Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Psychology

Instance models are widely used to model memory and inference and have been a staple of computational cognitive modeling since their inception. However, there have recently been important developments in our understanding of energy-based memory models and their ability to make reasonable inferences. In this thesis, I argue that one class of energy-based model, known as modern Hopfield Networks, is closely related to extant instance models of cognition, and that understanding the relationship between these approaches suggests new ways that instance models might be understood and used. To do this, I introduce ATHENA, a novel instance model that makes inferences via retrieval in a modern Hopfield network and investigate its properties and capabilities. I then turn to cognitive development, using ATHENA to help understand the different features that children and adults use when reasoning and their differing ability to maintain distinguishable memory traces. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings for early cognition and cognitive modeling.

Committee: Vladimir Sloutsky (Advisor); Brandon Turner (Committee Member); John Opfer (Committee Member); Julie Golomb (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership Studies, Xavier University, 2022, Leadership Studies and Human Resource Development

This study assessed a linkage between father-nurture or lack thereof and the development of leadership capacities through the lens of Bowlby's (1969, 1988) Attachment Theory. The constructs of father-nurture or lack thereof, which was theoretically grounded in Bowlby's key parental attachments of Secure, Anxious-Resistant, and Anxious-Avoidant, were measured by the five constructs of Safe, Fearful, Parentified, Distant, and Dependent relationship with fathers or father-figures during childhood and adolescence, delineated from Michael and Snow's (2019) Adult Scale of Parental Attachment. The leadership capacities were measured by the aspects of cognitive, moral, and social-emotional development that have been emphasized from well-established leadership theories—Authentic, Charismatic, Servant-Leadership, and Transformational/Transactional. In a sample of 38 adult participants, multiple linear regression models provide evidence that 1) those with a lower level of feeling Safe with fathers or father-figures exhibit a significantly lower level of leadership capacities from the aspects of cognitive and moral development, and 2) those with a higher level of feeling a Distant relationship with fathers or father-figures are significantly more likely to show a lower level of leadership capacities from the aspect of cognitive development. This study signifies the roles of fathers or father-figures during childhood and adolescence in the development process of leadership capacities from the aspects of cognitive and moral development.

Committee: Ahlam Lee Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Michael A. Riley Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stacey Raj Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Developmental Psychology; Educational Leadership; Educational Psychology; Evolution and Development; Families and Family Life; Organizational Behavior; Psychology; Quantitative Psychology; Social Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Psychology

Memory is an essential aspect of cognition, enabling us to retain information that can be used to guide decision-making and future planning. However, we often forget information due to proactive and retroactive interference from other, competing memories. Proactive interference occurs when new learning is more difficult as a result of previously acquired memories, whereas retroactive interference occurs when it is more difficult to remember previously acquired information as a result of new learning. Recent work has presented evidence that children are more vulnerable to interference effects than adults, experiencing dramatic levels of forgetting due to new learning. An essential question is what mechanisms modulate interference and changes in the magnitude of interference across development. This dissertation uses four experiments to examine factors modulating susceptibility to interference, including consolidation (i.e., the stabilization of memory traces across time) and memory binding (i.e., forming complex associations between multiple elements of an experience). Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effect of time delays on children's susceptibility to retroactive interference by comparing forgetting due to new learning upon immediate testing and following a 48-hr delay. The results indicated that children's retroactive interference was strong when memory was probed immediately after learning of new information, but was eliminated following a delay, suggesting a powerful role of consolidation in early memory development. Experiments 3 and 4 were designed to test whether memory binding processes might contribute to children's and adults' ability to resist interference effects. These experiments introduced a new paradigm to test interference and memory binding in 5- and 8-year-old children, as well as adults, and found evidence of decreased susceptibility to interference and improvements in memory binding across development. In addition, individual differences in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vladimir Sloutsky (Advisor); John Opfer (Committee Member); Per Sederberg (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Psychology

MEd, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Education : Educational Foundations

This thesis analyzes the major theories of moral development and how they apply to public schooling in America. The importance of morality among children is discussed as an eminent need. Social Learning, Psychoanalytical, and Cognitive Developmental theories are discussed. Because it is contrary to the purpose of studying morality to have so many theories, an integrated theory is described. The practical application of this theory for American public schools is presented in the format of a presentation. This presentation is intended to be a professional development seminar for educators. Many examples of implementation are given, both school-wide and classroom specific, which reach across curriculums.

