Despite the enormous complexity inherent to language, almost all humans acquire and use their native language with apparent effortlessness, simply from being immersed in a normal social environment. It has been hypothesized that conscious processes play only a limited role in language, which may explain how language can be acquired and processed with so little effort. Using event-related potentials, this dissertation addresses this hypothesis by investigating the contributions of implicit and explicit neural mechanisms to different aspects of language. In the first study, the neural mechanisms mediating semantic and syntactic processing of word pairs were examined, using the attentional blink (AB) to manipulate awareness of target words. In the semantic condition, correctly reported target words elicited an N400 effect, while missed target words did not elicit an N400. These results provide evidence that awareness plays a critical role in semantic processing. In the second study, the neural mechanisms that support syntactic processing of full sentences were investigated, using a cross-modal AB to manipulate awareness of syntactic violations. Syntactic violations that were not consciously detected nonetheless elicited a left anterior negativity, indicating that syntactic processing is subserved by implicit neural mechanisms. In the third study, the neural mechanisms underlying semantic acquisition were examined, using a task in which the meanings of novel pseudowords were learned through context. Novel pseudowords elicited a robust N400 effect after remarkably little exposure but only during an explicit task and only when word meanings could be explicitly recognized, indicating that vocabulary acquisition is primarily mediated by explicit neural mechanisms. In the fourth study, the neural mechanisms that support the acquisition of second language (L2) syntax were investigated, using a language-learning task in which participants were trained either implicitly or explicitly. Regardless of training condition, learners who successfully learned the novel L2 syntactic rules showed P600 effects, suggesting that explicit mechanisms play a crucial role in acquiring L2 syntax. Taken together, results from these studies suggest that awareness plays a critical yet constrained role in language processing, yielding new insight into how language is spoken and understood so effortlessly. This dissertation includes previously published and co-authored material. / 10000-01-01

abstract: Juror impartiality is necessary for a fair and just legal system, but is true juror impartiality realistic? The current study investigated the role of implicit and explicit social-cognitive biases in jurors’ conceptualizations of insanity, and the influence of those biases in juror verdict decisions. It was hypothesized that by analyzing the role of implicit and explicit biases in insanity defense cases, jurors’ attitudes towards those with mental illnesses and attitudes towards the insanity defense would influence jurors’ final verdict decisions. Two hundred and two participants completed an online survey which included a trial vignette incorporating an insanity defense (adapted from Maeder et al., 2016), the Insanity Defense Attitude Scale (Skeem, Louden, & Evans, 2004), Community Attitudes Towards the Mentally Ill Scale (Taylor & Dear, 1981), and an Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al., 1998). While implicit associations concerning mental illness and dangerousness were significantly related to mock jurors’ verdicts, they no longer were when explicit insanity defense attitudes were added to a more complex model including all measured attitudes and biases. Insanity defense attitudes were significantly related to jurors’ verdicts over and above attitudes about the mentally ill and implicit biases concerning the mentally ill. The potentially biasing impact of jurors’ insanity defense attitudes and the impact of implicit associations about the mentally ill in legal judgments are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018

Neste trabalho estudamos as equações diferenciais binárias em uma vizinhança de um ponto singular isolado. Usando a abordagem geométrica de Bruce e Tari para o estudo da multiplicidade de uma equação diferencial binária, introduzimos uma definição de índice para esta classe de equações, o qual coincide com a definição clássica de Hopf para o índice de equações diferenciais binárias positivas. O principal resultado é uma fórmula que expressa o índice em termos de informação obtida a partir dos coeficientes da equação original. A invariância do índice por equivalências suaves é também estudada. Para uma classe especial de equações diferenciais implícitas, relacionamos o índice da equação com índices de especiais 1-formas e campos vetoriais em variedades com singularidades isoladas / In this work we study binary differential equations in a neighborhood of an isolated singular point. Following the geometric approach of Bruce and Tari in their work on multiplicity of a binary differential equation, we introduce a new definition of index for this class of equations, which coincides with the classical definition by Hopf for positive binary differential equations. The main result is a formula expressing the index in terms of information obtained from the coefficients of the original equation. The invariance of the index by smooth equivalences is also proved. Some results relating the index with the indices of 1-forms and vector fields in singular varieties are given for a special class of implicit differential equations

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

M.Sc. / There have been an extensive study on solutions of differential equations modeling physical phenomena that blows up in finite time. The blow-up time often represents an important change in the properties of such models and hence it is very important to compute it as accurate as possible. In this work, an adaptive in time numerical method for computing blow-up solutions for nonlinear ODEs is introduced. The method is named implicit midpoint-implicit Euler method (IMIE) and is based on the implicit Euler and the implicit midpoint method. The method is used to compute blow-up time for different examples of ODEs, PDEs and VIDEs. The PDEs studied are reaction-diffusion equations whereby the method of lines is first used to discretize the equation in space to obtain a system of ODEs. Quadrature rules are used to approximate the integral in the VIDE to get a system of ODEs. The IMIE method is then used then to solve the system of ODEs. The results are compared to results obtained by the PECEIE method and Matlab solvers ode45 and ode15s. The results show that the IMIE method gives better results than the PECE-IE and ode15s and compares quite remarkably with the 4th order ode45 yet it is of order 1 with order 2 superconvergence at the mesh points.

