As online technology continues to progress, the modes of communication through which content can be shared have exponentially grown. These include advances in navigational options for presenting information and news online. Though the listicle has been around for centuries, the internet has proliferated its growth, as content producers rely on its structure as a vehicle for sharing information. This research shows that in the case of listicles, format had no direct effect on recall, however, participants who had a greater interest in the content showed significantly higher levels of memory sensitivity. This critical finding suggests that news outlets and content producers should concern themselves with ensuring that their content is interesting and relevant to their audience more so than worrying about whether the listicle is in clickable or scrollable form. This first attempt to examine listicles by comparing their navigational difference in terms of recall performance lays a framework for future research on listicles.

<p>It is essential that breast cancer be detected at its earliest stages for better prognosis. Advanced imaging techniques and systems are constantly under development and study to improve the screening and detection of breast cancer. Like every technological advancement in medical care, these techniques and systems need to be tested and verified before their clinical translation. What are currently considered the gold standard for justification of clinical translation are randomized clinical trials. Clinical trials are time-consuming, costly, and expose the population to extra irradiation in the case of x-ray imaging. Given the recent advances in computation and modeling, virtual clinical trials can be carefully designed and carried out to inform, orient, or potentially replace clinical trials given adequate validation and credibility. This dissertation elaborates on the design, implementation, and performance analysis of virtual clinical trials, which is made possible through the employment and advancement of sophisticated tools and models.</p> / Dissertation

Previous solutions for the the Law of Categorical Judgment with category boundary variability have either constrained the standard deviations of the category boundaries in some way or have violated the assumptions of the scaling model. In the current work, a fully Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo solution for the Law of Categorical Judgment is given that estimates all model parameters (i.e. scale values, category boundaries, and the associated standard deviations). The importance of measuring category boundary standard deviations is discussed in the context of previous research in signal detection theory, which gives evidence of interindividual variability in how respondents perceive category boundaries and even intraindividual variability in how a respondent perceives category boundaries across trials. Although the measurement of category boundary standard deviations appears to be important for describing the way respondents perceive category boundaries on the latent scale, the inclusion of category boundary standard deviations in the scaling model exposes an inconsistency between the model and the rating method. Namely, with category boundary variability, the scaling model suggests that a respondent could experience disordinal category boundaries on a given trial. However, the idea that a respondent actually experiences disordinal category boundaries seems unlikely. The discrepancy between the assumptions of the scaling model and the way responses are made at the individual level indicates that the assumptions of the model will likely not be met. Therefore, the current work examined how well model parameters could be estimated when the assumptions of the model were violated in various ways as a consequence of disordinal category boundary perceptions. A parameter recovery study examined the effect of model violations on estimation accuracy by comparing estimates obtained from three response processes that violated the assumptions of the model with estimates obtained from a novel response process that did not violate the assumptions of the model. Results suggest all parameters in the Law of Categorical Judgment can be estimated reasonably well when these particular model violations occur, albeit to a lesser degree of accuracy than when the assumptions of the model are met.

This thesis investigates the relationships between performance, workload, and situation awareness at varying levels of automation. The relationships observed in this study are compared to a description put forth to formalize the conventional interpretation of the trade-off between the benefits of automation during routine operation and the costs under conditions of automation failure. The original work stipulated that this “routine-failure trade-off” is likely a simplification affected by contextual factors. This work therefore aimed to i) provide empirical evidence to support or refute the trade-off and ii) to identify possible extenuating factors. The results generally supported the routine-failure trade-off, and considered in light of the functional structure of the task suggested that the relationships between goals and individual functions specific to a given task seem to affect the overall costs and benefits of automation through the mechanism of selective reliance. Further work is required to validate the findings of this study.

This thesis investigates the relationships between performance, workload, and situation awareness at varying levels of automation. The relationships observed in this study are compared to a description put forth to formalize the conventional interpretation of the trade-off between the benefits of automation during routine operation and the costs under conditions of automation failure. The original work stipulated that this “routine-failure trade-off” is likely a simplification affected by contextual factors. This work therefore aimed to i) provide empirical evidence to support or refute the trade-off and ii) to identify possible extenuating factors. The results generally supported the routine-failure trade-off, and considered in light of the functional structure of the task suggested that the relationships between goals and individual functions specific to a given task seem to affect the overall costs and benefits of automation through the mechanism of selective reliance. Further work is required to validate the findings of this study.

