Matching Items (9)
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- All Subjects: Cognitive Psychology
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: Brewer, Gene A.
- Creators: Mcbeath, Michael K
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
A converging operations approach using response time distribution modeling was adopted to better characterize the cognitive control dynamics underlying ongoing task cost and cue detection in event based prospective memory (PM). In Experiment 1, individual differences analyses revealed that working memory capacity uniquely predicted nonfocal cue detection, while proactive control and inhibition predicted variation in ongoing task cost of the ex-Gaussian parameter associated with continuous monitoring strategies (mu). In Experiments 2A and 2B, quasi-experimental techniques aimed at identifying the role of proactive control abilities in PM monitoring and cue detection suggested that low ability participants may have PM deficits during demanding tasks due to inefficient monitoring strategies, but that emphasizing importance of the intention can increase reliance on more efficacious monitoring strategies that boosts performance (Experiment 2A). Furthermore, high proactive control ability participants are able to efficiently regulate their monitoring strategies under scenarios that do not require costly monitoring for successful cue detection (Experiment 2B). In Experiments 3A and 3B, it was found that proactive control benefited cue detection in interference-rich environments, but the neural correlates of cue detection or intention execution did not differ when engaged in proactive versus reactive control. The results from the current set of studies highlight the importance of response time distribution modeling in understanding PM cost. Additionally, these results have important implications for extant theories of PM and have considerable applied ramifications concerning the cognitive control processes that should be targeted to improve PM abilities.
ContributorsBall, Brett Hunter (Author) / Brewer, Gene A. (Thesis advisor) / Goldinger, Stephen (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Amazeen, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Current theoretical debate, crossing the bounds of memory theory and mental imagery, surrounds the role of eye movements in successful encoding and retrieval. Although the eyes have been shown to revisit previously-viewed locations during retrieval, the functional role of these saccades is not known. Understanding the potential role of eye movements may help address classic questions in recognition memory. Specifically, are episodic traces rich and detailed, characterized by a single strength-driven recognition process, or are they better described by two separate processes, one for vague information and one for the retrieval of detail? Three experiments are reported, in which participants encoded audio-visual information while completing controlled patterns of eye movements. By presenting information in four sources (i.e., voices), assessments of specific and partial source memory were measured at retrieval. Across experiments, participants' eye movements at test were manipulated. Experiment 1 allowed free viewing, Experiment 2 required externally-cued fixations to previously-relevant (or irrelevant) screen locations, and Experiment 3 required externally-cued new or familiar oculomotor patterns to multiple screen locations in succession. Although eye movements were spontaneously reinstated when gaze was unconstrained during retrieval (Experiment 1), externally-cueing participants to re-engage in fixations or oculomotor patterns from encoding (Experiments 2 and 3) did not enhance retrieval. Across all experiments, participants' memories were well-described by signal-detection models of memory. Source retrieval was characterized by a continuous process, with evidence that source retrieval occurred following item memory failures, and additional evidence that participants partially recollected source, in the absence of specific item retrieval. Pupillometry provided an unbiased metric by which to compute receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, which were consistently curvilinear (but linear in z-space), supporting signal-detection predictions over those from dual-process theories. Implications for theoretical views of memory representations are discussed.
ContributorsPapesh, Megan H (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Thesis advisor) / Brewer, Gene A. (Committee member) / Reichle, Erik D. (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Auditory scene analysis (ASA) is the process through which listeners parse and organize their acoustic environment into relevant auditory objects. ASA functions by exploiting natural regularities in the structure of auditory information. The current study investigates spectral envelope and its contribution to the perception of changes in pitch and loudness. Experiment 1 constructs a perceptual continuum of twelve f0- and intensity-matched vowel phonemes (i.e. a pure timbre manipulation) and reveals spectral envelope as a primary organizational dimension. The extremes of this dimension are i (as in “bee”) and Ʌ (“bun”). Experiment 2 measures the strength of the relationship between produced f0 and the previously observed phonetic-pitch continuum at three different levels of phonemic constraint. Scat performances and, to a lesser extent, recorded interviews were found to exhibit changes in accordance with the natural regularity; specifically, f0 changes were correlated with the phoneme pitch-height continuum. The more constrained case of lyrical singing did not exhibit the natural regularity. Experiment 3 investigates participant ratings of pitch and loudness as stimuli vary in f0, intensity, and the phonetic-pitch continuum. Psychophysical functions derived from the results reveal that moving from i to Ʌ is equivalent to a .38 semitone decrease in f0 and a .75 dB decrease in intensity. Experiment 4 examines the potentially functional aspect of the pitch, loudness, and spectral envelope relationship. Detection thresholds of stimuli in which all three dimensions change congruently (f0 increase, intensity increase, Ʌ to i) or incongruently (no f0 change, intensity increase, i to Ʌ) are compared using an objective version of the method of limits. Congruent changes did not provide a detection benefit over incongruent changes; however, when the contribution of phoneme change was removed, congruent changes did offer a slight detection benefit, as in previous research. While this relationship does not offer a detection benefit at threshold, there is a natural regularity for humans to produce phonemes at higher f0s according to their relative position on the pitch height continuum. Likewise, humans have a bias to detect pitch and loudness changes in phoneme sweeps in accordance with the natural regularity.
ContributorsPatten, K. Jakob (Author) / Mcbeath, Michael K (Thesis advisor) / Amazeen, Eric L (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur W (Committee member) / Zhou, Yi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
In most of the work using event-related potentials (ERPs), researchers presume the function of specific components based on the careful manipulation of experimental factors, but rarely report direct evidence supporting a relationship between the neural signal and other outcomes. Perhaps most troubling is the lack of evidence that ERPs correlate with related behavioral outcomes which should result, at least in part, from the neural processes that ERPs capture. One such example is the NoGo-N2 component, an ERP component elicited in Go/NoGo paradigms. There are two primary theories regarding the functional significance of this component in this context: that the signal represents response inhibition and that the component reflects conflict. In this paper, a trial-level method of analysis for the relationship between ERP component potentials and downstream behavioral outcomes (in this case, response accuracy) using a multi-level modeling framework is proposed to provide discriminatory evidence for one of these theories. Following a description of the research on the NoGo-N2, preliminary data supporting the conflict monitoring theory are presented, noting important limitations. Next, an EEG simulation study is presented in which NoGo-N2 data are generated with a known relationship to fabricated reaction time data, showing that, with added levels of complexity and noise within the data, the MLM approach is consistently successful at extracting the known relationships that occur in real NoGo-N2 data. Next, using independent components analysis (ICA) to extract spatiotemporal components that best represent the signal of interest, a well-powered analysis of the relationship between the NoGo-N2 and response accuracy is used to provide strong discriminatory evidence for the conflict monitoring theory of the NoGo-N2. Finally, implications for the NoGo-N2, as well as all ERP components, are discussed with a focus on how this approach can and should be used. the paper concludes with potential expansions of this approach to areas beyond identifying the function of ERP components.
ContributorsHampton, Ryan Scott (Author) / Varnum, Michael E.W. (Thesis advisor) / Shiota, Michelle N. (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene A. (Committee member) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Working memory capacity and fluid intelligence are important predictors of performance in educational settings. Thus, understanding the processes underlying the relation between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence is important. Three large scale individual differences experiments were conducted to determine the mechanisms underlying the relation between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Experiments 1 and 2 were designed to assess whether individual differences in strategic behavior contribute to the variance shared between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. In Experiment 3, competing theories for describing the underlying processes (cognitive vs. strategy) were evaluated in a comprehensive examination of potential underlying mechanisms. These data help inform existing theories about the mechanisms underlying the relation between WMC and gF. However, these data also indicate that the current theoretical model of the shared variance between WMC and gF would need to be revised to account for the data in Experiment 3. Possible sources of misfit are considered in the discussion along with a consideration of the theoretical implications of observing those relations in the Experiment 3 data.
ContributorsWingert, Kimberly Marie (Author) / Brewer, Gene A. (Thesis advisor) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis advisor) / McClure, Samuel (Committee member) / Redick, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This project investigates the gleam-glum effect, a well-replicated phonetic emotion association in which words with the [i] vowel-sound (as in “gleam”) are judged more emotionally positive than words with the [Ʌ] vowel-sound (as in “glum”). The effect is observed across different modalities and languages and is moderated by mouth movements relevant to word production. This research presents and tests an articulatory explanation for this association in three experiments. Experiment 1 supported the articulatory explanation by comparing recordings of 71 participants completing an emotional recall task and a word read-aloud task, showing that oral movements were more similar between positive emotional expressions and [i] articulation, and negative emotional expressions and [Ʌ] articulation. Experiment 2 partially supported the explanation with 98 YouTube recordings of natural speech. In Experiment 3, 149 participants judged emotions expressed by a speaker during [i] and [Ʌ] articulation. Contradicting the robust phonetic emotion association, participants judged more frequently that the speaker’s [Ʌ] articulatory movements were positive emotional expressions and [i] articulatory movements were negative emotional expressions. This is likely due to other visual emotional cues not related to oral movements and the order of word lists read by the speaker. Findings from the current project overall support an articulatory explanation for the gleam-glum effect, which has major implications for language and communication.
