This research investigates the import and utility of computational complexity theory in cognitive psychology. A common conception in cognitive psychology is that a cognitive system is to be understood in terms of the function that it computes. The recognition that cognitive systems-being physical systems-are limited in space and time has led to the Tractable Cognition thesis: only tractably computable functions describe cognitive systems. This dissertation considers two possible formalizations of the Tractable Cognition thesis. The first, called the P-Cognition thesis, defines tractability as polynomial-time computability and is the dominant view in cognitive science today. The second, called the FPT-Cognition thesis, is proposed by the author and defines tractability as fixed-parameter tractability for some “small” input parameters. The FPT-Cognition thesis is shown to provide a useful relaxation of the P-Cognition thesis. To illustrate how the FPT-Cognition thesis can be put into practice, a set of simple but powerful tools for complexity analyses is introduced. These tools are then used to analyze the complexity of existing cognitive theories in the domains of coherence reasoning, subset choice, binary-cue prediction and visual matching. Using psychologically motivated examples, a sufficiently diverse set of functions, and simple proof techniques, this manuscript aims to make the theory of classical and parameterized complexity tangible for cognitive psychologists. With the tools of complexity theory in hand a cognitive psychologist can study the a priori feasibility of cognitive theories and discover interesting and potentially useful cognitive parameters. Possible criticisms of the Tractable Cognition thesis are discussed and existing misconceptions are clarified. / Graduate

<p>A longstanding folk belief suggests that ?busy? people possess the ability to get more done than others. Busyness, defined as the demands of everyday life, has been shown to generate cognitive load, which has been called ?cognitive busyness.? Although most cognitive theory would deny the possibility that cognitive load may enhance performance, some recent research may support the possibility. Cowan's 1988 information-processing model was used to study how measures of everyday busyness correlated with performance on cognitive tasks. The research question addressed whether any combination of such measures, in combination with working memory, could predict performance on such tasks. 92 participants, paid workers with Amazon Mechanical Turk, engaged in an online process, starting with completion of a validated self-report instrument to measure busyness. They then participated in 2 activities, structured as games and designed to measure working memory and cognitive performance. Multiple regressions, linear and nonlinear, were used to identify significant predictors of performance. Results of the analyses did not reveal any evidence for significant relationships between the variables. Additionally, ?volitional busyness? did not appear to enhance, or even affect, performance on a planning task. Further research exploring the effect of these variables on a working memory-based task may be worthwhile, if only to confirm the present findings. This project might benefit linguists tracking semantic change, showing how a term may adopt an entirely different meaning and suggesting further refinement in identifying such shifts over the years; psychologists exploring cognitive load and its effects; and social psychologists interested in making corrections to popular perceptions of the value of tradition gender-associated tasks.

<p> Software development is a multidisciplinary collaboration involving many stakeholders. However, existing software development processes exhibit many issues related to that collaboration. Because prior research on stakeholder analysis and teamwork revealed the importance of communication, this study analyzed stakeholder communication with reference to team activities as a social and cognitive process. The study&rsquo;s goal was to understand the collaboration process during software development and to delineate factors that influence this process. We focused on communication between the software developers and their clients during the requirements gathering phase, the team process, and the inter-team and interdisciplinary collaboration, in particular between software engineers and technical communicators. First, we conducted observations to help uncover the causes of variances in collaboration performance. Then we modified aspects of the collaboration process and compared team performance. We also performed an experimental study to further test the supporting effect of clients&rsquo; documents on requirement gathering. Finally, teams&rsquo; working structures and their impact on team performance were investigated using social network analysis. Among our findings was that clients are critical to the success of software development. Providing teams with documents that support requirement gathering facilitates team efficiency, but there is a trade-off in that team members may generate fewer creative ideas. Another finding was that software teams should ensure that members from all disciplines actively participate in projects. Finally, although teams need leadership, effective leadership is not a strong team member performing all coordination and tasks. A moderately centralized team structure is preferred.</p>

<p>Computer-based cognitive training (CBCT) is receiving increased consideration in the treatment of Alzheimer?s disease (AD) as it has shown to ameliorate the progression of cognitive decline. A meta-analytic review of 17 studies with 494 participants was analyzed to examine the efficacy of CBCT interventions on delaying cognitive decline in participants with early stage AD. Studies were included if the participants had early stage AD or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI); used a CBCT program; had a control condition present; the study targeted a delay in cognitive decline in cognitive functioning; and enough information was included in the study to calculate an effect size. The common effect size used in the review was Cohen?s d index. Results of the analysis showed a small effect size on delaying cognitive decline in participants with early stage AD or MCI. Overall, the findings of the review suggest that CBCT is an effective intervention that may delay cognitive decline in participants with early stage AD or MCI.