As online technology continues to progress, the modes of communication through which content can be shared have exponentially grown. These include advances in navigational options for presenting information and news online. Though the listicle has been around for centuries, the internet has proliferated its growth, as content producers rely on its structure as a vehicle for sharing information. This research shows that in the case of listicles, format had no direct effect on recall, however, participants who had a greater interest in the content showed significantly higher levels of memory sensitivity. This critical finding suggests that news outlets and content producers should concern themselves with ensuring that their content is interesting and relevant to their audience more so than worrying about whether the listicle is in clickable or scrollable form. This first attempt to examine listicles by comparing their navigational difference in terms of recall performance lays a framework for future research on listicles.

Our brains handle vast amounts of information incoming through our senses. Continuously exposed to sensory input, the sense of touch, however, may miss tactile stimuli, no matter how much attention we pay to them. In four empirical studies, this thesis tested (1) the feasibility of investigating undetectable stimulation by electrical finger nerve pulses, (2) how its neural correlates dissociate from detectable stimulation and (3) whether and how selective somatosensory attention nevertheless affects the neural representation of undetectable stimuli. The first two studies showed that there is a natural range of electrical stimulation intensities that cannot be detected. A rigorous statistical evaluation with Bayes factor analysis indicated that the evidence of chance performance after undetectable stimulation reliably outweighed evidence of above-chance performance. A subsequent study applying electroencephalography (EEG) revealed qualitative differences between the processing of detectable and undetectable stimulation, which is evident in altered event-related potentials (ERP). Specifically, undetectable stimulation evokes a single component that is not predictive of stimulus detectability but lacks a subsequent component, which correlates with upcoming stimulus detection. The final study showed that attention nevertheless affects neural processing of undetectable stimuli in a top-down manner as it does for detectable stimuli and fosters the view of attention and awareness being two separate and mostly independent mechanisms. The influence of the pre-stimulus oscillatory (~10 Hz) alpha amplitude—a putative marker of attentional deployment—on the ERP depended on the current attentional state and indicates that both processes are interacting but not functionally matching.:1 Touch, Consciousness, And Attention – Theoretical Considerations ........ 1-11 1.1 A Neural Account To (Un-) Consciousness ............................................ 1-12 1.2 Controlling detectability of external stimulation ...................................... 1-14 1.3 Thresholds in the light of signal detection theory ................................... 1-17 1.4 Selective attention in touch .................................................................... 1-19 1.5 Research questions ............................................................................... 1-21 2 Empirical Evidence .................................................................................... 2-25 2.1 General methods .................................................................................... 2-25 2.1.1 Stimulation ........................................................................................... 2-25 2.1.2 Threshold assessment procedure ....................................................... 2-25 2.1.3 Behavioral analysis .............................................................................. 2-26 2.1.4 Electrophysiological measurement ...................................................... 2-28 2.1.5 Analysis of event-related potentials ..................................................... 2-30 2.1.6 Spectral Analysis resolved over time ................................................... 2-30 2.2 Psychophysical assessment of subthreshold stimulation ........................ 2-33 2.2.1 A method for assessing the individual absolute detection threshold (ADTH) ......................................................................................................... 2-33 2.2.2 Validation of absolute detection threshold assessment by signal detection theory measures and Bayesian Null-Hypothesis testing ................ 2-39 2.3 Non-invasive neural markers of unconscious perception ....................... 2-47 2.3.1 Neural Correlates of Undetectable Somatosensory Stimulation in EEG and fMRI ...................................................................................................... 2-47 2.3.2 Prediction of stimulus perception by features of the evoked potential for different stimulation intensities along the psychometric function ................. 2-51 2.4 The role of Rolandic Alpha Activity in Somatosensation and its Relation to Attention ................................................................................................. 2-75 3 General Discussion and Conclusions ...................................................... 3-101 3.1 Summary of empirical results ................................................................ 3-101 3.2 Neural processing of undetectable stimulation ..................................... 3-102 3.3 Attention, awareness and neural oscillatory activity ............................. 3-104 3.4 Limits of the current studies and future perspectives ........................... 3-109 References .................................................................................................... 113 Summary ....................................................................................................... 137 Zusammenfassung ........................................................................................ 143 Curriculum Vitae ............................................................................................ 151 Selbständigkeitserklärung ............................................................................. 155 Nachweis über die Anteile der Co-Autoren .................................................... 157

