The Geoscience Quantitative Preparation Survey (GQPS) was developed to address a deficiency in the available literature regarding the competency and preparation of early-career geologists in geoscience job-related quantitative skills – namely, geologic numeracy. The final version of the GQPS included self-confidence, usage, satisfaction, and demographic sections. The GQPS was expected to produce data that would allow for an evaluation of the geologic numeracy of early-career geologists and the success of approximately 20 years of increased focus on quantitatively literate geoscience graduates. The self-confidence section of the GQPS included quantitative methods and quantitative skills. The usage section asked whether participants used methods or skills from the confidence section in both work and non-work settings. Satisfaction items asked how satisfied participants were with the quantitative preparation they received as undergraduates, relative to career needs, and included items on quantitative problem solving, quantitative communication, and computers. Limited demographic information was collected including time since bachelor’s graduation, years of related experience, undergraduate alma mater, current job status and field, and highest level of education. Satisfaction values for quantitative problem solving and quantitative communication indicate that respondents were largely satisfied with their undergraduate preparation, with values slightly higher for the geoscience department than for the university as a whole. Satisfaction items related to the use of computers were nearly uniform across all response levels and were not indicative of satisfaction (or any other particular response). Demographic responses indicate it is reasonable to make some generalizations to the overall population of early-career geologists. Early-career geologists in the sample population showed indications of geologic numeracy. This result indicates the educational trend of the last 20 years of focus on quantitatively literate geoscience graduates has had some success, although this focus cannot be compared to prior years due to lack of data. The GQPS was successful for answering its research questions, but requires validation as a complete scale before it is likely to be used by outside parties.

The study of conceptual change in science education, specifically in the realm of physics, is not new, however, there is still much that is not well understood. Continuing with the trend of including characteristics of the learner in models of conceptual change, this study seeks to explore the role confidence plays in helping or hindering conceptual change. Current research on this topic has provided mixed conclusions. The concept of force is foundational for understanding most areas of physics, as well as other sciences. Students often lack correct understanding of this critical concept. It is important to separate students’ lack of knowledge about the topic from misconceptions, as each likely requires different types of intervention to correct. Pairing a concept inventory with a Certainty of Response Index (CRI) is one way of separating misconceptions from incomplete knowledge (Hasan, Bagayoko, & Kelley, 1999). In this study, students paired a series of multiple-choice questions about force and motion with a CRI. After each survey, students obtained feedback about correct answers followed by a discussion or a live demonstration designed to exemplify the concept in question. The study compared knowledge scores immediately after the intervention (posttest), as well as one month after the intervention (delayed posttest), between the two types of feedback (discussion and live demonstration). The results of this study support the argument to include confidence as one of the many learner characteristics that influence conceptual change. Additionally, students who viewed a demonstration had significantly greater gains in knowledge than students who participated in the discussion at posttest; however, the differences between the groups did not persist at delayed posttest. In examining CRI gain scores from pretest to delayed posttest, students who viewed a demonstration had significantly greater gains on items relating to Newton’s Third Law than the discussion group. The results taken collectively support the need to reexamine the order of the physics curriculum, particularly as it relates to Newton’s Laws. The findings suggest that Newton’s Third Law deserves much greater focus and potentially should be taught before Newton’s Second and First Laws, however, more research needs to be done to better understand the implications of such a change. / Math & Science Education

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how religiosity affects both public attitudes about the importance of severe punishments (as a characteristic of democracy) and public confidence in the police and the justice system. This study also examines the socio-demographic (e.g., age, gender, education) factors that influence public perceptions about punishment and confidence in criminal justice institutions. In doing so, this study compares two countries that are both religious and democratic: Turkey and the United States. The current study employs data from Wave 5 (2005-2008) of the World Values Survey (WVS). The U.S. data is based on a sample of 1,249 respondents who participated in face-toace interviews in 2006. The Turkish data is based on a sample of 1,346 respondents who participated in face-toace interviews in 2007. Analyses were conducted using the SPSS 21 software program.

The current study employed the self-validation hypothesis (Petty, Brinol, & Tormala, 2002) to test how thought confidence affects individuals’ responses to social norms regarding gay rights. After measuring their gay rights attitudes and thought confidence, participants took part in a discussion where they faced groups that either opposed their position on gay rights unanimously or non-unanimously (i.e., 4 opposing confederates vs. 3 opposing confederates and one supporting confederate). Those who were anti-gay rights conformed more than those pro, particularly when facing unanimous opposition. Thought confidence reduced the effects of normative pressure on conformity, but only in those who were anti-gay rights. Attitude change was reduced for anti-gay rights people with high thought confidence, but only when a supporting confederate was present. These results suggest that thought confidence affects resistance to social norms in people who are anti-gay rights whereas pro-gay rights people resist regardless of their level of thought confidence.

