In this thesis, we consider stationary one-dimensional mean-field games (MFGs) with or without congestion. Our aim is to understand the qualitative features of these games through the analysis of explicit solutions. We are particularly interested in MFGs with a nonmonotonic behavior, which corresponds to situations where agents tend to aggregate. First, we derive the MFG equations from control theory. Then, we compute explicit solutions using the current formulation and examine their behavior. Finally, we represent the solutions and analyze the results. This thesis main contributions are the following: First, we develop the current method to solve MFG explicitly. Second, we analyze in detail non-monotonic MFGs and discover new phenomena: non-uniqueness, discontinuous solutions, empty regions and unhappiness traps. Finally, we address several regularization procedures and examine the stability of MFGs.

Reaching with altered visual feedback of the hand’s position in a virtual environment leads to reach adaptation in the trained hand, and also in the untrained hand (Wang & Sainburg, 2002). In the current study, we asked if reach adaptation in the untrained (right) hand is due to transfer of explicit (i.e., EA; conscious strategy) and/or implicit adaptation (i.e., IA; unconscious) from the left (trained) hand, and if the transfer of EA and IA changes depending on how one is made aware of the visuomotor distortion. We further asked if EA and IA are retained in the trained and untrained hand for 24 hours. Participants (n=60) were evenly divided into 3 groups (Strategy, No-Strategy, and Control). All participants reached to visual targets while seeing a cursor on the screen that was rotated 40° clockwise relative to their hand motion. Participants in the Strategy group were instructed on how to counteract the visuomotor distortion. The No-Strategy group was not told of the upcoming visuomotor distortion but was later asked to reach while engaging in any strategy they had learned in order to assess EA. Participants in the Control group were also not told of the upcoming visuomotor distortion and were never instructed to engage in any strategy when reaching. EA and IA were assessed in both the trained and untrained hands immediately following rotated reach training, and 24 hours later by having participants reach without the cursor when instructed to: (1) aim so that your hand lands on the target (to assess IA) and (2) use what was learned during training so that the cursor lands on the target (to assess EA + IA; exception of Control group). Results revealed that the groups differed with respect to the extent of reach adaptation achieved when initially training with the rotated cursor, such that the Strategy group had greater EA and less IA compared to the No-Strategy group in the trained hand. Unexpectedly, the Control group also showed less IA compared to the No-Strategy group, but was similar to the Strategy group. For both the Strategy and No-Strategy groups, EA was transferred between hands and was retained over time. While the extent of IA varied between groups in the trained (left) hand immediately following reach training trials, significant transfer of IA was not found in any of the three groups. Retention of IA was observed in the trained hand but decayed over testing days. Together, these results suggest that while initial EA and IA in the trained hand is dependent on how one is made aware of the visuomotor distortion, transfer and retention of visuomotor adaptation is driven almost exclusively by EA, regardless of instructions provided.

Visuomotor adaptation arises when reaching in an altered visual environment, where one’s seen hand position does not match their felt (i.e., proprioceptive) hand position in space. Here, we investigated if proprioceptive training (PT) benefits visuomotor adaptation, and if these benefits arise due to implicit (unconscious) or explicit (conscious strategy) processes. A total of 72 participants were divided equally into 3 groups: Proprioceptive training with feedback (PTWF), Proprioceptive training no feedback (PTNF), and Control (CTRL). The PTWF and PTNF groups completed proprioceptive training (PT), where a participant’s hand was passively moved to an unknown reference location and they judged the felt position of their unseen hand relative to their body midline on every trial. The PTWF group received verbal feedback with respect to their response accuracy on the middle 60% of trials. The CTRL group did not complete PT and instead sat quietly during this time. Following PT or time delay, all three groups reached when seeing a cursor that was rotated 30° clockwise relative to their hand motion, followed by a series of no-cursor reaches to assess implicit and explicit adaptation. Results indicated that the PTWF group improved their sense of felt hand position following PT. However, this improved proprioceptive acuity did not benefit visuomotor adaptation, as all three groups showed similar visuomotor adaptation across rotated reach training trials. Visuomotor adaptation arose implicitly, with minimal explicit contribution for all three groups. Thus, these results suggest that passive proprioceptive training with feedback does not benefit, nor hinder, implicit visuomotor adaptation.

