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This study examined the relationship between neuropsychological constructs of sensory-motor functioning and cognitive ability constructs in the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) (Carroll, 1993) theory. Two studies were conducted For the first study, the Dean-Woodcock Sensory Motor Battery (SMB) (Dean & Woodcock, 1999) was administered to 800 individuals. A factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis were used to investigate and develop a factor structure of the SMB. Results from this study suggest sensory and motor tests significantly share common variance and a hierarchical, multifactorial model that included a higher-order factor of both sensory and motor tests best fit the data. The second study examined the SMB model, developed in the first study, in relation to the CHC (Cattell-Horn-Carroll) model of cognitive abilities, as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson Revised Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-R) (McGrew, Werder, & Woodcock, 1991). For this study, the SMB and the WJ-R was administered to 411 individuals. A confirmatory model was tested that included the higher-order factor of the SMB as a broad ability within the CHC model. Results from this analysis suggest the higher order factor of the SMB does have a significant relationship with overall measures of cognitive ability of a similar level to other broad abilities in the CHC model, and significantly improves the fit of CHC model. These results support Roberts, Pallier, and Goffs (1999) argument for the inclusion of an additional broad ability in the CHC taxonomy that represents sensory and motor functioning. Additionally, this study provides empirical support for the utility of including neuropsychological tests of sensory and motor functioning in a comprehensive assessment of cognitive abilities (Dean & Woodcock, 1999). The implications for neuropsychological and psychometric assessment are discussed. / Department of Educational Psychology

<p>Any information represented in the brain, whether an individual is aware of it or not, holds the potential to affect behavior. The extent of visual perceptual processing that occurs in the absence of awareness is therefore a question of broad import and interest to the field of cognitive neuroscience. A useful approach for examining the extent and quality of visual processing that occurs in the absence of awareness is the dissociation paradigm. In this approach, experimenters track implicit measures of the visual process of interest across conditions of awareness modulated by visual presentation manipulations. Object-category discrimination by the visual system represents a relatively sophisticated level of representation that may or may not occur in the absence of awareness. Here, electrophysiological measures (scalp-recorded event-related potentials, or ERPs) of object-category discrimination by the brain (the face-specific N170 ERP component and the longer-latency face-specific negativity) were tracked across conditions of visual awareness as manipulated by multiple presentation paradigms (sandwich masking, object-substitution masking, the attentional blink, and motion-induced blindness). In addition, where possible, other related comparisons examining lower-level visual processes and higher-level attentional processes were employed to help delineate the specific level and mechanism by which awareness was disrupted in each case. The experiments implicated a unique set of mechanisms of reducing awareness for each method, while providing insight into the complex relationships between the various phases of visual processing in the human brain and awareness. Ultimately it was observed that neural indices of face-specific processing are differentially susceptible to disruption exerted by these various methods, and that there do in fact exist conditions in which awareness can be disrupted while leaving various facets and phases of face-specific processing intact. These findings help to establish object-category discrimination as a process that can occur in the absence of visual awareness, and contributes to our understanding of the neural factors that influence and determine behavior.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Few aspects of human cognition are more personal than the choices we make. Our decisions &mdash; from the mundane to the impossibly complex &mdash; continually shape the courses of our lives. In recent years, researchers have applied the tools of neuroscience to understand the mechanisms that underlie decision making, as part of the new discipline of decision neuroscience. A primary goal of this emerging field has been to identify the processes that underlie specific decision variables, including the value of rewards, the uncertainty associated with particular outcomes, and the consequences of social interactions. Here, across three independent studies, I focus on the neural circuitry supporting social valuation &mdash; which shapes our social interactions and interpersonal choices. In the first study (Chapter 2), I demonstrate that social valuation relies on the posterior ventromedial prefrontal cortex (pVMPFC). Extending these findings, I next show that idiosyncratic responses within pVMPFC predict individual differences in complex social decision scenarios (Chapter 3). In addition, I also demonstrate that decisions involving other people (e.g., donations to a charitable organization) produce increased activation in brain regions associated with social cognition, particularly the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ). Finally, in my last study (Chapter 4), I employ functional connectivity analyses and show that social cognition regions &mdash; including the TPJ &mdash; exhibit increased connectivity with pVMPFC during social valuation, an effect that depends upon individual differences in preferences for social stimuli. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the computation of social value relies on distributed neural circuitry, including both value regions and social cognition regions. Future research on social valuation and interpersonal choice must build upon this emerging theme by linking neural circuits and behavior.</p> / Dissertation

