The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of elaborations on memory . Two types of elaborations (self-generated elaboration and experimenterprovided elaboration) were examined. The experiment consisted of three phases (incidental learning phase, immediate test phase, and delayed test phase). In the incidental learning phase, subjects were asked to make plausibility judgments about 28 fictitious episodes. Half of these were about well-known individuals and the other half were about unknown individuals. Each name (either well-known or unknown) was presented with either two supportive facts or without the supportive facts. During the immediate test phase, subjects were given unexpected memory tests. One week later, unexpected delayed memory tests were administered. Results from both immediate and delayed tests indicated that self-generated elaborations based on prior knowledge subjects had about well-known individuals enhanced the retention of target information, whereas experimenter-provided elaborations involving the presence of supportive facts only benefited memory performance when the subjects had prior knowledge about the individuals. Experimenter-provided elaborations were also effective to the extent that the encoding context was reinstated at testing.

A series of six experiments investigated the effect of text-provided elaborations and prior knowledge on memory for text. In all experiments, subjects read 28 episodes, half of which were associated with well-known individuals, and the other half were associated with unknown individuals. In Experiment 1, text-provided elaborations enhanced recall only when the reader did not possess a high level of prior knowledge. The findings from Experiment 1 were hypothesized to be the result of readers generating relevant elaborations during text comprehension. Experiment 2 supported this hypothesis by providing evidence of self-generated elaborations. Experiment 3 provided evidence that this generation process occurred "on-line." The results from Experiments 4 and 5 extended these findings by showing that readers with high prior knowledge automatically generate causally relevant elaborations when the sentences have a low relation. The findings of Experiment 6 suggest that distinctive text-provided elaborations are more effective than normal text-provided elaborations only when readers have high prior knowledge.

Mind-wandering was until recently not a mainstream topic of research. The aim of this literature review is to present current views on the definition of mind-wandering and how the phenomenon is experienced. Furthermore, it gives an account of the implications of mind-wandering on cognitive performance, as well as its neurological correlates. In addition, the methods used to study mind-wandering are reviewed.The study of mind-wandering reveals a highly frequent phenomenon with practical consequences on a broad scale, both disruptive and supportive to goal-related behaviour and wellbeing in general. Originating from the default network, and its regions related to representations of self, memory, Theory of Mind, empathy and creativity, mind-wandering is hypothesized to be a function for planning one’s future life. Suggested further research concerns how mind-wandering can be countered, detected from the outside and whether it alters the physical feature of the brain.

The purpose of this study was to see how meaningful and practically challenging a combined and structured arts therapy approach can be for an island-style counselling scenario. The overarching rationale with this particular arts therapy approach was to enable the client to gain self-insight by means of constructing a holistic view of present concerns and aspirations by capturing them in personal, functional and professional-looking artefacts conveying relevant self-messages. The client self-generated the content of each exercise, according to a manual and strategic interventions, and was guided by the counsellor in the user-friendly application of the arts. Apart from the unique combination of arts therapies in this study, another factor that may contribute to counselling practice is the attempt to make use of video as a non-threatening integrating medium. Throughout the process, the client made rehearsed video appearances to consolidate personal gains. At the end of the counselling process, the respondent enjoyed an “objective” screening of the process and he left with the personal constructs, a video tape and a CD-Rom application of the recorded process. The