Matching Items (8)
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- All Subjects: Learning
- All Subjects: Motivation
- Creators: Brewer, Gene
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Resource Type: Text
- Status: Published
Description
Categories are often defined by rules regarding their features. These rules may be intensely complex yet, despite the complexity of these rules, we are often able to learn them with sufficient practice. A possible explanation for how we arrive at consistent category judgments despite these difficulties would be that we may define these complex categories such as chairs, tables, or stairs by understanding the simpler rules defined by potential interactions with these objects. This concept, called grounding, allows for the learning and transfer of complex categorization rules if said rules are capable of being expressed in a more simple fashion by virtue of meaningful physical interactions. The present experiment tested this hypothesis by having participants engage in either a Rule Based (RB) or Information Integration (II) categorization task with instructions to engage with the stimuli in either a non-interactive or interactive fashion. If participants were capable of grounding the categories, which were defined in the II task with a complex visual rule, to a simpler interactive rule, then participants with interactive instructions should outperform participants with non-interactive instructions. Results indicated that physical interaction with stimuli had a marginally beneficial effect on category learning, but this effect seemed most prevalent in participants were engaged in an II task.
ContributorsCrawford, Thomas (Author) / Homa, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / McBeath, Michael (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Problem solving is a crucial skill needed to accomplish everyday tasks and overcome potential obstacles. One way to measure individual differences in problem solving ability is through performance differences on multiply-constrained problem solving tasks. Multiple cognitive processes are involved in multiply-constrained problem solving. An individual uses prospective metacognitive monitoring judgments to gauge future allocation of resources before engaging in the necessary semantic search. Problem solvers also vary in their semantic search strategies, and use either an active analytical strategy or a passive insight strategy to arrive at asolution. Prospective metacognitive monitoring judgments and solution strategies are two aspects of the problem solving process that occur at specific points in the process while motivation influences problem solving throughout the process. The goal of this study is to examine prospective metacognitive judgments, problem solving accuracy, solution strategy, and motivation in multiply-constrained problem solving. Motivation was manipulated using a performance based monetary incentive. Participants self reported prospective Feeling-of-Knowing judgments after brief exposure to the problem, and solution strategy ratings after each problem. No significant differences were found to support the effect of motivation on problem solving accuracy, prospective metacognitive judgments, relative accuracy, or solution strategies. Significant differences were found between groups when comparing the number of problems skipped, indicating that participants were sensitive to the incentive structure. The findings suggest that motivation may not be an overarching mediator in multiply-constrained problem solving or problem solving may require a specific type of incentive structure to increase accuracy. However, little is known in the research literature about the type of incentive structure needed to consistently increase individual motivation.
ContributorsCohen, Aaron Sayre (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Ellis, Derek (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Muslim refugees and Muslim immigrants, and undocumented immigrants have been a prominent part of American culture and have been woven into the history of the United States. Both group's presence in the United States has elicited rhetoric from U.S citizens and U.S public officials. One may infer that the narrative of Muslim refugees and Muslim immigrants overlaps the narrative of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Both Muslim refugees and immigrants as well as unauthorized immigrants, are criminalized in the United States, or are associated to crime by default of their faith and or their legal status. The association that Muslim refugees and Muslim immigrants, and undocumented immigrants have with crime, based on their rhetoric, has elicited a policy from the United States government as well. The United States government has responded to a presumed threat that both groups pose to U.S. citizens and the nation by means of aggressive legislation, both local and federal. In this research paper, past and present discourse on Muslim refugees and Muslim immigrants and undocumented immigrants was analyzed to determine each of the group's narrative; the mainstream media, newspapers and photographic images, was also considered to determine the narrative of both groups. Based on the discourse on Muslim refugees and Muslim immigrants and on undocumented immigrants, the media portrayal of both groups, and on the change of public policy one may assert that the narratives of both groups overlaps; as both Muslim refugees and immigrants and unauthorized immigrants are seen as a possible threat to the American people.
ContributorsGalvan, Brigitte Magdalena (Author) / Doty, Roxanne (Thesis director) / Magaña, Lisa (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
It is a well-established finding in memory research that spacing or distributing information, as opposed to blocking all the information together, results in an enhanced memory of the learned material. Recently, researchers have decided to investigate if this spacing effect is also beneficial in category learning. In a set of experiments, Carvalho & Goldstone (2013), demonstrated that a blocked presentation showed an advantage during learning, but that ultimately, the distributed presentation yielded better performance during a post-learning transfer test. However, we have identified a major methodological issue in this study that we believe contaminates the results in a way that leads to an inflation and misrepresentation of learning levels. The present study aimed to correct this issue and re-examine whether a blocked or distributed presentation enhances the learning and subsequent generalization of categories. We also introduced two shaping variables, category size and distortion level at transfer, in addition to the mode of presentation (blocked versus distributed). Results showed no significant differences of mode of presentation at either the learning or transfer phases, thus supporting our concern about the previous study. Additional findings showed benefits in learning categories with a greater category size, as well as higher classification accuracy of novel stimuli at lower-distortion levels.
