A series of experiments examined both the phenomenological nature and centrality of Cognitive Control in common cognitive paradigms. This was done primarily by employing manipulations of Congruency Proportion (CP), which are thought to modulate key aspects of Cognitive Control. Experiment 1 leads this investigation by examining the degree to which participants are consciously aware of the influence of CP in the Simon task. Here, it was observed that participants’ subjective reports of the proportion of congruent trials did not predict their actual CP effects, suggesting a non-conscious locus of CP effects. Experiments 2 and 3 followed up these preliminary findings by assessing the degree to which CP effects differentially modulate the application of Cognitive Control in two variants of the size congruity paradigm (Numerical Judgement and Physical Judgement). Here, I found that manipulations of CP significantly impacted the Numerical Judgement task, but not the Physical Judgement task, and thus seriously challenge the notion of a central and unitary Cognitive Control module. In Experiment 4, I assessed the systematic variation (via correlations) of effects from the size congruity paradigm and the Stroop task across blocks of trials at different levels of CP. In addition, I examined the degree to which the effects of CP were related to common self report measures of Cognitive Control (the Need for Cognition scale and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire). The pattern of within-task and between-task reliabilities was examined to elucidate the degree to which there is a common central control component that governs behaviour in all tasks. There was surprisingly little to no relation among the CP effects observed in these three tasks. In addition, neither participants’ engagement with the task (as indexed by theNeed for Cognition Scale), nor their propensity to have attentional slips (as indexed by the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire) predicted their performance in any way. Taken together, this set of experiments has seriously undermined the received view that CP effects arise from a central and unitary form of conscious control. These results are discussed in terms of contemporary theories of Cognitive Control.

A series of experiments examined both the phenomenological nature and centrality of Cognitive Control in common cognitive paradigms. This was done primarily by employing manipulations of Congruency Proportion (CP), which are thought to modulate key aspects of Cognitive Control. Experiment 1 leads this investigation by examining the degree to which participants are consciously aware of the influence of CP in the Simon task. Here, it was observed that participants’ subjective reports of the proportion of congruent trials did not predict their actual CP effects, suggesting a non-conscious locus of CP effects. Experiments 2 and 3 followed up these preliminary findings by assessing the degree to which CP effects differentially modulate the application of Cognitive Control in two variants of the size congruity paradigm (Numerical Judgement and Physical Judgement). Here, I found that manipulations of CP significantly impacted the Numerical Judgement task, but not the Physical Judgement task, and thus seriously challenge the notion of a central and unitary Cognitive Control module. In Experiment 4, I assessed the systematic variation (via correlations) of effects from the size congruity paradigm and the Stroop task across blocks of trials at different levels of CP. In addition, I examined the degree to which the effects of CP were related to common self report measures of Cognitive Control (the Need for Cognition scale and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire). The pattern of within-task and between-task reliabilities was examined to elucidate the degree to which there is a common central control component that governs behaviour in all tasks. There was surprisingly little to no relation among the CP effects observed in these three tasks. In addition, neither participants’ engagement with the task (as indexed by theNeed for Cognition Scale), nor their propensity to have attentional slips (as indexed by the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire) predicted their performance in any way. Taken together, this set of experiments has seriously undermined the received view that CP effects arise from a central and unitary form of conscious control. These results are discussed in terms of contemporary theories of Cognitive Control.

