Cognitive Science Commons^™

Unraveling The Impact Of Cognitive Test Anxiety On Academic Performance Among Adolescents: The Case Of Minority And Majority Communities, Zulfiqar Ullah Siddiqui, Wael M. F. Abuhassan

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

Background: Within the Indian society and its many communities, adolescents exhibit a wide range of individual differences, including cognitive abilities, learning styles, and personality traits. These differences can influence how students perceive and cope with test anxiety and related stress. Objective: The primary goal of this research study was to investigate the influence of cognitive test anxiety on academic performance in adolescents from both minority (Muslims) and majority (Hindus) communities in India. Method: Based on descriptive-inferential research design, a sample of 450 students was selected, with 223 students representing the majority community and the remaining 227 students representing the minority …

Exploring The Efficacy Of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagal Nerve Stimulation On Post-Stroke Aphasia: A Single-Subject Design Study, Aswathy Anakkathil Pradeep

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Background: Anomia or word-retrieval difficulty is a common long-term language impairment for individuals with post-stroke aphasia. Several behavioral interventions like semantic feature analysis (SFA) have shown positive results in naming outcomes, but continue to face difficulty in generalizing the treatment effects to untreated items. With recent advancements in technology, researchers are developing newer neuromodulation devices that aim at promoting neuroplasticity and neural reorganization in post-stroke individuals. Transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a relatively new technology that aims at stimulating the auricular branch of the vagal nerve to promote neuroplasticity. Studies have shown taVNS to potentially facilitate positive improvements …

Neural Correlates Of Socially Rewarding Memories In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Kyle P. Blidy

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Significance. Memory disturbances for emotional content are central to PTSD, yet most research focuses on trauma memories. Recent evidence suggests that enhancing access to positive memories could improve mood, affect regulation, self-esteem, and integration of trauma memories. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying positive memory encoding in PTSD are poorly understood. No study has examined memory for positive social items in PTSD, which is important because PTSD entails social withdrawal and reduced accessibility to positive memory. Additionally, positive memories embedded in a social context have enhanced subjective value and strengthening their accessibility may confer greater benefits to wellbeing compared to non-social …

The Effects Of Audio And Visual Stimuli On Working Memory, Suad H. Mohamed, Gavin Khamphouvong, Bailey A. Zobel, Kayley Erin Tiggs

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

The rise in technology over recent years has led to a dramatic increase in distractions (Miller et al., 2020). Additionally, it has been well-established that visual and audio stimuli can make up the majority of these distractors on working memory. Working memory provides temporary storage and active manipulation of information that requires simultaneous processing (Baddeley, 1992). However, little research has experimentally tested to see if there is a significant difference between audio and visual stimuli on working memory. The purpose of the present study was to examine how an addition of audio or visual stimuli impacts performance on working memory …

A Rose By Any Other Name: Mapping Taxonomic And Thematic Naming Errors Poststroke, Nicholas Riccardi, Deena Schwen Blackett, Abigail Broadhead, Dirk B. Den Ouden, Chris Rorden, Julius Fridriksson, Leonardo Bonilha, Rutvik H. Desai

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding the neurobiology of semantic knowledge is a major goal of cognitive neuroscience. Taxonomic and thematic semantic knowledge are represented differently within the brain's conceptual networks, but the specific neural mechanisms remain unclear. Some neurobiological models propose that the anterior temporal lobe is an important hub for taxonomic knowledge, whereas the TPJ is especially involved in the representation of thematic knowledge. However, recent studies have provided divergent evidence. In this context, we investigated the neural correlates of taxonomic and thematic confrontation naming errors in 79 people with aphasia. We used three complementary lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) methods to investigate how structure …

An Updated Practical Guide To Taking And Defending Depositions, Gary S. Gildin

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The deposition offers a singular opportunity to handcuff the deponent to an irreversible script. Consequently, both the attorney taking the deposition and defending counsel must prepare for and conduct the deposition with equal if not greater care than the trial.

