Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cognitive processes'

How do we make decisions when we are uncertain? In more real-world settings there is often a vast array of information available to guide the decision, from an understanding of the social situation, to prior beliefs and experience, to information available in the current environment. Yet much of the research into uncertain decision-making has typically studied the process by isolating it from this rich source of information that decision-makers usually have available to them. This thesis takes a different approach. To explore how decisions are made under uncertainty in more real-world settings, this thesis considers how raters decide if someone is lying or telling the truth. Because people are skilled liars, there is little information available to make a definitive decision. How do raters negotiate the ambiguous environment to reach a decision? Raters show a truth bias, which is to say they judge statements as truthful more often than they are so. Recent research has begun to consider dual process theories, suggesting there are two routes for processing information. They claim the truth bias results from an error-prone processing route, but that a more effortful and analytical processing route may overcome it. I will generate a set of testable hypotheses that arise from the dual process position and show that the theory does not stand up to the test. The truth bias can be better explained as resulting from a single process that attempts to make the most 3 informed guess despite being uncertain. To make the informed guess, raters come to rely on context-relevant information when the behaviour of the speaker is not sufficiently diagnostic. An adaptive decision maker position is advocated. I propose the truth bias is an emergent property of making the best guess. That is, in a different context where speakers may be expected to lie, a bias towards disbelieving should be seen. I argue context-dependency is key to understanding decision-making under uncertainty.

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A presente pesquisa procura elencar os estudos da tradução relacionando-os aos campos da psicologia, antropologia, biologia, linguística cognitiva e literatura. Nosso objetivo é o de demonstrar a relação que existe entre a teoria do protótipo e a tradução. Ao início, explicitamos as correntes teóricas que versam sobre aquisição e aprendizagem de primeira e segunda línguas, bilinguismo, formação do tradutor, tipos de tradução, competências linguísticas relacionadas à tradução. O texto aborda e relaciona os processos psicológicos cognitivos ao ato de traduzir: introspecção, percepção, abstração, memória, pensamento, conceptualização. Apresentamos os papéis do efeito prototípico e da equivalência tradutiva, relacionando-os e conceituando-os, concluindo que há níveis de equivalência mais ou menos aceitáveis (efeito de gradiência/ prototípico) segundo o julgamento do tradutor e que há traços invariáveis (protótipos) que são percebidos e perpetuados por leitores e tradutores. Para corroborar a hipótese, analisamos textos traduzidos, buscando o efeito e a presença do protótipo e concluímos que este é o de maior ocorrência, o que reflete a rede de construções conceituais que norteia os processos de pensamento e de memória do tradutor.
This research attempts to relate translation studies to psychology, anthropology, biology, cognitive linguistics and literature. Our objective is to demonstrate the relationship between the theory of prototype and translation. To do so, we discuss the current theoretical focus on the acquisition and learning of the first and second languages, bilingualism, the training of the translator, types of translation, and the linguistic competence related to translation. We also present the psychological cognitive processes in the act of translate: introspection, perception, abstraction, memory, thought, conceptualizing. We present the role of the prototype effect and of equivalence in translation, relating them and evaluating them, concluding that there are levels of equivalence more or less acceptable (gradient effect / prototypical) according to the judgment of the translator and that there are invariable lines (prototypes) that are perceived and perpetuated by readers and translators. So as to corroborate with the hypothesis, we analyze translated texts, seeking the effect and the presence of the prototype and we conclude that the basic level is of the highest occurrence, and reflects the net of constructions that guide the translator’s thought and memory.

Au cours de la dernière décennie, un grand effort a été réalisé en sciences cognitives afin de comprendre comment les individus accèdent à leurs propres produits cognitifs. Cette thèse étudie les contenus mentaux qui sont accessibles par l´introspection. Le premier projet étudie la possibilité d´accéder de manière introspective à des processus cognitifs complexes, dans le contexte d´une tâche de recherche visuelle. Le second projet approfondit les résultats du premier projet. Dans cette étude, nous avons mis en place un stimulus préconscient pour altérer le processus de recherche visuelle. Tout de suite après, nous avons réuni des rapports introspectifs dans l´objectif d´évaluer le degré de sensibilité des participants afin de détecter cette altération. Les résultats des deux projets convergent vers trois idées principales : 1) l´introspection est capable d´accéder à des processus cognitifs ; 2) l´introspection est perméable à différentes sources d´information sous-jacentes à la tâche expérimentale ; 3) Telles sources d’information sont possible d’être contrôlées expérimentalement. Le troisième projet étend les résultats obtenus dans le projet 1 et 2 à un autre domaine cognitif : la mémoire de travail. L´étude montre que l´introspection peut accéder avec succès à la nature du processus cognitif déployé. Le quatrième projet étudie un facteur individuel qui peut altérer la précision d´un rapport introspectif : la réactivité biologique au stress. Les résultats ont indiqué que les individus à haute réactivité au stress ont un pauvre accès introspectif. La présente thèse constitue une première approche à l´architecture fonctionnelle du rapport introspectif
In the last decade, there has been a huge effort in cognitive science devoted to the understanding of how individuals access their own cognitive productions. This thesis investigates which mental contents are accessible by introspection. Four experimental projects were developed. The first project investigates the possibility to introspectively access and discriminate complex cognitive processes in the context of a visual search paradigm (serial searches vs. parallel searches). The second project refines the results of the first project. We used a pre-conscious visual cue to alter a visual search, and collected introspective data showing that participants were sensitive to this alteration. The results in both projects converge on three main ideas: 1) introspection is capable of accessing complex cognitive processes; 2) introspection is permeable to different sources of information underlying the experimental task; 3) the focus of introspection can be experimentally controlled during a simple cognitive task. The third project extends the results evidenced in projects 1 and 2 to another domain: working memory. The study shows that introspection can successfully access the type of cognitive process engaged during memory recovery (serial access to information vs. parallel access). Lastly, the fourth project investigates an individual factor that might alter the precision of introspective reports: biological reactivity to stress. Results indicated that individuals with high reactivity to stress have a poorer introspective access of their mental states. The present thesis presents a first systematic account of the functional architecture of introspective report

The central aim of the current research programme was to gain an understanding of the cognitive processes involved in engineering design. Since little previous empirical research has investigated this domain, two major exploratory studies were undertaken here. Study One monitored seven final-year students tackling extended design projects. Diary and interview data were used to construct detailed design behaviour graphs that decomposed activities into structured representations reflecting the goals and subgoals that were pursued. Study Two involved individual observation (using video) of six professional engineers "thinking-aloud" as they tackled a small-scale design problem in a laboratory setting. A taxonomic scheme was developed to classify all verbal protocol units and other observable behaviours. In interpreting the data extensive use was made of theoretical concepts (e. g. schemas and mental models) deriving from current research on human problem solving and thinking. Evidence indicated that the engineers studied had many similar methods of working which could be described at a high level of abstraction in terms of a common "design schema". A central aspect of this schema was a problem reduction strategy which was used to break down complex design problems into more manageable subproblems. The data additionally revealed certain differences in design strategy between engineers' solution modelling activities and also showed up tendencies toward error and suboptimal performance. In this latter respect a particularly common tendency was for designers to "satisfice", that is to focus exclusively on initial solution concepts rather than comparing alternatives with the aim of optimising choices. The general implications of the present findings are discussed in relation to both the training of design skills and the development of intelligent computer systems to aid or automate the design process. A final, smaller scale of experimental study is also reported which investigated the possibility of improving design processes via subtle interventions aimed at imposing greater structure on design behaviours.