As online shopping continues to grow rapidly, research indicates its massive uptake can be the result of the integration of social media technologies within the e-commerce interface. This has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to an acceleration in the use of e-commerce. However, despite the growing popularity of e-commerce, shopping online is characterized by high levels of uncertainty given the spatial and temporal separation between consumer and vendor. This presents a dire impact on a consumer’s decision-making process and can specifically impact a consumer’s decision confidence. Decision confidence is an important construct that has been shown to be central in influencing a consumer’s behaviour, specifically in regards to purchase-related activities. Few studies have shed light on the factors influencing a consumer’s decision confidence in the e-commerce context. Online shopping platforms fitted with social data markers are able to gauge and track the activities and attributes of online consumers, providing convenient heuristics on various measures such as the total number of recommendations for a product, or the degree of similarity between consumers. These markers may facilitate group identification through the development of herd behaviour. Herd behaviour arises in situations of uncertainty and motivates individuals to identify with a group (herd), and conform to its actions. Various aspects of a herd can influence group identification. This research focuses on two aspects of herd behaviour in e-commerce environments: homophily and herd size. Homophily is the degree to which individuals are similar, and in this study, we examine homophily from the perspective of an individual and the herd to which they may be exposed to. Herd size is the number of individuals in a group taking a specific action such as an online purchase decision. Drawing on the social identity approach and uncertainty identity theory, this investigation hones in on how homophily and herd size arise in the e-commerce context, and examines how group identification through homophily and herd size may reduce uncertainty and build decision confidence through the formation of trust, entitativity, sense of community and information helpfulness. A research model is developed along with a set of supported hypotheses. An online experiment utilizing a hypothetical e-commerce website was conducted with 400 participants. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling and choice-based conjoint analysis. The results suggest that while homophily significantly impacts trust, sense of community, entitativity and information helpfulness, herd size does not. The results also suggest that whereas trust, sense of community and information helpfulness positively impact decision confidence, entitativity does not. It was also empirically demonstrated that participants preferred measures of homophily in the e-commerce interface more than measures of herd size. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that participants preferred measures indicating homophily in interests and demographics more than information on either alone, and that information on homophily in interests was more preferred than information on homophily in demographics. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Despite the rapid uptake in e-commerce, shopping online continues to be characterized by high levels of uncertainty given the spatial and temporal separation between consumer and vendor. This uncertainty negatively impacts a consumer’s decision confidence, which is a key driver in influencing consumer behaviour. Drawing on the social identity approach and uncertainty identity theory, this study investigates how elements of the e-commerce interface can facilitate group identification, a process which has been empirically demonstrated to reduce uncertainty and thereby increase decision confidence. Findings of this study suggest that measures of homophily embedded within an e-commerce platform can work through various mediators to facilitate group membership which can positively impact a consumer’s decision confidence. Theoretical and practical contributions of this study are discussed for researchers, academics, and practitioners wishing to explore those aspects of online shopping that an aid the decision-making process through group-related processes.

Selecting an effective method for combining the votes of classifiers in an ensemble can have a significant impact on the overall classification accuracy an ensemble is able to achieve. With some methods, the ensemble cannot even achieve as high a classification accuracy as the most accurate individual classifying component. To address this issue, we present the strategy of Heuristic Weighted Voting, a technique that uses heuristics to determine the confidence that a classifier has in its predictions on an instance by instance basis. Using these heuristics to weight the votes in an ensemble results in an overall average increase in classification accuracy over when compared to the most accurate classifier in the ensemble. When considering performance over 18 data sets, Heuristic Weighted Voting compares favorably both in terms of average classification accuracy and algorithm-by-algorithm comparisons in accuracy when evaluated against three baseline ensemble creation strategies as well as the methods of stacking and arbitration.

This experiment furthered previous research on perceptions of speakers as a function of various vocal characteristics. A low relevance passage was recorded by male and female speakers, simulating voices of orotund, thin, thoaty, flat, breathy, as well as rate and pitch variations, so as to determine effects on persuasiveness and confidence. Main effects were found regarding gender across all vocal characteristics. While an orotund voice produced predominately positive effects of ratings of speakers' confidence and persuasiveness, a breathy effect elicited negative ratings. The male speaker was judged more harshly than the female speaker when the vocal characterization departed from the norm.

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Curiosity, the intrinsic desire for information, is a significant but underexplored driver of human exploration, learning, and discovery. This dissertation seeks to uncover the cognitive and neural mechanisms of curiosity, in addition to investigating its impact on memory, contributing to our understanding of this fundamental aspect of human cognition. Chapter 2 uses a novel paradigm involving texforms, distorted visual stimuli, to probe the neural basis of curiosity. The findings reveal a negative, quadratic relationship between curiosity and confidence. Furthermore, the findings suggest a neural mechanism in which multivariate certainty in occipitotemporal cortex is translated into univariate confidence in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to facilitate curiosity. In Chapter 3, we delve deeper into the cognitive underpinnings of curiosity, demonstrating that confidence mediates the relationship between various cognitive variables — such as the vividness of imagery, guess specificity, and semantic similarity — and curiosity. This extension of the established mechanism from Chapter 2 reinforces the central role of confidence in curiosity. Shifting focus to the consequences of curiosity, Chapter 4 explores its influence on memory. Despite prior research demonstrating curiosity's enhancement of memory for trivia answers, our results reveal that curiosity does not affect memory for the stimuli that evoke curiosity itself, or 'questions'. This nuanced finding underscores the complexity inherent in the relationship between curiosity and memory. In sum, this dissertation creates a novel experimental framework for studying curiosity, highlights the pivotal role of confidence in curiosity, enhances our understanding of perceptual curiosity's mechanisms, and illuminates the intricate relationship between curiosity and memory. These results together provide a solid platform for future research in these areas.