Traditionally, lawyers have used the deposition to discover facts relating to the legal elements and the credibility, perception, and recollection of the witness. However, recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as to how the brain makes decisions have revealed a different genre of evidence that will drive how the trier of fact will decide the case. Today an attorney taking a deposition …

Understanding Human Statistical Learning In Language Acquisition: Insights From Neural Networks, Anna Kopec

Holster Scholar Projects

This project explores how the cognitive mechanisms associated with human statistical learning in language acquisition align with computational processes in three kinds of neural networks: feedforward networks (FFN), simple recurrent networks (SRN), and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent networks. Prior research in infants has provided evidence of statistical learning in discovering word boundaries within continuous spoken speech. Replicating statistical learning tasks using neural networks could allow for a better understanding of the fundamentals of these parallel processes in our brains and neural networks alike. This project tested the ability of FFNs, SRNs, and LSTMs to make syllable-by-syllable predictions from sequential …

Beat The Boredom With Books! (Spanish), Mattie Lastovica, Lorraine Sheldon

Bibliotherapy

Beat the Boredom with Books was part of a resident research project. The research questions was "does intentional promotion of the Krissi Holman Family Library and the benefits of reading/screen time limitations during the hospital admission process increase use of and access to books from the in-hospital library in children ages O to 5 years?" The document includes facts about screentime use in pediatrics and information about the library.

Beat The Boredom With Books! (English), Mattie Lastovica, Lorraine Sheldon

Bibliotherapy

Beat the Boredom with Books was part of a resident research project. The research questions was "does intentional promotion of the Krissi Holman Family Library and the benefits of reading/screen time limitations during the hospital admission process increase use of and access to books from the in-hospital library in children ages O to 5 years?" The document includes facts about screen time use in pediatrics and information about the library.

Gsep Research Symposium Proceedings - 2024

GSEP Research Symposium

The 8th Annual GSEP Research Symposium, was themed "Dismantling Barriers between Research and Practice: Shining a Light on Global Interdisciplinary Solutions," took place on July 18-19, 2024, at the picturesque Château d'Hauteville in Saint-Légier-La Chiésaz, Switzerland.

The annual symposium is hosted by the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP). The symposium served as a dynamic platform for students, faculty, alums, and staff to come together and explore innovative ideas across multiple disciplines. Featuring 69 selected presentations under five distinct tracks, the proceedings showcase groundbreaking research, foster meaningful discussions, and promote professional development.

The symposium aimed to bridge …

Challenging Beliefs: Examining The Efficacy Of Corrections For Conspiratorial And Partisan Misinformation, Ava Zwolinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The threat of misinformation is widely acknowledged among researchers and laypeople (NORC, 2021). When misinformation coalesces with conspiracy theories, the repercussions can be especially dangerous, sometimes even fatal. Events such as the January 6th insurrection and the Buffalo Tops Supermarket shooting were both, in part, inspired by misleading information and conspiracy theories (Burke, 2022; Dawsey, 2023). While misinformation involving conspiracy theories is recognized as possibly posing a greater threat to correction efforts (Lewandowsky, 2021a), no study has yet experimentally manipulated the presence or absence of conspiratorial elements within misinformation. This dissertation explores whether conspiratorial misinformation is more difficult to correct …

Getting To The Point: Contrasting Directness And Warmth In Motivational Embodied Conversational Agents, Michael O'Mahony, Cathy Ennis, Robert Ross

Conference papers

Enhancing long-term engagement with conversational agents remains a significant challenge. Controlling the perceived warmth or directness of an agent’s personality through the style of its generated text could be used to increase user likeability. This paper reports an investigation of a Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) mediated study of two variants of a motivational embodied conversational agent to measure user perception of and attitudes towards warmth in interaction style. Results show a significant effect of users preferring an agent with a "more direct" personality for this scenario, though this effect is in many ways nuanced.

Enhancing The Accuracy Of The Mild Cognitive Impairment Diagnosis In Community-Based, Racially/Ethnically Diverse Older Adults, Katherine H. Chang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is thought to represent an intermediate stage of cognitive impairment that is often, but not always, a transitional phase between normal aging and dementia. Diagnostic criteria for “MCI” and international consensus criteria have been developed and refined over decades beginning in the 1990s, but the definition is still debated. Moreover, the operationalization and measurement of one of the criteria for MCI (i.e., subjective cognitive concerns, SCC), which is included in most classification approaches, is highly variable and there is great inconsistency across the literature. Some research efforts even support the removal of this criterion on the …

