Guided by the research on cognitive performance tasks (e.g., Wood, Mento, & Locke, 1987), the potential moderating effects of skill and outcome difficulty upon the relationship between specific, difficult goals and physical task performance were examined from an attribute treatment approach. Overall, different measures of performance yielded several convergent findings. Using a sample of 184 laboratory participants, a test of the primary hypothesis failed to support the expected three-way interaction among skill, outcome difficulty and goal setting. Models containing skill and outcome difficulty were found to provide the most parsimonious explanation of variance in performance, regardless of whether assigned or personal goal were used as an index of motivation. After controlling for skill and outcome difficulty, goal commitment showed a weak positive relationship with task performance. Self-efficacy was not related to performance among participants pursuing specific, difficult goals. Potential reasons for the failure to obtain evidence of the predicted three-way interaction among skill, outcome difficulty, and goals are discussed in the context of limitations to the present study. Future research directions are suggested. / Master of Science

The diploma thesis deals with the economic demands of individual proposals how to deal with a particular object and evaluate the most suitable solution. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with constructions of agricultural constructions, defects of building structures and their remediation and handling of hazardous waste. The practical part deals with financial demands of individual proposals and their subsequent evaluation.

A new hybrid Video Game Difficulty Balancing method which stands in between the two traditional methods (Static and Dynamic) has been suggested in this project aiming to discreetly estimate the player’s difficulty preference and make the respective in-game adjustment. This method has been based on the hypothesis that the user’s difficulty preferences can be to some extent predicted by some of their in-game actions. A casual mobile game containing a User Testing part has been developed for this purpose and played by 56 participants. The extracted results offer some insights on various gamers’ demographic groups behaviors and some indications that the intended prediction is feasible.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur läromedel och digitala hjälpmedel är anpassade för elever med lässvårigheter i årskurs 1. Detta görs genom en granskning av tre olika läromedel och analys av i vilken mån de har potential att gynna elever med lässvårigheter. Teorier som används i studien är det sociokulturella perspektivet och motivationsteorin. Enligt det sociokulturella perspektivet sker lärandet genom det sociala samspelet och utgår från varje elevs proximala utvecklingszon. Med hjälp av motivationsteorin synliggörs det i studien hur lärare kan hjälpa elever att öka motivationen och hur det kan påverka deras lärande och utveckling. Studien använder sig av kvalitativ metod där materialet analyseras utifrån innehållsanalys. Materialet utgörs av läromedel i svenska som är riktade till elever i årskurs 1. Text och innehåll analyseras utifrån fonologisk medvetenhet, ordavkodning och motivation. Studien beskriver hur fonologisk medvetenhet och ordavkodning synliggörs i läromedlen. Dessutom belyses lärarens roll för elevers motivation utifrån studiens analyserade läromedel parallellt med motivationsteorin. Resultatet av studien visar att det är svårt att generellt svara på om läromedel är anpassade till alla elever med lässvårigheter, men en djupare och bredare bild av hur läromedel och lärarhandledningar är uppbyggda framkommer av analysen. Vidare synliggörs en mer djupgående förståelse av elevers lärprocess och hur lärare kan anpassa undervisningen för att gynna elevers proximala utvecklingszon.

Studien behandlar elevers erfarenheter kring inkonsekventa textuppgifter i matematik. Syftet är att bilda kunskap om elevers syn på tillvägagångssätt vid lösandet av och svårig­heter med uppgifterna. Studiens teori utgår från fenomenologin då den stämmer över­ens med studiens syfte. Datamaterialet i stu­dien utgår från tio semistrukturerade inter­vjuer med elever i årskurs 6. Eleverna har under intervjuerna fått delge tillväga­gångs­sätt och vad de erfar var svårt och lätt med olika textuppgifter. Resultatet visar att problemmodellering var den vanligast förekommande strategin bland eleverna, men även direktöversättning förekom. Eleverna menade att svårigheten med textuppgifter var att beräkna och förstå vad de skulle göra. Eleverna hade olika preferenser av den omformulerade uppgiften men alla elever förutom en ansåg att standardversionen eller versionen där sambanden var tydligare var enklast att förstå. Slutsatser som kunde dras var att eleverna tenderade att koppla samman signalord med ett visst räknesätt, oavsett vilken strategi de använde sig av. Eleverna var även mer medvetna om problematiken kring beräkningen än de språkliga faktorerna. Deras olika preferenser av formuleringen av en uppgift kunde bero på deras tidigare erfarenheter av textuppgifter. / This study discusses pupils’ experiences of inconsistent word problems within mathe­matics. The aim is to form knowledge about pupils’ views of strategies and difficulties when solving inconsistent word problems. The theory in the study is based on phenomenology as it corresponds to the aim of the study. The material consisted of ten semi-structured interviews with pupils in grade 6. In the interviews the pupils described how they solved word problems and which difficulties they experienced with word problems. The result displayed the problem model approach as most common among the pupils, but direct translation also occurred. Complex aspects which the pupils mentioned were to calculate and perceive which rule of arithmetic to use. The pupils preferred different forms of rewording, but all except one pupil chose the standard version or the conceptual rewording. Conclusions drawn from the study was that pupils tended to associate relation terms with a rule of arithmetic, regardless of which strategy they used. The pupils were more aware of complications of the computing than of linguistic aspects. The difference in preferences of rewording could be due to differences in experiences of word problems.