literature study reveals the numerous techniques, exercises and most common combinations spread across the domain of the 26 expressive modalities that were scrutinised to gain insight into this vast field. The empirical process revealed that it is possible to utilise the arts therapy approach meaningfully to enable a client to build a “visual narrative”. To optmise the potential this approach holds, the environment facilitating the process needs to be adequately equipped and the counsellor needs to be skilled in the application of particular electronic media or, alternatively, a group of experts need to co-operate. / Dissertation (MEd (Learning Support, Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Unsere Fähigkeit Erwartungen auszubilden über zukünftige Ereignisse oder die Ergebnisse unserer eigenen Handlungen ist von entscheidender Bedeutung für zielgerichtetes Verhalten. Obgleich diese Ansicht einer Reihe von einflussreichen theoretischen Strömungen in der kognitiven Psychologie zugrunde liegt, bleiben bislang wichtige Fragen dazu offen. Jüngere Ergebnisse aus neurophysiologischen und Bildgebungsstudien legen nahe, dass bewusste Ziele – ähnlich expliziter Erwartung – nicht mehr sind als ein Nebenprodukt von automatischen und unbewussten Aktivierungsmustern und keinen echten Einfluss auf Verhalten haben. Explizite subjektive Erwartung wird vielmals abgetan, weil sie kein zuverlässiges Maß „wahrer“ mentaler Prozesse darstelle, oder weil sie nicht notwendig sei, um Verhalten zu erklären. In der vorliegenden Arbeit beschäftige ich mich mit der Rolle expliziter subjektiver Erwartung und untersuche die folgenden Fragen: (1) Sind verbalisierte Vorhersagen ein valider Indikator für intern generierte Erwartungen? (2) Haben solche Erwartungen tatsächlich einen Einfluss auf Handlungsvorbereitung? (3) Worin besteht der Unterschied zwischen Erwartungen, die auf äußeren oder inneren Quellen beruhen? Die Ergebnisse aus drei Studien, die ich im Rahmen dieser Dissertation durchgeführt habe, belegen, dass verbalisierte Vorhersagen ein valider Indikator von subjektiver Erwartung sind. Subjektive Erwartung kann nicht als ein Nebenprodukt von Handlungsvorbereitung verstanden werden, sondern trägt zu dieser bei und spielt daher eine wichtige Rolle in der Handlungskontrolle. Selbstgenerierte Erwartung beeinflusst gegenüber Cue-induzierter Erwartung verstärkt frühe Aufmerksamkeits- und zentrale Entscheidungsprozesse. Selbstgenerierte Vorhersagen führen zu verstärkten Verhaltenseffekten, und zwar sowohl bei Stimuluserwartungen als auch bei Erwartungen bezüglich einer Aufgabe. Subjektive Erwartung ist demnach auch entscheidend für kognitive Kontrolle. / Our ability to form expectations about future events or the results of our own actions is crucial for efficient behavior. While this notion underlies a range of influential theoretical approaches in cognitive psychology, from reinforcement learning to ideo-motor theory, a number of open questions remain. Recent results from neurophysiological and brain imaging studies suggest that conscious intention – or explicit expectation – is nothing more than a by-product of automatic and unconscious activation patterns, without any real impact on behavior. Explicit subjective expectation has been dismissed by many researchers who regard it either an unreliable measure of “true” mental processes, or question its necessity in explaining behavior in general. In the current work, I focus on the role of explicit subjective expectation and attempt to answer the following questions: (1) Are verbalized predictions a valid indicator of internally generated expectations? (2) Do such expectations really affect action preparation? (3) What are the differences between expectations arising from external or internal sources? Results from the three studies conducted within the scope of this dissertation demonstrate that verbalized predictions are in fact a valid indicator of subjective expectation and are suitable for use in experimental paradigms. Also, subjective expectation cannot be described as a mere by-product of preparation, but instead feeds into preparation and therefore plays a role in action control. Self-generated expectation was shown to involve early attentional and central decision processes to a greater degree than cue-induced expectation. Consequently, self-generated predictions entailed greater behavioral effects not only for stimulus expectations, but also for expectations regarding a task set. Subjective expectation is therefore also elemental in cognitive control.

