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Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title from title page (viewed Apr. 23, 2007) Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-52).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Psychology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: B, page: 0570. Adviser: James Townsend. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 22, 2007)."

Attention is a vital component of everyday functioning, and deficits in attention feature in many psychological disorders. Improved understanding of attention may eventually be critical to early identification and treatment of attentional deficits. One step in that direction is to acquire a better understanding of genetic associations with performance on a measure of reflexive visual attention. We have previously studied the relationship between selected genes and mean RT. This thesis reports on a new analysis of the same data which were used to examine mean differences but now examines the contributions of genetic markers to RT variability. I consider the relationship between mean RT and RT variability and account for other potential predictors of RT variability such as age, ethnicity, and sleepiness. I ask, after accounting for other reasons that RT variability might be increased in some subjects, does increased RT variability depend also on genotype?

The HAVA (Help America Vote Act) mandated that all polling places provide privacy and independence to voters. DREs (Direct-Recording Electronic voting systems) have been assumed to be the solution to providing accessible voting, but there is reason to believe extant systems do not adequately serve this goal (Runyan, 2007). Study 1, a mock election, is a first step in addressing the lack of existing data on the usability of accessible voting methods. In comparison with sighted users, blind users took five times longer to vote. Both populations showed similar error rates and types, and reported similarly high satisfaction with the usability of paper ballots. Study 2, a survey, provides the opinions and recommendations of 202 legally blind voters. Data-based recommendations for auditory modes of voting systems include adjustable speed and volume, using male text-to-speech synthesized voices, and allowing for flexible navigation. This research provides a comparison point and guidelines for future studies of accessibility solutions.

The effects of instruction in self-questioning skills on comprehension of expository text and on ideas and content and organization traits in writing were explored. The expository reading and writing performance of 19 second grade students in an urban, low SES elementary school receiving instruction in a questioning strategy was compared with a stratified sampling of students from other classrooms in the same school. Pre and post assessments include a graphic organizer to record topic, main idea, and supporting details when reading an article and writing samples scored using the 6 trait analytical rating guide. Students using the strategy made significant progress in reading comprehension of expository text and the ability to use the trait of ideas and content in their writing. However, the positive effect of self-questioning on the use of the ability to use organization in their writing was not supported. / by Jo A. Dunlap. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 24-26). / "May 2006."

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the contribution of episodic memory processes supported by the medial temporal lobes (MTL) to two goal-oriented non-episodic tasks, problem solving and semantic retrieval (verbal fluency). The reported experiments provide evidence for the hypothesis that MTL-based episodic processes are robustly involved in completing non-episodic tasks that are open-ended in that no algorithm or procedure can be applied to obtain task-relevant information. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were administered the Means-End-Problem-Solving (MEPS) task, an open-ended test of social problem solving. People with impaired episodic memory associated with MTL damage or deterioration, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions (TLE) and older adults, performed worse than matched controls at solving such problems. Importantly, the participants’ performance on the MEPS as judged by the number of relevant solution steps generated correlated with the number of internal (episodically-relevant) but not external (semantically-relevant) details provided in the solutions. Thus, information derived from episodic memory benefited performance on the MEPS. Experiments 3 and 4 were conducted to ascertain whether open-endedness and episodic relevance are determinants of MTL contributions to performance on tests of verbal fluency, which traditionally are considered the domain of semantic memory. Using fMRI, Experiment 3 tracked the time course of MTL activation as participants performed a fluency task for categories that ranged in episodic relevance. The MTLs were more active throughout for categories that depended on autobiographical memories, not active for categories that were not episodically relevant, and active for episodic/spatial categories only later in the time course as the task moved from being well-defined to open-ended. The necessary involvement of the MTL in these tasks was confirmed by the pattern of spared and impaired performance of patients with TLE on category fluency tasks (Experiment 4). Together, these findings are consistent with the view that MTL-based processes are involved in tasks beyond those that test episodic memory. Furthermore, these studies suggest that performance on non-episodic tasks recruits the MTL most robustly when a task is open-ended.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the contribution of episodic memory processes supported by the medial temporal lobes (MTL) to two goal-oriented non-episodic tasks, problem solving and semantic retrieval (verbal fluency). The reported experiments provide evidence for the hypothesis that MTL-based episodic processes are robustly involved in completing non-episodic tasks that are open-ended in that no algorithm or procedure can be applied to obtain task-relevant information. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were administered the Means-End-Problem-Solving (MEPS) task, an open-ended test of social problem solving. People with impaired episodic memory associated with MTL damage or deterioration, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions (TLE) and older adults, performed worse than matched controls at solving such problems. Importantly, the participants’ performance on the MEPS as judged by the number of relevant solution steps generated correlated with the number of internal (episodically-relevant) but not external (semantically-relevant) details provided in the solutions. Thus, information derived from episodic memory benefited performance on the MEPS. Experiments 3 and 4 were conducted to ascertain whether open-endedness and episodic relevance are determinants of MTL contributions to performance on tests of verbal fluency, which traditionally are considered the domain of semantic memory. Using fMRI, Experiment 3 tracked the time course of MTL activation as participants performed a fluency task for categories that ranged in episodic relevance. The MTLs were more active throughout for categories that depended on autobiographical memories, not active for categories that were not episodically relevant, and active for episodic/spatial categories only later in the time course as the task moved from being well-defined to open-ended. The necessary involvement of the MTL in these tasks was confirmed by the pattern of spared and impaired performance of patients with TLE on category fluency tasks (Experiment 4). Together, these findings are consistent with the view that MTL-based processes are involved in tasks beyond those that test episodic memory. Furthermore, these studies suggest that performance on non-episodic tasks recruits the MTL most robustly when a task is open-ended.