Much research into the Working Memory model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) has involved secondary task experiments, where secondary tasks of known requirements are performed concurrently with primary tasks of interest. The thesis has explored the use of Random Generation, a novel secondary task, in this paradigm. The task requires subjects to generate a string of items from a given response set, by calling out the items in as random a fashion as possible. Random generation tasks are held to make heavy demands on the Central Executive component of Working Memory (Baddeley, 1986 & 1990), and would seem to reflect the involvement of this component in dual-task studies. The work has addressed the experimental design, administration, and analysis of performance when random generation is used in secondary task experiments. Standard procedures were developed and used throughout, so that the inter-comparison of experiments was possible. Performance was measured by calculating redundancy indices (H_single, H_pairs, H₂, and Evans' RNG) from one-hundred responses. Random generation from a set of ten numbers (1 to 10) was chosen for further exploration and development. Random number generation proved to be sensitive to primary task loading in a variety of situations. The stability of some aspects of performance between experiments may be questionable, but the overall picture is encouraging. However, there is a clear need for basic research to support more detailed cognitive modelling of the task, before it can be used with confidence in the Working Memory dual-task paradigm.

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This thesis uses music as a means of investigating both typical and atypical perception of emotion and attribution of social intent. The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate this perception and attribution in indviduals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and compare this with typical adults and children. Chapter 1 comprises a literature review of music and emotion, and of music cognition in individuals with ASD. The first manuscript (Chapter 2) describes the development of a new method for investigating perception of emotion from musical performance. Using this method, we found that typical adults can reliably rate the emotional content of musical performances which vary in expressive parameters. In the second manuscript (Chapter 3), we used this method to examine the ability of adolescents with ASD to rate the emotional content of musical performance. We compared the group with ASD to a group of typically developing adolescents as well as a group of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). The results of this study showed that adolescents with ASD are impaired in this kind of emotional recognition relative to both comparison groups. Emotional recognition is an important aspect of everyday social interactions, both in understanding and predicting others' actions. Thus, in the third manuscript (Chapter 4), we examined the effect of musical soundtracks on attribution of social action and intent in ASD by adding music to an established visual task. [...] / Dans cette these, la musique est utili see pour investiguer la perceptiontypique et atypique des emotions ainsi que l' attribution d'intentions sociales.L' objectif premier est d' evaluer la perception des emotions et des intentionssociales chez des individus presentant un trouble du spectre autistique (TSA) enles comparant a des .adultes et des enfants dont le developpement est typique. Lepremier chapitre est consacre a une revue de la litterature portant sur la musiqueet les emotions ainsi que sur la cognition de la musique chez des individuspresentant un TSA. Le premier manuscrit (chapitre 2) porte sur le developpement d'une nouvelle methode permettant d'evaluer la perception desemotions associees a des performances musicales. [...]

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The aim of this essay is to explore the potential for an epistemology consistent with eliminative materialism based on work in connectionist modeling. / I present a review of the connectionist approach to psychological models that contrasts it with the classical symbolic approach, focusing on the nature of their respective representations. While defending the legitimacy of the connectionist approach, I find that its most useful application is as a basis for neuroscientific investigation. / Discussing connectionist psychology, I find it inconsistent with folk psychology and therefore consistent with eliminative materialism. I argue also for the naturalization of epistemology and thus for the relevance of psychology for epistemology. The conclusion of the essay is an outline of connectionist epistemology, which centres around two mathematical analyses of the global activity of connectionist networks; I argue that connectionist psychology leads to a version of epistemic pragmatism.

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Individuals with autism experience specific deficits in the area of executive function. A differentiated view of executive function was recently described by Metcalfe and Mishel, in which a distinction was made between hot, affective components and cold more purely cognitive, non-affective components. The "Hot/Cold" distinction of executive function was examined in a group of children with autism in relation to a group of typically developing children matched on verbal, pattern and Leiter mental ages. Two hot (Gamble and Delay of Gratification) and two cold tasks (DCCS and SOP) were administered. Children with autism successfully completed fewer trials of the SOP, irrespective of the matching variable, and experienced more difficulty switching rules on the DCCS in relation to typically developing children when matched on non-verbal and performance mental ages. No differences were found on the hot executive function tasks, except for the group matched on VMA. These findings underscore the importance of using multiple matching groups in the study of persons with autism, and provide evidence for cold rather than hot executive function deficits as a primary in autism.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves 81-83. / Microfiche. / viii, 83 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm