Cognition and Perception Commons^™

The “Mozart Effect”: Musicological And Scientific Perspectives, Donald J. Polzella, Richard P. Benedum

Psychology Faculty Publications

The “Mozart effect” suggests that merely listening to Mozart’s music enhances human cognitive processing. Although the “Mozart effect” has generated a great deal of attention since it was first proposed, replicating the Mozart effect has proven elusive, and it has been argued that the effect is attributable not to the music, but rather to changes in arousal and mood. Even so, it may be that the music of Mozart increases arousal and improves mood to a greater degree than do other stimuli, including the music of other composers.

Proximity In Context: An Empirically Grounded Computational Model Of Proximity For Processing Topological Spatial Expression., John D. Kelleher, Geert-Jan Kruijff, Fintan Costello

Conference papers

The paper presents a new model for context-dependent interpretation of linguistic expressions about spatial proximity between objects in a natural scene. The paper discusses novel psycholinguistic experimental data that tests and verifies the model. The model has been implemented, and enables a conversational robot to identify objects in a scene through topological spatial relations (e.g. ''X near Y''). The model can help motivate the choice between topological and projective prepositions.

Methodological Challenges For Identifying And Coding Diverse Knowledge Elements In Interview Data, Victor R. Lee, Moshe Krakowski, Bruce Sherin, Megan Bang, Gregory Dam

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper, as part of a symposium on the analysis of clinical interview data and the development of a framework for analyzing students' intuitive science knowledge, identifies and discusses methodological challenges encountered when specifying the knowledge elements and resources are invoked dynamically during a clinical interview. Drawing from interviews with middle school students about the seasons and an analysis of knowledge in terms of 'nodes', two classes of problems are identified: those associated with identification of nodes and those associated with their application as codes to a transcript-based data corpus. We posit that these challenges are common ones associated with …

Public Reasoning About Criminal Justice: The Role Of Victim, Offence, And Offender Characteristics And Victim-Offender Relationships. Public Reasoning About Criminal Justice: Effects Of Victim Age And Victim-Offender Relationship, Donald Foy

Theses : Honours

The formulation and amendment of legislation which forms the basis for the operation and administration of the Australian criminal justice system may be the role given to elected government officials but it is the citizens who elect them who bear ultimate responsibility. The way that members of the public reason about criminal justice issues therefore has the capacity to greatly influence decision making in this area. This paper will review some of the research which has attempted to explain the influence that several variables may have on the way that people reason about criminal justice. These research topics include fear …

When Red Lights Look Yellow, Joanne M. Wood, David A. Atchison, Alex Chaparro

Publications

Purpose. Red signals are typically used to signify danger. This study was conducted to investigate a situation identified by train drivers in which red signals appear yellow when viewed at long distances (∼900 m) through progressive-addition lenses.

Methods. A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the effects of defocus, target size, ambient illumination, and surround characteristics on the extent of the color misperception of train signals by nine visually normal participants. The data from the laboratory study were validated in a field study by measuring the amounts of defocus and the distances at which the misperception of the color of …

Using Scenario-Based Training To Teach Single Pilot Resource Management Related To The Use Of The Brs Parachute, Shayna Danielle Strally

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The Ballistic Recovery System is an emergency parachute for single engine aircraft which, when released, lowers the aircraft to the ground to prevent terrain collision. This study sought to examine the effects of scenario-based training on pilot’s use of the BRS. Of particular interest was the point at which the pilot decides to deploy the BRS. Single pilot resource management was included as a training objective, as it encompasses relevant cognitive skills such as decision making and situational awareness. The results showed participants in the scenario-based training condition performed significantly better than participants in a traditional training condition on several …

Analysis Of Group Differences And Predictors Of Hooper Visual Organization Test Scores, Michael R. Devries

Dissertations

The Hooper Visual Organization Test (VOT) is described in the manual as a screening instrument that measures the ability to organize visual stimuli (Hooper, 1983). The VOT is identified as being particularly sensitive to neurological impairment. Studies to determine the criterion and construct validity of the VOT have examined its usefulness in distinguishing between individuals with neurological impairment from those with other disorders. Few studies have included samples from normal, psychiatrically impaired, and neurologically impaired populations in determining the VOT's usefulness in identifying neurologically impaired individuals. Furthermore, as neuropsychology has moved away from the understanding of neurological impairment as a …