Dagens samhälle är präglat av ett enormt reklamutbud och reklamstrategier. I denna djungel av marknadsföring har företag ibland valt en annan strategi, en relativt outnyttjad strategi, som baseras på rykten om produkten, tjänsten eller företaget och är det som används som marknadsföring. Denna strategi kallas för word of mouth. Ena syftet har varit att undersöka hur word of mouth definieras av olika författare. Genom att göra en jämförelse av teorier av begreppet word of mouth har ett försök gjorts att skapa en definition av begreppet, som tillämpas på vårt andra syfte med undersökningen. Det andra syftet är att undersöka om kommunikationen på det utvalda internetforum prisjakt.nu kan liknas vid vår definition av word of mouth. Genom vår undersökning ville vi exemplifiera vad word of mouth är och vilket som är dess användningsområde. Forskningen har därför genomförts genom en litteraturstudie där word of mouth som begrepp har kartlagts och förklarats. Genom litteraturstudien utvecklades sedan en jämförelse av teorier av begreppet word of mouth. Dessa jämförelser av begreppet gjorde det möjligt för oss att kunna applicera begreppet på det tidigare nämnda utvalda internetforum. När slutdefinitionen fanns tillhanda, utfördes studien på Internetforumet Prisjakt.nu, med inriktning på en produkt som det pratades mycket om på detta Internetforum. Denna produkt valdes strategiskt då vi ansåg att det var väsentligt för undersökningen att produkten ännu inte fanns på marknaden, då tidigare teorier om word of mouths beteende tydde på att frekvensen på kommunikation om produkten var som högst innan produkten släppts. Denna produkt var Apple Iphone, som då ännu inte lanserats i Sverige. Därefter genomfördes studien med vår definition av traditionell och generaliserad word of mouth som teoretisk utgångspunkt, och studien resulterade i att förekomsten var positiv för word of mouth-baserad kommunikation på internetforumet prisjakt.nu. Vår definition av begreppet word of mouth lyder så som följer: “Word of mouth är interpersonell kommunikation, där självgenererande ryktesspridning om personer, företag, produkter eller tjänster kan ske via telefon, Internet eller mun-till-mun-kommunikation”. Kommunikationen på det undersökta forumet innehåller en hög grad av interpersonell kommunikation, självgenererande ryktesspridning och har en kommersiell karaktär på dess kommunikation, och uppfyller således de tre delar som enligt vår definition behövs för att kalla det en word of mouth-baserad kommunikation. / Today’s society is characterized by an enormously large advertising range and commercial strategies. In this jungle of marketing companies often chosen another strategy, a comparatively unknown strategy based on rumors about a product, service or company as marketing. That strategy is called word of mouth. The purpose of examine word of mouth as concept is important, because today the concept is defined on various manner of several different authors. By making a theory comparison of the conception word of mouth it is possible to create a good definition of the concept, this because that the concept word of mouth lacks a definite definition, that can be applied on our second purpose. The second purpose is to examine if the communication on the selected internet forum prisjakt.nu is word of mouth. In earlier cases this would been examined according to electronic word of mouth that is an adjustment to the internet, but we felt that the concept almost was identical to other word of mouth-theories we choose to make a theory comparison of the concept as described above. Through our examination we wanted to exemplify what word of mouth is and what it can be used for. A literature study was done as a replacement for the earlier research, the earlier research missed an evident significance of the conception word of mouth, and it handled its usage. The research had therefore been made through a literature study where the concept has been plotted and explained. Through the literature study the theory comparison of the concept word of mouth developed. . The theory comparison made it possible for us to apply the concept on the earlier mentioned internet forum. When the finished definition was at hand, the study was made on the internet forum prisjakt.nu, with the concentration on a product that had a big talk about it on this internet forum. This product was strategically selected as we considered it as an essential part for the research as the product didn’t even exist on the market; this due to the earlier theory’s about word of mouths behaviour that indicated that the frequency of the communication about the product was highest just before the product was released in the USA. The product was the Apple Iphone, and has after this research not yet been released in Sweden.The result shows that our definition of word of mouth can be applied on internet forums and that a separate concept for word of mouth on the internet is unnecessary. Our definition of word of mouth is as follows: “Word of mouth is an interpersonal communication, where self generating rumour spreading about people, companies, products or services can be made via telephone, internet or by mouth-to-mouth-communication“. The communication on the studied forums contain a high pitch of interpersonal communication, self generating rumour spread and have a commercialized character on it’s communication and fulfil the three parts that according of our theory comparison is needed for being called word of mouth-based communication.

