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The aim of this thesis is to investigate the acquisition of different elements of process control skills and how the transfer between task elements contributes to the acquisition of the overall task. Process control tasks are very complex cognitive tasks consisting of a number of subordinate task elements such as procedure-following, diagnosis, & monitoring, whose execution must be planned carefully in order to meet the system goal. In the past, research emphasis has focused upon training these subordinate tasks separately, ignoring the possibility that performance at one element would benefit from or interfere with mastery of another. Understanding these possible 'internal transfer' phenomena will influence training design. It would also influence issues of work design, including allocation of functions, since tasks designed to enable practice of the constituent elements to support each other would counterbalance problems associated with infrequent use of skills in automated plants. This thesis has focused upon the development of training methods to optimise transfer of knowledge and skills, assisting trainees to integrate different task elements within the overall process control task they need to master. The transfer of training literature was reviewed in order to identify major variables influencing transfer. To provide a framework for utilising previous empirical findings in examining transfer of complex process control skills, a model of Hierarchical Task Analysis was developed which described the task in terms of a limited number of operations and plans. A major hypothesis put forward in the thesis is that 'task elements with similar forms of plans and operations may prompt an individual to adopt similar cognitive processes and transfer will be observed'. The size of transfer, however, would be determined by the learning conditions under which the original task elements were acquired. To examine the influence of learning conditions upon transfer of task elements, four training methods were developed based upon a theoretical model of transfer which was integrated with the hierarchical task analysis. A large scale experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effects of the four training methods upon learning two similar tasks, in the context of starting-up a distillation column. This task was simulated in a microcomputer. The two tasks were designed to share common task elements but were different in terms of the required product specifications. Twenty-eight postgraduate students took part in a training course which lasted for eight hours approximately. The subjects were assigned to the following four experimental conditions: (i) the procedures-group which was provided with efficient procedures; (ii) the analysis-group which received additional explanations about the interaction of goals described in the procedures; (iii) the model-group which was provided with a structural model of the plant, but with no procedures; and (iv) the practice-group which learned the tasks by practice and which was used as a control condition. The model of learning was used to make transfer predictions and generate five experimental hypotheses which were tested in the main study; one hypothesis was concerned with the acquisition of the original task, two of them with the transfer of task elements and the other two with nonspecific transfer effects. For a number of performance measures such as speed, control performance and economy of operation, the procedures- and analysis- groups performed the original task better than the other groups. The model-group was faster than the practice-group; however, their control and economy aspects of performance were equivalent. An 'in-depth' analysis of the control actions and verbal protocols showed that the model-group continued to experiment with' the process, putting into practice the theory of plant which was taught to them. Performance at the transfer task indicated that all groups performed better than the practice-group, which provides support for the hypothesis that 'task elements similar in form may prompt an individual to adopt similar cognitive processes and transfer may occur'. However, the procedures-group degraded its performance and appeared to be inferior to both the analysis- and modelgroups, which may indicate that some kind of extrinsic information in the form of planning or conceptual knowledge would be required to optimise transfer. On the other hand, the analysis-group was faster than the model-group, but no significant differences were reported with respect to other measures of performance. On practice with a successive transfer task of the same kind, the observed patterns of performance changed. Only the analysis-group was significantly better than the practice-group, the other groups having scored in between these two groups. This finding has highlighted the role of practice in an interactive learning environment provided by the plant simulator. Although the experimental design attempted to control for nonspecific transfer effects by maximising the number of 'common' task elements between the original and transfer tasks, the individual differences observed and the changes in the kind of plans developed by trainees have indicated that such transfer effects have actually taken place. This was expected to occur to a certain extent, and two hypotheses had been formulated in order to examine this issue by looking into the types of planning and conceptual knowledge which supported transfer. As it was expected, the analysis- and model- groups achieved higher nonspecific transfer scores than the other groups which were measured in terms of the amount of disturbance caused to previously established parameters and the number of questions answered in a questionnaire administered in the end of the study. An interesting result, however, was that the practice-group appeared to be better than the procedures-group in this respect; this may be accounted for by the fact that the former group was more actively engaged in learning the original task. Finally, the thesis has investigated the transfer of the three subordinate goals common to both the original and transfer tasks. An important factor which has influenced the different degrees at which these goals were transferred was the degree of flexibility entailed in their performance. The thesis concludes with an evaluation of its own approach and suggestions for future research.

