Note:

Note:

The ability to suppress a prepotent response is a crucial component of cognition that begins to develop during infancy and peeks during preschool. As part of understanding how one develops inhibitory control, learning about what conditions may help or hurt task performance is of great interest. The purpose of this project was to study the effects of familiarity and novelty on inhibitory control. Thirty-five preschoolers between two and five years of age were tested in four different versions of the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). Performance was no different among standard, 2D-familiar, and 3D-familiar conditions. When comparing novel with the standard condition, children performed worse (37% and 68% respectively). Findings support the attentional inertia hypothesis. An exploratory analysis on temperament was also investigated. Children who scored higher in effortful control performed better in the 2D-familiar condition. / Master of Science

League of Legends is one of the most played video games in the world with millions of hours played each year. I examine if both a player’s experience and level of familiarity with teammates within the League of Legends virtual environment have significant relationships with individual performance. Utilizing regression analysis I have concluded that individual experience does not have a statistically significant effect on individual performance and that individual familiarity has a statistically significant negative effect on individual performance.

Previous research has shown that the productivity of sows housed in an Electronic Sow Feeding (ESF) system is affected by the housing management (static vs. dynamic), stage of gestation at mixing and parity. Familiarity has also been shown to affect the behaviour of group-housed sows. Thus, the objective of this experiment was to determine how the previously mentioned social factors affect the behaviour, physiology and productivity of sows housed in an ESF system. Sows were regrouped into either the static and dynamic pens. Within an introduction group, a subgroup of up to 24 focals sows was observed. The focal sows were chosen based on whether they were mixed pre vs. post-implantation (<12 vs. >46 days post-breeding), familiar vs. unfamiliar with group mates and parity (1st vs. 2nd and 3rd vs. 4th +). Aggression at mixing and at the feeder, injury scores, feeder entry order, space usage, salivary cortisol and farrowing productivity was recorded. The data was analyzed using Proc-Mixed and the General Model for SAS. Housing did not have a significant effect on the any of the parameters examined. Young sows had significantly more piglets born alive when housed in a dynamic system, while old sows had more piglets born alive when housed in a static system (p=0.03). Pre-implant sows initiated more aggressive encounters than post-implant sows (p=0.01). Post-implant sows ate later in the feeding cycle (p=0.03), rested on the slats more (p<0.001) and had higher salivary cortisol concentrations (p=0.0008). However, the cortisol concentrations increased throughout gestation for all sows (p<0.001). Familiarity did not have an effect on any of the variables examined except, familiar sows spent more time lying against the wall (p=0.03) and unfamiliar sows spent more time lying in the centre of the solid area of the pen (p=0.02). Old sows were involved in more aggressive encounters (p=0.04), spent more time fighting at mixing (p=0.02) and laid against the wall more (p<0.001). Young sows tended to received more scratches (p=0.07), ate later in the feeding cycle (p<0.001) and spent more time lying on the slats (p<0.001). Intermediate sows had significantly lower salivary cortisol concentrations (p=0.003). There was not a difference between the static and dynamic management systems. Sows should not be mixed until after embryonic implantation because they are more docile. The intermediate sows underwent the least amount of social stress due to their intermediate position within the dominance hierarchy.

Previous research has shown that the productivity of sows housed in an Electronic Sow Feeding (ESF) system is affected by the housing management (static vs. dynamic), stage of gestation at mixing and parity. Familiarity has also been shown to affect the behaviour of group-housed sows. Thus, the objective of this experiment was to determine how the previously mentioned social factors affect the behaviour, physiology and productivity of sows housed in an ESF system. Sows were regrouped into either the static and dynamic pens. Within an introduction group, a subgroup of up to 24 focals sows was observed. The focal sows were chosen based on whether they were mixed pre vs. post-implantation (<12 vs. >46 days post-breeding), familiar vs. unfamiliar with group mates and parity (1st vs. 2nd and 3rd vs. 4th +). Aggression at mixing and at the feeder, injury scores, feeder entry order, space usage, salivary cortisol and farrowing productivity was recorded. The data was analyzed using Proc-Mixed and the General Model for SAS. Housing did not have a significant effect on the any of the parameters examined. Young sows had significantly more piglets born alive when housed in a dynamic system, while old sows had more piglets born alive when housed in a static system (p=0.03). Pre-implant sows initiated more aggressive encounters than post-implant sows (p=0.01). Post-implant sows ate later in the feeding cycle (p=0.03), rested on the slats more (p<0.001) and had higher salivary cortisol concentrations (p=0.0008). However, the cortisol concentrations increased throughout gestation for all sows (p<0.001). Familiarity did not have an effect on any of the variables examined except, familiar sows spent more time lying against the wall (p=0.03) and unfamiliar sows spent more time lying in the centre of the solid area of the pen (p=0.02). Old sows were involved in more aggressive encounters (p=0.04), spent more time fighting at mixing (p=0.02) and laid against the wall more (p<0.001). Young sows tended to received more scratches (p=0.07), ate later in the feeding cycle (p<0.001) and spent more time lying on the slats (p<0.001). Intermediate sows had significantly lower salivary cortisol concentrations (p=0.003). There was not a difference between the static and dynamic management systems. Sows should not be mixed until after embryonic implantation because they are more docile. The intermediate sows underwent the least amount of social stress due to their intermediate position within the dominance hierarchy.