<p>Dagens samhälle är präglat av ett enormt reklamutbud och reklamstrategier. I denna djungel av marknadsföring har företag ibland valt en annan strategi, en relativt outnyttjad strategi, som baseras på rykten om produkten, tjänsten eller företaget och är det som används som marknadsföring. Denna strategi kallas för word of mouth. Ena syftet har varit att undersöka hur word of mouth definieras av olika författare. Genom att göra en jämförelse av teorier av begreppet word of mouth har ett försök gjorts att skapa en definition av begreppet, som tillämpas på vårt andra syfte med undersökningen. Det andra syftet är att undersöka om kommunikationen på det utvalda internetforum prisjakt.nu kan liknas vid vår definition av word of mouth. Genom vår undersökning ville vi exemplifiera vad word of mouth är och vilket som är dess användningsområde. Forskningen har därför genomförts genom en litteraturstudie där word of mouth som begrepp har kartlagts och förklarats. Genom litteraturstudien utvecklades sedan en jämförelse av teorier av begreppet word of mouth. Dessa jämförelser av begreppet gjorde det möjligt för oss att kunna applicera begreppet på det tidigare nämnda utvalda internetforum. När slutdefinitionen fanns tillhanda, utfördes studien på Internetforumet Prisjakt.nu, med inriktning på en produkt som det pratades mycket om på detta Internetforum. Denna produkt valdes strategiskt då vi ansåg att det var väsentligt för undersökningen att produkten ännu inte fanns på marknaden, då tidigare teorier om word of mouths beteende tydde på att frekvensen på kommunikation om produkten var som högst innan produkten släppts. Denna produkt var Apple Iphone, som då ännu inte lanserats i Sverige. Därefter genomfördes studien med vår definition av traditionell och generaliserad word of mouth som teoretisk utgångspunkt, och studien resulterade i att förekomsten var positiv för word of mouth-baserad kommunikation på internetforumet prisjakt.nu. Vår definition av begreppet word of mouth lyder så som följer: “Word of mouth är interpersonell kommunikation, där självgenererande ryktesspridning om personer, företag, produkter eller tjänster kan ske via telefon, Internet eller mun-till-mun-kommunikation”. Kommunikationen på det undersökta forumet innehåller en hög grad av interpersonell kommunikation, självgenererande ryktesspridning och har en kommersiell karaktär på dess kommunikation, och uppfyller således de tre delar som enligt vår definition behövs för att kalla det en word of mouth-baserad kommunikation.</p> / <p>Today’s society is characterized by an enormously large advertising range and commercial strategies. In this jungle of marketing companies often chosen another strategy, a comparatively unknown strategy based on rumors about a product, service or company as marketing. That strategy is called word of mouth. The purpose of examine word of mouth as concept is important, because today the concept is defined on various manner of several different authors. By making a theory comparison of the conception word of mouth it is possible to create a good definition of the concept, this because that the concept word of mouth lacks a definite definition, that can be applied on our second purpose. The second purpose is to examine if the communication on the selected internet forum prisjakt.nu is word of mouth. In earlier cases this would been examined according to electronic word of mouth that is an adjustment to the internet, but we felt that the concept almost was identical to other word of mouth-theories we choose to make a theory comparison of the concept as described above. Through our examination we wanted to exemplify what word of mouth is and what it can be used for. A literature study was done as a replacement for the earlier research, the earlier research missed an evident significance of the conception word of mouth, and it handled its usage. The research had therefore been made through a literature study where the concept has been plotted and explained. Through the literature study the theory comparison of the concept word of mouth developed. . The theory comparison made it possible for us to apply the concept on the earlier mentioned internet forum. When the finished definition was at hand, the study was made on the internet forum prisjakt.nu, with the concentration on a product that had a big talk about it on this internet forum. This product was strategically selected as we considered it as an essential part for the research as the product didn’t even exist on the market; this due to the earlier theory’s about word of mouths behaviour that indicated that the frequency of the communication about the product was highest just before the product was released in the USA. The product was the Apple Iphone, and has after this research not yet been released in Sweden.The result shows that our definition of word of mouth can be applied on internet forums and that a separate concept for word of mouth on the internet is unnecessary. Our definition of word of mouth is as follows: “Word of mouth is an interpersonal communication, where self generating rumour spreading about people, companies, products or services can be made via telephone, internet or by mouth-to-mouth-communication“. The communication on the studied forums contain a high pitch of interpersonal communication, self generating rumour spread and have a commercialized character on it’s communication and fulfil the three parts that according of our theory comparison is needed for being called word of mouth-based communication.</p>

