<p>Connectionist models have been criticized for not being able to form compositional representations of recursive data structures such as trees and lists, a matter that has been addressed by models as Elman networks, RAAM and B-RAAM. These architectures seem to have common features with the human short-term memory regarding recall. Both show a strong recency effect; however, the human memory also exhibits a primacy effect due to rehearsal. The problem is that the connectionist models do not have the primacy aspect, which complicates the learning of long-term dependencies. A long-term dependency is when items presented early should affect the behaviour of the model. Learning long-term dependencies is a problem that is hard to address within these architectures.</p><p>Delay-lines might be used as a mechanism for implementing rehearsal within connectionist models. However, it has not been clarified how the use of delay-lines affects the recency and the primacy aspect. In this thesis, delay-lines are introduced in B-RAAM. This study investigates how the primacy and the recency aspect are affected by the use of delay-lines, aiming to improve the ability to identify long-term dependencies. The results show that by using delay-lines, B-RAAM has both primacy and recency.</p>

Connectionist models have been criticized for not being able to form compositional representations of recursive data structures such as trees and lists, a matter that has been addressed by models as Elman networks, RAAM and B-RAAM. These architectures seem to have common features with the human short-term memory regarding recall. Both show a strong recency effect; however, the human memory also exhibits a primacy effect due to rehearsal. The problem is that the connectionist models do not have the primacy aspect, which complicates the learning of long-term dependencies. A long-term dependency is when items presented early should affect the behaviour of the model. Learning long-term dependencies is a problem that is hard to address within these architectures. Delay-lines might be used as a mechanism for implementing rehearsal within connectionist models. However, it has not been clarified how the use of delay-lines affects the recency and the primacy aspect. In this thesis, delay-lines are introduced in B-RAAM. This study investigates how the primacy and the recency aspect are affected by the use of delay-lines, aiming to improve the ability to identify long-term dependencies. The results show that by using delay-lines, B-RAAM has both primacy and recency.

Människor lämnar alla efter sig ett miljöavtryck när man inhandlar matvaror. Hur stort miljöavtryck man upplever att man lämnar efter sig är dock inte alltid korrekt. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om upplevelsen av en köprundas miljöavtryck påverkas särskilt av huruvida köprundan inleds med ett miljövänligt val eller avslutas med ett miljövänligt val. Detta för att få en bredare förståelse om kognitiva mekanismer som ligger till grund för miljörelaterat beteende. I denna kvantitativa studie så studerades psykologin i människors upplevelse av miljöpåverkan genom att undersöka hur miljömärkning påverkar upplevelsen av miljöavtryck från konsumentval. Studien undersökte ifall miljömärkta varor har större effekt på denna upplevelse om de märkta varorna inhandlas i början eller i slutet i en sekvens av inköp. Detta utfördes genom ett digitalt test som 32 deltagare (17 kvinnor, 15 män) vars ålder var mellan 22 och 63 år (M=32,31 år, SD=10,92) fick delta i och skattade sin miljöpåverkan som deltagarna tror att varorna hade under den fiktiva köprundan. Genom att undersöka ifall ordningen från första eller sista miljövalet har betydelse så får man en primacy eller en recency effekt. Denna studie indikerar på att under en köprunda när den avslutas med ett miljövänligt val så kommer människor uppleva att ens köprunda har lägre miljöavtryck i sin helhet. Studien visar alltså på en recency effekt samt duration neglect, däremot ingen primacy effekt. / Every single person who buys food products leave an environmental footprint. How big of an environmental footprint you feel you leave behind is not always accurate. The purpose of the study was to examine whether the experience of a shopping round's environmental footprint is particularly affected by whether the shopping round begins with an environmentally friendly choice or ends with an environmentally friendly choice. This is to gain a broader understanding of cognitive mechanisms which are the basis of environmental behaviour. In this quantitative study, the psychology of people's experience of environmental impact were studied by examining how environmental labelling affects the experience of environmental footprint from consumer choices. The study examines whether eco-labelled goods have a greater effect on this experience if the labelled goods are purchased at the beginning or at the end of a sequence of purchases. This is done through a digital test that 32 participants (17 women, 15 men) aged between 22 and 63 years (M=32,31 år, SD=10,92) can take part in where they estimate their environmental impact that the participants think the goods have had during the fictitious shopping round. By checking the order, if the first or last choice is important, you get a primacy or a recency effect. This study indicates that during a shopping spree when it ends with an environmentally friendly choice, people will experience that one's shopping spree has a lower environmental footprint as a whole. The study thus shows a recency effect and a duration neglect, but no primacy effect.