The role of grammar instruction when teaching writing has a long history of debate, and the views on the role of explicit versus implicit approaches vary. This study investigates how practicing teachers view this topic and how effective they perceive their teaching methods are when teaching grammar for writing. The study adopts a semi-structured interview with four practicing teachers, and their data is analyzed and discussed. The analysis indicates differences in views among the teachers, and although the results also indicate that both explicit and implicit approaches to teaching grammar are perceived by the teachers to be effective, they mostly favor an explicit approach. The study is significant for both practicing teachers and future teachers since gaining insight and potentially investigating this topic further can enhance our understanding of how practicing teachers perceive effective teaching methods.

Prescription drug advertisements are commonly seen in magazines and on television, and as a result, the public is familiar with them. Many drug ads are targeted toward older adults, who tend to use more medications, because they suffer from more chronic conditions than younger adults. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of drug advertising at persuading older adults to ask physicians for specific medications remains uncertain. Older adults’ explicit memory for drug ads is poor, but their implicit memory for drug ads may be better. Therefore, older adults may be implicitly persuaded by drug ads even when they cannot explicitly remember seeing them. The current study measured implicit memory with an incidental ratings exercise and an indirect test of preference; explicit memory was measured with intentional studying and a direct test of recognition. The purposes of the study were to compare implicit and explicit memory for drug ads in older and younger adults, to determine whether age differences in memory are affected by salient information or anxiety, and to demonstrate that a test of implicit memory may be useful in estimating advertising effectiveness. The results showed no age difference for implicit memory for drug ads, but an age difference was found for explicit memory for drug ads. However, contrary to hypotheses, neither salient information nor anxiety had an effect on implicit or explicit memory. The results were consistent with previous research demonstrating implicit memory in the absence of explicit memory. Although older adults had slightly worse explicit memory, both implicit and explicit memory for drug ads was generally good in both groups. The results were also obtained within the everyday context of prescription drug advertising, which extends memory research to an important real-world setting. Ethical considerations for research on aging and advertising are discussed. Drug ads are designed to be persuasive, but ads should be carefully designed to inform consumers, rather than to manipulate them. The implicit memory manipulation succeeded in demonstrating that ads are persuasive, suggesting that a complete assessment of advertising effectiveness should include a test of implicit memory.

One of the most intriguing and enduring issues in contemporary developmental cognitive neuroscience centers on the development of the ability to remember past experiences and the neural systems which support this capacity. Over the past 25 years, through methodological advancements and direct challenges to established assumptions, the focus of this developmental question has shifted to highlight the second half of the first year of life as the time when true explicit memory functionally emerges and begins to rapidly develop. The purpose of the following study was to test specific hypotheses regarding the biobehavioral development of explicit memory during infancy and present a new approach to studying the behavioral and physiological expression of this system. This study, which was guided by hypothesized neural substrates of this memory system, is the first direct investigation of continuous brain electrical activity during both the encoding and retrieval phases of explicit memory processing in infants. Memory-related differences in behavior and task-related brain activity in individual cortical areas were of particular interest. The results of this study provided some support for the hypothesis that baseline-to-task changes in EEG power can distinguish between successful and unsuccessful ordered-recall memory. Specifically, decreases in brain-electrical activity relative to a baseline period were found at both frontal and temporal locations during stimulus encoding and retrieval for infants who failed the recall tests. However, either no change, or increases in EEG power at frontal and temporal sites was related to successful performance on this task. In addition, different patterns of brain-electrical activity were present for correct and incorrect responses from the same child. This study contributes to our understanding of the biobehavioral expression of infant explicit memory in three main ways. First, changes in both frontal and temporal lobe activity are directly involved in explicit memory processing both during event encoding as well as retrieval. Second, this work provides evidence of a developmentally appropriate and valid pattern of electrophysiology specific to explicit memory processing. Finally, this study bridges the gap between a classic behavioral task of infant memory (which has been conceptually linked to neuropsychological data) and current developmental cognitive neuroscience. / Ph. D.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / Using data from a sample of 99 sex therapists in the United States who participated in an online survey, the use of sexually explicit material (SEM) in sex therapy is explored. Findings suggest that prevalence rates for the use of sexually explicit educational material and erotica in sex therapy were very high, 92.6% and 81.1% respectively; while the use of pornography was much lower at 29.5%. Younger therapists, and therapists with less experience, were more likely than older therapists and therapists with more experience to use SEM in sex therapy. Overall, sex therapists were generally comfortable with sexually explicit educational material and erotica but less comfortable with pornography. Younger therapists and/or female therapists were most comfortable with the use of pornography in sex therapy. The primary theoretical rationale reported by sex therapists for using SEM was education. Several therapists indicated that they would not recommend the use of SEM in sex therapy with clients who expressed opposition or discomfort, clients who exhibit compulsive sexual behaviors, and with clients who have a history of sexual trauma.

