Digital Commons Network^™

Learning To See Analogies: A Connectionist Exploration, Douglas S. Blank

Computer Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

The goal of this dissertation is to integrate learning and analogy-making. Although learning and analogy-making both have long histories as active areas of research in cognitive science, not enough attention has been given to the ways in which they may interact. To that end, this project focuses on developing a computer program, called Analogator, that learns to make analogies by seeing examples of many different analogy problems and their solutions. That is, it learns to make analogies by analogy. This approach stands in contrast to most existing computational models of analogy in which particular analogical mechanisms are assumed a priori …

The Place Of The Psyche In A Constructed World, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

The vast majority of social constructionist writings have been critical of psychological science-on both ideological and conceptual grounds. The constructionist emphasis on microsocial processes also functions oppositionally to psychological accounting. The existing animus grows, however, from a realist metaphysics and a correspondence view of language, neither of which constructionism endorses. Viewing the relationship between constructionism and psychological science in more pragmatic terms, we find three significant ways in which constructionism contributes to a more fully enriched and broadly effective psychology. First, critical constructionism functions to denaturalize psychological accounts, opening them to reflexive deliberation, and democratizing the field more generally. Second, …

Is It Lost Or Just Forgotten? The Use Of Age Regression In Recapturing A Second Language, Marlene J. Mowery

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the question of whether a second language learned in early childhood and later forgotten is lost forever or is situationally unretrievable. The focus of this case study is the examination of hypnotic age regression as a means of retrieval and the use of posthypnotic suggestion in recapturing and maintaining a lost language. A multi-session single subject design was employed in this study. The participant was a nine-year-old American female who was exposed to Hungarian in a Budapest pre-school setting from age three years nine months to age four years seven months. The subject became as fluent as …

A Framework For Assessing The Rationality Of Judgments In Carcinogenicity Hazard Identification, Douglas J. Crawford-Brown, Kenneth G. Brown

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Arguing that guidelines for identifying carcinogens now lack a philosophically rigorous framework, the authors present an alternative that draws clear attention to the process of reasoning towards judgments of carcinogenicity.

Life In Captivity: Its Lack Of Opportunities For Variable Behaviour, Françoise Wemelsfelder

Zoos and Aquariums Collection

No abstract provided.

Dedicated To The Memory Of V. V. Nalimov, Yu. V. Granovsky

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

No abstract provided.

The Complexity Of The Initial Condition, Herbert Guenther

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

No abstract provided.

The Scientific Validity Of Subjective Concepts In Models Of Animal Welfare, Françoise Wemelsfelder

Animal Welfare Collection

This paper takes a closer look at the subjectivity/objectivity relationship, as it plays a role in the science of animal welfare. It argues that subjective, experiential states in animals such as well-being and suffering are, contrary to what is often assumed, open to empirical observation and scientific assessment. The presumably purely private, inaccessible nature of such states is not an inherent property of these states, but derives from their misguided conception as ‘causal objects’ in mechanistic models of behaviour. This inevitably endows subjective experience with a ‘hidden’ status. However, subjective experience should be approached on its own conceptual grounds, i.e. …

Acculturation, Family Variables, And Cognition Of A Subgroup Of American Indian Children Ages 3-9, Michael Alan Cummings

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between specific family variables and measures of cognitive abilities for preschool and young school-aged children of an American Indian ancestry. More specifically, the study used two cognitive measures, the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and the Embedded Figures Test, and examined the influence that 23 family variables and cultural background (acculturation) had on measures of spatial abilities.

Past studies suggested that American Indian children, as a group, perform above the standardization sample on measures of visual-spatial skills, have higher simultaneous processing skills, and are more field independent. It was anticipated that at …

The Interactive And Combined Effects Of Domain-Specific Knowledge And Strategic Knowledge On Reading Comprehension, Eric J. Gee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The literature in reading comprehension has demonstrated that both domain-specific knowledge and strategic knowledge are vital to good comprehension. However, few studies have actually compared the effects of the two types of knowledge on reading comprehension. Fewer studies have examined the effects of combining the two strategies even though cognitive theories indicate that true comprehension occurs when certain procedures act upon knowledge constructed from the text being read and "link" that knowledge with knowledge in the long-term memory.

