Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Top-Down Attention In Statistical Learning Of Speech, Stacey Reyes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Statistical learning (SL) refers to the ability to extract regularities in the environment and has been well-documented to play a key role in speech segmentation and language acquisition. Whether SL is automatic or requires top-down attention is an unresolved question, with conflicting results in the literature. The current proposal tests whether SL can occur outside the focus of attention. Participants either focused towards, or diverted their attention away from an auditory speech stream made of repeating nonsense trisyllabic words. Divided-attention participants either performed a concurrent visual task or a language-related task during exposure to the nonsense speech stream, while control …

Exploring Cognitive Maps Through Sketching, Melissa M. Nantais

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Periodic testing has been found to improve the accuracy of participants’ cognitive maps when an onscreen map is provided, however, it is unclear whether the same results would occur without the onscreen map. The current study investigated whether drawing a map periodically while exploring the virtual environment Silcton would improve cognitive map accuracy. Participants explored Silcton and were stopped every 4 minutes to either sketch a map of Silcton, identify items seen in Silcton, or colour an unrelated picture, and a baseline group was not stopped. All groups drew a final sketch map and completed a direction estimation task. …

Using Meditation To Improve Measures Of Attention In Older Adults, Sabrina Ford

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Age-related cognitive decline greatly impacts quality of life for older adults. Previous research has indicated that meditation may act as a neuroprotective factor to prevent age-related cognitive decline. This thesis sought to replicate previous findings and investigate if a four-week meditation intervention would improve sustained attention. Participants 60 years and older (n=27, 17 female) were recruited and assigned to a focused-attention (FA) meditation or relaxation group which met for four weeks, three times a week. Resting-state EEG was used to collect individual alpha peak frequency (iAPF) and frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) was also …

A Simulated Walk In Nature: Testing Predictions From The Attention Restoration Theory, Corey Crossan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Attention Restoration Theory (ART) predicts that top-down processing during everyday activities can cause attentional fatigue and that bottom-up processing that occurs when people experience nature will be restorative (Kaplan, 1995). The present study examined this prediction by exposing participants to three different conditions using a repeated measures design: a control condition during which participants walked on a typical treadmill, a nature/restorative condition during which participants walked on the same treadmill, experiencing a simulated nature walk, and a perturbation condition that included the same simulated nature scene but also required top-down processing during the walk. The findings supported ART predictions. As …

Social Media And Cognition, Ana C. Ruiz Pardo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social media is an inescapable platform for sharing media and connecting with others. This thesis investigated how social media impacts cognition; specifically, attention. Study 1 investigated typical social media usage patterns and helped gauge which SM platform was most popular. Study 1 revealed three main platforms people used most often: Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Facebook was reported as the most popular social media platform. Study 2 investigated how a social media post impacts cognition. It was hypothesized that participants who posted, with the intention of provoking a reaction from their followers, on their social media prior to performing a cognitive …

The Effects Of Alcohol On Visual Attention, Amber M. Robinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Alcohol has been shown to have a variety of effects on cognitive performance in humans; the present study tested the effects of alcohol on visual selective attention using three different paradigms. The effects of alcohol intoxication over a broad range of blood alcohol concentrations (average between 0.01 and 0.08) were evaluated for change blindness, inattentional blindness, and multiple object tracking. Alcohol was found to impair inattentional blindness performance, negatively affecting participants’ ability to notice the unexpected changes presented. This result is interpreted as support for the alcohol myopia theory. No significant effects of alcohol were found for change blindness or …

Individual Differences In The Allocation Of Visual Attention During Navigation, Mikayla Keller

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There are large individual differences in the ability to create an accurate mental representation (i.e., a cognitive map) of a novel environment, yet the factors underlying cognitive map accuracy remain unclear. Given the roles that landmarks and cognitive map accuracy play in successful navigation, the current study examined whether differences in the landmarks that individuals look at while navigating are related to differences in cognitive map accuracy. Participants completed a battery of spatial tests: some that assessed spatial skills prior to a navigation task, and others that tested memory for the environment following exploration of a virtual world. Results indicated …

Attachment And Attention: An Investigation Of Biases In Attention As They Relate To Attachment Security In Infancy And Adulthood, Paul J. Meinz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

At the advent of attachment theory, John Bowlby hypothesized that cognition and emotion are shaped by early experiences with primary caregivers (Bowlby, 1980). This idea – that aspects of cognition may be organized within early relationships – still plays a prominent role in contemporary attachment theory. The studies described within this dissertation provide support for the idea that attachment security in infancy and adulthood are associated with differences in cognition – particularly with differences in the way that people attend to certain forms of stimuli. Mothers and children in the studies described here were first assessed for individual differences in …

Individual Differences In Temperament And Cognitive Biases In Middle Childhood: Vulnerability To Internalizing Psychopathology, Patricia L. Jordan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A multi-trait multi-method study was conducted exploring associations between individual differences in child temperament and cognitive vulnerability for depression and anxiety. Two-hundred and five 7-year-old children and their parents participated. Low positive emotionality and high negative emotionality predicted a depressogenic attributional style as well as attentional biases for positive and sad stimuli. Individual differences in child fearfulness were also associated with attentional biases to threat-related information. Associations between child cognitive vulnerability and parental history of depression and anxiety were also explored, as well as associations between child internalizing symptoms and (1) child temperament and (2) cognitive vulnerability. Paternal, but not …