<p>At the core of this thesis lies the concept of triggers and how a trigger’s general purpose is to raise attention to something. We discuss the similarities of triggers, entry points, and affordances in terms of medium dependency and information value, and how they can co-exist. As a basis of our trigger discussion we consider active and passive attention along with the use of tools as triggers. A number of problems are identified in trigger use, including continuous or discrete triggers and information value. Finally, suggestions are made regarding the handling of triggers, entry points, and affordances from a designer’s point of view. We discuss and suggest that triggers and their contextual elements can be handled and designed on the basis of their type, information demand, cognitive congeniality, and characteristics.</p><p>Key words: Trigger, entry point, affordance, cognitive congeniality, attention, task transformations, information demand, medium dependency, information value.</p>

<p>Detta arbete är en studie av hur motivation påverkar individens inlärning. Lär vi oss bättre om vi är motiverade? Kan man motiveras under en utbildning och nå lika goda resultat som om man hade varit motiverad vid utbildningens början? Detta är några av de frågor som jag ställt mig inför min undersökning om motivationens påverkan på inlärningen.</p><p>Undersökningen av problemet har skett med en kvalitativ intervju med bestämda frågor. I denna undersökning har jag utgått från de faktorer som påverkar motivation - vilja, delaktighet, tilltro, självförtroende, information och kunskap samt trygghet. Med dessa faktorer som utgångspunkt har jag ställt frågor för att reda ut hur stor betydelse individens motivation har för det han/hon lär sig.</p><p>Resultatet av min undersökning visar att motivationen har betydelse för vår inlärning. Framförallt är viljan att lära sig mycket viktig. Mitt undersökningsresultat visar också att man kan motiveras under pågående utbildning. En individ som är motiverad i det initiala skedet av utbildningen lär sig bättre, men en individ som motiveras under utbildningen kan uppnå nästan lika goda slutresultat.</p>

<p>Rapporten behandlar datorstödda multimedia utbildningar vars syfte är att utbilda ovana användare i datorkunskap. Hur ska instruktioner utformas för att stödja inlärning i dessa datorstödda utbildningar? Vilka instruktionsteorier och inlärningsteorier är viktiga att stödja? Detta är de huvudsakliga frågeställningar rapporten behandlar. Studien innefattar en utvärdering av tre datorstödda utbildningsprogram för att besvara vilka instruktioner programmen stödjer. Utöver utvärderingen har även en empirisk studie i form av en direktobservation utförts. Observationsstudien har givit svar på vilka instruktioner utbildningarna bör innefatta och även hur dessa instruktioner bör ges. Det finns fortfarande många frågor kvar att besvara beträffande instruktioner och inlärning för datorstödd utbildning. Studien har väckt intressanta frågeställningar relaterat till användbarhet i dessa utbildningsprogram samt givit en grund att bygga vidare studier på.</p>

<p>Examensarbetet behandlar förhållandet mellan personlighet, akademisk utbildning och kognition. Alla vet vi att individer skiljer sig från varandra, men vi måste också veta hur de skiljer sig från varandra. Med detta menas att individer kan skilja sig från varandra beroende på den information de besitter, men de kan även skilja sig från varandra i hur de tar emot och bearbetar information.</p><p>De teoretiska och experimentella delarna av rapporten fokuserar på om det sker någon karatäristisk förändring i tankeprocesserna beroende på individens akademiska utbildning.</p>

<p>Mitt examensarbete inriktar sig på frågan: "Hur organiserar vi seriell information"? Jag tar upp en del om forskning fram till nu och försöker utveckla den genom att pröva en hypotes om att vi hanterar seriell information genom att skapa mentala modeller. För att prova hypotesen har en undersökning gjorts.</p>

<p>Detta examensarbete behandlar operatörsgränssnitt som har konstruerats av ingenjörer på ABB Atom. De operatörer som skall arbeta med dessa operatörsgränssnitt har intervjuats i en undersökning för att undersöka den visuella presentationen genom bildelement, färg och text. Mentala modeller har studerats för att avgöra hur väl konstruerade operatörsgränssnitten är. Resultaten visar att undersökandet av mentala modeller är ett utmärkt verktyg för att undersöka och ta reda på hur man kan förbättra operatörsgränssnitten.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-205)