This study compared subjects receiving strategic knowledge and content knowledge to subjects receiving strategic knowledge only, subjects receiving content-knowledge only, and a …

Interview: Cindi Katz. Creating Safe Space And The Materiality Of The Margins, Vincent Delcasino, Michael L. Dorn, Carole Gallaher

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Hardball Politics, The Chinese Connection, And The Psychology Of Linkage: Some Implications Of, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

IBPP has posited some effects of globalization on individual psychologies ("Political Psychology and Globalization" (Vol. 1, No. 13)) and political tactics and structures ("Psychopolitical Effects of Globalization on Power: When Weakness Becomes Strength" (Vol. 1, No. 14.)) This article describes how new information technologies and old principles of social psychology may be combined in an era of globalization for effective information warfare during political conflict.

Assessment Of Nonverbal Cognitive Processes In Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Jacqueline J. Head

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

This study reviewed the literature on ADHD/ADD including a survey of the disorder, current clinical interventions and, diagnostic techniques. Data was collected comparing three groups of children (control, ADHD, ADD) on a newly developed nonverbal assessment test, the Leiter-R. The findings show that the Leiter-R resulted in significant differences in scores between the control group and the ADHD and ADD groups on twelve of the twenty subtests. This demonstrates the efficacy of the Leiter-R as an assessment tool for ADHD and ADD. Based on these findings the following tentative recommendations were proposed to assist children with ADHD and ADD. Children …

A Concurrent Validity Study Of The Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test And The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised, Kimberly D. Rayburn

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Kaufinan Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT) as a valid screening instrument for the more comprehensive Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) was studied. Both assessment instruments were administered to 34 subjects referred to a private psychological practice as part of a requested battery of test. Each test produces a verbal score, nonverbal score and combined verbal and nonverbal score. Results indicate that each section of the K-BIT has a significant correlation to its WAIS-R counterpart. The correlation between the verbal scores, nonverbal scores and the combined scores of the two instruments were .87, .78, and .88, respectively. The K-BIT appears to …

Development And Validation Of Three Alternative Forms Of A Published General Mental Ability Test, Lori Jean Casper

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

How Effective Are The Things People Say To Apologize? Effects Of The Realization Of The Apology Speech Act., Steven J. Scher, John M. Darley

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

The Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989a) has identified five components of an "apology speech act set": five strategies that speakers use to apologize. This study examines the effects of four of those strategies (illocutionary force indicating device, expression of responsibility, promise of forebearance, and offer of repair) on the judgments made by hearers about the speaker and about the apology. Each of the strategies is shown to have an independent effect in improving reactions to the speaker. Further, the magnitude of these effects appear to be roughly similar for each of the strategies. The things …

Language-Naive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Judge Relations Between Relations In A Conceptual Matching-To-Sample Task, Roger K.R. Thompson, David L. Oden, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Three chimpanzees with a history of conditional and numeric token training spontaneously matched relations between relations under conditions of nondifferential reinforcement. Heretofore, this conceptual ability was demonstrated only in language-trained chimpanzees. The performance levels of the language-naive animals in this study, however, were equivalent to those of a 4th animal—Sarah—whose history included language training and analogical problem solving. There was no evidence that associative factors mediated successful performance in any of the animals. Prior claims of a profound disparity between language-trained and language-naive chimpanzees apparently can be attributed to prior experience with arbitrary tokens consistently associated with abstract relations and …

Self Narrative And The Process Of Inquiry In Teacher Development: Living And Working In Just Institutions, Sara Soledad Garcia

Teacher Education

Historically the cultures of certain ethnic groups in the United States have been rendered invisible in school pedagogy. New stipulations for credentialing in California, however, require teachers to reflect critically upon the meaning of cultural difference, including their own thinking and lived experience as well as the lives, backgrounds, and cultural history ofthe children they teach. To be effective in culturally diverse classrooms, teachers must confront certain contradictions in their own identity. Most teacher candidates have shaped their identity according to a set of mainstream values and beliefs that has denigrated cultural difference. The personal confrontation with difference and self-identity …

Global Precedence In Visual Search? Not So Fast: Evidence Instead For An Oblique Effect, Frank H. Durgin, Sarah E. Wolfe , '97

Psychology Faculty Works

The evidence from an earlier report of global precedence in visual search is reexamined, Two new experiments are reported. The results of the first experiment indicate that the confusability of oblique orientations (a class-2 oblique effect) rather than global precedence was responsible for the earlier results. The results of the second experiment show that the effect critically depends on the presence of heterogeneous distracters rather than on differences in raw processing speed for different spatial scales. The possible role of symmetry is discussed.

