Cognitive Science Commons^™

Mapping The Older User’S Journey: Building Ux With Theories Of Cognitive Aging, Aichatou Diaw

CMC Senior Theses

The aging global population represents a pressing consideration for user experience (UX) designers. The field of cognitive aging research focuses on characterizing and explaining changes in cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, perception, and problem-solving that occur as people age. Understanding these changes is vital for crafting interfaces that cater to a broader demographic. With the hope of creating more inclusive digital interfaces, this thesis explores the application of three cognitive aging theories, Cognitive Reserve, Cognitive Load Theory, and Controlled Processing, in order to examine their implications for UX design. By integrating insights from these theories, designers can make digital …

Music Density: A Novel Measurement Of Music Perception, Tyler Ussery

All Master's Theses

Empirical research in fields such as music perception, cognition, and therapy has developed considerably in recent decades. While many studies implement musical stimuli, there are few expeditious metrics for identifying the objective characteristics of music itself. The current study proposed and developed a tool for measuring perception of the theoretical concept of music density. Music density can be defined as the compactness of auditory information that comprises a piece of music. For this study, five musical factors were explored (tempo, texture, timbre, dynamics, and predictability) via a 5-point Likert scale. It is well established that personality is an important …

Interpersonal Skills In A Sociotechnical System: A Training Gap In Flight Decks, Kimberly Perkins Atp, Fraes, Sourojit Ghosh, Crystal Hall Phd

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

This research analyzed the perceptions of interpersonal skills on established aviation safety models, Crew Resource Management (CRM), and Threat and Error Management (TEM) using feedback from industry pilots. The flight deck is a sociotechnical system where much research has focused on the technical aspect, whereas we spotlight its socio aspect. The aviation industry must invest in training pilots on interpersonal skills to enhance safety through increased efficacy of safety models integrated throughout existing training programs. A 34-question survey was disseminated across both commercial and business aviation pilots (N=822). We explored three research questions regarding pilots’ perceived training on interpersonal skills …

Puppy Love And [Information] Play: An Intersection Of Theatre, Queer Kink, And Consent, Emily Kitchens

Faculty and Research Publications

This note from the field centers on a nexus of queer kink subcultures and consent-based intimacy work in theatre. I report, investigate and wrangle with the process of incorporating queer kink aesthetics into the production of Love and Information by Caryl Churchill I directed at KSU February 2023. What I have learned and hope to demonstrate throughout the paper, is that queer kink subcultures are often paradigmatic examples of communities built on consent, and we as performing arts practitioners can more visibly expand the margins of our cultural competency dialogues to not only include them but look to them as …

Effects Of Screen Time On Children's Brain Development: A Scoping Review, Niloofar Jannesar, Todd E. Davenport, Lindsay Gietzen

Pacific Journal of Health

In this scoping review, the effects of screen time on cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional development in children were studied by examining peer-reviewed articles published between 2018 and 2023. A total of 17 peer-reviewed articles were used in the study. The research reported that screen media provide a learning avenue, though it could be detrimental when children spend their time watching more than appropriate screen media. Furthermore, the study indicated that excessive screen media use may harm children’s executive function, which affects academic performance and language development. Related studies have also shown a correlation between excess screen use and problems like …

Characterizing The Relationship Between Accented Speech Intelligibility And Listening Effort, Mel Mallard

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unfamiliar accents can make speech communication difficult, both by reducing speech intelligibility and by increasing the effort listeners must put forth to understand speech. However, these two constructs, while related, are independent: for example, two 100% intelligible utterances may require different amounts of effort to accurately process. To better characterize the relationship between intelligibility and effort, this study presents speakers of four intelligibility levels (one natively-accented English speaker, and three Mandarin-accented English speakers) within a dual-task paradigm (featuring a vibrotactile secondary task) to measure listening effort. We found a negative nonlinear relationship between intelligibility and effort, with the steepest slope …

Direct Relationships Between The Five Internal Senses: The Extremes And In-Between Of The Inner Experience, Sydnie Hoyt, Camryn O'Neal, Miranda Brannum, Sara Bagley