<p> Parents' participation in the care of their hospitalized child is an integral part of pediatric nursing practice and is considered to be beneficial for children and parents. However, parents may not discuss their participation with nurses and instead base their activities on their perceptions of nurses' assumptions and expectations regarding parents' participation in care. Nurses may assume a gate keeping role regarding parents' participation, deciding what parents will do and then monitoring these activities. Nurses' heavy workloads may preclude the teaching necessary for parents to participate in certain aspects of care. As a result, parents' actual participation in care may be more or less than their desired level of participation. Measuring actual participation alone may thus give an incomplete picture of a family's situation.</p> <p> To date, no attempt has been made to measure the difference between parents' actual and desired participation in care. A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to measure parents' actual level of participation in care and their desired level of participation in care, and to describe the congruency between them. Parents of children admitted to medical and surgical units in a tertiary care children's hospital (N = 191) completed two instruments measuring desired and actual participation in care as well as providing demographic data. Study results indicate a difference between parents' actual and desired participation, with the majority of parents expressing a desire to increase their participation. Parents' care activities included providing comfort, assisting with activities of daily living, assisting with mechanical care and advocating for the hospitalized child. Recommendations are made for nursing practice at the bedside, for nursing administration and for future research. Measuring congruency between actual and desired levels of participation can contribute to our understanding of parents' experiences of their child's hospitalization and may provide a unique perspective on parental participation in care.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Chapter 1 introduces the notions of multisensory integration (the binding of information coming from different modalities into a unitary percept) and multisensory response enhancement (the improvement of the response to multisensory stimuli, relative to the response to the most efficient unisensory stimulus), as well as the general goal of the present thesis, which is to investigate different aspects of the multisensory integration of auditory and visual stimuli in manual and saccadic responses. The subsequent chapters report experimental evidence of different factors affecting the multisensory response: spatial discrepancy, stimulus salience, congruency between cross-modal attributes, and the inhibitory influence of concurring distractors. Chapter 2 reports three experiments on the role of the superior colliculus (SC) in multisensory integration. In order to achieve this, the absence of S-cone input to the SC has been exploited, following the method introduced by Sumner, Adamjee, and Mollon (2002). I found evidence that the spatial rule of multisensory integration (Meredith & Stein, 1983) applies only to SC-effective (luminance-channel) stimuli, and does not apply to SC-ineffective (S-cone) stimuli. The same results were obtained with an alternative method for the creation of S-cone stimuli: the tritanopic technique (Cavanagh, MacLeod, & Anstis, 1987; Stiles, 1959; Wald, 1966). In both cases significant multisensory response enhancements were obtained using a focused attention paradigm, in which the participants had to focus their attention on the visual modality and to inhibit responses to auditory stimuli. Chapter 3 reports two experiments showing the influence of shape congruency between auditory and visual stimuli on multisensory integration; i.e. the correspondence between structural aspects of visual and auditory stimuli (e.g., spiky shape and “spiky” sounds). Detection of audio-visual events was faster for congruent than incongruent pairs, and this congruency effect occurred also in a focused attention task, where participants were required to respond only to visual targets and could ignore irrelevant auditory stimuli. This particular type of cross-modal congruency was been evaluated in relation to the inverse effectiveness rule of multisensory integration (Meredith & Stein, 1983). In Chapter 4, the locus of the cross-modal shape congruency was evaluated applying the race model analysis (Miller, 1982). The results showed that the violation of the model is stronger for some congruent pairings in comparison to incongruent pairings. Evidence of multisensory depression was found for some pairs of incongruent stimuli. These data imply a perceptual locus for the cross-modal shape congruency effect. Moreover, it is evident that multisensoriality does not always induce an enhancement, and in some cases, when the attributes of the stimuli are particularly incompatible, a unisensory response may be more effective that the multisensory one. Chapter 5 reports experiments centred on saccadic generation mechanisms. Specifically, the multisensoriality of the saccadic inhibition (SI; Reingold&Stampe, 2002) phenomenon is investigated. Saccadic inhibition refers to a characteristic inhibitory dip in saccadic frequency beginning 60-70 ms after onset of a distractor. The very short latency of SI suggests that the distractor interferes directly with subcortical target selection processes in the SC. The impact of multisensory stimulation on SI was studied in four experiments. In Experiments 7 and 8, a visual target was presented with a concurrent audio, visual or audio-visual distractor. Multisensory audio-visual distractors induced stronger SI than did unisensory distractors, but there was no evidence of multisensory integration (as assessed by a race model analysis). In Experiments 9 and 10, visual, auditory or audio-visual targets were accompanied by a visual distractor. When there was no distractor, multisensory integration was observed for multisensory targets. However, this multisensory integration effect disappeared in the presence of a visual distractor. As a general conclusion, the results from Chapter 5 results indicate that multisensory integration occurs for target stimuli, but not for distracting stimuli, and that the process of audio-visual integration is itself sensitive to disruption by distractors.

JODI L. SCHOEN Doctor of Philosophy degree in WORKFORCE EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT, presented on March 22, 2018, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: CONGRUENCY OF LEARNING STYLES AND TEACHING STYLES ON PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES OF CERTIFIED NURSE AIDE STUDENTS COMMITTEE CHAIR: Dr. Barbara Hagler The study of learning styles and teaching styles is a topic of growing interest and debate over the benefit of matching learning styles to teaching styles for improved student performance. There is a diversity of learning style and teaching style instruments that attempt to identify patterns or preferences. The learning theory suggests that knowing this information can improve learning through adjusting curriculum or teaching styles armed with this knowledge. A need for further research in the learning context of nurse aide student population was identified and the focus of this research. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the learning styles of students and teachers, teaching styles and the influence of congruency on performance. The sample for the study consisted of 187 nursing assistant students and 23 instructors. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) version 3.1, and Grasha-Reichmann Teaching Style Inventory (TSI) were used to measure learning styles and teaching styles, and a questionnaire was used to gather demographic data. These data were compared to test scores gathered via The Illinois Nurse Aide Competency Test. The findings showed that there was no significant influence of the four learning styles identified through the Kolb LSI of accommodating, diverging, assimilating and converging. However, there was a significant relationship between the concrete experience (CE) learning style construct and decreased test performance. There were no significant findings to support the congruency of learning styles of students and teacher on outcomes. Although the mean scores of those matching learning styles achieved a higher mean of 84.75, as compared to 80.28 to those not-matching learning styles. Teachers had an increased preference for Expert, Formal Authority and Personal Model teaching styles, and teaching style had no significant effect on test performance. The most common learning styles were Diverging (39%), Assimilating (28%), Accommodating (26%) and Converging (7%) for students, and Assimilating (40%), Diverging (35%), Converging (15%) and Accommodating (10%) for teachers.

