Browsing by Author "Christopher B. Mayhorn, Committee Member"

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    Age-Related Differences in the Influence of Affect on Judgment Processes: Selectivity versus Selective Preservation?
    (2006-05-15) Leclerc, Christina Marie; Thomas M. Hess, Committee Chair; Lynne E. Baker-Ward, Committee Member; Jason C. Allaire, Committee Member; Christopher B. Mayhorn, Committee Member
    Research has indicated that aging is associated with declines in executive functioning, as well as with significant neuronal loss in associated brain regions. Interestingly, research has also indicated relatively less age-related decline in regions of the brain linked to affective processing, and no significant age differences in performance on tasks assessing affective functioning. Given that older adults experience executive declines, it may be that the selective preservation of affective processing structures in the brain results in a greater reliance on affective processing systems compared to younger adults. This shift in reliance on affective processing may be reflected in increased dependence on less resource-demanding, automatic processing mechanisms, as well as maintenance in performance on tasks dependent on processing of affective information. The current work is an attempt to examine the relative influence of deliberative versus affective processes of younger (ages 18-30, M = 18.6) and older (ages 63-73, M = 71.8) adults using a social judgment task. Participants read a series of descriptions that varied in the number of positive and negative traits they contained. A subset of these traits was relevant to performance in a particular occupation. Participants were required to either make an overall impression judgment (based on all traits) or a job-related judgment (based only on the relevant subset of traits). Results indicate that all participants were able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant attributes and made more accurate general impression ratings than job effectiveness ratings. The hypothesized lower levels of performance in older adults in the job judgment condition due to the presumed involvement of executive processes in distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant traits was not supported in spite of lower observed levels of functioning of older adults on a variety of executive functioning tasks. Social judgment abilities appear to be relatively well preserved in healthy older adults. It may be that social judgment tasks are unique in that performance on these tasks draws from relatively well preserved brain systems, or is maintained as a result of greater social expertise, permitting older adults to exhibit continued high levels of functioning.
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    Information Needs of Developers for Program Comprehension during Software Maintenance Tasks
    (2008-12-16) Layman, Lucas Michael; Laurie A. Williams, Committee Chair; Robert St. Amant, Committee Co-Chair; Tao Xie, Committee Member; Christopher B. Mayhorn, Committee Member; Jason A. Osborne, Committee Member
    Software engineers undertaking maintenance tasks often work on unfamiliar code, requiring developers to search for, relate, and collect information relevant to the maintenance task. The goal of this research is to create theories that describe the nature of information sought by developers and how that information is used by developers during two types of maintenance tasks: debugging (corrective maintenance) and enhancement (perfective maintenance). To meet this goal, six hypotheses are investigated regarding the navigation activities undertaken by developers to identify, relate, and collect information during software maintenance tasks. These hypotheses were investigated using data from two empirical studies of 18 developers performing enhancement and debugging tasks on three Java programs. Video recordings were used to annotate user interaction logs to create a history of user activities during the maintenance tasks. These data described the activities developers undertake during maintenance tasks, what source code elements the developers examined, and the amount of time developers spent performing various activities. These data were analyzed using a combination of statistical and qualitative methods to compare the different methods of searching for and collecting information relevant to the software maintenance tasks. Analysis of the data showed that the navigation styles used by developers (static navigation, normal navigation, and keyword searching) to find information differ significantly in the amount of time spent collecting information. Furthermore, static navigation techniques were significantly shorter in duration than keyword search techniques. No statistically significant differences were observed in the amount of time developers spent collecting information in debugging and enhancement tasks. During debugging tasks, developers focused on information that controlled the state and behavior a particular element. During enhancement tasks, developers focused on how a element used other elements, rather than how an element is used by other elements. The analysis of the code relationships motivated further study of the nature of the information gathered by developers in enhancement and debugging tasks. The information read by developers (source code, Java documentation, and web search results) was analyzed with respect to the content of the information, how the information was related to the task and code elements being investigated, and how the information was used. This qualitative analysis led to the following new theories on software maintenance: Theory 1: Developers are less likely to progress toward completing a maintenance task when the correct implementation of new code or correct editing of existing code requires logical connections and/or evaluations of other code elements. Theory 2: New code that has been duplicated from another source acts as a self-reference, thereby requiring developers to make fewer logical evaluations and increasing the likelihood the duplicated information will be successfully used in completing a task. Theory 3: Specific software behavior is often identified through analysis of a sequence of events and the control structures that propagate those events through the system, whereas a functional concept is often identified through comparisons, similarities, and references of existing functionality. These theories are new contributions to the field of software maintenance and program comprehension theory. These theories can be further evaluated to help guide the creation of tools and strategies for assisting developers in finding relevant information during software maintenance tasks. One such tool, the Mimec Spotlight, has been proposed and evaluated in this research.