The research activity carried out during the PhD course was focused on the development of mathematical models of some cognitive processes and their validation by means of data present in literature, with a double aim: i) to achieve a better interpretation and explanation of the great amount of data obtained on these processes from different methodologies (electrophysiological recordings on animals, neuropsychological, psychophysical and neuroimaging studies in humans), ii) to exploit model predictions and results to guide future research and experiments. In particular, the research activity has been focused on two different projects: 1) the first one concerns the development of neural oscillators networks, in order to investigate the mechanisms of synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity during cognitive processes, such as object recognition, memory, language, attention; 2) the second one concerns the mathematical modelling of multisensory integration processes (e.g. visual-acoustic), which occur in several cortical and subcortical regions (in particular in a subcortical structure named Superior Colliculus (SC)), and which are fundamental for orienting motor and attentive responses to external world stimuli. This activity has been realized in collaboration with the Center for Studies and Researches in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna (in Cesena) and the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA). PART 1. Objects representation in a number of cognitive functions, like perception and recognition, foresees distribute processes in different cortical areas. One of the main neurophysiological question concerns how the correlation between these disparate areas is realized, in order to succeed in grouping together the characteristics of the same object (binding problem) and in maintaining segregated the properties belonging to different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). Different theories have been proposed to address these questions (Barlow, 1972). One of the most influential theory is the so called “assembly coding”, postulated by Singer (2003), according to which 1) an object is well described by a few fundamental properties, processing in different and distributed cortical areas; 2) the recognition of the object would be realized by means of the simultaneously activation of the cortical areas representing its different features; 3) groups of properties belonging to different objects would be kept separated in the time domain. In Chapter 1.1 and in Chapter 1.2 we present two neural network models for object recognition, based on the “assembly coding” hypothesis. These models are networks of Wilson-Cowan oscillators which exploit: i) two high-level “Gestalt Rules” (the similarity and previous knowledge rules), to realize the functional link between elements of different cortical areas representing properties of the same object (binding problem); 2) the synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity in the γ-band (30-100Hz), to segregate in time the representations of different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). These models are able to recognize and reconstruct multiple simultaneous external objects, even in difficult case (some wrong or lacking features, shared features, superimposed noise). In Chapter 1.3 the previous models are extended to realize a semantic memory, in which sensory-motor representations of objects are linked with words. To this aim, the network, previously developed, devoted to the representation of objects as a collection of sensory-motor features, is reciprocally linked with a second network devoted to the representation of words (lexical network) Synapses linking the two networks are trained via a time-dependent Hebbian rule, during a training period in which individual objects are presented together with the corresponding words. Simulation results demonstrate that, during the retrieval phase, the network can deal with the simultaneous presence of objects (from sensory-motor inputs) and words (from linguistic inputs), can correctly associate objects with words and segment objects even in the presence of incomplete information. Moreover, the network can realize some semantic links among words representing objects with some shared features. These results support the idea that semantic memory can be described as an integrated process, whose content is retrieved by the co-activation of different multimodal regions. In perspective, extended versions of this model may be used to test conceptual theories, and to provide a quantitative assessment of existing data (for instance concerning patients with neural deficits). PART 2. The ability of the brain to integrate information from different sensory channels is fundamental to perception of the external world (Stein et al, 1993). It is well documented that a number of extraprimary areas have neurons capable of such a task; one of the best known of these is the superior colliculus (SC). This midbrain structure receives auditory, visual and somatosensory inputs from different subcortical and cortical areas, and is involved in the control of orientation to external events (Wallace et al, 1993). SC neurons respond to each of these sensory inputs separately, but is also capable of integrating them (Stein et al, 1993) so that the response to the combined multisensory stimuli is greater than that to the individual component stimuli (enhancement). This enhancement is proportionately greater if the modality-specific paired stimuli are weaker (the principle of inverse effectiveness). Several studies have shown that the capability of SC neurons to engage in multisensory integration requires inputs from cortex; primarily the anterior ectosylvian sulcus (AES), but also the rostral lateral suprasylvian sulcus (rLS). If these cortical inputs are deactivated the response of SC neurons to cross-modal stimulation is no different from that evoked by the most effective of its individual component stimuli (Jiang et al 2001). This phenomenon can be better understood through mathematical models. The use of mathematical models and neural networks can place the mass of data that has been accumulated about this phenomenon and its underlying circuitry into a coherent theoretical structure. In Chapter 2.1 a simple neural network model of this structure is presented; this model is able to reproduce a large number of SC behaviours like multisensory enhancement, multisensory and unisensory depression, inverse effectiveness. In Chapter 2.2 this model was improved by incorporating more neurophysiological knowledge about the neural circuitry underlying SC multisensory integration, in order to suggest possible physiological mechanisms through which it is effected. This endeavour was realized in collaboration with Professor B.E. Stein and Doctor B. Rowland during the 6 months-period spent at the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA), within the Marco Polo Project. The model includes four distinct unisensory areas that are devoted to a topological representation of external stimuli. Two of them represent subregions of the AES (i.e., FAES, an auditory area, and AEV, a visual area) and send descending inputs to the ipsilateral SC; the other two represent subcortical areas (one auditory and one visual) projecting ascending inputs to the same SC. Different competitive mechanisms, realized by means of population of interneurons, are used in the model to reproduce the different behaviour of SC neurons in conditions of cortical activation and deactivation. The model, with a single set of parameters, is able to mimic the behaviour of SC multisensory neurons in response to very different stimulus conditions (multisensory enhancement, inverse effectiveness, within- and cross-modal suppression of spatially disparate stimuli), with cortex functional and cortex deactivated, and with a particular type of membrane receptors (NMDA receptors) active or inhibited. All these results agree with the data reported in Jiang et al. (2001) and in Binns and Salt (1996). The model suggests that non-linearities in neural responses and synaptic (excitatory and inhibitory) connections can explain the fundamental aspects of multisensory integration, and provides a biologically plausible hypothesis about the underlying circuitry.

The research activity carried out during the PhD course was focused on the development of mathematical models of some cognitive processes and their validation by means of data present in literature, with a double aim: i) to achieve a better interpretation and explanation of the great amount of data obtained on these processes from different methodologies (electrophysiological recordings on animals, neuropsychological, psychophysical and neuroimaging studies in humans), ii) to exploit model predictions and results to guide future research and experiments. In particular, the research activity has been focused on two different projects: 1) the first one concerns the development of neural oscillators networks, in order to investigate the mechanisms of synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity during cognitive processes, such as object recognition, memory, language, attention; 2) the second one concerns the mathematical modelling of multisensory integration processes (e.g. visual-acoustic), which occur in several cortical and subcortical regions (in particular in a subcortical structure named Superior Colliculus (SC)), and which are fundamental for orienting motor and attentive responses to external world stimuli. This activity has been realized in collaboration with the Center for Studies and Researches in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna (in Cesena) and the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA). PART 1. Objects representation in a number of cognitive functions, like perception and recognition, foresees distribute processes in different cortical areas. One of the main neurophysiological question concerns how the correlation between these disparate areas is realized, in order to succeed in grouping together the characteristics of the same object (binding problem) and in maintaining segregated the properties belonging to different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). Different theories have been proposed to address these questions (Barlow, 1972). One of the most influential theory is the so called “assembly coding”, postulated by Singer (2003), according to which 1) an object is well described by a few fundamental properties, processing in different and distributed cortical areas; 2) the recognition of the object would be realized by means of the simultaneously activation of the cortical areas representing its different features; 3) groups of properties belonging to different objects would be kept separated in the time domain. In Chapter 1.1 and in Chapter 1.2 we present two neural network models for object recognition, based on the “assembly coding” hypothesis. These models are networks of Wilson-Cowan oscillators which exploit: i) two high-level “Gestalt Rules” (the similarity and previous knowledge rules), to realize the functional link between elements of different cortical areas representing properties of the same object (binding problem); 2) the synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity in the γ-band (30-100Hz), to segregate in time the representations of different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). These models are able to recognize and reconstruct multiple simultaneous external objects, even in difficult case (some wrong or lacking features, shared features, superimposed noise). In Chapter 1.3 the previous models are extended to realize a semantic memory, in which sensory-motor representations of objects are linked with words. To this aim, the network, previously developed, devoted to the representation of objects as a collection of sensory-motor features, is reciprocally linked with a second network devoted to the representation of words (lexical network) Synapses linking the two networks are trained via a time-dependent Hebbian rule, during a training period in which individual objects are presented together with the corresponding words. Simulation results demonstrate that, during the retrieval phase, the network can deal with the simultaneous presence of objects (from sensory-motor inputs) and words (from linguistic inputs), can correctly associate objects with words and segment objects even in the presence of incomplete information. Moreover, the network can realize some semantic links among words representing objects with some shared features. These results support the idea that semantic memory can be described as an integrated process, whose content is retrieved by the co-activation of different multimodal regions. In perspective, extended versions of this model may be used to test conceptual theories, and to provide a quantitative assessment of existing data (for instance concerning patients with neural deficits). PART 2. The ability of the brain to integrate information from different sensory channels is fundamental to perception of the external world (Stein et al, 1993). It is well documented that a number of extraprimary areas have neurons capable of such a task; one of the best known of these is the superior colliculus (SC). This midbrain structure receives auditory, visual and somatosensory inputs from different subcortical and cortical areas, and is involved in the control of orientation to external events (Wallace et al, 1993). SC neurons respond to each of these sensory inputs separately, but is also capable of integrating them (Stein et al, 1993) so that the response to the combined multisensory stimuli is greater than that to the individual component stimuli (enhancement). This enhancement is proportionately greater if the modality-specific paired stimuli are weaker (the principle of inverse effectiveness). Several studies have shown that the capability of SC neurons to engage in multisensory integration requires inputs from cortex; primarily the anterior ectosylvian sulcus (AES), but also the rostral lateral suprasylvian sulcus (rLS). If these cortical inputs are deactivated the response of SC neurons to cross-modal stimulation is no different from that evoked by the most effective of its individual component stimuli (Jiang et al 2001). This phenomenon can be better understood through mathematical models. The use of mathematical models and neural networks can place the mass of data that has been accumulated about this phenomenon and its underlying circuitry into a coherent theoretical structure. In Chapter 2.1 a simple neural network model of this structure is presented; this model is able to reproduce a large number of SC behaviours like multisensory enhancement, multisensory and unisensory depression, inverse effectiveness. In Chapter 2.2 this model was improved by incorporating more neurophysiological knowledge about the neural circuitry underlying SC multisensory integration, in order to suggest possible physiological mechanisms through which it is effected. This endeavour was realized in collaboration with Professor B.E. Stein and Doctor B. Rowland during the 6 months-period spent at the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA), within the Marco Polo Project. The model includes four distinct unisensory areas that are devoted to a topological representation of external stimuli. Two of them represent subregions of the AES (i.e., FAES, an auditory area, and AEV, a visual area) and send descending inputs to the ipsilateral SC; the other two represent subcortical areas (one auditory and one visual) projecting ascending inputs to the same SC. Different competitive mechanisms, realized by means of population of interneurons, are used in the model to reproduce the different behaviour of SC neurons in conditions of cortical activation and deactivation. The model, with a single set of parameters, is able to mimic the behaviour of SC multisensory neurons in response to very different stimulus conditions (multisensory enhancement, inverse effectiveness, within- and cross-modal suppression of spatially disparate stimuli), with cortex functional and cortex deactivated, and with a particular type of membrane receptors (NMDA receptors) active or inhibited. All these results agree with the data reported in Jiang et al. (2001) and in Binns and Salt (1996). The model suggests that non-linearities in neural responses and synaptic (excitatory and inhibitory) connections can explain the fundamental aspects of multisensory integration, and provides a biologically plausible hypothesis about the underlying circuitry.

