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The Use Of Prior Knowledge In Learning From Examples, Stephen B. Blessing '89
The Use Of Prior Knowledge In Learning From Examples, Stephen B. Blessing '89
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation examines the way people acquire procedures from examples, and provides a computational model of the results. In four experiments, people learned an analog of algebra. For each experiment, the initial know ledge that people had of the task was varied. In two experiments (Experiments 1 and 3), the syntactic know ledge that people had concerning the task w as manipulated. The knowledge of syntax that participants had, particularly the ability to correctly parse the character string, was found to be a major determiner in the way participants acquired the rules. Experiment 2 explicitly manipulated participant's awareness as to …
Imaginary Companions In Preschool-Aged Children: A Theoretical Examination, An Exploration Of The Role Of Parents, And A Study Of The Relationship Between A Child And Her Imagination, Joy Lyn Bryan
Doctoral Dissertations
Two theories about why children create imaginary companions were examined, the void-stress and the psychoanalytic theories. The relationship between children and their imaginary companions, the role of parents, and fantasy choice were also examined. To these ends, children completed measures of loneliness, moral reasoning, locus of control, stress, and self-perceived competence. If they had an imaginary friend they also completed a perceived competence scale from the point of view of their imaginary companion. Children with imaginary companions also completed two measures of the relationship between themselves and their imagined friend: relationship circles and the Sibling Inventory of Differential Experience. All …
The Relation Between Media Exposure And Body Satisfaction: An Examination Of Moderating Variables Derived From Social Comparison Theory, Shelley Rae Strowman
The Relation Between Media Exposure And Body Satisfaction: An Examination Of Moderating Variables Derived From Social Comparison Theory, Shelley Rae Strowman
Doctoral Dissertations
The relation between media exposure and body satisfaction was investigated using correlational and experimental approaches. Several variables were examined as potential moderators of this relation (perceived similarity to magazine models, self-relevance of weight, perceived control over weight, tendency to compare to models, and body mass). These variables were derived primarily from past research on Festinger's (1954) social comparison theory. In Study 1, male and female subjects reported the amount of time they spent reading magazines pre-coded as having a body image or non-body image emphasis. Body image magazine exposure was unrelated to body satisfaction and self-esteem when correlations were computed …
The Effects Of Primary Olfactory Cortical And Thalamic Lesions On Olfactory Continuous Non-Matching To Sample And Discrimination In The Rat, Yueping Zhang
Doctoral Dissertations
Forty-two male rats were pretrained on the olfactory continuous delayed non-matching to sample (CDNMTS) task. They were then matched for performance and randomly assigned to one of the following six treatment groups: excitotoxic lesions of pyriform cortex, later entorhinal cortex, lateral internal medullary lamina (L-IML), mediodorsal nucleus (MDn), nonspecific nuclei, and sham control. After recovery from surgery, the rats were retrained on the olfactory CDNMTS. Delay effects were examined by manipulating retention intervals (RI), with five RIs (4, 6, 9, 13.5, and 20.25 s) randomly mixed within each session. The number of odor stimuli used in each session varied from …
The Generation Of Predictive Inferences And The Availability Of Contextual Information, Michelle Lenore Rizzella
The Generation Of Predictive Inferences And The Availability Of Contextual Information, Michelle Lenore Rizzella
Doctoral Dissertations
Five experiments were conducted to determine whether readers generate predictive inferences when biasing context was available at either a local level (i.e., in short-term memory) or global level (i.e., in long-term memory). Subjects read passages that described two characters; one description contained contextual information supporting a predictive inference and the other description did not. Experiments 1 and 2 examined whether subjects generated a predictive inference when biasing context was locally available. Reading time differences in Experiment 1 demonstrated that subjects experienced comprehension difficulty when critical sentences were inconsistent with biasing context. Experiment 2 showed that subjects had generated a predictive …