This study tested a self-generated utility value intervention aimed at increasing undergraduate statistics students’ motivation and achievement. The intervention was based on Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020) and encouraged students to make relevant connections between statistics learning content and their lives, primarily emphasising the content’s usefulness to the student, or utility value. In testing a self-generated utility value intervention within the domain of undergraduate statistics, the study extended research previously conducted in high school and undergraduate sciences (psychology and biology) and replicated Hulleman et al. (2017) which tested the role of frequency of students’ connections between the learning content and their lives in their motivation and achievement. In addition to transferring a self-generated utility value intervention to the domain of statistics, the study’s main contribution was made by investigating the role of connection quality—the quality of utility value connections undergraduate statistics students made between the learning content and their lives in their motivation and achievement. The study used collected data from a blindly randomised longitudinal field experiment conducted with undergraduate business school students from a research-intensive university located in the north-eastern USA. The students were of two differing sections of the same 15-week introductory statistics course. The self-generated utility value intervention consisted of prompts, twice during the semester, which instructed stud¬¬ents to write 2-3 paragraphs in response to. Data collected was comprised of students’ gender, first-generation status, initial/final achievement assessments, pre/post self-reports on motivation (expectancy, cost, intrinsic value, utility value) and connection frequency, and researcher scaled ratings coding on student intervention responses for connection quality. Part I Results from this study suggest that the intervention significantly increased students’ achievement (d = .42)—an approximately 7-percentage point difference between intervention and control group conditions. Furthermore, the intervention was found to be especially effective at increasing at-risk, low initial achievement, students’ motivation (expectancy, d = .54) and achievement (d = .87)—an approximately 14.5-percentage point difference between group conditions. Study results also suggest that the intervention’s impact on at-risk students’ achievement was mediated via motivation increases—through students’ expectancy for success, though, not through students’ utility value. The Part I results were confirmatory of Hulleman et al.’s (2017) findings—the intervention effected students’ achievement, but the pathway of indirect effects traversed through students’ expectancy, not their utility value which Hulleman et al. (2017) and this study both hypothesised it would do instead. Part II Results attempted to explain the intervention’s pathways of effects through expectancy to achievement by creating new measures, connection quality measures. Connection quality measures were constructed to capture students’ utility value more effectively than the self-reported utility value survey measure. This study’s Part II Results suggest that the intervention was found, again, to significantly increase students’ achievement (d = 1.46), but the indirect intervention effects traversed a pathway to affecting students’ achievement, not through their expectancy, but through their utility value (as captured via the newly minted connection quality measures), to their motivation (cost and interest), and then to their achievement. The new connection quality measures, exploratorily, were found to capture students’ utility value more effectively than the self-reported utility value survey measure, enabling the self-generated utility value intervention’s effects on students’ achievement and motivation to be further explained. / Math & Science Education

Dans le cadre de la fusion par confinement inertiel, nous présentons une analyse des effets du champ magnétique sur le développement linéaire des instabilités de Richtmyer-Meshkov, en magnétohydrodynamique idéale d’une part, et de Rayleigh-Taylor au front d’ablation, dans les phases d’accélération et de décélération d’autre part.A l’aide d’un code linéaire de perturbation, nos simulations mono mode nous permettent de confirmer, pour l’instabilité de Richtmyer-Meshkov, la stabilisation apportée par la composante du champ magnétique parallèle au vecteur d’onde des perturbations de l’interface, dont l’amplitude oscille au cours du temps. Nous montrons que la prise en compte de la compressibilité n’apporte pas de changements significatifs par rapport au modèle impulsionnel incompressible existant dans la littérature. Dans nos simulations numériques bidimensionnelles, en géométrie plane, de