<p>Visual search, the process of detecting relevant items within an environment, is a vital skill required for navigating one's visual environment as well as for careers, such as radiology and airport security, that rely upon accurate searching. Research over the course of several decades has established that visual search requires the integration of low- and high-level cognitive processes, including sensory analysis, attentional allocation, target discrimination, and decision-making. Search abilities are malleable and vary in accordance with long-term experiences, direct practice, and contextual factors in the immediate environment; however, the mechanisms responsible for changes in search performance remain largely unclear. A series of studies examine variation in visual search abilities and performance and aim to identify the underlying mechanisms.</p><p>To assess differences associated with long-term experiences, visual search performance is compared between laypersons (typically undergraduates) and specific populations, including radiologists and avid action video game players. Behavioral markers of search processes are used to elucidate causes of enhanced search performance. To assess differences associated with direct practice, laypersons perform a visual search task over five consecutive days, and electrophysiological activity is recorded from the scalp on the first and last days of the protocol. Electrophysiological markers associated with specific stages of processing are analyzed to determine neurocognitive changes contributing to improved performance. To assess differences associated with contextual factors, laypersons are randomly assigned to experimental conditions in which they complete a visual search task within a particular framework or in the presence or absence of motivation, feedback, and/or time pressure.</p><p>Results demonstrate that search abilities can improve through experience and direct training, but the mechanisms underlying effects in each case are different. Long-term experiences are associated with strategic attentional allocation, but direct training can improve low-level sensory analysis in addition to higher-level processes. Results also demonstrate nuanced effects of experience and context. On searches that contain multiple targets, task framework impacts accuracy for detecting additional targets after one target has been identified. The combination of motivation and feedback enhances accuracy for both single- and multiple-target searches. Implications for cognitive theory and applications to occupational protocols are discussed.</p> / Dissertation

Perceptual learning, when applied to speech, describes experience-evoked adjustments to the cognitive-perceptual processes required for recognising spoken language. It provides the theoretical basis for improved understanding of a speech signal that is initially difficult to perceive. Reduced intelligibility is a frequent and debilitating symptom of dysarthria, a speech disorder associated with neurological disease or injury. The current thesis investigated perceptual learning of dysarthric speech, by jointly considering intelligibility improvements and associated learning mechanisms for listeners familiarised with the neurologically degraded signal. Moderate hypokinetic dysarthria was employed as the test case in the three phases of this programme of research. The initial research phase established strong empirical evidence of improved recognition of dysarthric speech following a familiarisation experience. Sixty normal hearing listeners were randomly assigned to one of three groups and familiarised with passage readings under the following conditions: (1) neurologically intact speech (control) (n = 20), dysarthric speech (passive familiarisation) (n = 20), and (3) dysarthric speech coupled with written information (explicit familiarisation) (n = 20). Subsequent phrase transcription analysis revealed that the intelligibility scores of both groups familiarised with dysarthric speech were significantly higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, performance gains were superior, in both size and longevity, when the familiarisation conditions were explicit. A condition discrepancy in segmentation strategies, in which attention towards syllabic stress contrast cues increased following explicit familiarisation but decreased following passive familiarisation, indicated that performance differences were more than simply magnitude of benefit. Thus, it was speculated that the learning that occurred with passive familiarisation may be qualitatively different to that which occurred with explicit familiarisation. The second phase of the research programme followed up on the initial findings and examined whether the key variable behind the use of particular segmentation strategies was simply the presence or absence of written information during familiarisation. Forty normal hearing listeners were randomly assigned to one of two groups and were familiarised with experimental phrases under either passive (n = 20) or explicit (n = 20) learning conditions. Subsequent phrase transcription analysis revealed that regardless of condition, all listeners utilised syllabic stress contrast cues to segment speech following familiarisation with phrases that emphasised this prosodic perception cue. Furthermore, the study revealed that, in addition to familiarisation condition, intelligibility gains were dependent on the type of the familiarisation stimuli employed. Taken together, the first two research phases demonstrated that perceptual learning of dysarthric speech is influenced by the information afforded within the familiarisation procedure. The final research phase examined the role of indexical information in perceptual learning of dysarthric speech. Forty normal hearing listeners were randomly assigned to one of two groups and were familiarised with dysarthric speech via a training task that emphasised either the linguistic (word identification) (n = 20) or indexical (speaker identification) (n = 20) properties of the signal. Intelligibility gains for listeners trained to identify indexical information paralleled those achieved by listeners trained to identify linguistic information. Similarly, underlying error patterns were also comparable between the two training groups. Thus, phase three revealed that both indexical and linguistic features of the dysarthric signal are learnable, and can be used to promote subsequent processing of dysarthric speech. In summary, this thesis has demonstrated that listeners can learn to better understand neurologically degraded speech. Furthermore, it has offered insight into how the information afforded by the specific familiarisation procedure is differentially leveraged to improve perceptual performance during subsequent encounters with the dysarthric signal. Thus, this programme of research affords preliminary evidence towards the development of a theoretical framework that exploits perceptual learning for the treatment of dysarthria.