Second Graders' Favorite Weather Drawings, Ashley L. Sherman

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

The Favorite Weather Drawing has been used extensively as an art therapy assessment tool. It has been theorized to contain certain variables that relate to a child’s underlying mood or perception of his or her environment. Since neither the Favorite Weather Drawing nor the similar Favorite Kind of Day Drawing have been researched extensively or standardized with normative populations, there has been a lack of research that could provide a much-needed foundation for such a popular assessment technique. This study explored regional and gender differences in the Favorite Weather Drawing of 2nd grade students as a way to provide groundwork …

On Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal, Rania Masri

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

How do we define place? How do we develop our sense of identity and how do we recognize that development? With our constantly changing locations and with our locations themselves constantly changing into more urbanized areas, how do we locate and understand ourselves within our idea of place? How does our relationship with 'nature' touch our lives? In essence, how do we live, with - and within - ourselves?

The Edge Of The World, Joy Kennedy

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

“The Edge of the World” tells a true story of a mapping expedition in the second longest cave in Texas. When her survey group becomes lost inside the cave, the author uses the experience to propel questions of the duplicity of maps and the ambiguities of human perception. Detailed are the gritty nuances of caving that the average tourist never experiences: the tightness of squeezes, digging for air flow, and pushing for passages. The author finally questions if the blank spaces on maps should really be filled in with new discoveries, for perhaps something is being lost in the process.

On Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal, Christine Cusick

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

I tend to have an often stubborn suspicion of the convergence of art and technology, language that loses and finds us in the throes of new and unbound understanding somehow, seems diminished when the materiality of its record cannot be felt, when visceral responses cannot make a palimpsest of the text through the marginalia of an earnest reader. And so, when I first heard mention of a highly respected poet and thinker chronicling his time-felt ruminations and intuitions on cyberspace, I was initially hesitant to pursue the encounter. However, my hesitation quickly turned to humble engagement as I …

K-Means Clustering With Multiresolution Peak Detection, Guanshan Yu, Leen-Kiat Soh, Alan B. Bond

Avian Cognition Papers

Clustering is a practical data mining approach of pattern detection. Because of the sensitivity of initial conditions, k-means clustering often suffers from low clustering performance. We present a procedure to refine initial conditions of k-means clustering by analyzing density distributions of a data set before estimating the number of clusters k necessary for the data set, as well as the positions of the initial centroids of the clusters. We demonstrate that this approach indeed improves the accuracy and performance of k-means clustering measured by average intra to interclustering error ratio. This method is applied to the virtual ecology project to …

A Child’S Dance Of The Sankofa: Redefining, Reconstructing, And Reclaiming Identity, Shawnrey Notto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following research focuses on a major health crisis that exists within the black Brazilian population, that of identity and self esteem. The study will deals with the possibility of reconstructing black identity, through dance. Children are being socialized into a society whose system practically equivocates anything of Afro-descent, anything black, with negativity. This is a serious problem that is cultivated in a culture of violence, which is profoundly detrimental to the social and psychological development of a people. As such this is an offense to human kind. By using participant-observation and interviews the research traces how some empowerment, consciousness, …

Examining The Time Course Of Indexical Specificity Effects In Spoken Word Recognition, Conor T. Mclennan, Paul A. Luce

Psychology Faculty Publications

Variability in talker identity and speaking rate, commonly referred to as indexical variation, has demonstrable effects on the speed and accuracy of spoken word recognition. The present study examines the time course of indexical specificity effects to evaluate the hypothesis that such effects occur relatively late in the perceptual processing of spoken words. In 3 long-term repetition priming experiments, the authors examined reaction times to targets that were primed by stimuli that matched or mismatched on the indexical variable of interest (either talker identity or speaking rate). Each experiment was designed to manipulate the speed with which participants processed the …

The Effect Of Gender, Confirmation Bias, And Metacognitive Self Assessment Over Varying Levels Of Expertise In A Visuospatial Task, Tatiana Ballion