Cognitive Flexibility And Stability In Bilingual Older Adults, Lia Pazuelo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lifelong bilingual individuals develop expertise in language-switching, requiring a delicate balance between cognitive stability—safeguarding goals from interference—and cognitive flexibility—adapting goals to changing demands. While some studies demonstrate the transferability of these skills to non-linguistic tasks, signifying bilingualism's impact on cognitive processes, others find no direct correlation between non-linguistic task-switching and bilingualism. Our study investigated the cognitive processes underlying bilingual speakers' performance on a switching task, exploring whether varying degrees of bilingual experience in older adults result in different tendencies towards stability (e.g., lower mixing cost and response congruency effect) or flexibility (e.g., smaller switching costs). By treating the bilingual experience …

The Beautiful And The Bullshit: Speaker And Listener Mental Representations Influence Bullshit Receptivity, Ryan Tracy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bullshit is a topic that has enjoyed an explosion of attention in both cognitive and social psychological research domains. While the picture painted thus far suggests that receptivity to such statements (i.e., perceiving meaning where none exists) hinges upon an individual’s ability to engage in reflective (vs. reflexive) cognitive processing, little attention has been paid to how purveyors of bullshit influence one’s willingness to engage with the message. This is critical to explore, given the status of misinformation in today’s media climate. A critical step involved in determining characteristics of speakers that predict bullshit receptivity is to understand how people …

Brain Injury And Psychosocial Trauma: Outcomes Among Justice-Involved Individuals, Mahathi D. Kosuri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Justice-involved individuals experience disproportionately high rates of both traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and psychosocial traumas. However, these traumas have yet to be conceptualized together, leaving a chasm of research on how they interact and influence this population. The current study was the first to measure the effects of TBIs as well as psychosocial trauma among justice-involved men, within the context of executive functioning, history of justice involvement, and recidivism. A sample of men (N=95) from a private correctional facility were given the Ohio State University Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire (OSU-TBI-ID), the Lifetime Stressor Checklist- Revised (LSC-R), along with …

Resting-State Eeg Microstate Features For Major Depressive Disorder Classification, George M. V. Quinn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neuroimaging studies have revealed consistent abnormalities in functional connectivity within specific neural networks that may serve as biomarkers for major depressive disorder (MDD). It is important to find inexpensive, non-invasive techniques that target these biomarkers to make diagnosis easier and more objective. EEG microstates are quasi-stable potential topographies that are thought to reflect the quasi-stable network activity of the underlying neural generators. MDD has been shown to alter features of the four canonical EEG microstates (A, B, C, D) with some conflicting results. The most consistent network abnormalities in MDD are found in the anterior default mode network, and this …

Oer Textbook Review For Cognitive Psychology - (1) Cognitive Psychology - (2) Research Methods In Psychology, Jonathan Ericson Ph.D.

Open Educational Resources Publications

This review by Dr. Jonathan Ericson, Associate Professor for Experience Design at Bentley University, evaluates two OER textbooks: "Cognitive Psychology" and "Research Methods in Psychology.” Both texts, published on LibreTexts, are assessed for various criteria including comprehensiveness, accuracy, and relevance. The reviewer concludes that while suitable for introductory courses, both textbooks would benefit from supplemental materials and critical reflection questions to enhance student learning and address potential biases.

Developing A Comprehensive Cognitive Model Of Math Achievement, Nina Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, downward trends have been reported in U.S. children’s math performance following school disruptions during COVID-19 amidst longstanding concerns for instruction and curricula within the subject. In support of efforts to remedy these declines, the current work presents two studies dedicated to identifying cognitive factors that are most strongly related to math performance, and which therefore offer promising potential targets for assessment and intervention. Both studies use data from the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center, which includes participants ages 8 - 16 and multiple well-validated measures of all constructs of interest. Study 1 tests three alternative latent cognitive models of …

Promoting Emergent Literacy In Preschool Through Extended Discourse: Covert Translanguaging In A Mandarin Immersion Environment, Robin E. Harvey, Kevin M. Wong

Education Division Scholarship

Rich oral language practices, including the opportunity and ability to participate in cognitively and linguistically challenging extended discourse, are foundational to early literacy development. To meet children’s needs in their first exposure to the languages of schooling, educators may engage students in extended discourse multilingually. The current study focuses on student-centered translanguaging conversations to examine strategies that preschool teachers employ to support young children’s emerging bilingual and biliteracy development in a Mandarin immersion preschool serving primarily nonheritage learners of Mandarin in the United States. Findings indicate that, despite the school’s Mandarin-only policy, teachers engaged in covert translanguaging practices to extend …