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Title: Mitigating common measures bias : can training and organizational design alleviate managerial bias?
Creator: Weiler, Luke
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Accounting research has established that when presented with common and unique performance measures about different divisions or managers, decision makers underweight unique information and overweight common information. This "common measures bias" leads to performance strategies that can be inconsistent with the strategy of the firm. I examine how firm strategy (as exhibited through organizational design) influences the common measures bias. While training can influence common measures bias,...
Show moreAccounting research has established that when presented with common and unique performance measures about different divisions or managers, decision makers underweight unique information and overweight common information. This "common measures bias" leads to performance strategies that can be inconsistent with the strategy of the firm. I examine how firm strategy (as exhibited through organizational design) influences the common measures bias. While training can influence common measures bias, which aspects of training and how training influences this bias has not been explored. I experimentally investigate how organizational design and training influence common measures bias. I find that while organizational design appears to have minimal effect on its own, there is an interactive effect of organizational design and training. Additionally, training that emphasizes the inclusion of all metrics increases the weights placed on non-financial metrics. While the training increases the weights on non-financial metrics, participants continue to rely on financial metrics when making their performance evaluation ratings.
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Title: Testing the reminding account of the lag effect in l2 vocabulary acquisition from l2-l1 retrieval practice within a paired-associate learning format
Creator: Koval, Natalya G.
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The spacing/lag effect refers to the finding in memory research that spacing repeated study more widely produces important learning benefits (Crowder, 1976; Dempster, 1988, 1989). In order to know when and how this effect can be most useful for second language learning, it is important to understand the cognitive mechanism(s) that drive any effects of spacing in second language learning. It is also important to understand how the operation of the mechanism(s) may be affected by variables...
Show moreThe spacing/lag effect refers to the finding in memory research that spacing repeated study more widely produces important learning benefits (Crowder, 1976; Dempster, 1988, 1989). In order to know when and how this effect can be most useful for second language learning, it is important to understand the cognitive mechanism(s) that drive any effects of spacing in second language learning. It is also important to understand how the operation of the mechanism(s) may be affected by variables inherent in second language learning contexts. In the present study, I investigate the contribution of the dual mechanism of effortful successful retrieval to the effects of lag in second language vocabulary learning. This dual mechanism is proposed to underlie both beneficial and detrimental effects of lag on learning within the reminding account (Benjamin & Tullis, 2010). I additionally investigate the potential effects of externally imposed study time on learning as well as on the operation of the two mechanisms under investigation.Fifty-two native speakers of American English studied 72 novel L2 Finnish words during overt oral L2-L1 translation retrieval practice in a paired-associate learning format from 6 repetitions under three constant levels of within-session lag with immediate study of feedback for 3 or 9 seconds after each retrieval attempt. Study-phase response latencies and accuracy were recorded and used as measures of study-phase retrieval effort and success, respectively (as in Maddox & Balota, 2015). Immediate and delayed form recognition, L2-L1 translation and translation matching posttests were used to measure learning outcomes.Results showed a large spacing effect on all measures and at both times of test administration as well as a lag effect on delayed meaning tests. A nonsignificant nonmonotonic function was observed only on immediate posttests. Study time had an overall small positive effect on learning; however, it did not cancel out negative effects of massing retrieval practice: the effects of spacing were considerably larger. Increasing lag between retrieval attempts produced increasingly longer study-phase response latencies and increasingly lower levels of study-phase retrieval success. Study time had a small nonsignificant negative effect on study-phase response latencies and a small significant positive effect on study-phase retrieval success. Moderated mediation analyses showed that study time, as operationalized in the present study, did not affect the operation of the two underlying mechanisms under investigation. They further showed that, despite the fact that a nonmonotonic function was not observed in the present learning outcomes, increasing inter-study interval still had a negative effect on learning and this effect operated through a lower rate of study-phase retrieval success. Further, the moderated mediation analyses showed that the positive effects of retrieval effort (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006) were conditional on retrieval success, in line with predictions of the reminding account.The findings of the dissertation suggest that: (a) massed L2-L1 translation retrieval practice may not be effective for L2 vocabulary learning; (b) externally imposing a longer study time does not have the large benefits that learner-regulated longer study time does; (c) effortful successful retrieval underlies benefits of lag in L2 vocabulary learning from L2-L1 retrieval practice-the benefits of effortful retrieval are conditional on retrieval success, even in the presence of immediate feedback; (d) successful retrieval is more beneficial than unsuccessful retrieval, even when retrieval attempts are followed by immediate feedback - study of feedback does not offset the negative effects of retrieval failure.