ContributorsYu, Shin-Phing (Author) / Mcbeath, Michael K (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur M (Committee member) / Stone, Greg O (Committee member) / Coza, Aurel (Committee member) / Santello, Marco (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Watanabe, Náñez, and Sasaki (2001) introduced a phenomenon they named “task-irrelevant perceptual learning” in which near-threshold stimuli that are not essential to a given task can be associatively learned when consistently and concurrently paired with the focal task. The present study employs a visual paired-shapes recognition task, using colored polygon targets as salient attended focal stimuli, with the goal of comparing the increases in perceptual sensitivity observed when near-threshold stimuli are temporally paired in varying manners with focal targets. Experiment 1 separated and compared the target-acquisition and target-recognition phases and revealed that sensitivity improved most when the near-threshold motion stimuli were paired with the focal target-acquisition phase. The parameters of sensitivity improvement were motion detection, critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT), and letter-orientation decoding. Experiment 2 tested perceptual learning of near-threshold stimuli when they were offset from the focal stimuli presentation by ±350 ms. Performance improvements in motion detection, CFFT, and decoding were significantly greater for the group in which near-threshold motion was presented after the focal target. Experiment 3 showed that participants with reading difficulties who were exposed to focal target-acquisition training improved in sensitivity in all visual measures. Experiment 4 tested whether near-threshold stimulus learning occurred cross-modally with auditory stimuli and served as an active control for the first, second, and third experiments. Here, a tone was paired with all focal stimuli, but the tone was 1 Hz higher or lower when paired with the targeted focal stimuli associated with recognition. In Experiment 4, there was no improvement in visual sensitivity, but there was significant improvement in tone discrimination. Thus, this study, as a whole, confirms that pairing near-threshold stimuli with focal stimuli can improve performance in just tone discrimination, or in motion detection, CFFT, and letter decoding. Findings further support the thesis that the act of trying to remember a focal target also elicited greater associative learning of correlated near-threshold stimulus than the act of recognizing a target. Finally, these findings support that we have developed a visual learning paradigm that may potentially mitigate some of the visual deficits that are often experienced by the reading disabled.
ContributorsHolloway, Steven Robert (Author) / Mcbeath, Michael K (Thesis advisor) / Macknik, Stephen (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Náñez, Sr., José E (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Maintaining upright balance and postural control is a task that most individuals perform everyday with ease and without much thought. Although it may be a relatively easy task to perform, research has shown that changes in cognitive (or “attentional”) processes are reflected in the movements of sway. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the relationship between attention and posture when attention is directly or indirectly shifted away from posture. Using a dual-task paradigm, attention was shifted directly by instructing participants to prioritize the balance task (minimize sway in a unipedal stance) or prioritize the cognitive task (minimize errors in an auditory n-back task) and indirectly by changing the difficulty level of the cognitive task (0-back vs. 2-back task). Postural sway was assessed using sample entropy (SampEn), standard deviation, (SD) and sway path (SP) of trunk movements to measure the regularity, variability, and overall distance of sway travelled, respectively. Dual-task behavior was examined when participants were in a controlled (i.e., non-fatigued) state (Experiment 1), in a state of physical fatigue (Experiment 2), and in a state of mental fatigue (Experiment 3). Across all three experiments, indirectly shifting attention away from posture in the more difficult 2-back task induced less regularity (higher SampEn) and variability (smaller SD) in postural sway. Directly shifting attention away from posture, by prioritizing the cognitive task, induced less regularity (higher SampEn) and a longer path length (higher SP) in Experiment 1, however this effect was not significant for the fatigued participants in Experiments 2 and 3. Neither physical fatigue (Experiment 2) or mental fatigue (Experiment 3) negatively affected postural sway or cognitive performance. Overall, the findings from this dissertation contribute to the relationship between movement regularity and attention in posture, and that the postural behavior that emerges is sensitive to methods in which attention is manipulated (direct, indirect) and fatigue (physical, mental).
ContributorsGibbons, Cameron Todd (Author) / Amazeen, Polemnia G (Thesis advisor) / Amazeen, Eric L (Committee member) / Gray, Rob (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Color perception has been widely studied and well modeled with respect to combining visible electromagnetic frequencies, yet new technology provides the means to better explore and test novel temporal frequency characteristics of color perception. Experiment 1 tests how reliably participants categorize static spectral rainbow colors, which can be a useful tool for efficiently identifying those with functional dichromacy, trichromacy, and tetrachromacy. The findings confirm that all individuals discern the four principal opponent process colors, red, yellow, green, and blue, with normal and potential tetrachromats seeing more distinct colors than color blind individuals. Experiment 2 tests the moving flicker fusion rate of the central electromagnetic frequencies within each color category found in Experiment 1 as a test of the Where system. It then compares this to the maximum temporal processing rate for discriminating direction of hue change with colors displayed serially as a test of the What system. The findings confirm respective processing thresholds of about 20 Hz for Where and 2-7 Hz for What processing systems. Experiment 3 tests conditions that optimize false colors based on the spinning Benham’s Top illusion. Findings indicate the same four principal colors emerge as in Experiment 1, but at low saturation levels for trichromats that diminish further for dichromats. Taken together, the three experiments provide an overview of the common categorical boundaries and temporal processing limits of human color vision.
ContributorsKrynen, Richard Chandler (Author) / Mcbeath, Michael K (Thesis advisor) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Newman, Nathan (Committee member) / Stone, Greg (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021