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Description
It is commonly known that the left hemisphere of the brain is more efficient in the processing of verbal information, compared to the right hemisphere. One proposal suggests that hemispheric asymmetries in verbal processing are due in part to the efficient use of top-down mechanisms by the left hemisphere. Most

It is commonly known that the left hemisphere of the brain is more efficient in the processing of verbal information, compared to the right hemisphere. One proposal suggests that hemispheric asymmetries in verbal processing are due in part to the efficient use of top-down mechanisms by the left hemisphere. Most evidence for this comes from hemispheric semantic priming, though fewer studies have investigated verbal memory in the cerebral hemispheres. The goal of the current investigations is to examine how top-down mechanisms influence hemispheric asymmetries in verbal memory, and determine the specific nature of hypothesized top-down mechanisms. Five experiments were conducted to explore the influence of top-down mechanisms on hemispheric asymmetries in verbal memory. Experiments 1 and 2 used item-method directed forgetting to examine maintenance and inhibition mechanisms. In Experiment 1, participants were cued to remember or forget certain words, and cues were presented simultaneously or after the presentation of target words. In Experiment 2, participants were cued again to remember or forget words, but each word was repeated once or four times. Experiments 3 and 4 examined the influence of cognitive load on hemispheric asymmetries in true and false memory. In Experiment 3, cognitive load was imposed during memory encoding, while in Experiment 4, cognitive load was imposed during memory retrieval. Finally, Experiment 5 investigated the association between controlled processing in hemispheric semantic priming, and top-down mechanisms used for hemispheric verbal memory. Across all experiments, divided visual field presentation was used to probe verbal memory in the cerebral hemispheres. Results from all experiments revealed several important findings. First, top-down mechanisms used by the LH primarily used to facilitate verbal processing, but also operate in a domain general manner in the face of increasing processing demands. Second, evidence indicates that the RH uses top-down mechanisms minimally, and processes verbal information in a more bottom-up manner. These data help clarify the nature of top-down mechanisms used in hemispheric memory and language processing, and build upon current theories that attempt to explain hemispheric asymmetries in language processing.
ContributorsTat, Michael J (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis advisor) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Committee member) / Liss, Julie M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
Latino parents of children with feeding disorders completed a survey about their experiences accessing support and the cultural competence of their providers. This work is a follow-up project to a presented American Speech and Hearing Association Conference poster (Stats-Caldwell, Lindsay, Van Vuren, 2017). That project revealed caregivers’ use of

Latino parents of children with feeding disorders completed a survey about their experiences accessing support and the cultural competence of their providers. This work is a follow-up project to a presented American Speech and Hearing Association Conference poster (Stats-Caldwell, Lindsay, Van Vuren, 2017). That project revealed caregivers’ use of social media and indicated an overall perceived lack of support from providers. In the present survey, Latino caregivers identified the resources they consult and rated the level of helpfulness in addition to the types of supports they sought and received from these resources. Results indicate a considerable reliance on pediatricians in both frequency of consultation and helpfulness ratings. No significant difference was seen between the frequency of consultation between pediatricians, speech-language pathologists and other service providers. No significant difference was found in the helpfulness ratings between speech-language pathologists and topic-specific social media pages, nor speech-language pathologists and grandmothers. Participants indicated reliance on social media for informational resources. The influence of social media is discussed. The cultural implications of treating this population are also reviewed.
ContributorsVan Vuren, Katherine Ann (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis advisor) / Scherer, Nancy (Thesis advisor) / Helms-Tillery, Kate (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Cognitive deficits often accompany language impairments post-stroke. Past research has focused on working memory in aphasia, but attention is largely underexplored. Therefore, this dissertation will first quantify attention deficits post-stroke before investigating whether preserved cognitive abilities, including attention, can improve auditory sentence comprehension post-stroke. In Experiment 1a, three components of

Cognitive deficits often accompany language impairments post-stroke. Past research has focused on working memory in aphasia, but attention is largely underexplored. Therefore, this dissertation will first quantify attention deficits post-stroke before investigating whether preserved cognitive abilities, including attention, can improve auditory sentence comprehension post-stroke. In Experiment 1a, three components of attention (alerting, orienting, executive control) were measured in persons with aphasia and matched-controls using visual and auditory versions of the well-studied Attention Network Test. Experiment 1b then explored the neural resources supporting each component of attention in the visual and auditory modalities in chronic stroke participants. The results from Experiment 1a indicate that alerting, orienting, and executive control are uniquely affected by presentation modality. The lesion-symptom mapping results from Experiment 1b associated the left angular gyrus with visual executive control, the left supramarginal gyrus with auditory alerting, and Broca’s area (pars opercularis) with auditory orienting attention post-stroke. Overall, these findings indicate that perceptual modality may impact the lateralization of some aspects of attention, thus auditory attention may be more susceptible to impairment after a left hemisphere stroke.

Prosody, rhythm and pitch changes associated with spoken language may improve spoken language comprehension in persons with aphasia by recruiting intact cognitive abilities (e.g., attention and working memory) and their associated non-lesioned brain regions post-stroke. Therefore, Experiment 2 explored the relationship between cognition, two unique prosody manipulations, lesion location, and auditory sentence comprehension in persons with chronic stroke and matched-controls. The combined results from Experiment 2a and 2b indicate that stroke participants with better auditory orienting attention and a specific left fronto-parietal network intact had greater comprehension of sentences spoken with sentence prosody. For list prosody, participants with deficits in auditory executive control and/or short-term memory and the left angular gyrus and globus pallidus relatively intact, demonstrated better comprehension of sentences spoken with list prosody. Overall, the results from Experiment 2 indicate that following a left hemisphere stroke, individuals need good auditory attention and an intact left fronto-parietal network to benefit from typical sentence prosody, yet when cognitive deficits are present and this fronto-parietal network is damaged, list prosody may be more beneficial.
ContributorsLaCroix, Arianna (Author) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Thesis advisor) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Braden, B. Blair (Committee member) / Liss, Julie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
It has been suggested that directed forgetting (DF) in the item-method paradigm results from selective rehearsal of R items and passive decay of F items. However, recent evidence suggested that the passive decay explanation is insufficient. The current experiments examined two theories of DF that assume an active forgetting process:

It has been suggested that directed forgetting (DF) in the item-method paradigm results from selective rehearsal of R items and passive decay of F items. However, recent evidence suggested that the passive decay explanation is insufficient. The current experiments examined two theories of DF that assume an active forgetting process: (1) attentional inhibition and (2) tagging and selective search (TSS). Across three experiments, the central tenets of these theories were evaluated. Experiment 1 included encoding manipulations in an attempt to distinguish between these competing theories, but the results were inconclusive. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the theories separately. The results from Experiment 2 supported a representation suppression account of attentional inhibition, while the evidence from Experiment 3 suggested that TSS was not a viable mechanism for DF. Overall, the results provide additional evidence that forgetting is due to an active process, and suggest this process may act to suppress the representations of F items.
ContributorsHansen, Whitney Anne (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D. (Thesis advisor) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this research project was to assess the self-perceptions of academic and social success in bilingual college students, with a special comparison between students who did not speak English as their first language and students who did speak English as their first language. The bilingual participants were primarily

The purpose of this research project was to assess the self-perceptions of academic and social success in bilingual college students, with a special comparison between students who did not speak English as their first language and students who did speak English as their first language. The bilingual participants were primarily recruited from Arizona State University (ASU) classes and international student organizations. In the survey, participants identified the languages they speak and provided ratings for the following: their English language proficiency, their preference and comfort level in various academic situations (e.g., visiting professors during office hours, studying for exams), their preference and comfort level in various social situations (e.g., making friends at college, language preference with friends), and their testing format preferences (e.g., multiple choice, essay). Participants also were asked to provide their opinions on tools that could be added to Canvas to assist students who do not speak English as their first language (e.g., translation dictionary). Results revealed that academic and social preferences were influenced by students’ level of English proficiency and reflect differences in confidence across settings. The summary findings will be utilized to create a list of recommendations for college faculty instructors and peer counselors to help mitigate the challenges faced by college bilingual students.
ContributorsLood, Adrienne (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis director) / Rodriguez, Norma (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2023-05
ContributorsLood, Adrienne (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis director) / Rodriguez, Norma (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2023-05
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ContributorsLood, Adrienne (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis director) / Rodriguez, Norma (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description

The present study examined the effects that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has on an individual’s episodic memory by looking at participants’ abilities to recall stories both immediately after being verbally told and after a delay. Thirty-seven participants were sorted into a control group (N=27) and a mTBI group (N=10)

