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- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
As technology enhances our communication capabilities, the number of distributed teams has risen in both public and private sectors. There is no doubt that these technological advancements have addressed a need for communication and collaboration of distributed teams. However, is all technology useful for effective collaboration? Are some methods (modalities) of communication more conducive than others to effective performance and collaboration of distributed teams? Although previous literature identifies some differences in modalities, there is little research on geographically distributed mobile teams (DMTs) performing a collaborative task. To investigate communication and performance in this context, I developed the GeoCog system. This system is a mobile communications and collaboration platform enabling small, distributed teams of three to participate in a variant of the military-inspired game, "Capture the Flag". Within the task, teams were given one hour to complete as many "captures" as possible while utilizing resources to the advantage of the team. In this experiment, I manipulated the modality of communication across three conditions with text-based messaging only, vocal communication only, and a combination of the two conditions. It was hypothesized that bi-modal communication would yield superior performance compared to either single modality conditions. Results indicated that performance was not affected by modality. Further results, including communication analysis, are discussed within this paper.
ContributorsChampion, Michael (Author) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Thesis advisor) / Shope, Steven (Committee member) / Wu, Bing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Magicians are informal cognitive scientists who regularly test their hypotheses in the real world. As such, they can provide scientists with novel hypotheses for formal psychological research as well as a real-world context in which to study them. One domain where magic can directly inform science is the deployment of attention in time and across modalities. Both magicians and scientists have an incomplete understanding of how attention operates in time, rather than in space. However, magicians have highlighted a set of variables that can create moments of visual attentional suppression, which they call "off-beats," and these variables can speak to modern models of temporal attention. The current research examines two of these variables under conditions ranging from artificial laboratory tasks to the (almost) natural viewing of magic tricks. Across three experiments, I show that the detection of subtle dot probes in a noisy visual display and pieces of sleight of hand in magic tricks can be influenced by the seemingly irrelevant rhythmic qualities of auditory stimuli (cross-modal attentional entrainment) and processes of working memory updating (akin to the attentional blink).
ContributorsBarnhart, Anthony S (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D. (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur M. (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Simons, Daniel J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
When people look for things in their environment they use a target template - a mental representation of the object they are attempting to locate - to guide their attention around a scene and to assess incoming visual input to determine if they have found that for which they are searching. However, unlike laboratory experiments, searchers in the real-world rarely have perfect knowledge regarding the appearance of their target. In five experiments (with nearly 1,000 participants), we examined how the precision of the observer's template affects their ability to conduct visual search. Specifically, we simulated template imprecision in two ways: First, by contaminating our searchers' templates with inaccurate features, and second, by introducing extraneous features to the template that were unhelpful. In those experiments we recorded the eye movements of our searchers in order to make inferences regarding the extent to which attentional guidance and decision-making are hindered by template imprecision. We also examined a third way in which templates may become imprecise; namely, that they may deteriorate over time. Overall, our findings support a dual-function theory of the target template, and highlight the importance of examining template precision in future research.
ContributorsHout, Michael C (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Thesis advisor) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Reichle, Erik (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Most people are experts in some area of information; however, they may not be knowledgeable about other closely related areas. How knowledge is generalized to hierarchically related categories was explored. Past work has found little to no generalization to categories closely related to learned categories. These results do not fit well with other work focusing on attention during and after category learning. The current work attempted to merge these two areas of by creating a category structure with the best chance to detect generalization. Participants learned order level bird categories and family level wading bird categories. Then participants completed multiple measures to test generalization to old wading bird categories, new wading bird categories, owl and raptor categories, and lizard categories. As expected, the generalization measures converged on a single overall pattern of generalization. No generalization was found, except for already learned categories. This pattern fits well with past work on generalization within a hierarchy, but do not fit well with theories of dimensional attention. Reasons why these findings do not match are discussed, as well as directions for future research.
