<p> Personal informatics (PI) technologies allow unprecedented opportunities to track and analyze complex data about ourselves. However, a concern is that these technologies can make normative assumptions about user goals and ideal outcomes. Such assumptions could be especially problematic for Affective PI, as there is a risk that technologies which reflect implicit goals for users be more positive or reduce stress could ironically decrease well-being (Mauss et al., 2011). Furthermore, users could actively avoid PI data if they feel unable to meet the demands of the system (Duval &amp; Wicklund, 1972), running counter to the view that users will engage data for beneficial insights (Kersten-van Dijk et al., 2017). We tested whether Affective PI systems that reflect goals for particular emotion outcomes (Improvement) have counterproductive effects for well-being and user engagement. These outcomes were contrasted against systems that instead reflect goals for Self-Knowledge, a top user interest (Hollis et al., 2018). Study 1 examined the effects of implicit goals in the context of an automatic stress detection and feedback system used during an exam. Participants viewed instructions that either describes the system goal as stress reduction (Improvement), stress reduction with a relaxation strategy (Self-Efficacy), accurate self-knowledge (Self-Knowledge), or saw no system goal (Control). Study 2 was a 21-day field study during which participants used a manual emotion-tracking web app that either emphasized a goal of increased positivity (Improvement), a goal of accurate self-knowledge (Self-Knowledge), or only completed pre-post surveys (Control). For each study, participants completed measures of well-being and engagement with the experimental systems. Across both studies, there were no significant condition differences in well-being. However, participants in the Self-Knowledge conditions of both studies considered themselves significantly more successful at achieving the system goals. As a result, Self-Knowledge participants were also more engaged with the stress- and emotion-tracking systems. Unlike prior work showing the ironic effects of emotional positivity goals, we show such negative impacts do not occur in this real-world context. We discuss these results with design implications for self-tracking systems and deepen the theoretical understandings of how users engage with PI.</p><p>

