<p>Researchers have recently combined clinical and cognitive areas of research in order to investigate the role of cognitive factors in explaining how emotional disorders are developed and maintained. It is believed that biased cognitive processing of emotionally relevant information can greatly affect emotional responses and behaviour where insights into such cognitive processes can have invaluable clinical implications.</p><p>The present thesis investigates the role of cognitive biases for information related to food and body appearance in individuals with eating disorders (ED) and those with non-clinically eating disorder-related concerns (NED). Are ED characterised by cognitive biases toward such information related to their specific concerns? Are such cognitive biases specific to clinical ED or present also in NED samples? Are cognitive biases operating at both conscious and unconscious levels of cognitive processing?</p><p>The tasks used to pursue these questions were: the emotional Stroop task, an Internet version of the emotional Stroop, Jacoby’s white noise paradigm and a recognition task. The influence of priming on the emotional Stroop task was also investigated in order to test whether the use of this task could be extended to more complex investigations than selective attention.</p><p>Results provide support for that cognitive processing of information related to eating and body appearance is biased in individuals with ED. It is, however, unclear whether such biased processing is specific to clinical ED. Findings further suggest that cognitive biases occur primarily at unconscious levels of cognitive processing. Support was also obtained for that the emotional Stroop task is sensitive to priming where initial body perception may be one factor influencing cognitive responses toward negative self referent words following exposure to thin ideal images. Results further suggest that the emotional Stroop task successfully can be administered via the Internet where manipulating task delivery and response mode may increase the sensitivity of this task. Some of the advantages of administering the emotional Stroop task via Internet over traditional methods are access to more heterogeneous samples, more ecologically valid situations, reduced costs and minimisation of demand characteristics.</p>

Researchers have recently combined clinical and cognitive areas of research in order to investigate the role of cognitive factors in explaining how emotional disorders are developed and maintained. It is believed that biased cognitive processing of emotionally relevant information can greatly affect emotional responses and behaviour where insights into such cognitive processes can have invaluable clinical implications. The present thesis investigates the role of cognitive biases for information related to food and body appearance in individuals with eating disorders (ED) and those with non-clinically eating disorder-related concerns (NED). Are ED characterised by cognitive biases toward such information related to their specific concerns? Are such cognitive biases specific to clinical ED or present also in NED samples? Are cognitive biases operating at both conscious and unconscious levels of cognitive processing? The tasks used to pursue these questions were: the emotional Stroop task, an Internet version of the emotional Stroop, Jacoby’s white noise paradigm and a recognition task. The influence of priming on the emotional Stroop task was also investigated in order to test whether the use of this task could be extended to more complex investigations than selective attention. Results provide support for that cognitive processing of information related to eating and body appearance is biased in individuals with ED. It is, however, unclear whether such biased processing is specific to clinical ED. Findings further suggest that cognitive biases occur primarily at unconscious levels of cognitive processing. Support was also obtained for that the emotional Stroop task is sensitive to priming where initial body perception may be one factor influencing cognitive responses toward negative self referent words following exposure to thin ideal images. Results further suggest that the emotional Stroop task successfully can be administered via the Internet where manipulating task delivery and response mode may increase the sensitivity of this task. Some of the advantages of administering the emotional Stroop task via Internet over traditional methods are access to more heterogeneous samples, more ecologically valid situations, reduced costs and minimisation of demand characteristics.