The main aim of the thesis was to investigate the nature of the cognitive mechanisms which underlie performance on specific visuo-spatial working memory tasks, with the emphasis on exploring the extent of central executive involvement. This research began with an attempt to investigate performance on two standard visual and spatial tasks in a small sample of mild-to-moderate AD patients, and compare this with performance on two adapted versions of the tasks (Experiments 1 & 2). The tasks were adapted to increase the ecological validity, but this adaptation appeared to alter the demands of the tasks, which prevented their further investigation as useful alternatives. The following experiments concentrated on investigating visual and spatial working memory in healthy populations. Experiments 3, 4, 5 and 6 employed a dual-task paradigm, whereby specific visual and spatial working memory tasks were combined with tasks assumed to involve executive processes. Experiments 3, 4 and 5 employed oral random digit generation as an executive task. The results of Experiments 3 and 5 indicated that visuo-spatial tasks which involve sequential processing show more interference with random digit generation than visuo-spatial tasks which involve simultaneous processing. The findings of Experiment 4 suggested that, when both item and order information are presented (i.e. with sequential presentation), subsequent recall or visuo-spatial material is attention demanding regardless of whether item only, order only, or both item and order information are required in response. These findings appear to indicate that visuo-spatial tasks which involve sequential processing require executive resources to a greater extent than visuo-spatial tasks which involve simultaneous processing. However, oral random generation is a sequential task, and requires the maintenance of serial order (in order to produce a random sequence). Therefore an alternative interpretation could be that the sequential nature of the oral random generation task gave rise to the pattern of selective impairment on sequential visuo-spatial tasks, rather than more general executive load.

This study investigated the influence of age, processing speed, working memory,and associative processes on the acquisition of contingency information. Young and older adults completed positive (+.65) and negative (-.65) contingency tasks that measured their ability to discover the relationship between a symptom (e.g., FEVER) and a fictional disease (e.g., OLYALGIA). Both d' scores, i.e., contingency learning, and contingency estimates, i.e., contingency judgment, were examined. Participants were also asked to complete cognitive tasks that measure the constructs of processing speed, working memory resources, associative memory, and associative learning. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct and indirect relationships between processing speed, working memory resources, associative memory, associative learning, and positive and negative contingency learning and judgment for young and older adult groups. Young adults outperformed older adults on the cognitive tasks and on contingency learning and judgment tasks. However, age differences were smaller for the positive contingency than for negative contingency. A comparison of the structural equation models for young and older adults showed no relationship between any cognitive construct and negative contingency learning. However, young adults' judgment for the negative contingency was directly influenced by associative learning, while their learning and judgment for the positive contingency was directly influenced by associative memory. For older adults, working memory executive function directly influenced their judgment for the negative contingency and their learning and judgment for the positive contingency. Processing speed had an indirect effect on older adults' contingency learning and judgment that was mediated by working memory executive functioning. The differences in the young adults' models as well as the difference between the young and older adults' models for positive and negative contingencies suggest that while associative processing is important, it may not account for all of the variation in contingency learning and judgment. The young adults' models for the negative contingency task indicates that higher level processes, such as inductive reasoning, maybe involved in negative contingency judgment because the associative learning task required some level of hypothesis testing. In contrast, positive contingency learning and judgment could rely primarily on more basic associative processes. The present findings therefore suggest that an overall model of contingency learning must include both associative processes and inductive reasoning processes. Older adults' general contingency performance was most directly related to their working memory executive functioning, suggesting that the decline in their working memory has the strongest effect on their ability to acquire and use information about contingencies. In fact, the age related decline in working memory seems to affect older adults' ability to acquire both positive and negative contingencies. The similarities across the older adult models for positive and negative contingencies indicate that the underlying deficit in older adults' working memory executive functioning that affects their overall contingency learning and judgment performance. This basic working memory executive functioning deficit for older adults also explains why their models for positive and negative contingency did not exhibit direct relationships between associative tasks and contingency learning as observed for the young adult models.

Modeling complex cognitive phenomena is a challenging task, especially when it is required to account for the functioning of a cognitive system interacting with an uncertain and changing environment. Psychometrics offers a heterogeneous corpus of computational tools to infer latent cognitive constructs from the observation of behavioral outcomes. However, there is not an explicit consensus regarding the optimal way to properly take into account the intrinsic dynamic properties of the environment, as well as the dynamic nature of cognitive states. In the present dissertation, we explore the potentials of relying on discrete state dynamic models to formally account for the unfolding of cognitive sub-processes in changing task environments. In particular, we propose Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) as an ideal and unifying mathematical language to represent cognitive dynamics as structured graphs codifying (causal) relationships between cognitive sub-components which unfolds in discrete time. We propose several works demonstrating the advantage and the representational power of such a modeling framework, by providing dynamic models of cognition specified according to different levels of abstraction.

Modeling complex cognitive phenomena is a challenging task, especially when it is required to account for the functioning of a cognitive system interacting with an uncertain and changing environment. Psychometrics offers a heterogeneous corpus of computational tools to infer latent cognitive constructs from the observation of behavioral outcomes. However, there is not an explicit consensus regarding the optimal way to properly take into account the intrinsic dynamic properties of the environment, as well as the dynamic nature of cognitive states. In the present dissertation, we explore the potentials of relying on discrete state dynamic models to formally account for the unfolding of cognitive sub-processes in changing task environments. In particular, we propose Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) as an ideal and unifying mathematical language to represent cognitive dynamics as structured graphs codifying (causal) relationships between cognitive sub-components which unfolds in discrete time. We propose several works demonstrating the advantage and the representational power of such a modeling framework, by providing dynamic models of cognition specified according to different levels of abstraction.

