<p> The linguistic relativity hypothesis argues that language influences non-linguistic cognition. One version of the hypothesis suggests that language is a set of tools or technologies that variously enhance or dampen an individual&rsquo;s capacity to perceive and operate upon the world in certain ways. A domain in which this may be tested is number, where it is hypothesized that counting language allows us to bridge our innate capacities for recognizing small exact quantities (subitizing) and approximating quantities larger than three or four (analog magnitude estimation). To test this, previous studies have asked adult participants who have limited or no access to counting language to re-present non-symbolic exact quantities&mdash;that is, for participants to create an array of objects equal in number to a target array of objects presented to the participant. In these studies, both English-speakers whose access to number language was artificially compromised by verbal interference and the Pirah&atilde;&mdash;an Amazonian tribe whose language does not contain exact number words&mdash;appeared to rely on analog magnitude estimation for representing non-symbolic exact quantities greater than three. This suggests that the ability to consistently and accurately recognize and re-present non-symbolic exact quantities is impaired by having limited or no access to counting language. Here, sixteen participants with left-hemisphere damage from stroke and resulting aphasia performed the same five non-verbal, non-symbolic matching tasks from these previous studies. It was expected that coefficients of variation for particular tasks, and correlations between target magnitude with both respect to both error rate and error size across tasks, would suggest use of analog magnitude estimation by these verbally impaired participants. Participants also completed three additional number tasks (number elicitation, confrontation naming with Arabic numerals, and a count list recitation task) and a subset of participants completed nonverbal semantic processing and short-term memory tasks (<i>Pyramids and Palm Trees</i> and a verbal semantic category probe) to better understand errors on nonverbal matching tasks. Results indicated that for people with aphasia, non-symbolic exact quantity representation was more difficult than for people without aphasia, except when target quantities were presented in subitizable groups. Overall, participants made more frequent and larger errors when representing larger quantities and struggled when the target was not visible. Participants who had difficulty with tasks where the target was visible during response also had difficulty with tasks where the target was <i>not</i> visible during response. However, another group of participants only had difficulty with tasks where the target was not visible during response. Additionally, participants who had difficulty with non-verbal aphasia assessment subtests were more likely to err on non-symbolic exact quantity representation tasks where the target was visible during response, while participants who had difficulty with aphasia assessment subtests that required verbal responses were more likely to err on non-symbolic exact quantity representation tasks where the target was not visible during response. These results, alongside correlations with aphasia assessment battery performance, suggest that (1) accuracy on non-symbolic exact quantity matching tasks where the target is visible on response rely more heavily on visuospatial abilities than on language or memory; (2) tasks involving subitizing small exact quantities do not appear to require the same visuospatial capacities; and (3) non-symbolic exact quantity matching tasks where the target is not visible on response rely upon language and memory abilities&mdash;especially the capacity for verbal counting. Taken together, these findings reinforce the notion that verbal counting facilitates the consistent and accurate recognition and representation of exact quantities larger than three or four by bridging innate human capacities for subitizing and analog magnitude estimation. Overall, the present results further inform our understanding of tasks previously used to understand the relationship between language and number in a culture lacking words for number concepts.</p><p>

<p> Existing evidence has shown that symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, ADHD, and low self-esteem are each associated with an inability to successfully complete tasks involving executive function and self-regulation. One hypothesis is that this cognitive dysfunction, often related to set-shifting and inhibition, may be connected to rumination. The purpose of our study was to determine whether the difficulties with attentional tasks that are associated with rumination are primarily due to limitations in resource allocation or to difficulties with processing affective content. We also wanted to explore the potential connections between rumination and other psychopathologies; therefore, participants completed questionnaires related to depression, anxiety, stress, ADHD, low self-esteem, and ruminative tendencies and were categorized for purposes of data analysis as having either high or low symptomatology. Participants were then given one three thought inductions followed by an affective shift task where they were asked to shift between responding to positive and negative stimuli either in the form of emotional nouns or personally-relevant adjectives. The results of six mixed-design ANOVAs for reaction times, errors, and omissions (three associated with responses to emotional nouns and three associated with responses to personally-relevant adjectives) conducted both with and without the between subjects&rsquo; variable of psychopathology revealed that the difficulties in set-shifting and inhibition often associated with rumination are likely due to difficulties with processing affective content. Clinical treatments that are likely to be effective for individuals experiencing ruminative thought should encourage mindful processing of such thoughts. By instilling a habitual pattern of thinking that is less self-critical, attentional biases for negative stimuli can become diminished and more task-relevant, positive stimuli can be attended to.</p><p>

