Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Richard J. Harris / Memory processes have undergone extensive investigation using various experimental methods. While working memory studies have profoundly influenced the development of new cognitive theories, including the Dual-Processing Theory (Mayer & Moreno, 1998), limited research has investigated the effects of subtitled messages on multimedia comprehension. Previous eye movement research has investigated the ability of observers to attend to the multiple sensory inputs associated with multimedia viewing (D’Ydewalle, Van Rensbergen & Pollet, 1987; D’Ydewalle & De Bruycker, 2007); however, eye movement research only scratches the surface of cognitive abilities associated with multimedia learning. In order to satisfy the need for more subtitling research two studies were performed to investigate the effects of subtitled movies on the comprehension of movie content. Both investigations involved the presentation of 10-minute movie clips from A Few Good Men and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Participants completed three types of multiple-choice recognition questions for each movie, including: pictorial-only questions, verbal-only questions and combined-information questions. Experiment 1 was designed to investigate the difference between levels of comprehension, when verbal information was presented only in the participants’ native language (i.e. English soundtrack and/or subtitles). Results of Experiment 1 indicate that participants performed significantly better on verbal-only and combined-information questions when their native language was present in the subtitles as opposed to the soundtrack. These findings confirm previous findings that reading verbal information in subtitles is more efficient than listening to the soundtrack. Comparison of performance on the pictorial-only questions across presentation formats in Experiment 1 showed participants in the English soundtrack with no subtitles condition performed significantly better than all other conditions. Although Experiment 1 provides a basic understanding of how native language soundtracks and subtitles influence comprehension of movies, subtitled media are primarily used when viewing a movie with verbal information from a foreign language. Experiment 2 built on the results of Experiment 1 by incorporating an unfamiliar language (i.e. French). The question sets used in Experiment 1 were also used in Experiment 2; however, two French vocabulary tests were also used in Experiment 2 to measure incidental foreign language acquisition. Consistent with the results of Experiment 1, participants performed significantly better on verbal-only and combined-information questions when their native language was in the subtitles. This finding extended the conclusion that native language verbal information presented visually (i.e. subtitles) yields better performance on questions requiring verbal cues than native language verbal information presented orally (i.e. soundtrack) to foreign language material. Comparison of performance on the pictorial-only questions across presentation formats in Experiment 2 showed no significant differences. Comparison across the two experiments reflected a distraction effect associated with the presence of a foreign language. Performance on the French vocabulary tests was very poor across all conditions and yielded no significant differences, suggesting that the tasks may have been too difficult.

Bakgrund: Barn behöver ibland uppsöka sjukvård för att genomgå vårdprocedurer av olika slag. Barns reaktioner på oro och rädsla styrs av ålder, förståelse, fantasi och verklighetsuppfattning. Barn behöver därför förberedas inför obehagliga ingrepp som ska hända till exempel: smärtsamma undersökningar, venpunktion eller injektioner. Dessa undersökningar kan skapa oro och rädsla hos barn. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva olika icke farmakologiska avledande metoder och dess effekter vid procedursmärta hos barn. Samt att beskriva undersökningsgrupperna i de inkluderade artiklarna. Metod: En deskriptiv design användes för att besvara litteraturstudiens syfte och frågeställningar. Studien baserades på tretton vetenskapliga artiklar. De vetenskapliga artiklarna söktes i databaserna Cinahl och PubMed. Artiklarna var publicerade mellan åren 2006-2016. Huvudresultat: Studien påvisar att icke farmakologiska avledande metoder som till exempel: blåsa såpbubblor, titta i ett kalejdoskop, lyssna på musik eller använda ”Buzzy” har haft lindrande effekt på barns rädsla, oro och smärta. Effekterna har skattats med hjälp av olika skalor genom sjuksköterskors, forskare och föräldrars observationer. Barnen har själva fått skattat effekterna av de icke farmakologiska avledande metoderna. Slutsats: I resultatet i föreliggande studie har författarna kommit fram till att icke farmakologiska avledande metoder kan lindra barnens rädsla, oro eller smärta vid olika omvårdnadshandlingar. Författarna har även kommit fram till slutsatsen att de avledande metoderna som undersökts kan användas i det vardagliga arbetet inom barnsjukvården. / Background: Children sometimes need to seek medical help in order to undergo treatment procedures of various kinds. Children's reaction to anxiety and fear are governed by age, understanding, imagination and perception of reality. Children therefore need to be prepared for unpleasant procedures that they will undergo, such as: painful examinations, venipuncture or injections. These procedures can create anxiety and fear in children. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the various non - pharmacological istraction methods and its effects on procedural pain in children. And to describe the study groups in the included articles. Method: A descriptive design was used to answer the literature studies experimental purpose and questioning. The study was based on thirteen scientific articles. The papers were searched in databases Cinahl and PubMed. The articles were published between the years 2006-2016. Result: The study demonstrates that non - pharmacological distraction methods for example: playing with soap bubbles, looking through a kaleidoscope, listen to music and use a “Buzzy” have had a soothing effect on children’s fear, anxiety and pain. The effects have been estimated using different scales by nurses, researchers and parents' observations. The children themselves have been estimating the effects of the non - pharmacological distraction methods. Conclusion: In the results of the present study, the authors concluded that non-pharmacological distraction methods can ease children's fear, anxiety or pain at different nursing actions. The authors have also come to the conclusion that the distraction methods investigated can be used in everyday work in pediatric care.

