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School of Psychology

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70756

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College of Sciences

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Work Science Center

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https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1133

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 195

A study of a fit index for explanatory item response theory models

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-12-05) Handy, Heather

Likelihood ratio chi square tests for nested models are typically used to determine model significance. Multiple correlations of item difficulties estimated with the explanatory predictors are often used to provide further information about model quality. However, the regression approach is not statistically justifiable, since the effective sample size becomes the number of items. Applying explanatory item response theory (IRT) models is advantageous when designing and selecting items. A simulation study was conducted to compare an explanatory item response theory fit statistic, Δ2 (Embretson, 1997; 2016), to traditionally used fit indices (nested model likelihoods and limited information multiple correlations) for assessing model quality. Simulation conditions include varying test length, item difficulty and the number of predictors.
Age-related changes in resolving proactive interference in associative memory

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-11-27) Corbett, Brittany L.

Previous research has found that older adults are more susceptible to proactive interference. This is likely due to age-related deficits in the PFC-mediated cognitive control processes recruited to resolve interference. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated if age-related deficits in PFC-mediated cognitive control processes underlie age-related differences in the resolution of proactive interference in an associative memory task. Young and older adults were tasked with remembering which associate (face or scene) objects were paired with most recently during study, under conditions of high, low or no proactive interference. Following scanning, participants’ memory was tested for varying levels of episodic detail about the pairings. Young and older adults were similarly susceptible to proactive interference. Memory for both the general target category and the specific target associate worsened as the level of proactive interference increased, with older adults having moderately worse memory for the specific target associate. Across age, the left-VLPFC showed increased recruitment for increasing levels of interference at encoding suggesting that older adults are able to spontaneously engage in post-retrieval selection to the same extent as young adults. At retrieval, older adults recruited the vmPFC more than young adults during remembered low interference trials but similarly recruited the vmPFC during remembered high interference trials. In line with the CRUNCH model, this suggests that older adults need to engage in more monitoring for low interference items, but engage in a similar amount of monitoring to young adults for high interference items, suggesting that successfully resolving high interference is equally difficult for both young and older adults.
Optimizing military planners course of action decision making

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05-23) Monroe, Chris Curtis

Military planners are faced with ever-increasing constraints, obstacles, and priority readjustments during the course of action (COA) development. This upward trajectory places a more demanding cognitive workload on decision makers, which only further complicates their jobs. An effort to mediate workload is currently ongoing in the armed services through the development of systems that assist the planners in COA decision-making. I conducted an experiment that evaluates three different strategies for route selection within the Tool for Multi-Objective Planning and Asset Routing (TMPLAR) framework to aid decision makers through the use of route filtering (via sliders) and clustering (via scatter-gather) to support the selection of high utility routes while reducing route selection latency and associated workload. Study participants went through multiple levels of COA planning in a game-like scenario-driven computer application. The results suggest that filtering through slider configurations tools will enhance users to select the better routes that reflect the commander’s intent compared to the other two strategies. Also, this study delivered feedback on usability and perceived workload from using TMPLAR. The research achieved at improving our understanding of military decision making to assist military leaders in using supervisory control of an optimizer for accurate, efficient route planning.
Visual vs auditory coupling in dyads under different task difficulty

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-04-15) Werner, Adam

Due to lack of visual or auditory perceptual information, many tasks require interpersonal coordination and teaming. Dyadic verbal and/or auditory communication typically results in the two people becoming informationally coupled. Previous research suggests that coupling between two individuals can take place auditorily or visually during intentional and unintentional tasks (i.e., Richardson, Marsh, & Schmidt, 2005; Gorman, Amazeen, Crites, & Gibson, 2017). This experiment examined coupling by using a two-person remote navigation task where one participant blindly drove a remote-controlled car while another participant provided auditory, visual, or a combination of both informational cues (bimodal) to navigate the driver. Under these three perceptual-motor coupling conditions, participants’ performance was evaluated using easy, moderate, and hard task difficulty conditions. I predicted that the visual coupling condition would have higher performance measures overall, and the bimodal (combination of auditory and visual cues) coupling condition would have higher performance as difficulty increased. Results indicated that visual coupling performs best overall. When auditory coupling is used (auditory and bimodal conditions), medium difficulty had worse performance compared to hard difficulty, an unexpected result. This result can be attributed to the frequency at which teams verbally communicate. Though intuitive, the faster teams speak, the better they perform. Applications within team coordination and potential theories that could explain cue rate results and poorer performance at medium compared to hard difficulty is discussed.
Using communication to modulate neural synchronization in teams

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-04-10) Dunbar, Terri

Trainers often assess team processes in conjunction with team performance outcomes to identify which behaviors contributed to the success or failure of the team during training. A current topic in team research is developing covert measures, which are easier to analyze in real-time, to identify team processes as they occur during training; however, little is known about how exactly overt and covert measures of team process relate to one another. In my thesis, I investigated the relationship between overt and covert measures of team process by manipulating the interaction partner (participant or experimenter) team members worked with and the type of task (decision-making or action-based) teams performed to assess their effects on team neural synchronization (measured as neurodynamic entropy) and communication (measured as both flow and content). The results indicated that the type of task affected how the teams dynamically structured their communication but had no effect on the neural synchronization of the team when averaged across the task session. The interaction partner also had no effect on team neural synchronization when averaged. However, there were significant relationships over time between neural synchronization and the communication flow and content due to both the type of task and the interaction partner. Specifically, significant relationships across time were observed when participants were interacting with the other participant, during the second task trial, and across different areas of the cortex in the beta frequency depending on the type of task being performed. The findings from the time series analysis extend my previous work on task constraints and communication dynamics by illustrating that the interaction partner and the team’s task constraints also structure the relationship between team communication and neural synchronization across time, suggesting that these need to be taken into account when developing covert measures of team process.
Applying item response theory to measure drivers' perceived complexity of roadway environments