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Title: Automaticity as a hidden cost of expertise : situational and individual-difference factors underpinning errors of automaticity
Creator: Burgoyne, Alexander P.
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: A traditional view of automaticity holds that the ability to perform well-practiced skills without attention is adaptive because it frees mental resources to process other information. Without denying the benefits of automaticity, I show how it can also lead to error in domains of expertise such as driving, medical diagnosis, problem solving, and reading. I begin by discussing automaticity within the context of two theoretical frameworks, classical theories of skill acquisition and dual...
Show moreA traditional view of automaticity holds that the ability to perform well-practiced skills without attention is adaptive because it frees mental resources to process other information. Without denying the benefits of automaticity, I show how it can also lead to error in domains of expertise such as driving, medical diagnosis, problem solving, and reading. I begin by discussing automaticity within the context of two theoretical frameworks, classical theories of skill acquisition and dual process theory. I then examine situational and individual-difference factors that make errors of automaticity more likely to occur. Next, using proofreading as a testbed, I demonstrate how knowledge, expectations, and other top-down constraints influence reading behaviors and comprehension. I then present two experiments to investigate the self-generation effect in proofreading: the hypothesis that it is more difficult to detect mistakes in one's own writing than in the writing of others. The reasoning behind this hypothesis is that overfamiliarity with self-generated text increases the probability that errors are overlooked or seen but undetected. Finally, I discuss implications of the research and argue that understanding the benefits and consequences of automaticity is critical to improve decision-making outcomes across a wide range of applied contexts.
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Title: The bridge : linking mood induction, self-report, and psychophysiology to vocabulary learning on a paired-associates learning task
Creator: Fox, Jessica Kate
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Researchers in the field of second language acquisition continue to establish links between cognition and emotion (Dewaele, 2013; MacIntyre, 2002; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989, 1991b, 1994; Segalowitz & Trofimovich, 2011). The purpose of the present study is to investigate to what extent physiological and self-report measures predict vocabulary language learning. This present study is inspired by hot cognition, cognitive processing influenced by emotions (Brand, 1987; Pekrun, 2006; Wolfe, 2006)...
Show more"Researchers in the field of second language acquisition continue to establish links between cognition and emotion (Dewaele, 2013; MacIntyre, 2002; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989, 1991b, 1994; Segalowitz & Trofimovich, 2011). The purpose of the present study is to investigate to what extent physiological and self-report measures predict vocabulary language learning. This present study is inspired by hot cognition, cognitive processing influenced by emotions (Brand, 1987; Pekrun, 2006; Wolfe, 2006). Two groups of thirty-five adult language learners were placed in a negative experimental group or a neutral comparison group and exposed to a series of mood-inducing video-only film clips (Carvalho, Leite, Galdo-Álvarez, & Gonçalves, 2012) after which they learned the forms and meanings of 24 Indonesian concrete nouns. Participant physiological response measures (heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin conductance levels) were collected during baseline and film-viewing periods; additional data collected included periodic emotional self-reports, performance on immediate vocabulary-learning posttests, and a battery of anxiety questionnaires. Findings revealed that changes in heart rate and skin conductance levels influenced performance on the paired-associates vocabulary-learning task. Additionally, the skin conductance measure predicted vocabulary learning when the effects of mood induction and all other known individual differences were controlled for."--Page ii.
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Title: The effects of primacy on rater cognition : an eye-tracking study
Creator: Ballard, Laura
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Rater scoring has an impact on writing test reliability and validity. Thus, there has been a continued call for researchers to investigate issues related to rating (Crusan, 2015). In the current study, I answer the call for continued research on rating processes by investigating rater cognition in the context of rubric use in writing assessment. This type of research is especially important for rater training and rubric development because, despite efforts to guide raters to a common...
