Theses and Dissertations

Megan Raden

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Jarosz, Andrew F.

Committee Member

Moss, Jarrod

Committee Member

Bradshaw, Gary

Date of Degree

5-1-2020

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 2 years

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

The WMC-gF relationship has been attributed to attentional control by some, and to a learning-based account by others. The current study explores inconsistencies in solving structurally-identical problems and how such factors may explain the WMC-gF relationship. Participants completed multiple versions of the same visual-analogies problems, with some problems sharing surface features and others looking vastly different, to test the ability to generalize a rule. In addition, subsequent iterations were shown either immediately after the first presentation, after two intervening items (second presentation), or after at least 10 intervening items (third presentation). Performance on second-presentation items supported both attention and learning-based accounts and performance on third-presentation items supported only a learning-based account. Furthermore, surface similarities interacted with third-presentation item accuracy and WMC, with a stronger relationship for dissimilar looking items. These findings suggest that the ability to learn and generalize rules throughout a task may largely contribute to the WMC-gF relationship.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/16908

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