Episodic memory refers to the storage and retrieval of information about events in our past. According to dual process models, episodic memory is supported by familiarity which refers to the rapid and automatic sense of oldness about a previously encoded stimulus, and recollection which refers to the retrieval of contextual information, such as spatial, temporal or other contextual details that bring a specific item to mind. To be clear, familiarity is traditionally assumed to support recognition of item information, whereas recollection supports the recognition of associative information. Event Related Potential (ERP) studies provide support for dual process models, by demonstrating qualitatively distinct patterns of neural activity associated with familiarity (Mid-Frontal old/new effect) and recollection (Left-Parietal old/new effect). In the current thesis, ERPs were used to address two important questions regarding associative recognition – namely, the function of the neural signal supporting recollection and whether familiarity can contribute to the retrieval of novel associative information. The first series of experiments was aimed at addressing how recollection operates by employing a recently developed continuous source task designed to directly measure the accuracy of retrieval success. To date, the function of recollection has been fiercely debated, with some arguing that recollection reflects the operation of a continuous retrieval process, whereby test cues always elicit some information from memory. Alternatively, recollection may reflect the operation of a thresholded process that allows for retrieval failure, whereby test cues sometimes elicit no information from memory at all. In the current thesis, the Left Parietal effect was found to be sensitive to the precision of memory responses when recollection succeeded, but was entirely absent when recollection failed. The result clarifies the nature of the neural mechanism underlying successful retrieval whilst also providing novel evidence in support of threshold models of recollection. The second series of experiments addressed whether familiarity could contribute to the retrieval of novel associative information. Recent associative recognition studies have suggested that unitization (whereby multi-component stimuli are encoded as a single item rather than as a set of associated parts) can improve episodic memory by increasing the availability of familiarity during retrieval. To date, however, ERP studies have failed to provide any evidence of unitization for novel associations, whereas behavioural support for unitization is heavily reliant on model specific measures such as ROC analysis. Over three separate associative recognition studies employing unrelated word pairs, the magnitude of the Mid-Frontal old/new effect was found to be modulated by encoding instructions designed to manipulate the level of unitization. Importantly, the results also suggest that different encoding strategies designed to manipulate the level of unitization may be more successful than others. Finally, the results also revealed that differences in behavioural performance and modulation of the Mid-Frontal old/new effect between unitized and non-unitized instructions is greater for unrelated compared to related word pairs. In essence, the results suggest that unitization is better suited to learning completely novel associations as opposed to word pairs sharing a pre-existing conceptual relationship. Overall, the data presented in this thesis supports dual process accounts of episodic memory, suggesting that at a neural level of analysis, recollection is both thresholded and variable, whilst also supporting the assumption that familiarity can contribute to successful retrieval of novel associative information. The results have important implications for our current understanding of cognitive decline and the development of behavioural interventions aimed at alleviating associative deficits.