After a crime has occurred, one of the most pressing objectives for investigators is to identify and interview any eyewitness that can provide information about the crime. Depending on his or her training, the investigative interviewer will use (to varying degrees) mostly yes/no questions, some cued and multiple-choice questions, with few open-ended questions. When the witness cannot generate any more details about the crime, one assumes the eyewitness’ memory for the critical event has been exhausted. However, given what we know about memory, is this a safe assumption? In line with the extant literature on human cognition, if one assumes (a) an eyewitness has more available memories of the crime than he or she has accessible and (b) only explicit probes have been used to elicit information, then one can argue this eyewitness may still be able to provide additional information via implicit memory tests. In accordance with these notions, the present study had two goals: demonstrate that (1) eyewitnesses can reveal memory implicitly for a detail-rich event and (2) particularly for brief crimes, eyewitnesses can reveal memory for event details implicitly that were inaccessible when probed for explicitly. Undergraduates (N = 227) participated in a psychological experiment in exchange for research credit. Participants were presented with one of three stimulus videos (brief crime vs. long crime vs. irrelevant video). Then, participants either completed a series of implicit memory tasks or worked on a puzzle for 5 minutes. Lastly, participants were interviewed explicitly about the previous video via free recall and recognition tasks. Findings indicated that participants who viewed the brief crime provided significantly more crime-related details implicitly than those who viewed the long crime. The data also showed participants who viewed the long crime provided marginally more accurate details during free recall than participants who viewed the brief crime. Furthermore, participants who completed the implicit memory tasks provided significantly less accurate information during the explicit interview than participants who were not given implicit memory tasks. This study was the first to investigate implicit memory for eyewitnesses of a crime. To determine its applied value, additional empirical work is required.

<div>Theorists posit that despite the well-known benefits of feeling grateful, the adoption of a grateful perspective is not always easy and the occurrence of a gratitude-worthy event is not always readily salient. Indeed, to experience a sense of gratitude may partly require that people actively regulate their cognitive and attentional resources to notice, appreciate, and subsequently respond to a gratitude event. Drawing from Dweck et al.’s (1995) implicit theories framework, I examined whether implicit beliefs concerning the development of various attributes/characteristics differentially influences people’s feelings of gratitude. Implicit theories framework stipulates that people adopt one of two learning perspectives – namely, an entity or incremental perspective. Those with an incremental perspective believe that certain characteristics (e.g., emotions, attributes) are not fixed, but are dynamic and changeable, and that their ability in a certain area can be improved, and that the associated outcomes are linked to their own diligence and labor. By comparison, people with an entity perspective believe certain characteristics are static and cannot be easily changed, and that the outcomes associated with a particular attribute are generally decoupled from their own labors. I reasoned that because incremental (vs. entity) theorists are confident that they can actively regulate their behavior to experience a desired emotional state, they should also believe that they can regulate their feelings of gratitude. In doing so, incrementals (vs. entity) should be more likely to expend cognitive and attentional resources to notice and attend to a salient gratitude event, capitalizing on opportunities to practice cultivating a grateful perspective. With the current studies, I used correlational, longitudinal, and experimental methods to examine both the fundamental association between implicit gratitude beliefs and gratitude, and whether the effect of implicit gratitude beliefs (i.e., incremental vs. entity) on feelings of gratitude differ as a function of gratitude event salience. I hypothesized that compared to entity theorists, incremental theorists should be more sensitive and attentive to a salient (vs. less salient) gratitude event, and as a result, incrementals (vs. entities) should exhibit higher levels of gratefulness/gratitude. The results across six studies provided reliably consistent evidence in support of the key hypotheses. Gratitude was positively associated with an incremental perspective and negatively associated with an entity perspective; when the gratitude event was salient (vs. less salient) incrementals were more attentive to the opportunity, and their level of gratitude was systematically higher compared to those with an entity perspective, and across the salience conditions, the difference between incrementals’ and entities’ gratitude levels was also partially explained by gratitude motivation and increased attentiveness to the gratitude event.</div>

Priming är ett sätt att studera hur det implicita minnet fungerar och påverkar oss. I den här studien undersöktes priming vid ordstamskomplettering och hur presenterat ord respektive icke presenterat ord påverkar priming. Syftet med studien var att undersöka och analysera priming vid ordstamskomplettering. Frågeställningen i studien har varit: Vilken inverkan har ett presenterat respektive icke presenterat ord vid priming? Hypotesen var att deltagarna skulle komplettera fler ord från den lista som de har sett än från den lista som de inte har sett. Tolv deltagare var med i studien mellan åldrarna 21 och 28 år. Resultatet från experimentet stödjer hypotesen. SPSS paired samples analysis visade att resultatet var signifikant, vilket stödjer hypotesen att det uppstår priming vid ordstamskomplettering.

Thesis advisor: Paula Mathieu / "If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought” (Orwell). America's English language is a major contributing factor that perpetuates and orients us toward racial inequality. If American culture is racist, it is only logical that the language our culture uses to communicate would also be racist. This thesis will investigate how language in the media shapes and exacerbates racial bias, contributing to the criminalization of the Black community. The American English language, which includes all forms of written and spoken communication, is how America has shaped its identity (Smalls et al., 152). Language is how we communicate and express ourselves; it is the indispensable transmitter, shaping and creating ideas, social customs, religions, and culture. While many factors contribute to the ongoing struggle of racial inequality in America, my thesis will focus on the history and language of America’s racial biases toward Black people, their impact on societal attitudes, and how the media is using such language to criminalize the Black community. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: English.

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.