Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:38:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DaniloFA_DISSERT.pdf: 1428700 bytes, checksum: 353e176142fa9432dc5bff6d655b0bb4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-20 / The sleep is an active brain process that allows the efficient realization of daily tasks. The changes on sleep patterns may influence the different cognitive processes performance. Many recent studies show the possibility of cognitive performance improvement, through the cognitive training with the use of computer games. The question is if these interventions may be influenced by the sleep quality. Thus, we evaluated the sleep quality effect about the efficacy of an intervention with computers games based on the working memory and attention for a cognitive performance training of elementary school students. The sample was constituted by 42 students with average age of 10,43 years old (SD=1,23), with 22 male participants and 20 female participants. We used to evaluate the sleep with the parents a sleep questionnaire, a sleep diary and the Sleep Behavior Questionnaire. In regard to intervention, the subjectives were distributed in an experimental and in a control group, both with 21 participants. In the first group occurred the intervention that consisted in the working memory and attention training with two cognitive tasks (Safari e Brain Workshop) during 30 daily minutes, for a 6 weeks period. In an equal period, the students from the control group should reproduce an artwork using drawing software. To evaluate the cognitive performance we applied before and after the intervention period the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). The results showed that in both the groups the performance of the intelligence, working memory, attention and visuospatial skills was below of the mean. The cognitive processes evaluated after of intervention in the experimental group had a performance significantly higher in the Perceptual Reasoning Index (t = -6,24; p < 0,01) and in the Full Scale IQ (t = -5,09; p < 0,01) and Performance IQ (t = -6,52; p < 0,01), suggesting a improvement on the visuospatial skills, attention, working memory and processing speed. On the control group, the performance was significantly higher in the Coding subtest (t = -5,38; p< 0,01) and in the Perceptual Reasoning Index (t = -3,66; p = 0,01), suggesting a improvement on the visuospatial skills and attention. The mean obtained with the Sleep Behavior Questionnaire was 53,76 (SD=14,96) for an experimental group and 61,19 (SD=12,82) for a control group, indicating tendency for a bad sleep quality in that last one. Not only during the first days, but also in the last fifteen days of the intervention we verified in the two groups an adequate time to sleep, duration and regularity, in the weekdays and on the weekends. We didn t find significant differences between the two groups in none of the sleep variables. We verified statistically meaningful improvement on the performance of the experimental group with the intervention in the two games. We didn t verify significant correlations between the games performance index and in the sleep variables of the experimental group individuals. We verified significant correlations among the performance on the Brain Workshop and the Cubes subtest, the Perceptual Reasoning Index and the Scale Performance IQ, suggesting that the significant improvement of the visuospatial skills and of the attention was correlated with the performance in the Brain Workshop. Although the absence of correlations with the performance in the Safari, possibly it also has relieved in the improvement of the cognitive performance. The findings support the hypothesis that the computer games might be a satisfactory tool for the improvement of the performance in visuospatial skills and attention. This can be resulted of the insertion of visuospatial stimulations in the task, for example, graphical elements with thematic for children that increase the interest. The IQ below mean the individuals might have influenced the improvement absence on the cognitive processes like the working memory with games. Moreover, it wasn t verified a relation between the sleep quality and the intervention efficacy. It might have been influenced by the n of the sample. Future studies must focalize in the improvement of the effect of the interventions with games / O sono ? um processo cerebral ativo que contribui para a realiza??o eficiente das tarefas cotidianas. Mudan?as em seu padr?o podem influenciar o desempenho de diversos processos cognitivos. V?rios