Modeling complex cognitive phenomena is a challenging task, especially when it is required to account for the functioning of a cognitive system interacting with an uncertain and changing environment. Psychometrics offers a heterogeneous corpus of computational tools to infer latent cognitive constructs from the observation of behavioral outcomes. However, there is not an explicit consensus regarding the optimal way to properly take into account the intrinsic dynamic properties of the environment, as well as the dynamic nature of cognitive states. In the present dissertation, we explore the potentials of relying on discrete state dynamic models to formally account for the unfolding of cognitive sub-processes in changing task environments. In particular, we propose Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) as an ideal and unifying mathematical language to represent cognitive dynamics as structured graphs codifying (causal) relationships between cognitive sub-components which unfolds in discrete time. We propose several works demonstrating the advantage and the representational power of such a modeling framework, by providing dynamic models of cognition specified according to different levels of abstraction.

Experiments were conducted to investigate the way humans solve Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problems (CVRPs), a problem class in which the shortest set of tours must be found around a set of weighted nodes using a capacity-limited vehicle. The first two experiments explored human performance in drawing solutions to problems of different complexity in terms of number of routes, nodes and weights to be summed. They also included as an experimental factor Verbalisation, both to provide a qualitative indicator of performance and also to examine the impact of verbalisation on performance. The qualitative results of Experiment 1 indicated two major types of strategists: Calculators and Clusterers. Clusterers performed faster and in some of the problems found solutions closer to the optimal than calculators. The major errors that participants performed were errors of calculation, nodes missing and drawing too few routes. Results from Experiment 2 suggest that humans are showing the best performance in problems with low calculation demands while they exhibit the worst performance in the problems with negligible calculation demands, thus suggesting that in order to provide very close to optimal solutions in CVRPs it is necessary to retain some calculation demand load to promote a more optimising behaviour. New strategies have been revealed in Experiment 2 and Verbalisation again did not influence the human performance. Further qualitative and quantitative analyses of the verbalisations and human performance in Experiment 1 showed that Visuospatial strategies such as Anchoring and Clustering are predictors of good performance while Arithmetic strategies such as Balancing generate poor performance. In Experiment 2, the best performances were exhibited when participants were using either Visuospatial strategies or Arithmetic strategies. The success and failure of the adoption of these strategies is dependant on the problem complexity and the cognitive load. A third 14 ..... ------------.~~-~~~ -- experiment revealed that error-trapping did not influence the human performance. The results informed the specification and design of a Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem Solver implemented in Java. A pilot study was completed that led to a revaluation of the software. A later version was implemented and tested empirically. Experiment 4 revealed that humans interaction with the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem Solver to solve CVRPs significantly improved their performance leading to the generation of very close to optimal routes.

Previous research suggests that people employ priority-related task attributes (e.g., task importance, task length, and task deadline) in prioritization. The process of prioritization employs heuristics to determine task order (Zhang & Feyen, 2007a). These models only address the prioritization process at a task level and do not address the cognitive mechanisms underlying prioritization. Building on previous findings, a process model of prioritization is proposed to explain prioritization during multitasking. Two experiments examined three cognitive processes of prioritization and the influence of time pressure. Three processes were investigated: 1) a process makes magnitude comparisons on priority-related information, 2) a process integrates multiple pieces of information and checks for potential conflicts among information, and 3) a process solves conflicts among priority-related information during prioritization. Under the influence of time pressure, it is hypothesized that people will adopt strategies that require fewer cognitive resources compared to situations where no time pressure exists. A series of task conditions with various configurations of priority-related task attributes was used to illuminate these processes and hypothesis. Hierarchical regression analyses provided evidence for the three cognitive components and suggested that these cognitive components played different roles under time pressure compared to performance under no time pressure. Three fundamental cognitive processes were identified in prioritization and provide implications for personnel selection and training for jobs demanding prioritization and multitasking in the real world.

There has been an increasing interest in understanding the personality processes that interact with the environment and lead to trait-manifesting behaviour. Researchers have noted that combining trait and cognitive-affective-motivational approaches to personality can lead to a greater understanding of trait expressions, the identification of moderators of trait expressions, and the development of new interventions to change personality and individual differences (Baumert & Schmitt, 2012). However, thus far, the research has primarily focused on the traits of neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness, and have not included the trait of conscientiousness. This is despite the known relationship between conscientiousness and important outcomes, such as academic performance. Alongside this limitation to previous research, attempts to link cognitive-affective processes to other personality traits, that are presumed to have substantial affective components, such as extraversion and neuroticism, have been mixed. These mixed results may be partly due to methodological limitations, such as the use of broadly valenced stimuli that do not necessarily have specific personal relevance to the participants in the study. Consequently, the research reported in this thesis focused upon the question, “How are personality traits, and conscientiousness in particular, related to cognitive-affective processes for relevant stimuli?” It was expected that the results of the studies in the thesis would further the understanding of the affective core of conscientiousness, and provide insight into the relationship between traits and how associated cognitive-affective processes interact with the environment to lead to trait-manifesting behaviour. In line with this question and expectations, the current research had four purposes:  Firstly, to see whether conscientiousness was associated with cognitive-affective processes for academic-related stimuli, in the categories of academic-approach, academic-avoidance, performance-evaluative, and academic-neutral, among samples of university students.  Secondly, to see whether extraversion and neuroticism were associated with the cognitive-affective processes of these academic-relevant stimuli, which would have personal relevance/significance to the student participants in the studies.  Thirdly, to see whether the situational context (week-of-semester in which the study was conducted) moderated the relationships between traits and cognitive affective processes.  Finally, to see whether cognitive-affective processes were related to intention to commit academic-conscientious behaviour in the coming week. These main aims were investigated across three studies and three different cognitive-affective processes: chronic accessibility, attentional bias, and appraisals. Study 1 investigated chronic accessibility (how accessible and readily activated a concept is) using a lexical decision task with 85 undergraduate students. The results indicated that conscientiousness was positively associated with chronic accessibility of academic-neutral words. Furthermore, extraversion was positively and neuroticism was negatively associated with chronic accessibility of academic-approach words. Week-of-semester in which the study was conducted moderated the relationship between neuroticism and chronic accessibility of academic-avoidance stimuli, although the simple slopes were not significant. Study 2 investigated attentional bias (the preferential attention of one category of stimuli over another) in 120 undergraduate students, using the dot-probe task across two stimulus durations: 100ms, which should capture relatively automatic attentional processing; and 500ms, which should capture more controlled attentional processing. The results indicated that conscientiousness was positively associated with attentional bias for performance-evaluative stimuli at both 100ms and 500ms. Additionally, intention to commit academic-conscientiousness behaviours (e.g., “Show up for a class more than 5 minutes early”) in the next week was associated with attentional bias for performance-evaluative stimuli at 100ms. Neuroticism was positively associated with attentional bias for academic-avoidance stimuli at both 100ms and 500ms. The relationship between neuroticism and attentional bias for academic-avoidance stimuli at 100ms was moderated by week-of-semester, in that the relationship was only significant later in the semester. Study 3 investigated the relationship between traits and the appraisal (the cognitive categorisation of stimuli) of pleasantness and relevance/significance of stimuli in 120 undergraduate students. Conscientiousness had a medium to strong relationship with both appraisal types (i.e., pleasantness- and relevance/significance-appraisals) across all stimulus categories, except for pleasantness-appraisals of academic-avoidance stimuli. Overall, stimulus-appraisals accounted for 35% of the variance in conscientiousness, and 43% of the variance in achievement striving. Pleasantness-appraisals of academic-neutral stimuli mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and intentions to commit conscientious academic behaviours in the next week. Neuroticism was associated with the relevance/significance, but not pleasantness, appraisals of academic-avoidance stimuli, and extraversion was associated with the pleasantness, but not relevance/significance, appraisals of academic-approach stimuli. The results of these studies have important implications for understanding personality and cognitive-affective processes. Firstly, the results of these studies indicate that conscientiousness is associated with the cognitive-affective processing of trait-relevant/significant stimuli. This calls into question the assumption that conscientiousness is a trait which primarily reflects self-regulation, and is unrelated to the affective processing of stimuli. Secondly, the finding that relevance/significance appraisals are important in explaining the relationships between traits and the stimuli indicates that future research may benefit from explicitly considering stimuli relevance/significance when designing cognitive-affective research. Investigations of stimuli relevance/significance may be more useful than broader stimuli-valence when seeking to investigate the affective core of traits. Thirdly, the finding that week-of-semester moderated the relationship between neuroticism and cognitive-affective processes provides initial evidence that naturally occurring situational contexts moderate the relationship between Big Five traits and cognitive-affective processes. Finally, it is expected that this research may have practical implications for a new generation of game-based personality assessments, which measure personality traits through cognitive or cognitive-affective tasks.
Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy in Organisational Psychology (PhD OrgPsych)
School of Applied Psychology
Griffith Health
Full Text

The success of Rater Cognitive Processes Training as a strategy for eliminating sex bias in ratings of performance in a physically demanding job was investigated in the present study. One hundred undergraduate students from a mid -sized regional university served as subjects. The independent variables were type of training and sex of the ratee. resulting in a two by two factorial design. The dependent variable was the performance ratings assigned by the subjects. Subjects in the experimental condition were trained to recognize the important dimensions of performance for the lob of feed handler and received one Practice/feedback session. Subjects in the control condition completed a case study exercise in lieu of training. All subjects then viewed a videotape showing a feed handler moving and stacking what appeared to be 25 lb. bags, and afterward assigned ratings using a graphic rating scale. An ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for sex (p < .026 , and a significant main effect for training (p < .013). The interaction between sex and training was not significant. Results indicated that Rater Cognitive Processes Training was not effective in eliminating sex bias. Instead. a clear contrast effect emerged. Potential implications of this study and future research directions are subsequently explored.

