Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

M.A. (Psychology) / This investigation is aimed at enhancing the degree of behavioural compliance in individual clients through the utilization of cognitive dissonance as an adjunct to a behavioural prescription. The literature on behaviour therapy holds that behavioural prescription is accepted in its own right as an effective procedure for inducing behavioural compliance. At the same time it is evident that in certain situations behavioural prescription alone is not effective in inducing behavioural compliance. The reason for this is given as the tendency for certain individuals to respond to a behavioural prescription with defiance, or to use reactance. Such a tendency is known as the reactance-potential of the individual. Several variables have been linked in the literature to reactance-potential, for example, locus of control. This variable has the potential to be used to predict reactance-potential, and thus the likelihood of an individual responding to a behavioural prescription with reactance. Reactance is seen as a process that can be utilized in the therapeutic relationship in the service of change. Cognitive dissonance theory allows for the utilization of reactance in the psychotherapeutic context so that the response to cognitive dissonance induction is behavioural compliance. The experimental hypothesis was based on the theory that cognitive dissonance induction would direct the individual "s reactance towards the reduction of the state of cognitive dissonance that was induced. The goal of the therapeutic intervention was an increased degree of behavioural compliance in the experimental group that received cognitive dissonance induction. Therapeutic instructions were applied to two groups. The control group...

A total of 136 children from 5 to 8 years of age were presented with standard conservation of length and liquid tasks as well as story versions of those tasks. Half of the children were read stories in which the views of two non-conservers came into conflict, and the other half were read "conflict free" stories. Although the length conflict story was found to be significantly easier than the lenght task, the nonconflict story was not. In addition, the length conflict story was significantly easier than the length nonconflict story for the younger children (5-6 year-olds). However no significant differences were found among the liquid conditions. The results suggest that, for length, children's conservation performance was benefitted by cognitive conflict rather than merely the narrative format of the story problem and that children's reasoning can be affected by mere exposure to "socio-cognitive conflict". These results lend support to the controversial claim that symmetrical incorrect conflict is sufficient for stimulating cognitive development. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This study examined the relationship between neuropsychological constructs of sensory-motor functioning and cognitive ability constructs in the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) (Carroll, 1993) theory. Two studies were conducted For the first study, the Dean-Woodcock Sensory Motor Battery (SMB) (Dean & Woodcock, 1999) was administered to 800 individuals. A factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis were used to investigate and develop a factor structure of the SMB. Results from this study suggest sensory and motor tests significantly share common variance and a hierarchical, multifactorial model that included a higher-order factor of both sensory and motor tests best fit the data. The second study examined the SMB model, developed in the first study, in relation to the CHC (Cattell-Horn-Carroll) model of cognitive abilities, as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson Revised Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-R) (McGrew, Werder, & Woodcock, 1991). For this study, the SMB and the WJ-R was administered to 411 individuals. A confirmatory model was tested that included the higher-order factor of the SMB as a broad ability within the CHC model. Results from this analysis suggest the higher order factor of the SMB does have a significant relationship with overall measures of cognitive ability of a similar level to other broad abilities in the CHC model, and significantly improves the fit of CHC model. These results support Roberts, Pallier, and Goffs (1999) argument for the inclusion of an additional broad ability in the CHC taxonomy that represents sensory and motor functioning. Additionally, this study provides empirical support for the utility of including neuropsychological tests of sensory and motor functioning in a comprehensive assessment of cognitive abilities (Dean & Woodcock, 1999). The implications for neuropsychological and psychometric assessment are discussed. / Department of Educational Psychology

Abstract: Determine the level of concordance between the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Short Portable Mental State Examination (SPMSQ), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) screening test for cognitive impairment in older adults. A cross-sectional study based on an original cohort study. 1683 patients over 60 years-old were included between 2010 and 2015. Demographic information was collected and the MMSE, MoCA, and SPMSQ scores were obtained. Categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages, while numerical ones as median and interquartile range. The agreement was measured and adjusted by the number of years of education by Cohen’s Kappa index (k) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The agreement was considered as good if k > 0.80. MMSE classified 43.32% of the patients as having cognitive impairment, MoCA 43.14%, and SPMSQ 24.84%. MMSE and MoCA showed an agreement (k) of 0.99 with a 95% CI of 0.99–1.00; MoCA and SPMSQ showed a k of 0.43 (95% CI: 0.38–0.46). Finally, MMSE and SPMSQ showed a k of 0.42 (95% CI: 0.37–0.46). The results did not change when performing the analysis by education subgroups. There was a strong concordance between MoCA and MMSE tests. Nevertheless, the SPMSQ was discordant with the other tests. / Revisión por pares

Aim: This thesis describes the development and initial validation of a questionnaire to measure Hayes, Strosahl and Wilson’s (1999) constructs of cognitive fusion and cognitive defusion. Within the literature there is currently no specific measure of these constructs. Design and Method: Principal Component Analysis was conducted on two independent samples (Study One n = 425 and Study Two n = 167). Reliability analyses were conducted for both Study One and Study Two and validation analyses were conducted in Study Two. All participants in both studies completed the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ). Participants in Study Two completed additional measures related to their satisfaction with life, their beliefs about worry, mindful responding to unpleasant thoughts and images and levels of experiential avoidance. Results: The final solution revealed a two component fifteen item questionnaire accounting for 54% of the variance. Based on item content, the components were labelled fusion and defusion. The items within the questionnaire reflected Hayes et al. (1999) constructs of cognitive fusion and cognitive defusion. Internal consistencies as measured by Cronbach’s alpha were .91 (fusion), .71 (defusion) and .88 (total scale). The measure correlated moderately to highly and in the expected directions with questionnaires measuring individual beliefs about worry, mindful responding to unpleasant thoughts and images and levels of experiential avoidance. Similarly, there was a significant negative correlation between the current questionnaire and a measure related to satisfaction with life. Conclusions: The findings of the above research provide initial support for the CFQ. The results show support for the validity of the scale including content and convergent validity of the CFQ.

