The following four eye movement experiments examined the hypothesis that sentence context has a similar effect on words with higher frequency neighbors and lexically ambiguous words. This would be consistent with the notion that lexically ambiguous words can be thought of as extreme examples of word neighbors (word roommates). Experiment 1 presented words with higher frequency neighbors (birch, birth) in sentences that provided either a neutral context (i.e., the target word and its higher frequency neighbor could both fit equally well into the sentence) or biased context (i.e., the target word was a better fit than its higher frequency neighbor). Experiment 2 used the items from Experiment 1 with a group of elderly readers (65 years of age or older) to investigate age related differences in the neighbor frequency effect. A prior study by Rayner, Reichle, Stroud, Williams & Pollatsek (2006) concluded that elderly readers adopt a riskier reading strategy that relies heavily on partial parafoveal information. Therefore, elderly readers may be more likely to miscode words that have higher frequency neighbors. Experiment 3 examined the role that syntax plays in the neighbor frequency effect during reading. Prior research by Folk and Morris (2003) using ambiguous word stimuli that spanned syntactic category suggests that syntax can mediate the meaning resolution process. A critical difference between lexically ambiguous words and the words used in experiments 1-3 is that the two meanings of lexically ambiguous words have the phonological code. Therefore, Experiment 4 used words that are homonyms with their higher frequency neighbor (beech, beach).

This thesis investigates how prosodic phrasing influences listeners' interpretation of scopally ambiguous wh-questions in Japanese. It focuses on sentences such as that in (1), in which the wh-phrase can take either embedded or matrix scope: (1) [CP[IPJohn-wa [CP Mary-ga nani-o katta-ka] kikimasita]-ka]?John-TOP Mary-NOM what-ACC bought-Q askedQ‘Did John ask what Mary bought?’ (Embedded scope)or ‘What did John ask whether Mary bought?’ (Matrix scope) I argue that the comprehension of the wh-phrase is guided by the prosodic phrasing of the sentence, as specified in the Scope Prosody Correspondence in (2): (2) Scope Prosody Correspondence (SPC). The scope of a term X should not extend beyond the Major (phonological) Phrase (MaP) containing X. The SPC predicts that there is a strong bias for an embedded scope interpretation when a MaP boundary appears after the embedded Q-marker in (1). Without such a prosodic boundary, the SPC predicts that both embedded and matrix scope interpretations are equally available. The results of off-line comprehension experiments supported these predictions of the SPC. They also indicated that that prosodic phrasing rather than pitch compression is the primary determinant of listeners' scope assignments. In addition, it was shown that an embedded scope interpretation was induced by the prosodic boundary at the embedded Q-marker, not by the focus interpretation of the matrix verb. Further experiments showed that the SPC also applies to unambiguous wh-questions and to other sentences containing negative polarity items or quantifiers (e.g., interaction between negation and negative polarity sika, relative scope of quantifiers), but not to sentences lacking scope-relevant items. These results suggest that the SPC is not a construction specific principle effective only in wh-questions but rather a general principle that listeners use when they process sentences containing all and only scope relevant items. Finally, speakers of Tokyo Japanese sometimes inserted a MaP boundary after the embedded Q-marker, and sometimes didn't, for both scope interpretations of the wh-phrase. In contrast to the comprehension results, in production, the presence of a prosodic boundary after the embedded Q-marker was not reserved for embedded questions except when the two structures were explicitly compared.

Young adults with severe psychiatric disabilities face many significant challenges that put them at risk for being able to transition into adult roles, some of which include: high unemployment rates, the low participation in postsecondary training and education programs, and a strong probability of remaining on public assistance after high school. These young adults also have impairments in the cognitive processing of forethought, planning, and risk assessment—yet most programs do not emphasize the necessary skills and experiences. The purpose of this study is to investigate participants' experiences with education and support to identify the factors that would facilitate their vocational development and recovery. This study used a mixed method research design that involved both quantitative and qualitative measures. The study involved thirty-three participants from the Jump Start program, a career development and mentoring program that matched young adults ages 16–26 with severe psychiatric disabilities with mentors who themselves have had a psychiatric disability. The central research instrument used was an open-ended semi-structured participant questionnaire. There were three quantitative measures that were used: a Demographic Inventory, the Recovery Attitudes Questionnaire (RAQ-7) and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL). In-depth interviews were conducted with seven mentors from the Jump Start program to evaluate the mentoring relationship from their perspective. The study found that many participants prefer specific and tangible learning activities that supported them in taking positive steps in their recovery. Results also showed that interaction with supports was a critical component of their vocational development and recovery. In particular supports involving place, professionals, family, staff and peers played significant roles for the participants. The research also demonstrated that the mentoring relationship made a difference in the lives of both the participants and the mentors. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends three topics for further study. These include: (1) a longitudinal study with a larger sample as an examination of participants' experiences with education and supports; (2) a study designed to identify the variables, which foster young adults readiness to change their behaviors; and (3) a study that looks at what specific factors affects participants' ability to change their behaviors.

Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students' knowledge of fractions and whole numbers was tested using a number line consisting of whole circles. After a brief training session, students placed displays consisting of circles and pieces of circles on a number line. Kindergarten students did not complete the task correctly. First and second grade students performed better than kindergarten students; however, their performance was related to the training procedure they received. Training with a number line consisting of fractional quantities increased first and second grade students' performance. The findings fail to support the belief that elementary students treat fractions as whole numbers. Instead, the findings provide tentative evidence that task related issues, such as the type of number line used during training, may underlie students' performance on similar number line tasks.

Throughout development, infants are continually adding new skills to their behavioral, cognitive and perceptual repertoire. During the period in which these skills are new, they require some degree of controlled processing, and present the potential to reduce resources available for other cognitive or motor activities. The current study examined the function of attention in managing concurrent demands of cognitive and perceptual-motor processes in 24 month-old children. A primary cognitive task (nonspatial working memory search) was combined with one of three secondary action tasks (requiring high, reduced, or minimal levels of controlled processing), in order to tax attentional resources to the point that performance on the primary search task would suffer. Significant disruptions in search performance were observed with the introduction of a secondary task, but the expected differential interference effects based on level of controlled processing were largely absent. Those conditions which required controlled processing showed no added interference compared to conditions with lessened or no controlled processing requirements. The primary costs to search performance seem to be incurred as children encounter a new task and shift their focus away from the initial task. If children experience any differential effects due to cognition-action resource conflicts, they appear to be masked by the significant effects of disengaging and reengaging with the primary search task.

This study is about the interpretation of a plural pronoun in English. A two-stage performance model is proposed on the basis of Link's competence theory which claims that plurals denote sums of individuals, i.e. groups. The first stage is the construction of group discourse entities on syntactic and non-syntactic grounds. Construction on syntactic grounds is described by the NP rule which states that an N P with a plural feature triggers a group discourse entity. Construction on non-syntactic grounds is described by the equivalence hypothesis which states that if two individuals are equivalent with respect to some property, they can be collected as a group. The second stage concerns the selection of the preferred antecedent. I proposed the closure strategy which states that if all the individuals in the interpretation domain belong to one group, select this group as the antecedent of a plural pronoun. One crucial prediction of this model is the preference for the maximal group in the interpretation domain. Experiments 1, 2 and 3 tested whether symmetric predicates lead to the construction of a group. Experiments 4 and 5 tested whether ontological knowledge influences the construction of a group. Experiment 6 tested whether perspective influences the interpretation of a plural pronoun.

In this dissertation, three studies investigate how a person's beliefs about the cues that indicate deception are related to actual accuracy in detecting deception. Based on social cognition research, it was hypothesized that people with accurate beliefs about the cues that predict deception are better at detecting deception only when those beliefs are cognitively available and activated. In contrast, without activation of appropriate beliefs, detection will be no better than for those with inaccurate beliefs. Study I tested this hypothesis in a laboratory study, where participants viewed video fragments of people who are either being honest or dishonest. A questionnaire measured participants' beliefs and the activation of these beliefs was accomplished by manipulating suspicion. Study I provided clear evidence for the main hypothesis, where suspicious participants who had accurate beliefs were better at detecting deception compared to other participants. In Study II, a modified belief questionnaire was administered to 669 undergraduate participants in order to have a better understanding of the attributes of a scale that attempts to measure people's beliefs about the cues that predict deception. Study III attempted to conceptually replicate Study I in a field study. Undergraduate participants watched a video of actual passengers who either were or were not attempting to pass contraband past an experimenter. This study did not show the same pattern of results as Study I, but did show that suspicious participants were better at detecting deception. Study IV attempted to teach and activate the beliefs about cues that predict deception. Either correct or incorrect beliefs were taught to the participants and participants, involvement was manipulated. The main test of the hypothesis in this study did not show an increase in accuracy for participants who were highly involved and given the correct cues, but indirect evidence suggest that belief accuracy may be related to participant's detection accuracy.

Three experiments investigated the influence and timing of various goal- and stimulus-driven factors on the guidance of eye movements in a simple visual search task. Participants were asked to detect the presence of an object of a given color from among various distractor objects that could share either the color or shape of the target object. The contrast of one or more objects was manipulated to investigate the influence of an irrelevant salience cue on the eye movements. A time dependant analysis showed that participants' early eye movements were generally directed towards the upper left object in the display. The analysis further indicated that color then quickly became the primary guiding factor for the eye movements with salience and shape having minimal effects in early processing. Further analyses indicated that shape also influenced eye movement behavior, but largely to cancel eye movements to the target object and to end the trial without an eye movement. These analyses also indicated that shape was only processed when an object was attended because it had the target color. A model was developed and fit to the data of Experiment 1.

Thesis (M.Psych.Clin.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences