Phonological awareness, and working memory, as a component of phonological awareness, have been found to be highly correlated, not only with the acquisition of reading skills, but also with each other. Existing data does not address this aspect of emergent literacy in South African children, for whom bilingualism may impact on their levels of phonological awareness, and possibly working memory. This research study was designed and conducted in an attempt to identify the relationship between these two skills in a sample of seventy-nine South African Grade 1 children (mean age 86 months). The sample consisted of two language groups, namely first-language English (EL1), an opaque orthography (n=42) and second-language English with first-language one of the nine official African languages of South Africa (EL2), a transparent orthography (n=37). The primary aim was to examine the relationship between phonological awareness (comprising a sound categorisation task, a phoneme deletion task, and a syllable splitting task) and working memory (comprising a verbal short-term memory task, a visuo-spatial short-term memory task, a verbal working memory task and a visuo-spatial working memory task). A measure of non-verbal intelligence was included as a control. Separate analyses were run for the two language groups in order to draw a comparison between their performance on the tasks. Results generally supported existing literature that showed that the relationship between working memory and phonological awareness appears to be dependent on the depth of analysis of phonological awareness, which determines the level of demand made on working memory, yet the relationship differed between the language groups, indicating that the EL2 children draw more on general or apparently unrelated skills to conduct working memory and phonological awareness tasks. A secondary aim of this study was to explore the predictive power of firstly, the four memory skills on phonological awareness; secondly, the sound categorisation skills on phoneme deletion and finally, non-verbal intelligence on working memory. Results again differed between the language groups, suggesting that a broader range of working memory skills predict performance on phonological awareness tasks in the EL2 group than in the EL1 group. The implications of these results are discussed in detail.

Thesis advisor: Bernard O'Brien / This study Investigated factors underlying marital stability in twelve working class couples who had been married at least twenty years, and whose youngest child was eighteen or older. A qualitative approach was used to elucidate the meaning of each individual's experience of marriage, with a focus on gender differences. Marriage was conceptualized developmentally in three phases: 1) pre-child rearing; 2) child rearing; and 3) post-child rearing. A semi-structured interview was used to elicit information regarding initial attraction, expectations, roles, communication, problem-solving, handling interpersonal differences, child rearing, intimacy, sexuality, relationship variables (understanding, sensitivity, respect, trust) and equity with regard to each phase. The influence of external factors (finances, ethnicity, culture), religion, and participants' families of origin on the marital relationship were discussed as well. Nine salient themes emerged from the data: initial attraction, expectations, marital behavior (including child rearing), relatedness, values, finances, influence of family of origin, marital satisfaction, and change over time. Relatedness was the core category, encompassing eight other themes: positive regard for the relationship, intimacy, relationship variables (understanding, sensitivity, respect, trust), communication, style of handling interpersonal differences, marital conflict, equity, and sexuality. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1993. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Education.

Working memory, which enables the temporary storage of information in an active “online” state, is an exceptionally capacity limited system. Given this capacity limit, irrelevant information in our environment must be filtered out, while relevant representation is maintained. Research has shown that neural oscillations in the alpha frequency range (8-12Hz) are greatly influenced by the number of items in memory. Most work has argued that alpha oscillations primarily support working memory processing by suppressing information that could interfere with items already in memory, as indexed by an increase in alpha power. However, other work has shown that decreases in alpha power, with little evidence of concurrent increases, support the maintenance of working memory representations. In this thesis we show that, in the context of visual working memory, the primary role of alpha oscillations is to maintain distinct working memory representations, rather than to suppress irrelevant information. This is shown in a series of three experiments all indicating that as the number of relevant items increases, the power of alpha oscillations systematically decreases. In the first experiment, we use a whole report and change detection task to examine how the number of items in memory influences alpha oscillations. In the second experiment, we use a cuing (Experiment 2A) and filtering (Experiment 2B) paradigm to demonstrate that alpha power tracks the number of remembered items instead of the number of total items on the screen. Lastly, by presenting items sequentially (Experiment 3A) or in overlapping locations (Experiment 3B), we see evidence that decreases in alpha power are related to the maintenance of relevant spatial locations, instead of the number of items in memory. The results of the experiments suggest that alpha power reflects the maintenance of relevant working memory representations, rather than the suppression of irrelevant external distractors or the inhibition of task-irrelevant neural areas. Furthermore, our last experiment indicates that the alpha frequency band is especially sensitive to the maintenance of spatial information.