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-08-17) Shaw, Faaiqa Atiyya

Roadway environments constitute visually complex systems within which users make split-second critical decisions on a daily basis. As such, understanding transportation system user perceptions and performance across varied roadway environments is crucial for a broad array of transportation research and engineering purposes (e.g. understanding safety data trends, informing roadway design guidelines, etc.). This thesis applies item response theory (IRT) to identify and interpret the dimensions present that influence drivers’ perceived complexity of roadway environments. We find that a four dimensional polytomous Graded Response Model best measures this data, and were able to ascertain that participants’ perceived complexity ratings were most affected by their perception of freeway and urban environments, as well the visibility and traffic conditions of the particular roadway. This study enables not only an understanding of the factors that influence driver perception of the built environment, but demonstrates an application of multidimensional, polytomous IRT to study transportation system user perceptions; one of the first known implementations of multidimensional IRT within transportation engineering.
What is the nature of creativity: Understanding the role of executive and associative processes in creative thinking

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-05-30) Hicks, Kenny L.

What is the Nature of Creativity: Understanding the Role of Executive and Associative Processes in Creative Thinking
Understanding automation handoff impacts on workload and trust when mitigated by reliability displays

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-05-10) Noah, Brittany Elise

Current commercial vehicles are beginning to include automated features such as adaptive cruise control and automated lane keeping. This is a first step towards full vehicle automation which is predicted to be possible within the next five years. As automated features are integrated into vehicles, the driver must know how to properly interact with and trust these systems. A key element of drivers interacting and relying on these systems is the handover of control between the vehicle and driver. This handover, occurring during times of automation error, will be a critical point of high workload for drivers when driving a partially or fully automated vehicle. If the driver is aware of the system’s performance and can appropriately calibrate his or her trust, then these instances of handover may become less stressful and easier to complete successfully. This study explored the driving performance, trust, visual scanning behaviors, perceived workload, and objective workload for handover scenarios. There were four between-subjects display conditions: (1) no display; and reliability displays using (2) quantitative information (percentage of reliability); (3) qualitative information (direct representation of a number); and (4) representational information (abstract representation of a number). Participants completed two drives. The first drive aided in familiarization with the automated lane keeping system. In the second drive, the handover drive, participants experienced an automation failure resulting in transition of control from automated to manual. Results from this study showed that there was a difference in subjective experience between the baseline and handover drive due to experiencing an automation failure. Participants in the no display condition were more affected by the automation failure, greatly decreasing their overall trust in the automated lane keeping system. Participants with reliability displays were able to appropriately calibrate their trust to system performance and were less impacted by the automation failure, experiencing a slight, statistically insignificant, decrease in trust. These findings will impact the implementation and design of automation reliability displays and shows that drivers with reliability displays are less impacted by automation failure than those without reliability displays.
The effects of an enhanced goal setting strategy on goal progress and well-being

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-04-30) Sabree, Justin Charles

Although the benefits of difficult, specific goal setting on performance are well-documented (e.g., Locke & Latham, 1990), it remains unclear how anticipatory action planning may enhance these effects. The current study investigates the effects of an enhanced goal setting training intervention using smartphone technology on self-reported goal progress and well-being as well as the moderating effects of individual differences in action orientation/state orientation (ASO). Ultimately, neither the enhanced nor the control strategy boosted goal progress nor did ASO moderate the intervention. Unexpectedly, participants receiving the enhanced strategy reported significantly less positive affect up to one week after using the strategy despite making equivalent goal progress to participants in the control condition. Results are discussed in terms of the efficacy of enhanced goal setting on performance, well-being, exploratory post-hoc tests, and in relation to previous results obtained by Fishbach and Hofmann (2015).
Everyday memory strategy use in older adults

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-04-24) Lustig, Emily L.

Existing everyday memory questionnaires and interview studies lack the depth of knowledge necessary to understand the ways in which older adults use their memories during their everyday lives. These assessments do not elicit qualitative information about (1) how strategies or aids are used within the context of their daily lives and (2) how effective they are at helping older adults achieve their goals. These measures also implicitly assume that the use of memory strategies in daily life are a consequence of experienced memory decline and are used explicitly as a form of adopted compensation (Bäckman & Dixon, 1992; Dixon, de Frias & Bäckman, 2001). These critical issues were assessed through a qualitative coding analysis performed on 26 individually tailored, semi-structured qualitative interviews with older adults about their everyday remembering. The interviews elicited information about how older adults implemented memory strategies, how efficacious these procedures were in helping them achieve their goals, and how they were conceptualized. Additionally, the interviews elicited detailed information about the context in which memory failures occurred and beliefs held by the participants about their memories. The qualitative analysis revealed several themes. First, everyday memory strategy use arises for a variety of reasons, not solely as a form of explicit memory compensation. Second, stated importance played a major role in older adults’ approach to everyday remembering behaviors. Third, partially-structured habits and routines left individuals vulnerable to forgetting. Finally, a unique nexus exists among self-perceptions, older adults’ perceived memory skills, and their beliefs about memory control. The implications of this research have the potential to improve older adults’ everyday remembering by informing the design of an intervention to create a repertoire of self-regulatory strategies to help manage and improve everyday remembering.