Existential Loneliness: The Other Side Of The Void, Richard Booth

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Three Different Interviewing Techniques For Young Children, David Samsock

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Three programs for the testing of elementary school students' eyewitness testimonies were compared; Action for Child Protection Inc., (1994) which utilizes doll play, the Step-Wise Interview procedure developed by Yuille et al. (1993), and a modified version of the Cognitive Interview, (Geiselman, Saywitz and Bornstein, 1993). College students were trained in one of the three interviewing techniques. First and second grade children viewed a short film, were given suggestions, and were then interviewed with one of the three interviewing techniques. The college students had not seen the film. The techniques produced different response patterns, and strengths and weaknesses of each …

Young Children's Talk At Play: Orientation To Self And Orientation To The Joint Exigencies Of Conversation, Paige K. Parker

Masters Theses

This study employed a conversation analytic approach to determine how children in naturally constructed play episodes use language as an object of play and how children in their naturally occurring talk display orientation to their own individual activities and others' social actions. The participants were thirty-nine kindergarten and first grade students at South Elementary School in Marshall, Illinois. The study is based upon fifteen hours of conversation collected during recess periods. Relevant segments from the corpus were transcribed according to an adapted version of Jefferson's Transcript Notation System (1984). The findings suggested that (1) the groups of children used language …

Predictions Of Urban, Ethnically Diverse, Early School-Age Children's Academic Achievement Using A Neuropsychological Screening Battery, Stephen R. Clingerman

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Interview: Cindi Katz. Creating Safe Space And The Materiality Of The Margins, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

Cindi Katz, associate professor and chair of the environmental psychology program at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, visited the University of Kentucky in February of 1996 to deliver the keynote address at the 5 1/2 Annual Geography Graduate Student Conference. In her address, entitled "Power, Space and Terror: Social Reproduction and the Public Environment," Professor Katz discussed how changes jn urban built environments, particularly the privatization of urban public space, negatively affected New York City children. Privatization, she argued, not only serves a 'child hating' mentality prevalent in our society, but fosters, among other things, …

The Effects Of Human-Computer Communication Mode, Task Complexity, And Desire For Control On Performance And Discourse Organization In An Adaptive Task, Cristina Bubb-Lewis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined how different communication patterns affected task performance with an adaptive interface. A Wizard-of-Oz simulation (Gould, Conti, & Hovanyecz, 1983) was used to create the impression of a talking and listening computer that acted as a teammate to help participants interact with a computer application.

Four levels of communication mode were used which differed in the level of restriction placed on human-computer communication. In addition, participants completed two sets of tasks (simple and complex). Further, a personality trait, Desire for Control (DC), was measured and participants were split into high and low groups for analysis. Dependent measures …

The Psychopolitics Of Language And Communication, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The editor discusses political issues connected by linguistic and communicative discord and controversy.

Leadership And Psychopathy, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The editor discusses what makes for a successful leader, and whether such a leader can be psychopathic.

An Exploratory Factor Analysis Of The Leiter-R, Mike Bay

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Cognitive assessment is an important domain in psychology. The development of nonverbal cognitive assessment devices has been spurred by the increasingly multicultural nature of U.S. society and by legislation calling for early identification and treatment of children with cognitive disabilities. The Leiter-R is a non-verbal test of intelligence designed chiefly for use with language-and cognitively-impaired persons aged 2-21. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the Leiter-R was undertaken in an effort to (a) identify the factor structure of the Leiter-R, (b) verify general visualization (Gv) and fluid reasoning (Gf) as second-level factors in the Leiter-R, and (c) examine evidence for the …

Parental Quality Ratings Of Early Child Care Experiences And Subsequent School Adjustment, Donna Owens Collier

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences in the school performances of children with different early child care experiences. The relationship between parental quality ratings of early child care experiences and subsequent school performance was also examined. The subjects in this study were 99 first grade students from two public elementary schools in Chesapeake, Virginia. The parents of these students were asked to assess broad areas of their children's early care. This assessment resulted in four subscores and one overall score of quality. The school performance scores included two measures of academic achievement obtained from the students' …

The First Step In The Case For Great Ape Equality: The Argument For Other Minds, Kristin Andrews

Psychology Collection

No abstract provided.