Committee: Dr. Suzanne Soled (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Sociology of

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : Psychology

Knowledge acquisition and change has long been argued to progress through sequential, qualitatively different developmental stages. Mounting evidence, in the form of performance variability on tasks in the balancing micro-domain, suggests that this explanation is not sufficient. This study employed two experiments using a balance beam task that examined three disparate manipulations: feedback, symmetry, and the frequency and variety of beams. Experiment I looked specifically at how performance varies as a function of whether feedback was allowed or visual symmetry cues were present. Findings in this experiment indicate that access to visual symmetry cues plays a role in performance. Experiment II considered the impact of frequency distribution and beam-variety. The findings of this experiment were inconclusive, as both the range and types of beams used varied between the groups. Nevertheless, results showed that specific experience during training sessions resulted in better performance with that same beam type in a subsequent test session.

Committee: Adelheid Kloos PhD (Committee Chair); Chung-Yiu Chiu PhD (Committee Member); Rhonda Douglas Brown PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2008, Curriculum and Instruction Special Education (Education)

Students who exhibit disruptive and possibly aggressive behaviors pose a challenge for schools, as administrators and teachers are often held responsible for managing these behaviors. The goal of this study is to identify contributing factors to student involvement in School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS), evidence of overall improvements in discipline problems, and subsequent implications regarding the unique features of student involvement in SWPBS. A phenomenological approach was used to discover and explain the experiences and insights of study participants. Through the use of mixed methods, the effectiveness of student involvement in SWPBS was determined. This included examining office discipline referrals as well as conducting participant observation and semi-structured interviews with students and school personnel.

Committee: Dianne M. Gut PhD (Committee Chair); Steve Safran PhD (Committee Member); Tracy Leinbaugh PhD (Committee Member); Yegan Pillay PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2012, College of Education and Human Services

This study explored whether (1) adult cognitive development correlates with spiritual development, (2) wisdom development mediates the relationship, and (3) age, gender, education level, socioeconomic status, or religious denomination are associated with level of cognitive, wisdom, or spiritual development. University students and alumni (N = 134) completed a demographic questionnaire, the Model of Hierarchical Complexity Helper-Person Problem (Commons & Pekkar, 2004), the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (Hall & Edwards, 1996, 2002), and the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (Webster, 2003). This study hypothesized that wisdom, understood to derive from both personality qualities and life experience, mediates the influence of cognitive development on spiritual. This research hoped to provide empirical support for understanding the direction and degree of influence of cognitive, wisdom, and spiritual development. Using structural equation modeling, spiritual development was measured only as awareness of God. Cognitive development correlated significantly with spiritual awareness with moderate effect size. An inverse relationship was found between wisdom development and spiritual awareness. Wisdom development did not mediate the impact of cognitive development on spiritual awareness. Gender, age, education level, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation were not associated with cognitive, wisdom, or spiritual development.

Committee: Elizabeth Welfel PhD (Committee Chair); Michael Horvath PhD (Committee Member); Elliott Ingersoll PhD (Committee Member); Katherine MacCluskie PhD (Committee Member); Lynn Underwood PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Psychology; Spirituality

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Psychology

People routinely use numbers to encode spatial locations. For example, to flip to a page in a book, a mental number line might be mapped to the number of pages, with numbers ascending from the front to the back of the volume. Crucially, while thickness must be attended to, the content of the book should be ignored for greater efficiency. In the present study, we investigated children's and adults' use of numbers to encode spatial locations, examining competition between task-relevant relational information and task-irrelevant object information. We hypothesized that accurate relational reasoning required selectively attending to relational information and ignoring object information. To test the hypothesis, a novel map-then-recognize paradigm was applied to 128 adults and 153 3- to 10-year-old children. During mapping, they completed a relational match-to-sample task: two arrays comprised of cross-mapped objects were presented, with search for a common ordinal position reinforced after every trial. After mapping, an object recognition task was conducted to measure the memory of irrelevant object information. Competition between relational and object information predicts a negative correlation between mapping and memory. In Study 1, we found that labeling the objects by number words (e.g., “the second”) improved relational reasoning compared to labeling by object name (e.g., “the squirrel”), which decreased object recognition in adults. The improvement in relational reasoning was also observed in children, but no decrease in recognition sensitivity was observed. In Study 2, we discovered that increasing between-object similarity also decreased object recognition and increased relational reasoning in adults. However, high similarity hindered children's object recognition but did not improve their relational reasoning. Across both studies, we observed an advantage of mapping objects from left to right over right to left. Our results suggest that adults' mapping (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Opfer (Advisor) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Psychology