estudos recentes t?m demonstrado a possibilidade de melhora do desempenho cognitivo, a partir do treinamento cognitivo com o uso de jogos de computador. A quest?o ? se tais interven??es podem ser influenciadas tamb?m pela qualidade do sono. Assim, avaliamos o efeito da qualidade do sono sobre a efic?cia de uma interven??o com jogos de computador baseada no treinamento da mem?ria operacional e da aten??o para o desempenho cognitivo de alunos do ensino fundamental. A amostra foi constitu?da por 42 alunos com idade m?dia de 10,43 (DP=1,23) anos, sendo 22 indiv?duos do sexo masculino e 20 do feminino. Utilizamos para a avalia??o do sono junto aos pais uma ficha sobre sono, um di?rio do sono e o Question?rio sobre Comportamento do Sono. Para a interven??o, os indiv?duos foram alocados nos grupos experimental e controle, ambos com 21 indiv?duos. No primeiro grupo ocorreu a interven??o, que consistiu no treinamento da mem?ria operacional e da aten??o com duas tarefas cognitivas (Safari e Brain Workshop) por 30 minutos di?rios, por um per?odo de 6 semanas. Por igual per?odo, os indiv?duos do grupo controle deveriam reproduzir uma obra de arte utilizando software de desenho. Para avalia??o do desempenho cognitivo aplicamos antes e depois do per?odo de interven??o a Escala de Intelig?ncia Wechsler para Crian?as (WISC-III). Os resultados mostraram que em ambos os grupos o desempenho da intelig?ncia, mem?ria operacional, aten??o e visuoespacialidade foi abaixo da m?dia esperada. Os processos cognitivos avaliados ap?s a interven??o no grupo experimental tiveram um desempenho significativamente maior no ?ndice Organiza??o Perceptual (t = -6,24; p < 0,01) e nas escalas de QI Total (t = -5,09; p < 0,01) e de QI de Execu??o (t = -6,52; p < 0,01), sugerindo melhora na performance da visuoespacialidade, aten??o e velocidade de processamento. No grupo controle, o desempenho foi maior no subteste C?digo (t = -5,38; p < 0,01) e no ?ndice Organiza??o Perceptual (t = -3,66; p = 0,01), sugerindo melhora na performance da visuoespacialidade e aten??o. A m?dia obtida com o Question?rio de Comportamento do Sono foi de 53,76 (DP=14,96) para o grupo experimental e 61,19 (DP=12,82) para o grupo controle, indicando tend?ncia para qualidade do sono ruim nesse ?ltimo. Tanto nos primeiros como nos ?ltimos quinze dias da interven??o constatamos nos grupos hor?rios de dormir, dura??o e regularidade adequados, nos dias escolares e nos fins de semana. N?o verificamos diferen?as significativas entre os dois grupos em nenhuma das vari?veis de sono. Verificamos melhora significativa no desempenho do grupo experimental com a interven??o nos dois jogos. N?o verificamos correla??es significativas entre os ?ndices de desempenho dos jogos e as vari?veis de sono no grupo experimental. Verificamos correla??es significativas entre o desempenho no Brain Workshop e o subteste Cubos, o ?ndice Organiza??o Perceptual e a Escala de QI de Execu??o, sugerindo que a melhora significativa da visuoespacialidade e da aten??o estava correlacionada ao desempenho no Brain Workshop. Apesar da aus?ncia de correla??es com o desempenho no Safari, ? poss?vel que ele tamb?m tenha auxiliado na melhora da performance cognitiva. Os achados ap?iam a hip?tese de que os jogos de computador podem ser uma ferramenta satisfat?ria para a melhora do desempenho em visuoespacialidade e aten??o. Isso pode ser resultado da inser??o de est?mulos visuoespaciais na tarefa como, por exemplo, elementos gr?ficos com tem?ticas infantis que aumentam o interesse. O QI abaixo da m?dia dos indiv?duos pode ter interferido para que processos cognitivos como a mem?ria operacional n?o tenham melhorado com a interven??o. Al?m disso, n?o foi verificada rela??o entre a qualidade do sono e a efic?cia da interven??o, o que pode ter sido influenciado pelo n da amostra. Estudos futuros dever?o focar na otimiza??o dos efeitos das interven??es com jogos

Na literatura encontram-se propostas acerca da função do hipocampo como mediador (1) da memória operacional (working memory) e/ou como responsável pelo processamento de informações espacias e (2) de processos de controle temporal. Avaliou-se os efeitos da lesão seletiva do giro denteado, por aplicação múltipla e tópica de colchicina, no desempenho de ratos previamente treinados em tarefas que envolvem discriminação espacial e controle temporal. Experimento I: Os animais foram submetidos a uma tarefa de non-matchingto- sample (NMTS) em um labirinto em MAIS. Nesta tarefa, em uma primeira fase (fase de informação), o reforço é colocado somente em uma das caixas localizadas no final dos braços transversais - o acesso à