My study offers a strategy to examine the effects of outdoor advertising on traffic safety. Innovations in the out-of-home advertising industry suggest the potential for outdoor advertising to increase driver distraction and therefore vehicle accident rates. Moreover, city planners need to understand how sign-free zones perform relativecompared to other areas and whether there is a safety rather conservational or aesthetic motivation for such planned zones. In addressing these issues, the present study uses panel data collected from the Massachusetts Departments of Transportation and Revenue and the American Community Survey on cities and towns in Massachusetts from 2008 to 2012 to assess whether off-premise advertising displays have a significant impact on vehicle accident rates. Ultimately, this study finds no evidence that sign density, or the number of signs per road mile, consistently impacts accident rates. However, the presence of signs in general significantly and adversely affects traffic safety, increasing collision rates. While this detected effect may be causal, it may also be indicative of differences in city-specific policies and environmental circumstances across Massachusetts cities with and without off-premise advertising signs.

Vehicle safety and road safety are two important issues. They are related to each other and road accidents are mostly caused by driver distraction. Issues related to driver distraction like eating, drinking, talking to a passenger, using IVIS (In-Vehicle Information System) and thinking something unrelated to driving are some of the main reasons for road accidents. Driver distraction can be categorized into 3 different types: visual distraction, manual distraction and cognitive distraction. Visual distraction is when driver's eyes are off the road and manual distraction is when the driver takes one or both hands off the steering wheel and places the hand/s on something that is not related to the driving safety. Cognitive distraction whereas happens when a driver's mind is not on the road. It has been found that cognitive distraction is the most dangerous among the three because the thinking process can induce a driver to view and/or handle something unrelated to the safety information while driving a vehicle. This study proposes a physiological measurement to detect driver cognitive distraction. Features like lips, eyebrows, mouth movement, eye movement, gaze rotation, head rotation and blinking frequency are used for the purpose. Three different sets of experiments were conducted. The first experiment was conducted in a lab with faceLAB cameras and served as a pilot study to determine the correlation between mouth movement and eye movement during cognitive distraction. The second experiment was conducted in a real traffic environment using faceAPI cameras to detect movement on lips and eyebrows. The third experiment was also conducted in a real traffic environment. However, both faceLAB and faceAPI toolkits were combined to capture more features. A reliable and stable classification algorithm called Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) was used as the main algorithm for analysis. A few more others algorithms like Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), AdaBoost and Static Bayesian Network (SBN) were also used for comparison. Results showed that DBN is the best algorithm for driver cognitive distraction detection. Finally a comparison was also made to evaluate results from this study and those by other researchers. Experimental results showed that lips and eyebrows used in this study are strongly correlated and have a significant role in improving cognitive distraction detection.

Background speech is annoying and distracting when working on tasks that require focus, and according to previous research, background speech is a common cause of reduced work performance. According to the interference-by-process theory, distraction is a function of the similarity between the processes involved in the involuntary analysis of the background speech and the voluntary processes involved in the task. In view of this theory, a similarity in language—between the produced language and the language that is listened to—may increase the magnitude of distraction by background chatter in comparison with when the language which is produced is different from the language that is perceived. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether work performance—as indexed by writing fluency (WF)—varies depending on the similarity between the language that is heard in the background and the language that is produced. The experiment had a within-participants design with two factors: language to-be-produced (Swedish vs. English) and language of the background speech (Swedish vs. English). The sample constituted of 43 university students, with Swedish as native language. The result showed a main effect of language to-be-produced: WF increased when the participants produced text in their native language compared to text production in their second language. No main effect of language of background speech was found, and no interaction between these two factors was revealed.

