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    An analysis of expertise-induced amnesia : semantic and episodic recall of chess moves across different skill levels and conditions : a Master's thesis submitted to Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Science (Psychology) Degree
    (Massey University, 2024) Barr, Nicholas
    The chess domain was used to test the hypothesis for expertise-induced amnesia within a cognitive sport context, particularly examining the decrease in declaratively accessible episodic memories of chess moves as skill levels increase. While this hypothesis has been supported in a sensorimotor golf putting task (Beilock & Carr, 2001), it is untested in a cognitive chess task. Thirty adult participants were recruited online from chess clubs worldwide, classified into highly skilled (Elo rating over 1900) and competent (Elo rating under 1400) groups based on their skill level. Participants were then assigned to the rapid, random, or blitz condition. Rapid and random conditions varied by chess position configuration, while rapid and blitz conditions differed in time control. The random and blitz conditions also differed in both chess position configuration and time control. The study examined generic knowledge and episodic memories of online chess moves in competent and high skilled players across different conditions. Centipawn values of the best moves were calculated by Stockfish 14.1. De Groot’s four phases were used by scoring how many of the phases (0-4) participants recalled when describing the thought process involved in making their chess move. The primary finding indicated that expertise-induced amnesia occurs in the cognitive sport of chess, suggesting an association between skill acquisition and automaticity. These findings align with previous research by De Groot (1946/1978) and Chase and Simon (1973a), emphasizing the importance of fast processes in chess skill. Furthermore, future research directions, limitations, and practical implications are discussed.
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    A new test of semantic association for use in awake craniotomy : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Chapman, Jo
    This project aimed to develop and validate a new test of non-verbal semantic association to replace the Pyramids and Palm Tree Test (PPTT) in mapping the Inferior Fronto-Occipital Fasciculus (IFOF) during awake craniotomy surgery. Research and clinical experience identified a range of problems with the PPTT, especially in its performance across cultures, and no other existing semantic test met all requirements for effective use in IFOF mapping. A new test was developed based on theoretical and clinical understandings of semantic association, using a novel item format. The final test metrics were an improvement upon the PPTT on all preselected measures of item quality. A total of 707 healthy adult participants were then recruited to complete the new test via an online survey. A final pool of 58 items were selected, all of which performed consistently as intended. Analyses of subgroup performance found there were no clinically significant gender, culture, age, or education effects on scores. These results again suggested the new test improved upon existing tests and achieved its initial design objectives. Validation then proceeded to clinical groups, but recruitment challenges meant too few participants were recruited to permit any analyses. While its validity could not be determined with this study’s data, the test and its general population norms will be available for further research and then clinical use if indicated.
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    Common knowledge : examining the illusion of explanatory depth in transactive memory systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Riordan, Jessica
    The Illusion of Explanatory Depth (IOED) describes an often-held belief that we understand and can explain complex causal relations better than we in fact can. Previous findings identified the IOED resulted in individuals but not in small transactive memory systems. The current study continued investigating the IOED in small transactive memory systems (TMS) to understand mechanisms which may underpin this, through an online experiment. 76 participants, 38 pairs of non-stranger dyads completed either the collaborative or nominal condition of the experiment. In the collaborative condition dyads completed the experiment together, nominal dyads completed it alone. Participants rated their own, their partner’s and their combined knowledge of bicycles on a scale of 1-10, before and after, completing two tasks requiring their knowledge of bicycles. Dyads in the nominal condition completed the tasks alone, dyads in the collaborative condition completed the task collaboratively. Participants were also asked to rate their confidence in their knowledge ratings and were timed how long they took to make ratings. Contrary to most IOED research, individuals self-assessed post-task knowledge ratings were higher than pre-task knowledge ratings. This increase in participant’s ratings occurred in knowledge ratings made about the self, their partner, and their combined knowledge as a dyad, despite considerable error rates. Participants showed low confidence in partner knowledge ratings, and equally high confidence in both self and dyad knowledge ratings. A correlation between both dyad pre- and post-task ratings and errors was found in nominal groups. This might tentatively suggest participants experienced a feeling of fluency and possible accuracy when assessing their shared knowledge held within the TMS. Future research could focus on how communication influences people’s predictions about performance of the dyad.
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    Will night shift workers ratings of well-being and fatigue and performance on prospective memory and sustained vigilance tasks recover after three nights rest? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Hudson, Lucy
    As the demand for a 24-hour world increases so does the need for more shift workers. To maintain the standard expected of them, shift workers often work long hours, including night work where their main opportunity for sleep is during the day. Research has found that shift workers experience fatigue, difficulties in cognition and impaired wellbeing after working shifts like these. Despite this, minimal research has been conducted to explore how many days of recovery should be rostered after one night shift. This study aimed to find evidence to guide workplaces on how many days of rest employees should be rostered to recuperate from one night of sleep loss. A sample of 39 night shift (n=22) and day shift workers (n=17) completed a five day experiment from pre-night shift to rest day three (or five consecutive days for controls) and were assessed in tasks of prospective memory, sustained vigilance, self-reported fatigue levels and self-reported affect to measure well-being. The results indicated that while there was no significant change in vigilant attention or prospective remembering across the five days that self-reported fatigue and positive affect experienced significant changes. These findings indicate that night shift workers may need two to three days of rest to recover from some of the effects from a night of sleep deprivation. However this study repeated with a larger sample size and stricter conditions could yield different results.