outra caixa é bloqueado. Na segunda fase (fase de escolha), o acesso às duas caixas transversais é liberado e o reforço é colocado somente na caixa que não estava previamente disponível durante a fase de informação. Desta forma, os animais devem manter a informação do local previamente reforçado na 1a. fase; além disso, a informação de uma tentativa não pode ser generalizada para as tentativas subsequêntes. Estes mesmos animais foram treinados em uma tarefa temporal realizada em uma caixa de Skinner em um esquema de DRL - Differential Reinforcement of Low Rates. Neste procedimento, a resposta (pressão à barra) é reforçada se, e somente se, ela segue a resposta precedente por um intervalo de tempo específico, no caso, um intervalo de 20 segundos. Na tarefa espacial, embora haja um prejuízo na taxa de re-aquisição da resposta, o treino repetitivo faz com que o desempenho dos animais lesados se equipare aos dos sham. Estes resultados podem ser devidos à recuperação da capacidade de processar informações espaciais, ou então, à utilização de outra estratégia. Na tarefa temporal (DRL) os animais lesados continuam sendo capazes de espaçar suas respostas por um determinado intervalo, porém esse tempo é subestimado, ou seja, a pressão à barra ocorre em um tempo menor que o previamente treinado. Esta alteração no processamento de informações temporais pode dever-se a: a. deficiência no relógio interno - aceleração na contagem do tempo ou, b. deficiência no armazenamento de informações temporais - lembrança de um evento como se ocorresse antes do que de fato ocorre ou, c. porque os animais lesados são incapazes de evitar a pressão à barra, supondo-se que o desempenho deles, inclusive dos animais sham, esteja baseado em uma estratégia espacial de deslocamento na caixa experimental. Experimento II: A seguir, os animais foram testados em uma tarefa de delayed-non-matching-to-sample (DNMTS). Este procedimento é igual ao anterior, com a diferença da introdução de intervalos de 1, 2, 4, 8 e 16 minutos, entre as fases de informação e de escolha. Quando são introduzidos intervalos entre as fases, os animais lesados voltam a apresentar um prejuízo de desempenho com relação aos animais sham. Experimento III: Os sujeitos e equipamento empregados foram os mesmos utilizados no Experimento I e II. Neste experimento, os animais, na fase de escolha, ao invés de saírem da caixa inicial, saíram da caixa da qual acabaram de visitar na fase de informação. Se os animais estivessem utilizando uma estratégia de orientação egocêntrica, então eles deveriam virar à esquerda ou à direita, porém os animais seguiram em frente, dirigindo-se para a caixa alvo. Os resultados obtidos neste teste sugerem que os animais lesados estariam utilizando-se de uma estratégia espacial ou visual para resolverem a tarefa. Com esses resultados pode-se descartar a hipótese de que a recuperação de desempenho dos animais lesados esteja associada à utilização de uma estratégia de orientação egocêntrica; contudo, não pode-se descartar a hipótese da utilização de pistas (estratégia por guiamento). / The effects of multiple-site, intradentate, colchicine injections on the performance of a temporal, differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL-20 s) task and a spatial, delayed non-matching-to-place (DNMTP) task in a plus-maze were investigated in rats trained in both tasks prior to the lesion. Quantitative analysis revealed a greater than 86% reduction in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the colchicine-injected rats compared to the sham-operated controls. Dentate gyrus damage rendered rats less efcient than sham-operated controls in the performance of the DRL-20 s task. The DRL inter-response time (IRT) distribution for the DG-lesioned rats and the sham-operated controls was similar; however, while the distribution peak for the control rats was 20 s, it was 16 s for the DG-lesioned rats, indicating that the latter rats underestimated time. Performance of the DG-lesioned rats was also disrupted in the DNMTP task. However, DG-lesioned rats recovered control levels of performance during repeated training with an intertrial interval equal to 3 s. An increase in intertrial interval in lesioned and sham-operated controls disrupted performance in both groups; however, while DG-lesioned rats performed at chance levels when the intertrial interval was increased to 4 min or longer, the sham-operated controls performed at chance levels only when the intertrial interval was increased to 16 min. These results seem most parsimoniously interpreted following the cognitive map theory of hippocampal function.

