This thesis studied the relationship between current event knowledge and the ability to construct a mental map of the world. It was hypothesized that participates with more current event knowledge would demonstrate better mental mapping abilities. The study was designed using two activities recommended for 12th graders by Geography for Life, National Geography Standards 1994, and the theory of spatial familiarity (Kitchen, 1994b; Gale et al., 1990, Golledge & Spector, 1978). One hundred-twenty eight students drawn from two courses offered at Virginia Tech completed a participant profile questionnaire, a current event quiz, drew a map of the world outlining the seven continents, and located and labeled 27 cities on a world map. Using ATLAS GIS the sketch maps and place locations were digitally transformed and scored for accuracy. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze current event knowledge, place location ability, and sketch mapping ability. Using Spearman rank correlation, the relationship between current event knowledge and mental mapping abilities was assessed at a number of levels. Results indicate that participants with a stronger understanding of current events tended to create a more accurate mental map of the world. That is, place location accuracy and drawing accuracy correlated with current event knowledge. However, similar to previous research (Cross, 1987; Helgren, 1983; Muller, 1985) place location knowledge outside of North America and Western Europe was poor. The results of this thesis offer baseline data that can be used for future research to study the effectiveness of the national standards set forth in Geography for Life. / Master of Science

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine how psychological factors affect shareholders and investors, and see which gender differences there are in their investment decisions. Method: The survey was based on a quantitative method with elements of qualitative aspects in form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire were answered by investors and shareholders at various websites for stock investor. The survey consisted of a total of 13 questions with both open and closed answers. Theory: The survey focused on four elements within behavioral finance. These factors are overconfidence, herd behavior, anchoring and familiarity bias. The efficient market hypothesis suggests full rationality which is the opposite of what behavioral finance advocates. Conclusion: Psychological factors affect investors and shareholders in their investment decisions. More men than women considered themselves to be better than average which indicates that they have a stronger overconfidence. In terms of herd behavior the respondents did not show that they follow the group when they have their own information, however, the opposite appeared when they had imperfect information. Women were affected by herd behavior more than men were. Women were affected more than men regarding familiarity bias. Anchoring also proved that the factor had an influence on the respondents but it was not a major difference between men and women.

This literature review sets out to revisit the studies exploring impact of rater characteristics on language oral assessments. Three categories of raters' backgrounds: occupation, accent familiarity, and native language are identified and will be addressed respectively in the following sections. The results showed that no consensus regarding raters' occupational background, linguistic background and native-speaker status on examiners' rating has been found so far. However, this review will highlight the current testing situations, bring up limitations from previous studies, provide implications for both teachers and raters, and hopefully shed light on future research. / text

The thesis explores human embodiment in 3D Virtual environments as a means of enhancing interaction. I aim to provide a better understanding of embodied interaction in digital environments in general. 3D interactive virtual environments challenge users to question aspects of their embodiment by providing new modes for interacting with space. Designers are facing new challenges that require novel means of interacting with virtual environments that do not simply mirror the way we interact within physical environments. Much of the research in the field aims to show how such environments can be made more familiar and "realistic" to users. This thesis attempts to probe the unfamiliar aspects of the medium. In this thesis I explore the concept, image and object of intimate space. How can an understanding of intimate space inform embodied interaction with virtual environments? I also investigate the role of familiarity by analysing and testing it in two contrasting interactive virtual environments. My contribution is to provide an account of familiarity as the driver behind embodied interaction in virtual environments based on human experience (from a phenomenological standpoint). In order to enhance the process of design for human embodied interaction in 3D virtual environments or in physical environments, I will identify tangible and intangible elements that affect human embodiment in 3D virtual environments and space, such as ethics and scale. Both examples are explored in interactive 3D virtual environments corresponding to real physical environments by subjects who are the daily users of the real physical environments. The thesis presents scale as a tangible element and ethics as an intangible element of human embodied interaction in space in order to highlight the different aspects that affect human engagement with space, and therefore human perception of their space and their embodiment. The Subjects’ accounts contribute toward informing the design of interactive 3D virtual environments within the context of embodied interaction.

