The main focus of this investigation was to examine the automaticity of facial expression recognition through valence judgments in a modified photo-word Stroop paradigm. Positive and negative words were superimposed across male and female faces expressing positive (happy) and negative (angry, sad) emotions. Subjects categorized the valence of each stimulus. Gender biases in judgments of expressions (better recognition for male angry and female sad expressions) and the valence hypothesis of hemispheric advantages for emotions (left hemisphere: positive; right hemisphere: negative) were also examined. Four major findings emerged. First, the valence of expressions was processed automatically (robust interference effects). Second, male faces interfered with processing the valence of words. Third, no posers' gender biases were indicated. Finally, the emotionality of facial expressions and words was processed similarly by both hemispheres.

Task switching produces a number of reliable behavioural measures, the main focus of interest here being 'switch cost', the increase in response time when switching between tasks as opposed to performing them separately. Switch costs are typically measured between two tasks and compared to a single-task repeat condition. Current explanations of switch cost fall broadly into either active reconfiguration based accounts (e.g. Rogers & Monsell, 1995) whereby the extra time taken to switch between tasks is attributable to reconfiguration of task set, or passive carryover accounts (Allport, Styles & Hsieh, 1994) where extra time is accrued by the need to overcome conflict between the current task set and the enduring activity of the previous task set. This thesis used the Continuous Series II (Gurd, 1995), a novel continuous verbal switching task which requires individuals to switch continuously between increasing numbers of overlearned sequences (e.g. days, numbers). The aim was to investigate the application of general (whole-task) switch costs (RT costs), memory-based switching and the differential pattern of errors produced by the task, with a view to determining the most appropriate theoretical model to explain costs in the task. General switch costs are measured over the whole time course of the task from beginning to end, instead of the more usual measurement of switch cost over a single switch or repeat within the whole task. Such long-term measures of switch cost account for 'global representational structures' in the task, which are said to contribute to the cost of switching yet are absent from local transitional measures (Kleinsorge, Heuer & Schmidtke, 2004). Global representational structures account for not only the current and preceding trials actually performed but also the possible alternatives for the preceding, current and subsequent trials, thereby reflecting all representations relating to performance of the tasks. The Continuous Series II (Gurd, 1995) measures costs continuously over time between increasing numbers of verbal tasks and as yet has not been linked to either a reconfiguration or carryover-based account. Initial administration to healthy controls and neurological patients confirmed difficulty-related increasing costs and revealed a dissociation of errors between two versions of the task, one including semantic categories. This suggested differential sources of control overseeing conflict detection and resolution, linked in this work to Kahneman's dual system model (Kahneman, 2011) and suggesting the implication of active control. Further work with monozygotic twins mirrored for handedness revealed no predicted effect of handedness but did reveal the employment of vocalised inner-speech as a successful self cueing device, known to be supportive of active reconfiguration in switching (Monsell, 2005). Such cueing was employed by this sample of older adults but had not appeared to benefit the neurological patients who clearly had reconfiguration deficits. Further development of the two versions of the task also allowed rejection of a passive carryover explanation of switch-cost on the basis that switching to the easier task was not more difficult, counter to the prediction of Allport, Styles & Hsieh (1994). At this stage it was evident that some portion of general cost for the task may be artefactual, as participants displayed behaviour suggesting the order of tasks and their updating nature (task content) may be inflating cost beyond a pure measure of switching (an inevitable risk of general switch cost measurement). Investigation of task order showed that production of the category 'days' appeared to conflate sources of error. Reducing the difficultly of component tasks (removing the need to update items) demonstrated that a substantial proportion of general cost was indeed purely switch-related. Returning to the question of cueing (previously demonstrated to be beneficial when self-generated), the final study introduced explicit external cues, consistently predicted to benefit switching (Monsell, 2005). These cues did not reduce time costs in verbal task switching and furthermore failed to prevent errors of task order. The lack of external cue benefit supports an amended version of the Rogers & Monsell (1995) task-set reconfiguration model as the best explanation of switch costs in verbal task-switching. This amended model relies entirely on internally generated representations in a closed system and supports the role of active control in generating switch-cost. General cost, while incorporating task-related artefacts, rehearsals and error recovery, nevertheless has at its core a switch related element. Furthermore, the failure of cues to extinguish between-task errors negates excessive reliance on working memory and further supports the rejection of passive carryover accounts of task switch cost.