The general aim of the thesis was to investigate potential differences in memory performance between participants across the adult life span with and without self-reported musculoskeletal pain. Chronic musculoskeletal pain is a major health related problem in our society. A common complaint related to chronic pain is about cognitive difficulties in attention, memory, and decision making. A number of studies have demonstrated that people with pain also perform wors on tasks measuring, for example episodic memory, semantic memory, and working memory. The present thesis aimed at replying these findings, by using a non-clinical population based sample. the potential differences in memory performance between people with and without pain were examined across the adult life span, in order to disentangle potential pain by age interactions. This was made by using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Study I aimed at studying differences in episodic memory performance, semantic memory performance, and implicit memory performance, between people with and without musculoskeletal pain. Differences were found for all three memory systems, but disappeared after controlling for years of formal education. In Study II an extension of the first study was made, in which performance on a range of cognitive tests were analysed. General differences were demonstrated , but yet again, years of education together with depression ruled out the effects. The most robust effects were found for word comprehension and construction ability. Finally, Study III used 5- and 10 year follow up studies to examine change over time in cognitive performance as a function of pain. The main finding from this study was that semantic memory for the oldest is impaired over time as a function of pain. An additional analysis showed similar patterns, regardless of age, for construction ability.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Esta dissertação buscou analisar o efeito de priming semântico em uma tarefa de decisão lexical. No estudo 1, comparou-se o efeito de priming semântico entre crianças e universitários em dois SOAs (250ms e 500ms). Os resultados mostraram que no SOA de 250ms, apenas as crianças tiveram efeito de priming semântico. Quando o SOA foi de 500ms, ambos grupos apresentaram efeito de priming semântico, no entanto, este foi maior nas crianças. No estudo 2 foi investigada a relação entre o efeito de priming semântico nas crianças do estudo 1 e as variáveis força de associação e freqüência do alvo. Foram encontradas algumas fracas correlações entre estas variáveis. Conclui-se que variáveis como idade/escolaridade, SOA e força de associação são determinantes no efeito de priming semântico. / The aim of this study was to analyze the semantic priming effect in a lexical decision task. In study 1, the semantic priming effect in third graders and college students was compared. It was used two SOAs, 250ms and 500ms. The results showed that when SOA was 250ms, only third graders had semantic priming effects. When SOA was 500ms, both groups had semantic priming effects; however, the magnitude of it was bigger in children. In study 2, it was investigated the relation between semantic priming effects of third graders and the variables associative strength and frequency. Data demonstrated some weak correlations between these variables. We concluded that variables such age/educational group, SOA and associative strength are related to the semantic priming effect.

Esta dissertação buscou analisar o efeito de priming semântico em uma tarefa de decisão lexical. No estudo 1, comparou-se o efeito de priming semântico entre crianças e universitários em dois SOAs (250ms e 500ms). Os resultados mostraram que no SOA de 250ms, apenas as crianças tiveram efeito de priming semântico. Quando o SOA foi de 500ms, ambos grupos apresentaram efeito de priming semântico, no entanto, este foi maior nas crianças. No estudo 2 foi investigada a relação entre o efeito de priming semântico nas crianças do estudo 1 e as variáveis força de associação e freqüência do alvo. Foram encontradas algumas fracas correlações entre estas variáveis. Conclui-se que variáveis como idade/escolaridade, SOA e força de associação são determinantes no efeito de priming semântico. / The aim of this study was to analyze the semantic priming effect in a lexical decision task. In study 1, the semantic priming effect in third graders and college students was compared. It was used two SOAs, 250ms and 500ms. The results showed that when SOA was 250ms, only third graders had semantic priming effects. When SOA was 500ms, both groups had semantic priming effects; however, the magnitude of it was bigger in children. In study 2, it was investigated the relation between semantic priming effects of third graders and the variables associative strength and frequency. Data demonstrated some weak correlations between these variables. We concluded that variables such age/educational group, SOA and associative strength are related to the semantic priming effect.

The artificial grammar learning (AGL) paradigm has been intensively researched since the 60-s. In general, these investigations attempt to study the implicit acquisition of structural regularities. Among other things, it has been suggested that the AGL paradigm can serve as a model for the process of acquiring a natural language. Thus it can serve as a well-controlled laboratory task that might be used to understand certain aspects of the process of language acquisition. For example the AGL paradigm has been used in an attempt to isolate the acquisition of syntactic aspects of language. Several experimental studies show that the participants acquire knowledge of the underlying rule system since they are able to differentiate grammatical strings from non-grammatical ones. It has been argued that the traditionally conducted AGL paradigm with grammaticality instructions might make the task explicit, at least during the test phase. In order to imitate the language learning process as close as possible, to rule out the possibility of an explicit component during the testing phase (i.e., keeping the retrieval process implicit) and to rule out explicit rule conformity or rule following, we modified the classical AGL paradigm. In a behavioural study we combined the AGL paradigm with an altered mere exposure paradigm in an attempt to better model aspects of language acquisition. We were able to show that subjects, classifying under mere exposure instructions, categorize grammatical and non-grammatical strings just as well as those solving the classification task with the grammaticality instructions. This indicates that the mere exposure version might serve as a more appropriate model for language acquisition.