背景:人類的思維可以構思為一個由很多「結」(nodes) 互相連接而組成的認知網絡(cognitive network) 。這個認知網絡從兒時開始發展及建立。只有那些有較強聯繫關係的結才會一同起動，從而影響我們的反應。不同的心理病態相信有不同的認知網絡。本研究旨在探索不同的心理病患的認知網絡，包括焦慮、抑鬱及具攻擊性。 / 研究方法:是項研究分為兩個階段，數據分別從臨床病患及社區人士中收集。第一階段旨在使用自由聯想法(Free association technique) 探究不同組別對焦慮、抑鬱及其攻擊性的觀念。數據由三個個別組別，包括83 個抑鬱症病患、139 焦慮症病患、43 個具攻擊性人士，及相對的105 、102 和110 個社區人士中集得。收集到的短句、詞語或描述會被整理及排序。在第二階段中，資料從另外108、106及102個臨床病患和相對的114、102及101 個社區人士三個個別組別中收集。他們需要評估在第一個階段中制定的認知觀念量表。獲得的數據會透過SPSS 的多元尺度法(Multidimensional Scaling) 進行分析，從而了解不同的認知網絡。 / 結果:得到抑鬱、焦慮、及具攻擊性的三幅認知網絡的圖像。進一步的分析顯示抑鬱症患者的認知網絡傾向聯繫抑鬱反應，但卻較少聯繫到正面的應對方式。相反，對照組則較偏向把抑鬱和正面的應對方式聯繫在一起。焦慮、症患者較容易聯想到一些長期、不間斷的社會心理壓力，例如跟家庭有關的問題和工作。不過，對照組則傾向把焦慮、聯繫到一些偶發性的不利事情，例如交通意外和死亡。具攻擊性的人較常想及有關個人不公平的情況，例如低薪及長工作時間，但對照組較多聯想到不公平的社會狀況，例如商業社會。 / 結論:研究資料顯示抑鬱、焦慮和具攻擊性的認知網絡可以透過自由聯想法和多元尺度的分析方法識別出來。研究發現臨床病患跟社區成人在認知網絡上有不同的聯繫模式。是項研究的其中一個重要貢獻是制定了跟抑鬱、焦慮及具攻擊性三份認知觀念量表，可用作衡量及比較抑鬱、焦慮及具攻擊性的認知網絡的工具。 / Background: Our mind can be conceptualized as a cognitive network depicting as a string of inter-linked nodes which developed since childhood from daily experiences. Only nodes which share stronger association strengths are expected to co-activate to guide our reactions. Different cognitive networks are believed operating in different psychopathological states. This study sought to explore the cognitive networks of different psychopathology, namely, anxiety, depression, and aggression. / Method: The study composed of two stages and data was collected from clinical patients and community adults. The first stage aimed at construct generation (i.e., to explore the nodes) of depression, anxiety, and aggression using the technique of free association. Three separate groups of 83 depressed patients, 139 anxiety patients, and 43 aggressive individuals, and three corresponding community controls of 105, 102, and 110 were recruited. The obtained phrases, words, or descriptors were tabulated and rank ordered. In Phase 2, another three disordered groups of 108, 106, and 102 individuals and three corresponding community controls of 114, 102, and 101 were asked to rate on the construct lists generated in Phase 1. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis using SPSS was employed to empirically model the networks. / Results: Three separate visual maps of anxiety, depression, and aggression were obtained. Further analyses showed that depressed patients acquire a cognitive network involving mainly depressive responses. Yet, they are not so likely to activate positive coping in their cognitive network. On the other hand, normal controls tend to associate depression with positive coping. Anxiety patients more likely associate anxiety with psychosocial stressors like family and work which is considered to be unremitting whereas community controls more likely relate anxiety with adverse life events such as traffic accidents and death which are sporadic. Aggressive individuals more likely to think of unfairness relating to personal injustice and inequality such as low wages and long working hours while the normal controls more likely associate aggression with unfairness related to broad societal concerns and injustice such as commerce. / Conclusion: Findings show that cognitive networks of depression, anxiety, and aggression can be successfully identified by using the technique of free association and MDS. Clinical patients have different association patterns than the community controls. An important contribution of this study is to generate three construct lists which contain cognitive constructs on depression, anxiety, and aggression, and to evaluate and compare the cognitive networks of different psychopathology. Implications of the findings were discussed. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Wong, Mei Ting. / "December 2011." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-200). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese; some appendixes also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.v / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.ix / LIST OF TABLES --- p.xii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.xiv / CHAPTER / Chapter I --- COGNITIVE MODEL OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY --- p.1 / Introduction --- p.1 / The Cognitive Model --- p.3 / Schema-focused Therapy --- p.11 / Schema and Psychopathology --- p.13 / Origins and Development of Schemas --- p.19 / Schema Activation --- p.25 / Summary --- p.26 / Chapter II --- NETWORY THEORY OF AFFECT --- p.27 / Network Theory --- p.27 / Network Theory of Affect --- p.30 / Research Related to the Network Theory of Affect --- p.34 / Summary --- p.43 / Chapter III --- EXPECTANCY AND BEHAVIOR --- p.45 / Expectancy --- p.45 / Alcohol Expectancy Memory Network --- p.47 / Conclusion --- p.52 / Chapter IV --- RESEARCH QUESTIONS --- p.53 / Research Questions and Objectives --- p.56 / Chapter V --- METHODS --- p.61 / The Present Study --- p.62 / Design --- p.62 / Participants --- p.64 / Instruments --- p.66 / Data Analysis --- p.83 / Pilot Study --- p.85 / Chapter VI --- RESULTS --- p.86 / Descriptive Statistics --- p.86 / Psychometric Properties of the Assessment Instruments --- p.94 / Refinement of Constructs Lists Generated in Phase One --- p.99 / Demographic Variables --- p.114 / Multidimensional Scaling --- p.121 / Chances of Co-activation between ConstructslNodes --- p.132 / Comparisons between Clinical and Community Groups --- p.140 / Chapter VII --- DISCUSSION --- p.159 / CognitiveNetwork of Different Psychopathology --- p.160 / Differences in Cognitive Networks between Clinical and Community Groups Free Association --- p.172 / Limitation of the Study and Future Direction --- p.174 / REFERENCES --- p.178 / APPENDICES A --- p.201 / APPENDICES B --- p.207 / APPENDICES C --- p.208

