Six separate experiments were conducted to investigate the role of Field Dependency (FDI) in determining the susceptibility of eyewitnesses to context reinstatement (CR); their performance in free, cued, and multi-choice recall, and facial identification accuracy; and finally the confidence expressed before and after performing these tasks, and the confidence accuracy relationship (C/AR). Questions were also addressed in relation to the measurement scale status of confidence ratings and the validity and utility of the Calibration / Resolution techniques for analysing the C/AR. Experiments I & II focussed on FDI and CR susceptibility, together with accuracy in free recall, cued recall, and recognition. Experiments III & IV focused on FDI, CR, and recognition. Experiment IV also utilised the Calibration / Resolution technique. Experiment V used a computer presented format to focus on FDI and recognition through simultaneous and sequential line-ups presented upright and inverted. Experiment VI included multi-choice recall testing along with free and cued recall and focussed on FDI, CR, and both correct and incorrect information produced. Experiments I, II, & VI indicated that Field Dependent (FD) participants benefited significantly from CR whilst Field Independent (FI) participants did not. FIs consistently outperformed FDs in cued recall. Experiment VI indicated that for FDs CR in free recall increased correct information and decreased erroneous information, leading to a significant improvement in the 'quality' of the information produced. In cued recall, however, correct information produced by FIs was greater than that produced by FDs and erroneous information lower, leading to a significant difference between FDs and FIs in the 'quality' of cued recall produced. Experiments III and IV indicated a significant superiority in facial recognition for FDs as compared to FIs across time delays of one week and three months in filled line-ups but not in blank. The explicit encoding format and upright and inverted lineups used in experiment V indicated a role for both attentiveness to others and configural processing in the superiority of FDs seen in experiments HI & IV. Results across experiments I, II, and VI indicated that confidence was significantly higher following a free recall test than when assessed at other points during recall testing. In experiment III, IV, & V confidence ratings were higher following exposure to the line-up than confidence ratings given before exposure. Results across all six experiments in relation to the C/AR show a marked level of inconsistency, however the use of the calibration / resolution techniques in experiment IV indicated a level of over-confidence on the part of FIs and underconfidence on the part of FDs that is in keeping with the personality aspects of FDI. In experiment VI the same techniques in relation to cued recall indicate a degree of overconfidence for 'easy' questions and under-confidence for 'hard' questions and point to a new approach to the investigation of the role of 'item difficulty' in determining the C/AR. Overall, the thesis argues that cognitive style is an important factor in predicting when context reinstatement will be beneficial, who will perform better in different recollection and recognition tasks, and how confidence will relate to accuracy.

No description available.

Practicing the retrieval of some information can lead to poorer retrieval of other related information; this phenomenon is called retrieval-induced forgetting. This pattern has been explained as the result of inhibition of the related information during retrieval practice (Anderson, 2003). A core assumption of this inhibition account is that, to be suppressed, the related information must compete with the target information at the time of practice. Four experiments are reported that test this competition assumption. Two experiments showed that retrieval-induced forgetting did not occur without specific retrieval practice of the target items, replicating and extending prior findings. Two further experiments then showed that retrieval-induced forgetting did occur, however, when competition between target information and related information during retrieval practice was eliminated, undermining the competition assumption and hence the inhibition account. A new explanation of retrieval-induced forgetting is introduced that emphasizes context change between study, retrieval practice, and test.

Recent research into hemispheric differences in sentence comprehension has produced a puzzling disparity between the results from behavioral studies on neurologically normal individuals and studies utilizing other methods such as electrophysiology, neuroimaging and the investigation of neuropsychological patients. The former approach tends to produce results that indicate a restriction of the right hemisphere (RH) to lower-level processing mechanisms that are comparatively less sensitive to context than the left hemisphere (LH), while the combined findings of the latter approaches suggest that not only is the RH capable of processing language at a higher level, it is particularly sensitive to contextual information and, furthermore, this may form part of the special role of the RH in language tasks. Accordingly, the present series of studies employed a normal-behavioral approach to further investigate the underlying processing mechanisms of the RH during sentence comprehension tasks. In each of the four experiments, right-handed adult participants completed a computer-based lexical decision task where reaction time and error rates were recorded. Stimuli were always centrally-presented, followed by a laterally-presented target word or non-word. In the first experiment, the sensitivity of the RH to message-level meaning was investigated by assessing whether it benefits from additional contextual information in sentences that was not the result of simple word-level associations. The remaining experiments aimed to examine several current models of RH language processing; specifically, they examined the applicability of the coarse-coding hypothesis (Beeman, 1993) and the integrative processing model (Federmeier, 2007) to RH sentence processing. The combined results of the four experiments lead to several conclusions. Firstly, this series of investigation consistently demonstrated that the RH does display a sensitivity to message-level processing that appears to be at least equivalent to that of the LH. This conclusion is uncommon in the normal-behavioral literature, but is consistent with evidence produced by other methodologies. Secondly, the coarse-coding hypothesis is insufficient in explaining RH language processing at the sentential level. Although there is considerable evidence in support of the coarse-coding model of RH processing of individual words, the findings of the present investigations do not support its applicability beyond this level. Thirdly, the integrative/predictive distinction between RH/LH language processing also appears to have limited applicability beyond sentence fragments and may instead be reflective of higher-level processing differences (e.g., wherein the RH may utilize a para-linguistic situation-model processing method whereas the LH may rely purely on a linguistic mechanism). Based on these conclusions, the present series of investigations appears to have resolved the inconsistent finding previously prominent in normal-behavioral literature and goes some way in determining the applicability of current models of RH language processing.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-151) Also available in print.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p.63-67).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008. / Typescript. Supplemental DVD+R contains a PDF version of the thesis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-152).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Elizabeth M. Perse, Dept. of Communication. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-130). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.