<p> As eye-tracking become ubiquitous, the chance of systems using eye-gaze control interfaces increases. However, there is a lack of research explaining eye-gaze control&rsquo;s effect on user perception. Eye-gaze control may alter how users visually perceive their environment. Eye-gaze control may require movements that disrupt normal visual attending. Eye-gaze control may also alter visual attention by decreasing the likelihood of visual detection. This means eye-gaze control used in complex settings (i.e. driving, aviation, etc.) could increase potential harm to users and others. Therefore, it is important to identify potential changes to a user&rsquo;s perception. The current study was composed of two experiments examining costs to visual attention. A total of 48 CSULB students participated (24 each experiment). Participants tracked a cursor on a screen or controlled the cursor with mouse or eye-gaze control. Concurrently they responded to stimuli appearing in either peripheral or central visual areas. Responses and reaction times (RT) were gathered. The results suggest eye-gaze control disrupts visual attention and increases attentional load and inattentional blindness. Eye-gaze control had the most missed stimuli and slowest reaction times for peripheral and central targets. This study suggests effects of eye-gaze control on visual perception should be considered in system design and eye-gaze control should be limited to non-critical tasks where users won&rsquo;t be harmed if they miss an event.</p><p>

Children's ability to use multiple landmarks relationally (e.g., find an object between two landmarks) and related spatial terms (e.g., "middle," "by") both develop during the preschool years. Research has extensively outlined the development of these abilities, however, the relationship between these skills is unknown. These experiments aimed to extend previous research by examining how the development of the spatial relational term "middle" and children's ability to use the middle relation to search among multiple landmarks mutually influence one another. The goal of Experiment 1 was to establish when children acquire the word "middle" and whether the acquisition of the spatial term is related to use of the middle relation in a search task. Seventy-two children ages two- to four-years-old participated in a landmark extension task in which children were trained to search in the middle of a small array of multiple landmarks and were tested on the ability to extend the middle relation to an expanded landmark array. During training, children heard one of two language cues: 1) middle (i.e., "I am hiding the toy in the middle.") or 2) control (i.e., "I am hiding the toy here ."). Afterward, participants completed a forced-choice "middle" comprehension test. Findings showed a strong relationship between spatial language and spatial cognition, such that children who showed comprehension of the term "middle" and children who heard a middle language cue were more likely to extend the middle relation to the expanded landmark array. Experiment 2 used an eye-tracking procedure to test whether children under age two evidence comprehension of the term "middle" and whether differences in comprehension are associated with differences in gaze patterns to multiple-landmark arrays. Twenty-eight children ages 18- to 24-months-old were shown sets of multiple objects and asked to look at objects in a particular spatial position. Differences in children's fixation duration to the middle object on middle cued trials were positively related to age, vocabulary size, and parent reports of children's "middle" comprehension. Children's comprehension was additionally related to search behavior in the landmark task, such that children who were reported by parents to understand the term "middle" showed longer fixations to the middle region of the expanded landmark array. Thus, development in comprehension of the word "middle" occurs at much younger ages than previously tested in investigations of the middle relation, and this development is related to fundamental changes in children's landmark use. The goal of Experiment 3 was to elucidate the role of language cues in the landmark task. Fifty-four children ages two- to three-years-old were tested using the same procedure as in Experiment 1, with the addition of a novel language condition (i.e., "I am hiding the toy in the blicket."). Children who heard middle or novel language cues evidenced more middle searches in the expanded landmark array, suggesting that rather than drawing on experience with the specific spatial term "middle," language cues serve a more general function to highlight the relationship between multiple landmarks and the goal. As a whole, these three experiments demonstrate the course of development for the middle spatial relation and reveal the central role of spatial language in children's developing ability to reason about spatial relations.

Three series of experiments discussed the impact of uncertainty reduction on attentional guidance and selection. First, uncertainty was examined in the context of object-based attention by manipulating the predictive power of a sensory cue. It was shown that when uncertainty is reduced with a highly predictive spatial cue, object-based effects were not present. This demonstrates that uncertainty is what determines selection. Second, uncertainty reduction was applied to a dynamic display to separate spatial locations from overlapping objects to determine which benefits from uncertainty reduction. It was demonstrated that with uncertainty, surfaces and spatial locations influence selection but when uncertainty was reduced, only spatial locations guided attention. Results suggest that uncertainty plays an important role in attentional selection and the focus of prioritization changes over time. Third, uncertainty reduction was applied to an internal signal by introducing reward. A significant reward effect was demonstrated with controls: search was structured so that the high rewarded targets were selected faster than low rewarded targets. Effects in neglect patients depended on lesion location: those with the putamen intact showed a sensitivity to reward (in either bottom-up or top-down orienting), and one showed a significant reduction of neglect. This series suggests that not only is an internal signal effective for attentional allocation, but that it can help to overcome an attentional deficit such as neglect. Overall, results from the three series suggest that uncertainty plays a vital role in attentional selection, in that it determines the most efficient way to allocate resources.

The relationship between life stress and working memory capacity (WMC) has been documented in college students and older adults. It has been proposed that intrusive thoughts about life stress are the mechanism responsible for the impairments seen in WMC. To examine the mechanism responsible for these impairments the current study attempted to induce intrusive thoughts about personal events. The current study allowed for a test of predictions made by two theories of mind wandering regarding the impact of these intrusive thoughts on WMC task performance. One hundred fifty undergraduates were assigned to a control group, positive event group, or negative event group. Participants in the positive and negative event groups completed a short emotional disclosure about an imagined future positive or negative event, respectively, to induce positive or negative intrusive thoughts. WMC measures were completed prior to and following the emotional writing. Results indicated a significant relationship between WMC and mind wandering, however the writing manipulation did not result in any consistent changes in intrusive thoughts or WMC. The results suggest a causal relationship between WMC and mind wandering. The emotional valence of the intrusive thought altered the impact on WMC. No relationship was seen between the measures of stress and WMC. The results of the current study suggest that negative intrusive thoughts result in impaired WMC task performance but other types of off-task thoughts may not result in similar impairments.

Evidence suggests mindfulness enhances empathy. This study aimed to identify relationships between mindfulness facets and empathic processes and to explore possible mediators of these relationships. Participants completed mindfulness and empathy questionnaires and a performance measure of empathic accuracy. Mindful observing and describing were positively related to empathic concern. Most facets of mindfulness were positively related to perspective taking and inversely related to personal distress, with the latter relationship partially mediated by brooding and fear of emotion. Nonreactivity related to empathic accuracy in the opposite direction as hypothesized. This study suggests most mindfulness facets are related positively with perspective-taking while nonreactivity relates inversely to empathic accuracy. Though findings are limited by the cross-sectional design, mindful observing may be important for the enhancement of empathic concern while all mindfulness facets aside from observing may serve to reduce distress perhaps in part by reducing brooding and fear of emotion.

<p> The effectiveness of an incremental rehearsal intervention with and without self-graphing was assessed using an adapted alternating treatments design for reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary knowledge. </p>

<p>NextGen introduces new automated tools to help air traffic controllers (ATCos) manage the projected increase in air traffic over the next decades. The purpose of the current study was to assess the role of trust in automation for NextGen tools. Differences in sensitivity between three subjective trust in automation scales and the relationship of these trust metrics to ATCo trust behaviors were considered. Trust behaviors were measured using a behavioral measure of trust, the number of near-miss aircraft moved. Additionally, the relationship between trust levels and situation awareness was also investigated. Results indicated that the Modified Human-Automation Trust Scale (M-HAT) may be the most sensitive to changes in trust over the course of the internship, although there was no differences in trust behavior between low or high-trusting individuals. Trust questionnaires pertaining to an overall automated system (M-HAT) may able to detect changes in trust over time compared to a more specific trust scale. The results also suggest it may be more valuable to specifically train controllers to trust automation than provide general training.

At its most basic level, a model of language production must describe the processes involved in a real time mapping from a conceptual notion of what is to be said onto a well formed string of sounds that can then be communicated to others. In the tradition of looking at the distributions of speech errors as a window into the architecture of the language production system, investigations of experimentally elicited number agreement errors have provided a useful paradigm for gathering production data. Any time two words within an utterance vie for control of the form of a third word in that utterance, these two words can be said to be in competition for control of the third word. By investigating the factors governing this competition, we can infer constraints on the cognitive architecture of the language production system as a whole. The present dissertation presents five studies on experimentally elicited speech errors, specifically, errors of number agreement between subjects and verbs. Experiments one, two and three investigate the role of semantic factors in the agreement process by manipulating the animacy of the nouns within the complex subject, their degree of semantic overlap, and the plausibility of their relationship with the sentence predicate, respectively. Experiments four and five investigate the role of phonological factors by manipulating the phonological overlap and surface frequency of the nouns within the complex noun phrase. Results indicate that while semantic factors can readily influence the computation of agreement, phonological factors do not. However, only lexical level semantic information (animacy, semantic overlap) appears to play a role, sentence level semantics (plausibility) show no effects. Overall, results converge with previous work suggesting that the flow of information through the production system is incremental, and that there is minimal feedback between phonological processes and semantic or syntactic levels of processing. Results did diverge from previous work in that we propose that feedback may in fact be necessary between conceptual and lexical-semantic levels of processing. In addition, our results argue for an activation based model of the agreement process itself.