·   Denna undersökning behandlar lärares inställning till och användning av läsförståelsestrategier i undervisningen. För att elever ska utveckla sin läsförmåga räcker det inte att endast läsa mycket. Eleverna behöver också en explicit undervisning i lässtrategier. Utifrån ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv  är syftet att undersöka lärares inställning till olika typer av läsförståelsestrategier och deras mål med användningen av dessa i undervisningen för förskoleklass till årskurs 3.   För att besvara undersökningens syfte används följande frågeställningar:      · Vilka olika typer av läsförståelsestrategier används av tillfrågade lärarna och i vilket syfte?       ·   Vad har lärarna sett i praktiken att läsförståelsestrategier kan bidra med för att utveckla elevers läsförståelse?        · Vilken roll anser de tillfrågade lärarna att de har under textsamtal och i relation till undervisning av läsförståelsestrategier?           Material för undersökningen består av kvalitativa intervjuer av nio lärare verksamma i förskoleklass till årskurs 3. Resultatet visar att de intervjuade lärarna ser läsförståelsestrategier dels som redskap för läraren för att kunna ge eleverna en explicit undervisning i läsförståelse och dels som verktyg till eleverna för att de genom användning av strategierna ska kunna skapa en förståelse av texten på flera olika plan. / This study deals with teachers' attitude to reading comprehension strategies and its use in teaching. It is not enough to read a lot for students to develop their reading skills. Students also need explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies. From a social- constructivist perspective, the aim is to explore teachers' attitudes to different types of reading comprehension strategies and their goal of using these in teaching for preschool to grade 3. In order to answer the aim of this study following questions is being used:   What kinds of reading comprehension strategies do the surveyed teachers use and for what purpose?   What have teachers seen in practice that reading comprehension strategies can contribute with in order to develop students reading comprehension?   What role considers the surveyed teachers that they have during text talks and in relation to the teaching of reading comprehension strategies?   Materials for the study consists of qualitative interviews with nine teachers working in preschool up to third grade. The results show that the interviewed teachers see reading comprehension strategies as implements for the teacher to be able to give students an explicit instruction in reading comprehension and as tools for the students to be able to create an understanding of text on several different levels.