"All cold-blooded animals and a large number of warm-blooded ones spend an unexpectedly large proportion of their time doing nothing at all, or at any rate, nothing in particular." (Elton 1927) Many animals are remarkably "lazy", spending >50% of their waking hours "resting" . This is common across all taxa, ecologies, and life histories, including what are commonly considered to be highly industrious animals: the social insects (e.g., Aesop's Fable 'The Grasshopper and the Ant'). This dissertation broadly seeks to explain a phenomenon that has long been observed, but never adequately addressed, by asking: 'why are there 'lazy' ants?' First, I established that inactivity was a real and ecologically relevant phenomenon in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus by testing whether inactivity was a lab artifact. I then showed that inactive workers comprise a behaviorally distinct group of workers that are commonly overlooked in studies looking at colony function, though they typically represent at least half of the individuals within social insect colonies. I then tested a set of mutually non-exclusive hypotheses explaining inactivity in social insects: that (1) inactivity is a form of social "cheating" in which egg-laying workers selfishly invest in their own reproduction rather than contribute to colony fitness, (2) inactive workers comprise a pool of reserve workers used to mitigate the effects of fluctuations in colony workload, (3) inactivity is the result of physiological constraints on worker age such that young and old workers may less active due to inexperience/physical vulnerability, and physiological deterioration respectively, (4) inactive workers are performing an as-yet unidentified function, such as playing a role in communication and acting as food stores, or repletes, and that (5) inactive workers represent the 'slow' end of intra-nest variation in worker 'pace-of-life'. Inactivity is linked to worker age, reproduction, and a potential function as food stores for the colony. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and in fact, likely form a 'syndrome' of behaviors common to inactive social insect workers. Their simultaneous contribution to worker inactivity may explain the difficulty in finding a simple answer to this deceptively simple question.

The perception of self-efficacy is a central cognitive construct in explaining motivation. Assigned goals are established in the literature as affecting self-efficacy, but only a few researchers investigated their effects in complex tasks. One stream of research revealed the positive effects of easy goals on performance in a complex task without regard to self-efficacy perceptions. In the present study, the focus was on the effects of assigned, easy goals on self-efficacy and personal goals in complex task performance. It was expected that easy goals would be superior to moderate or impossible goals because the complexity and uncertainty of the task distorts subjects' perceptions of goal difficulty.

This dissertation addresses improvements to a consensus based task allocation algorithms for improving the Quality of Service in multi-task and multi-agent environments. Research in the past has led to many centralized task allocation algorithms where a central computation unit is calculating the global optimum task allocation solution. The centralized algorithms are plagued by creating a single point of failure and the bandwidth needed for creating consistent and accurate situational awareness off all agents. This work will extend upon a widely researched decentralized task assignment algorithm based on the consensus principle. Although many extensions have led to improvements of the original algorithm, there is still much opportunity for improvement in providing sufficient and reliable task assignments in real-world dynamic conditions and changing environments. This research addresses practical changes made to the consensus based task allocation algorithms for improving the Quality of Service in multi-task and multi-agent environments.