This research study investigated the effectiveness of a child-centered play therapy intervention conducted by trained high school students on the behavior of preschool and kindergarten children with adjustment difficulties. Specifically, this research determined if play sessions conducted by high school students trained in child-centered play therapy skills and procedures facilitated change in the children's behaviors. The experimental group children (N=14) each received 20 weekly individual play sessions from a high school student enrolled in a Peer Assistance and Leadership class. The high school students were randomly paired with a referred child. The high school students completed 7 one-hour training sessions in child-centered play therapy procedures and skills prior to beginning the weekly, supervised play sessions. The control group (N=12) received no treatment during the study. Pre and post data were collected from parents who completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and teachers who completed the Early Childhood Behavior Scale (ECBS). Multivariate analyses of variance of gained scored revealed statistical significance in 2 of the 4 hypotheses. Specifically, the children in the experimental group showed significant decreases in internalizing behaviors (p = .025) and total behaviors (p = .025) on the CBCL. Although not in the statistically significant range, positive trends were noted in externalizing behaviors on the CBCL (p = .07) and total behaviors on the ECBS (p = .056). All play sessions were conducted in the primary school that the children attended. The high school student facilitated play sessions helped to maximize the school counselor's time by meeting the needs of more students. Implications for school counselors are noted with suggestions for how to begin and maintain a similar program in schools. This study supports the use of child-centered play therapy by trained high school students as an effective intervention for helping young children with a variety of adjustment problems.

Tidigare forskning kring personlighet och utbildningsval har bedrivits i flertalet länder, men inte i Sverige så vitt vi vet. Vårt syfte med den föreliggande studien var att åtgärda denna kunskapslucka inom svensk akademi. Ytterligare ett syfte var att undersöka om det fanns ett samband mellan studenternas personlighet och hur svår de upplever sin utbildning. Följande frågeställningar formulerades: 1) Skiljer sig personlighet mellan olika akademiska utbildningsgrupper? 2) Finns det samband mellan personlighet och hur svår studenten upplever utbildningen? Deltagarna var studenter och före detta studenter vid svenska högskolor och universitet. Det totala antalet svarande i studien var 114 personer (56% kvinnor). Enkäten som användes bestod av två personlighetstest: IPIP-120 (International Personality Item Pool) (chronbachs alpha α mellan .87 till .90) som mäter personlighet enligt femfaktormodellen samt PID-5 (The Personality Inventory for DSM-5) (chronbachs alpha α mellan .76 till .89). Insamlade data analyserade i SPSS med hjälp av de statistiska verktygen envägs-anova, oberoende t-test, Pearsons korrelation (r) samt regressionsanalys. Resultaten visade att 1) det personlighetsdrag som urskilde sig mest var openness. Den största skillnaden noterades mellan studenter inom personal och beteendevetenskap samt data och IT där beteendevetare hade högre medelvärde av openness fasetter intellect och emotionality. 2) Resultatet visade att personlighetsdraget neuroticism bäst predicerade studentens upplevda svårighet och att sambandet var positivt. Det resultat föreliggande studie visat menar vi skulle kunna vara till nytta vid förbättring och utveckling av framtida akademiska utbildningar. / Research on the relationship between personality and academic majors has been conducted in some countries, but not in Sweden to the extent of our knowledge. Our aim with this study is therefore to cover this knowledge gap in Swedish academy. Another purpose was to explore if there was a relationship between a students' personality traits and how difficult they found their education. The following questions were formulated: 1) Does personality differ between groups in various academic majors? 2) Is there a connection between a student's personality and the perceived difficulty? The participants were students and former students at Swedish universities. The total number of participants was 114 (56% women). The survey used consisted of two personality-tests: IPIP-120 (International Personality Item Pool) (chronbachs alpha α ranged from .87 to .90) that measures personality according the Big-five theory, and PID-5 (The Personality Inventory for DSM-5) (chronbachs alpha α ranged from .76 to .89). The collected data was analyzed with SPSS and the statistical tools: One-way ANOVA, independent t-test, Pearsons correlation (r) and regression analysis. Our results showed that, 1) the personality dimension that differentiated the most were openness, this between behavioral science students and computer science students, where the behavioral science students had the highest openness scores. 2) The result also demonstrated that the trait neuroticism was the best predictor of how difficult the students experienced their education. The results of this study could be very useful in the development and improvement of future universities and educations.