According to recent statistics, the number of people in Sweden who choose to go into higher education after upper secondary school has grown compared to 25 years ago. Lectures within some university programs are conducted entirely in English, and Swedish students’ abilities to understand, record and recall the information given at lectures are therefore crucial for their academic success. The course English 6 in upper secondary school is supposed to cover different ways of taking notes while listening. Three qualitative interviews were conducted in this study to examine how teachers interpret the course’s note-taking aspects, and how they intend to work with note-taking in the classroom. A quantitative study was carried out with students in upper secondary school to look into their experiences of note-taking in the course English 6. Results show differences in how the teachers approach note-taking and how they choose to work with note-taking in the classroom. A majority of the students participating in the study claimed not to have been introduced to different ways of taking notes in the course English 6. This information calls for teachers to make sure note-taking skills are being taught in an explicit way. More knowledge and communication among teachers also seem necessary in order to help students develop strategies for note-taking in the best way possible.

Sammanfattning Behovet av kapital är väldigt stort för ett företag vid uppstarten av verksamheten. Svårigheten att få externt kapital uppstår oftast vid denna fas, då kan nämligen en affärsängel bidra med kapital och vara till stor hjälp för företaget. Affärsängel är en privatperson eller en samling av privatpersoner som investerar finansiellt kapital. Dessa änglar tillför också affärsmässig kunskap till onoterade företag, där de finner tillväxtpotential. För att ett företag skall kunna använda riskkapital som en finansieringskälla på bästa sätt, måste de först uppfatta vad en affärsängel har för egenskaper samt hur de agerar. Syftet med denna uppsats, är att studera hur aktiva affärsänglar resonerar rörande sina investeringar i livscykelns–hypotes. Vidare att studera hur informations-asymmetrin mellan den aktiva affärsängeln och entreprenörer påverkas före och under investeringsprocessen. Vi har utfört en kvalitativ undersökning genom intervjuer med fyra olika affärsänglar i Sverige, för att få en uppfattning om en affärsängels investeringsstrategier samt relationen mellan en affärsängel och entreprenören. Affärsänglar som har valts, är erfarna av denna typ av investering. Detta val på grund av att vi skall få en bred och djupare förståelse om hur affärsänglar går till väga, samt vilka värderingar som affärsänglarna fokuserar på vid sina investeringsbeslut. Den valda teorin som är hämtad från tidigare studier, artiklar och relevanta böcker, vilka är relaterade till investeringens livscykelteori samt informationsasymmetrins teorier, hur dessa påverkar en affärsängels investerings beslut samt strategier i deras dagliga arbete. Med dessa teorier i beaktande har vi samlat in empiriskt material från affärsänglar, vilket redovisas i det empiriska kapitlet. Analysen har skapats i ljuset av empirin och de teoretiska referensramarna, detta för att skapa en trovärdig och realistisk syn på hur en affärsängel agerar under sina investeringsbeslut. I slutsatsen beskrivs de mest väsentliga faktorerna som ligger till grund för affärsänglarnas investeringar. / Abstract The need for capital is very large for a company at the startup of operations. The difficulty to obtain external capital usually occurs at this stage, since it would permit an angel to provide capital and be very helpful for the company. Angel is an individual or a collection of individuals who invest financial capital. These angels also bring business knowledge to unlisted companies where they see growth potential. For a company to use equity as a financing source in the best way, they must first understand what an angel investor has the properties and how they act. The purpose of this thesis is to study how active business angel’s argue regarding their investments in the life cycle hypothesis. Furthermore, to study how information asymmetry between the active business angel and the contractors is affected before and during the investment process. We conduct a qualitative survey through interviews with four business angels in Sweden, to get an idea of a business angel investment strategies and the relationship between an angel and entrepreneur. The business angels that have been selected are experienced in this type of investment. This choice is due to us to have a broad and deep understanding of how business angels go about it, and the values that business angels are focusing on in their investment decisions. The chosen theory is taken from previous studies, articles and relevant books, which are related to the investment's life cycle theory and information asymmetry theories, how they affect a business angel’s investment decisions and strategies in their daily work. With these theories in mind, we've gathered empirical data from business angels, which are reported in the empirical chapter. The analysis has been created in light of empirical and theoretical frameworks in order to create a credible and realistic view of how an angel investor acting in their investment decisions. In conclusion described the most significant factors underlying business investment angels.