Thesis--Boston University. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Boston University. / Includes bibliographical references.

My main thesis is that Baroque can be considered not only as an aesthetic or historical period in the seventeenth century; it is also a way of producing knowledge that puts into dynamic interaction diverse genres, disciplines and historical contexts. I visualize my project under the rubric of a cabinet of curiosities, and I reframe the continued juxtaposition of objects, machines, instruments and artwork that characterize the baroque cabinet to offer an explanatory construct of the early modern Hispanic world and modern Latin American literature and culture. In the first chapter of the dissertation, I contextualize the extensive theoretical discussion on Baroque and Neo-baroque within the studies of collection and curiosity. My main goal with this approach is to create a specific bibliography and understanding of Baroque as a complex process of collecting and displaying different kinds of knowledge through emotions such as wonder and marvel. In the second chapter I examine the impact of the New World on the stable "tower of knowledge" of humanists at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. One definitive consequence of this impact was the questioning of the liabilities of ancient text and the need to arrange the new information, which was coming from different resources, into collections of distant and peculiar objects. Expanding this historical frame, I analyze how letrados in the seventeenth century, such as Favián, Sigüenza y Góngora, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Espinoza Medrano, and Arzans Orsúa, were displaying the New World as the biggest collection of curiosities as a way of constructing an emergent criollo subjectivity. After grounding the project in the theoretical and colonial Baroque, my study turns, in the third chapter, to the modern Neo-baroque. I argue that modernity in Latin America is generated by the assimilation of the Enlightenment into a Baroque system. Therefore, Baroque in Latin America represents more than a simple or "erroneous" copy; it is rather a process of "cannibalization" and counterconquest, as José Lezama Lima proclaimed in his literary essay "Baroque Curiosity" (1957). This dissertation is written in Spanish. / 2015-07-11

The persistence of memory over time is dependent on a variety of events between learning and remembering, one of which is sleep. Additionally, the strength of initial learning influences how well things will be remembered later on, and the way the sleeping brain processes information has been found to rely on some of these encoding factors. Given the extensive literature on the influence of dopamine on learning, we wanted to examine how two memory benefits thought to rely on dopamine – the novelty effect and the curiosity effect – may be impacted by periods of sleep or wakefulness. Three experiments were conducted: one in which novel scenes were viewed and associated information was recalled after wakefulness or sleep, one where subjects learned in the lab or at home, and one in which participants rated their curiosity for learning materials and were tested later after sleep or wakefulness (and in which eye blink rate (EBR) and PSG measures were observed). Our findings failed to replicate the novelty effect in the first two experiments, making our prediction regarding sleep difficult to assess. Though we replicated the curiosity effect in the third study, our predictions about sleep and slow wave sleep were not supported. However, N2 and REM were unexpectedly observed to play a role in this effect, a finding that deserves more assessment. Finally, EBR, an indirect measure of dopamine, was negatively associated with the curiosity effect due to a positive relationship with the retention of low curiosity stimuli. Future research should investigate this sensitive novelty effect in humans further and continue to examine EBR as a predictor of learning.

This dissertation describes two studies that empirically test instructional methods designed to promote learning, transfer, and curiosity in the context of real-world science classrooms. In the first study, I compared an inherently uncertain form of instruction to an inherently certain one, and in the second study, I compared different levels of uncertainty within the same inherently uncertain instruction type. The first study demonstrates that, compared to an inherently certain form of instruction (tell-then-practice), the inherently uncertain form of instruction (Invention) produced greater curiosity and transfer, which may reflect deeper learning. While this study showed promising results, it revealed additional questions, which were answered by the second study. Specifically, because there were differences other than uncertainty between conditions, I could not fully conclude that uncertainty is what caused group differences in curiosity or transfer. To confirm that it is, in fact, uncertainty influencing curiosity and transfer, the second study examined learning activities that were more similar to one another, but still differed in uncertainty. Specifically, I compared two Invention conditions, in which one group of students was given more information prior to invention than the other. This manipulation also showed that higher uncertainty led to greater curiosity and transfer. The research in this dissertation also examines how uncertainty influences affect and whether state-level curiosity influences learning and transfer. Further, it shows how curiosity changes over time and demonstrates a new way to behaviorally and qualitatively measure curiosity.

Previous studies done on the correlation between specific curiosity and intelligence have been inconclusive. In the present study, a test of state specific curiosity and a test of intelligence were administered to 76 Ss from two introductory psychology courses. Three hypotheses were tested. These were, (a) that a significant specific curiosity-intelligence correlation would exist, (b) that the specific curiosity-verbal subscale correlation would be higher than the specific curiosity-abstraction sub-scale correlation, and (c) that there would be a sex difference in the specific curiosity-intelligence correlations. The data did not support hypothesis (a) or (b). However, they did support hypothesis (c). An inconsistent pattern of trends was discovered in the results which call the correlations into question. The suggestion was made that the study should be replicated.

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Imagine your primary fear. You can’t escape, your surroundings are hostile, and everywhere you look there is no resting point. Everyone has their fear. We all should have the chance to overcome it.With the following thesis, I’m focusing on people sensitive to hospital environments. In particular, hospital waiting rooms, where the amount of stress, generated from the surroundings, can be worsened by the waiting time. Focusing on a radiology department, I developed an installation to give them a place to breathe in, calm, and rest their eyes on. Creating a moment of curiosity. To keep the mind and body distracted, including the environment itself in the process. Not giving a sense of isolation but the opportunity to look at the enemy through a filter, to explore it, and play with it. The installation originated from the lighting properties of a reference radiology waiting room from which I obtained abstract forms. Consequently, I translated these in overlapping, rotating filters, through which the room is looked at and transformed. The person is stimulated by curiosity towards this element in antithesis with the space. Then, the interaction with it strengthens the distraction giving the possibility to keep the brain occupied, watching the space through a filter. Controlling its perception.

<p>The <i>Curiosity</i> and <i>Perseverance</i> rovers have both found overwhelming evidence of a long-lived history of complex rock-water interactions on Mars. Understanding how the mineralogy of these deposits is related to depositional and diagenetic environments is critical for evaluating past habitable environments and guiding the search for signs of life with the <i>Curiosity</i> and <i>Perseverance</i> rovers. However, the chemistry and timing of these aqueous environments are poorly constrained. In particular, it is unclear which secondary minerals in the rock record formed in primary lacustrine vs. later diagenetic events. Understanding the origin of alteration minerals is crucial for studying habitability because they provide constraints on the timing and types of environments that existed. The goal of my thesis research is to better constrain the history of diagenetic processes in Gale and Jezero craters using the morphology, sedimentology, and mineralogy of features from rover and orbiter observations and comparisons to Earth analogs to understand their formation mechanisms. This research contributes to building a framework of the history of water in Gale and Jezero craters and will help us better understand past climate, habitability, and sources of water on Mars.</p><p>The <i>Curiosity</i> rover on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission has found extensive evidence that Gale crater once hosted a habitable lacustrine environment; however, there are remaining questions about the chemistry and duration of the lake and the nature of the climate at the time. In Chapter 2 of this thesis, I use Mastcam multispectral data to investigate the mineralogy of the Sutton Island member of the Murray formation, a part of the basal layers of Mt. Sharp, which consists of heterolithic mudstone and sandstone that are distinct from the finely laminated mudstones that dominate much of the Murray. Sutton Island includes at least one instance of desiccation cracks, indicative of subaerial exposure, and uniquely irregular diagenetic features that may be related to local bedrock permeability. These features suggest that Sutton Island experienced a complex history of deposition and diagenesis which may be crucial for understanding changing water-rock interactions within Gale. I find that most Mastcam bedrock spectra in this region lack the absorptions associated with hematite found throughout the Murray, and instead show deeper absorptions shifted toward longer wavelengths that are more consistent with Fe-smectites such as nontronite. Elemental chemistry from ChemCam supports this interpretation, as SiO, MgO, Li, and the chemical index of alteration are elevated in this region. Combined with observations of bedrock sedimentology, this suggests that Sutton Island was deposited in a nearshore or low stand environment, and we hypothesize that the clay minerals were produced in this region due to sub-aerial exposure and weathering in a semi-arid climate.</p><p>In Chapter 3, I use the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation from Utah as a terrestrial analog to understand how the history of rock-water interactions is expressed in the rock record on Mars and how we can interpret this history of deposition and diagenesis using visible/near-infrared/short wave-infrared reflectance spectroscopy at rover scales. The Carmel Formation consists of carbonate- and sulfate-rich heterolithic strata deposited in a range of environments from fluvial, aeolian, and coastal sabkha to shallow marine settings. The alteration mineralogy, variable sedimentology, and diagenetic features present makes this formation a good analog for parts of the Murray formation in Gale crater and rocks from the Jezero crater delta front. In this thesis, we find that changes in lake level and climate manifest themselves in diagenetic features and mineralogy in the Carmel Formation with increased carbonate content in marine strata and increased evaporite/clay mineral content in near-shore/playa deposits. These results generally correspond to correlations with sedimentology and bedrock composition observed in Gale and Jezero craters and allows us to better interpret evidence of complex rock-water interactions on Mars using reflectance spectroscopy.</p><p>Although NASA’s <i>Curiosity</i> rover has found evidence of diagenesis, at a variety of scales, the broader extent of diagenesis in Gale crater is poorly constrained. <i>Curiosity</i> has observed extensive evidence of diagenesis at the unconformity between Mt. Sharp group fluvial/lacustrine mudstones and Siccar Point group (SPg) aeolian sandstones, which is part of the much larger Mound Skirting Unit (MSU) that mantles Mt. Sharp. This diagenetic horizon is visible as a light-toned tan, gray, or blue region in color images from both the ground and orbit. In Chapter 4 of this thesis, I use orbital color images and spectroscopy to look for possible evidence of alteration at the MSU unconformity elsewhere in Gale crater. I find that color variations appear at the MSU unconformity across Mt. Sharp and are co-located with detections of alteration minerals such as hydrated silica and phyllosilicates. This suggests that some of the diagenetic alteration observed by <i>Curiosity </i>below the MSU unconformity was extensive across Mt. Sharp. I hypothesize that this diagenesis was primarily driven by differences in permeability, where the more permeable SPg/MSU sandstones provided a conduit for diagenetic fluids that stagnated within and altered the upper few meters of less permeable clay bearing strata in the Mt. Sharp group below. The extensive diagenesis observed in Gale implies that subsurface fluids were long-lived and widespread in this region on Mars. Gaining a better understanding of what rock properties control and influence diagenetic fluid flow on Mars will help us improve the search for ancient aqueous environments, and possible biosignatures, on Mars.</p><p>The work included herein contributes to our understanding of rock-water interactions on Mars by demonstrating how bedrock properties, such as changes in permeability, can affect the flow of diagenetic fluids. These studies emphasize the importance of reflectance spectroscopy as a useful tool for constraining bedrock mineralogy and how it links to variable depositional and alteration environments. This will help guide current and future missions to search for past habitable environments and biosignatures on Mars.</p>

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.