Abstracts - Fall 2005

THEORETICAL AND RESEARCH ARTICLES

5 Judging Similarity Facilitates Deriving a New Solution Procedure

Robert S. Ryan, Ph.D.

13 Extending Group Equivalency Testing to the Individual Level Using Repeated-Measures Designs

Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Ph.D., W. Richard Walker, Ph.D., Michael L. Suis, B.S. and Andrew J. Velkey II, Ph.D.

23 Team Situation Awareness, Shared Displays and Performance

Adrian P. Banks, Ph.D. and William J. McKeran, Ph.D.

29 Memory for Foreign Vocabulary After Two Decades: A Single Case Study Re-visited

Alan A. Beaton, Ph.D.

33 The Memory Failure Cause Recall Interview: A Phenomenological Study of Memory Failures in Younger and Older Adults

Carolyn E. Adams-Price, Ph.D. and Christopher Gonzales, M.S.

40 Cognitive Technologies Used in Assessment and Treatment of Psychological Disorders

June Sprock, Ph.D.

45 The Validity of Memory Failure Self Reports

Adam Hoffman, B.S., Nicki Roesner, B.S., and Steve McCandless, Psy.D

54 Book Review - Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals

Reviewed by Rob Youmans, M.A.

Judging Similarity Facilitates Deriving a New Solution Procedure

Robert S. Ryan, Ph.D., Kutztown University

An experiment examined the effect of comparing the solution procedures of algebra word problems during training on understanding and using a general principle at test. Participants either made a similarity judgment regarding the training examples’ goals (N=46) or only solved the examples (N=98). On transfer problems, the similarity judgers were better able to generate a complex and previously unencountered solution procedure and use it to solve a transfer problem more difficult than the training problems. These results are interpreted as showing that the similarity judgers had developed a better understanding of a general equation that they were not taught.

Keywords: solution procedures, training, transfer, similarity judging

APA Formatted Citation

Ryan, R. (2005). Judging similarity facilitates deriving a new solution procedure. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 5-12.

Extending Group Equivalency Testing to the Individual Level Using Repeated-Measures Designs

Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Ph.D., Christopher Newport University , W. Richard Walker , Ph.D., Winston-Salem State University, Michael L. Suis, B.S., Andrew J. Velkey II, Ph.D., Christopher Newport University

The Rogers , Howard, and Vessey (1993) method for testing equivalency between groups uses standard tests of significance to evaluate non-difference, but the method can be extended to examine similarity at the individual level. The definition of equivalency is extended in the present paper to include 2 separate components: non-difference (at the group level) and similarity (at the individual level). In addition to tests for non-differences, we recommend testing for heterogeneity of variance, examining the Participant by Treatment interactions, and calculating a correlation coefficient using repeated-measures data to evaluate similarity. Examples of this test of similarity, in conjunction with the Rogers et al. method, are used to test group and individual equivalence to demonstrate the manner in which conclusions can be made about non-difference and similarity.

Keywords: group equivalency, similarity, group, individual

APA Formatted Citation

Gibbons, J. Walker, R, Suis, M., & Velkey, A. (2005). Extending group equivalency testing to the individual level using repeated-measures designs. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 13-22.

Team Situation Awareness, Shared Displays and Performance

Adrian P. Banks, Ph.D., William J. McKeran, Ph.D., University of Surrey , Guildford , UK

Analysis of accidents suggests that poor situation awareness leads to poor performance. This paper investigates the use of displays to enhance team situation awareness (TSA) and hence performance. Sixteen teams operated a simulated process plant with either shared or non-shared displays. Unexpected faults were introduced to compare routine and non-routine situations. There was no overall difference in performance with shared and non-shared displays. However, in trials when faults occurred, teams using shared displays maintained performance whereas in teams using non-shared displays performance dropped. The increased frequency of questions about the plant in teams with non-shared displays compensated for lack of situation awareness elicited from these displays in routine situations, but was not sufficient in non-routine situations. Thus the benefit of shared displays lay in non-routine situations.

Keywords: situation awareness, team performance, shared displays, routine

APA Formatted Citation

Banks, A., & McKeran, W. (2005). Team situation awareness, shared displays and performance. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 23-28.