ContributorsJacoby, Victoria Leigh (Author) / Homa, Donald (Thesis director) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Self-control has been shown to predict both health risk and health protective outcomes. Although top-down or “good” self-control is typically examined as a unidimensional construct, research on “poor” self-control suggests that multiple dimensions may be necessary to capture aspects of self-control. The current study sought to create a new brief survey measure of top-down self-control that differentiates between self-control capacity, internal motivation, and external motivation. Items were adapted from the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS; Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004) and were administered through two online surveys to 347 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory psychology courses at Arizona State University. The Self-Control Motivation and Capacity Survey (SCMCS) showed strong evidence of validity and reliability. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 3-factor structure of the scale consistent with the underlying theoretical model. The final 15-item measure demonstrated excellent model fit, chi-square = 89.722 p=.077, CFI = .989, RMSEA = .032, SRMR = .045. Despite several limitations including the cross-sectional nature of most analyses, self-control capacity, internal motivation, and external motivation uniquely related to various self-reported behavioral outcomes, and accounted for additional variance beyond that accounted for by the BSCS. Future studies are needed to establish the stability of multiple dimensions of self-control, and to develop state-like and domain-specific measures of self-control. While more research in this area is needed, the current study demonstrates the importance of studying multiple aspects of top-down self-control, and may ultimately facilitate the tailoring of interventions to the needs of individuals based on unique profiles of self-control capacity and motivation.
ContributorsPapova, Anna (Author) / Corbin, William R. (Thesis advisor) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Trust was measured for a target profile that varied the target's religion and costly signaling behavior. Subjects were primed with a threat, romance, or neutral response previous to viewing the profile to determine if this had any effect on their trust ratings of the target. Participants were drawn from MTurk with ages ranging from 18 to 75 (M= 33.2) and various religious backgrounds (including 210 Christians, 190 atheists/agnostics, and 92 other religious believers). Participants were presented with the threat, romance, or neutral vignette, shown the target profile, and asked to rate the target's trustworthiness. There was no main effect of the vignette condition (p = .088) or costly signaling (p = .099) on the target's trustworthiness. There was a main effect of target religion (p = .006) wherein the Muslim target was trusted more than the Catholic target. These findings do not replicate previous findings on religion, costly signaling, and trust.
ContributorsBesaw, Courtney Michelle (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
After answering a test question, feedback of the correct answer provided after a brief delay can be more beneficial to learning than feedback provided immediately (Brackbill & Kappy, 1962; Kulhavy & Anderson, 1972). Several theoretical models have been proposed to explain this delay-of-feedback benefit, with the most well supported being that delaying feedback promotes anticipation of the correct answer, which has been examined using curiosity as a measure of answer anticipation (Mullaney et al. 2014). The present study tested this model across two task designs, one designed to elicit epistemic curiosity, and one designed to elicit perceptual curiosity, to determine if the relationship between curiosity and feedback delay is type-dependent. In Task 1, participants answered trivia questions, reported their subjective level of curiosity to know the answer, and then received correct answer feedback after a variable delay (0s, 4s, or 8s). Task 2 was identical to Task 1, except that participants learned and were tested on the identities of blurred pictures, rather than trivia question answers. A subsequent learning retention test demonstrated a significant effect of curiosity, but not feedback delay, on performance in the trivia task, and no significant effect of curiosity, but a negative effect of feedback delay, on performance in the blurred pictures task. Neither task found a significant interaction effect between curiosity and delay group, which fails to support the answer anticipation model of the delay-of-feedback benefit.
ContributorsMcDaniel, Layla (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Pages, Erika (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Self-control has been shown to be an important influence behind a variety of risk and protective behaviors, such as substance abuse. Although prior research points to the existence of multiple dimensions of self-control, this concept is not consistently defined and frequently only studied as a conglomerate in clinical research. The current study sought to examine how two experimental manipulations of subcomponents of self-control (motivation and self-efficacy) affect real-world consumptive behavior after accounting for executive function. Additionally, the validity and reliability of a brief state survey measure of perceived self-control capacity, internal motivation, and external motivation was tested. The goal was to examine how basic scientific principles involved in self-control translate into clinically relevant behaviors, which may inform understanding of momentary lapses in self-control behavior, potentially leading to novel prevention and intervention efforts. 94 college students completed a 1-2 hour laboratory protocol during which they completed survey and laboratory-based tasks of self-control and related behaviors, executive function, and ad libitum alcohol consumption. Results showed that the self-efficacy manipulation successfully increased perceived self-control capacity, although this did not lead to a significant reduction in consumption. The motivation manipulation neither increased motivation nor reduced consumption in this sample. However, the brief state survey measure of self-control subcomponents demonstrated strong test-retest reliability and distinction from trait self-control, demonstrating its viability for use in future research. By elucidating the relationships between specific mechanisms of self-control, laboratory-based tasks and manipulations, and real-world consumptive behaviors, prevention and intervention efforts for problems such as alcohol abuse may be tailored to the needs of the individual and made more impactful and cost-effective.
ContributorsPapova, Anna (Author) / Corbin, William R. (Thesis advisor) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / McClure, Samuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020