Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

196

Date

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Psychology

Concentration

Experimental Psychology

Committee Chair

Art Graesser

Committee Member

Xiangen Hu

Committee Member

Trey Martindale

Abstract

This thesis investigated the association of cognitive abilities and strategy shifting within a procedural-motor task. College students traced or drew various forms of a figure-8 before completing a battery of cognitive tests. A pilot study identified three distinct strategies for drawing a figure-8, whereas the current study manipulated the figure-8 stimuli to encourage these strategies at various points. Phase 1 had two counterbalanced conditions which instructed participants to trace versus draw a rotated figure-8. Phase 2 gradually morphed a figure-8 such as to encourage the three predominant strategies. Phase 3 was a condition which included stimuli from Phases 1 and 2. The data suggest that Perceptual flexibility was associated with effective strategy shifting in all three main phases of the experiment, whereas Verbal and Executive flexibility had no impact on strategy shifting. Furthermore, Perceptual flexibility was associated with more time spent planning, which could account for the superior performance.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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