Thesis (M.I.T.)--The Evergreen State College, 2007. / Title from title screen viewed (6/25/2008). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-107).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 55).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Duquesne University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-131) and abstract.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 55).

This dissertation is comprised of five independent essays on the theme of the nature and roles of knowledge. The essays are intended to be free-standing pieces of work and should be read as such. Contents: 1. An Existential Argument For Pragmatic Encroachment -- 2. Environmental Luck Gettier Cases And The Metaphysical Roles Of Knowledge -- 3. Might The Simulation Heuristic Influence Knowledge Attributions? -- 4. Excuses And Epistemic Norms -- 5. From Moore's 'Paradox to the Knowledge Norm of Belief and Beyond'.

From introduction: A popular misconception regarding Aristotle's views on modality is that Aristotle adhered to the doctrine of no unrealized possibilities. According to this doctrine, all possibilities are realized in time; in other words, if it is possible that something could happen, then at some time it is the case that that happens. For example, if it is possible for Socrates to escape from prison, then there will be a time at which Socrates will actually escape from prison. On this view, the possible and the actual co-incide; whereas there is abundant evidence that Aristotle was careful to maintain a distinction between the possible and the actual.

This study was designed to examine the ability to use prior knowledge in text comprehension and knowledge integration. The focus of the research was on effects of different degrees of subjects' theoretical knowledge in the domain of biochemistry on their comprehension of written technical materials describing experimental procedures and results, and the ability to integrate such new text derived information with prior theoretical knowledge considered by experts to be relevant to the topic. Effects of cues on the accessibility and use of prior knowledge were also examined. Pre-test questions testing the extent of subjects' prior knowledge of photosynthesis, and a "cue article" specifically designed to prime subjects' relevant prior knowledge of photosynthesis, served as cues in the study. / A theoretical model of experts' knowledge was developed from a semantic analysis of expert-produced texts. This "expert model" was used to evaluate the extent of students' theoretical knowledge of photosynthesis, and its accessibility while applying it to the experimental tasks. College students and university graduate students served as subjects in the study, permitting a contrast of groups varying in prior knowledge of and expertise in chemistry. / Statistical analyses of data obtained from coding subjects' verbal protocols against text propositions and the expert model revealed that prior knowledge and comprehension contribute significantly to predicting knowledge integration, but they are not sufficient for this process to take place. It appears that qualitative aspects and specific characteristics of subjects' knowledge structure contribute to the process of integration, not simply the amount of accumulated knowledge. There was also evidence that there are specific inferential processes unique to knowledge integration that differentiate it from test comprehension. Cues manifested their effects on performance on comprehension tasks and integrative tasks only through their interactions with other factors. Furthermore, it was found that textual complexity placed specific constraints on students' performance: the application of textual information to the integrative tasks and students' ability to build conceptual frame representations based on text propositions depended on the complexity of the textual material. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

No description available.

In this thesis I trace the relations between thinking about space and the spatiality of thought as it relates to epistemology in the eponymous authors. I argue that the verbal,visual, and mental tools used to negotiate the ideas and objects under consideration are not merely representative or rhetorical, but are part of the process of knowledge-making itself. I contend that the spatialities of language, visual presentation, and mental image facilitate new ways of seeing and the exploring of previously invisible relationships. I show how the dynamic spatiality of the imagination is used for testing hypothesis, considering multiple points of view, accommodating uncertainties, and thinking about expansive ideas that push at (or exist beyond) the boundaries of the known or possible. In this way I offer new readings of key texts that foreground the inherent relativity of human experience, which I contend is at the heart of a scientific uncertainty found even in the new science that strove for objectivity. In four case studies I explore the elationship between external and internal space in the thinking and perceiving subject, building on Steven Connor's assertion that ‘thinking about things is unavoidably a kind of thinking about the kind of thing that thinking is' (‘Thinking Things', 2010). In addition to this unidirectional relation between thinking and things, I demonstrate a complex dialogue between interior (thought) and exterior (thing) that occurs in the ways processes of thought and perception are externalized on the page and with instruments of viewing; in the way objects are brought into the mind; and in the way the mind creates infinities within by tracing expansive external spatialities.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-181). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR45976