<p> Existing evidence has shown that symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, ADHD, and low self-esteem are each associated with an inability to successfully complete tasks involving executive function and self-regulation. One hypothesis is that this cognitive dysfunction, often related to set-shifting and inhibition, may be connected to rumination. The purpose of our study was to determine whether the difficulties with attentional tasks that are associated with rumination are primarily due to limitations in resource allocation or to difficulties with processing affective content. We also wanted to explore the potential connections between rumination and other psychopathologies; therefore, participants completed questionnaires related to depression, anxiety, stress, ADHD, low self-esteem, and ruminative tendencies and were categorized for purposes of data analysis as having either high or low symptomatology. Participants were then given one three thought inductions followed by an affective shift task where they were asked to shift between responding to positive and negative stimuli either in the form of emotional nouns or personally-relevant adjectives. The results of six mixed-design ANOVAs for reaction times, errors, and omissions (three associated with responses to emotional nouns and three associated with responses to personally-relevant adjectives) conducted both with and without the between subjects&rsquo; variable of psychopathology revealed that the difficulties in set-shifting and inhibition often associated with rumination are likely due to difficulties with processing affective content. Clinical treatments that are likely to be effective for individuals experiencing ruminative thought should encourage mindful processing of such thoughts. By instilling a habitual pattern of thinking that is less self-critical, attentional biases for negative stimuli can become diminished and more task-relevant, positive stimuli can be attended to.</p><p>

<p> As eye-tracking become ubiquitous, the chance of systems using eye-gaze control interfaces increases. However, there is a lack of research explaining eye-gaze control&rsquo;s effect on user perception. Eye-gaze control may alter how users visually perceive their environment. Eye-gaze control may require movements that disrupt normal visual attending. Eye-gaze control may also alter visual attention by decreasing the likelihood of visual detection. This means eye-gaze control used in complex settings (i.e. driving, aviation, etc.) could increase potential harm to users and others. Therefore, it is important to identify potential changes to a user&rsquo;s perception. The current study was composed of two experiments examining costs to visual attention. A total of 48 CSULB students participated (24 each experiment). Participants tracked a cursor on a screen or controlled the cursor with mouse or eye-gaze control. Concurrently they responded to stimuli appearing in either peripheral or central visual areas. Responses and reaction times (RT) were gathered. The results suggest eye-gaze control disrupts visual attention and increases attentional load and inattentional blindness. Eye-gaze control had the most missed stimuli and slowest reaction times for peripheral and central targets. This study suggests effects of eye-gaze control on visual perception should be considered in system design and eye-gaze control should be limited to non-critical tasks where users won&rsquo;t be harmed if they miss an event.</p><p>

<p> The transmission of the gospel relies heavily on the continuous and faithful proclamation of the gospel and on the positive response of the hearers to enter a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Preaching serves as a primary means by which the gospel of Jesus moves forward. While the bulk of gospel proclamation is one-way communication, the ultimate result focuses on moving the hearer to accept the gospel message. This could take place in large rallies, small gatherings, or in one-on-one conversations. </p><p> This project examines the possibility of increased receptivity to the gospel by connecting with a spiritual coach to assist a person on his or her journey to understanding and positively responding to the gospel. It also pursues the biblical precedent of incorporating questions into the spiritual seekers&rsquo; discovery process. This project sees the message of salvation as something the person must uncover, discover, understand, and then respond to. Coupling a spiritual seeker with a spiritual life coach can help guide the seeker to pursue and positively respond to Christ. </p><p> Four Christians and three non-Christians participated in six, one-on-one coaching sessions with me. The knowledge and awareness of their spiritual life was tracked and assessed. The goal was to test and measure how the coaching approach enabled the spiritual seeker to grow in understanding, accepting and advancing the gospel.</p><p>