In the last decade, tremendous advances have been made in the effort to understand mind wandering, yet many questions remain unanswered. Chief among them is how mind wandering relates to learning. Insofar as mind wandering has been linked to poor learning, finding ways to reduce the propensity to mind wander could potentially improve learning. Two experiments were conducted to examine this. The first experiment evaluated how difficulty of the to-be-learned materials affected one’s tendency to mind wander and revealed that people mind wandered when there was a mismatch between their level of expertise and the difficulty of materials studied. The second experiment compared whether participants were more likely to mind wander in blocked or interleaved conditions and showed that participants were more likely to mind wander when materials were presented in a blocked fashion. Together, these results indicate that techniques such as studying materials specific to one’s own level of mastery or changing the way in which one studies might reduce mind wandering and improve learning. Of equal importance is the question of what happens on in the brain when a person mind wanders. While the effect of mind wandering on early sensory processing is known, the impact it has on learning-related processing is not. In two event-related potential (ERP) experiments, participants were asked to report whether they were mind wandering or not while studying materials they were later tested on. Analyses revealed that elaborative semantic processing – indexed by a late, sustained slow wave that was maximal at posterior parietal electrode sites – was attenuated when participants mind wandered. Crucially, the pattern when people were on task rather than mind wandering was similar to the subsequent memory effect previously reported by other memory researchers, suggesting that mind wandering disrupts the deep level of processing required for learning.

The dual mechanism of cognitive control framework (DMC) describes cognitive control via two strategies: proactive and reactive. Individuals using a proactive strategy, focus on actively maintaining goal-relevant information in memory, whereas reactive individuals store goal-relevant information and retrieve it when cues are present. Reimer and colleagues (2015, 2017) added cue-probe location shifts to the typical AX-CPT, as well as, a virtual-reality environment version of the AX-CPT. Through this, they found that the effect of location shifts vary depending on whether a proactive or reactive mode of control is utilized. Thus, the aim of the present study was to test whether the effect of location shifts on cognitive control depends on type of control strategy used. Two versions of the AX-CPT were used: shift alone and shift with no-go trials. The shift alone AX-CPT examined the influence of location shifts in proactively-biased young adults. The shift with no-go trials AX-CPT examined the influence of location shifts with a manipulation that is known to induce a reactive control strategy (Gonthier et al., 2016). It was hypothesized that cue-probe location shifts would have a differential effect on mode of control. Results demonstrated that type of AX-CPT given, cue-probe location, and type of trial presented individually influenced participant performance. There was also an interaction between AX-CPT type and trial type that provides evidence for a successful manipulation of mode of control. The hypothesized interaction between all variables, however, was not found. Possible limitations of the present study, as well as, future direction were discussed.

When applying cognitive diagnostic models, the goal is to accurately estimate students’ diagnostic profiles. The accuracy of these estimates may be enhanced by looking at the types of incorrect options a student selects. This thesis research examines the additional diagnostic information available from the distractors in multiple-choice items used in large-scale achievement assessments and identifies optimal conditions for extracting diagnostic information. The study is based on the analyses of both real student responses and simulated data. The real student responses are from a large-scale provincial math assessment for grade 6 students in Ontario. Data were then simulated under different skill dimensionality and item discrimination conditions. Comparisons were made between student profile estimates when using the DINA and MC-DINA models. The MC-DINA model is a newly developed cognitive diagnostic model where the probability of a student choosing a particular item option depends on how closely the student’s cognitive skill profile matches the skills tapped by that option. The results from the simulation data analysis suggested that when the simulated data included additional diagnostic information in the distractors, the MC-DINA model was able to use that information to improve the estimation of the student profiles, which shows the utility of the additional information obtained from item distractors. The value of adding information from distractors was greater when there was lower item discrimination and more skill multidimensionality. However, in the real data, the keyed options provided more diagnostic information than the distractors, and there was little information in the distractors that could be utilized by the MC-DINA model. This implies that current math test items could be further developed to include diagnostically rich distractors. The study offers some suggestions for a design of multiple-choice test items and its formative use.

When applying cognitive diagnostic models, the goal is to accurately estimate students’ diagnostic profiles. The accuracy of these estimates may be enhanced by looking at the types of incorrect options a student selects. This thesis research examines the additional diagnostic information available from the distractors in multiple-choice items used in large-scale achievement assessments and identifies optimal conditions for extracting diagnostic information. The study is based on the analyses of both real student responses and simulated data. The real student responses are from a large-scale provincial math assessment for grade 6 students in Ontario. Data were then simulated under different skill dimensionality and item discrimination conditions. Comparisons were made between student profile estimates when using the DINA and MC-DINA models. The MC-DINA model is a newly developed cognitive diagnostic model where the probability of a student choosing a particular item option depends on how closely the student’s cognitive skill profile matches the skills tapped by that option. The results from the simulation data analysis suggested that when the simulated data included additional diagnostic information in the distractors, the MC-DINA model was able to use that information to improve the estimation of the student profiles, which shows the utility of the additional information obtained from item distractors. The value of adding information from distractors was greater when there was lower item discrimination and more skill multidimensionality. However, in the real data, the keyed options provided more diagnostic information than the distractors, and there was little information in the distractors that could be utilized by the MC-DINA model. This implies that current math test items could be further developed to include diagnostically rich distractors. The study offers some suggestions for a design of multiple-choice test items and its formative use.