Models of memory in cognitive science and philosophy have traditionally explained human remembering in terms of storage and retrieval. This tendency has been entrenched by reliance on computationalist explanations over the course of the twentieth century; even research programs that eschew computationalism in name, or attempt the revision of traditional models, demonstrate tacit commitment to computationalist assumptions. It is assumed that memory must be stored by means of an isomorphic trace, that memory processes must divide into conceptually distinct systems and phases, and that human remembering consists in inner, cognitive processes that are implemented by distinct neural processes. This dissertation draws on recent empirical work, and on philosophical arguments from Ludwig Wittgenstein and others, to demonstrate that this latent computationalism in the study of memory is problematic, and that it can and should be eliminated. Cognitive psychologists studying memory have encountered numerous data in recent decades that belie archival models. In cognitive neuroscience, establishing the neural basis of storage and retrieval processes has proven elusive. A number of revised models on offer in memory science, that have taken these issues into account, fail to sufficiently extricate the archival framework. Several impasses in memory science are products of these underlying computationalist assumptions. Wittgenstein and other philosophers offer a number of arguments against the need for, and the efficacy of, the storage and retrieval of traces in human remembering. A study of these arguments clarifies the ways that these computationalist assumptions are presently impeding the science of memory, and provides ways forward in removing them. We can and should characterize and model human memory without invoking the storage and retrieval of traces. A range of work in connectionism, dynamical systems theory, and recent philosophical accounts of memory demonstrate how the science of memory can proceed without these assumptions, toward non-archival models of remembering.

This thesis examined whether it is possible to enhance core elements of the information processing system with specific forms of environmental stimulation. The first series of experiments demonstrated that a preweaning environmental enrichment procedure that provided 60 minutes of daily multisensory stimulation accelerated the development of long-term contextual memory and enhanced inhibitory processing in young rats. That is, whilst stimulated and non-stimulated rats exhibited long-term memory of a context at 26 days of age, only stimulated rats showed this ability at 18 days of age. In addition, stimulated rats showed a faster rate of extinction of long-term contextual memory at 21 days of age, which was taken as evidence of enhanced inhibitory learning (i.e., context ??? no US) in these rats. Subsequent experiments with adult rats demonstrated that a combination of preweaning multisensory stimulation and postweaning rearing in an enriched environment improved the (1) specificity of long-term contextual memory, (2) speed of contextual information processing, and (3) availability of attentional resources. More specifically, enriched-reared rats demonstrated superior ability to discriminate between two similar contexts in comparison to standard-reared rats. In addition, enriched-reared rats showed superior memory of a context when there was limited time available to form a memory of that context. This finding was taken to indicate that rats that receive environmental enrichment are able to process contextual information more rapidly. Finally, standard-, but not enriched-, reared rats showed less conditioning to a discrete stimulus when it was presented in combination with a stronger stimulus during training compared to when it was presented by itself. The finding that enriched-reared rats did not show this overshadowing effect suggests that these rats have greater availability of attentional resources to divide between two stimuli that are competing for attention. The experiments with rats were followed by two experiments with children that investigated the effects of a computerised cognitive training procedure on information-processing speed. These experiments demonstrated that 30-minutes per weekday of training in rapid decision-making for three to five weeks improved children???s performance on two tests of processing speed (i.e., a choice reaction time and odd-man-out task). In addition, the speeded training improved children???s ability to sustain their attention and inhibit impulsive responses on a continuous performance test (Test of Variables of Attention). The cognitive training procedure had no effect on children???s performance on a measure of fluid intelligence (Raven???s Standard Progressive Matrices). The results of the experiments reported in this thesis suggest that a number of fundamental cognitive processes can be modified by environmental conditions that place increasing demands on the information-processing system. A neurobiological model, focusing on myelin, axon diameter, and the glutamatergic, glucocorticoid, noradrenergic, and cholinergic systems, was proposed in order to explain the observed effects of environmental stimulation on cognition in children and rats. The rationale for attempting to enhance fundamental cognitive processes was that improving these processes should ultimately improve general intellectual functioning. With respect to this aim, the correlational data from the present experiments with children revealed promising trends towards greater improvements on the tests of fundamental cognitive processes in those children in the training group with slower processing speed at the start of the intervention. This finding suggests that cognitive training may be even more effective at enhancing processing speed and other fundamental cognitive processes in children with intellectual impairments???who reportedly have slower processing speed than normal children. However, the extent to which training-related improvements in fundamental cognitive processes generalise to improvements in general cognitive functioning is unclear. That is, there is insufficient evidence that processing speed and other fundamental cognitive processes are causally related to intelligence. It is therefore essential that future cognitive training research is mindful of related developments within the intelligence and information processing literature.