The experiments reported in the present dissertation investigated the contribution of the mammillary region to several classes of learning and memory: spatial memory, nonspatial memory, and conditioned aversion learning. It was demonstrated that such lesions impair performance on tasks that require memory for spatial information but that the deficit depends on both the amount of damage within the region as well as the degree of difficulty of the task. A dissociation in the effect of such lesions on performance of comparable spatial and nonspatial memory tasks was shown. In contrast to the severe deficits observed on spatial memory tasks, the acquisition and retention of a complex nonspatial memory task was not impaired after extensive damage to the mammillary region. Such lesions also did not impair performance on two conditioned aversion tasks. These experiments suggest that the mammillary region may be selectively involved in spatial learning and memory. The relevance of these findings to Korsakoff's syndrome is discussed.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007. / A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Psychology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (MEd (Assessment and quality assurance))-University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

O trabalho intitulado “Jardim Sensorial e Práticas Pedagógicas em Educação Ambiental” relata uma pesquisa desenvolvida em uma escola privada localizada na cidade de Pato Branco, Paraná. O estudo teve como objetivo analisar práticas pedagógicas conduzidas por docentes em um Jardim Sensorial implantado nesta escola, com o intuito de identificar possíveis relações entre as práticas desenvolvidas pelos docentes e diferentes perspectivas de Educação Ambiental no Brasil, ainda que as atividades não fossem pensadas explicitamente como de Educação Ambiental. Neste texto apresentamos um breve histórico dos jardins ambientais e sensoriais no Brasil, bem como apresentamos uma revisão de estudos que tenham discutido a utilização desses espaços para o desenvolvimento de práticas pedagógicas. Focalizamos teoricamente a Educação Ambiental, situando-a historicamente no contexto da crise ambiental. Contemplamos algumas considerações teóricas sobre as atuais tendências dessa educação no país. Os dados foram coletados mediante observação participante e entrevistas com professores e alunos após as práticas desenvolvidas no Jardim Sensorial. O desenvolvimento das práticas pedagógicas pelos professores utilizando esse espaço suscitou questões e reflexões que poderiam ser consideradas do âmbito da Educação Ambiental, as quais talvez não tivessem aparecido se tais práticas tivessem sido desenvolvidas em sala de aula. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a importância de os professores estarem preparados para uma atuação pedagógica que extrapole os limites de suas disciplinas de formação, no sentido da interdisciplinaridade e para a pertinência da transversalidade na Educação Ambiental. Acreditamos que as práticas desenvolvidas no Jardim Sensorial e relatadas nesta dissertação, por mais simples que tenham sido, encaminharam alunos e professores ao desenvolvimento de uma visão mais crítica sobre o meio ambiente. Por fim, o trabalho demonstra que a utilização de ambientes diferentes dos convencionais em práticas pedagógicas pode propiciar aprendizado e crescimento mútuo entre docentes e discentes, bem como promover uma Educação Ambiental de forma criativa, na direção contrária das práticas pontuais e sem sentido, as quais têm pouco ou nenhum impacto duradouro. / This work entitled Sensory Garden and Pedagogical Practices in Environment Education reports a research developed in a Private School located in Pato Branco, Paraná. The study aimed to analyze pedagogical practices conducted by teachers in a sensory garden installed in this school, in order to identify possible relationship between the practices developed by teachers and different perspectives on Environment Education in Brazil, even though the activities were not designated explicitly to Environment Education. In this dissertation we present a brief history of environmental and sensory in Brazil and make a revision of studies that have discussed the use of these spaces to the development of pedagogical practices. We focus theoretically the Environment Education, situating it historically in the context of environment crisis. We contemplate some theoretical considers about current trends in this education in Brazil. The data were collected through participant observation and surveys with teachers and students after the practices developed in the sensory garden. The development of pedagogical practices by teachers using this place raised questions and reflections that could be considered the scope of environmental education, which might have not appeared if such practices have been developed in classroom. Finally, this work demonstrates that the use of different spaces in pedagogical practices can promote mutual growth and learning between teachers and students, as well as promote Environmental Education in a creative way, in the opposite direction of the specific practices and meaningless, which have little or no lasting impact.

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.

abstract: In the noise and commotion of daily life, people achieve effective communication partly because spoken messages are replete with redundant information. Listeners exploit available contextual, linguistic, phonemic, and prosodic cues to decipher degraded speech. When other cues are absent or ambiguous, phonemic and prosodic cues are particularly important because they help identify word boundaries, a process known as lexical segmentation. Individuals vary in the degree to which they rely on phonemic or prosodic cues for lexical segmentation in degraded conditions. Deafened individuals who use a cochlear implant have diminished access to fine frequency information in the speech signal, and show resulting difficulty perceiving phonemic and prosodic cues. Auditory training on phonemic elements improves word recognition for some listeners. Little is known, however, about the potential benefits of prosodic training, or the degree to which individual differences in cue use affect outcomes. The present study used simulated cochlear implant stimulation to examine the effects of phonemic and prosodic training on lexical segmentation. Participants completed targeted training with either phonemic or prosodic cues, and received passive exposure to the non-targeted cue. Results show that acuity to the targeted cue improved after training. In addition, both targeted attention and passive exposure to prosodic features led to increased use of these cues for lexical segmentation. Individual differences in degree and source of benefit point to the importance of personalizing clinical intervention to increase flexible use of a range of perceptual strategies for understanding speech. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Speech and Hearing Science 2015

abstract: Magnocellular-Dorsal pathway’s function had been related to reading ability, and visual perceptual learning can effectively increase the function of this neural pathway. Previous researches training people with a traditional dot motion paradigm and an integrated visual perceptual training “video game” called Ultimeyes pro, all showed improvement with regard to people’s reading performance. This research used 2 paradigms in 2 groups in order to compare the 2 paradigms’ effect on improving people’s reading ability. We also measured participants’ critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT), which is related to word decoding ability. The result did not show significant improvement of reading performance in each group, but overall the reading speed improved significantly. The result for CFFT in each group only showed significant improvement among people who trained with Ultimeyes pro. This result supports that the beneficial effect of visual perceptual learning training on people’s reading ability, and it suggests that Ultimeyes pro is more efficient than the traditional dot motion paradigm, and might have more application value. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2015

abstract: Watanabe, Náñez, and Sasaki (2001) introduced a phenomenon they named “task-irrelevant perceptual learning” in which near-threshold stimuli that are not essential to a given task can be associatively learned when consistently and concurrently paired with the focal task. The present study employs a visual paired-shapes recognition task, using colored polygon targets as salient attended focal stimuli, with the goal of comparing the increases in perceptual sensitivity observed when near-threshold stimuli are temporally paired in varying manners with focal targets. Experiment 1 separated and compared the target-acquisition and target-recognition phases and revealed that sensitivity improved most when the near-threshold motion stimuli were paired with the focal target-acquisition phase. The parameters of sensitivity improvement were motion detection, critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT), and letter-orientation decoding. Experiment 2 tested perceptual learning of near-threshold stimuli when they were offset from the focal stimuli presentation by ±350 ms. Performance improvements in motion detection, CFFT, and decoding were significantly greater for the group in which near-threshold motion was presented after the focal target. Experiment 3 showed that participants with reading difficulties who were exposed to focal target-acquisition training improved in sensitivity in all visual measures. Experiment 4 tested whether near-threshold stimulus learning occurred cross-modally with auditory stimuli and served as an active control for the first, second, and third experiments. Here, a tone was paired with all focal stimuli, but the tone was 1 Hz higher or lower when paired with the targeted focal stimuli associated with recognition. In Experiment 4, there was no improvement in visual sensitivity, but there was significant improvement in tone discrimination. Thus, this study, as a whole, confirms that pairing near-threshold stimuli with focal stimuli can improve performance in just tone discrimination, or in motion detection, CFFT, and letter decoding. Findings further support the thesis that the act of trying to remember a focal target also elicited greater associative learning of correlated near-threshold stimulus than the act of recognizing a target. Finally, these findings support that we have developed a visual learning paradigm that may potentially mitigate some of the visual deficits that are often experienced by the reading disabled. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2016