Memory for Foreign Vocabulary After Two Decades: A Single Case Study Re-visited

Alan A. Beaton, Ph.D., University of Wales , Swansea

In a well-known paper on memory for Spanish learned at school, Bahrick (1984) pointed out that “Much of the knowledge acquired in schools is eventually lost, but we have failed to investigate these losses systematically, and hence we know little about how they are affected by conditions of original learning or of later rehearsals. A few investigators have established how much is forgotten during the period immediately following learning but such research has never been extended to cover significant portions of the human life span” (p. 1). Since these words were written, a number of studies have been undertaken to examine memory for academic and other material learned some years previously (e.g., Conway, Cohen & Stanhope, 1991; Stanhope, Cohen & Conway, 1993; Power, 1993). However, it remains true that research on the factors which affect forgetting has far outstripped that on memory over the very long-term.

Keywords: forgetting, language learning, forgetting curve

APA Formatted Citation

Beaton, A. (2005). Memory for foreign vocabulary after two decades: A single case study re-visited. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 29-32.

The Memory Failure Cause Recall Interview: A Phenomenological Study of Memory Failures in Younger and Older Adults

Carolyn E. Adams-Price, Ph.D., Christopher Gonzales, M.S., Mississippi State University

The Memory Failure Interview is a qualitative questionnaire that was used to explore phenomenologically the meaning of everyday memory failures from the perspectives of both younger and older adults. An extensive questionnaire on the experience of everyday memory failures was administered to young and older groups. The most common theme expressed by the young participants was forgetting a responsibility. The most common theme expressed by the older participants was absentmindedness. Young participants tended to attribute their memory failures to external factors, while older participants tended to attribute their failures to internal factors, and were more likely to report that the memory failure elicited no particular negative emotions.

Keywords: memory failure interview, questionnaire, absentmindedness, older adults

APA Formatted Citation

Adams-Price, C. & Gonzales, C. (2005). The memory failure cause recall interview: a phenomenological study of memory failures in younger and older adults. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 33-39.

Cognitive Technologies Used in Assessment and Treatment of Psychological Disorders

June Sprock, Ph.D., Indiana State University

Advances in cognitive technology, specifically computer-administered assessment and training, have great potential to be of value in research, assessment, and treatment of psychopathology. Although a full review of this literature is outside of the scope of this brief review, several areas where cognitive technology has been successfully employed are highlighted. Much of this literature was published within the past five years, suggesting that this is an emerging area in psychopathology. Computerized cognitive assessment is becoming more widely used in research, but clinical applications have been limited. Computerized cognitive tasks and neuropsychological batteries, initially used in research on schizophrenia and mood disorders, are beginning to be used to study a broader range of disorders. Cognitive technology also has considerable potential for the treatment of psychopathology. Preliminary evidence suggests the effectiveness of computerized cognitive remediation for schizophrenia, but further research is needed to establish the durability and generalizability of the results, and the usefulness of these techniques for other disorders. As these approaches garner support in research, we may see more widespread clinical acceptance and application.

Keywords: computer administered assessment, clinical applications, psychopathology, computer aided

APA Formatted Citation

Sprock, J. (2005). Cognitive technologies used in assessment and treatment of psychological disorders. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 40-44.

The Validity of Memory Failure Self Reports

Adam Hoffman, B .S, Nicki Roesner, B.S., Steve McCandless, Psy.D., Indiana State University

In the past, the study of memory failure has relied on questionnaires, laboratory tests, and direct observation. However, the validity of these measures has been called into question, in part due to poor correlation between different types of measures. A more recent method of assessing everyday memory that has been used recently (termed the failure/cause recall paradigm) has taken advantage of the strength of autobiographical memory by asking people to write brief reports of their memory failures. We assessed the validity of this technique in three investigations. In the first investigation, we compare the agreement between pairs of roommates in their memory failure reports. Investigation 2 evaluated the logical relationships between memory failures reported through this technique, in relation to pre-established dichotomies in the field. Investigation 3 presents specific memory failure reports for which the description of both the failure and its cause hold a degree of face validity, inasmuch as the causes are logically related to the failures.

Keywords: autobiographical memory, memory failures, validity, self-reports

APA Formatted Citation

Hoffman, A., Roesner, N., & McCandless, S. (2005). The validity of memory failure self reports. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 45-53.

Book Review - Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals

Reviewed by Rob Youmans, M.A.

Games have become ubiquitous in educational, elderly, and rehabilitative technologies, making game design an important topic for many readers of Cognitive Technology. Technology now enables researchers to bring advanced educational games into the classroom (e.g., Colella, 2000) or into geriatric homecare settings where games are improving the quality of life of aging populations (Billipp, 2001). In the extensive Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, Salen and Zimmerman (2003) address a wide audience of current and aspiring game designers, and urge them towards a more cohesive way of training, documenting, stimulating, and protecting the game design process.

APA Formatted Citation

Youmans, R. (2005). [Review of the book Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals]. Cognitive Technology, 10(2), 54.