In recent years, students and educators alike have utilized new technologies such as tablet computers as a means of enhancing the learning process. While prior research suggests that these implementations within the classroom provide a new and beneficial method of relaying and learning information, scientists have begun to explore the possible side effects that these technologies have on the learning process. Although much of the current literature suggests that learning from an electronic screen does not affect efficacy compared to learning from printed text (Bayliss et al., 2012; Dundar & Akcayir, 2012), researchers continue to explore the possible consequences that using said technologies may have in academia. The current study aims to address how tablet computers affect the process of learning differently across levels of education. It is proposed that older generations, such as college students, who did not grow up with tablets in the classroom may suffer from the effects of proactive interference when compared to younger students who have been exposed to technologies much more profoundly in their education (e.g. elementary students). If this is so, the current study also proposes a possible intervention that would help students at any educational level overcome this interference in order to integrate tablets into their studies effectively.

This thesis reports work relating to theoretical frameworks in the area of numerical cognition that have been developed by McCloskey, Caramazza & Basili (1985), Clark & Campbell (1991), Dehaene (1992) and Noel & Seron (1992). The associations between numerical cognition and memory processes in relation to the working memory model of Baddeley (1986) were investigated. The first study used the factor analytic method to elucidate the factor structure of the processes that underlie numerical cognition, and to investigate the various components of the working memory model in relation to arithmetic. A battery of 21 tests was administered to 100 participants. The contribution of the factor analytic study to the structure of numerical cognition is discussed. An examination of the factors (labelled 'access to representations' and 'working memory') identified specific aspects of numerical cognition that were investigated further using experimental methods. The data on magnitude comparisons of numbers and animals that have been found to load onto Factor 1 were reanalysed. Similar patterns were found with the two types of stimuli in some cases. This suggested that Dehaene's notion of a 'number line' might not be specific to numbers. To build on the investigation of magnitude comparisons two experiments were carried out using the dual task paradigm. The results confirmed that magnitude judgements are represented at the level of semantic processing and may not be specific to numbers. The subitizing circles test was also found to load onto Factor 1. This raised a question about the common processes that may be involved both in this test and in other tests loading on that factor. A dual task experiment was used to investigate that possibility. It appeared from the results that the verbally presented tasks in the control and experimental groups produced interference with the s ubitizing task. This result lent support for the view that subitizing is an early pre-lexical perceptual process, possibly based on canonical representations ofthe stimuli. Complex addition and multiplication loaded onto Factor 2, 'working memory' and a further dual task experiment was conducted to investigate the speCUlative view held by Aschraft (1995), that the visuo-spatial sketchpad may playa role in arithmetic problem solving. The results lent support for the view held by Aschraft (1995) of the involvement of the visual-spatial component of working memory in the calculation of multi-digit addition problems. Thus the research reported in this thesis has used a range of investigative techniques and data analysis, with the aim of clarifying the scope and the limitations of major recent models of numerical cognition and the role of working memory in numerical processing. The results of the research programme supported those models which link numerical cognition with other forms of mental processing by identifying specific ways in which diverse numerical processes such as magnitude comparison, subitizing and the calculation of multi-digit problems draw on forms of processing associated with other types of stimuli.