The Confluence

Inner experience of all 5 modalities were investigated to determine if there were correlations amongst them and how visual mental imagery and internal hearing were used in an applied story. Our sample (N = 137) completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, 1973) and the Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire (Psi-Q; Andrade et al., 2013) to obtain trait measures of the different modalities within the inner experience. Results showed statistically significant positive correlations between each of the trait measures of the 5 sensory modalities (visual mental imagery, inner hearing, taste, smell, and touch). Based on their VVIQ total scores, …

Hearing Loss As A Risk Factor For Cognitive Decline In The Elderly: A Rapid Review, Natalie Large, Nannette Nicholson

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The aim of this rapid review was to identify and evaluate evidence exploring hearing loss as a risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly population. Methods: A literature search was performed in three databases: CINAHL, Cochrane Central, and PubMed. The PRISMA template was used to record the search and selection process. Search criteria included older adults aged 65 and up with diagnosed or self-reported hearing loss and no previous diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Participants were excluded if they had been diagnosed with dementia or tested for it before the study began. Hearing loss was categorized using …

Clausewitzian Theory Of War In The Age Of Cognitive Warfare, Amber Brittain-Hale

Education Division Scholarship

We can reconceptualise warfare by contrasting Clausewitz with the modern practice of cognitive warfare, as evidenced by Ukraine’s defence methodologies. The strategic orchestration of ‘infopolitik’ and the sophisticated use of social media can shape narratives and public perception. This article revisits Clausewitz’s tenet of war as a political instrument and juxtaposes it with contemporary conflict’s multidimensional tactics. By scrutinising Ukraine’s digital and psychological warfare tactics, one may question the applicability of Clausewitz’s framework, seeking to understand if these novel dimensions of warfare compel a redefinition or an expansion of his thesis to navigate the complexities of contemporary geopolitical confrontations.

Predictive Looking And Predictive Looking Errors In Everyday Activities, Sophie Su

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

People spontaneously segment continuous streams of experiences into distinct episodes. Prediction errors are theorized to drive segmentation. However, existing studies exploring the relationship between prediction error and event segmentation lack a continuous measure of prediction error during naturalistic perception and often fail to distinguish between prediction error and prediction uncertainty. Do moment-by-moment fluctuation of prediction errors, not prediction uncertainty during naturalistic event perception correlate positively with segmentation probabilities? To tackle this question, we harnessed the predictive nature of eye movements and introduced a predictive looking model. In this model, individuals’ prior gaze patterns act as predictors for critical features in …

Exploring Local Elected Officials' Capacity To Govern Effectively, Mario King

Dissertations

A successful local government exemplifies inclusivity, innovation, and deliberate decision-making, all advancing responsible management of taxpayers' resources. In this qualitative investigation, a phenomenological approach is employed to delve into the lived experiences of local elected officials. The aim of this study was to gain insights into the capacity of these local elected officials for success in governance. Subsequently, the insights from these local elected officials' experiences are harnessed to evaluate their influence and impact on municipal performance.

The management of municipal performance encompasses the provision of social services, the maintenance of fiscal operations, and adherence to statutory obligations (Avellaneda, 2008). …

Value Added By Using Joint Displays In Mixed Methods Research, Elizabeth Svoboda

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Mixed methods research collects, analyzes, and integrates rigorous qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a deeper understanding of a phenomenon than would be gained by using either method alone. Integration is one of the key features of mixed methods research and consists of mixing qualitative and quantitative research in a systematic way to generate new inferences or follow-up studies. However, the process of integration can be challenging to draw on expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods, decide when and how to integrate qualitative and quantitative research, and combine multiple data sources in a coherent way to generate new inferences. …

Mrs. Dalloway As A Window For Understanding Life, Kristen Venegas

English (MA) Theses

Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway may be dismissed as fiction, and fiction consequently is dismissed as fantasy. However, the novel enables readers to practice an intellectual exercise of meta-awareness that extends beyond the pages and onto real world phenomena. Under a cognitive neuroscience perspective, Mrs. Dalloway is a literary masterpiece due to its hyper- realistic execution of the intimacies of life. Through the narrative style of free-indirect discourse, Woolf illustrates what occurs in the minds of characters as they develop their own perceptions of reality and identity, exposes the fear and inadequacies of mankind’s distress in times of chaos and disorder …

What’S In A Word? A Study Of Emotional Valence, Trisha Patel, Cameron Smith, Olivia Williams, Raul Rodriguez-Calva