The invasion of individuals into new habitats can pose a major threat to native species and to biodiversity itself. However, the consequences of invasions for native populations that are not fully reproductively isolated from their invaders are not yet well explored. Here I chose the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata, to investigate how different population traits shaped the outcome of Haskins's introduction, a well-documented invasion of Guanapo river guppies into the Turure river. I especially concentrated on the importance of behaviour for invasive success. I investigated if the spread of Guanapo guppies is due to superiority in behaviour, life-history and/or genetics, or if the outcome of this translocation is due to chance. Despite the fact that by today the invasive front has passed the Turure's confluence with the River Quare many kilometres downstream of the introduction site, and the original genotype only survives in small percentages, as was revealed by genetic analysis in this and other studies, no obvious differences between invasive and native populations could be detected in any of the tested behavioural, life-history and genetic traits. When tested for mate choice, neither Guanapo nor Oropuche (Turure) males seemed to be able to distinguish between the population origin of females, but courted and mated at random. At the same time, females did not prefer to school with individuals of the same population over schooling with more distantly related females. The formation of mixed schools after an invasive event is therefore likely. Because female guppies showed a very low willingness to mate, even after having been separated from males for up to six months, sperm transfer through forced copulations will become more important. Taken together, these behaviours could increase the speed of population mixing after an invasion without the need for behavioural superiority of the invasive population. When tested for their schooling abilities, offspring of mixed parentage, in contrast to pure breds, displayed a large amount of variety in the time they spent schooling, a circumstance that can potentially influence survival rates and therefore the direction of gene pool mixing. Guanapo fish did not show reproductive superiority in a mesocosm experiment, where both populations were mixed in different proportions. On the contrary, in two out of three mixed treatments, the amount of Oropuche (Turure) alleles was significantly higher than expected from the proportion of initially stocked fish. The almost complete absence of distinguishable traits other than genetic variation between the examined populations that belong to different drainage systems, opposes the recent split of the guppy into two different species following drainage system borders, as is argued in this thesis. However, the successful invasion of the Turure by Guanapo guppies and the nearly entire disappearance of the original population can be explained in absence of differing population traits. Here I demonstrate how behavioural and genetic interactions between subspecies influence the outcome of biological invasions and second, how factors other than population traits, such as the geographic situation, can produce an advantageous situation for the invader even in the absence of population differences.

Dual-process models of recognition memory propose that recognition memory can be supported by either a general sense of familiarity or the recollection of the encoding context. One source of evidence supporting dual-process models comes from event-related potential (ERP) studies of recognition memory, which have identified distinct patterns of neural activity associated with familiarity and recollection (the mid frontal and left parietal old/new effects, respectively). In this thesis, dual-process accounts of recognition memory were investigated in a series of ERP studies using three categories of stimulus: previously unknown faces, famous faces, and names. For previously unknown faces, familiarity was associated with activity over posterior scalp electrodes while recollection was associated with topographically dissociable activity over anterior electrodes. These dissociable patterns of activity support dual-process models. However, the typical pattern of old/new effects was only observed for stimuli associated with pre-existing representations (i.e., names and famous faces), suggesting that the presence/absence of pre-existing representations may determine the particular retrieval processes that support recognition memory. Furthermore, recollection was associated with two different patterns of activity (anterior and left parietal effects), suggesting that recollection is not a homogenous process. Dual-process theories may represent an important starting point for investigating recognition memory, but neither familiarity nor recollection appear to be functionally homogenous processes when theorizing is constrained by the analysis of scalp recorded electrophysiological activity.

The gap between ethical purchase intentions and ethical purchase behaviour is well-documented. Although this gap can be bridged by increasing the level of awareness among consumers with regards to ethical business practices, it was found that consumers between the ages of 19 to 56 years were already aware of ethical organisations and business practices in the South African sports supplement industry. They are however unaware of companies that operate unethically. Several factors such as brand familiarity, price and convenience were found to compete with ethical business behaviour during the purchase decision-making process. It is thus recommended that organisations that incorporate ethical business behaviour at a strategic level should provide ethical products that are competitively priced, convenient to use and from a brand that is familiar / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Cette thèse de doctorat étudie la réponse des consommateurs à la longévité brandée de la marque. En particulier, on explore l'effet de la longévité brandée de la marque sur la fluidité du traitement et la familiarité de la marque dans diverses conditions. Comment réagissent les consommateurs lorsqu'une marque indique sa date de création sur un emballage ou une publicité ? Comment leurs réactions diffèrent­elles en fonction de leur niveau d’implication avec le produit ou de la congruence entre la catégorie de produit et la longévité de la marque? Cette thèse identifie les processus psychologiques qui se produisent lors de l'exposition à la longévité brandée de la marque afin d'expliquer l'effet de la longévité de la marque sur le consommateur. La longévité brandée de la marque est censée susciter une réaction positive chez le consommateur, telle que la confiance dans la marque et la crédibilité de la marque. Cette thèse examine les mécanismes psychologiques qui expliquent ces effets. La fluidité du traitement est considérée comme le cadre théorique pouvant expliquer ces effets. Un modèle démontre que celle­ci est le médiateur entre l’effet de la longévité brandée de la marque et la familiarité de la marque. Ce modèle prend en compte des effets modérateurs tels que l’implication envers le produit et la congruence. / This doctoral dissertation examines consumer response to branded longevity. In particular, it explores the effect of branded longevity on processing fluency and brand familiarity under various conditions. How do consumers react when a brand indicates its founding date on a package or advertisement? How do their reactions differ according to their level of involvement with the product or the congruence between the product category and branded longevity? This thesis identifies the psychological processes that occur during exposure to branded longevity in order to explain the effect of the longevity of the brand on the consumer. Branded longevity is argued to positively influence marketing variables, such as brand confidence and brand credibility. This thesis examines the psychological mechanisms that explain these effects. Processing fluency is considered as the theoretical framework that can explain these effects. Our model shows that processing fluency mediates the effect of branded longevity on brand familiarity. This model takes into account moderating effects such as product involvement and congruence.