Show more"Rater scoring has an impact on writing test reliability and validity. Thus, there has been a continued call for researchers to investigate issues related to rating (Crusan, 2015). In the current study, I answer the call for continued research on rating processes by investigating rater cognition in the context of rubric use in writing assessment. This type of research is especially important for rater training and rubric development because, despite efforts to guide raters to a common understanding of the rubric criteria and to help raters converge on a common understanding of scoring bands, variance in rater scoring and rater behavior persists. Researchers have shown that trained raters do not always use rubric criteria in consistent ways, nor do they consistently use the same processes to score samples. This is relevant for the design of and use of scores from analytic rubrics, as raters are expected to allocate equal attention to each criterion within an analytic rubric, and non-equal attention has been shown to coincide with category reliability (Winke & Lim, 2015), and, therefore, overall test reliability. One factor which has not been investigated in assessment research is the role of information-primacy in rater cognition. Thus, in this study, I investigate the primacy effect in relation to rater-rubric interactions. Specifically, I investigate 1) whether the position of a category affects raters' assignment of importance to the category; 2) whether the position of a category affects raters' memory of a category; 3) whether raters pay more or less attention to a rubric category depending on its position in the rubric; 4) whether the position of the category affects the inter-rater reliability of a category; and 5) whether the position of a category affects the scores that raters assign to the category. I employed a mixed-methods within-subjects design, which included eye-tracking methodology. Thirty-one novice raters were randomly assigned to two groups and were trained on two rubrics in two phases. The rubrics were a standard rubric (from Polio, 2013) and a reordered rubric (identical to the standard rubric, except with categories appearing in a mirrored order to the reordered rubric). In round 1, raters trained on one of the two rubrics and rated the same 20 essays using the rubric. The second round took place five weeks after the completion of the first. In round 2, raters trained on the alternate rubric and re-rated the same 20 essays. I utilized several data-collection tools to investigate rater's cognition and behavior related to their rubric of training. I examined raters' beliefs about category importance, raters' recall of the descriptors in each rubric category, raters' focus on the rubric criteria during essay rating, and raters' scoring consistency and severity for each rubric category. Results show that as novice raters train on a new rubric and assign scores using the individual categories on the rubric, the raters' behavior pertaining to the outer-most positions (e.g., left-most and right-most) was most susceptible to ordering effects. That is, the findings show that the category position affected the raters' beliefs about what criteria are the most and least important when scoring an essay, how many descriptors raters were able to recall from a category, how much attention raters paid to a category on the rubric while rating, and how severely raters scored a given category. Additionally, the findings provided evidence that there was an interplay between the category type and category positions, resulting in either more pronounced primacy effects or leveling effects for individual rubric categories. Based on these findings, I discuss rater training, rubric design, and test-construct considerations for rubric designers and test developers."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: Attention and working memory : disrupting feature binding in visual working memory
Creator: Hakun, Jonathan G.
Date: 2013
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In the current study we investigated disruption of working memory for multi-feature visual objects through a visual change detection paradigm modified with a distraction manipulation (termed the "Binding Distraction Task"). The paradigm included three processing stages (study, maintenance, and test) with a distraction event presented during maintenance. The judgment performed on each trial involved deciding whether a single two-feature test object (a colored shape) contained the same or...
Show moreIn the current study we investigated disruption of working memory for multi-feature visual objects through a visual change detection paradigm modified with a distraction manipulation (termed the "Binding Distraction Task"). The paradigm included three processing stages (study, maintenance, and test) with a distraction event presented during maintenance. The judgment performed on each trial involved deciding whether a single two-feature test object (a colored shape) contained the same or changed combination of shape and color as one of the study objects (i.e. contained the same feature binding). The distraction event involved presenting an array of visual objects arranged spatially in a manner similar to the study array. We compared performance on trials where distraction arrays contained objects sharing feature-overlap with the current trial's study objects (matched arrays) with trials where distracter objects contained study-related features but no overlap with the current trial's study set (related arrays). As compared with trials involving empty distraction arrays and baseline performance (no distraction), the presentation of matched arrays was consistently disruptive of binding change detection performance across all of the experiments presented here. The performance cost associated with related arrays however was more variable across experiments. Through an individual differences approach, we investigated an executive gating account of the distraction effect. That is, disruption is caused by a failure to keep distracter objects from reaching visual working memory (VWM) thereby displacing study objects. Based on this account we predicted that individuals with high working memory capacity (WMC), as measured through complex span and single feature change detection task performance, should be more resistant to distraction than low WMC individuals. However, the results of our individual differences analysis failed to provide support for the executive gating hypothesis (costs were unrelated to WMC). Alternatively, we proposed that distraction costs may reflect a special case of contingent attention capture. That is, attention may be biased toward distracter objects that overlap with the features active in VWM. To explore this hypothesis further we additionally conducted an fMRI study. The results of our fMRI analysis indicated that regions of the brain that are commonly involved in the voluntary and stimulus-driven control of attention responded in a manner consistent with our contingent capture hypothesis. Regions involved in the voluntary control of attention (superior parietal and prefrontal) parametrically scaled in activation in accordance with the proposed demands associated with each distraction condition. However, as further evidence against the executive gating hypothesis, activation in all of the regions involved in voluntary control did not relate to performance costs. On the other hand, regions associated with the contingent capture of attention (specifically, the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, VLPFC, and temporo-parietal junction) only reliably responded to the filled distracter arrays (related and matched arrays). Further, activation within the right VLPFC was positively related to the performance cost observed in both conditions. Altogether the results of the current study support a stimulus-driven account of disruption of VWM for bound features. Specifically, we conclude that maintaining multiple bound representations in VWM creates a context in which distracter objects containing feature-overlap capture attention and result in the downstream impoverishment of stored representations.