This paper examines the relationship between grit and learners’ performance in Japanese language learning. Grit is one’s personality trait which is defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goal” (Duckworth et al., 2007). The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine whether there were relationships between learners’ grit scores and their performance in two different types of Japanese language classrooms:teacher-centered beginning and intermediate Japanese language courses and student-centered Japanese extensive reading courses. Regarding the study of extensive reading courses, students’ subjective evaluation were used to observe their performance instead of an objective achievement test. There were 78 students who agreed to participate in total. Of all participants, 34 students were taking introductory level Japanese, 27 students were taking the intermediate level, and 17 students were taking a Japanese extensive reading course. The results revealed that participants’ grit scores did not appear to be related to their performance in the introductory language course. Interestingly, in the intermediate course, perseverance subscores of grit measured by the 10-item grit scale were negatively correlated with the students’ performance, with no connection apparent between their grades and grit scores. The results might be attributed to some external factors: such as the process of language learning and students’ academic majors. On the other hand, in the student-centered Japanese extensive reading course, some tendencies of positive correlation were seen between participants’ grit scores and the changes of their subjective evaluation between the beginning and the end of the semester. These findings suggest the possibility that individuals’ grit scores are related to their performance in different ways between teacher-centered and student-centered Japanese language learning.

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Behaving in a socially competent manner (i.e., interacting with other social actors in an effective manner by adjusting one’s goals and behaviours according to the demands of various social situations) is a complex process that requires various cognitive skills. The purpose of the current study was to determine the unique contributions of executive functions, theory of mind and verbal skills to socially competent behaviours in either a cooperative or a competitive context. The impact of manipulating children’s perspective-taking (e.g., taking the perspective of another person) on their socially appropriate behaviours was also investigated. Pairs of children completed a cooperative and a competitive social task together and were assigned to either focus on their own or another’s perspective. Children then completed measures of executive functioning, theory of mind, and verbal skills. Results revealed that executive functioning was related to more appropriate social behaviours in the cooperative task, even when controlling for theory of mind and verbal skills; however, this relation was not found in the competitive task. Furthermore, there was no significant effect of the manipulation of perspective-taking on children’s behaviours. These findings indicate that executive functions make a unique contribution to children’s socially competent behaviours in a cooperative social context.

Behaving in a socially competent manner (i.e., interacting with other social actors in an effective manner by adjusting one’s goals and behaviours according to the demands of various social situations) is a complex process that requires various cognitive skills. The purpose of the current study was to determine the unique contributions of executive functions, theory of mind and verbal skills to socially competent behaviours in either a cooperative or a competitive context. The impact of manipulating children’s perspective-taking (e.g., taking the perspective of another person) on their socially appropriate behaviours was also investigated. Pairs of children completed a cooperative and a competitive social task together and were assigned to either focus on their own or another’s perspective. Children then completed measures of executive functioning, theory of mind, and verbal skills. Results revealed that executive functioning was related to more appropriate social behaviours in the cooperative task, even when controlling for theory of mind and verbal skills; however, this relation was not found in the competitive task. Furthermore, there was no significant effect of the manipulation of perspective-taking on children’s behaviours. These findings indicate that executive functions make a unique contribution to children’s socially competent behaviours in a cooperative social context.

The research reported in this thesis aimed to investigate potential cognitive-linguistic predictors of reading comprehension levels amongst Persian monolingual and Persian-English bilingual primary school children. The Persian orthography, unlike English, is written from right to left. It is cursive and most of the letters change their shape when connecting to letters on one or both sides. The orthography also has the feature of using marks to represent sounds within the language. These marks are not always included in written text, particularly when the text is targeted at more experienced readers. Over 200 school-children in Iran from grades 2 to 5 were given measures of text reading comprehension involving Cloze completion or passages followed by questions. Comprehension levels were compared to scores on measures of language competence, phonological ability, orthographic processing and speed of processing. Analyses indicated that Persian reading comprehension levels, consistent with English models of reading, were predicted by measures of linguistic competence and word decoding, with the latter being predicted by phonological and orthographic processing skills. However, orthographic skills and speed of processing showed predictions of Persian reading comprehension independent of word decoding processes, findings that differed to those predicted from the English-language derived models. These findings were examined among over 150 Persian-English bilingual children in Persian grades 2 to 5 who attending mainstream schools in New Zealand or Australia. These children were being educated in an English medium context, but with Persian as their home language. Analyses of predictors of reading levels verified the findings reported from the monolingual data. In addition, comparisons of good and poor reading comprehenders argued for deficits in either language or word decoding skills to potentially produce different sub-groups of poor readers, with the findings also being consistent with deficits in phonological decoding and/or orthographic processing skills consistent with dual-route or triangle models of literacy learning disabilities. The thesis findings were used to derive a model of Persian reading comprehension similar to the simple view of reading. The findings can also inform the development of cross-language models of reading and global theories of reading comprehension.

The role of improved schooling has become controversial because expansion of school investment has not guaranteed improved educational outcomes. This thesis pays attention to why government investments in education have not produced the desire effects of increased educational attainment and higher enrolment rate. We show that the results depend on the methodology. We also provide evidence that the robust association between cognitive skills and economic growth reflects a causal effect of the economic benefits of effective school policy: we find that, countries that improved their cognitive skill, through different facets of school choice, autonomy and accountability over time experienced relative increases in their growth paths. We show that quality of education significantly matter for technological progress and that it is a source of divergence in OECD economies. We also analyse in a dispassionate way, voters influence on public policy especially, that pertaining to public school resource allocation, in one country India we take India because the country’s overall success story hides striking inter- and intra-state variation in literacy rates. There is suggestion that larger districts with more elected legislators and also districts with higher voter turnout benefit from greater allocation of public school resources, which in turn are expected to boost schooling outcomes. In other words, these results highlight the power of democracy in ensuring a better allocation of public school resources in our sample.

With the expansion of higher education in recent decades, exclusive academic qualifications have become the prominent way in which the status hierarchy of education is preserved. Much of the previous research explaining social class differences in educational attainment have focused on cognitive ability but largely overlooked the importance of non-cognitive skills for enrolling in more prestigious educational fields. Using unique longitudinal data, the focus of this thesis is on childhood non-cognitive skills to explore their role for understanding the association between social class of origin and selection into prestigious university education in Sweden. The results confirm class differences in attending prestige education, but also show that non-cognitive skills cannot explain much of the variation in educational attainment between or within classes. More research is needed in order to fully understand the large class gap in prestigious academic outcomes in Sweden.

This dissertation studies determinants of the U.S. labor market structure and human capital development, with a focus on technological change. A key feature of the U.S. labor market since 1980 is the substantial growth of the employment in high skill occupations and there is a substantial literature attributing this change to technological change. However, since 1999, the employment growth of high skill occupations has decelerated markedly despite continued rapid growth in technology. The first essay documents this novel trend and examines the role of technological change in explaining this phenomenon. It shows that technological advancements since the late 1990s, such as the onset of Internet, have expanded what computers can do and become substitutes for high skill occupations. This change can explain a substantial portion of the stagnancy in employment growth for high skill occupation in the 2000s. The second essay examines the role of computer adoption in explaining the differences in the change of gender wage gap between 1980 and 2000 across cities in the United States. It uses the city-level routine task intensity in 1980 to predict the subsequent increase in computer adoption and shows that cities with one percent greater increase in computer adoption experienced a 0.7 percent more decrease in the change of male-female wage ratio between 1980 and 2000. Computerization explains about 50 percent of the decline in the male-female wage gap between 1980 and 2000. The third essay studies the causal effect of maternal education on the gender gap in children’s non-cognitive skills. It shows that maternal education reduces boys’ disadvantage in non-cognitive behaviors relative to girls at age 7. To explain the mechanism of this effect, it provides suggestive evidence that better educated mothers spend more time going outings with boys while reading to girls at age 7, and going outings could be more closely related to non-cognitive development than reading.