Research on underdogs has suggested that consumers feel sympathy for and a desire to support the underdog. However, it is unclear how their evaluations of the underdog will change if they receive negative information about it. The current research aims to explore the role of negative word-of-mouth of the underdog, compared to the top dog, in consumers’ brand attitude, brand value, and purchase intention. Specifically, drawing on two streams of research, two competing hypotheses are proposed and tested. An experiment was conducted with online consumer panel members. Consistent with confirmation bias and familiarity principle, the results supported a hypothesis that an underdog brand suffers more than a top dog brand from negative online word-of-mouth. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings along with future research directions are discussed.

This is a study of the influence of the familiarity of students with the narrator of video tutorials, in a blended learning situation, on both the perceived and actual effectiveness of the learning materials, in terms of students’ learning efficiency – where a course is traditional in format and online learning is carried out with the help of Narrated Video Screen Captures (NVSCs). The study also focused on the interaction of student-narrator gender similarity and students’ individual differences (conscientiousness and test-anxiety) with voice familiarity. Thus, the study sought to fill a gap in knowledge regarding the influence of familiarity with the narrator in multimedia learning material on the efficiency of learning within a blended learning context. The research paradigm was deductive, employing a mixed methods and a case study research and using quasi-experiments. In order to compare the relational efficiency of the different instructional conditions, a calculative approach was used that combined measurement of mental effort with task performance. In addition to the mental effort questionnaires and task performance, students completed an assessment questionnaire for the NVSCs. In addition, semi-structured interviews and a follow-up questionnaire were used for collection of corroborative data, in order to shed more light on this matter. Findings showed significant influence of voice familiarity on most of the learning efficiency indices and on perceived effectiveness of NVSCs. Gender similarity was significant only with unfamiliar voice and there was no significant interaction between conscientiousness and test anxiety and voice familiarity. Thus, it was concluded that when students have a personal relationship with the class teacher, exposure to multimedia learning materials with an unfamiliar narrator has an adverse influence on their learning efficiency. These findings add to the established voice related principles of Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and Social Agency Theory. Contribution to knowledge was made by filling the gap in knowledge in the area of multimedia instructional design.

The present study was designed to investigate the discrepancy in test performance between the upper-middle-class and lower-class kindergarten-age child as a function of differential familiarity with test content.

One of the key elements of animal social behaviour is the recognition of individuals on the basis of previous experience. This relationship is called familiarity and affects individual's behaviour. We know many examples of familiarity-based behaviour among fish. Many results show that familiarity is advantageous. Familiar individuals are less aggressive, forage more, make more cohesive shoals and grow faster. We tested the influence of the familiarity on the spatial distribution of juvenile wels catfish Silurus glanis from two unfamiliar groups, which were held in separate tanks. In a laboratory experiment was the spatial distribution of individuals monitored in the artificial stream by using passive integrated transponders. Shelters, which were occupied by individuals, were placed in the stream. Two groups of fish were subsequently added into the experiment under conditions of limited or unlimited shelters. These groups came from the same tank (so they were familiar) or from different tanks (so they were unfamiliar). 1080 individuals were used in this experiment and over three million individual fish positions were recorded. We discovered changing levels of activity under different conditions. When we compared activity of original and additional individuals, we measured higher level of activity in...