Esta dissertação buscou analisar o efeito de priming semântico em uma tarefa de decisão lexical. No estudo 1, comparou-se o efeito de priming semântico entre crianças e universitários em dois SOAs (250ms e 500ms). Os resultados mostraram que no SOA de 250ms, apenas as crianças tiveram efeito de priming semântico. Quando o SOA foi de 500ms, ambos grupos apresentaram efeito de priming semântico, no entanto, este foi maior nas crianças. No estudo 2 foi investigada a relação entre o efeito de priming semântico nas crianças do estudo 1 e as variáveis força de associação e freqüência do alvo. Foram encontradas algumas fracas correlações entre estas variáveis. Conclui-se que variáveis como idade/escolaridade, SOA e força de associação são determinantes no efeito de priming semântico. / The aim of this study was to analyze the semantic priming effect in a lexical decision task. In study 1, the semantic priming effect in third graders and college students was compared. It was used two SOAs, 250ms and 500ms. The results showed that when SOA was 250ms, only third graders had semantic priming effects. When SOA was 500ms, both groups had semantic priming effects; however, the magnitude of it was bigger in children. In study 2, it was investigated the relation between semantic priming effects of third graders and the variables associative strength and frequency. Data demonstrated some weak correlations between these variables. We concluded that variables such age/educational group, SOA and associative strength are related to the semantic priming effect.

Embora a tecnologia nuclear tenha aplicações benéficas para diversas áreas, como saúde, indústria, agricultura, produção de energia, entre outras, a sua aceitação ainda é restrita e há várias barreiras para o seu uso. A falta de conhecimento assertivo sobre essa tecnologia gera preconceito com relação à sua utilização. Preconceitos podem ser explícitos, que são conscientes, ou implícitos, inconscientes. No entanto, conscientes ou inconscientes, eles influenciam o comportamento e as atitudes. As experiências nas memórias explícita e implícita podem ser transferidas de uma para a outra. Assim, preconceitos ou associações inconscientes podem ser modificados pela memória explícita, ou seja, um novo conhecimento pode reduzi-los ou revertê-los. Para uma educação transformadora, o professor tem um papel central; entretanto, para que ele transmita o conhecimento de forma imparcial, é necessário que tenha uma visão livre de preconceitos. Esse trabalho visa desenvolver uma metodologia com apoio em neurociências por meio da qual as associações implícitas referentes às aplicações da tecnologia nuclear por parte dos professores de ciências sejam identificadas e possíveis preconceitos implícitos sejam modificados por meio de novos conhecimentos explícitos. Para identificar preconceitos implícitos são necessários testes específicos de memória implícita. O Teste de Associação Implícita (TAI) foi selecionado para esse trabalho. Seguindo as etapas fornecidas pelo software FreeIAT, o TAI foi customizado a fim de comparar as associações implícitas de participantes com relação às áreas nuclear e petróleo e sua consistência foi averiguada por um pré-teste aplicado a um grupo de especialistas (grupo controle) e de leigos, cujos resultados determinaram um bom valor de Alfa de Cronbach. Um programa multissensorial de 5 horas foi desenvolvido e realizado no Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN) para um grupo de professores de ciências. O TAI foi aplicado no início e ao término do programa e os resultados das associações implícitas foram comparados. Após seis meses, o TAI foi reaplicado ao mesmo grupo de professores para verificar se as associações implícitas se mantiveram estáveis. Esse programa multissensorial foi comparado com um programa de 12 semanas de ensino tradicional com aulas expositivas realizado no IPEN para alunos ingressantes na pós-graduação. O programa multissensorial foi efetivo para mudar e manter as associações implícitas dos professores referentes às aplicações benéficas da tecnologia nuclear, diferentemente do ensino tradicional com aulas expositivas. Esse trabalho demonstrou que é possível quebrar paradigmas e preconceitos. A abordagem multissensorial