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    Middle School Students' Learning of the Impact of Methamphetamine Abuse on the Brain
    (2009-07-07) Cheng, Meng-Tzu; Leonard A. Annetta, Committee Chair; John E. Penick, Committee Member; Glenda S. Carter, Committee Member; Christopher B. Mayhorn, Committee Member
    In respond to the solicitation of National Institute on Drug Use (NIDA) (NIDA, 2006) for the “Development of a Virtual Reality Environment for Teaching about the Impact of Drug Abuse on the Brain†, a virtual brain exhibit was developed by the joint venture of Entertainment Science, Inc. and Virtual Heroes, Inc.. This exhibit included a virtual reality learning environment combined with a video game, aiming at improving the neuroscience literacy of the general public, conveying knowledge about the impacts of methamphetamine abuse on the brain to the population, and establishing a stronger concept of drug use prevention amongst children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of this interactive exhibit on middle school students’ understanding and attitudes toward drug use. Three main research questions are addressed: 1) What do students learn about basic concepts of neuroscience and the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain via the exhibit? 2) How are students’ attitudes toward methamphetamine use changed after exposure to the exhibit? 3) What are students’ experiences and perceptions of using the exhibit to learn the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain? A mixed-method design, including pre/post/delayed-post test instruments, interviews, and video recordings, were conducted for 98 middle school students ranging from sixth to eighth grades to investigate these questions. The results show that students’ understanding of the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain significantly improved after exposure to the exhibit regardless of grade or gender. Their pre-existing knowledge and their understanding after the exhibit indicated a progressive tendency. Most of the students consistently expressed negative attitudes toward general methamphetamine use regardless of whether it was before or after exposure to the exhibit. However, this exhibit gave them a better reason and made them feel more confident to refuse drugs. Finally, student learning experiences through using the exhibit was a self-regulated learning process. This exhibit possessed several intrinsic values that motivated students to participate and persist in the activity, whereby students performed several cognitive and metacognitive strategies to help the learning activity to best fit individual learning styles and to make the cognitive processes more efficient.
