Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2001. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-64). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ71629.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 36 p. : col. ill. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 32).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-163). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--Drexel University, 2003. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-65).

A hallmark of aging is a decline in episodic memory. These memory impairments in older adults may be related to a shift away from proactive control strategies. Previous research, with young adults, suggests proactive processes can benefit memory encoding. The dual mechanisms of control model suggests changes in the recruitment of proactive and reactive control strategies will influence behavioral outcomes. The current study used EEG to investigated proactive control in episodic memory in aging. Both young and old adults completed a subsequent memory task with audio and visual items. Each item was preceded by a modality consistent cue. Participants also completed the AX-CPT, which is sensitive to the use of proactive strategies. We found both younger and older adults recruited proactive processes only for audio trials. Both groups exhibited proactive patterns of performance on the AX-CPT. Post-stimulus EEG suggests younger and older adults recruited different strategies for processing audio items. Visual items did not show subsequent memory effects in the pre-stimulus time period, but both groups showed post-stimulus effects. These results suggest younger and older adults are able to flexibly recruit proactive strategies that benefit memory performance.

Prior research has shown that visual working memory (VWM) performance can be improved via retrospective cues (“retro-cues”) that spatially indicate which item currently being held in working memory will be probed at test. These studies have utilized electroencephalography (EEG) methods to monitor contralateral delay activity (CDA) event related potentials (ERPs) and assert that retro-cues benefit memory by reducing effective memory load. Here, we investigated the potential relationship between CDA amplitude and future long-term memory (LTM) performance. Emerging evidence from ERP and fMRI studies suggest that working memory maintenance can contribute to LTM formation, which suggests that memory systems are not as discrete as some models suggest. We investigated the hypotheses that A) the benefits afforded by the retro-cue in VWM will carry over into LTM, and B) CDA amplitude will be modulated by subsequent LTM performance. Results revealed that retro-cuing improved item accuracy at both VWM and LTM delays, suggesting that the two memory systems are interactive. Due to an insufficient amount of subsequent LTM misses, we were unfortunately too underpowered to detect a CDA depending on long-term memory performance. However, we found that posterior slow-wave potentials during the maintenance period did differ by subsequent LTM performance, which further suggests an interactive systems account of memory. We also sought to investigate what exactly the retro-cue cues. Prior research has focused on memory for items, but no study has questioned if the retro-cue also enhances memory for item location. To this end, the present study investigated the effect of retro-cueing on both item identity and item location. LTM Behavioral results revealed a retro-cue benefit for item accuracy but no benefit for item location, suggesting that the retro-cue selectively cues item identity.

The thesis looks at the origin and development of Lancashire dialect literature between the publication of John Collier's ('Tim Bobbin') A View of the Lancashire Dialect in 1746, and the death of Allen Clarke ('Teddy Ashton') in 1935. The thesis is partly chronological, paying particular attention to the largely unexplored period of dialect writing between the 1890s and the 1930s, which suggests that earlier assessments of dialect literature need revision. The period before the First World War witnessed the development of a dialect literature closely linked to the labour movement in Lancashire, and contributed to the development of a distinctive socialist culture. For a time at least, dialect literature escaped from the middle class patronage which characterised it in the 1850s and 1860s, aided by the existence of an independent, Lancashire-based, press. Dialect literature was never a pure, unadulterated 'voice of the people', and it was used both by middle and working class social forces to support rival value systems. An argument in dialect suggested a practical, common sense, wisdom, regardless of the actual message. Dialect poetry was used by different writers to support imperialist adventures, Irish home rule, left-wing socialism, and to oppose strikes, women's suffrage, and restrictions on access to the countryside. The literature represented divisions within the working class, as well as attempts from the middle class to influence it. Differing class and political standpoints were, on occasions, transcended by a wider regional consciousness in which dialect had a prominent place. Particular themes within dialect literature are explored, contributing to current debates on class, identity, and gender. The treatment of women, war and imperialism, work, and the 'Cotton Famine' of 1861-4 are examined in separate chapters. Selfcriticism, and defences of dialect writing, are looked at in Chapter 6 on "Defending Dialect".