Lorsqu’une représentation accède à la conscience, ce n’est pas simplement une représentation « objective », mais plutôt une interprétation subjective. Cette interprétation reflète la combinaison de nos connaissances sur le monde avec les données de notre environnement. Il est intéressant de comprendre comment ces interprétations se modifient lorsque l’on est confronté à des incohérences entre nos connaissances et les données. Dans cette thèse, nous avons étudié ces incohérences dans l’environnement et dans le comportement des individus.Dans une première série d’études, nous avons étudié l’apprentissage de régularités dans l’environnement ainsi que les relations entre ce processus et la conscience d’accès. La première étude porte sur les réponses cérébrales associées à la détection de régularités auditives chez des patients épileptiques implantés. La seconde porte sur la mise en place de stratégies lorsque l’on est confronté à de fréquents conflits, conscients ou non. Dans une seconde série d’études, nous avons étudié comment les sujets traitent les incohérences dans leur propre comportement, dans le cadre de la théorie de la dissonance cognitive, en utilisant le paradigme du choix libre. Nous avons identifié un rôle crucial de la mémoire grâce à une étude comportementale et une étude en IRM fonctionnelle.Les résultats de ces quatre études sont discutés dans ce manuscrit autour de deux questions clés. Tout d’abord, ces résultats mettent en évidence l’existence de processus utilisant des stimuli conscients, mais qui ne sont pas conscients eux-mêmes. Ensuite, nous discutons pourquoi l’on tend à chercher de la cohérence, dans notre environnement et dans notre comportement
When we perceive a word, a picture or a sound, we do not access an ‘objective’ representation of them. Rather we gain immediate access to a subjective interpretation. This interpretation reflects the combination of our prior knowledge about the world with data sampled in the environment. An interesting issue is to understand how we deal with inconsistencies between our prior knowledge and the data from the environment. During this PhD, responses to inconsistencies both in the environment and in subjects’ own behavior were explored. The first series of studies address how subjects process regularities in the environment and how these processes relate to conscious access. To do so, two levels of auditory regularities were studied in epileptic patients implanted with intracranial electrodes. In a second experiment, we used a paradigm derived from the Stroop task to test responses to frequent conscious or unconscious conflicts. Behavioral measures and scalp EEG were used to assess changes in subjects’ strategy when processing trials conflicting with current expectations. In the second series of studies, we analyzed how subjects adapt their interpretations when confronted with inconsistencies in their own behavior, using the framework of cognitive dissonance. The implication of explicit memory was tested in a behavioral experiment and in an fMRI study. The results of these four studies are discussed around two main issues. First, these results highlight the existence of processes which rely on conscious stimuli but are not conscious themselves. Second, we examine what could explain our tendency to constantly seek consistency both in the external world and in our own behavior