Consumers consistently pursue new beginnings regarding health, financial wellbeing, and personal growth. Conceptual metaphors like the "fresh start" can be powerful tools for reframing problems and motivating behaviors (Coulter and Zaltman 2000; Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Landau, Keefer and Meier 2010; Thibodeau and Boroditsky 2011), and are frequently featured in movies, blogs, strategic marketing communication, and products. However, research has not examined whether fresh starts can indeed help consumers set new goals and improve their performance. This dissertation seeks to explore the role of the fresh start metaphor in consumers' lives. In Chapter 2, I define the fresh start as consumers' pursuit of new beginnings, and develop a reliable scale distinct from related constructs such as optimism, hope, entity theory and psychological closure. I find that consumers who score higher on the fresh start scale focus on the future more optimistically, report higher intentions to set new goals, and increase efforts toward health and financial budgeting. In Chapter 3, I investigate whether actively engaging the metaphor of the fresh start can change consumer outcomes. I find that when participants are prompted to activate a fresh start they expect to perform better on a challenging task (e.g., losing weight or saving money) because it increases their belief that present obstacles will have less hold in the future. I also find that a fresh start translates into performance improvements when participants perform poorly on a task in a personally important domain, and self-efficacy mediates the effect. Overall, results provide strong support for the role of the fresh start as a powerful tool that consumers can use to improve well-being, overcome poor performance, set new goals, and transform for the better.

Research on the various subtypes of aggression has documented differences in the experience of anger and the expression of angry aggression. Mixed proactive and reactive aggressive individuals exhibit reactive aggression but, unlike reactive aggressive individuals, fail to exhibit angry expressions or physiological arousal. Similar to the proactive group, individuals with psychopathic traits have been found to exhibit emotional underreactivity, and physiological underarousal, while still exhibiting reactive aggression. The present study examined 85 boys (ages 13 to 18) from a detention center. Three groups of aggressive boys were identified via cluster analysis based on the self-report of types of aggressive behavior: a primarily reactive aggressive group (n=29), a mixed reactive and proactive group (n=16), and a low aggressive group (n=40). The three groups were compared on aggressive responding (during a computerized provocation task with low and high provocation trials), on callous and unemotional traits (CU) and on psychophysiological indices of emotional reactivity. All aggressive groups showed greater aggressive responding to high provocation than to low provocation. The mixed aggressive group showed high aggressive responding across all provocation levels, including the no provocation condition, while the reactive aggressive group only showed high levels similar to the mixed aggressive group during low provocation. Unexpectedly, the reactive and mixed aggressive groups reported higher levels of CU traits than the other group. Although the groups did not differ on psychophysiological activity/reactivity, higher levels of CU traits were related to lower skin conductance responses to provocation. Thus, the contribution of high and low CU traits in the three groups to psychophysiological activity/reactivity was examined. Interestingly, the low and mixed aggressive groups who were high on CU traits had lower sympathetic arousal (indexed by skin conductance) and lower sympathetic reactivity to provocation. Thus, the mixed aggressive group showed a general disconnect between their angry aggression (on the provocation task) and their sympathetic reactivity to provocation. However, this was true only if they also showed high rates of CU traits. These results suggest that interventions targeted toward individuals who exhibit particular subtypes of aggression may be more beneficial if the presence of CU traits is also considered.

This study aims to enlighten the effect the agile leadership has on alienation. Two different companies, with different leadership styles, are examined in an attempt to determine if leadership is a contributing factor to alienation among the employees. The study was conducted through the use of a case study of two stores of two different companies. To obtain the purpose of this study the following questions have been asked: • Which features of alienation can be found among the employees? • What effect does the leadership have on the employee’s alienation? To acquire the purpose of the study the theoretical framework is based on a presentation of the traditional leadership, the agile leadership and alienation. The study shows that the employees have encountered some features of alienation. The study shows that the employee at the company who practices the agile leadership encounters fewer of the alienation features, than the employees at the company who practices the traditional leadership. The results of the study showed that some of the features had a bigger impact on the employees. We also found that the agile leadership had good effects on alienation, as the self organized-team, an including approach and lack of hierarchy had beneficial effects on the employee’s sense of control and motivation. / Studiens syfte är att belysa det agila ledarskapets påverkan på alienation. Två företag med två olika ledarskapsstilar har undersökts för att kunna avgöra om ledarskapet är en faktor som kan påverka alienation hos medarbetarna. Undersökningen har gjorts med hjälp av en fallstudie, där två butiker från två olika företag undersökts. Studiens syfte har lett till följande frågeställningar: •     Vilka drag av alienation kan påträffas bland medarbetarna?•     Vad har ledarskapet för effekt på medarbetarnas alienation? En teoretisk referensram bestående av en genomgång av det traditionella ledarskapet, det agila ledarskapet samt alienation har utformats för att svara på frågeställningarna. Då alienationsbegreppet har stor betydelse har det bearbetats noga och brutits ned i fem beståndsdelar. Studien visar att intervjupersonerna upplever drag av alienation. Det framgår att medarbetaren på företaget med agilt ledarskap påträffar färre drag av alienation än medarbetarna på företaget med traditionellt ledarskap. Studien visade att de olika dragen av alienation har olika inverkan på medarbetarna. Det framkom även att det agila ledarskapet hade goda effekter på alienation, då det självorganiserade teamet, ett inkluderande förhållningssätt och avsaknad av hierarki främjade medarbetarnas känsla av kontroll och motivation i arbetet.

