objetivo correcto, puede incrementar su afectividad ante la marca. La investigación se posiciona en un paradigma constructivista, ya que, se busca distintas perspectivas de los participantes, del mismo modo, el enfoque es cualitativo porque permite indagar dentro del tema, por medio de recolección de datos en focus group. / Synesthesia has been involved in different areas of modern society, from the psychological to the artistic, it is in this last point, where it has a broader development. It is for this reason that, since advertising is part of artistic development, it can have as a creative method, the use of synesthesia to develop advertising messages of different types and thus stimulate some of the senses of the receiver. The following work analyzes the perception of young people between the ages of 25 and 30 from the “A” socioeconomic sector, regarding the use of synesthesia in the Coca-Cola campaign “The first print you can hear”. The present analysis originates from the interest of wanting to investigate how synesthesia can become a powerful resource in the creation of visual advertising messages, which, in turn, directed to the correct target audience, can increase their affectivity towards the brand. The research is positioned in a constructivist paradigm, since different perspectives of the participants are sought, in the same way, the approach is qualitative because it allows investigating within the subject, through data collection in focus groups. / Trabajo de investigación