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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: Arizona State University
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Working memory (WM) and attention deficits have been well documented in individuals with aphasia (IWA) (e.g. Caspari et al., 1998; Erickson et al., 1996; Tseng et al., 1993; Wright et al., 2003). Research into these cognitive domains has spurred a theoretical shift in how aphasia is conceptualized - from a purely linguistic disorder to a cognitive-information processing account. Language deficits experienced by IWA may result from WM impairments or from an inability to allocate cognitive effort to the tasks. However, how language impacts performance on these tasks has not been readily investigated. Further, there is a need for a more direct measure of effort invested to language tasks. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a physiological measure of cognitive workload that has been used to measure effort in neurologically intact participants. Objectives of the study included: (1) determining the feasibility of using HRV as a measure of effort IWA invest into verbal compared with spatial WM tasks, (2) Comparing participants' performance on verbal and spatial WM tasks; and (3) determining the relationship among performance, perceived task difficulty, and HRV across verbal and spatial tasks. Eleven IWA and 21 age- and education-matched controls completed verbal and spatial n-back tasks at three difficulty levels. Difficulty ratings were obtained before and after each task. Results indicated spatial WM was relatively preserved compared with verbal WM for the aphasia group. Additionally, the aphasia group was better at rating task difficulty after completing the tasks than they were at estimating task difficulty prior to completing the tasks. Significant baseline-task differences in HRV were found for both groups. Relationships between HRV and performance, and HRV and task difficulty were non-significant. Results suggest WM performance deficits in aphasia may be primarily driven by their language deficit. Baseline-task differences in HRV indicate effort is being allocated to the tasks. Difficulty ratings indicate IWA may underestimate task demands for both verbal and spatial stimuli. However, the extent to which difficulty ratings reflect effort allocated remains unclear. Additional research is necessary to further quantify the amount of effort IWA allocate to verbal and non-verbal tasks.
ContributorsChristensen, Stephanie Cotton (Author) / Wright, Heather H. (Thesis advisor) / Ross, Katherine B. (Committee member) / Allen, John J. B. (Committee member) / Katz, Richard C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Military veterans have a significantly higher incidence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), depression, and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to civilians. Military veterans also represent a rapidly growing subgroup of college students, due in part to the robust and financially incentivizing educational benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The overlapping cognitively impacting symptoms of service-related conditions combined with the underreporting of mTBI and psychiatric-related conditions, make accurate assessment of cognitive performance in military veterans challenging. Recent research findings provide conflicting information on cognitive performance patterns in military veterans. The purpose of this study was to determine whether service-related conditions and self-assessments predict performance on complex working memory and executive function tasks for military veteran college students. Sixty-one military veteran college students attending classes at Arizona State University campuses completed clinical neuropsychological tasks and experimental working memory and executive function tasks. The results revealed that a history of mTBI significantly predicted poorer performance in the areas of verbal working memory and decision-making. Depression significantly predicted poorer performance in executive function related to serial updating. In contrast, the commonly used clinical neuropsychological tasks were not sensitive service-related conditions including mTBI, PTSD, and depression. The differing performance patterns observed between the clinical tasks and the more complex experimental tasks support that researchers and clinicians should use tests that sufficiently tax verbal working memory and executive function when evaluating the subtle, higher-order cognitive deficits associated with mTBI and depression.
ContributorsGallagher, Karen Louise (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis advisor) / Liss, Julie (Committee member) / Lavoie, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Due to the growing popularity of the Internet and smart mobile devices, massive data has been produced every day, particularly, more and more users’ online behavior and activities have been digitalized. Making a better usage of the massive data and a better understanding of the user behavior become at the very heart of industrial firms as well as the academia. However, due to the large size and unstructured format of user behavioral data, as well as the heterogeneous nature of individuals, it leveled up the difficulty to identify the SPECIFIC behavior that researchers are looking at, HOW to distinguish, and WHAT is resulting from the behavior. The difference in user behavior comes from different causes; in my dissertation, I am studying three circumstances of behavior that potentially bring in turbulent or detrimental effects, from precursory culture to preparatory strategy and delusory fraudulence. Meanwhile, I have access to the versatile toolkit of analysis: econometrics, quasi-experiment, together with machine learning techniques such as text mining, sentiment analysis, and predictive analytics etc. This study creatively leverages the power of the combined methodologies, and apply it beyond individual level data and network data. This dissertation makes a first step to discover user behavior in the newly boosting contexts. My study conceptualize theoretically and test empirically the effect of cultural values on rating and I find that an individualist cultural background are more likely to lead to deviation and more expression in review behaviors. I also find evidence of strategic behavior that users tend to leverage the reporting to increase the likelihood to maximize the benefits. Moreover, it proposes the features that moderate the preparation behavior. Finally, it introduces a unified and scalable framework for delusory behavior detection that meets the current needs to fully utilize multiple data sources.