The growing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in college campuses has dramatically increased the potential for multitasking among students who have to juggle classes, school assignments, work, and recreational activities. These students believe that they have become more efficient by performing two or more tasks simultaneously. The use of technology, however, has changed the student’s ability to focus and attend to what they need to learn. Research has shown that multitasking divides students’ attention, which could have a negative impact on their cognition and learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of distractive multitasking on students’ attention and academic performance in a classroom setting. Several studies in cognitive psychology have focused on individuals’ divided attention between simultaneously occurring tasks. Such research has found that, because human attention and capacity to process information are selective and limited, a performance decrement often results when task performance requires divided attention. Distractive tasks are defined as tasks or activities for which cognitive resources are used to process information that is not related to the course material. Multitasking is defined as the engagement in individual tasks that are performed in succession through a process of context switching. Using a non-experimental, correlational research design, the researcher examined the effects of distractive multitasking, with computer devices, during classroom lectures, on students’ academic performance. This study used a monitoring system to capture data that reflected actual multitasking behaviors from students who used computers while attending real-time classroom lectures. The findings showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the frequency of distractive multitasking (predictor variable) and academic performance (criterion variable), as measured by the midterm and final evaluation scores. The results did not support the hypothesis that distractive computer-based multitasking could have a negative impact on academic performance.

M.Tech. / Purpose: To determine what effects flexion distraction will have on males with chronic lumbar facet syndrome, in reference to intersegmental range of motion and pain. Method: Thirty male participants with chronic lumbar facet syndrome received flexion distraction technique. The trail consisted of seven visits over two to three weeks. Treatment was performed on the first to sixth visit, readings and questionnaires were completed on the first, fourth and seventh visits. Data collection was concluded before treatment on the mentioned visits. Subjective data consisted of the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire-2 (SF-MPQ-2). Objective data included global lumbar range of motion measurements using the Baseline Digital Inclinometer, and segmental lumbar range of motion by means of the Radiographical Midplane Angle method. Results: Objectively, clinical significance of the intersegmental lumbar range of motion increased from the L1/L2 to the L4/L5 level (2.2% - 17.7%), but showed no statistical significance. In relation to the maximal motion possible at these levels, the increase in motion escalated from 0.8% at the L1/L2 segment to 9.2% at the L4/L5 segment. The global lumbar range of motion showed clinical significant increase in all of the ranges except for extension, however statistical significance was found in right lateral flexion only (p = 0.045). The greatest increase in motion was observed in left lateral flexion (15.72%) and a decrease in extension (3.72%) was illustrated. Subjectively, the group showed statistical significant improvement in both the SF-MPQ-2 (p = 0.000) and ODI (p = 0.000). Clinical meaningful change was noted throughout the subjective data, which resultantly showed a 66% and a 67% change in pain respectively. Conclusion: Flexion distraction has shown to have clinical significant effects on segmental and thus global range of motion, and great clinical meaningful change in pain levels and pain perception. Thus specific segmental mobilisation does affect the segmental motion.

The Stroop Color coding and word test (Stroop, 1935) is a well-known phenomenon investigating cognitive inhibition, cognitive speed, attention and cognitive flexibility. The Stroop effect refers when processing a stimulus while being exposed to another stimuli simultaneous interfering with the first (Scarpina & Tagini, 2017). This study focuses on a performance part of the Stroop color coding and word test and its relation to personality traits in the HEAXCO-PR using the Mini-IPIP6 (Ashton & Lee, 2007; Sibely, 2012). An experiment was conducted with the control group ( N = 30 ) solving a Stroop color coding and word test and the experiment group ( N = 30) being exposed to two stimuli (audio and visual) with purpose to induce stress. The result of an independent t-test indicated that you can manipulate the result of a Stroop test measuring two outcome variables (Time and Error). One-way MANCOVA was performed with the personality traits used as covariates. The analysis indicated that Extraversion had a significant small impact on Time (F (1,52) = 6.872, p = .011 η2 = .117) ) and Openness had an effect on Error (F (1,52) = 3.167, p = .008 η2 = .057). Openness showed a significant effect on error rate in the performance. Extraversion showed significant effect as a covariate on the completion time of the test. Time and Error showed a significant correlation. To establish the relationship between cognitive inhibition and personality more research is required. More research is also required for the result of this theoretical study to potentially become applicable.