possibilitou um conhecimento enriquecido sobre as aplicações da tecnologia nuclear, ou seja, promoveu novas experiências na memória explícita que modificaram as associações prévias armazenadas na memória implícita. Assim, o programa multissensorial demonstrou ser uma ferramenta eficaz, capaz de produzir e manter mudanças nas associações implícitas, de baixo custo e pode ser aplicado em diversas áreas para mudar as associações implícitas e reverter preconceitos. Os resultados demonstraram que esse trabalho de doutorado teve êxito no que se propôs, contribuindo, assim, para a difusão do conhecimento das aplicações benéficas da tecnologia nuclear e, consequentemente, para a sua desmitificação. Essa metodologia completa poderá ser empregada em outras áreas para identificar, modificar e/ou reverter preconceitos ou estereótipos implícitos. / Although the applications of nuclear technology benefit several fields, such as health, industry, agriculture, energy production, among others, its public acceptance is still reduced and there are various barriers to its use. A lack of assertive knowledge about this technology generates prejudice against its use. Prejudices may be explicit at the conscious level or implicit operating outside awareness. Nevertheless, either conscious or unconscious, prejudices interfere with behavior and attitudes. The experiences in the explicit and implicit memories can be transferred from one to the other; thus unconscious prejudices or associations may be modified by the explicit memory, that is, new knowledge may reduce or even reverse them. The teachers play a critical role for transforming education; however, for sharing balanced knowledge they must have a perspective without prejudices. This work aims to develop a neuroscience-based methodology through which implicit associations of Brazilian science teachers towards nuclear technology may be assessed and possible implicit prejudices may be changed by new knowledge. In order to identify implicit prejudices, specific implicit memory tests are required. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was chosen for this work. By following the steps provided by the software FreeIAT, the IAT was customized aiming to compare the implicit associations of respondents towards nuclear and oil. A pretest with nuclear specialists (control group) and lay people was administered to check the consistency of the customized IAT. The Cronbach\'s alpha was applied to measure the reliability of the test and showed good internal consistency. A 5-hour multisensory program for science teachers was designed and administered at the Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). The IAT was administered at the beginning and at the end of the program and the results of the implicit associations were compared. After a six-month period, the IAT was re-administered to the same group of teachers to verify whether the implicit associations remained stable. This multisensory program was compared to a 12-week traditional teaching program with lecture classes held at IPEN for incoming post-graduation students. The multisensory program was effective for changing and maintaining the implicit associations of teachers towards the beneficial applications of nuclear technology, unlike the traditional teaching program with lecture classes. This work demonstrated that it is possible to break paradigms and prejudices. The multisensory program enabled an enriched knowledge about the applications of nuclear technology, that is, it promoted new experiences in the explicit memory, which modified the previous associations stored in the implicit memory. Therefore, the multisensory program has proven to be a successful, cost-effective tool, which is able to cause and maintain changes in implicit associations and can be applied in several areas where changes in implicit associations and prejudice reversal are desired. The results demonstrated that the proposed doctoral research was effective, thus contributing to the diffusion of knowledge of the beneficial applications of nuclear technology and, consequently, to its demythification. This methodology may be administered to other fields to identify, modify and/or reduce implicit prejudices or stereotypes.