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It has been shown that there exists a relationship between levels of metacognitive ability and estimation of personal ability for largely verbally-based tasks, where those with lessened facility for the task tend toward overestimation of their aptitude relative to their peers (Kruger and Dunning, 1999). This study examines this effect for a task of mechanical ability for volunteer participants (n = 69), where participants were given an abbreviated form of the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test (BMCT) to establish a level of competency. Following the administration of the BMCT, the participants were then asked to speculate on the hypothetical grade for …

Implicit Cognition And Dissocative Experiences As Predictors Of Adolescent Substance Use, Susan L. Ames, Steve Sussman, Clyde W. Dent, Alan W. Stacy

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The present study evaluated the mediating role of implicit cognitive processes in the prediction of alcohol and marijuana use and examined the relationships between dissociative experiences, implicit processes, and sensation seeking in models of drug use and problem experiences. Participants were 467 diverse at-risk adolescents in California. Results from latent variable models revealed that implicit cognition independently predicted alcohol and marijuana use and mediated the predictive effects of sensation seeking on drug use. Dissociative experiences did not predict implicit cognition or drug use in this sample, though this factor was a significant predictor of problem experiences and was positively correlated …

Examining User Acceptance Of Computer Technology: An Empirical Study Of Student Teachers, Will W.K. Ma, Robert Andersson, Karl-Oslear Streith

Support & Other Units (THEi)

The use of computer technology in schools has made slow progress since the mid-1980s even though governments have been generous in funding. It is therefore important to understand how and when teachers use computer technology in order to devise implementation strategies to encourage them. This study investigates student teachers' perceptions of computer technology in relation to their intention to use computers. The purpose is to shed light on more effective ways to motivate the use of computer technology in schools. Based on an expanded variation of the Technology Acceptance Model, 84 completed surveys of student teachers were collected at …

Spoken Word Recognition: The Challenge Of Variation, Paul A. Luce, Conor T. Mclennan

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Context-Dependent Model Of Proximity In Physically Situated Environments, John D. Kelleher, Geert-Jan M. Kruijff

Conference papers

The paper presents a computational model for a context-dependent analysis of a physical environment in terms of spatial proximity. The model provides a basis for grounding linguistic analyses of spatial expressions in visual perception. The model uses potential fields to model spatial proximity. It has been implemented, and when combined with a handcrafted grammar, is used to enable a conversational robot to carry out a situated dialogue with a human. The key concept in our approach is defining the region that is proximal to a landmark based on the spatial configuration of other objects in the scene. The model extends …

Effects Of Background Music On Spatial And Linguistic Processing, Leslie A. Angel, Donald J. Polzella, Greg C. Elvers

Psychology Faculty Publications

Poster session presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society. College students were trained according to one of two standardized task protocols: spatial (mental rotation) or linguistic (letter classification).Testing consisted of multiple randomized trials with and without background music (classical piano) at two levels of task difficulty. Raw data for both tasks were response time and accuracy. Background music increased the speed of spatial processing at both difficulty levels, while accuracy of processing remained unaffected. In contrast, background music increased the accuracy of linguistic processing, while speed of processing remained unaffected. These findings, integrated with those of a previous experiment …

The Effect Of Color On Viewers’ Ratings Of Paintings, Donald J. Polzella, Stephanie H. Hammar, Chad W. Hinkle

Psychology Faculty Publications

Sixty college students rated digitized facsimiles of 20 paintings on 12 semantic differential scales. The paintings represented two classes of content, landscape and portrait, and two styles, traditional and modern. Half the participants viewed the paintings in color, half in black and white. Removing color from portraits increased their perceived pleasantness and beauty and reduced tension. In contrast, removing color from landscapes reduced their perceived beauty. It is argued that for landscapes color may provide a critical channel for transmitting increased amounts of information such as depth. For portraits, color can be superfluous or even distracting.