La psicomotricitat s’ha anat construint, des de les aportacions de la medicina i la neuropsicologia, com una disciplina que busca crear un entorn adient per atendre als infants dins d’un espai que afavoreix l’acompanyament del seu itinerari maduratiu des de la vivència del seu cos i des del moviment. Amb independència de les línies d’abordatge i del camp concret d’actuació, són moltes i molt variades les contribucions a partir de les quals s’ha anat construint aquesta disciplina (Lapierre (1977); Aucouturier (1977); Muniáin (1977); Le Bouch (1984); Franc (1993); Berruezo (2000); Arnaiz et al., (2001); Serrabona (2002); Martínez-Mínguez et al., (2017)). Per la seva vinculació amb aquesta Tesi, hem cregut necessari centrar-nos en les aportacions de Lapierre i Aucouturier (1985). Aquests autors han destacat la importància de l’acompanyament i la consideració de la dimensió afectiva i fantasmàtica de l’infant en les sessions de psicomotricitat, proporcionant, d’aquesta manera, un dispositiu mitjançant el qual l’adult articula estratègies pedagògiques respecte a aquesta intervenció en l’àmbit educatiu. Tanmateix, és l’obra d’Aucouturier (2004) la que ens ha servit com a marc específic del nostre treball. Efectivament, és dins la Pràctica Psicomotriu d’Aucoutourier (PPA) que s’ha situat la nostra recerca. Concretament, hem volgut explorar la correlació existent entre la fase de representació, entesa com el moment en el qual es mobilitzen les emocions i els afectes, i la millora dels processos cognitius en infants de tres anys. D’altra banda, el doble paper de l’autora (com a psicomotricista i com a investigadora) ens va fer optar pel paradigma ecològic per a la recerca sobre la pròpia pràctica, en un intent d’explorar els efectes reals de la pràctica educativa tal com succeeix a la sala de psicomotricitat. Així, es va optar per situar la recerca en el centre a on exercia com a psicomotricista l’autora (una escola concertada del centre de Barcelona). Més concretament, el programa de psicomotricitat del nivell de P3 durant el curs 2017-2018 va ser l’escenari a on es va aplicar un disseny quasiexperimental en el que cadascun dels tres grups classe (A, B i C) va constituir-se com a grup experimental independent, segons el criteri que s’explica més endavant. A partir d’aquí, a l’inici del curs (i fent funcions de pretest) es va passar la Bateria Cognitiva del Test de Merrill-Palmer, que es va repetir (com a posttest) al final del període docent. Durant les dinou setmanes que van separar aquests dos moments, es va desenvolupar el programa d’intervenció, que consistia en la aplicació del programa de psicomotricitat pels tres grups. Aquest programa es va desenvolupar de manera idèntica, amb l’excepció de la freqüència amb la qual es va dur a terme la fase de representació: 0%, 50% i 100% als grups A, B i C respectivament. De manera paral·lela i per poder disposar de dades qualitatives, es va dur a terme una bitàcola de representacions que va recollir i organitzar tots els productes realitzats durant les fases de representació. Igualment, i per tal de tenir constància del desenvolupament de les sessions i dels incidents crítics que es poguessin haver generat, es va elaborar un diari de sessions. Els resultats obtinguts mitjançant els diferents instruments semblen indicar que una freqüència del 100% en la realització de la representació a les sessions de psicomotricitat, ha tingut efectes positius, tant sobre bona part dels processos cognitius, com sobre la qualitat de les representacions fetes i el seu grau de correspondència amb la realitat.
La psicomotricidad se ha ido construyendo, desde las aportaciones de la medicina y la neuropsicología, como una disciplina que busca crear un entorno adecuado para atender a los niños dentro de un espacio que favorece el acompañamiento de su itinerario madurativo desde la vivencia de su cuerpo y desde el movimiento. Con independencia de las líneas de abordaje y del campo concreto de actuación, son muchas y muy variadas las contribuciones a partir de las que se ha ido construyendo esta disciplina (Lapierre (1977); Aucouturier (1977); Muniáin (1977) ; Le Bouch (1984); Franco (1993); Berruezo (2000); Arnaiz et al., (2001); Serrabona (2002); Martínez-Mínguez et al., (2017)). Por su vinculación a esta Tesis, hemos creído necesario centrarnos en las aportaciones de Lapierre y Aucouturier (1985). Estos autores han destacado la importancia del acompañamiento y la consideración de la dimensión afectiva y fantasmática del niño en las sesiones de psicomotricidad, proporcionando, de esta manera, un dispositivo mediante el cual el adulto articula estrategias pedagógicas respecto a esta intervención en el ámbito educativo. Sin embargo, es la obra de Aucouturier (2004) la que nos ha servido como marco específico de nuestro trabajo. Efectivamente, es en la Práctica Psicomotriz de Aucoutourier (PPA) que se ha situado nuestra investigación. Concretamente, hemos querido explorar la correlación existente entre la fase de representación, entendida como el momento en el que se movilizan las emociones y los afectos, y la mejora de los procesos cognitivos en niños de tres años. Por otro lado, el doble papel de la autora (como psicomotricista y como investigadora) nos hizo optar por el paradigma ecológico para la investigación sobre la propia práctica, en un intento de explorar los efectos reales de la práctica educativa tal como sucede en la sala de psicomotricidad. Así, se optó por situar la investigación en el centro dónde ejercía como psicomotricista la autora (una escuela concertada del centro de Barcelona). Más concretamente, el programa de psicomotricidad del nivel de P3 durante el curso 2017 hasta 2018 fue el escenario donde se aplicó un diseño cuasiexperimental en el que cada uno de los tres grupos clase (A, B y C) se constituyó como grupo experimental independiente, según el criterio que se explica más adelante. A partir de aquí, al inicio del curso (y haciendo funciones de pre-test) se pasó la Batería Cognitiva del Test de Merrill-Palmer, que se repitió (como post-test) al final del periodo docente. Durante las diecinueve semanas que separar estos dos momentos, se desarrolló el programa de intervención, que consistía en la aplicación del programa de psicomotricidad para los tres grupos. Este programa se desarrolló de manera idéntica, con la excepción de la frecuencia con la que se llevó a cabo la fase de representación: 0%, 50% y 100% a los grupos A, B y C respectivamente. De manera paralela y para poder disponer de datos cualitativos, se llevó a cabo una bitácora de representaciones en la que se recogió y se organizaron todos los productos realizados durante las fases de representación. Igualmente, y para tener constancia del desarrollo de las sesiones y los incidentes críticos que pudieran haberse generado, se elaboró un diario de sesiones. Los resultados obtenidos mediante los diferentes instrumentos parecen indicar que una frecuencia del 100% en la realización de la representación en las sesiones de psicomotricidad, ha tenido efectos positivos, tanto sobre buena parte de los procesos cognitivos, como sobre la calidad de las representaciones hechas y el su grado de correspondencia con la realidad.
Psychomotricity has been built, from the contributions of medicine and neuropsychology, as a discipline that seeks to create a suitable environment to care for children within a space that favors the accompaniment of their journey of maturity from the experience of their body and movement. Independently of the lines of approach and the specific field of action, there are many and very varied contributions from which this discipline has been built (Lapierre (1977); Aucouturier (1977); Muniáin (1977) ; Le Bouch (1984); Franco (1993); Berruezo (2000); Arnaiz et al., (2001); Serrabona (2002); Martínez-Minguez et al., (2017)). Because of their link to this Thesis, we have thought necessary to focus on the contributions of Lapierre and Aucouturier (1985). These authors have highlighted the importance of accompaniment and the consideration of the affective and phantasmatic dimension of the child in psychomotricity sessions, providing, in this way, a device through which the adult articulates pedagogical strategies with respect to this intervention in the educational field. However, it is the work of Aucouturier (2004) that has served as the specific framework for our work. Indeed, it is in Aucoutourier’s Psychomotor Practice (PPA) that our research has been situated. Specifically, we wanted to explore the correlation between the representation phase, understood as the moment when emotions and affects are mobilised, and the improvement of cognitive processes in three-year-old children. On the other hand, the author’s double role (as a psychomotorist and as a researcher) made us opt for the ecological paradigm for researching practice itself, in an attempt to explore the real effects of educational practice as it happens in the psychomotor room. Thus, we chose to situate the research in the centre where the author worked as a psychomotricist (a state-subsidised school in the centre of Barcelona). More specifically, the psychomotricity programme at P3 level during the 2017 to 2018 academic year was the setting where a quasi-experimental design was applied in which each of the three class groups (A, B and C) was constituted as an independent experimental group, according to the criteria explained below. From here, at the beginning of the course (and doing pre-test functions) the Cognitive Battery of the Merrill-Palmer Test was passed, which was repeated (as a post-test) at the end of the teaching period. During the nineteen weeks that separate these two moments, the intervention programme was developed, which consisted of the application of the Psychomotricity programme for the three groups. This programme was developed in an identical way, with the exception of the frequency with which the representation phase was carried out: 0%, 50% and 100% to groups A, B and C respectively. In parallel and in order to have qualitative data, a representation log was carried out in which all the products made during the representation phases were collected and organized. Likewise, and in order to have a record of the development of the sessions and the critical incidents that may have been generated, a session diary was drawn up. The results obtained by means of the different instruments seem to indicate that a frequency of 100% in the performance of the representation in the psychomotricity sessions has had positive effects, both on a good part of the cognitive processes, as well as on the quality of the representations made and their degree of correspondence with reality.

Behavioural scientists typically classify cognitive processes as either controlled or automatic. Whereas controlled processes are slow and effortful, automatic processes are fast and involuntary. Cognitive researchers have recently begun investigating how top-down influence in the form of suggestion can allow individuals to modulate the automaticity of deeply ingrained processes. The present thesis surveys a background of converging findings that collectively indicate that certain individuals can derail involuntary processes, such as reading. We extend previous Stroop findings to several other well-established automatic paradigms, including the McGurk effect. We thus demonstrate how, in the case of highly suggestible individuals, suggestion seems to wield control over a process that is likely even more automatic than the Stroop effect. Furthermore, we present findings from two novel experimental paradigms exploring the potential of shifting automaticity in the opposite direction – i.e., transforming, without practice, a controlled task into one that is automatic. In addition, we present findings from an experiment leveraging de-automatization to illuminate a longstanding debate on the nature of hypnotic suggestibility: whether it reflects a stable trait determined by cognitive aptitude or a flexible skill amenable to attitudinal factors such as beliefs and expectations. We surreptitiously controlled light and sound stimuli to convince participants that they were responding strongly to hypnotic suggestions for visual and auditory hallucinations. Extending our previous findings, we indexed hypnotic suggestibility by de-automatizing an involuntary audiovisual phenomenon—the McGurk effect. Our findings intimate that, at least in the present experimental context, expectation hardly correlates with—and is unlikely to be a primary determinant of—high hypnotic suggestibility. Finally, the thesis concludes by addressing related evidence from the neuroscience of contemplative practices and discussing how these findings pave the road to a more scientific understanding of voluntary control and automaticity.
Les scientifiques distinguent habituellement deux classes de processus cognitifs : les processus contrôlés et les processus automatiques. Tandis que les processus contrôlés sont lents et requièrent un effort, les processus automatiques sont rapides et involontaires. Les chercheurs en sciences cognitives ont récemment commencé à étudier comment l'influence des suggestions peut de moduler l'automaticité de processus profondément enracinés. La présente thèse examine un ensemble de découvertes qui indiquent collectivement que certaines personnes peuvent modifier des processus involontaires. Nous étendons les découvertes précédentes sur l'effet Stroop à plusieurs autres paradigmes automatiques bien établis, y compris l'effet McGurk. Nous démontrons ainsi comment, dans le cas des individus très suggestibles, la suggestion semble exercer un contrôle sur un processus qui est probablement encore plus automatique que l'effet Stroop. En outre, nous présentons les résultats de deux nouveaux paradigmes expérimentaux qui explorent la possibilité de déplacer l'automaticité dans la direction opposée – c'est-à-dire de transformer, sans entraînement, une tâche contrôlée en une tâche automatique. Par ailleurs, nous présentons les résultats d'une expérience qui mobilise la dé-automatisation pour éclairer un débat de longue date sur la nature de la suggestibilité hypnotique: la question de savoir si elle reflète un trait de caractère stable et déterminé par une aptitude cognitive, ou bien une compétence flexible et exprimable en termes de facteurs comportementaux. En étendant nos résultats précédents, nous avons indexé la suggestibilité hypnotique en dé-automatisant un phénomène audiovisuel involontaire : l'effet McGurk. Nos résultats montrent que, au moins dans ce contexte expérimental, l'attente est très peu corrélée à la suggestibilité hypnotique, et est peu susceptible d'en être un facteur déterminant. Enfin, nous concluons cette thèse en abordant les données apparentées en neurosciences des pratiques contemplatives, et en discutant comment ces résultats ouvrent la voie à une compréhension plus scientifique du contrôle volontaire et de l'automaticité.