The thesis investigates the development of medical reasoning processes and how student modelling of such processes can be achieved in intelligent tutoring systems. The domain of orthopaedics was chosen for the research. Literature has shown that medical reasoning has been modelled mainly from an expert point of view. The research problem addressed is to model explicitly various levels of medical expertise in terms of reasoning strategies. The thesis reports on a system, DEMEREST (DEvelopment of MEdical REasoning STrategies), a developmental user model component which describes successive stages of medical reasoning and which could ultimately be part of a medical tutor. The system diagnoses physicians' reasoning strategies, determines the level of expertise and produces a plan corresponding to the application of these strategies. As a basis of doing so, a set of seven reasoning strategies was identified in the medical problem solving literature. These strategies are based on generalisation, specialisation, confirmation, elimination, problem refinement, hypothesis generation and anatomy. An empirical study was carried out to examine the development of these strategies. Protocols of ten physicians at various levels of expertise were collected and analysed. A number of interactions of strategies at different levels of expertise was identified in half of these protocols and this information was used to construct a model of changes of strategies over time. Planning in· artificial intelligence was used as a means of decomposing medical problem solving into a set of goals; the goals being associated with the reasoning strategies. By taking this approach, medical reasoning is viewed as a planning process. The remaining protocols from the empirical study were used to evaluate DEMEREST. The system was tested for its ability to determine a level of expertise for each protocol, model the reasoning strategies applied and their interactions, and generate a plan for each protocol. The assessment of the overall performance of the system showed that it was successful. This assessment also helped to identify conceptual as well as implementation constraints of the prototype system. The main result of the research undertaken in this thesis is that the design of the system DEMEREST demonstrates the feasibility of modelling the development of medical reasoning strategies and its usefulness for student modelling.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the effects of postprandial glycaemia on cognition and mood. Three studies provided evidence that low GL meals/drinks result in cognitive superiority. Study 1 found that Children's (n = 75) memory and mood were improved 180 minutes after eating a breakfast (cereal, yogurt, orange flavour drink, 337kcal) sweetened with 40g isomaltulose (low GL) rather than 40g glucose (high GL). Study 2 examined the interaction between gluco-regulatory status of older adults (n=153) and the GL of breakfast. Older adults with better, but not poorer glucose tolerance, had better memory and mood if they ate breakfast (toast, yogurt, orange flavour drink, 275kcal) sweetened with 40g isomaltulose (low GL), rather than 40g glucose (high GL) or 40g sucrose (medium GL). Conversely, older adults with poorer glucose tolerance had better memory and mood 30 minutes after glucose but not a sucrose or isomaltulose based meal. Individual differences in gluco-regulatory control also interacted with age to predict cognitive performance, cognitive decline and mood. Adults aged 61 or above, with poorer glucose tolerance, had poorer memory than those 61 or over with better glucose tolerance, or those 60 and younger with poorer glucose tolerance. In addition, in older adults with poor glucose tolerance, developing subsequent low blood glucose levels was associated with better cognitive performance, mood and less cognitive decline. Study 3 investigated the interaction between caffeine (80mg) and the GL of its vehicle. After drinking caffeine young adults (n= 345) had poorer glucose tolerance. Caffeine, regardless of vehicle, improved young adult's memory, reaction times and vigilance. Young adults remembered more words, after 150 minutes, if they drank milk (250ml, 155kcal, low GL), rather than glucose (250ml drink with 30g glucose, 155kcal, high GL), and had better working memory, after 90 and 150 minutes, if they drank water (250ml), or milk, rather than glucose. After 30 minutes, caffeine increased subjective energy levels, however, when caffeine was taken with water energy levels were reduced after 90 and 150 minutes. In contrast, when caffeine was consumed with milk greater energy was reported after 90 and 150 minutes. Caffeine did not affect energy levels when it was drunk with glucose. These results were discussed in relation to an emerging understanding of the pathologies that underlie disturbed glucose homeostasis and how these relate to the brain and cognitive performance. A theoretical framework was put forward which aims to direct future research.

Together, these three papers aim to develop scientifically informed accounts of the role of computation and representation in cognitive science. Along the way, they illustrate and defend a methodologically nominalist approach to the philosophy of cognitive science: one that investigates scientific explanation by setting aside any properties that scientific concepts might refer to, focusing instead on the concepts themselves and their role in cognitive science’s explanatory economy — what they help scientists to explain, and how. In addition to these philosophical upshots, the papers intervene on a number of debates within cognitive science itself.