Visual cognition is notoriously limited: only a finite amount of information can be fully processed at a given instant. What is the source of these limitations? Here, we suggest that the organization of higher-level visual cortex into content-specific channels constrains information processing across the visual system. Each channel is primarily involved in representing one particular type of visual content (e.g. faces, cars, certain types of shapes, etc.). Furthermore, each channel has a finite processing capacity/bandwidth and is limited in the amount of information it can process. When multiple items are simultaneously presented across space, or quickly in time, the extent to which those items activate overlapping channels will constrain the amount of information that can be successfully processed. To examine this, we used brain/behavior correlations in which we directly compared behavioral performance on a perceptual task with the amount of overlap amongst the neural channels used to support the items from the behavioral task. In Chapter 1, we found that the amount of information that could be encoded on a change detection task was correlated with the amount of channel overlap within occipitotemporal cortex, but not early visual regions such as V1-V3. In Chapter 2, we extend this finding by showing that the amount of information that could reach visual awareness in a masking paradigm was also predicted by overlap amongst occipitotemporal, as well as occipitoparietal channels, but once again not in V1-V3. Finally, in Chapter 3, we sought to identify which particular channels were the most behaviorally relevant and found that virtually any part of higher-level visual cortex (e.g. across occipitotemporal cortex, within category selective regions, within the least active voxels, amongst a random sample of voxels, etc.) was significantly correlated with behavioral performance. Together, these results suggest that visual cognition is limited by a set of neural channels that extend across the majority of higher-level visual cortex. These findings have direct implications on many prominent models of visual cognition, specifically those focused on perceptual limitations, and help clarify the large-scale representational structure in higher-level visual cortex. / Psychology

<p> As part of the National Common Core Curriculum, critical thinking skills are expected to be taught by teachers in every subject and at every grade level. Teachers will also be evaluated on teaching critical thinking skills to students to a mastery level as part of the educators' annual evaluations. However, there is not a common definition for critical thinking established by the National Governors Association for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. Nor is there equitable training on how to teach critical thinking skills to students to mastery level. The following qualitative case study consists of survey question, interviews, and observations of one English department in a rural county to determine the answer to the overarching research question, "What do teachers know about critical thinking?" Paul and Elder's Critical Thinking Model (2007) was used as benchmark to determine what knowledge and what gaps were present amongst the teachers. Teachers defined critical thinking individually, determined what activities encouraged good critical thinking practices, discussed obstacles that deterred the teaching of critical thinking skills in the classroom, and suggested how to prepare teachers to better teach critical thinking skills to meet national expectations. Although the definitions and activities often varied between educators, all agreed that a common definition was necessary. Lack of time and lack of training were the biggest obstacles perceived by the participants.</p>

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<p> The Chamorros of Guam have experienced colonially-influenced change on spatial and temporal scales for nearly four-hundred and fifty years. They are continuously redefining their identity with respect to these changes, and within the power related discourses of colonialism. The adoption of a colonial understanding of "tradition" has alienated Chamorro from their perception of indigenous identity. A difference between a contemporary "livelihood" and a more traditional "way of life" is apparent, also considered to be a conflict between how a Chamorro "must" behave versus how a Chamorro "ought" to behave to maintain an indigenous identity. Lack of agency, the rise of individualism, and the institutionalization of Chamorro culture have compartmentalized Chamorro identity, and forced contemporary Chamorro to abandon that which is "traditional" in order to engage with a modern world. </p><p> This thesis explores these phenomena through a mixed-methods lens, employing participant observation, semi-structured, qualitative interviews, and surveys to explore the domains in which Chamorro draw meaning and personal and cultural identity. The village of Umatac, on the southern-end of Guam, is used as a study population, as the issue of identity formation and remaking is explored through the theoretical perspectives of cognitive anthropology, discursive formation, and place attachment.</p>

<p> Within pages and spreads, a reader can sometimes experience someone&rsquo;s stream of consciousness. The book&rsquo;s narrative, images, prose, and other components can break free from the parameters of a conventional book, unbound by the rules of formatting styles, grammar, and narrative. An artists&rsquo; book is free to be confusing, delightful, and horrifying. When creating an artists&rsquo; book to represent a dream, the difficulty of solidly recounting images and events that existed only in my mind creates a barrier between the reader and me. This barrier makes me feel inarticulate and ineffectual in that one of my main objectives as an artist is to coherently express an idea. While no medium possesses the capacity to fully transmit a dream, the artists&rsquo; book is one of the most comprehensive, artistic representations of a dream, and the parallels between experiencing a dream and experiencing a book allow for the terms &ldquo;artist&rdquo; and &ldquo;dreamer&rdquo; to shift interchangeably. </p>

This thesis defends the claim that the principle of methodological solipsism can play no role in the formation of the theories of cognitive psychology. Corresponding to this negative claim, but assuming a comparatively minor role, will be the positive claim that a scientific psychology ought to deal in explanations which relate mental states in virtue of their semantic contents. The basis of the case against methodological solipsism is the claim that the explanatory properties invoked by this principle are indivlduation dependent on properties of semantic content. In Chapter I the idea of methodological solipsism will be discussed, and two forms distinguished. One of the versions of methodological solipsism identified invokes the explanatory notion of the narrow content of a mental state. The other version invokes the notion of formal or syntactic properties possessed by mental states. In both cases it will be argued that these properties can be identified only by way of the semantic contents of their associated mental states. The notion of narrow content will be discussed in Chapter II. The case against that version of methodological solipsism which invokes syntactic properties will be constructed in Chapters III-V. The latter argument constitutes the bulk of the thesis, and derives from considerations centred around the principles of anomalism, supervenience, and the relation between them. These arguments are intended to be of independent interest as solutions to certain persistent problems in the philosophy of mind.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1997. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-02, Section: B, page: 0999. Adviser: Anita L. Greene.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2000. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-01, Section: B, page: 0554. Chair: William Nasby.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2000. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-03, Section: B, page: 1667. Chair: Cynthia Rosengard.