Des troubles de la familiarité ont été décrits dans de nombreuses pathologies psychiatriques et neurologiques et seraient à l’origine d’anomalies de la cognition sociale. Dans la schizophrénie, ces troubles peuvent se développer selon deux polarités : l’hyper- et l’hypofamiliarité. Dans l’hyperfamiliarité, les sujets atteints pensent que des proches prennent l’apparence d’inconnus pour les persécuter ; le syndrome le plus décrit est le syndrome de Frégoli. A l’opposé, dans l’hypofamiliarité, les sujets reconnaissent leurs proches d’après les traits de leurs visages, mais pensent que ce sont des imposteurs qui ont pris l’apparence de leurs proches. Le syndrome de Capgras est le plus décrit dans l’hypofamiliarité et le plus étudié des troubles de la familiarité. Dans la schizophrénie, ces troubles concernent principalement les proches, mais également le sujet lui-même qui peut voir chez des inconnus des doubles de lui-même, par exemple. Bien que fréquents et largement décrits dans la schizophrénie, ces troubles restent très peu étudiés. Ainsi, les mécanismes sous-tendant les troubles de la familiarité dans la schizophrénie sont encore bien mal connus.L’objectif de ce travail de thèse a été de mieux comprendre les mécanismes sous-jacents aux troubles de la familiarité dans la schizophrénie au moyen d’études comportementales, utilisant la conductance cutanée et d’une étude en imagerie fonctionnelle par résonance magnétique (IRMf).Dans un premier temps, nous avons cherché à développer une échelle clinique permettant le diagnostic des troubles de la familiarité. En effet, à notre connaissance, aucun outil n’est actuellement validé. Il est alors difficile de caractériser ces troubles et les données épidémiologiques sont manquantes. Cette échelle a été construite d’après la proposition d’items par des experts des troubles de la familiarité, puis par la sélection des items les plus pertinents par d’autres experts. Elle est actuellement en cours de validation. Elle explore 4 dimensions de la familiarité : le soi, les proches, les lieux et les objets et cote ces dimensions respectivement pour l’hypo- et l’hyperfamiliarité.Dans un second temps, nous avons cherché à tester l’hypothèse selon laquelle les troubles de la familiarité, dans la schizophrénie, résulteraient d’une anomalie de la réponse émotionnelle lors de la reconnaissance normale d’un visage connu. Pour cela, nous avons enregistré, dans 2 études, la réponse électrodermale (RED) engendrée par la présentation de visages de soi, familiers, célèbres et inconnus. En effet, la RED est utilisée comme le reflet de l’émotion inconsciente générée par la présentation d’un stimulus (ici un visage). Les principaux résultats de nos 2 études ont montrés que : alors que chez les sujets sains, l’amplitude de la RED était faible pour la condition « inconnu », elle augmentait pour la condition « célèbre » et était encore plus élevée pour les conditions « soi » et « familier », chez les patients schizophrènes, l’amplitude de la RED était faible dans toutes les conditions. Plus spécifiquement, les patients schizophrènes ayant des troubles de la familiarité avaient une RED avec une amplitude similaire dans les différentes conditions : soi, familier, célèbre et inconnu. Ces résultats suggèrent qu’une atteinte émotionnelle puisse être responsable des troubles de la familiarité dans la schizophrénie et que cette atteinte soit du même ordre pour la familiarité que pour le soi.Enfin, dans une étude en IRMf, nous avons pu mettre en évidence une anomalie de fonctionnement des circuits neuronaux du soi et des circuits de la familiarité dans la schizophrénie. Ces résultats suggèrent une demande cognitive plus importante chez les patients (implication de régions du traitement cognitif) pour résoudre l’ambigüité créée par la présentation de visages hautement familiers, nous posons l’hypothèse que le soi et le familier sont difficiles à distinguer chez les patients. [...] / Familiarity disorders have been described in many neurological and psychiatric diseases and would be responsible for abnormal social cognition. In schizophrenia , these disorders can take two polarities: hyper- and hypofamiliarity. In hyperfamiliarity , people think relatives take appearance of strangers to persecute them;The most described syndrome is Fregoli. In contrast, in hypofamiliarity, people recognize their relatives from their facial features, but think they are imposters who took the appearance of people close to them. Capgras syndrome is the most described inhypofamiliarity and the most studied in