l’instabilité de Rayleigh-Taylor dans la phase d’accélération, nous prenons en compte le phénomène d’auto-génération de champ magnétique induite par cette instabilité. Nous montrons qu’il est possible d’atteindre des valeurs de champ de l’ordre de quelques teslas et que la croissance de l’amplitude des perturbations transite plus rapidement vers un régime de croissance non-linéaire avec, notamment, un développement accru de la troisième harmonique. Nous proposons également une adaptation d’un modèle existant, étudiant l’effet d’anisotropie de conductivité thermique sur le taux de croissance de l’instabilité de Rayleigh-Taylor au front d’ablation, pour tenter de prendre en compte les effets des champs magnétiques auto-générés sur le taux de croissance de l’instabilité de Rayleigh-Taylor. Enfin, dans une étude numérique à deux dimensions, en géométrie cylindrique, nous analysons les effets des champs magnétiques auto-générés par l’instabilité de Rayleigh-Taylor dans la phase de décélération. Cette dernière étude révèle l’apparition de champs magnétiques pouvant atteindre plusieurs milliers de teslas sans pour autant affecter le comportement de l’instabilité de Rayleigh-Taylor. / In the context of inertial confinement fusion we investigate effects of magnetic fields on the development in the linear regime of two hydrodynamic instabilities: Richtmyer-Meshkov instability using ideal magnetohydrodynamics and ablative Rayleigh-Taylor instability in both acceleration and deceleration stages.Direct numerical simulations with a linear perturbation code enable us to confirm the stabilizing effect of the component of the magnetic field along the perturbations wave vector. The amplitude doesn’t grow linearly in time but experiences oscillations instead. The compressibility taken into account in the code does not affect predictions given by an already existing impulsive and incompressible model.As far as Rayleigh-Taylor instability is concerned we study the effects of self-generated magnetic fields that arise from the development of the instability itself. In the acceleration stage we perform two dimensional simulations in planar geometry. We show that magnetic fields of about 1T can be generated and that the instability growth transits more rapidly into nonlinear growth with the enhancement of the development of the third harmonic. We also propose an adaptation of an existing model that aims at studying thermal conductivity anisotropy effects, to take into account the effects of the self-generated magnetic fields on the Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth rate.Finally, in the deceleration stage, we perform two dimensional simulations in cylindrical geometry that take into account self-generation of magnetic fields due to the instability development. It reveals magnetic fields of about several thousands of teslas that are not strong enough though to affect the instability behavior.

Suite à leur activation par des cellules présentatrices d’antigène, les lymphocytes T expriment le récepteur de chimiokines CXCR3 et peuvent alors infiltrer les tissus enflammés. Pour ce faire, CXCR3 permet aux cellules de détecter et de chimiotaxer vers des gradients de concentration croissants des chimiokines CXCL11 et CXCL10 retrouvées dans le milieu extracellulaire. Les gradients de chimiokines doivent être régulés afin d’assurer une réponse immunitaire adéquate. Toutefois, comment ces gradients sont formés, maintenus et éliminés n’est pas très bien compris. Il a été montré que certaines cellules participent à la régulation des gradients de chimiokines dans d’autres contextes. Pour ce faire, elles expriment des récepteurs de chimiokines spécialisés qui séquestrent les chimiokines, réduisant leur niveau dans le milieu extracellulaire. Ces récepteurs sont classés comme étant atypiques et n’induisent pas la chimiotaxie. Dans ce travail, nous proposons un mécanisme de régulation pour les chimiokines CXCL11 et CXCL10 qui est en ligne avec un mécanisme d’auto-génération de gradients de chimiokines par les lymphocytes T activés. / During the immune response, T lymphocytes are activated in lymph nodes by antigen-presenting cells. Following activation, T cells up-regulate the chemokine receptor CXCR3, which allows them to infiltrate inflamed tissues by a migratory process named chemotaxis. To do so, CXCR3 allows the cells to detect concentration gradients of the chemokines CXCL11 and CXCL10 which are secreted locally, at the inflammation site. The chemokine gradient represents a directional cue, indicating to cells in which direction to migrate. Chemokine gradients must be regulated to assure an appropriate immune response. However, how these gradients are formed, maintained and eliminated is not well understood. It has been shown in other contexts that cells participate in gradient shaping. To do so, they express specialised chemokine receptors who scavenge chemokines, reducing chemokine levels in the environment. These receptors are considered atypical because they do not induce chemotaxis. In this work, we provide evidence for the regulation of the chemokines CXCL11 and CXCL10 that is in line with self-generation of chemokine gradients by chemotaxing activated T cells.