The primate visual system is organised and wired in a topological manner. From the eye well into extrastriate visual cortex, a preserved spatial representation of the vi- sual world is maintained across many levels of processing. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), together with probabilistic tractography, is a non-invasive technique for map- ping connectivity within the brain. In this thesis I probed the sensitivity and accuracy of DWI and probabilistic tractography by quantifying its capacity to detect topolog- ical connectivity in the post mortem macaque brain, between the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and primary visual cortex (V1). The results were validated against electrophysiological and histological data from previous studies. Using the methodol- ogy developed in this thesis, it was possible to segment the LGN reliably into distinct subregions based on its structural connectivity to different parts of the visual field represented in V1. Quantitative differences in connectivity from magno- and parvo- cellular subcomponents of the LGN to different parts of V1 could be replicated with this method in post mortem brains. The topological corticocortical connectivity be- tween extrastriate visual area V5/MT and V1 could also be mapped in the post mortem macaque. In vivo DWI scans previously obtained from the same brains have lower resolution and signal-to-noise because of the shorter scan times. Nevertheless, in many cases, these yielded topological maps similar to the post mortem maps. These results indicate that the preserved topology of connection between LGN to V1, and V5/MT to V1, can be revealed using non-invasive measures of diffusion-weighted imaging and tractography in vivo. In a preliminary investigation using Human Connectome data obtained in vivo, I was not able to segment the retinotopic map in LGN based on con- nections to V1. This may be because information about the topological connectivity is not carried in the much lower resolution human diffusion data, or because of other methodological limitations. I also investigated the mechanisms of perceptual learning by developing a novel task-irrelevant perceptual learning paradigm designed to adapt neuronal elements early on in visual processing in a certain region of the visual field. There is evidence, although not clear-cut, to suggest that the paradigm elicits task- irrelevant perceptual learning, but that these effects only emerge when practice-related effects are accounted for. When orientation and location specific effects on perceptual performance are examined, the largest improvement occurs at the trained location, however, there is also significant improvement at one other 'untrained' location, and there is also a significant improvement in performance for a control group that did not receive any training at any location. The work highlights inherent difficulties in inves- tigating perceptual learning, which relate to the fact that learning likely takes place at both lower and higher levels of processing, however, the paradigm provides a good starting point for comprehensively investigating the complex mechanisms underlying perceptual learning.

This thesis explores the causes of the face inversion effect, which is a substantial decrement in performance in recognising facial stimuli when they are presented upside down (Yin,1969). I will provide results from both behavioural and electrophysiological (EEG) experiments to aid in the analysis of this effect. Over the course of six chapters I summarise my work during the four years of my PhD, and propose an explanation of the face inversion effect that is based on the general mechanisms for learning that we also share with other animals. In Chapter 1 I describe and discuss some of the main theories of face inversion. Chapter 2 used behavioural and EEG techniques to test one of the most popular explanations of the face inversion effect proposed by Diamond and Carey (1986). They proposed that it is the disruption of the expertise needed to exploit configural information that leads to the inversion effect. The experiments reported in Chapter 2 were published as in the Proceedings of the 34th annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society. In Chapter 3 I explore other potential causes of the inversion effect confirming that not only configural information is involved, but also single feature orientation information plays an important part in the inversion effect. All the experiments included in Chapter 3 are part of a paper accepted for publication in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Chapter 4 of this thesis went on to attempt to answer the question of whether configural information is really necessary to obtain an inversion effect. All the experiments presented in Chapter 4 are part of a manuscript in preparation for submission to the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Chapter 5 includes some of the most innovative experiments from my PhD work. In particular it offers some behavioural and electrophysiological evidence that shows that it is possible to apply an associative approach to face inversion. Chapter 5 is a key component of this thesis because on the one hand it explains the face inversion effect using general mechanisms of perceptual learning (MKM model). On the other hand it also shows that there seems to be something extra needed to explain face recognition entirely. All the experiments included in Chapter 5 were reported in a paper submitted to the Journal of Experimental Psychology; Animal Behaviour Processes. Finally in Chapter 6 I summarise the implications that this work will have for explanations of the face inversion effect and some of the general processes involved in face perception.

This was a study designed to investigate the effects of three independent variables in first-grade reading instruction on reading achievement and perceptual development. The independent variables included initial readiness level, type of instructional method, and sex of pupil. The major purpose of this study was to use an experimental setting to determine the relative effects of a multi-sensory perceptual training program combined with a basal-instruction program, as contrasted to an entirely conventional basal-reading program, on first-grade reading achievement and perceptual development during a school year.

The purpose of the evaluation was to test effectiveness of a visual, visual-motor, and auditory perceptual skills training program devised by Dr. Jerome Rosner, and to confirm or deny application of this training to improved classroom skills. Subjects were 38 kindergarten children, 20 in the Contrast Group, and 18 in the Experimental Group. Both groups received the same training in the basic curriculum of readiness skills. The Experimental Group also received training in the Visual Analysis and Auditory Analysis Skills programs. Pretests and posttests were administered, tabulated, and analyzed. Differences in raw score means were sufficient to indicate more than a chance factor and all tests demonstrated a plus factor for children in the Experimental Group.

The gathered data in this research provides pastors, Christian educators, and other educators with a better understanding of multi-sensory teaching and advanced multi-sensory teaching and their influence on the cognitive domain. Specifically, this experiment seeks to determine if the use of multi-sensory teaching models could improve the impact of expository teaching in the cognitive domain, particularly as it relates to attention, comprehension, and retention in the life of the student. The different teaching methods are: (1) Mono-Sensory Teaching : Auditory Teaching; (2) Multi-sensory Teaching : Auditory + Visual Teaching; (3) Advanced Multi-sensory Teaching : Auditory + Visual + Kinesthetic Teaching. The work sets forth the cognitive objectives of the pastor-teacher, which include influencing the attention, retention, and comprehension of students. The research questions then ask: In expository preaching, does multi-sensory delivery and advanced multi-sensory delivery significantly influence attention, retention and comprehension? Literature was reviewed that considered the educational, neurological, and theological implications of multi-sensory teaching. Literature, which examines teaching styles and learning styles, is also included. This literature supports the theory that people have unique learning preferences by which they prefer to learn and by which they learn the best. The closer the teaching matches the learning style of the student, the more effective the learning of the student will be. A quasi-experimental posttest only design was conducted on a sample that included 923 individuals from 61 different nationalities. Students we treated with the three types of delivery and then observed to measure attention levels and post tested to measure comprehension and retention levels. Mono-sensory Delivery was the control group as no new teaching method was introduced. Multi-sensory Delivery was Tx 1 as the first new teaching variable was introduced. Advanced Multi-sensory Delivery was Tx 2 as the second new teaching variable was introduced. The test was conducted three times. Results of the three preaching methodologies were collected, interpreted, and conclusions were reached. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

This study examines whether forming a single identity is crucial to learning to bind faces and voices, or if people are equally able to do so without tying this information to an identity. To test this, individuals learned paired faces and voices that were in one of three different conditions: True voice, Gender Matched, or Gender Mismatched conditions. Performance was measured in a training phase as well as a test phase, and results show that participants were able to learn more quickly and have higher overall performance for learning in the True Voice and Gender Matched conditions. During the test phase, performance was almost at chance in the Gender Mismatched condition which may mean that learning in the training phase was simply memorization of the pairings for this condition. Results support the hypothesis that learning to bind faces and voices is a process that involves forming a supramodal identity from multisensory learning. / by Meredith Davidson. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Esta dissertação investiga os efeitos da imersão física em jogos sérios com propósitos de aprendizado perceptivo. O principal objetivo é identificar um conjunto de orientações de design para ajudar desenvolvedores a escolher o nível apropriado de imersão a ser usado em jogos sérios a fim de assegurar que o jogo seja efetivo e confortável para os usuários. A hipótese principal é que altos níveis de imersão melhoram os resultados dos jogos sérios, mas níveis de imersão moderados também podem ser adequados com a vantagem de que causa menos mal-estar nos usuários. Nós organizamos uma revisão da literatura para melhor entender como a imersão física está sendo usada atualmente em jogos sérios, como a efetividade tem sido avaliada, e como a imersão afeta os resultados do jogo e a usabilidade. Então, nós conduzimos dois estudos de usuário empíricos para investigar os efeitos da fidelidade de display, interação e locomoção na percepção dos usuários e retenção de conhecimento. Para os experimentos, nós adaptamos um jogo sério previamente desenvolvido para análise de percepção de riscos, e desenvolvemos um novo jogo para educar trabalhadores sobre procedimentos de segurança que precisam ser seguidos durante instalações elétricas na linha de manutenção elétrica. Os resultados mostraram que, em geral, a fidelidade de display tem impacto na percepção de riscos quando procurando por riscos que não são óbvios. Alta fidelidade de display tem melhor desempenho na identificação de riscos complexos. A fidelidade de locomoção e interação não apresentou diferenças significantes no aprendizado perceptivo. Alta fidelidade também apresentou maior workload, mas nas mesmas condições a corretividade das tarefas foi maior e os participantes lembraram dos procedimentos tanto no pós-teste quanto no teste de retenção. Portanto, a retenção de conhecimento não foi afetada pelo workload introduzido pela técnica interativa. A partir destes experimentos, nós elaboramos e discutimos um conjunto de orientações de design que podem ser considerados para a escolha do nível apropriado de imersão física para ser usado no desenvolvimento de novos jogos sérios. / Nowadays, several application areas are adopting serious games as an ethical, safe and low-cost alternative to performing dangerous tasks, such as training of firefighters, and for medical surgeries. The employment of Virtual Reality in serious games helps to provide virtual environments much more realistic and better immersive experiences to the user. However, some VR systems can still cause sickness symptoms, such as nausea and headaches, and some of them can be expensive, such as CAVEs. This thesis investigates the effects of physical immersion on serious games with perceptual learning purposes. Its main goal is to identify a set of design guidelines to help developers on choosing the appropriate level of immersion to be used in serious games in order to assure it is effective and comfortable for users. The main hypothesis is that higher levels of immersion improve serious games outcomes, but moderate immersion may be also adequate with the advantage of causing less simulation sickness on users. We organized a survey of the literature to better understand how physical immersion is being currently used on serious games, how its effectiveness has been assessed, and how immersion impacts on the game outcomes and usability. Then, we conducted two empirical user studies looking for investigating the effects of the display, interaction and locomotion fidelity on users’ perception and knowledge retention. For the experiments, we adapted a serious game previously developed for risk assessment and developed a new one to educate workers in electricity-line maintenance on safety procedures that need to be followed during electric installations. Results showed that, in general, display fidelity has an effect on risk perception when searching for non-obvious risks. Higher display fidelity has better performance on complex risks identification. Interaction and locomotion fidelity did not show a significant difference in perceptual learning. Naturalness also presented higher workload, but in the same conditions the correctness of tasks was high and subjects recall the procedures in both post- and retention-test. Therefore, knowledge retention is not impacted by the workload imposed by the interactive technique. From these experiments, we elaborated and discussed a set of design guidelines that can be considered for the choice of the appropriate physical immersion to be used on the development of new serious games.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-130).

This study investigated the neuroplastic changes that accompany speech identification training using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Participants completed three practice sessions over two consecutive days. In the morning group, practice occurred in the morning and evening of the first day, and in the morning of the next day; whereas, in the evening group, practice occured in the evening of the first day, and in the morning and evening of the second day. In both groups, behavioural improvement between the first session and last session was comparable. Neuromagnetic data showed practice-related changes in N1m amplitude between the first and last sessions. A time-of-day (TOD) of practice effect was found for P2m mean amplitude. In both groups, P2m-related changes with practice were greater when consecutive sessions occurred between days than within a day. The results are consistent with the proposal that task-related changes in the P2m wave are an index of perceptual learning.

This study investigated the neuroplastic changes that accompany speech identification training using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Participants completed three practice sessions over two consecutive days. In the morning group, practice occurred in the morning and evening of the first day, and in the morning of the next day; whereas, in the evening group, practice occured in the evening of the first day, and in the morning and evening of the second day. In both groups, behavioural improvement between the first session and last session was comparable. Neuromagnetic data showed practice-related changes in N1m amplitude between the first and last sessions. A time-of-day (TOD) of practice effect was found for P2m mean amplitude. In both groups, P2m-related changes with practice were greater when consecutive sessions occurred between days than within a day. The results are consistent with the proposal that task-related changes in the P2m wave are an index of perceptual learning.