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Psychology

In our everyday lives, there are often more aspects of the environment than we can reasonably attend to. Consequently, we selectively attend to some aspects of the environment -- usually those aspects which are most relevant to our goals -- and ignore aspects that are deemed irrelevant. It follows then, that using selective attention can limit a learner's impression of an environment, because the information that is stored in memory is only a biased sample or partially encoded version of that environment. However, previous theories assume perfect and consistent access to all available dimensions, regardless of how attention is distributed. Here, we build upon existing models of categorization to illustrate how partial encoding can account for differences in learning. We use three benchmark datasets to demonstrate how the model can flexibly capture different learning strategies within the same task by creating a map of the corresponding representation. Most importantly, models equipped with partial encoding readily account for unique behavioral profiles suggesting failure of selective attention to relevant dimensions.

Committee: Brandon Turner (Advisor); Andrew Leber (Committee Member); Vladimir Sloutsky (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Food Science and Technology

Structural and functional age-related changes contribute to cognitive decline in older adults. Cognitive intervention like diet improves cognitive function.. Diet lessens cognitive aging symptoms by modulating the gut-brain axis (two-way signaling between gut microbe community and the nervous system). Two potential interventions to improve cognition via the gut-brain axis are blueberry anthocyanins (ACNs; a polyphenol) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS; a prebiotic). Blueberry ACNs reduce systemic inflammation, and GOS increases health benefiting bacteria populations. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a product for food interventions and to investigate behavioral outcomes and physiological changes with similar bioactive concentrations in a preclinical model. A functional confection containing blueberries, GOS, and other neuroprotective ingredients is formulated for future clinical trials to investigate the combined ingredient effects on the gut brain axis. The hypothesis is a well-liked blueberry and GOS made from whole fruit and neuroprotective ingredients will maintain known bioactive concentrations (>90%) during 28-day storage and prevent ACN release in an enzyme-free simulated gastric fluid (SGF). Three confections were created to compare bioactive retention, water distribution, and texture properties. Confections evaluated were a base blueberry and GOS confection (BC), a 1% high methoxyl (HM) pectin confection with the same base (BC+P), and a 1% HM pectin and sugar formula. All confections contained or exceeded the targeted amounts of blueberry ACNs (330 mg) and vitamin E (12 mg) on day 1. Only ACN concentration significantly decreased (p<0.05) over the 28-day period. The addition of pectin in the GOS confections resulted in a softer and less sticky confection. Liking between BC and BC+P was driven by the texture differences in the confections causing the BC+P formula to be more preferred by panelists. Formula did not prevent ACN release in simulated g (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Yael Vodovotz PhD (Advisor); Christopher Simons PhD (Committee Member); Cole Vonder Haar PhD (Committee Member); Richard Bruno PhD, R.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Food Science

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

Attention is a cognitive process that, when stable, allows the mind to focus on relevant information. While attention can shift and fluctuate nonlinearly, research shows that a two-factor model can be used to capture the stability of selective sustained attention. Nevertheless, nonlinear dynamics of attention remain elusive under this two-factor model of attention. Hence, a one-sided focus on attentional stability undermines ways to control the processes of focusing and ignoring. To shed light on non-linear shifting in attention, I applied ideas from complexity science, a framework that anticipates such nonlinear phenomena. Specifically, I sought to apply a cusp model of selective sustained attention to explore the extent to which complexity science could be a useful approach to attention. The following demonstrates how a cusp model anticipates the presence of two orthogonal factors that align with those already identified in extant research on selective sustained attention. I also found that the empirical findings of selective sustained attention are conducive of fitting data to a cusp model. This research provides the first step in establishing a consistent framework for taking a dynamical complexity approach to the study of attention that inherently changes.

Committee: Heidi Kloos Ph.D. (Committee Chair); John Holden Ph.D. (Committee Member); Anthony Chemero Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Educational Studies

The publication of the Family Engagement Core Competencies by the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement in 2022 provided a body of knowledge of the work of educators engaging with families, a domain not well-understood previously. Situated in the pandemic recovery phase in U.S. education, this dissertation study aimed to explore the nature of efficacy beliefs of educators in family engagement, a latent construct grounded in social cognitive theory. To achieve this aim, a survey measure was developed, and an interpretation and use argument (IUA) anchored the process of the validation of the interpretation and use of its scores. The study was conducted in five phases. In the first phase, the Family Engagement Efficacy Beliefs of Educators (FEEB-E) survey was drafted based on a review of literature, existing instruments, and subject-matter expert and user feedback. In the second phase, the FEEB-E was piloted with a national sample of educators, and exploratory factor, parallel, and reliability analyses were conducted. In the third phase, the FEEB-E was revised based on findings from the pilot study. In the fourth phase, the FEEB-E was administered to a sample of teachers in two Ohio urban school districts, and confirmatory factor, correlation, and reliability analyses were conducted. In the fifth phase, the IUA was constructed, and the appropriateness of the interpretation and use of the scores from the FEEB-E was determined. The study found that survey items were valid for interpretation as representative of their target domain of self-efficacy beliefs for family engagement. There were no extraneous sources of variability in wording of items and directions, order of items, or the scoring scale. The survey items measured the intended population by reflecting a range of efficacy beliefs around multiple dimensions of family engagement and did so reliably (α = .917). Further, the FEEB-E was found to be valid for use as a research instrum (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Stansberry Beard (Advisor); Minjung Kim (Committee Member); Roger Goddard (Committee Member); Barbara Boone (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Psychology; Families and Family Life; Teaching

Master of Education, The Ohio State University, 2022, Art Education

This is a domain-based, systematic literature review in the fields of art education and neuroscience. The goal of this research is to understand the effects of art education on the developing human brain. This I seek to accomplish by looking at qualitative and quantitative studies on the development of visual processing, executive function, hand-eye coordination, and creativity. Surveying literature on the subject, I will examine what effect art education has on the cognitive development of children. As education is about children solving cognitive problems, arts inquiries engaging neural centers, connections, processes, and systems contribute to a child's development differently from other classes. I consider art education to be essential to healthy cognitive development, and argue the subject be protected within our school systems. This literature review thesis surveys terms and biomedical studies potentially grounding pedagogy informed by empirical neuroscientific research that can not only drive innovation and efficacy in art classrooms of the future, but also advocate for art and other elective programs in every school.

Committee: James Sanders III (Advisor); J.T. Eisenhauer Richardson (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Cognitive Psychology; Neurology; Neurosciences

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Instructional Technology (Education)

It is not uncommon for teachers to feel neglected when leaving a traditional one-and- done professional development workshop. Too often teachers are left to fend for themselves as they begin to implement new strategies into their teaching. Teachers need and deserve continued support as they attempt to carry out the lessons learned in these workshops. This requires more time from the teachers, a resource that is in short supply. To address this issue, this research study sought to design a technology-themed professional development design guide that focused on sustained support, efficiency, and teacher needs when delivered through social media. The design capitalized on a teacher's cognitive surplus (Shirky, 2010), which is the free time typically used to scroll, swipe, and click through social media feeds. Through a process of diffusion, new teaching strategies that focused on the innovative use of technology were introduced to K-12 teachers in a rural district in Southeast Ohio. The diffusion and subsequent adoption of this innovation were achieved through a design that focused on the relative advantage of the new teaching strategy, its compatibility, and its complexity as perceived by the participating teachers. Communication channels and social systems were intentionally utilized in social media in a way that would increase the likelihood of adoption (Rogers, 1998). These strategies perpetuated the ideals of participatory culture, where users make a social connection, mentor each other through shared experiences online, and are valued for their contributions to the social media feed. Two separate iterations of this design-based research study featured a traditional workshop experience followed by the delivery of continued support through a Facebook group focused on learning how to integrate innovative technology teaching practices. Data collected via design critiques, observations, the Facebook stream, and my design journals informed the design of a Worksho (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Greg Kessler (Committee Chair); Sara Helfrich (Committee Member); Krisanna Lou Machtmes (Committee Member); Jesse Strycker (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Higher Education Administration

