Browsing by Author "Logan, Jessica M."
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Item Anticipating the Unknown: Applications of Expectation Theory to Rhythm in Barber's Sonata for Piano(2014-04-24) Oliver, Jennifer Eileen; Brandt, Anthony K.; Roux, Robert; Loewen, Peter; Logan, Jessica M.The music of American composer Samuel Barber (1910-1981) emerged from a transformative era in which the rise of modernism systematically dismantled the musical traditions of previous centuries and revolutionized the musical experience of its audience by challenging their established expectations--the collective experiences and cognitive associations that predispose individuals to anticipate certain musical events over others. While the thorough application of modernism overturned the familiar expectations used by listeners to process their musical experiences, Barber’s music moderates the perceptual challenges of more rigorous modernism by embracing various aspects of modernism but doing so in a manner that consciously incorporates rather than subverts the core elements of traditional composition, thereby gradually transitioning the listeners’ expectations from the familiarity of the traditional vernacular to a more modern rhetoric. Drawing on an understanding of the cognitive process behind creating and applying musical expectations, this study demonstrates how Barber's Sonata for Piano, Op. 26 supports, departs from, or disguises the basic principles of expectation in the area of rhythm, a compelling topic since rhythm is one of the most readily accessible fundamentals of music and one that generates equally powerful expectations. The cumulative result of this study illustrates how Barber merges the contrasting norms of classicism and modernism, skillfully interweaving these two dialects while alternately supporting or challenging traditional rhythmic expectations.Item Do older adults benefit from effortful retrieval?(2015-04-23) Rivas, Alda G; Logan, Jessica M.; Beier, Margaret E; Fischer-Baum, Simon JThe testing effect is the finding that memory benefits are higher after taking a test than after re-studying. This effect has been attributed to a higher level of effort to retrieve information during a learning phase. In the present study, younger and older adults from the community read four essays and then either re-read the essay or took a test. The tests differed in the level of effort required to recall the information. Two days later, participants took final short answer tests for all essays. The percentage of correct recall was higher for the low-effort conditions (initial multiple-choice) compared to the re-study condition (testing effect). No testing effect was found for the short answer condition. These results indicate that, in a sample of participants from the community, increasing retrieval effort does not always produce greater enhancements to learning. Multiple-choice tests can still be highly effective and convenient boosters for learning.Item Human Olfactory Perception: Characteristics, Mechanisms and Functions(2013-09-16) Chen, Jennifer; Pomerantz, James R.; Chen, Denise; Logan, Jessica M.Olfactory sensing is ubiquitous across animals and important for survival. Yet, its characteristics, mechanisms, and functions in humans remain not well understood. In this dissertation, I present four studies on human olfactory perception. Study I investigates the impact of short-term exposures to an odorant on long-term olfactory learning and habituation, while Study II examines human ability to localize smells; Study III probes visual-olfactory integration of object representations, and Study IV explores the role of olfaction in sensing nutrients. Several conclusions are drawn from these studies. First, brief intermittent exposures to even a barely detectable odorant lead to long-term incremental odorant-specific habituation. Second, humans localize smells based on gradient cues between the nostrils. Third, there is a within-hemispheric advantage in the integration of visual-olfactory object representations. Fourth, olfaction partakes in nutrient-sensing and facilitates the detection of food. Some broader implications of our findings are discussed.Item Separating Semantic and Phonological Short-term Memory in Aphasic Patients Using a Novel Concurrent Probe Paradigm(2014-02-25) Dial, Heather; Martin, Randi C.; Schnur, Tatiana T.; Logan, Jessica M.Previous research suggests that short-term memory (STM) processes are separable into at least two buffers: a lexical-semantic and a phonological buffer. While there are multiple tasks used to measure phonological STM, only one task is commonly employed to test semantic STM, the category probe task. The current study used a novel paradigm, the concurrent probe paradigm (Shivde & Anderson, 2011), to measure semantic and phonological maintenance in aphasia patients. In Experiment 1, which evaluated semantic maintenance, we replicated the findings of Shivde and Anderson (2011) with older adults and revealed dissociations in patient performance depending on the type of STM deficit. The concurrent probe paradigm provided converging evidence with the category probe task in measuring semantic STM deficits. In Experiments 2 and 3, we applied the task to phonological maintenance. We replicated the findings of Shivde and Anderson (2011) with older adults, but for patients the results were less clear.Item Subject-chosen feedback in a verbal learning task: Can accurate metacognitive monitoring allow one to correctly choose and benefit from feedback?