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    Age differences in prospective memory : is there more to be explained by reminders and metacognition? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Shepherd, Alexander Bruce
    The purpose of the current research was to examine if older adults perform better than younger adults at prospective memory (PM) tasks in a naturalistic environment due to better use of reminders. Specifically, it was predicted that (in line with previous research) older adults would outperform younger adults on the naturalistic PM task. It was also predicted that older adults would support their prospective remembering more effectively than younger adults through superior metacognitive awareness. Beyond confirming previous findings, this study sought to create and validate new methods for investigating the relationship between reminder use and PM. To examine reminder use and PM, a web-based app containing an A and a B button was given to 69 participants (N = 36 younger adults, N= 33 older adults) across Australia and New Zealand to press 21 times in a week with a required four-hour wait between presses. Upon completing the task, two surveys then comprehensively examined how participants completed the task and how participants use reminders in everyday life outside of the task. None of the original hypotheses were supported. However, in line with previous findings, the results from this study indicated that even when older adults used fewer reminders on average than younger adults (p < .05), there was still no significant age-related declines in PM performance (p > .05). An intriguing finding came through investigating metacognitive awareness. The results implied that older adults who ‘actively manage’ their remembering do much better with PM tasks (22.5% of PM performance variance explained by metacognitive awareness). However, the same effect is absent in younger adults (<1% variance explained). The current study showed that more sophisticated and considered methods for investigating reminder use in PM is in order and discusses how these might be implemented in future research.
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    Exploring the illusion of understanding in small transactive memory systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Health Science in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Rozenberg, Vanessa
    People typically overestimate their ability to explain how artefacts and other complex phenomena work – this is known as the illusion of understanding (IOU). In an online experiment, we aimed to identify if an IOU occurs in both individuals and small transactive memory systems. Participants (N = 46, 23 pairs) completed the experiment at the same time as their self-selected partner. Individuals rated their own, partners’, and combined knowledge of bicycles, on a scale of 1-7, before and after completing individual and collaborative tasks that drew on their bicycle knowledge. The strength of relationships between pre- and post-task individual, partners’, and combined ratings of knowledge and number of errors made on the individual and collaborative drawing tasks were analysed. Individuals’ pre-task ratings (M = 4.74) were higher than their post-task ratings (M = 4.39, t(45) = 2.27, p < .001). People rated their own personal knowledge (before the task) as lower than they rated their collaborative knowledge (after the task), the difference between means was M = .65, p <.001. Contrary to predictions, there was a stronger relationship between individual pre- and post-task ratings (r = .83, p < .001) than for individual pre-task and collaborative post-task ratings (r = .60, p = <.001) (z = -3.26, p <.001). The relationship between individual pre-task ratings and collaborative performance errors (r = .19, p >.05) was significantly stronger than the relationship between individual pre-task ratings and individual performance errors (r = -.23, p = .066) (z = - 1.53, p =.062). Results showed an IOU in individuals but not in small transactive memory systems. Future research could investigate how individuals make their ratings and inspect the distribution of pre- and post-task ratings.
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    Exploring the relationship between working memory capacity and task switching : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Knapp, Katie
    Tests of task switching and working memory capacity are both thought to assess executive attentional control. Given that they are purported to measure the same underlying cognitive construct, one would expect a relationship between performance on these tasks. However, preliminary research has largely failed to find such an association. This thesis explored the association between task switching and working memory capacity to determine why previous research has failed to find this expected relationship. Experiment 1 examined this relationship across three commonly used task switching paradigms which differed in the amount of environmental support available to participants as they completed the task. Experiment 2 explored the role of task difficulty on the switching paradigm because working memory capacity and cognitive control are most related under particularly taxing conditions. Both of these Experiments failed to find a clear relationship between task switching and working memory capacity. These findings replicated much of the previous research in this area and suggested that task difficulty and paradigm choice could not explain the failure of previous research to find a relationship between these two constructs. Experiment 3 explored the role of cue switch costs. The task switching paradigm confounds cue switching and task switching, and it has been argued that switch costs may largely be explained by the cost of the cue switching. If this is the case, and cue switch costs do not index attentional control, then it is not surprising that previous research has failed to find a relationship between task switching and working memory capacity. Experiment 3 found evidence of cue switch costs, but ‘true’ task switch costs remained. After the confounding effect of cue switching was controlled for, the expected negative linear relationship between working memory capacity and task switching was found. Participants with higher working memory capacity had smaller switch costs, indicative of better performance. The results of this thesis point to the importance of making careful experimental design decisions when using the task switching paradigm. This is particularly important when the goal of such research is to index attentional control, especially in the context of individual differences research.