This study attempts to analyse the process of translation and to explore its phases (Analysis, Transfer, Synthesis ) and its related aspects. Translation theory is usually addressed as if languages alone were at stake. In contrast to most studies on transaltion, this study is devoted to analysing the process of translation rather than to a comparative analysis of two languages. The study is set up on the basis of communication theory in general, and draws upon various linguistic theories and other language—related disciplines such as psycholinguistics, semiotics, etc. The basic suggestion posited is that translation should be viewed as a special case of communication process. Four models of the translation process are presented and discussed. All were found to be inadequate in representing the process as a whole (in its entirety). Thus, a more comprehensive representation of the process of translation which takes into consideration various factors is proposed. The representation proposed describes the process of translation as a complex network of operations based on linguistic and extralinguistic factors. It is argued that the main issue in translation theory should not be whether to translate literally or freely but how we can achieve an optimum translation which is the approach taken in this study. It is also hoped that this study may be of benefit to those interested in teaching translation and training would —be translators. It is also recognized that further research is required in the area of the mental processes involved in translation. The motivation for this study is the need felt for clarifying and describing the process of translation in order to improve the quality of translation and to design consequently an adequate syllabus for teaching translation.

Previous investigations have suggested that visual memory may involve short-term (STVM) and long-term (LTVM) components. Evidence for this comes from the functional differences between visual memory tested after short, unfilled retention intervals (STVM conditions), and performance measured after any interpolated task with a high mental load (LTVM conditions). The suggestion is that stimulus information is maintained over short, unfilled intervals by visualization, an active, voluntary control process utilizing central resources. Under LTVM conditions interference prevents active maintenance, and the item must be memorized. The aim of this thesis was to provide further evidence on the functional distinction, and the nature of the underlying processes. A number of experiments were conducted using novel matrix patterns as stimulus materials, and on-line control to allow precise manipulation of timing and other display parameters. The dissociation of STVM and LTVM was reflected in several results: STVM and LTVM (a) have different requirements for display time (b) differ in the consistency of performance over trials (c) they involve different coding processes at acquisition and (d) they show quite different relations between accuracy of performance and mean response time. In contrast to this, varying the exposure of a recognition test probe did not dissociate STVM and LTVM performance, and the provision of feedback and retrieval cues durin recall had no clearly interpretable effect. Visualization is a limited capacity process, insofar as it is restricted to one item or presentation at a time, and can maintain information up to a certain level of complexity. Visualized descriptions are constructed rapidly from short display times, and have general application to this class of novel visual patterns. With other evidence, this suggests that visualization is based on low-level 'figural' descriptions, specifying stimuli as a spatial arrangement of shapes formed by groupings of the pattern elements. LTVM performance increases slowly and irregularly with display time and there is a wide variation in performance over trials. Higher-level, 'semantic' descriptions contribute to memorization, and these cannot be applied rapidly and consistently to randomly generated abstract patterns. The results have widespread implications for theories of visual memory. Single-process theories which deny any distinction between short- and long-term memory are ruled out by the data. Other models which (a) consider STVM as an 'activated' part of LTVM or (b) claim the dichotomy arises from simple distinctions in coding or storage or retrieval do not give a complete account of the results. The 'modal' model is also rejected since prolonged visualization of an item after stimulus offset does not lead to an increase in LTVM. To account for this latter finding, it is proposed that visualization and: the elaborate encoding processes required for memorization compete for-central processing resources.

Atkinson and Shiffrin's (1968) dual-store model of memory includes a structural memory store along with control processes conceptualized as a rehearsal buffer. I present a variant of Atkinson and Shiffrin's buffer model within a global memory framework that accounts for findings previously thought to be difficult for it to explain. This model assumes a limited capacity buffer where information is stored about items, along with information about associations between items and between items and the context in which they are studied. The strength of association between items and context is limited by the number of items simultaneously occupying the buffer. New findings that directly test the buffer assumptions are presented, including serial position effects, and conditional and first recall probabilities in immediate and delayed free recall, in a continuous distractor paradigm, and in experiments using list length manipulations of single item and paired item study lists. Overall, the model's predictions are supported by the data from these experiments, suggesting that control processes, conceptualized as a rehearsal buffer, are a necessary component of memory models.