The central focus of this study is cognitive information utilisation. Research in information utilisation to date has largely focused on the organisational outcomes of the take up of scientific and professional information in the context of social practice, and the related political, cultural and economic factors affecting this. Conceptualising information utilisation as a type of organisational change or end-state has tended to mask the complex cognitive exchanges that occur. While there has been increasing acknowledgement that information utilisation is a more holistic interactive change process involving cognitive strategies and transformations, very little research has focused on the cognitive dimension of information utilisation. Bertram Brookes claimed that the theoretical pursuit of information science should be the cognitive interaction between people and information. He explicated this as the Fundamental Equation of information science, most commonly expressed in his writings as K[S] + ∆I = K[S + ∆S]. By this equation, Brookes was stating that in the process of doing something with information, a person's existing knowledge structure K[S] is changed by an increment of information ∆I, and this modification has some effect, a changed knowledge structure K[S + ∆S] where ∆S indicates the effect of the modification. This equation is posited as an expression of cognitive information utilisation. The specific purpose of this study is to further understanding of cognitive information utilisation, employing Brookes' Fundamental Equation as a general framework for establishing research questions, operational rationalisations and procedures. With a group of four girls in their final year of secondary education, the study sought to: (a) establish the effects ∆S of exposure to information perceived by the girls; (b) establish how the perceived effects are associated with changes to their knowledge structures K[S]; and (c) establish the patterns, if any, within and between the girls in relation to changes in knowledge structures and perceived effects (K[S + ∆S]). The study employed a quasi-experimental repeated phase approach. The girls' existing knowledge structures about the drug heroin were mapped, and knowledge structures after each of three exposures to different information on heroin were also mapped. Eliciting the girls' knowledge about heroin was based on written discourse and question / answer protocols, and this knowledge was represented as conceptual graph structures, based on an analytical procedure developed by Graesser & Clark (1985). The data were analysed qualitatively to establish indicators and conceptualisations of the perceived effects, and to identify and conceptualise the changed knowledge structures. The study found that the exposures to information and the deliberate consideration of this information had effects for all the girls. Five types of effects were perceived, these being: get a complete picture, get a changed picture, get a clearer picture, get a verified picture, and get a position in a picture. These effects are presented as types of cognitive information utilisation. The knowledge structures after each exposure were shown to change by cognitive strategies of appending, inserting and deleting. The analysis of the knowledge structures associated with these five effects showed that there was coherence between the effects and how these effects were manifested in changes to the girls' knowledge structures. A number of distinct patterns were evident, for example, get a complete picture was associated with revised knowledge structures that were more inclusive, elaborative and integrative. The study raises important implications for information practice, including data base design, information interviews, provision of information in media campaigns, and instructional design. The study also addresses methodological issues and identifies area for further research.

[Truncated abstract] It has frequently been reported that individuals with elevated anxiety vulnerability impose threat-congruent interpretations upon emotionally ambiguous stimuli. A common hypothesis is that such threat-congruent interpretations contribute causally to the intensity and frequency of the anxiety elevations experienced by vulnerable individuals. However, no direct evidence has been provided to support this hypothesis. Empirically evaluating this theoretical position was the goal of the series of empirical studies described in this thesis. The approach employed here involved first, systematically and specifically manipulating interpretive bias, and second, assessing the consequences of such manipulations for anxiety vulnerability as assessed by individual differences in the intensity of emotional reaction to a subsequent stressor. This research was conducted in two phases. The studies in Phase 1 were designed to permit the development of training tasks, capable of inducing group differences in interpretive bias. The employed approach to such interpretive training involved the modification of priming tasks previously used to assess interpretive bias. In each trial of such priming tasks, homograph primes with both threatening and non-threatening meanings are first presented, followed by targets which, on different trials, are related to their threatening or to their non-threatening meanings. Participants are required to respond to identify each target, using the prime as a cue. In order to create interpretive training tasks capable of manipulating interpretive bias, contingencies were introduced into such priming task methodologies, such that the targets were related to differentially valenced prime meanings for different groups of participants. For the threat training group, the targets presented during training were always related to the threatening meanings of the 2 homograph primes, making it advantageous for these participants to interpret the primes in a threat-congruent fashion, with the intention of inducing a threat-congruent interpretive bias. For the non-threat training group, the targets in training were always related to the non-threatening meanings of the ambiguous primes, making it advantageous to interpret the primes in a non-threat-congruent fashion, with the intention of thus encouraging a non-threat-congruent interpretive bias. The success of these training procedures in modifying interpretive bias was then assessed in subsequent, non-contingent versions of these priming procedures

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1997. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-02, Section: B, page: 0998.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2001. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 62-05, Section: B, page: 2510.