During scene viewing, visual working memory (VWM) is used to retain information from recently attended and fixated objects. In the present study, I examined whether and how people can strategically control the content of VWM during scene viewing, prioritizing task-relevant objects for retention even as the eyes are directed to subsequent objects. Participants viewed a set of real-world objects presented serially within a 3-D rendered scene. One object in the sequence was cued by a tone as to-be-remembered. At the end of the sequence, memory for the visual form of one object was tested. Participants exhibited tight control over the content of VWM, implementing prioritization after the encoding of an object into VWM, protecting that item from subsequent interference. Participants also successfully reallocated protection to subsequent objects, regardless of the duration of prioritization of the original item. Such strategic maintenance of objects in VWM is likely to play an important role in real-world visual behavior, especially when object information must be maintained across shifts of attention and the eyes to other objects (such as when comparing two spatially separated objects).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>This study in sociology is the result of a MFS-project, sponsored by SIDA. The ideal in Argentina, at least for the upper classes, has for a long time been the man as bread-winner, the one who supports the family and the woman as the home-maker, the one who stays at home, taking care of house and children. Working-class women have always been working even though it has not been shown in the statistics. This feminist study in sociology is about what influence Argentinean women in their way towards emancipation but also about patriarchy as their biggest obstacle. The study is based on theories based on that in the world there is a world-order controlled by men. Another important theory is that it is easier for working women to reach emancipation in comparison with house-wives, because working women develop themselves in an economic as well as on a personal level. Additionally I went to the field in the Buenos-Aires area in Argentina during October until November 2000 where I did eleven interviews with Argentinean working mothers. I want to emphasize that as the interviews are eight years old, I have chosen not to integrate them very much through the essay, but instead showing them in a special chapter. I have, therefore, not given the interviews a central role in the essay. Instead, I emphasize the theories in the essay. The method I am using is qualitative method, with deep-interviews, the hermeneutic method and of course comparing theories from other authors. The conclusions I have come up with mean that the post-modern feminism is an important tool to understand the diversity of women and womens´ different conditions around the world. By realising these differences it would become easier to challenge the widespread patriarchy in Argentina. Argentinean women could reach emancipation by labour work and education that contribute to development on an economic and on a personal level. Even doing a voluntary work would contribute to this self-esteem and consciousness that are crucial for women on their way towards emancipation.</p>

This study in sociology is the result of a MFS-project, sponsored by SIDA. The ideal in Argentina, at least for the upper classes, has for a long time been the man as bread-winner, the one who supports the family and the woman as the home-maker, the one who stays at home, taking care of house and children. Working-class women have always been working even though it has not been shown in the statistics. This feminist study in sociology is about what influence Argentinean women in their way towards emancipation but also about patriarchy as their biggest obstacle. The study is based on theories based on that in the world there is a world-order controlled by men. Another important theory is that it is easier for working women to reach emancipation in comparison with house-wives, because working women develop themselves in an economic as well as on a personal level. Additionally I went to the field in the Buenos-Aires area in Argentina during October until November 2000 where I did eleven interviews with Argentinean working mothers. I want to emphasize that as the interviews are eight years old, I have chosen not to integrate them very much through the essay, but instead showing them in a special chapter. I have, therefore, not given the interviews a central role in the essay. Instead, I emphasize the theories in the essay. The method I am using is qualitative method, with deep-interviews, the hermeneutic method and of course comparing theories from other authors. The conclusions I have come up with mean that the post-modern feminism is an important tool to understand the diversity of women and womens´ different conditions around the world. By realising these differences it would become easier to challenge the widespread patriarchy in Argentina. Argentinean women could reach emancipation by labour work and education that contribute to development on an economic and on a personal level. Even doing a voluntary work would contribute to this self-esteem and consciousness that are crucial for women on their way towards emancipation.

Thesis (Ph. D.) in History--University of Maine, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 248-264).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1973. / Typewritten.

Thesis--M. Phil., University of Hong Kong, 1983.