Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Category Learning In Older Adulthood: Understanding And Reducing Age-Related Deficits, Rahel R. Rabi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Executive functions are important for learning rule-based (RB) categories, as well as non-rule-based (NRB) categories (e.g., categories learned implicitly, without a verbal rule). However, executive functioning is known to decline with age, leading to age-related deficits in category learning. The current thesis examines RB and NRB category learning in older adults using category sets that vary in difficulty (e.g., rule complexity, number of stimulus dimensions, salience of stimulus dimensions). In Chapter 2, older adults and younger adults completed three category sets (simple single-dimensional RB, disjunctive RB, and NRB). Older adults learned the simple, single-dimensional rules quite well. In contrast to …

Measuring Engagement Of The Executive Control Network From 3 Months Of Age, Michelle Tran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The executive control network (ECN) is critical for higher cognition and executive function (EF). Despite its importance, no scientific consensus has been reached on how and when it begins to function. In the present study, we assessed the development of the ECN in awake infants less than a year old by employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and naturalistic stimuli. First, we identified evocative movies that engaged infant attention. We then transferred them into adult imaging to test for which movie evoked the highest ECN response. Strong ECN responses were evoked while viewing Despicable Me, therefore we implemented this …

Re-Examining The Bilingual Advantage On Interference-Control And Task-Switching Tasks: A Meta-Analysis, Seamus Donnelly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A much-debated topic in psycholinguistics is whether lifelong bilingualism enhances executive functions (EF), the set of higher-order cognitive processes involved in the control of thought and action. Several researchers have predicted bilingual advantages on various EF tasks, especially interference-control and task-switching tasks. Many studies have tested these predictions, but results have proven unreliable. As a complementary approach to recent quantitative syntheses on this topic, the present dissertation tests whether the bilingual advantage is moderated by a number of theoretically significant variables: dependent variable (DV), task, age, age of L2 acquisition and lab.

Two meta-analyses were conducted. Study 1 considered interference-control …

The Role Of Chronic Sugar Consumption As A Moderating Variable On Acute Sugar Consumption And Aspects Of Executive Function, Caroline M. Joyce

Scripps Senior Theses

This study explores the relationship between acute sugar consumption and its effect on executive function (EF). Specifically, this study examines the effect of both acute and chronic sugar consumption on EF. An epidemiological survey was given on an online work distribution platform, where participants finished cognitive tasks of EF after completing questionnaires assessing sugar consumption both in the last year and last 24 hours (n = 273). It was hypothesized that acute and chronic sugar intake would significantly predict scores on measures of aspects of EF. Additionally, it was hypothesized that chronic sugar intake would significantly moderate the relationship …