familiarity disorders. In schizophrenia, these disorders concern mainly relatives or close people, but also the subject itself, who can see his double in unknown people, for example. Although common and extensively described in schizophrenia, these disorders remain poorly studied. Thus, the mechanisms underlying familiarity disorders in schizophrenia are still unknown.The objective of this work was to better understand the mechanisms underlying familiarity disorders in schizophrenia with behavioral studiesusing skin conductance and a study in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).As a first step, we sought to develop a clinical scale for the diagnosis of familiarity disorders. Indeed, to our knowledge, no tool is currently validated. It is difficult to characterize these disorders and epidemiological data are missing. This scale has been built with items proposed by experts in familiarity disorders, and then the most relevantof them have been selected by other experts. It is currently being validated. It explores four dimensions of familiarity: self, familiar persons, places and objects. Tthe score is rated according to these dimensions respectively for hypo- and hyperfamiliarity.In a second step, we sought to test the hypothesis that impaired familiarity in schizophrenia would result from an abnormal emotional response in regard to a normal recognition of a familiar face. For this, in 2 studies, we recorded the skin conductance response (SCR) generated by the presentation of self, familiar, famous and unknown faces. Indeed, SCR is used as an indirect measure of emotional arousal generated by the presentation of a stimulus (here a face). The main results of ours 2 studies have shown that: whereas in healthy subjects, the amplitude of the SCR was low in the “unknown” condition, it increased for the \\\\\\\"famous\\\\\\\" condition and was even higher for \\\\\\\"self\\\\\\\" and \\\\\\\"familiar\\\\\\\" conditions, in schizophrenia patients, the amplitude of the SCR was low in all conditions. More specifically, schizophrenia patients with familiarity disorders showed similar SCR magnitude whatever the conditions: self, familiar, famous and unknown. These results suggest that emotional impairment may be responsible for familiarity disorders in schizophrenia and that this impairment could be similar for familiarity and self.Finally, in an fMRI study, we were able to identify a dysfunction of neural circuits of self and familiarity in schizophrenia. These results suggest a greater cognitive demand for patients to resolve the ambiguity created by the introduction of highly familiar faces (i.e. the self and familiar are difficult to distinguish for patients).Thus, it appears that, in schizophrenia, familiarity desorders are present in all patients with varying degrees, resulting in recognition impairments of self and others that undermine interpersonal relationships and allow the emergence of delirium in the disease. Thus, familiarity disorders would be based on unconscious emotional processes, common in self and familiarity processing, and that would be disturbed in schizophrenia.

Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta um banco de figuras e palavras. O banco objetiva servir para a aumentar a validade e precisão dos instrumentos de avaliação, bem como a eficácia dos materiais instrucionais para desenvolvimento de linguagem. Este banco contém 971 entradas lexicais. Cada entrada contém uma figura e seu correspondente nome escrito. A figura é analisada em termos de grau de univocidade (grau de concordância na nomeação). O nome da figura é analisado separadamente em três formas: palavra escrita visível, palavra falada audível, e palavra falada visível (lida orofacialmente). Palavras escritas visíveis são compostas de grafemas. São analisadas em termos de seu grau de familiaridade e reconhecibilidade (grau em que pode ser lida via rota lexical) e decodificabilidade (grau em que pode ser lida pela rota perilexical ou fonológica). Palavras ouvidas audíveis são compostas de fonemas. São analisadas em termos do grau de cifrabilidade (grau de facilidade com que podem ser escritas via rota perilexical). Palavras faladas vistas são compostas de fanerolaliemas. São analisadas em termos do grau de legibilidade orofacial (grau em que podem ser compreendidas apenas pela visão), audibilizabilidade (grau em que a imagem auditiva dos fonemas pode ser evocada por fanerolaliemas durante a leitura orofacial visual), e cifrabilidade (grau de facilidade com que podem ser escritas via rota perilexical). O