Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-65).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

The objective ofthe research project is to investigate the use of ArcView-GIS (a Geographical Information Systems software package) to promote cognitive development , at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. To understand the impact of ArcView-GIS as a learning tool will require an understanding ofhow it is used, what learning goals are held by educators and students and the type of assessments used to evaluate student achievement. It is argued that the use of GIS software promotes development of a wide range of skills. A research instrument to measure skills related to visualization, language, mathematics and logics was used to evaluate learners from a number of different groups which included science undergraduates, humanities undergraduates and GIS students (2 groups: one group took the test after the completion and the other group prior to the GIS course). In addition GIS experts and students evaluated the user interface of ArcVIewGIS. Results show that those learners exposed to GIS performed better in all the skills evaluated than any of the other groups. Also, experts and GIS students found the software interface satisfactory. The findings suggest that ArcView-GIS can support higher-order thinking by engaging students in authentic, complex tasks within an appropriate learning context. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

This research is focused on developing a generic intelligent architecture for an interactive tutoring system. A review of the literature in the areas of instructional theories, cognitive and social views of learning, intelligent tutoring systems development methodologies, and knowledge representation methods was conducted. As a result, a generic ITS development architecture (GeNisa) has been proposed, which combines the features of knowledge base systems (KBS) with object-oriented methodology. The GeNisa architecture consists of the following components: a tutorial events communication module, which encapsulates the interactive processes and other independent computations between different components; a software design toolkit; and an autonomous knowledge acquisition from a probabilistic knowledge base. A graphical application development environment includes tools to support application development, and learning environments and which use a case scenario as a basis for instruction. The generic architecture is designed to support client-side execution in a Web browser environment, and further testing will show that it can disseminate applications over the World Wide Web. Such an architecture can be adapted to different teaching styles and domains, and reusing instructional materials automatically can reduce the effort of the courseware developer (hence cost and time) in authoring new materials. GeNisa was implemented using Java scripts, and subsequently evaluated at various commercial and academic organisations. Parameters chosen for the evaluation include quality of courseware, relevancy of case scenarios, portability to other platforms, ease of use, content, user-friendliness, screen display, clarity, topic interest, and overall satisfaction with GeNisa. In general, the evaluation focused on the novel characteristics and performances of the GeNisa architecture in comparison with other ITS and the results obtained are discussed and analysed. On the basis of the experience gained during the literature research and GeNisa development and evaluation. a generic methodology for ITS development is proposed as well as the requirements for the further development of ITS tools. Finally, conclusions are drawn and areas for further research are identified.

Copies of author's previously published works inserted. / Includes bibliographical references (12 leaves) / 1 v. (various pagings) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis presents a new theory and a new method of cognitive change, and reports on their practical application in the mediation between conflicting habits and/or skills, and between conflicting concepts in science education. The term, mediation, is here used to mean that an individual consciously attempts to bring about a reconciliation between his or her conflicting habits, skills or concepts. The development of a procedure for conceptual mediation is described both at a theoretical and a practical level. The results of an independent evaluation of its influence on the attitudes to the learning of mathematics and science amongst students at a public secondary school are also presented. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 2000

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 14, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Faces are central stimuli in our everyday life, hence, face processing is a sophisticated and highly specialized cognitive ability, at which adults are experts and children are proficient. Unlike other visuospatial abilities, face perception develops very slowly, becoming adult-like only well into adolescence. Some performance disparities between children and adults may reflect differences in general cognitive abilities, such as attention and memory. Alternatively, performance differences can be attributed to specific cognitive strategies implemented during face processing by different age groups; or to the interaction between the improvement of general abilities throughout development and the refinement of face specific cognitive strategies. The intent of the current studies was to further assess the development of and relationship between cognitive strategies in face processing. Specifically, we investigated the behavior and neurocorrelates associated with holistic face processing in children (8- to 11-year-olds), adolescents, and adults, utilizing the composite face effect. The task requires participants to engage in both holistic and featural processing, but certain trials (aligned-same) elicit a visual illusion called the composite face effect (CFE, calculated as difference between misaligned-same and aligned-same trials), which is considered an index of holistic processing. All age groups (adults, adolescents, 8- to 9-year-olds, 10- to 11-year-olds) showed a CFE, suggesting reliance on holistic processing. Notably, about half of the 8- to 11-year-old children displayed adult-like behavior and adult-like CFE, suggesting their reliance on holistic processing. However, the other half of the children performed below-chance on aligned-same trials, displayed an extremely large CFE, and a significant difference between different trials, suggesting reliance on a featural strategy. Thus child age groups were regrouped according to their accuracy performance on the hardest condition (aligned-same trials) into high performing and low performing children. We hypothesize that the aligned-same trials were too taxing for low-performing children, thus they fell back into relying on simpler strategies such as a difference-detection featural strategy. In order to further investigate the CFE behavioral differences between age and performance groups, we completed an imaging study. For the fMRI study children were grouped by performance rather than age following the results of our behavioral study. Overall, our imaging results for the CFE, thus for holistic processing, resembled behavioral results in that adult and high performing child groups revealed a similar (but not identical) whole-brain pattern of activation, whereas the low performing child group showed a distinctive pattern of activation for the composite face effect. Adults and high performing children showed a pattern of activation spanning frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. In contrast, low performing children revealed a pattern of activation that spanned frontal, temporal, cingulate, and cerebellar regions. Brain areas typically associated with face processing, such as the right fusiform gyrus and right inferior temporal gyrus did not reach significance for the low performing child group. These differences may be attributable to the use of different cognitive strategies. However, the extent of frontal and cingulate cortex activation in low performing children may also suggest that because the task was especially difficult for them, working memory resources were particularly taxed, thus affecting the neural network engaged. Importantly, not only were performance differences associated with distinct neurocorrelates (i.e., differing profiles for low performing children vs. high performing children and adults), but age differences also had an appreciable effect. In fact, high performing children did not significantly differ from adults in the behavioral CFE, but did show differences in the neural CFE.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--regon State University, 1992. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-94). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Joyce E. Many, committee chair; Mona W. Matthews, Dana L. Fox, Lori N. Elliott, committee members. Electronic text (190 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2008; title from file title page. Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-187).

Thesis (M.Ed.(Computer-Integrated Education))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University.