My study addresses how experiences within the role of a resident assistant (RA) may be related to need for cognition, a measure describing an individual's capacity and desire to engage in effortful thinking. To investigate this relationship, I used a pretest and posttest survey methodology. This methodology allowed me to determine if RAs experienced a significant change in their need for cognition after one year in the RA role and what variables within the RA role were related to need for cognition. Several factors within the RA experience were correlated with need for cognition. These factors were ACT score, gender, positive diversity experiences, the changing of a significant belief as a result of working as an RA, and weekly hours worked as a RA. Of these factors, only ACT was predictive of need for cognition. The results of my study confirm that ACT is a significant predictor for need for cognition. My results also suggest that RAs' experiences with diversity may play a significant role in the development of their need for cognition.

Committee: Ellen Broido D.Ed. (Advisor); Patrick Pauken Ph.D.; J.D. (Other); Maureen Wilson Ph. D. (Committee Member); Hyeyoung Bang Ph. D. (Committee Member); Rachel Vannatta Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of self-regulated learning (SRL) on students' cognitive engagement in an online mastery-based course using both techniques—learning analytics and self-report surveys. The research questions for this study are as follows: 1) How many types of online SRL behavior can occur in a mastery-based online course? 2) How are the two instruments (traces and self-report survey) used to assess SRL associated with each other? 3) How do these two instruments predict two levels of students' cognitive engagement—deep and shallow strategy use? The analyses in this study use secondary datasets, including self-report survey responses and learning management system (LMS) logs of 110 students from eight class sections of a seven-week online mastery-based course on skills for self-regulating and succeeding in online courses at Ohio State University in autumn 2016 and autumn 2017. All participants completed consent forms and demographic surveys in the first week, and then completed self-regulation and deep and shallow strategy-use surveys in the seventh week. Their logs with timestamps from the first week to the seventh week were recorded by trackers developed for the university LMS. The total number of traces (coded LMS logs) was calculated based on the frequency (count) and time (duration) of the LMS logs. Since there were two versions (count and duration) of the trace data calculated from the cleaned LMS logs, the three research questions were answered based on the two versions of the trace data. After trace data were analyzed using Zimmerman's SRL theoretical framework, four types of online SRL behavior emerged: 1) goal-setting, 2) help-seeking, 3) reading for comprehension, and 4) self-evaluation (DiBenedetto & Zimmerman, 2010; Zimmerman, 1989, 1990, 1998, 2000; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1988). The descriptive statistical results for the first research question demonstrate that, among the four types of SRL behavior, goal-set (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kui Xie PhD (Advisor); Rick Voithofer PhD (Committee Member); Dorinda Gallant PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Technology

PHD, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

When shown a familiar and a novel object and asked to pick the referent of a novel label, even one-year-olds tend to favor the novel object (Halberda, 2003; Mervis & Bertrand, 1994). However, this so-called disambiguation effect becomes stronger as children develop through preschool age (Lewis & Frank, 2015). Advances in metacognition may play a role in this developmental trend. Preschoolers' awareness of their own lexical knowledge is associated with the strength of the disambiguation effect (Merriman & Schuster, 1991; Merriman & Bowman, 1989; Wall, Merriman, & Scofield, 2015). It is also associated with whether children can solve purely metacognitive forms of the disambiguation problem (Slocum & Merriman, 2018; Henning & Merriman, 2019). The current experiments tested the hypothesis that as the number of choices in a disambiguation problem increases, the frequency of correct response declines more sharply for children who lack awareness of lexical knowledge than for children who possessed it. The results of the first two experiments supported the main hypothesis. Two experiments also showed that awareness of lexical knowledge was associated with a more gradual increase in latency of correct solutions as number of choices increased. In Experiment 3, children's eye movements were recorded as they attempted to solve 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-choice problems. Various aspects of children's eye movements were analyzed, including the number of familiar object foils checked, the number of revisits to the target, and the proportion of looking time spent on the target object. The current experiments advance our insight into why the “awareness-of-knowledge advantage” in solving disambiguation problems tends to increase as number of choices increases.