In vier Laborexperimenten wurde versucht, auf der Grundlage der Theorie multipler Ressourcen visuelle und kognitive Ablenkung bei der Kraftfahrzeugführung getrennt zu erfassen. Um die Vorhersagen der Theorie prüfen zu können, sind die zu erwartenden Ablenkungseffekte zuvor mit Hilfe des Computational Model of Task Interference geschätzt worden. Die Experimente 1 und 2 wurden als einfache, visuell ablenkende Reaktionsaufgaben an einem PC realisiert, bei denen die Versuchspersonen unter visueller und unter kognitiver Ablenkung auf den Wechsel von Verkehrszeichen reagierten. Entgegen der Hypothese wurde in Versuch 1 die Reaktionsleistung in der Primäraufgabe durch visuelle Ablenkung nicht stärker beeinträchtigt als durch kognitive Ablenkung. Die Wiederholung des Experiments mit überarbeiteten Aufgaben ergab in Versuch 2 eine hypothesenkonforme Trennung zwischen visueller und kognitiver Ablenkung. Die Experimente 3 und 4 bestanden aus einer kognitiv beanspruchenden Navigationsaufgabe, die ebenfalls an einem PC unter visueller und kognitiver Ablenkung vollzogen wurde. Die Navigationsaufgabe zeichnete sich dadurch aus, dass visuelle und motorische Störeinflüsse der ablenkenden Zweitaufgaben zum Messzeitpunkt ausgeblendet wurden, um ausschließlich kognitive Interferenzen zu erheben. Weder im dritten Versuch noch in Versuch 4 mit einer zeitlichen Zuspitzung der Navigationsaufgabe konnte gezeigt werden, dass kognitive Ablenkung eine kognitiv beanspruchende Navigationsaufgabe stärker beeinträchtigt als visuelle Ablenkung. Die anderslautende Interferenzvorhersage des Computational Model of Task Interference hat sich nicht bestätigt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit legen nahe, dass visuelle und kognitive Ablenkung nicht als getrennt messbare Phänomene aufgefasst werden können. Einer dementsprechenden Auslegung der Theorie multipler Ressourcen muss für den hier gewählten experimentellen Zugang der Ablenkungsmessung widersprochen werden. / Based on multiple resource theory, four laboratory experiments were undertaken in an effort to independently measure visual and cognitive distractions during motor vehicle operation. In order to verify the predictions of the theory, the expected distraction effects were previously assessed with the aid of the computational model of task interference. Experiments 1 and 2 were performed as simple, visually distracting reaction tasks at a computer workstation, during which the test persons reacted to changing traffic signs while being subjected to visual and cognitive distractions. Contrary to the hypothesis, during experiment 1, the reaction performance in the primary task was not impaired more severely through visual distraction than through cognitive distraction. Repetition of the experiment with modified tasks in experiment 2 revealed a hypothesis-confirming separation between visual and cognitive distractions. Experiments 3 and 4 consisted of a cognitively challenging navigation task, which was also performed at a computer workstation with the interference of visual and cognitive distractions. During the navigation task, the visual and motor interferences of the distracting secondary tasks were omitted at the time of measurement in order to record only the cognitive interferences. Neither during the third experiment, nor during experiment 4, which involved an added time-pressure element to the navigation task, was it possible to demonstrate that cognitive distraction impairs a cognitively challenging navigation task to a greater extent than a visual distraction. The contrary interference prediction of the computational model of task interference was not confirmed. The results of this study suggest that visual and cognitive distractions cannot be regarded as separately measurable phenomena. A corresponding interpretation of multiple resource theory must therefore be rejected for the experimental approach selected here with regard to distraction measurement.