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This study, conducted in the spring of 2005, was designed to assess the contribution of computer experience on primacy effect and satisficing in online survey formats. Although regression analysis found that survey format can predict primacy effect, computer experience did not add to the explanation of the variance in primacy effect. Similarly, survey format was found to be a predictor for satisficing, however, computer experience did not add to the explanation of the variance in satisficing. In addition, there was not a significant correlation between computer experience and the number of words used to answer open-ended questions. Lack of variability of computer experience among respondents was a limitation in this study. Six survey formats (answer choices listed visible vertical, visible horizontal, pull-down menu, or check-all-that-apply with two surveys for each formats; answer choices listed in forward order and answer choices listed in reverse) were used to test for primacy effect. Initial linear regressions revealed that 6 of the 85 questions resulted in a positive and significant beta indicating primacy effect. Further regression analysis compared horizontally listed answer choices and pull-down menu survey formats individually against the vertical and visible answer choice survey format to determine if survey format explained a significant proportion of the variance in primacy effect. The interaction between survey format and answer order did not produce a significant positive correlation with primacy effect, therefore further investigation of the contribution of computer experience on primacy effect in those two survey formats was not necessary. Linear regression showed that the check-all-that-apply answer format does significantly explain the variance in primacy effect, however further analysis showed that computer experience did not significantly explain additional variance in primacy effect. Regression analysis showed that satisficing was more evident in the matrix survey format when compared with the visible vertical survey format, however computer experience did not significantly explain the variance in satisficing in these two survey formats. Finally, regression analysis failed to show that computer experience had an effect on the number of words used to answer open-ended questions (an indication of satisficing). / Ph. D.

Hostility is a multidimensional construct that has been extensively studied. It has been shown that hostility affects cognitive (Shimojima et al., 2003), behavioral (Prkachin & Silverman, 2002), visual (Herridge, Mollet, Harrison, & Shenal, in press), somatosensory (Herridge, Harrison, & Demaree, 1997a), auditory (Demaree & Harrison, 1997a), motor (Demaree et al., 2002) and pre-motor functioning (Williamson & Harrison, 2003). In order to extend and integrate the present literature on hostility and the effects of negative emotional state on cognition, the present investigation used a cold pressor to induce a negative emotional/pain state in high and low hostile participants and measured. The subsequent effects on the acquisition of the Auditory Affective Verbal Learning Test (AAVLT; Snyder & Harrison, 1997) were measured. Blood pressure (BP) readings were taken before and after the cold pressor to examine cardiovascular regulation in high and low hostiles. Further, before the first trial participants were asked to predict the number of words that they would be able to recall on the first trial. After completion of the experiment participants were asked to estimate their performance relative to other participants. The measures were used to assess self-awareness in high and low hostile participants, which may be impaired in high hostile individuals (Demaree & Harrison, 1997b). As expected, high hostiles learned negative emotional words significantly better than they learned positive words. Additionally, high hostiles were impaired in their acquisition of verbal material relative to low hostile participants. Low hostile participants learned more words faster and reached asymptote sooner. A significant primacy effect for negative emotional words and an overall better recall of negative information was found. Analysis on each of the four groups of the experiment indicated that participants in the cold pressor group performed similar to the high hostile participants. The cold pressor facilitated negative learning and also slowed verbal learning relative to the no cold pressor group. It was predicted that high and low hostiles would differ on baseline measures of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR) and that they would demonstrate increased cardiovascular reactivity in response to the cold pressor. These hypotheses were not supported. Self-awareness measures also failed to produce significance. These results support the proposal that high hostiles differ from low hostiles in a number of modalities. They demonstrate the persistence of negative emotional material. Future work should address what kinds of implications these factors have on high hostiles in daily interactions / Master of Science

The theoretical part deals with issues of dementia, memory, primacy effect, recency effect, and the Auditory-Verbal Learning Test. The empirical part consists of quantitative research. The research sample consists of patients with dementia who were tested for their performance in the Auditory-Verbal Learning Test in which I focused on the primacy and recency effects. The aim was to determine the differences between the primacy and recency effects among different groups of patients, as well as to detect the presence or absence of a primacy or recency effect in various populations. This study tries to describe a potential tool that focuses on how individuals with dementia remember new informations. This tool can serve to understand how people diagnosed with memory disorders of different etiology remember new infomation. Key words: Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Auditory-Verbal Learning Test , primacy effect, recency effect