<p> In the present study, implicit attitudes toward accents were examined. The most common method used to study accent-based perceptions is by self-report questionnaires, which measure explicit attitudes. To my knowledge, no previous study has examined implicit accent-based attitudes. In the present investigation, auditory stimuli were used in a novel application of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit accent attitudes. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to a passage read in one of three foreign accents (Mexican, Chinese, or British) and the same passage in a Standard American accent. Participants also completed the Speech Dialect Attitudinal Scale, which measured explicit accent attitudes, and the IAT, which measured implicit attitudes toward the foreign accent relative to the Standard American accent. Implicit and explicit measures were counterbalanced. Results showed that participants had more favorable implicit attitudes for the Standard American accent than the Mexican accent and a mild preference for the Standard American accent compared to the Chinese and British accents. Implicit and explicit accent attitudes were largely uncorrelated. The examination of implicit attitudes in the current investigation complements previous accent research, which focused on explicit attitudes. Examining aspects of both implicit and explicit accent attitudes will lead to a more in-depth understanding of how accents affect individuals' perceptions, feelings, and judgments.</p>

<p> This study investigated bilingual advantages at additional languages learning by comparing early, highly proficient bilinguals to monolinguals' learning of an additional language in adulthood. The study used both behavioral and neurocognitive measures (event-related potentials) and tested subjects along the trajectory of learning from low to high experience across two exposure contexts: with or without grammar information on the language. The results of the study showed that behavioral results varied as a function of exposure context - performance differences were found when subjects were not provided with grammar information but were absent when such information was provided. The neurocognitive measures revealed differences in processing between bilinguals and monolinguals, especially at low levels of experience. This too varied as a function of exposure context, as well as linguistic structure.</p>

<p> The study of hatred is a historical one that has generated multiple explanations theorizing the nature and origin of this construct. Current theories suggest hate is a critical factor in the manifestations of the world's atrocities, such as terrorism, massacres, and genocide, however no single universal definition of the construct exists. Additionally, there is a paucity of research specific to the construct of hate or documentation of the specific factors that contribute to its development. This research explores the experience of hate using a phenomenological method of inquiry so that a deeper understanding of the "lived experience" of hate can be achieved. Individuals who self-identify as experiencing hate from the perspective of the hater, offer descriptions of the intrapersonal processes, specifically the underlying emotions, cognitions, and physiological responses, that occur when they are or have been in the throes of hatred. Participants identify hate as an emotion, one unlike any they had ever experienced before and one that is a combination of several emotions. Although hate is defined as an emotion, participants identify cognitive and physical changes that accompanied their experience of hate, implying that hate is more than just emotion, though often described as such by laypersons. Factors that led participants to name their experience as hate versus some other experience, along with the critical components of hate are described. These descriptions distinguish hate from anger, dislike and aversion. Positive aspects of hate, as well reflections for transforming hate are also included. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed.</p>

<p> Contemporary research has been examining potential links existing among sensory, motor and attentional systems. Previous studies using TMS have shown that the abrupt onset of sounds can both capture attention and modulate motor cortex excitability, which may reflect the potential need for a behavioral response to the attended event. TMS, however, only quantifies motor cortex excitability immediately following the deliverance of a TMS pulse. Therefore, the temporal development of how the motor cortex is modulated by sounds can't be quantified using TMS. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to use time frequency analysis of EEG to identify the time course of cortical mechanisms underlying increased motor cortex excitability after sound onset. Subjects sat in a sound attenuated booth with their hands outstretched at 45-degree angles while frequency modulated sounds were intermittently presented from a speaker either in the left and right hemispace. Our results indicated a transient reduction in EEG power from 18-24 Hz (300-600 ms latency) and then a long lasting increase in EEG power that began at ~800 ms and continued until at least 1.7 sec. The latency of EEG power changes was shorter for sounds presented from the right speaker at both time periods. When sounds were presented from the right speaker the contralateral hemisphere over motor regions also showed greater power increases after 800 ms relative to the ipsilateral hemisphere. In addition, power increases were greater in the left-handed subjects (8-12 Hz). Results showed that sounds increased EEG power at the time of a previously observed increase in motor cortex excitability. Findings also suggest an increased attentional salience to the right hemispace in neurologically normal subjects and asymmetrical hemispheric activations in right and left-handers.</p>

These analyses test the hypothesis that contour integration is distinct from simple, non-random pattern recognition, and that it can be studied fruitfully using a novel combination of methodologies. Real, human observers and ideal observers perform a classification task in which the two stimulus patterns are systematically corrupted by noise to determine the effect of that noise on observers' responses. This technique, response classification, is used to determine how observers use the available information in an array of line elements to discriminate between an aligned contour and a non-random (orthogonal) pattern. The comparison between performance of several ideal observers and the human observers reveals that template-matching models might not account entirely for the human observers' responses. Beyond showing that human observers perform the task using the local relations between neighboring elements, we also determine the circumstances under which grouped pairs of elements are integrated perceptually into more extended contours. These circumstances are related theoretically to co-occurrence statistics derived from natural images between pairs of small line elements using the parameters of distance, orientation difference, and direction. The complete set of analyses further our understanding of how humans perceive visual contour.