Dissociable Aspects Of Mental Workload: Examinations Of The P300 Erp Component And Performance Assessments, Carryl L. Baldwin, Joseph T. Coyne

Psychology Faculty Publications

Advanced technologies have enabled the choice of either visual or auditory formats for avionics and surface transportation displays. Methods of assessing the mental workload imposed by displays of different formats are critical to their successful implementation. Towards this end a series of investigations were conducted with the following aims: 1) developing analogous auditory and visual versions of a secondary task that could be used to compare display modalities; and 2) to compare the sensitivity of neurophysiological, behavioral and subjective indices of workload. Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that analogous auditory and visual secondary oddball discrimination tasks were of equivalent difficulty …

Distributed Artificial Neural Network (Dann): Model Of Human Memory Behavior, Karen Meriweather

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is believed that a distributed network system will provide a general means of understanding cognitive functions that occur in the brain. This study provides a framework for modeling human memory behavior using a Distributed Artificial Neural Network (DANN) architecture. This approach presents a different method for modeling cognitive functions using peer-to-peer computing. The computers on the network represents different memory stores, and by using Hopfield Neural Network Techniques, along with the software application Joone, the final product is a DANN system that exhibits human memory behavior and the ability to associate input vectors from the Fisher's Iris Classification output …

The Effect Of Levels Of Processing On Event-Related-Potentials, Warren Scott Merrifield

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The primary research question for this study was to determine if physiological correlates of encoding and retrieval could be observed across three levels of processing. It was hypothesized that physiological correlates of encoding and retrieval would be observed at electrode sites near Cz with the semantic processing condition yielding the most positive going event-related-potential, the phonological processing condition yielding an intermediate positive going event-related-potential, and the perceptual processing condition yielding the least positive going-event-related-potential. The experiment had a study phase and test phase. For the study phase, participants were encouraged to process the target word at one of three different …

The Self And Autobiographical Memory: Correspondence And Coherence, Martin A. Conway, Jefferson A. Singer, Angela Tagini

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduces a modified version of Conway and Pleydell-Pearce's Self Memory System (SMS) account of autobiographical memory and the self. Discussion of a fundamental tension between adaptive correspondence and self-coherence; Examination of tension; Application of SMS to personality and clinical psychology.

The Feeling Of Music Past: How Listeners Remember Musical Affect, Alexander Rozin, Paul Rozin, Emily Goldberg

Music Theory, History & Composition Faculty Publications & Performances

No abstract provided.

To See More Clearly And Broadly: Science And The Postmodern Sentiment, C. Jason Smith, Robert Froemke

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

What we call postmodernism, whether we refer to the sciences or the humanities, is a certain preoccupation with the role of the human observer in the composition and perception -- perhaps even construction -- of reality. The postmodern condition, so to speak, is the moment in history when the hard sciences and the sciences of man seem to be suffering from the same anxieties about the relevance of the self-reflexive interaction between the observer and the subject to the fabric of existence and the web of knowledge. In simplest terms, we would define the postmodern question as this: …

Of Parts And Wholes: Self-Similarity And Synecdoche In Science, Culture And Literature, Dirk Vanderbeke

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

The discussion here centers on how self-similarity, or parts resembling a whole, has been a recurring aspect in the most diverse fields of human thinking from antiquity to the present. Primary examples are drawn from physics, biology, cybernetics, alchemy, philosophy, myth and, of course, language and literature. The author argues that self-similar patterns are one of the persistent ways in which the human mind structures its experience and knowledge of the world, and then examines some of the questions that arise when an almost ubiquitous concept, structure or linguistic and literary phenomenon resurfaces in a new guise in …

Self-Esteem Of The Female Adolescent: As Promoted Through The Life Skills Class, Kelsey Sullivan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Age And Task Timing Characteristics On Contingency Judgment, Marci C. Sammons

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Detecting contingency relationships between causal events allows us to adapt to and control these events. However, research has shown age-related impairments in this ability. The goal of this study was to examine how reduced processing speed in older adults affects contingency learning. Manipulating the time during which to generate the response, to test the limited time mechanism of processing speed, had little effect on contingency judgments. Varying the temporal contiguity of events, to test the simultaneity mechanism of processing speed, affected young adults’ contingency judgments. Older adults’ judgments were less accurate overall, and young adults’ judgments were similarly less accurate …