This study explored the robustness of the low achievement approach for diagnosing learning difficulties in a group of one hundred and twenty-one grade 3 children in two inner city schools. The children were tested using standardized tests of achievement and experimental cognitive measures. The cognitive profiles of the low achievers, the children with difficulties in reading and/or arithmetic, were examined and the results showed that the defining feature in these low achievers was a phonological deficit. The Chi square tests in this study contributed to providing important information that was particularly useful for individual diagnosis. The pattern of association between low reading achievement and the measures tapping into phonological processing showed that there was little or no likelihood of being normally achieving in reading when the phonological processing skills were low. Three different cutoff points for low achievement were used reflecting differing levels of stringency. Children in the low groups, regardless of the cutoff points used, exhibited similar characteristics in terms of their cognitive deficits. Hierarchical regression analyses of the predictor variables related to reading and arithmetic revealed that phonological processing contributed to accounting for large proportions of unique variance in both reading and arithmetic. The findings in this study suggests that the phonological core deficit model for understanding reading difficulties is robust even in a population where there are confounding social variables associated with the children (e.g., low SES and ESL home background). As well, phonological processing also emerged as being important in contributing to children's achievement in arithmetic. The efficacy of the low achievement approach was affirmed in this study: children with cognitive processing deficits related to reading or arithmetic were identified using a low cutoff of somewhere around or below the 25th percentile in standardized achievement tests. Furthermore, using the low achievement approach had the benefit of avoiding biases previously identified in IQ-achievement discrepancy definitions of learning disability.
Education, Faculty of
Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of
Graduate

In this thesis a cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety is used to investigate the psychological effects of bone densitometry, a health test which can provide an indication of future risk for osteoporosis. The cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety proposes that people will experience relatively high levels of anxiety about their health if they have a tendency to make particularly negative interpretations of bodily variations and information which may be relevant to health. It was therefore predicted that people who have a pre-existing tendency to worry about their health would react more negatively to the results of bone density measurement. Consistent with this prediction, after a low bone density ("high risk") result, women who reported high levels of pre-existing health anxiety gave higher ratings of anxiety about osteoporosis and perceived likelihood of developing osteoporosis in the near future than women with low levels of preexisting health anxiety. (The two groups did not differ significantly in these ratings before the scan). Differences in the reactions of women with high and low levels of pre-existing health anxiety were still apparent 14 months after the scan. Women receiving a low bone density ("high risk") result showed a "minimization" of the seriousness of low bone density; when individual differences were investigated, it was found that women with very high levels of pre-existing health anxiety did not show minimization. Furthermore, after a "low risk" result, women with high levels of health anxiety were only temporarily reassured. It thus appears that the new measure of health anxiety which was used in this thesis may be useful in helping to identify people who are vulnerable to experiencing distress after health screening. More specific pre-scan measures of beliefs about osteoporosis (derived from the cognitive-behavioural model) also predicted reactions to bone density screening. For example, pre-scan beliefs about the seriousness or burden of low bone density / osteoporosis were stronger predictors of anxiety about osteoporosis three months after the scan than the actual scan result. Factors such as the type of interpretation the woman makes of her scan result, and whether the woman is having her first or second scan, were also found to influence psychological reactions.

This thesis examined the relationship between emotional and cognitive function in obesity. The results from Chapter 2 demonstrated that anxiety and depression exacerbate negative perceptions of quality of life in the severely obese. In Chapter 3 it is reported that Alexithymia, a form of emotional dysfunction, may contribute towards poor lifestyle choices such as unhealthy snacking, less exercise, and lower fruit and vegetable consumption in adolescents. These findings are of particular interest because they suggest one way in which the obesity cycle may begin in youth. Chapter 4 presents the results study which found that the relationship between BMI and cognitive tasks is not as straightforward as suggested in previous literature. When controlling for factors such as impulsivity and self-esteem, many BMI-cognition relationships disappeared. However, a relationship between memory function and BMI was observed that was moderated by age. The studies reported in Chapter 5, investigated individual difference in food memory. Positive food preoccupation was found to influence both food memory and later snack intake. Overall, this thesis reports novel findings that add to the literature documenting emotional and cognitive problems related to obesity.

The research described in this thesis investigates the mental processes underlying the reading and recall of piano music. The first study examined memory for good and poor piano music as a function of sight-reading ability and different presentation and recall conditions. The findings indicated that whilst sight-reading accuracy had little effect on recall, sight-reading tempo was highly correlated with recall success. Good music was easier to recall than poor music, and written recall procedures generated greater recall success than played recall procedures. Played recall procedures were found to produce advantages for the immediate recall of music that had been sight-read during stimulus exposure. Written recall procedures produced significant long-term memory advantages, demonstrated by the greater preservation of structurally significant aspects of musical information over periods of extended memory storage. The second study explored the processes underlying memory for musical information by examining the strategies employed by musicians and non-musicians during the learning and written reproduction of scored piano music. The findings indicated that memory performances produced by musicians were superior to those produced by non-musicians and also improved at a faster rate of learning. Musicians were found to employ several knowledge-based music reading strategies that were unavailable to non-musicians, and to vary their reading strategies depending on the type of music that was being read. Although non-musicians were unaffected by the type of music presented to them, both subject groups were found to re-evaluate their use of reading strategies in light of previous recall performance success, and vary strategy employment in order to optimise recall success. The combined findings of these studies suggest that memory for musical information can be enhanced by the conditions surrounding information processing, and that the processes underlying the memory system are governed by highly flexible operations which reflect the degree of pre-existing knowledge possessed by an individual.

Research suggests psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are common phenomena and such experiences do not always warrant a clinical diagnosis of psychosis. Nonetheless it has been argued that people who experience PLEs may be at risk of developing psychosis. Consequently, criteria have been developed to identify people experiencing at risk mental states (ARMS) and research trials have been conducted aimed at preventing the development of psychosis. What seems to distinguish the general population from the clinical population is the appraisal of PLEs. Morrison's (2001) cognitive model of psychosis suggests appraisals of PLEs, and subsequent responses adopted, are responsible for the maintenance of distress and disability associated with psychosis. These appraisals and responses are determined by beliefs that are formed through life experiences regarding the self, the world and others (Morrison, 2001). Metacognitive theory would also suggest positive beliefs about PLEs are associated with an increase in such phenomena whereas negative beliefs about PLEs are associated with distress. Five studies were designed to test predictions based on Morrison's (2001) cognitive model in non-clinical (NC) and clinical samples, investigate the continuum view of psychosis, explore experiences of psychopathology across the continuum, investigate how cognitive processes relate to PLEs in clinical and NC samples and examine the role of appraisals and schemas in the relationship between PLEs and associated distress. Studies demonstrated strong evidence to suggest a continuum of psychosis exists, which spans affective states. Continuum studies showed significantly elevated negative metacognitive beliefs and self schemas, plus significantly lower levels of positive self schemas in the clinical populations. Experimental studies reported significant associations between psychotic-like appraisals and distress. Some cognitive processes were found to mediate the relationships between PLEs and distress in the ARMS population. The results provide validation for the continuum view of psychosis, and for both the cognitive model (Morrison, 2001) and the S-REF model (Wells & Matthews, 1994; Wells & Matthews, 1996).

Reliable and detailed descriptions of the content and emotions associated with persecutory delusions have been emphasized as important for the foundation of effective theoretical development and clinical practice. Two studies have directly examined these associations in persecutory ideation (Green et al., 2006; Freeman et al., 2001), and found details of content to be associated with depression and anxiety. The aim of this study is to partially replicate and extend previous research by exploring possible associations between specific emotions and content. Six research hypotheses were examined. It is hypothesised that the details of content such as the power of the persecutor as rated by the participant would be associated with depression and anxiety, deservedness would be associated with anger and shame and the participants‟ ability to cope would be associated with shame and depression. Thirty-seven participants experiencing persecutory delusions were recruited from inpatient and outpatient locations within a specific NHS Trust. Five measures that assessed persecutory delusional content and emotional responses were completed. This included a novel assessment tool developed for this study. Results of this study failed to support five of the six research hypotheses as no associations were found between content of persecutory delusions and specific emotions. In fact, it was found that there was a slight trend of the relationship being in the opposite direction to that predicted. Findings of this study have a few implications for contemporary approaches to persecutory delusions. It suggests that there are gaps in our understanding and examination of persecutory delusions. Additionally it could mean that the theories of persecutory delusions which emphasize emotions should be revised.