The experiments described in this thesis tested whether encouraging the use of self-regulatory learning strategies enhances the effectiveness of autonomous study for novices in a learning domain. Previous research and theory have suggested that high-achieving students are proficient at self-regulating their learning, and they do so using a range of learning strategies for planning their study, monitoring the effectiveness of their efforts and elaborating their knowledge. Information processing theories of instructional design suggest that learning is optimal when working memory load is managed effectively. Accordingly, methods have been devised for reducing load associated with unnecessary task requirements, as well as dedicating additional capacity to the construction and automation of knowledge schemas. Less is known, however, about instructional methods for encouraging self-regulatory learning strategies. Experiments 1, 2 and 4 examined the effect of encouraging participants to reflect on their understanding of topics they had been taught previously. Although these participants were able to accurately estimate their level of understanding in some situations, they failed to consistently use this knowledge to guide their study of topics they had previously understood poorly. In light of this finding, Experiments 3 and 5 examined the effect of encouraging participants to plan a free study period, with the direction to prioritise the topics that they had understood the least well. This intervention had a modest positive effect on post-test performance. Experiment 6 examined the effect of encouraging two elaborative strategies, namely explanation generation and summarisation. The former benefited performance, whereas the effectiveness of the latter depended on the comprehensiveness of the summaries produced by the participants. Finally, Experiment 7 examined the effect of providing broad-spectrum instruction in learning strategies, with minimal requirements to engage in specific strategies. This intervention resulted in an overall benefit to performance. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest that certain instructional aids for self-regulation yield benefits to the autonomous study by domain novices without overburdening working memory.

This dissertation research investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying second language (L2) listening comprehension. I use three types of sentential contexts, congruent, neutral and incongruent, to look at how L2 learners construct meaning in spoken sentence comprehension. The three types of contexts differ in their context predictability. The last word in a congruent context is highly predictable (e.g., Children are more affected by the disease than adults), the last word in a neutral context is likely but not highly predictable (e.g., Children are more affected by the disease than nurses), and the last word in an incongruent context is impossible (e.g., Children are more affected by the disease than chairs). The study shows that, for both native speakers and L2 learners, a consistent context facilitates word recognition. In contrast, an inconsistent context inhibits native speakers’ word recognition but not that of L2 learners. I refer to this new discovery as the facilitation-without-inhibition phenomenon in L2 listening comprehension. Results from follow-up experiments show that this facilitation-without-inhibition phenomenon is a result of insufficient suppression by L2 learners.

According to prior researches about service failure and service recovery, much attention was given to types of service recovery. However, there was still lack of discussion on the effectiveness of service recovery performance on customer satisfaction, WOM and re-patronage. Recently, there were some researches investigated on how customer relationship with a service organization affects their reactions to service failure and recovery. As a result, this research integrated the five determinants of customer satisfaction (stability attribution, controllability attribution, perceived equity, positive and negative affect) to further investigate the moderate effect of customer relationship on service recovery performance, WOM and re-patronage. This research reports an experimental design in the context of restaurants is separated into (2*4) eight scenarios. Four hundred and twenty-two questionnaires were gathered via internet. According to the gathered data, the conclusions of this research are summarized as following: 1.As the service recovery performance increases, customers are unlikely to attribute the service failure as a stable factor. At the same time, the degree of customers¡¦ perceived equity would be higher. 2.Customer¡¦s relationship is significant to the stable attribution, but is not significant to the controllable attribution and perceived equity. 3.Negative relationships exist between stable attribution, controllable attribution and positive affect. Positive relationships exist between perceived equity and positive affect. 4.Customer¡¦s relationship is not significant to moderate the re-patronage and word-of mouth. 5.The integrated analysis on cognitive and affective viewpoint can let post-recovery satisfaction clarify 66.2% of variation explanation. 6.The LISREL analysis result appears that the goodness of fit of the structure in this study would be acceptable.