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    Perceptions and Performance for Bilingual Labels as a Function of Native Users of English and Spanish
    (2006-03-02) Lim, Raymond W; Larry H. Royster, Committee Member; Eric N. Wiebe, Committee Member; Christopher B. Mayhorn, Committee Member; Michael S. Wogalter, Committee Chair
    According to the U.S. census, Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the U.S. Many are Spanish language users who are potentially susceptible to injury or death from improper handling or use of hazardous products because most warnings on products in the U.S. are written for English language users. This study focused on several issues that examined the perceptions and performance of both English and Spanish language product users towards bilingual labels (labels with two languages). Three studies were conducted; the latter two involved experimental manipulations of bilingual labels. The first study consisted of a survey asking English language users about their beliefs and attitudes in favor of implementing bilingual label products to the mainstream. Participants were asked to rate various statements involving safety and design issues of bilingual labels. Participants agreed that bilingual products are useful for Spanish speakers and that people who intend to live in the U.S. should learn English. Also, participants believed that bilingual labels are important, because many people in the U.S. do not read English. Participants disagreed that products bearing bilingual labels should not be sold in the U.S., and that products with bilingual are lower in quality than English labeled products. The second study asked English and Spanish language users for ratings on the level of acceptability, the likelihood of purchasing, and the likelihood of reading of several manipulated bilingual label designs on actual box and cylinder containers. Examination of the three ratings indicated that they were all highly interrelated thus the acceptable ratings was used. In general, box containers were favored over the cylinder containers. Also, designs having both language displayed side-by-side were rated higher in acceptability than languages displayed on top and bottom. Overall, the design of the English-text on the left half and the Spanish-text on the right half displayed on a box yielded the highest acceptability ratings. The third study tested the salience of several visual enhancements (font size, font color, and pictograph) to bilingual labels using a time-based performance task with both Spanish and English language users. The most effective bilingual design was adopted from Study 2 in which the languages were displayed side-by-side. Labels with the user's native language (English-text only for English language users and Spanish-text only for Spanish language users) produced the fastest search times. Overall, labels having either two flags or a single flag had faster search times but labels with colored text and no flags had longer search times. The English-text Left, Spanish-text Right with both flags, on average, added 76 milliseconds in response time compared to the label with just the user's native language. This research provides validation for implementing bilingual labels in the U.S. with well designed labels, users (both English language and Spanish language) in the U.S. are more likely to accept bilingual labels on products. By making them more usable through research such as the present work, it will help consumers to find information that they need. The results suggested that bilingual labels can be developed to provide important information to persons who do not use the main language, yet still communicate important information without detracting persons of the majority language. Implications for manufacturers and federal agencies in charge of safety are discussed.
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    The relationships between objective and subjective evaluations of the urban environment: Space Syntax, cognitve maps, and urban legibility
    (2008-10-16) Long, Yixiang; Robin Moore, Committee Co-Chair; Denis O. Gray, Committee Member; Perver K. Baran, Committee Chair; Christopher B. Mayhorn, Committee Member
    ABSTRACT LONG, YIXIANG. The Relationships Between Objective and Subjective Evaluations of the Urban Environment: Space Syntax, Cognitive Maps, and Urban Legibility. (Under the direction of Perver K. Baran and Robin Moore.) To some degree, the urban environment can facilitate/limit one?s orientation, depending on the structure and characteristics of the physical elements of the city. In this regard, Lynch?s concept of legibility has been fundamental in the urban design, planning, architecture, and environmental design fields for a few decades. Lynch argued that a strong legible city could facilitate humans? orientation in the city. However, urban design research has also criticized Lynch?s work for ignoring the relational characteristics between physical elements of the urban environment. Recent research has suggested that Space Syntax methodology could address the limitations of Lynch?s approach to urban spatial cognition. The study focuses on exploring: a) the relationships between human cognitive representations and spatial configuration of the urban environment, and b) the effects that different spatial configurations have on legibility of the environment. Two research studies, correlational and experimental, were performed in this study. Two neighborhoods, one relatively intelligible and the other less so, in Changsha, China, were selected for the study areas. The Space Syntax approach was utilized to measure spatial configuration of the neighborhoods. Sketch maps, recognition tests, and interviews were used to measure individuals? cognitive representations and their perceived legibility of the environment. Overall, the results of the correlational study indicated that there exists a positive association between cognitive representation and spatial configuration. In particular, the multiple regression analysis showed that global integration is the only significant variable explaining the variation in landmark scores, whereas local syntactical measures (local integration and connectivity) do not play a role in predicting landmark scores. For paths, the multiple regression analysis showed that local syntactical measures (local integration and connectivity) are the two significant variables explaining the variation in path scores, whereas global integration does not play a role in predicting path scores. The results from the experimental study indicated that participants? mean path scores in the sketch maps, the mean scores of scene recognition, and the three mean scores of spatial cognition ability in a more intelligible neighborhood are much higher than those in a less intelligible one. However, no difference in landmark recognition was found between the high and low intelligible neighborhoods. Overall, the findings suggest that the more intelligible an area is, measured by Space Syntax as objective value of spatial configuration, the more legibly it is reflected in a human?s spatial cognition.