Since Jorn Barger advanced the new noun, weblog, in 1997, until now blog has become one of necessary web services for almost everyone besides email. Friendly interface increases personal channel. And also, blog readers¡¦ trust information in blogs. They believe content in blogs is more useful than traditional mass media. Such trust has important impact not only on traditional mass media, but also on individuals, politics, business, society and so on. However, the appearance of fake blogs has challenged readers¡¦ trust toward blogs, thus shows the importance of trust in this wave and becomes one of the issues which can not be ignored. This study attempts to realize the relation between readers¡¦ trust and their trust related behaviors, trust constructors, and observe the moderating role of blog categories in this relationship. According to the result of literature review, this study takes ¡§competence¡¨, ¡§integrity¡¨, ¡§benevolence¡¨, and ¡§familiarity¡¨ as for major constructors of trust, and develops questionnaire from readers¡¦ angle. Quantity research method was used by distributing online questionnaire to observe whether readers have such personal behaviors as ¡§information dependence¡¨, ¡§follow advice¡¨, and ¡§recommendation¡¨. This study discovered that trust does have obvious impact on readers¡¦ trust related behaviors. Nevertheless, exclude integrity doesn¡¦t have significant impact on readers¡¦ recommendation behavior, the other constructors all have different importance in different blog categories. Competence is the most important constructor, but its influence is smaller than the negative impact of benevolence in master blog type. Benevolence has significant negative impact, especially in blogs which evaluate personal style. The impact of familiarity on readers to recommend others is greater than on readers¡¦ personal behaviors, but its impact on readers¡¦ personal behavior does not reach significant standard in information sharing blog type.

<p>The term ”déjà vu” was first introduced around the 1890s in order to separate thephenomenon from other paramnesias, but a clear consensus on its definition was not reacheduntil mid 20th century. Since the middle of the 19th century, several dozens ofparapsychological, pseudoscientific and scientific theories have been proposed to explain thedéjà vu phenomenon, ranging from “messages from God” to “delayed neural transmissionspeed”. Most scientific theories can be divided into four categories: dual-processing,neurological, memory and attentional. This paper discusses and compares some of thesetheories. Memory and attentional theories are concluded to have most explanatory power andpotential to demystify the phenomenon through future research.</p>

The term ”déjà vu” was first introduced around the 1890s in order to separate thephenomenon from other paramnesias, but a clear consensus on its definition was not reacheduntil mid 20th century. Since the middle of the 19th century, several dozens ofparapsychological, pseudoscientific and scientific theories have been proposed to explain thedéjà vu phenomenon, ranging from “messages from God” to “delayed neural transmissionspeed”. Most scientific theories can be divided into four categories: dual-processing,neurological, memory and attentional. This paper discusses and compares some of thesetheories. Memory and attentional theories are concluded to have most explanatory power andpotential to demystify the phenomenon through future research.

The purposes of this study were (a) to examine Zambian Junior high school pre-service science teachers' familiarity with, interest in learning more about electrochemistry, and their conceptual understanding and performance on electrochemistry (b) to examine the pre-service science teachers' ability to identify misconceptions on electrochemistry and their pedagogical ideas on how to address the identified misconceptions in junior high school classrooms, and (c) to establish the extent to which pre-service science teachers' familiarity with, interest in, conceptual understanding of, performance on, and pedagogical ideas for, electrochemistry are related. The electrochemistry concepts examined in this study were categorized into basic and advanced concepts. A sample comprised 66 junior high school pre-service science teachers at Mufulira College of Education in Zambia. The study used a mixed methods research design, and data were collected using a questionnaire, performance test, and interviews. The first two instruments collected quantitative data which was analyzed using non-parametric tests - Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests. The third instrument collected qualitative data which was analyzed by identifying the emerging themes that formed categories. The pre-service science teachers reported high familiarity and interest in the electrochemistry concepts examined. There were statistically significant differences in familiarity with and interest in all concepts among all the groups. The year in college and level at which electrochemistry was learned showed statistically significant differences for both familiarity and interest. Results further showed low pre-service science teachers' conceptual understanding and performance on electrochemistry test. Between group comparisons on conceptual understanding and performance were statistically significant for year in college and levels at which electrochemistry was learned. The pre-service science teachers interviewed exhibited inability to identify misconceptions in most scenarios on basic electrochemistry concepts. Furthermore, teachers' suggested pedagogical ideas for addressing the misconceptions comprised both learner-centered and teacher-centered instructional practices. As such, the pre-service science teachers' self-reported knowledge of electrochemistry was not consistent with their actual knowledge. Correlational analysis of familiarity, interest, conceptual understanding and performance revealed statistically significant correlations between familiarity and conceptual understanding, r(64) = 0.56, p = 0.000 and between performance and conceptual understanding r(64) = 0.64, p = 0.000 only. These results have implications for teacher education and science teaching and learning.