Enterprises can adopt branding extension strategies to decrease the expense on developing the awareness of new products as well as to attract consumers. However, not all of them succeeded. From previous researches, most of them focus on brand extensions of tangible products and regard Fit as the main driver to the success of brand extensions. Overall, the higher the Fit between parent brands and extension products, the more possibly brand extensions succeed. However, if Goal Congruency can be a substitute factor for Fit between them, maybe the different goals they possess offer more value to Consumers. Thus, I extend the scope of brand extensions to service industry, studying on the effect of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ on brand extensions and further on the interaction of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨. This research uses situation experiment to manipulate well-known brand to extend new service products. In experiment 1, the real enterprises Friday restaurant and 104 job bank separately launch new extended products to study the effects of ¡§goal congruency" on ¡§perceived value¡¨,¡¨ brand extension attitude¡¨ and ¡§consumers¡¦ mood¡¨. In experiment 2, it adds one more factor, advertisement framing, to study the two- way interaction of consumers¡¦ mood influenced by ¡§goal congruence¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨ on ¡§brand extension attitude¡¨. First, it shows the incongruent brand extensions are perceived higher brand extension evaluation than congruent ones. Second, when compared with negative advertisement framing, positive advertisement framing with incongruent brand extensions receives higher brand extension evaluation. The consuming goal can be an important factor on evaluation of brand extensions.

Airports are places where people have the potential to experience either satisfaction or frustration, and marketing and tourism scholars have argued that customer satisfaction is one of the primary goals of airports. However, few studies have systemically analyzed the service quality and efficiency of airports, or examined customer satisfaction with airport facilities. While airline passengers' expectations of airport service quality have been examined, there are few studies focusing on both their expectations and desires regarding airport services. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, no available studies have analyzed passengers' expectations and desires on the basis of the desires congruency model. This study attempted to define tourists' desires and expectations congruency as well as their satisfaction with their entire airport experiences. A total of 262 airline passengers in Incheon International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport participated in the study. Six hypotheses were tested with data collected from a survey of the airline passengers with the use of descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. Most relationships among latent variables were found to be in accordance with previous studies. Furthermore, the results of the current study implied that the desires congruency model could be applied to the satisfaction formation of airline passengers. Practical recommendations are presented for the airport managers to enhance airport services.

Sponsorship, and particularly sport sponsorship, continues to grow ahead of all other forms of marketing communication in stature and spend. As a result, there is a growing need for proper sponsorship management and accountability within organisations. The objective of the study was to evaluate how an organisation manages sponsorship to effectively enhance brand image, a long-term differentiator for brands. Focusing on the Energade brand, a qualitative case study method of research, using data from secondary sources and face-to-face interviews, was used to test the propositions developed through literature review. The study indicated that effective management of sponsorship entails setting of consistently aligned and prioritised objectives. In order for a sponsorship to enhance brand image, the sponsorship has to be leveraged at an optimal ratio; the sponsored property has to be congruent with the sponsoring brand at an intrinsic, positioning, and communication objective levels; and lastly, in order for sponsorship to effectively enhance shift brand image, its association with a sponsored property has to be long term. The Energade sponsorship fell short of enhancing the brand‟s Image. Whilst having some of the prescribed affective sponsorship management practices, a number of limitations were identified. Recommendations for managing sponsorship to enhance brand image, from planning, execution and evaluation were presented. Setting of objectives should be more rigorous, leverage activity and non-sponsorship messages should be complementary, sponsorship congruency should be beyond functional fit, and long-term sponsorship of a single property is more effective than sponsoring different properties over time. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Color is a major factor in persuasive communication and messaging. This study examines the role of color and other variables in the communication of environmental causes. Many environmental organizations are starting to use color to generate awareness and create symbolic color associations. Based on the congruency theory and the elaboration likelihood model, this study tested specific research hypotheses pertaining to the effects of color-cause congruency and involvement with the cause on consumer reactions through a controlled experiment. Results reveal that involvement and the congruency between color and cause had an effect on attitude toward the organization and attitude toward the message. However, the hypothesized interaction effects of congruency and involvement failed to reach statistical significance. The study thus provides support for the congruency theory and elaboration likelihood model by showing the independent influence of color-cause congruency and cause involvement.

This study investigates whether hotel choice attributes decompose into comparable configurations for two important guest groups served by hotels: business and leisure travelers. Each group's responses were factor analyzed and the factor congruency technique was then employed to ascertain the extent of similarity between them. Results indicate that the congruence between the business and leisure travelers is weak in terms of the importance of the factors and their correspondence. Implications of the results are discussed.