The focus of this study was an investigation of the effects of embodied animation on the retention outcomes of Chinese character learning (CCL) for beginning learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL). Chinese characters have three main features: semantic meaning, pronunciation, and written form. Chinese characters are different from English words in that they are non-alphabetic orthographies. Though popular, they are deemed very hard to learn. However, Chinese character processing is found to be neurologically related to human body movements, or at least the imagination of them. Literature also indicated the importance of embodied cognition, imagination, and technology use in human language memory and learning. The design of embodied animation for a computer-based CCL program is developed which consists of three types of characters. The study used Between-Subject Post-test Only Control Group experimental design with sixty-nine adults. The study compared five learning conditions: embodied animation learning (EAL), human-image animation learning (HAL), object-image animation learning, no-animation etymology learning, and traditional learning (serving as a control group). Participants in the EAL group perceived the character etymological animation, and then a video clip depicting the moving actions of human body movements and/or gestures which show the semantic meaning and the written form of the character. The study found that the EAL group outperformed the other learning groups with medium to large effects. Specifically, after one week of learning, the EAL group outperformed the other groups in terms of learners' free recall of Chinese characters, in characters' meaning-form mappings, and in characters' form-meaning and-sound mappings. Furthermore, the EAL group performed better than the other groups in the retention of all three types of characters (i.e., pictograph, indicative, and ideograph). Therefore, findings revealed the positive effects of embodied animation on CCL. In addition, the HAL group showed promising retention rate by constantly performing the second best in all tasks. The study also revealed that pictographs and indicatives were better learned than ideographs across groups. Drawing from the study, the use of embodied animation in a computer-based program is suggested to be effective on character learning for beginning learners of CFL.

This dissertation argues for a teleological theory of representations on the grounds that it provides a better account of explanation in psychology and cognitive science than its main competitor, non-teleological functionalism. Grounds for evaluating competing models of explanation are presented and several recent accounts of psychological explanation are analyzed and evaluated. An inclusive model, which incorporates both teleological and non-teleological features, is developed.

Gesture researchers have focused on how gestures benefit learning. For example, data have shown that the usage of gestures during conversation can enhance concept acquisition and language learning in children. An instructor's gestures also benefit students' learning. For example, by providing gestures that contain semantic value, students remember more and attain deeper understanding of a concept. However, few studies have attempted to find out the function of gestures in learning: how information in a speaker's gestures is represented and constructed in a listener's mind. The present study targets learning of STEM concepts, especially the structure and the behavior of complex systems. It was expected that certain gestures prime a specific type of knowledge. For example, iconic gestures with structure knowledge of a concept facilitate learning of structures of a given concept and action gestures facilitate learning of movements, especially causal relation of the concept. This study also explored the relation between gestures delivered by a speaker and gestures constructed by a listener; in particular, if provided gestures contribute to constructing and representing a listener's knowledge and how it is manifested by learners' explanations. Participants were randomly assigned to either an action gesture group that watched an instructional video based on action gestures, or to a structure gesture group that watched an instructional video based on structure gestures. The instructional video was about how a four stroke engine works. Except for a type of gestures that a speaker used, both videos were identical in all conditions. Participants were told that after watching the video they would explain a concept in the video to a colleague coming later, therefore a video camera would record their explanation, and the colleague would learn the concept from watching the video that they created. The participants watched the instructional video, and then they were asked to answer questions that were created based on a speaker's verbal script. This was followed by a drawing test, which asked them to draw how a four stroke engine works based on the video that they watched. Findings showed that action gestures facilitated action knowledge of the concept and were more involved in creating a mental representation of the concept based on action. Also, the structure group represented the concept based on structure. The findings were confirmed by analyzing the participants' gestures and speech showing that the action group used more action gestures and action information units in their explanation and the structure group delivered reliably more structure gestures and structure information units. It was assumed that the mental model of the concept that the action group was harboring was based on action and the structure group was harboring was based on structure of the concept. The knowledge representations that the participants showed corresponded to the type of knowledge within the speaker's gestures in the instructional video that they watched. The results imply that listeners' knowledge is grounded in a speaker's gestures and this relationship depends on gesture type. More specifically, information in gestures is processed and becomes listeners' knowledge based on an attribute that the speaker's gesture has, and speech and gesture work together to manifest this phenomenon.