Few studies in the sporting realm have been conducted to verify the findings from industrial or organizational settings regarding the strong positive motivational effects of goal setting (Locke et al., 1981). Therefore, the purpose of the present investigation was to determine the effects of three levels of goal difficulty and two levels of feedback on the performance of males undertaking an endurance task. Performance results were analyzed using a 2 x 3 x 2 (feedback x goal difficulty x trials) ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor. Results indicated a significant goal by trials interaction with both specific difficult goal groups improving from trial one to trial two. The "do best" group showed no significant improvements. It was also found that only the difficult, but not the extremely difficult goal group performed significantly better than the "do best" goal group. No significant differences were found between the two feedback groups. The results are discussed in terms of Locke's (1968) original theory of goal setting.

This thesis investigated the effect of visuomotor and working memory 1) task difficulty and 2) multitasking on dynamic functional connectivity in the brain. Studies have only recently begun to investigate functional connectivity within the scope of concurrent dual task or varying task difficulty conditions (Cocchi, Zalesky, et al. 2011; Rietschel et al. 2012). A series of EEG recordings were conducted during execution of visuomotor or working memory tasks within a novel paradigm using BCI2VR custom MATLAB toolbox. Functional connectivity was correlated with task-related coherence (TRCoh) analysis between two task conditions involving either variation in task difficulty or concurrent execution during multitasking within the delta (0 – 4 Hz), theta (4 – 8 Hz), alpha (8 – 12 Hz), beta1 (12-16 Hz), beta2 (16 – 20 Hz) and beta3 (20 – 24 Hz) frequency bands. An increase in coherence was observed with increased cognitive load, during both increased task difficulty and multitasking, in all frequency bands except beta1 and beta2. This may suggest that the psychomotor efficiency hypothesis also applies to multitasking as well as task difficulty. Decreases in beta coherence were observed with increased performance error, indicating that interregional beta coherence may not follow the PEH trend. The increased coherence between brain regions in the alpha, delta and theta bands contributes to the growing volume of research on quantifying cognitive workload and may serve as a future basis on increasing multitasking efficiency during high stress environments. Further research recording multitasking effects on individuals over regular intervals during an extended period of time (months or years) will be required to better understand changes in functional connectivity within the brain.

This thesis investigates the roles played by etymology in the work of three late modernist poet-critics: W. H. Auden, J. H. Prynne, and Paul Muldoon. The relationship between poetry and etymology has a long history, but the advent of modern linguistics at the beginning of the twentieth century brought about a change in this relationship. Structuralism developed a more comprehensive condemnation of the etymological fallacy – the view that historical forms and meanings are relevant to current ones - that both isolated etymology as an abstract field of study and undermined its scientific validity. One reaction to this state of affairs has been to re-evaluate etymological discourse itself as poetic or rhetorical. But it is the tension created by what Paula Blank has called 'the quasi-disciplinarity of etymological desire' that motivates Auden, Prynne, and Muldoon's concerns with linguistic historicity. Etymological poetry encourages, even necessitates, very close reading. While this thesis accepts the challenge to read arguably too closely, it also examines the limits of such an approach and its implications for the relationship between poetry and criticism. The first three chapters consider how Auden, Prynne, and Muldoon invoke etymologies in their own criticism, and how etymology affects the ways their poetry may be said to communicate. The second three develop these analyses into new interpretations of commonly debated aspects of their work: Auden's landscape poetry, Prynne's lyricism, and Muldoon's onomastics. It is argued that the fact of obsolescence is key to the etymological poetic; obsolete forms and meanings make poetry difficult, but in the process they intimate that a truer way of representing the world may be (re)discovered. All three poet-critics confront and absorb the consequences of etymological obscurity. Their preoccupation with the history of words is self-consciously and unavoidably pedantic, and it is this pedantry that plays the most significant role in the poetic power they accord to etymology.