banco é composto de 971 entradas lexicais, cada qual composta de uma figura (à esquerda) e de vários dados pertinentes ao seu nome correspondente (à direita). O lado direito da entrada é composto de seis campos. O Campo 1 fornece o o nome da figura escrito em dois alfabetos: alfabeto romano e alfabeto fonético internacional. Ele também fornece a categoria semântica à qual pertence a palavra. O Campo 2 fornece o número da figura (para indexar todas as 971 figuras do banco). O Campo 3 fornece a univocidade da figura numa escala de 0-100 pontos separadamente para crianças de 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 7-10 anos de idade, bem como para adultos. O Campo 4 fornece a palavra escrita visível tal como analisada em termos de seu grau de familiaridade ou reconhecibilidade (grau em que pode ser lida via rota lexical) numa escala de 1-9 pontos, separadamente para crianças de 5º ano, 4º ano, 3º ano, 2º ano, e 1º ano. Nessa escala, 5 corresponde à média, 6 a 1 erro-padrão (EP) acima da média, 7 a 2 EP acima da média e assim por diante até 9; ao passo que 4 corresponde 1 EP abaixo da média, 3 a 2 EP abaixo da média, e assim por diante até 1. O Campo 5 é composto de quatro linhas, cada qual dividida em quatro colunas. A Linha 1 fornece o grau de decifrabilidade (grau com que pode ser lida pela rota perilexical) da palavra escrita visível, numa escala de 0-1. A Linha 2 fornece o grau de cifrabilidade da palavra ouvida (grau com que pode ser escrita pela rota perilexical), numa escala de 0-1. A Linha 3 fornece o grau de audibilizabilidade da palavra falada lida orofacialmente (grau com que sequência de fanerolaliemas pode ser convertida em sequência de fonemas), numa escala de 0-1. A Linha 3 fornece o grau de cifrabilidade da palavra falada lida orofacialmente (grau com que sequência de fanerolaliemas pode ser convertida em sequência de grafemas), numa escala de 0-1. Cada palavra é dividida em suas colunas. cada coluna fornece os dados referentes à linha em questão em uma de quatro formas diferentes. Nas Colunas 1 e 2, dados consistem na média das razões independente da incidência. Nas Colunas 3 e 4, dados consistem na média das razões ponderada por incidência diferencial. Nas Colunas 1 e 3 os dados consistem na média das razões independentemente da tonicidade da fala (seja ouvida ou vista) na pronúncia. Nas Colunas 2 e 4, os dados consistem na média das razões ponderada pela tonicidade diferencial da fala (seja ouvida ou vista) na pronúncia. Por exemplo, a Linha 1 fornece o grau de decifrabilidade grafema-fonema da palavra escrita visível. Na Coluna 1 decoficabilidade é calculada como mera média de razões independente da incidência ou tonicidade. Na Coluna 2 decodificabilidade é calculada como média das razões independente da incidência mas ponderasa pela tonicidade. Na Coluna 3 decodificabilidade é calculada como média de razões ponderadas em termos de incidência mas independente de tonicidade. Na Coluna 4 decodificabilidade é calculada como média de razões ponderadas em termos de incidência e de tonicidade. O Campo 6 fornece o grau de legibilidade orofacial da fala vista, numa escala de 0-1. O grau de legibilidade orofacial é apresentado em quatro formas. Nas Colunas 1 e 2 ela se encontra calculada segundo o modelo Dória; nas Colunas 3 e 4 ela se encontra calculada segundo o modelo Fonético-Articulatório. Nas Colunas 1 e 3 ela é calculada independentemente da tonicidade da pronúncia; nas Colunas 2 e 4 ela é calculada de modo ponderado pela tonicidade diferencial da pronúncia / This master\'s thesis presents a new sourcebook aimed at increasing the validity and precision of language assessment tools, as well as the efficacy of instructional materials for language development. The sourcebook contains 971 lexical entries. Each entry contains a picture and its corresponding written name. The picture is analyzed in terms of its degree of univocity (i.e., picture naming agreement). The picture name is analyzed separately in three forms: visual written word, auditory spoken word, and visual spoken word (i.e., speechreading). Visual written word is made of graphemes. It is analyzed in terms of its degree of both: familiarity or recognizability (i.e., the degree to which it is suitable to be read via lexical reading route) and decodibility (i.e., the degree to which it is suitable to be read via perilexical reading route). Auditory spoken word is made of phonemes. It is analyzed in terms of its degree of encodibility (i.e., the degree to which it may be suitable for writing or spelling via