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<p>Previous research suggests that people employ priority-related task attributes (e.g., task importance, task length, and task deadline) in prioritization. The process of prioritization employs heuristics to determine task order (Zhang & Feyen, 2007a). These models only address the prioritization process at a task level and do not address the cognitive mechanisms underlying prioritization. Building on previous findings, a process model of prioritization is proposed to explain prioritization during multitasking. Two experiments examined three cognitive processes of prioritization and the influence of time pressure. Three processes were investigated: 1) a process makes magnitude comparisons on priority-related information, 2) a process integrates multiple pieces of information and checks for potential conflicts among information, and 3) a process solves conflicts among priority-related information during prioritization. Under the influence of time pressure, it is hypothesized that people will adopt strategies that require fewer cognitive resources compared to situations where no time pressure exists. A series of task conditions with various configurations of priority-related task attributes was used to illuminate these processes and hypothesis. Hierarchical regression analyses provided evidence for the three cognitive components and suggested that these cognitive components played different roles under time pressure compared to performance under no time pressure. Three fundamental cognitive processes were identified in prioritization and provide implications for personnel selection and training for jobs demanding prioritization and multitasking in the real world.

<p> The situated approach to situation awareness (SA) claims that operators use tools and displays to store information that cannot be held in working memory when they are performing complex and dynamic tasks. Based on this approach, operators store general and high priority information internally and offload specific and low priority information to the environment. High levels of workload can lead to a reduction in working memory capacity and can increase levels of stress. As a result, workload is likely to affect how an operator stores information. The current study tests the situated approach to SA and its assumptions by examining eye fixations during the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) for measuring situation awareness and examines how a shift in workload affects situation awareness and offloading behavior. Results found support for the situated approach to SA such that participants took longer to answer probe queries, made more glances toward the radar scope, and had longer eye glance latencies when answering specific questions than general questions, indicating that they offloaded specific information to the environment. Furthermore, results indicated that workload lead to a change in strategy such that participants took longer to answer probe queries, made more glances toward the radar scope, and had longer eye glance latencies when under high workload conditions. Therefore, higher workload leads an operator to offload information to the environment. </p>

Many researchers have attempted to replicate different embodied language processing effects, with varying degrees of success. We wanted to know what, if any, individual differences might account for the observed variance for these embodied effects. Using the Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) paradigm from Sell and Kascahk (2012) as our dependent measure, individual differences measures of personality (Big Five Personality Traits, Morizot, 2014) and cognitive abilities (Need for Cognition – Short Form, Cacippo, Petty, and Kao, 1984; Modified Metacomprehension Scale, Mcginnis, Saunders, and Berns, 2007) were first correlated, and then investigated through linear mixed models regression. In both experiments presented, the dependent measure failed to replicate. However, in Experiment 2, we were able to explain the observed variance through a model building approach. From the personality measures, conscientiousness was found to interact with part of the ACE measure. Of the cognitive measures, Need for Cognition was found to significantly interact with the ACE measures, while regulation from the Modified Metacomprehension Scale and conscientiousness from the Big Five interacted with part of the ACE measures. A discussion about the findings follows the presented work. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2015. / September 15, 2015. / Embodiment, Individual Differences / Includes bibliographical references. / Walter Boot, Committee Member; Arielle Borovsky, Committee Member.

Finger gnosis, the ability to mentally represent one’s fingers, has been shown to predict mathematical ability in children. More recently, researchers have shown that this relation holds for college students as well. In the current study, I sought to replicate and extend the finding that finger gnosis is a predictor of mathematic ability in young adults. To replicate these findings, the relation was assessed utilizing a simple math task that assessed calculation fluency. I attempted to extend past research by also assessing the relation between finger gnosis and a more complex test of mathematical ability, the SAT mathematics test. Additionally, I examined the relation between finger gnosis and both symbolic and non-symbolic measures of numerical magnitude, using a number line estimation task and the dots task, respectively. Finally, memory-based strategy use was tested as a mediator of the relation between finger gnosis and calculation fluency. Results replicate the previous finding that finger gnosis predicts calculation fluency in adults; however, finger gnosis was not a predictor of SAT math performance. Additionally, finger gnosis was a predictor of symbolic but not non-symbolic numerical magnitude estimation. Finally, although I found a relation between finger gnosis and both calculation fluency and use of memory-based strategy, memory-based strategy did not mediate the relation between finger gnosis and calculation fluency. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 21, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Kaschak, Professor Directing Thesis; Colleen Ganley, Committee Member; Sara Hart, Committee Member.

Engaging in post-encoding wakeful rest has been shown to lead to better retention of encoded information versus engaging in a post-encoding task. Brain imaging studies have shown that there is reactivation during post-encoding rest of brain areas that were active during initial encoding, and this process has been attributed to memory consolidation, leading to the improvements in recall. The present set of experiments investigated the impact of conscious thoughts occurring during post-encoding wakeful rest on delayed recall performance for both younger and older adults. Recall was tested across two tests separated by a rest period while verbalizing conscious thoughts or engaging in a visuo-spatial task while verbalizing thoughts. The present set of experiments demonstrated that both younger and older adults engage in post-encoding conscious reply that relates to delayed recall organization. The role of conscious replay in post-encoding processing is discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2017. / November 17, 2017. / conscious replay, consolidation, memory, recall organization / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Bishop, University Representative; Frank Johnson, Committee Member; Walter Richard Boot, Committee Member; Derek Evan Nee, Committee Member.