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Title: Sensory attenuation of action effects due to predictive forward models : when does it transfer to observed actions
Creator: Dewey, John A.
Date: 2012
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The sensory consequences of intentional actions (action effects) are often judged to be less intense compared to identical but externally generated stimuli. This phenomenon is normally explained in terms of predictive forward models within the sensorimotor system which partially inhibit predictable sensory feedback. An unsettled question is whether merely observing another agent performing a predictable action may also trigger a forward model with attendant sensory attenuation, or...
Show moreThe sensory consequences of intentional actions (action effects) are often judged to be less intense compared to identical but externally generated stimuli. This phenomenon is normally explained in terms of predictive forward models within the sensorimotor system which partially inhibit predictable sensory feedback. An unsettled question is whether merely observing another agent performing a predictable action may also trigger a forward model with attendant sensory attenuation, or alternatively, if a self-generated motor signal is necessary. I conducted three experiments to investigate this question using a visual speed discrimination task. Participants judged which of two moving stimuli was faster. The first stimulus was initiated by the participant's own key press (Self), another person's key press (Other), or the computer program (Computer), and had a fixed speed. The second stimulus was always initiated by the computer and had a variable speed. The point of subjective equality (PSE) was compared for each condition. In Experiment 1 participants performed the task at their own pace. The Self condition was judged to be slower than the Other or Computer conditions, while the latter two did not differ. To control for the possibility that self-initiated movements were more temporally predictable and/or less attended than movements by other agents, in Experiment 2 the pace was controlled by go signals, and a green light followed every human or computer action to indicate that a movement was about to begin. Compared to Experiment 1, the PSE increased in all conditions, but the Self condition was still judged to be slowest and the Computer condition the fastest, while the Other condition was in between. In Experiment 3 the predictability of the action effects was manipulated independently from the agent who produced them, in order to investigate whether expectation similarly attenuates the intensity of Self and Computer-initiated action effects. Participants used two keys to initiate moves in two directions (left or right). In the Predictable group, the direction of the move matched the direction of the key press 80% of the time. In the Unpredictable group, the directions only matched 50% of the time. Self moves were only attenuated in the Predictable group. I conclude that sensory attenuation is influenced by a combination of private and shared or publicly available information, and that the influence of public information may be particularly tuned to biological agents. Furthermore action effects must be predictable to become attenuated.
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Title: Rightly or for ill : the ethics of remembering and forgetting
Creator: Reiheld, Alison Nicole Crane
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Word problem structure and its effect on the transfer of learning to solve algebra word problems
Creator: Chang, Kuo-Liang
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: A problem in learning to solve mathematics word problems students have been facing is to transfer the learned problem-solving knowledge from one story context to another story context. Some studies have provided evidence showing that structure facilitates transfer of learning to solve word problems. However, it is still under development for what algebra word problem structures students can recognize and what kinds of structures are effective for what kinds of algebra word problems regarding...
Show moreA problem in learning to solve mathematics word problems students have been facing is to transfer the learned problem-solving knowledge from one story context to another story context. Some studies have provided evidence showing that structure facilitates transfer of learning to solve word problems. However, it is still under development for what algebra word problem structures students can recognize and what kinds of structures are effective for what kinds of algebra word problems regarding transfer of learning. In this dissertation, I explored the following three questions: (1) "What are the structures that students can recognize in the domain of algebra word problem?" (2) "What are the difficulties students will encounter when trying to find structures of algebra word problems?" and (3) "Are particular structures helpful in teaching for transfer of learning to solve algebra word problems?" Sixty-one college students participated in a 2-hour controlled experiment and 10-minute one-to-one interview. The results showed several word problem structures students recognized or created, and multiple levels of difficulties students encountered when trying to structure algebra word problems. The results also showed that students who received structure-based instruction had better performance in some types of transfer of learning to solve algebra word problems.
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Title: Exploration in task space : similarity effects on task switching
Creator: Arrington, Catherine M.
Date: 2002
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Neuropsychological malingering and cognitive load : disrupting deception on neuropsychological measures through cognitive overload
Creator: Alban, Adam D.
Date: 2002
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The role of mental simulation in causal decision making
Creator: Niedermeier, Keith E.
Date: 1999
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The suasory effect of affective and cognitive messages : a test of conflicting hypotheses
Creator: Cameron, Kenzie Alynn
Date: 1998
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

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