On pense souvent que notre mémoire nous joue des tours et nous fait défaut. Ces oublis concernent généralement des souvenirs qui ne sont pourtant pas si vieux. Alors quand il s’agit de se rappeler d’informations sensorielles auxquelles nous n’avons pas repensé depuis plusieurs dizaines d’années, pas de doute, il ne reste plus rien… Mais en est-on vraiment sûr? Et si l’information était toujours là, prête à se manifester de manière explicite -comme sous forme de rappel ou de sentiment de familiarité- pour peu que les conditions le lui permettent? A ce jour, très peu d’expériences ont été menées sur ce sujet. L’objectif de ma thèse a donc été d’apporter des premiers éléments de réponse concernant la récupération de mémoires laissées inactives. Ma recherche s’est orientée selon deux axes principaux : une première partie théorique où je montre a) qu’il n’est pas nécessaire de réactiver une trace mnésique pour la maintenir à très long-terme si elle a été suffisamment répétée et b) que la récupération explicite de cette mémoire serait possible grâce à la présentation d’informations qui cibleraient au mieux le souvenir ; une seconde partie expérimentale où je montre a) que des participants sont capables de récupérer de manière explicite des informations laissées en dormance pendant au moins une dizaine d’années et b) que cette trace mnésique pourrait être détectée sur des tracés d’Electroencéphalographie (EEG). Ainsi, et aussi étonnant que cela puisse paraître, dans des conditions favorables à leur réactivation, d’anciennes traces mnésiques que l’on croyait disparues, peuvent de nouveau surgir sous la manifestation de rappel ou de sentiment de familiarité par exemple. Ces résultats soulèvent des questions majeures concernant le stockage neuronal de cette information. / Memory plays tricks on us and fails us even for recent events. So for the retrieval of sensory information that we have not experienced for decades, surely the memories are gone without a trace, but can we be sure of this? What if the information had been there all along ready to be explicitly retrieved through recall or familiarity for example? So far, experimental evidence is lacking. The purpose of my thesis was to shed some light on the retrieval of these inactive memories. To tackle this problem I developed my research around two main axes: For the first part which is theoretical, I suggest that a) reactivations are not necessary to maintain very long-term memories if the memories were sufficiently repeated at first; b) it might be possible to retrieve explicitly remote inactive memories using specific cues; in the second part which is experimental, I show that a) within specific conditions participants are able to retrieve explicitly very long-term memories that were left inactive for decades and b) such memory traces could be found on the Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Surprisingly, when conditions are met, remote memories that were thought to be lost can again elicit recall or familiarity. With these results, a question remains: How do neurons store such information?