This research investigated if diagrams aid in deductive reasoning with formal causal models. Four studies were conducted exploring participants' ability to discover causal paths, identify causes and effects, and create alternative explanations for variable relationships. In Study 1, abstract variables of the causal model were compared to contextually grounded variables and causal models presented as text or diagrams were compared. Participants given abstract diagrams did better in most tasks than participants in the other conditions, who all did similarly. Studies 2 and 3 compared causal models expressed in text to diagrammed causal models, and compared models using arrows to models using words when connecting variables. Participants who had arrowheads replaced with words made more errors than participants in other diagram conditions. Diagrammed causal models led to better performance than did other conditions, and there was no difference between different text models. Studies 4 and 5 tested the hypothesis that predictive reasoning (from cause to effect) is easier than diagnostic reasoning (from effect to cause). The two studies did not find any such effect

The obesity epidemic is imposing enormous costs on individuals and on developed and developing societies. Ultimately, obesity arises from a sustained imbalance in the energy balance equation from either excessive energy consumption or significantly reduced activity. Here we report on findings from two fRMI studies, each of which examines one side of the energy balance equation. In our first study, the Passive Viewing of Foods, we examined the effects of acute exercise on self-report measures of appetite suppression and on neural activity resulting when normal BMI subjects viewed blocks of high calorie or low calorie food cues. We found that acute exercise suppressed self-reported appetite and reduced the activation of two key brain areas relative to appetite regulation: the dorsal anterior cingulate (dorsal ACC), a frontal attention processing area, and the nucleus accumbens, a central reward processing area. Moreover, we conducted functional connectivity analysis to examine other areas of the brain that were positively or negatively correlated with these two areas when viewing high calorie food cues following exercise. The functional network identified was broadly distributed and included increased coupling with the putamen, insula, operculae, inferior frontal gyrus, and superior parietal lobule and decreased coupling with the amygdala and orbital frontal cortex, among other areas. We believe this is the first study of exercise induced appetite suppression that used whole brain analysis and functional connectivity to show both absolute reductions of activity in the dorsal ACC and nucleus accumbens as well as a distributed functional network with differential coupling and de-coupling. These findings help identify a functional network that mediates appetite suppression as a result of acute exercise. In our second study, the Categorical Food Stroop, we deploy a novel Stroop-like paradigm that used the same high and low calorie food cue exemplars to examine the effects of the food cues on cognitive interference and the cognitive control effect of conflict adaptation. In the study, subjects categorized the high and low calorie food cue word targets, which were overlain on veridical images of the same food cue exemplars. Relative to interference, we observed that normal BMI subjects took 18 ms longer to categorize high calorie words overlain on low calorie images (high calorie incongruent trial) than they did to categorize low calorie words on high calorie distractors (low calorie incongruent trial). Relative to conflict adaptation, a measure of cognitive control over response inhibition when there are conflicting response options, we observed a significant overall effect of conflict adaptation but then showed that only one calorie characteristic (high calorie incongruent trials following high calorie incongruent trials, HH trials) was significantly contributing to the overall conflict adaptation. To our knowledge, this was the first categorical food Stroop and the first study to identify the role of caloric characteristic in modulating cognitive control relative to response selection in food-related decisions. Our neural observations showed that the increased interference in incongruent trials is associated with activation in the supramarginal gyrus, superior parietal lobule and the superior lateral occipital cortex. The high cognitive control HH trials compared to the low cognitive control trials activated the parahippocampal gyrus, the right amygdala, the orbital frontal cortex, the superior parietal lobule, the angular gyrus, and temporal-occipital gyrus. The parahippocampal gyrus and superior parietal lobule were used as seeds in functional connectivity analysis and revealed a high degree of overlap in their distributed functional networks mediating high cognitive control trials. The findings shed new light on both the high calorie stimulus specificity of cognitive control in normal subjects and the distributed functional network that mediates the effects of the cognitive control in food related decisions.