Error management training is an intervention that capitalizes on the cognitive benefits of making errors for transfer of training, while minimizing the negative effects of errors on motivation. This study examined the effects of the structural and instructional components of error management training within a resource allocation framework, and investigated the role of distal predictors (cognitive ability and learning goal orientation) and proximal predictors (self-regulatory processes: emotion control, metacognitive activity, and self-efficacy) on training outcomes. Participants (N = 161, mean age = 39.7) were recruited from the community and were trained on computer database software in one of three conditions: high structure + error encouragement instructions, high structure + no instructions, or low structure + error encouragement instructions. Training effectiveness was assessed on multiple indices of learning (task performance, knowledge structures, and self-efficacy), measured immediately following training and after a 1-week retention interval. Key findings include an age x cognitive ability x effect of instruction interaction for training performance, indicating that individual differences should be considered when designing training to optimize transfer. Low structure training was found to enhance immediate task performance for all learners, but this effect did not persist over time. In addition, emotion control fully mediated the relationship between learning goal orientation and self-efficacy for knowledge retention in the error encouragement training conditions, as well as interacting with the effect of instruction to predict task performance.

Duration is a fundamental characteristic of events, intervals, and episodes. Its estimation is affected by a multitude of non-temporal factors such as whether the duration interval is filled or empty, its modality, and cognition during the interval. The central question addressed in this dissertation is whether the estimated duration of a stimulus varies with its pitch and, if so, whether the relation depends on the type of the stimulus, its duration, and of its degree of change. The range effect: the phenomenon that for the same duration sounds with larger pitch range are estimated longer than sounds with smaller pitch range, was explored in a series of ten experiments. The range effect was smaller for small durations and increased as duration increased up to 900 ms, then decreased. The effect was larger for ascending than for descending sounds and for glides than for staircase and discrete sounds. Furthermore, it was demonstrated with both magnitude estimation and comparison. These results have implications for time perception models such as Block's attentional-gate model.

I report five experiments in an exploratory study to investigate the perceptual grouping processes by better understanding how a simple pattern of dots comes to be represented in visual memory. Subjects were briefly shown a random set of point-like dots which were then masked and subsequently reappeared with a possible added or deleted dot. Subjects detected changes to peripheral dots more reliably than changes to interior dots, even those much closer to fixation. The most peripheral points appear to be objectized in a process that might be analogized as shrink wrapping. The circumscribed shape was memorable and easily recalled despite brief presentations. These data suggest a preattentive perceptual process beginning in the periphery and proceeding inward toward fixation as the visual system records the shape of the pattern.

Intraspecific chemical communications are documented in animals from single-celled organisms to nonhuman mammals. Increasing behavioral studies and recent brain imaging studies using positron emission tomography point to the existence of chemical communications in humans. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined whether the brain differentiates between human-related smells (sweat of sexual arousal, sweat of neutral emotion, and putative human sex pheromone androstadienone) and their non-social control (phenyl ethyl alcohol or PEA) after controlling for differences in the perceived intensity and pleasantness of the smells. With PEA as the reference point, we identified a region in the right fusiform gyrus which showed strong activation to the sweat of sexual arousal and little response to the putative sex pheromone. Our result suggests the right fusiform recognizes the human quality associated with the sweat of sexual arousal. Keywords. Chemical communication, fMRI, fusiform, human body odor

Studies motivated by cognitive load theory experiments (e.g., Ward & Sweller, 1990) suggest that problem solving can interfere with learning, and show that alternative exercises such as studying worked examples often lead to better performance. However, problem solving at has often been found to have benefits for both retention and transfer (e.g., Jacoby, 1978) and some studies (e.g., Charney & Reder, 1986) show better learning from problem solving than from worked examples. Many factors may affect the outcome of such studies. Often the methods that produce difficulties during training seem to lead to the best long term performance (Schmidt & Bjork, 1992) Some evidence suggests that the least capable learners benefit most from relatively active, unstructured training methods (e.g., Hermann, 1969; Whitener, 1989) but others hold the opposite opinion (e.g., Snow, 1989). People often fail to make use of examples unless stimulated, for example, by provision of multiple, varied examples (e.g., Gick & Holyoak, 1983). An experiment comparing three approaches to instruction was conducted in an effort to clarify the circumstances favoring problem solving or study of examples in training. Subjects either first attempted to solve a problem then studied a related example, studied an example then attempted to solve a related problem, or studied a pair of related examples. Problem solving first resulted in slower and less accurate performance during training, as did studying less similar pairs of exercises. Subjects who studied worked examples without problems performed poorly on an immediate test, and the least capable among them had particular difficulty with the most complex tasks. On a delayed test, among subjects who studied the less similar pairs of exercises, those trained with pairs of worked examples performed more poorly on difficult problem components than did problem-first subjects. On the delayed test, among trainees of average or lower intelligence, those trained with problems first were quickest. Consistent with the ideas of Schmidt and Bjork (1992), conditions that produced difficulties during training produced the best ultimate performance. Contrary to Snow's (1989) conclusion, this seemed to be particularly important for the least capable trainees.