Committee: William Merriman PhD (Advisor); Clarissa Thompson PhD (Committee Member); Jeff Ciesla PhD (Committee Member); Bradley Morris PhD (Committee Member); Sarah Rilling PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and counselor trainees' cognitive development. More specifically, this study explored the influence of resting HRV (rMSSD) on counselor trainees' sustained attention (Continuous Performance Task), working memory (n-back Task) and cognitive performance on a practice NCMHCE exam. The study used descriptive and multivariate analyses to examine data collected from a sample of counselor trainees enrolled in a CACREP-accredited clinical mental health counseling program in the state of Ohio (N = 69). Additional exploratory analyses were conducted to enhance the understanding of the data. The analyses revealed two key findings that are the first of their kind in counselor education. First, group differences revealed that counselor trainees' HRV is connected to cognitive complexity. An Analysis of Variance (ANVOVA) identified that high HRV levels (50.8ms and higher) were connected to faster reaction time (p < 0.05) and more accurate responses on two sustained attention tasks, a Choice Reaction Time Task (p < 0.05) and a Serial Pattern Matching Task (p < 0.05). Second, group differences in counselor trainees' developmental level revealed that NCMHCE scores are reflective of counselor trainees' developmental level. A multivariate regression analysis identified that counselor trainees in the post-practicum stage of their development scored higher on a practice NCMHCE exam than did counselor trainees in the pre-internship stage of their development (p < 0.05). The results of this study provide empirical support for the relationship between HRV and sustained attention in counselor trainees, suggesting that HRV may be a mechanism for higher levels of cognitive complexity. Additionally, the results of this study provide empirical support for the relationship between developmental level and practice NCMHCE exam scores, suggesting that the NCMHCE is reflective of counselor developmental and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Darcy Haag Granello (Advisor); Paul Granello (Committee Member); Colette Dollarhide (Committee Member) Subjects: Counseling Education

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Psychology

Selective attention is a critical component of cognitive development and learning. Despite, the importance of selective attention, past research has demonstrated that children's early patterns of attention are typically limited by immature selectivity. To this extent, children often fail to prioritize goal- or task-relevant information, and allocate their attention or encode information more indiscriminately than adults. In a series of studies, we identified differences in children's and adult's patterns of attention allocation and explored filtering and distracter suppression as the possible mechanisms responsible for developmental changes in selectivity. In Chapter 2, we used two tasks with cued and uncued streams of information to establish differences in patterns of early and mature attention. These experiments revealed that children had more diffused patterns of attention than adults, even when relevant information was selectively cued. In Chapter 3, we used a series of visual search tasks to explore developmental differences in distracter interference and target selection. While performance with minimal distracting information was successful, the presence of extraneous information interfered with target processing even at six years of age. These results indicate that delayed filtering development may be a key factor in the protracted development of selective attention. In Chapter 4, we examined individual and developmental differences in the development of filtering and working memory, revealing filtering as one of the prominent mechanisms of information processing and attention allocation.

Committee: Vladimir Sloutsky (Advisor); Andrew Leber (Committee Member); John Opfer (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Psychology

Metacognition describes the ability to represent and access our own cognitive processes. This ability is crucial for understanding and optimizing how we learn and remember, allowing us to avoid strategies that have not worked for us in the past, and to continue using strategies that have. Metacognition has been described as involving two components, monitoring and control, which may have different developmental trajectories. In the current project, we addressed several remaining questions about metacognition and its development. How do monitoring and control develop? How do these components interact? Is metacognitive proficiency malleable in childhood? What kinds of information do children rely on to monitor and control behavior? In 8 experiments, these questions were addressed by using scaffolding such as feedback and strategy instruction to improve metacognitive performance across the lifespan. In Experiment 1, 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds, and adults' metacognitive monitoring and control were tested in a task that required them to initiate these processes spontaneously, demonstrating developmental differences in both monitoring and control. In Experiment 2, 5-year-olds were presented with performance feedback, strategy instruction, or both to assess their effects on the monitoring and control components. Whereas feedback influenced task monitoring, it did not influence metacognitive control. In addition, whereas strategy instruction improved control, it did not influence performance monitoring. These findings were expanded upon in Experiments 3, 4, and 5, wherein 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds, and adults were provided with no scaffolding, strategy instruction, or feedback, respectively, to assess whether monitoring and control can function independently. Across the age groups, feedback improved performance monitoring, but not metacognitive control. In addition, strategy instruction improved control, but not performance monitoring. These findings suggest a dissociation bet (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vladimir Sloutsky (Advisor); Andrew Leber (Committee Member); John Opfer (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Psychology