La prise de décision sous ambiguïté est au cœur de notre existence. En effet, nous devons sans cesse effectuer des choix sans pour autant en connaître les conséquences potentielles, ni les probabilités qui régissent ces conséquences. Afin de mieux définir les processus en jeu dans le développement de ces capacités décisionnelles sous ambiguïté, nous avons choisi de tester la théorie incontournable dans ce domaine, à savoir : L’Hypothèse des Marqueurs Somatiques (HMS). Cette hypothèse accorde un rôle adaptatif aux émotions et suppose que l’individu réalise au cours de sa vie un apprentissage de nature émotionnelle qui guiderait ses choix dans des conditions d’ambiguïté. Nous avons réalisé trois études expérimentales issues de l’association des approches de la psychopathologie, de la psychologie cognitive et de la psychologie du développement. Dans une première étude nous avons ainsi vérifié l’implication de l’alexithymie, un trouble spécifique de l’identification et de la régulation des émotions, dans le déficit décisionnel observé chez les joueurs pathologiques. En étudiant le cas particulier du jeu pathologique, nous avons pu étayer indirectement l’HMS, en démontrant que l’alexithymie pouvait être à la source du déficit décisionnel observé au sein de cette population. Dans une deuxième étude réalisée chez le sujet sain, nous avons développé un nouveau paradigme expérimental d’amorçage émotionnel afin de répondre aux critiques persistantes quant au rôle des processus émotionnels dans la décision sous ambiguïté. Nos données conduisent à penser que la prise de décision sous ambiguïté reposerait bien sur le développement d’un signal émotionnel intégral (i.e., en réponse aux feedbacks), en montrant pour la première fois la possibilité de renforcer ce signal pour une meilleure prise de décision. Dans une troisième étude nous avons examiné le développement, de l’enfance à l’âge adulte, des capacités de prise de décision sous ambiguïté sous l’angle des processus émotionnels mais également des processus cognitifs, et en particulier les stratégies d’ajustement suite aux feedbacks. Cette perspective développementale nous a permis de mieux définir les processus cognitifs essentiels à cette prise de décision sous ambiguïté en suggérant la nécessité d’inhiber une tendance spontanée à modifier son choix après une perte afin de permettre l’apprentissage émotionnel au cœur de la prise de décision sous ambiguïté. En conclusion, les résultats de cette thèse nous ont permis d’enrichir l’HMS, en soulignant la nécessité de prendre en compte les processus émotionnels et cognitifs dans le cadre de la prise de décision sous ambiguïté
Decision-making under ambiguity is critical in our everyday life. Indeed, we make most of our choices with no information on the potential consequences of these choices or on the probabilities that govern these consequences. To better characterize the underlying mechanisms engaged in this complex ability, we tested the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH), a key theory in this field. This theory posits that decision-making under ambiguity relies on the development of emotional responses to the world (i.e., an integral emotional signal) that bias people toward advantageous choices in ambiguous circumstances. Thus, the goal of this thesis was to test (i) the role of emotional processes and (ii) the possible implication of cognitive processes in our ability to choose advantageously in ambiguous context. In our first study, we investigated the factors at the root of the decision-making deficit of pathological gamblers by assessing the impact of alexithymia – a recurrent emotional disorder in this population – on their decision-making skills. In line with the SMH, we found that alexithymia was a key factor to understand pathological gamblers’ decision-making deficit. In a second study, we designed an emotional priming paradigm to provide direct evidence that decision making relies on the creation of an integral emotional signal in healthy adults. Our data supports the SMH by evidencing that decision-making can be improved when the integral emotional signal is reinforced. Finally, in our third study, we investigated the development of decision-making abilities by focusing on the strategic adjustments in children, adolescents and adults. Our data suggest that the inhibition of a spontaneous tendency to shift after a loss might be critical to choose advantageously. In conclusion, the results of this thesis broadened the scope of the HMS by emphasizing the need to study both emotional and cognitive processes to better understand decision making under ambiguity. Keywords: Decision-making under ambiguity; Emotional processes; Cognitive processes; Cognitive development the SMH by evidencing that decision-making can be improved when the integral emotional signal is reinforced. Finally, in our third study, we investigated the development of decision-making abilities by focusing on the strategic adjustments in children, adolescents and adults. Our data suggest that the inhibition of a spontaneous tendency to shift after a loss might be critical to choose advantageously. In conclusion, the results of this thesis broadened the scope of the HMS by emphasizing the need to study both emotional and cognitive processes to better understand decision making under ambiguity

The purpose of the present study was to examine cognitive abilities and problem solving processes of young and older adults. Specifically, three areas of inquiry were investigated: possible age-related differences in problem solving cognitive abilities, possible differences in cognitive processes used during problem solution, and possible differences in determinants of problem solving cognitive processes.

The thesis investigates the development of medical reasoning processes and how student modelling of such processes can be achieved in intelligent tutoring systems. The domain of orthopaedics was chosen for the research. Literature has shown that medical reasoning has been modelled mainly from an expert point of view. The research problem addressed is to model explicitly various levels of medical expertise in terms of reasoning strategies. The thesis reports on a system, DEMEREST (DEvelopment of MEdical REasoning STrategies), a developmental user model component which describes successive stages of medical reasoning and which could ultimately be part of a medical tutor. The system diagnoses physicians' reasoning strategies, determines the level of expertise and produces a plan corresponding to the application of these strategies. As a basis of doing so, a set of seven reasoning strategies was identified in the medical problem solving literature. These strategies are based on generalisation, specialisation, confirmation, elimination, problem refinement, hypothesis generation and anatomy. An empirical study was carried out to examine the development of these strategies. Protocols of ten physicians at various levels of expertise were collected and analysed. A number of interactions of strategies at different levels of expertise was identified in half of these protocols and this information was used to construct a model of changes of strategies over time. Planning in· artificial intelligence was used as a means of decomposing medical problem solving into a set of goals; the goals being associated with the reasoning strategies. By taking this approach, medical reasoning is viewed as a planning process. The remaining protocols from the empirical study were used to evaluate DEMEREST. The system was tested for its ability to determine a level of expertise for each protocol, model the reasoning strategies applied and their interactions, and generate a plan for each protocol. The assessment of the overall performance of the system showed that it was successful. This assessment also helped to identify conceptual as well as implementation constraints of the prototype system. The main result of the research undertaken in this thesis is that the design of the system DEMEREST demonstrates the feasibility of modelling the development of medical reasoning strategies and its usefulness for student modelling.

This program of research sought an answer to the following question: What is the nature of the mechanism underlying French readers' ability to identify syllabic boundaries in print? Two complementary approaches were taken to shed some light on this problem: first, we examined how the structural properties of syllables influence syllabification decisions; and second, we explored the relationship between syllabic structure and the issue of syllabic mediation in visual word recognition (VWR). In the first study, university students were asked to syllabify a list of 248 words (Experiment 1) or pseudowords (Experiment 2), in a paper-and-pencil syllabification task. The data were coded and then analyzed according to a framework representing the realm of all possible environments in which syllabic boundaries can be identified, within any given letter string. In the second study, participants were asked to verify the proper location for a syllabic boundary marker, which was inserted between the letters of isolated words displayed at the center of a computer screen (e.g., 'ca/bane' [shack]). In the syllable boundary verification (SBV) task, trisyllabic stimuli that contained a single medial consonant or medial consonant pair were contrasted either at the first or second syllabic boundary (i.e., Experiments 1 and 3: CV.C&barbelow;V.CV vs. CV C.CV.CV; Experiment 2: CV.CV.C&barbelow;V vs. CV.CV C.CV). The results showed that lexicality was not a factor in the untimed syllabification task (Study 1), where participants relied on simple heuristics to parse letter strings (i.e., spelling-to-sound translation, prescribed rule for separating geminate consonants). In the timed verification task (Study 2), a location-specific effect of syllabic structure was observed in the critical marker position for all three experiments, in addition to a word-frequency effect. Moreover, a reliable effect of marker serial position revealed an increase in response times towards the end of words. The pattern of results for this series of experiments is most consistent with the idea of a lexically-derived syllabic structure effect and inconsistent with one form of the syllabic mediation hypothesis (i.e., syllable-as-access-code hypothesis). Overall, the findings of both studies converge towards the following conclusion: The mechanism underlying the ability to identify syllabic boundaries in French print relies on multiple sources of constraint that vary according to task demands.