Psychology Commons^™

Cognitive, Neural, And Educational Contributions To Mathematics Performance: A Closer Look At The Roles Of Numerical And Spatial Skills, Zachary C.K. Hawes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The principal aims of this thesis were to (1) provide new insights into the cognitive and neural associations between spatial and mathematical abilities, and (2) translate and apply findings from the field of numerical cognition to the teaching and learning of early mathematics.

Study 1 investigated the structure and interrelations amongst cognitive constructs related to numerical, spatial, and executive function (EF) skills and mathematics achievement in 4- to 11-year old children (N=316). Results revealed evidence of highly related, yet separable, cognitive constructs. Together, numerical, spatial, and EF skills explained 84% of the variance in mathematics achievement (controlling for chronological age). …

Pattern Separation In The Ventral Visual Stream, Kayla Ferko

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pattern separation is a neural computation thought to underlie our ability to form distinct memories of similar events. It involves transforming overlapping inputs into less overlapping outputs. In the ventral visual stream (VVS) there is considerable evidence for hierarchical transformation from feature-based visual representations to conjunctive whole-object representations, with the latter allowing for distinct coding even when objects have significant feature overlap. In the current study, we asked whether this transformation can be understood as pattern separation, and whether pattern separation can be observed even outside the context of classic recognition-memory tasks. To investigate pattern separation in the VVS, we …