Nowadays, volatile and complex environment has forced most organizations to operate in team-based ways to increase their flexibility and adaptability. For teams to adapt, local innovation and change, that is, self-organization, is the most critical process. However, the self-organizing process is poorly understood both in academic and practice. To deep our understanding of self-organizing teams, this research attempts to explore the self-organizing mechanism in group cognitive system perspective. One System Dynamics model is built to represent important self-organization processes. And the classical self-organizing theory-Dissipative Structure Theory is applied to guide important simulations to acquire knowledge of dynamic interactions among those processes. Several positive loops are found to be quite essential in structuring and de-structuring team¡¦s operation structure. With the knowledge of evolutionary feedback acquired, impact of critical environmental factors, such as knowledge redundancy, communication quality, and open interactions, are further investigated and experimented.

This study has endeavored to discover the pertinent characteristics associated with sports gambling. Three variables appear to be especially prominent in the literature concerning gambling. Chasing one's losses is a gambling specific behavior that has been linked to pathological gambling (Lesieur, 1984). When gambler's chase their losses, they attempt to win back previously lost wagers with future gambles. In addition, previous research has focused on both the cognitive and decision making processes associated with gambling (Kahneman & Tversky, 1978; Langer, 1975). I have hypothesized that the manner in which cognitive processes, decision making, and chasing one's losses interact is a primary variable that contributes to pathological gambling. An additional hypothesis concerns the manner in which sports knowledge affects gambling behavior. The research described in this dissertation has attempted to examine the relevant cognitive and decision making processes associated with pathological gambling. Subjects engaged in gambling simulation over a six week period of time. This simulation replicated real-world gambling with the exception that money could not be lost. The top three winners were paid a percentage of their earnings in order to help insure internal validity. Results indicate that subjects with a high degree of sports knowledge gambled at a higher level and lost a greater amount of wagers than subjects with a low degree of sports knowledge. Implications associated with this include the possibility that individuals utilize knowledge as way to discount and distort statistical probabilities associated with gambling. In this study, cognition processes and decision making were not related to gambling outcomes. / text

Avhandlingen undersöker tolkningsprocessen och tolkprodukten hos konferenstolkar med olika lång tolkerfarenhet. Detta görs utifrån expertteorin (jmf Ericsson, Charness och Hoffman 2007) tillämpad på tolkning. Enligt expertteorin använder mycket skickliga utövare, oberoende av fält, samma typer av processer och strategier för att nå den absoluta toppen inom sitt gebit. En viktig del av expertteorin är medveten eller avsiktlig övning (deliberate practice), en särskild typ av övning som mycket skickliga utövare använder sig av för att förbättra sin insats. Avhandlingen bygger på fyra olika studier om två olika grupper av deltagare. Deltagarna simultantolkar ett eller två tal från engelska till svenska. Två grupper – en tvärsnittsgrupp med nio deltagare på tre olika tolkerfarenhetsnivåer (ingen erfarenhet, kort erfarenhet och lång erfarenhet) samt en longitudinellgrupp med tre deltagare som spelats in vid två olika tillfällen med 15 års mellanrum – analyserades utifrån både process och produkt data. Tolkprocessen studerades genom att analysera och kategorisera process problem, monitorering och tolkstrategier som tolkarna rapporterat om under retrospektion efter tolkning. Tolkprodukten analyserades genom holistiska bedömningsskalor, en för förståelighet och en för nivån på informationsöverföring. Vidare genomfördes också djupintervjuer med deltagarna i det longitudinella materialet. Syftet var att undersöka hur de uppfattade medveten/avsiktlig övning och hur de såg på sin utveckling och övning av tolkfärdigheten. En viktig del av avhandlingen, förutom resultaten, är utvecklingen av de holistiska bedömningsskalorna (utvecklade från Carroll 1966) och utvecklingen av metoden i djupintervjustudien. Slutsatsen i avhandlingen är att det finns en mätbar skillnad i tolkfärdigheten mellan tolkar med liten eller ingen tolkerfarenhet och tolkar med lång tolkerfarenhet. Denna slutsats fick dock inte stöd i det longitudinella (och intra-individuella) materialet. Skillnaderna