Prever eventos ambientais, com base em memórias sobre regularidades passadas, é uma das funções fundamentais de sistemas nervosos complexos. Eventos ordenados serialmente ou sequências estruturadas de estímulos permitem extrair informação passível de descrição formal que define seu padrão serial. Esse padrão inclui informações temporais e espaciais que facultam prever os próximos eventos da sequência, possibilitando a preparação prévia do organismo para lidar com sua ocorrência. Não surpreende que animais, incluindo o ser humano, aprendam, de maneira relativamente rápida, sobre regras e estruturas de padrões sequenciais de estímulos. O uso de tarefas de tempo de reação serial (TRS) é recorrente em estudos envolvendo a formação de associações, antecipação, atenção, as bases da memória e aprendizagem de relações complexas. Resumidamente, voluntários devem responder a estímulos apresentados em sequências repetitivas ou aleatórias. Com o treino, há redução no tempo de reação a cada estímulo, refletindo a aprendizagem de relações percepto-motoras. Essa redução, porém, é maior na sequência repetitiva em relação à sequência aleatória, indicando um aprendizado também sobre a sequência repetitiva, mesmo quando o voluntário não a percebe (conscientemente) e seja incapaz de relatar sua existência. Trata-se, portanto, de uma aquisição (inicialmente) implícita. A complexidade de uma sequência de estímulos pode ser expressa quantitativamente por meio de uma ferramenta matemática proposta por Shannon (1948), a entropia informacional (EI), que considera, entre outras coisas, a probabilidade de ocorrência dos estímulos em diferentes níveis. No presente trabalho, avaliamos em que extensão o conceito de EI permite prever o desempenho de ratos na tarefa de TRS envolvendo sequências com diferentes níveis de complexidade. Ratos foram treinados a reagir (1) a uma sequência repetitiva de estímulos, cuja quantidade de EI no nível 1 (que relaciona os estímulos da sequência 2 a 2) era 2,75. Após atingirem um nível assintótico de desempenho, os animais foram expostos (2) a sequências variáveis de estímulos com a mesma quantidade de EI no nível 1, porém, com maior quantidade de EI no nível 2 (que relaciona os estímulos da sequência 3 a 3). Numa etapa posterior os animais foram expostos (3) a uma nova sequência repetitiva de estímulos, cuja quantidade de EI no nível 1 era 3,00; por fim, os animais foram submetidos (4) a sequências variáveis com a mesma quantidade de EI no nível 1em relação à sequência anterior, porém, com maior quantidade de EI no nível 2 . Os resultados mostraram que os ratos aprenderam sobre os padrões seriais e, mais interessante, que seu desempenho esteve fortemente correlacionado à quantidade de EI no nível 2. Em outras palavras, quanto maior a EI, pior o desempenho dos animais tanto em termos do tempo de reação como em termos da percentagem de respostas corretas. Portanto, o conceito de EI permite não apenas quantificar a complexidade de sequências empregadas em estudos envolvendo aprendizagem serial, mas também prever o desempenho dos animais. / Prediction of environmental events, relying on memories of past regularities, is one of the fundamental functions of complex nervous systems. Sequences of serially ordered stimuli allow extracting information that defines its serial pattern. These patterns allow prediction of the next item in a sequence of events, facultating previous preparation to deal with its occurrence. Not surprisingly, animals, including humans, can identify rules present in serial structures of stimuli. Serial reaction time tasks (SRTT) have been extensively used in studies involving association, anticipation, attention, and learning and memory. Typically, subjects have to react to stimuli presented either in random or in repetitive sequences. As training proceeds, reaction time to each stimulus decreases, reflecting acquisition of this perceptual-motor skill. However, reaction time reduction is greater for repetitive sequences relative to the random sequences, indicating acquisition about the repetitive structure of the sequence. In human beings, this may occur even when the subject in uncapable of reporting the existence of a sequence, indicating that the acquisition was (at least initially) implicit rather than explicit. The complexity of a sequence of stimuli, at different levels, may be quantifyed by means of a mathematical tool proposed by Shannon (1948), the information entropy (IE). In this study we evaluated to which extent IE can predict performance of rats in SRTT involving sequences of stimuli organized at different levels of complexity. Rats were trained to react (1) a repeated sequence of stimuli which IE at the level \"1\" (i.e., expressing to which extent a given item allow prediction of the next) was 2.75. After reaching an asymptotic level of performance, the animals were exposed (2) a variable sequence of stimuli with the same amount of IE in the level \"1\", but with more IE in the level \"2\" (i.e., expressing to which extent two given items allow prediction of the next). Later the animals were exposed to (3) a new repeated sequence of stimuli, which IE at the level \"1\" was 3.00. Finally, the animals were submitted to (4) a random sequence of stimuli with the same amount of IE at the level \"1\", i.e., 3.00, but with greater IE in level 2. Results showed that rats learned about the serial patterns and, more interestingly, their performance strongly correlated to the amount of IE at the level \"2 \", both in terms of reaction times and in terms of percentage of correct responses. Therefore, IE allows not only to quantify complexity of sequences in studies involving serial learning, but also to predict performance of the subjects.