(2009) Meyer, Ashley N. D.; Logan, Jessica M.Feedback has been shown to be beneficial to learning, particularly in the verbal domain. An unexplored attribute of feedback that may affect feedback effectiveness is learners' ability to choose feedback when they want or need to receive it. Successful metacognitive monitoring may allow one to properly assess when one needs feedback and will, therefore, allow one to improve as much as if one had received automatic feedback. Thus, the effectiveness of subject-chosen feedback vs. automatic and no feedback was assessed while Rice University undergraduates attempted to learn foreign-language vocabulary. Subject-chosen and automatic feedback resulted in similar performance on immediate and delayed recall tests, despite inequities in total feedback received. Additionally, the use of deceptive stimuli showed that accurate metacognitive monitoring in the decision to receive feedback is quite robust and, therefore, subject-chosen feedback can still be beneficial in these circumstances.Item THE NEUROLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF METAMEMORY MONITORING: JOL ACCURACY IN YOUNGER AND OLDER ADULTS(2012-09-05) Haber, Sara; Logan, Jessica M.; Beier, Margaret E.; Dannemiller, James L.; Grandy, Richard E.; Beauchamp, Michael S.Because maximizing the learning of new material is a relevant concern for most individuals, understanding the specific processes involved could be beneficial for people of all ages. Both encoding and monitoring occur during the learning acquisition phase, yet monitoring accuracy and subsequent neural activation have been relatively ignored in the literature. The current research adapts a common metacognitive paradigm using Judgments of Learning (JOLs) to explore the neural differences in monitoring between younger (18-25) and older (65+) adults. Participants were asked to remember natural scenes and predict encoding success by providing a JOL response for each item. Participants were told to respond “will remember” if they believed they would remember that item on a later recognition memory test or “will forget” if they thought they would forget that item on a later recognition memory test. Actual memory performance was compared to predicted memory performance to provide a measure of monitoring accuracy. Individuals reported a JOL response for 150 intact (Easy) and 150 scrambled (Difficult) scenes while in a 3.0T fMRI scanner. Despite minimal differences in behavioral performance, there were several age-related neuroimaging findings of note. When compared to younger adults, older adults had decreases in medial temporal lobe (MTL) activation, as well as contralateral recruitment of the anterior cingulate. Most importantly, the present study also disambiguated structures related to encoding success (the right parahippocampus) and monitoring accuracy (the anterior cingulate). A novel account of neural structures that mediate monitoring is provided both across items varying in difficulty (Easy and Difficult) and across different age groups (Young and Old). Encoding and monitoring are important for learning acquisition and the present research provides the first account that successfully disambiguates the two processes. Results are discussed in reference to their educational implications on resource allocation during the learning of new material.Item The positive and negative effects of testing in lifelong learning(2011) Meyer, Ashely N. D.; Logan, Jessica M.Formal classroom learning is a lifelong pursuit. Many older adults return to school to advance their careers, learn new skills, or simply for personal fulfillment. As such, methods for improving learning should be considered in relation to both younger and older learners in order to properly assess their ultimate usefulness. A technique that has been demonstrably effective at improving learning and memory in younger students is testing. Testing improves memory more than mere exposure to material (e.g., restudying), a benefit known as the positive testing effect. However, recognition tests, where learners are exposed to correct and incorrect information (e.g., multiple-choice tests), also introduce false information to test-takers. While evidence shows that testing improves memory for tested material, this can include the incorrect material presented on recognition tests manifested as increased reproduction of incorrect answers (lures), a phenomenon known as the negative testing effect. These effects of testing, however, have only been studied in younger learners. Older learners, on the other hand, may show decreased positive testing effects and increased negative testing effects because of poorer long-term episodic and source memory, perhaps making them less receptive to the positive effects of testing and more susceptible to the negative effects of testing. Therefore, this study examined the positive and negative effects of testing on learning in 60 younger university students aged 18-25, 60 younger community adults aged 18-25, and 60 older community adults aged 55-65. This research also scrutinized how individual differences, including intelligence, previous knowledge, initial performance, and source memory were related to the positive and negative effects of testing. All groups showed positive testing effects, but these were larger for younger adults, for individuals with higher initial performance, and for people with more previous knowledge of the topics. Additionally, though no age group showed reliable negative testing effects, they increased for individuals with lower initial performance and previous knowledge and, surprisingly, for learners with higher nonverbal reasoning and verbal intelligence scores. These findings have important implications for the education of people of all ages and show that testing can be a beneficial learning tool for both younger and older learners.Item Using orthographic neighborhood size manipulations to investigate memory deficits in aging memory(Taylor & Francis, 2016) Glanc, Gina A.; Logan, Jessica M.; Grime, Megan; Anuwe, Antonette; Thompson, JanelleIn three previous studies, manipulations of orthographic neighborhood size and orienting task were used to differentiate between item-specific and relational processing in young adults (aged 18–35) in standard recognition tasks. The current study attempts to investigate memory deficits in older adults (aged 65+) using similar manipulations. Experiment 1 manipulated orthographic neighborhood size within an item recognition task. Young adults demonstrated a standard mirror effect, showing more accurate performance for low-N words. No such effect was found in older adults, possibly indicating a deficit in item-specific processing. Experiment 2 included an orienting task during study to emphasize a specific type of processing. While younger adults’ performance was influenced by orienting task, older adults showed consistently better performance for High-N words. These results suggest that older adults show a deficit in item-specific processing, relying more on relational processing regardless of task.