mellan grupperna i tvärsnittsmaterialet var också tydliga i processdata. Erfarna tolkar stöter på färre process problem än tolkar med kortare erfarenhet. Det fanns också tydliga skillnader vad gäller förekomsterna av monitorering (alltså kontroll av tolkprocessen och produktionen) mellan erfarna tolkar och övriga deltagare. Monitorering verkar vara en skiljelinje mellan erfarna och oerfarna tolkar, de erfarna tolkarna hade mer process kapacitet tillgänglig för att monitorera sig själva. Detta stöddes också till viss del av djupintervjuerna, där deltagarna rapporterade hur de ständigt utvärderar sig själva i syfte att förbättra sin insats. Ett nyckelantagande som slogs fast i början av projektet – nämligen att erfarna tolkar skulle hävda i djupintervjuerna att de ägnade mycket tid åt att öva färdigheten – fick, till författarens förvåning, inte stöd. Tolkarna rapporterade om många övningslika aktiviteter, men hävdade samtidigt att de inte övade. Avhandlingen avslutas genom ett önskemål om fler studier med fokus på medveten/avsiktlig övning bland tolkar. Dessutom föreslår författaren också att termen “experttolk” eller “expert” ska användas med stor försiktighet i forskningsstudier om just expertkunnande i tolkning. Författaren efterlyser också en bredare diskussion om expertkunnande och medveten/avsiktlig övning. / This dissertation investigates the process and product of interpreters with different levels of experience and explores the expertise approach (cf. Ericsson, Charness and Hoffman 2007) as applied to interpreters. The expertise approach claims that highly skilled performers, regardless of their chosen field, use the same type of strategies in order to reach the top levels of their profession. An important feature of the expertise approach is deliberate practice, a specific type of practice that highly skilled performers engage in so as to improve their performance. The dissertation is based on four different studies featuring two different sets of participants. Two data sets – a cross-sectional material with nine participants on three different levels of interpreting experience (none, short and long), and a long-term material with three interpreters recorded at two different points in time – were analysed in terms of both processing and product data. The interpreting process was studied by retrospectively analysing and categorizing processing problems, monitoring and strategies, while the interpreting product was analysed by using holistic rating scales for intelligibility and level of information transfer of the interpreting product. In-depth interviews were also conducted with the long-term participants in order to investigate their perception of deliberate practice and their own view of their skill development. An important and integral part of the dissertation, apart from the results, was the development of the holistic rating scales (adapted from Carroll 1966), and the development of an in-depth interview study. The conclusions of the dissertation are that there are measurable differences of interpreting skill between performers with little or no interpreting experience and performers with long interpreting experience, but this finding could not be supported by the long-term (intra-individual) study. Differences between the groups in the cross-sectional material could also be observed from the process data. Experienced interpreters 16 encountered fewer processing problems than less experienced interpreters and had more strategies at hand to solve problems. There were also clear differences in terms of instances of monitoring (i.e. controlling the interpreting process and output) between experienced interpreters and other subjects. Monitoring seemed to be a dividing line between experienced and inexperienced interpreters, and experienced interpreters had more processing capacity available to monitor themselves. This was also to a certain extent supported in the in-depth interviews, where the participants reported how they constantly evaluate themselves in terms of improving performance. A key assumption established in the beginning of the project – that experienced interpreters would claim, in the in-depth interviews, that they practise a great deal – was not supported, to our surprise. The interpreters recounted many practice-like activities but stated that they did not actually practise. The dissertation concludes by calling for more studies on deliberate practice in interpreting, suggesting that the term “interpreter expert” should only be used with caution in scientific studies and that the particular features of expertise and deliberate practice in interpreting should be discussed. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defence the folowing papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: inPress; Paper 4: Manusckript.</p>