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / James C. Shanteau / Situation Awareness (SA) measurement takes on many forms: subjective, direct, and implicit performance, each with limitations. Subjective measures are based on self and peer reports, which allow biases to enter the measurement. Direct measures, such as SA Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT), interrupt SA in order to probe the participants’ SA level using questions. Implicit performance measures are based on participants’ ability to complete SA tasks, which must be created for each domain. A new approach, Dynamic – SA Task (D-SAT), was developed using a microworld wildfire fighting simulation, Networked Fire Chief (NFC). D-SAT is an implicit performance measure that can be adapted to multiple domains, for example inattentional blindness. Scenarios were developed during study one by tracking participant performance and scenario situations. Study two used the scenarios developed during study one to test D-SAT’s ability to evaluate SA by comparing D-SAT performance to an established SA performance measure, situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT). While the manipulation used to create had an effect on D-SAT performance, it was not associated with the established SA performance measure. However, a signal detection theory (SDT) analysis showed additional promise for D-SAT being a useful SA measure.

The aim of this dissertation was to address a theoretical debate on belief bias. Belief bias is the tendency for people to be influenced by their prior beliefs when engaged in deductive reasoning. Deduction is the act of drawing necessary conclusions from premises which are meant to be assumed as true. Given that the logical validity of an argument is independent of its content, being influenced by your prior beliefs in such content is considered a bias. Traditional theories posit there are two belief bias components. Motivated reasoning is the tendency to reason better for arguments with unbelievable conclusions relative to arguments with believable conclusions. Response bias is the tendency to accept believable arguments and to reject unbelievable arguments. Dube et al. (2010) pointed out critical methodological problems that undermine evidence for traditional theories. Using signal detection theory (SDT), they found evidence for response bias only. We adopted the SDT method to compare the viability of the traditional and the response bias accounts. In Chapter 1 the relevant literature is reviewed. In Chapter 2 four experiments which employed a novel SDT-based forced choice reasoning method are presented, showing evidence compatible with motivated reasoning. In Chapter 3 four experiments which used the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) method are presented. Crucially, cognitive ability turned out to be linked to motivated reasoning. In Chapter 4 three experiments are presented in which we investigated the impact of cognitive ability and analytic cognitive style on belief bias, concluding that cognitive style mediated the effects of cognitive ability on motivated reasoning. In Chapter 5 we discuss our findings in light of a novel individual differences account of belief bias. We conclude that using the appropriate measurement method and taking individual differences into account are two key elements to furthering our understanding of belief bias, human reasoning, and cognitive psychology in general.

Stimuli that cannot be perceived (i.e., that are subliminal) can still elicit neural responses in an observer, but can such stimuli influence behavior and higher-order cognition? Empirical evidence for such effects has periodically been accepted and rejected over the last six decades. Today, many psychologists seem to consider such effects well-established and recent studies have extended the power of subliminal processing to new limits. In this thesis, I examine whether this shift in zeitgeist is matched by a shift in evidential strength for the phenomenon. This thesis consists of three empirical studies involving more than 250 participants, a simulation study, and a quantitative review. The conclusion based on these efforts is that several methodological, statistical, and theoretical issues remain in studies of subliminal processing. These issues mean that claimed subliminal effects might be caused by occasional or weak percepts (given the experimenters’ own definitions of perception) and that it is still unclear what evidence there is for the cognitive processing of subliminal stimuli. New data are presented suggesting that even in conditions traditionally claimed as “subliminal”, occasional or weak percepts may in fact influence cognitive processing more strongly than do the physical stimuli, possibly leading to reversed priming effects. I also summarize and provide methodological, statistical, and theoretical recommendations that could benefit future research aspiring to provide solid evidence for subliminal cognitive processing. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>