The present study examined the effects that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has on an individual’s episodic memory by looking at participants’ abilities to recall stories both immediately after being verbally told and after a delay. Thirty-seven participants were sorted into a control group (N=27) and a mTBI group (N=10) and then given the Wechsler Memory Scale’s two subtests, Logical Memory I and Logical Memory II. Logical Memory I consists of two verbally given stories in which the participant immediately retells the story to the assessor with as much detail and original vocabulary as they can remember. Logical Memory II has the participants, without prior knowledge, retell the same two stories after a thirty-minute delay. Once recorded, researchers transcribed and scored the participants’ story recalls, gathering data on what errors, correct ideas, and vocabulary the participants made and remembered. The data was then analyzed through an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), looking at the interaction of Story (of the two stories that the participants were told), Group (whether mTBI or control) , and Delay (whether it was the immediate or delayed recall). Trends in the data show that participants with a history of mTBI do more poorly than the control group proving that memory is affected by acquired brain injury and that further studies to examine how and why this is the case are needed.

ContributorsAndrews, Chaley (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis director) / Ratiu, Ileana (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2023-05
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Description
The emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) has consistently suggested that memory performance is enhanced for positively and negatively valenced stimuli. Heightened arousal and activation of the noradrenergic system facilitates encoding and the formation of memory traces. However, this EEM can become maladaptive when coupled with the heightened noradrenergic activity associated

The emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) has consistently suggested that memory performance is enhanced for positively and negatively valenced stimuli. Heightened arousal and activation of the noradrenergic system facilitates encoding and the formation of memory traces. However, this EEM can become maladaptive when coupled with the heightened noradrenergic activity associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This heightened noradrenergic response can result in chronic intrusive memories of past traumatic events. This study aims to explore overall recall, retrieval dynamics, output editing, and intrusions as a function of emotional content and prior history with traumatic experiences. Undergraduate students (N=249) from Arizona State University completed a battery surveys measuring PTSD symptomatology and other related constructs including anxiety, depression, and trauma. Participants then completed a memory task, an externalized free recall task for multiple study-blocks utilizing word list stimuli. During recall, participants were instructed to report every word that came to mind regardless of whether it was present or not in the most recent study-block, then make a judgment about recent-list membership. Main effects of valence were found for recall accuracy, intrusion generation, and successful editing. This suggests that the emotional enhancement of memory does in fact play a role in intrusion generation and the ability to edit out false recollections. Only depression levels resulted in a significant interaction effect with valence, specifically when measuring intrusion generation. This suggests that trauma level does not play a significant role in emotional intrusion memory.
ContributorsDziendziel, Hailey K (Author) / Brewer, Gene A (Thesis advisor) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Lewis, Candace (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Description
The bilingual experience is an often-studied multivariate phenomenon with a heterogeneous population that is often described using subtypes of bilingualism. “Bilingualism” as well as its subtypes lack consistent definitions and often share overlapping features, requiring researchers to measure a number of aspects of the bilingual experience. Different variables have been

The bilingual experience is an often-studied multivariate phenomenon with a heterogeneous population that is often described using subtypes of bilingualism. “Bilingualism” as well as its subtypes lack consistent definitions and often share overlapping features, requiring researchers to measure a number of aspects of the bilingual experience. Different variables have been operationalized to quantify the language proficiencies, use, and histories of bilinguals, but the combination of these variables and their contributions to these subtypes often vary between studies on bilingualism. Research supports that these variables have an influence not only on bilingual classification, but also on non-linguistic outcomes including perceptions of self-worth and bicultural identification. To date, there is a lack of research comparing the quantification of these bilingual subtypes and these non-linguistic outcomes, despite research supporting the need to address both. Person-centered approaches such as latent profile analysis (LPA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) have been applied to describe other multivariate constructs with heterogeneous populations, but these applications have yet to be used with bilingualism. The present study integrates models of bilingualism with these analytic methods in order to quantitatively identify latent profiles of bilinguals, describe the sets of conditions that define these subtypes, and to characterize the subjective experiences that differentiate these subtypes. The first study uses an existing data set of participants who completed the Language and Social Background Questionnaire (LSBQ) and performs LPA and fsQCA, identifying latent profiles and the sets of conditions that these subtypes. The following studies use a second set of bilinguals who also completed the LSBQ as well as a supplementary questionnaire, characterizing their identification with biculturalism and their feelings of self-worth. The analyses are repeated with these data to describe the profiles within these data and the subjective experiences in common. Finally, all analyses are repeated with the combined datasets to develop a final model of bilingual subtypes, describing the differences in language use and history within each subtype. Results demonstrate that latent models can be used to consistently characterize bilingual subtypes, while also providing additional information about the relationship between individual bilingual history and attitudes towards cultural identification.
ContributorsMcGee, Samuel (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Shelley (Committee member) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022