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Cognitive stress affects humans mentally and physically, and specifically may impact emotional recognition. Previous studies have focused on the perceived emotional valence of nouns vs. adjectives and the emotional recognition of photographs. While this has led to the creation of an emotional valence database, there has yet to be a study to explore how stress can change perceived emotional valence. Using data from the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW), the Portland Arithmetic Stress Test (PAST), and the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST), a study was created to explore how participants emotional valence of words would change after being placed …

Destigmatizing Working With Dyslexic Learners, Riley N. Dandurand

Writing Center Journal

In the field of writing center research there is a paucity of information regarding tutoring students with dyslexia. This comes as no surprise considering it is only in the last 50 years that there has been a conscious effort to include those who have exceptionalities in all areas of education. In addition to a lack of research and training there is another issue that arises with disclosing exceptionalities. Those studying dyslexia have found that students are hesitant to disclose their learning disability because of the stigma and feelings of differentiation from their peers (Brizee et al., 2012). The question then …

Conceptual Meaning In Phonology: Multimodal Iconic Expressions In Discourse Focus, David Páez Acevedo

Linguistics ETDs

In everyday communication, speakers go beyond words to synchronize speech sounds and gestures, adding nuanced meanings. For instance, in Colombian Spanish, recounting the distant past involves elongating words, modulating pitch, and using expressive hand movements. This dissertation explores this phenomenon, termed Multimodal Iconic Expressions (MMIEs), using Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Grammar. The quantitative study uncovers correlations between verb aspect, nominal quantification, and speech duration, revealing phono-iconic connections. The qualitative study examines construal operations giving rise to MMIEs across semantic domains. MMIEs predominantly appear in discourse Focus, with durative events and mass-like quantities exhibiting pronounced phono-iconic associations. Patterns include stress and …

Not All Numbers Were Created Equal: Evidence The Number One Is Unique, Jenna L. Croteau

Masters Theses

Universally across modern cultures children acquire the meaning of the words one, two, and three in order. While much research has focused on how children acquire this knowledge and what this knowledge represents, the question of why children learn numbers in order has been comparatively neglected. To address this question, a non-verbal anticipatory looking task was implemented. In this task, 35 14- to 23-month-old infants were assessed on their ability to form implicit category structures for the numbers one, two, and three. We hypothesized that children would be able to form the implicit category structure for the number one …

Book Review: Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander To Hitler To The Corporation, Tim Bakken

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The book Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths is a survey of a vast amount of human wrongdoing. It lays bare the motivations of aggressors who wish to subjugate nations or groups of people and corporate executives and government bureaucrats who make discretionary decisions that harm people. Along with cataloging mass killings by despots and soldiers, the book includes stories about Ponzi-schemers and the deaths of automobile drivers and passengers who were killed by vehicle defects known to the manufacturer. The book posits that “[p]owerful, elite forces are trying to force us backward toward a non-democratic state, one where power, wealth, and prerogative …

Writing Philosophical Autoethnography: A Review, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

As a book reviewer, I am penning down my thoughts restlessly on the book, Writing Philosophical Autoethnography, with a diverse audience in mind, encompassing readers, writers, and researchers of all levels from various disciplines in the social sciences and education. This groundbreaking work, edited by Alec Grant and published by Routledge, masterfully blends philosophy and autoethnography (Grant, 2023). The book distinguishes itself through its philosophical depth, with each chapter demonstrating a profound engagement with philosophical debates and theories rooted in Western philosophical traditions. This approach sets it apart from other autoethnographic works where philosophical concepts often appear to be …

Depaul Digest

DePaul Magazine

College of Education Professor Jason Goulah fosters hope, happiness and global citizenship through DePaul’s Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education. Associate Journalism Professor Jill Hopke shares how to talk about climate change. News briefs from DePaul’s 10 colleges and schools: Occupational Therapy Standardized Patient Program, Financial Planning Certificate program, Business Education in Technology and Analytics Hub, Racial Justice Initiative, Teacher Quality Partnership grant, Intimate Partner Violence and Brain Injury collaboration, School of Music Career Closet, Sports Photojournalism course, DePaul Migration Collaborative’s Solutions Lab, Inclusive Screenwriting courses. New appointments: School of Music Dean John Milbauer, College of Education Dean Jennifer …