perilexical spelling route). Visual spoken word is made of visemes. It is analyzed in terms of its degree of: speechreadability (i.e., the degree to which it may be understood via visual speechreading), audibilizability (i.e., the degree to which the auditory imagery of phonemes can be evoked by mouthshapes or visemes during speechreading), and encodibility (i.e., the degree to which it is suitable to be written or spelled correctly via perilexical route). The sourcebook is made of 971 lexical entries. Each entry is made of a picture (on the left) and several data pertaining to its corresponding name (on the right). The right side of the entry is made of six areas. The first area provides the picture name as it is written in both alphabets: the Roman alphabet (orthographic form) and the International Phonetic Alphabet. It also provides the semantic category to which the word belongs. The second area provides the picture number (for indexing all the 971 pictures of the sourcebook). The third area provides the picture univocity in a 0-100 scale for children aged: 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, 6 years, 7 to 10 years, as well as for adults. The fourth area provides the visual written word as it is analyzed in terms of its degree of familiarity or recognizability (i.e., the degree to which the written word is suitable to be read via lexical reading route) in a 1-9 point scale, for children from 5th grade, 4th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade, and 1st grade. In such a scale, 5 corresponds to the mean, 6 is the mean plus 1 standard error, 7 is the mean plus 2 standard errors and so forth until 9, whereas 4 corresponds to the mean minus 1 standard error, 3 corresponds to the mean minus 2 standard errors and so forth until 1, which corresponds to the mean minus 4 standar erros. The fifth area is made of four lines. Each line is divided into four columns. The first line provides the visual written word degree of decodibility (i.e., the degree to which it is suitable to be read via perilexical reading route) in a 0-1 scale. The second line provides the auditory spoken word degree of encodibility (i.e., the degree to which it may be suitable for writing or spelling via perilexical spelling route) in a 0-1 scale. The third line provides the visual spoken word degree of audibilizability (i.e., the degree to which the auditory imagery of phonemes can be evoked by mouthshapes or visemes during speechreading) in a 0-1 scale. The fouth line provides the visual spoken word degree of encodibility (i.e., the degree to which it is suitable to be written or spelled correctly via perilexical route) in a 0-1 scale. Each line is divided into four columns. Each column presents the data pertaining to the line in question in 1 of 4 different forms. In the first and second columns the data consist of the mean of the ratios regardless of incidence. In the third and fourth columns the data consist of the mean of the ratios weighted by differencial incidence. In the first and third columns the data consist of the mean of the ratios regardless of tonicity of speech (either auditory or visual) in pronunciation. In the second and fourth columns the data consist of the mean of the ratios weighted by differencial tonicity of speech (either auditory or visual) in pronunciation. For instance the first line provides the visual written word degree of decodibility (i.e., grapheme to phoneme decoding). In the first column decodibility is calculated as a mere mean of the ratios regardless of either incidence or tonicity. In the second column decodibility is calculated as a mean of the ratios regardless of incidence but weighted in terms of tonicity. In the third column decodibility is calculated as a mean of the ratios weighted in terms of incidence but regardless of tonicity. In the fourth column it is calculated as a mean of the ratios weighted in terms of both incidence and tonicity. The sixth area provides the visual spoken word degree of speechreadability (i.e., the degree to which it may be understood via visual speechreading) in a 0-1 scale. The speechreadability is presented in 1 of 4 different forms. In the first and second columns, the speechreadability is calculated according to Doria\'s model. In the third and fourth columns it is calculated according to a phonetic model. In the first column and third columns it is calculated regardless of tonicity in pronunciation. In the second and fourth columns it is calculated in a way that is weighted by the differencial tonicity in pronunciation