ContributorsLancaster, Matthew E (Author) / Homa, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Chi, Michelene (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The present study explores the role of motion in the perception of form from dynamic occlusion, employing color to help isolate the contributions of both visual pathways. Although the cells that respond to color cues in the environment usually feed into the ventral stream, humans can perceive motion based on chromatic cues. The current study was designed to use grey, green, and red stimuli to successively limit the amount of information available to the dorsal stream pathway, while providing roughly equal information to the ventral system. Twenty-one participants identified shapes that were presented in grey, green, and red and were defined by dynamic occlusion. The shapes were then presented again in a static condition where the maximum occlusions were presented as before, but without motion. Results showed an interaction between the motion and static conditions in that when the speed of presentation increased, performance in the motion conditions became significantly less accurate than in the static conditions. The grey and green motion conditions crossed static performance at the same point, whereas the red motion condition crossed at a much slower speed. These data are consistent with a model of neural processing in which the main visual systems share information. Moreover, they support the notion that presenting stimuli in specific colors may help isolate perceptual pathways for scientific investigation. Given the potential for chromatic cues to target specific visual systems in the performance of dynamic object recognition, exploring these perceptual parameters may help our understanding of human visual processing.
ContributorsHolloway, Steven R. (Author) / McBeath, Michael K. (Thesis advisor) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Macknik, Stephen L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Fixed-pointer moving-scale tape displays are a compact way to present wide range dynamic data, and are commonly employed in aircraft and spacecraft to display the primary parameters of airspeed, altitude and heading. A limitation of the moving tape format is its inability to natively display off scale target, reference or 'bug' values. The hypothesis tested was that a non-linear fisheye presentation (made possible by modern display technology) would maintain the essential functionality and compactness of existing moving tape displays while increasing situational awareness by ecologically displaying a wider set of reference values. Experimentation showed that the speed and accuracy of reading the center system value was not significantly changed with two types of expanded range displays. The limited situational awareness tests did not show a significant improvement with the new displays, but since no functionality was degraded further testing of expanded range displays may be productive.
ContributorsEnglish, Dave (Author) / Branaghan, Russell J (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Sanchez, Christopher A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Research on priming has shown that a stimulus can cause people to behave according to the stereotype held about the stimulus. Two experiments were conducted in which the effects of elderly priming were tested by use of a driving simulator. In both experiments, participants drove through a simulated world guided by either an elderly or a younger female voice. The voices told the participants where to make each of six turns. Both experiments yielded slower driving speeds in the elderly voice condition. The effect was universal regardless of implicit and explicit attitudes towards elderly people.
ContributorsFoster, L Bryant (Author) / Branaghan, Russell (Thesis advisor) / Becker, David (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
By extracting communication sequences from audio data collected during two separate five-person mission-planning tasks, interaction patterns in team communication were analyzed using a recurrence-based, nonlinear dynamics approach. These methods, previously successful in detecting pattern change in a three-person team task, were evaluated for their applicability to larger team settings, and their ability to detect pattern change when team members switched roles or locations partway through the study (Study 1) or change in patterns over time (Study 2). Both traditional interaction variables (Talking Time, Co-Talking Time, and Sequence Length of Interactions) and dynamic interaction variables (Recurrence Rate, Determinism, and Pattern Information) were explored as indicators and predictors of changes in team structure and performance. Results from these analyses provided support that both traditional and dynamic interaction variables reflect some changes in team structure and performance. However, changes in communication patterns were not detected. Because simultaneous conversations are possible in larger teams, but not detectable through our communication sequence methods, team pattern changes may not be visible in communication sequences for larger teams. This suggests that these methods may not be applicable for larger teams, or in situations where simultaneous conversations may occur. Further research is needed to continue to explore the applicability of recurrence-based nonlinear dynamics in the analysis of team communication.
ContributorsFouse, Shannon (Author) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Thesis advisor) / Becker, David (Thesis advisor) / Gorman, Jamie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
There have been conflicting accounts of animation's facilitation in learning from instructional media, being at best no different if not hindering performance. Procedural motor learning represents one of the few the areas in which animations have shown to be facilitative. These studies examine the effects of instructional media (animation vs. static), rotation (facing vs. over the shoulder) and spatial abilities (low vs. high spatial abilities) on two procedural motor tasks, knot tying and endoscope reprocessing. Results indicate that for all conditions observed in which participants engaged in procedural motor learning tasks, performance was significantly improved with animations over static images. Further, performance was greater for rotations of instructional media that did not require participants to perform a mental rotation under some circumstances. Interactions between Media x Rotation suggest that media that was animated and did not require a participant to mentally rotate led to improved performance. Individual spatial abilities were found to influence total steps correct and total number of errors made in the knot tying task, but this was not observed in the endoscope task. These findings have implications for the design of instructional media for procedural motor tasks and provide strong support for the usage of animations in this context.
ContributorsGarland, T. B (Author) / Sanchez, Chris A (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Branaghan, Russel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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