Introdução: Os pacientes com fissura labiopalatina, com deficiências maxilares muito severas, geralmente são tratados com avanço maxilar por meio da osteotomia tipo Le Fort I. Entretanto, a distração osteogênica com o distrator externo rígido (RED) pode funcionar como uma alternativa terapêutica para a correção da discrepância esquelética. Proposição: O objetivo do presente estudo é avaliar os efeitos do avanço maxilar por meio da distração osteogênica com distrator externo rígido (RED), associada à osteotomia tipo Le Fort I, em pacientes com fissura transforame unilateral ou bilateral, quanto à quantidade de avanço maxilar e à sua estabilidade a médio e longo prazo. Materiais e Métodos: Para a realização deste estudo longitudinal e retrospectivo, foram usadas telerradiografias em norma lateral de 9 pacientes (6 do gênero masculino e 3 do gênero feminino), onde 4 apresentaram fissura transforame unilateral e 5 apresentaram fissura transforame bilateral, submetidos ao avanço maxilar por meio da distração osteogênica com distrator externo rígido (RED). Foram estabelecidos três tempos de avaliação: fase pré-distração (T1), fase pós-distração imediata (T2) e fase pós-distração controle, com o mínimo de 1 ano após a finalização da distração (T3). A demarcação dos pontos cefalométricos e a obtenção das medidas das variáveis cefalométricas foram realizadas através do software Dolphin Imaging®, versão 11.5. Para a análise dos resultados, o teste estatístico ANOVA de medidas repetidas foi utilizado, adotando-se o nível de significância de 5%. Resultados: No início da distração, a idade média foi de 14 anos e 4 meses (idade mínima de 9 anos, e máxima de 21 anos). O período médio de distração foi de 18 dias, com uma média de ativação no distrator de 1,0mm/dia. O avanço médio da maxila medido em LVR-A, em T2, foi de 15,6mm (p<0,001), com recidiva não estatisticamente significante de 21,79% (p=0,102), em T3. O aumento médio de SNA, em T2, foi de 14,8º (p<0,001), com recidiva não estatisticamente significante de 18,90% (p=0,130), em T3. Os valores médios das medidas SN.GoMe, 1.PP e IMPA não apresentaram variação estatisticamente significante (p>0,05) entre T1, T2 e T3. Conclusão: A terapia de distração osteogênica para avanço maxilar com o RED mostrou ser eficiente, com aumentos significantes das medidas cefalométricas lineares e angulares relacionadas ao avanço maxilar, demonstrando efeito predominantemente esquelético, e estabilidade no período pós-distração médio (T3) de 1 ano e 8 meses. / Introduction: Patients with unilateral and bilateral cleft lip and palate, with significant maxillary hypoplasia are commonly treated with maxillary advancement by Le Fort I osteotomy. However, distraction osteogenesis with a rigid external distraction (RED) device can function as an alternative option for treatment of the skeletal discrepancy. Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess the effects of maxillary advancement by distraction osteogenesis using a rigid external distraction (RED) device, associated with the Le Fort I osteotomy in patients with unilateral or bilateral cleft lip and palate, as the amount of maxillary advancement and their stability in the medium and long term. Materials and Methods: To perform this retrospective longitudinal study, lateral cephalograms of 9 patients (6 males and 3 females) were used, where 4 had unilateral cleft lip and palate and 5 had bilateral cleft lip and palate, who underwent maxilla advancement by distraction osteogenesis with RED device. Three stages of evaluation were established: pre-distraction (T1), immediate post-distraction (T2) post-distraction control, with a minimum of 1 year after completion of distraction (T3). The anatomic landmarks and measurements of cephalometric variables were performed by using the Dolphin Imaging® version 11.5 software. To evaluate the results, the ANOVA test for repeated measures was used, adopting a significance level of 5%. Results: At the start of distraction, mean age was 14 years and 4 months (minimum age 9 years old and maximum of 21 years old). The mean distraction period was 18 days, with a mean rate of distractor activation in 1.0 mm / day. The mean maxillary advancement in LVR-A, at T2, was 15.6 mm (p<0.001), with no statistically significant relapse of 21.79% (p=0.102) at T3. The SNA angle increase, at T2, was 14.8º (p<0.001), with no statistically significant relapse of 18.90% (p=0.130), at T3. The mean values of SN.GoMe, IMPA and 1.PP measures showed no statistically significant variation (p>0.05) between T1, T2 and T3. Conclusion: The therapy of distraction osteogenesis for maxillary advancement with RED is efficient, with significant increases in the linear and angular cephalometric measurements related to the maxilla advancement, demonstrating predominantly skeletal effect and stability in mean post-distraction period (T3) of 1 year and 8 months.