Teachers of foreign languages typically encourage their students to speak in the target language (TL) often, but due to various factors, this is not always achieved. Some reasons might include insufficient vocabulary, lack of topic knowledge, embarrassment, or simple unwillingness. Much of the existing research observes uses of the TL or native language (L1). The purpose of this study was to examine how often students use the TL in paired interactions and whether that amount has any relationship to the students' oral proficiency at the end of the course. In a SPAN 105 course at Brigham Young University, 27 students participated in this project by recording themselves during six in-class, paired interactions, after which they provided comments via questionnaires. This study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, with both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data revealed information about the time spent in the TL, as well as the time spent in the L1, and what relationship these variables had with listening comprehension and oral proficiency. The qualitative data exposed emergent findings related to TL/L1 use: helpful tools, effects of task type, pitfalls the students experienced, struggles and benefits of partnering, effects of recording, and student perceptions about the L1. The results of the study indicate a need for teacher strategies to encourage TL use in the classroom.

L’être humain est un être social amené à comprendre les comportements moteurs d’autrui. Selon la littérature, nous disposons de mécanismes cognitifs spécifiques, d’une part à la perception d’un corps humain (qu’il soit statique ou en mouvement), et d’autre part à la perception des expressions faciales émotionnelles. Ce travail de thèse vise à comprendre dans quelle mesure l'émotion véhiculée par le visage d'une personne, peut moduler notre perception de son action motrice. Les résultats de l’étude 1 ont montré que l’estimation de l’équilibre statique d’autrui pouvait être modulée par l’expression faciale émotionnelle (de sourire ou de crispation) exprimée par celui-ci. L’étude 2, a porté sur l’estimation de l’effort physique développé par une personne uniquement à partir de son expression faciale de douleur. Les résultats ont montré que les participants, dans ce type de tâche, utilisent deux mécanismes perceptifs automatiques. Le premier, mis en évidence par mesure fonctionnelle, facilite l’estimation de l’intensité de douleur à l’effort ressentie par autrui. Le second, démontré par la mesure d’un biais de mémorisation, entraîne une anticipation automatique de la suite de l’évolution de l’expression faciale de douleur à l’effort présentée. L’étude 3 a montré que l’estimation de l’effort physique développé par une personne atteinte de paraplégie réalisant un mouvement de transfert, est modulée par deux comportements de douleur (l’auto-protection et l’expression faciale de douleur). Toutefois, cette modulation diffère selon la familiarité des participants avec le monde médical et la paraplégie. En conclusion, ce travail de recherche propose que la modulation émotionnelle de la perception de l’action motrice d’autrui est en premier lieu sous-tendue par un processus automatique et implicite de contagion émotionnelle (bottom-up). Toutefois, cette dernière peut être inhibée par un processus explicite (top-down) qui dépendrait d’une part du type d’inférence à effectuer sur autrui (estimer l’équilibre postural ou l’effort physique développé), et d’autre part de la familiarité de l’observateur avec l’action motrice et les expressions faciales présentées. / Understanding others’ motor behaviour is part and parcel of Humans’ social experience. According to scientific literature, we rely on specific mechanisms for perceiving human bodies (whether static or moving) on the one hand, and processing emotional facial expressions on the other hand. This thesis aims to understand to what extent the emotion conveyed by a person’s face can modulate one’s perception of her/his motor action. Results of study 1 showed that our estimation of an individual’s static equilibrium is modulated by the observed individual’s emotional facial expression (smiling or tensed). Study 2 focused on perceptual estimation of the physical effort developed by a person on the basis of his facial expression of pain alone. Results revealed that participants adopt two automatic perceptual mechanisms. The first, highlighted via functional measurement, facilitates estimating the intensity of effort pain felt by others. The second, evidenced by measuring memory bias, leads to an automatic anticipation of the subsequent changes in the intensity of pain-related facial expressions. Study 3 showed that the estimation of physical effort developed by a paraplegic individual performing a transfer movement is modulated by two pain behaviours (guarding and facial expression of pain). Interestingly, this modulation varies with participants’ familiarity with both the medical domain and paraplegia. The conclusion of this research suggests that the modulation of emotional perception related to others’ motor action is primarily subtended by an automatic (bottom-up) process and an implicit emotional contagion. However, the latter can be inhibited by an explicit (top-down) process which may depend on (1) the type of inference made on others (estimating postural balance or physical effort developed in others), and (2) the familiarity of the observer with motor action and facial expressions.