ContributorsLi, Chunxiao (Author) / Gu, Bin (Thesis advisor) / Chen, Pei-Yu (Committee member) / Xiong, Hui (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
By examining the cognitive mechanisms behind human memory, the author hypothesizes that instrumental conductors can more quickly and effectively internalize music scores. With this theory, conductors could offer more informed and nuanced communications to their ensembles. Furthermore, these ideas could be incorporated into how conducting is taught to younger students by cultivating a more in-depth understanding of the music being studied.
This research paper surveys current trends in cognitive science related to the interactions of long-term memory (LTM) and short-term memory (STM) concerning score study and memorization employed by instrumental conductors. The research is divided into three sections, beginning with an examination of the key literature from the field of cognitive science. It continues with an overview of current musicological research and applications and finally concludes with a review of current instrumental conducting pedagogy that include discussions of memory. Moreover, recommended steps and a potential framework to incorporate cognitive science research into future conducting pedagogies are further outlined. The primary cognitive theory of focus is the Working Memory Theory of Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch.
This research paper surveys current trends in cognitive science related to the interactions of long-term memory (LTM) and short-term memory (STM) concerning score study and memorization employed by instrumental conductors. The research is divided into three sections, beginning with an examination of the key literature from the field of cognitive science. It continues with an overview of current musicological research and applications and finally concludes with a review of current instrumental conducting pedagogy that include discussions of memory. Moreover, recommended steps and a potential framework to incorporate cognitive science research into future conducting pedagogies are further outlined. The primary cognitive theory of focus is the Working Memory Theory of Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch.
ContributorsLucas, Cullan Baynes (Author) / Caslor, Jason (Thesis advisor) / Gardener, Joshua (Committee member) / Hill, Gary (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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
A literature search revealed that previous research on the Attentional Blink (AB) has not examined the role of salience in AB results. I examined how salience affects the AB through multiple forms and degrees of salience in target 1 (T1) and target 2 (T2) stimuli. When examining increased size as a form of salience, results showed a more salient T2 increased recall, attenuating the AB. A more salient T1 did not differ from the control, suggesting the salience (increased size) of T2 is an important factor in the AB, while salience (increased size) of T1 does not affect the AB. Additionally, the differences in target size (50% or 100% larger) were not significantly different, showing size differences at these intervals do not affect AB results. To further explore the lack of difference in results when T1 is larger in size, I examined dynamic stimuli used as T1. T1 stimuli were presented as looming or receding. When T1 was presented as looming or receding, the AB was attenuated (T2 recall at lag 2 was significantly greater). Additionally, T2 recall was significantly worse at lags three and four (showing a larger decrease directly following the attenuated AB). When comparing looming and receding against each other, at lag 2 (when recall accuracy at its lowest) looming increased recall significantly more than receding stimuli. This is expected to be due to the immediate attentional needs related to looming stimuli. Overall, the results showed T2 salience in the form of size significantly increases recall accuracy while T1 size salience does not affect the AB results. With that, dynamic T1 stimuli increase recall accuracy at early lags (lag 2) while it decreases recall accuracy at later lags (lags 3 and 4). This result is found when the stimuli are presented at a larger size (stimuli appearing closer), suggesting the more eminent need for attention results in greater effects on the AB.
ContributorsLafko, Stacie (Author) / Becker, Vaughn (Thesis advisor) / Branaghan, Russell (Committee member) / Gray, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The label-feedback hypothesis (Lupyan, 2007, 2012) proposes that language modulates low- and high-level visual processing, such as priming visual object perception. Lupyan and Swingley (2012) found that repeating target names facilitates visual search, reducing response times and increasing accuracy. Hebert, Goldinger, and Walenchok (under review) used a modified design to replicate and extend this finding, and concluded that speaking modulates visual search via template integrity. The current series of experiments 1) replicated the work of Hebert et al. with audio stimuli played through headphones instead of self-directed speech, 2) examined the label feedback effect under conditions of varying object clarity, and 3) explored whether the relative prevalence of a target’s audio label might modulate the label feedback effect (as in the low prevalence effect; Wolfe, Horowitz, & Kenner, 2005). Paradigms utilized both traditional spatial visual search and repeated serial visual presentation (RSVP). Results substantiated those found in previous studies—hearing target names improved performance, even (and sometimes especially) when conditions were difficult or noisy, and the relative prevalence of a target’s audio label strongly impacted its perception. The mechanisms of the label feedback effect––namely, priming and target template integrity––are explored.
ContributorsHebert, Katherine P (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Thesis advisor) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Committee member) / McClure, Samuel M. (Committee member) / Benitez, Viridiana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019