When students solve mathematics tasks, the tasks are commonly given as written text, usually consisting of natural language, mathematical notation and different types of images. This is one reason why reading and interpreting such texts are important parts of being mathematically proficient, at least within the school context. The ability utilized when dealing with aspects of mathematical text is denoted in this thesis as a mathematical reading ability; this ability is useful when reading mathematical language, for example, in task text. There is, however, a lack of knowledge of what characterizes this mathematical language, what students need to learn regarding the mathematical language, and exactly which mathematical language that tests should preferably assess. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge of aspects of difficulty related to textual features in mathematics tasks. In particular, one aim is to distinguish between a difficulty that has to do with a mathematical ability and another that has not. Different types of text analyses are utilized to capture textural features that might be demanding for the students when reading and solving mathematics tasks. Aspects regarding vocabulary are investigated both in a literature review and in a study where corpora are used to analyse word commonness. Other textual analyses focus on textual features that concern mathematical notation and images, besides natural language. Statistical methods are used to analyse potential relations between the textual features of interest and both task difficulty and task demand on reading ability. The results from the research review are sparse regarding difficult vocabulary, since few of the reviewed studies analyses word aspects separately. Several of the analysed textual features are related to aspects of difficulty. The results show that tasks with more words that are uncommon both in a mathematical context and in an everyday context, may favour students with good reading ability rather than students with good mathematical ability. Another textual feature that is likely to be demanding for students, is if the task texts contains many meaning relations, for example, when several words refer to the same or similar object. These results have implications for the school practice both regarding textual features that are important from an educational perspective and regarding the construction of tests. The research does also contribute to an understanding of what characterizes a mathematical language.

<div> <div> <p>Benefited from the booming social network, reading posts from other users overinternet is becoming one of commonest ways for people to intake information. Onemay also have noticed that sometimes we tend to focus on users provide well-foundedanalysis, rather than those merely who vent their emotions. This thesis aims atfinding a simple and efficient way to recognize reliable information sources amongcountless internet users by examining the sentiments from their past posts.<br></p><p>To achieve this goal, the research utilized a dataset of tweets about Apples stockprice retrieved from Twitter. Key features we studied include post-date, user name,number of followers of that user, and the sentiment of that tweet. Prior to makingfurther use of the dataset, tweets from users who do not have sufficient posts arefiltered out. To compare user sentiments and the derivative of Apples stock price, weuse Pearson correlation between them for to describe how well each user performs.Then we iteratively increase the weight of reliable users and lower the weight ofuntrustworthy users, the correlation between overall sentiment and the derivative ofstock price will finally converge. The final correlations for individual users are theirperformance scores. Due to the chaos of real world data, manual segmentation viadata visualization is also proposed as a denoise method to improve performance.Besides our method, other metrics can also be considered as user trust index, suchas numbers of followers of each user. Experiments are conducted to prove that ourmethod out performs others. With simple input, this method can be applied on awide range of topics including election, economy, and job market.<br></p> </div> </div>