Recent proposals have attributed a key role to novelty in the formation of new episodic memories. These proposals are based on evidence of enhanced memory and greater metabolic activity in the hippocampus in response to novel relative to familiar materials. However, such novelty effects are incongruous with long-standing observations that familiar items and lists are associated with better memory than novel ones. In four experiments, I explored possible reasons for this apparent discrepancy. In Experiment 1, I directly tested whether previously observed novelty effects were the result of novelty, discrimination demands, or both. I used linguistic materials (proverbs) to replicate the novelty effect but found it occurred only when familiar items were subject to source confusion. In Experiment 2, to examine better how novelty influences episodic memory, I used experimentally familiar, pre-experimentally familiar, and novel proverbs in a paradigm designed to overcome discrimination demand confounds. Memory was better for both types of familiar proverbs. These cognitive results indicate that familiarity, not novelty, leads to better episodic memory for studied items, regardless of whether familiarity is experimentally induced or based on prior knowledge. I also conducted two fMRI experiments to evaluate the neural correlates of the encoding of novel and familiar forms of information. In Experiment 3, I compared the neural encoding correlates of source memory for novel and familiar visual scenes using fMRI. Replicating previous neuroimaging studies, I observed an anterior novelty-sensitive region of the hippocampus specialized in novelty encoding. Unlike past studies, I also probed for familiarity-encoding regions and identified such regions in the posterior hippocampus. I replicated this pattern in Experiment 4 using proverbs as stimuli. As in Experiment 2, I found the effect held whether familiarity was based on prior knowledge or experimental induction. In both fMRI experiments, anterior and posterior hippocampal regions were functionally connected with different large-scale networks, helping to explain local variation in hippocampal functional specialization in terms of different neural contexts. Together, these experiments show that stimulus familiarity enhances episodic memory for materials, and that novelty is processed differently, not preferentially, in the hippocampus. A new model of hippocampal novelty processing is proposed.

Recent proposals have attributed a key role to novelty in the formation of new episodic memories. These proposals are based on evidence of enhanced memory and greater metabolic activity in the hippocampus in response to novel relative to familiar materials. However, such novelty effects are incongruous with long-standing observations that familiar items and lists are associated with better memory than novel ones. In four experiments, I explored possible reasons for this apparent discrepancy. In Experiment 1, I directly tested whether previously observed novelty effects were the result of novelty, discrimination demands, or both. I used linguistic materials (proverbs) to replicate the novelty effect but found it occurred only when familiar items were subject to source confusion. In Experiment 2, to examine better how novelty influences episodic memory, I used experimentally familiar, pre-experimentally familiar, and novel proverbs in a paradigm designed to overcome discrimination demand confounds. Memory was better for both types of familiar proverbs. These cognitive results indicate that familiarity, not novelty, leads to better episodic memory for studied items, regardless of whether familiarity is experimentally induced or based on prior knowledge. I also conducted two fMRI experiments to evaluate the neural correlates of the encoding of novel and familiar forms of information. In Experiment 3, I compared the neural encoding correlates of source memory for novel and familiar visual scenes using fMRI. Replicating previous neuroimaging studies, I observed an anterior novelty-sensitive region of the hippocampus specialized in novelty encoding. Unlike past studies, I also probed for familiarity-encoding regions and identified such regions in the posterior hippocampus. I replicated this pattern in Experiment 4 using proverbs as stimuli. As in Experiment 2, I found the effect held whether familiarity was based on prior knowledge or experimental induction. In both fMRI experiments, anterior and posterior hippocampal regions were functionally connected with different large-scale networks, helping to explain local variation in hippocampal functional specialization in terms of different neural contexts. Together, these experiments show that stimulus familiarity enhances episodic memory for materials, and that novelty is processed differently, not preferentially, in the hippocampus. A new model of hippocampal novelty processing is proposed.