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    Preservice teachers' construction of computational thinking practices through mathematical modeling activities
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Adeolu, Adewale Samson; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary Alice Carlson and Elizabeth Burroughs (co-chair)
    The importance of learning computational thinking practices in K-12 settings is gaining momentum in the United States and worldwide. As a result, studies have been conducted on integrating these practices in mathematics teaching and learning. However, there is little study that focuses on how to prepare pre-service teachers who will teach the practices in K-12 settings. I investigated how pre-service teachers collaborated to develop computational thinking practices when working on modeling activities with computational tools. To carry out this research, I studied nine pre-service teachers working on modeling tasks for a semester. Five participants recorded their screens and were invited to participate in a stimulated recall interview. Using the interactional analysis procedures, findings showed that the presence of computational tools influenced the positioning (leadership and distributed authority) and collaborative processes (dividing and offloading labor, giving and receiving feedback, accommodation, and refining ideas) pre-service teachers used during modeling. This study found that pre-service teachers used ten computational thinking practices, which are sub-grouped into four broader practices -- data practices, mimicking and mathematizing, model exploration and extension, and model communication. This dissertation also found that pre-service teachers' mathematical knowledge and their ability to code were interdependent. From a research point of view, this study extends our knowledge of the social constructivist theory of doing research in the context of pre-service teachers engaging in modeling activities with computational tools. From the teacher education perspective, this study emphasizes the need to consider the impact of computational tools on the interactions of pre-service teachers during modeling. The study also reveals the need to structure the mathematical modeling curriculum to lead to a better learning experience for pre-service teachers.
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    Investigating working memory capacity in an online nature intervention
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Charbonneau, Brooke Zauner; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Keith A. Hutchison
    Viewing natural stimuli has shown to have beneficial effects on cognition. However, for those in urban areas, nature may not be as accessible. An online intervention may allow them to receive such cognitive benefits. However, specific cognitive processes that may benefit from nature are still not well understood. This study aimed to investigate which cognitive processes could benefit from an online nature intervention. Two hundred and nineteen participants were recruited from Montana State University and completed two tasks that measured either Working Memory Capacity, attentional control, or memory. Within each task, 40 nature images and 40 urban images were randomly presented before each experimental block in the two tasks. Results revealed higher performance after viewing nature images compared to urban images across attentional control tasks but not for Working Memory Capacity or memory. When controlling for preference for natural settings and nature images, the effect became marginal for attentional control tasks. Exploratory analyses revealed that this effect of nature became nonsignificant when controlling across dimensions of fascination and mystery. These results indicate a small, but significant, benefit of viewing natural settings for attentional control, an essential component of Working Memory Capacity. Future research should investigate if benefits increase with longer or more comprehensive interaction with nature, individual differences in the degree of benefits nature can provide, and characteristics that natural settings possess which may increase attentional benefits.
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    Studying science in the outdoors influences student interest, engagement, and cognition
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2021) Dean, Kimberly Jane; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Greg Francis
    Lack of motivation and engagement are common problems among middle school students. In addition, I am often shocked to hear how many of my students have never visited any of the six ski resorts less than an hour's drive away, never gone canoeing, no time spent hiking, camping or participating in the kinds of outdoor activities that our state, Utah, is famous for. The lack of time spent in the natural world can inhibit students' understanding of their local environments and their ability to connect what they are learning in science classes with outdoor and relatively natural ecosystems. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of streamside field experiences on the engagement of middle school students. Sub questions investigated if studying Utah's watersheds and water quality issues in the field and the classroom helped students increase their knowledge and awareness of water quality and water science and whether time spent in nature impacted students' attitudes about protecting streams. The research followed eighth grade students through three field trips, one snowshoeing at a local mountain campground, and two monitoring water quality and canoeing at a local river. Data collection included pre and posttests, science motivation questionnaire, science attitude survey, student interviews, and a teacher's journal. Data collection was collected before and after treatments to monitor changes throughout the process. The research indicated that there was a positive relationship between my response variables: student interest, engagement, and achievement and my intervention variable of: time spent learning science outdoors.
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    Improving the understanding of cognitive- motor function and lower-extremity biomechanics
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2021) Fischer, Patrick David; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Scott Monfort; Keith A. Hutchison, James N. Becker, and Scott M. Monfort were co-authors of the article, 'Evaluating the spectrum of cognitive-motor relationships during dual-task jump landing' in the journal 'Journal of applied biomechanics' which is contained within this dissertation.; Keith A. Hutchison, James N. Becker and Scott M. Monfort were co-authors of the article, 'Do dual-task demands generalize across sport-specific movements?' submitted to the journal 'Journal of applied biomechanics' which is contained within this dissertation.; Keith A. Hutchison, James N. Becker and Scott M. Monfort were co-authors of the article, 'Decoupling visual constraint from rapid decision-making effects during a jump-landing' submitted to the journal 'American journal of sports medicine' which is contained within this dissertation.
    Anterior cruciate ligament injuries present a considerable problem for athletic populations, especially those that engage in sports with open-skill movement demands like rapid changes of direction. These injuries typically occur in a non-contact setting, that is, the forces generated by the athlete's own movement overburden the ligaments in the knee and cause partial or total rupture of the tissue. Considerable effort has been devoted to researching and, by extension, counteracting the physical contributions to injury risk; for example, athletes are encouraged to develop better balance and lower-extremity strength to counteract the adverse effects of poor movement performance. However, anterior cruciate ligament injury risk is also tied to cognitive factors as well as physiological factors. This athlete-specific cognitive-motor relationship interacts with external distractions in the sporting environment to compromise an athlete's ability to move safely and effectively. The purpose of this research was to investigate contributions of different cognitive domains to movement performance in distracted, sport-relevant scenarios, to develop a better understanding of the cognitive-motor relationships that underpin injury rates in these athletic populations. A series of studies involving biomechanical and cognitive outcome measures demonstrated that cognitive function has an important, if not fully understood, role to play in mitigating an athlete's susceptibility to distractions during open-skill movement performance. This research adds to a critically underdeveloped body of work explaining the subject-specificity of dual-task movement performance in a lab setting and provides a foundation for developing new injury risk assessment and mitigation efforts for clinicians and coaches.
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    The psychology of camera observation: how the camera affects human behavior
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2021) Trainor, Catherine; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo Lipfert
    This paper explores the influence of an observational camera on human behavior, particularly in documentary films. Whether it is a surveillance camera that represents the eyes of an authority figure, or a camera with a human operator, the presence of an observer impacts our behavior. The paper hypothesizes that the presence of a camera activates the same pathway in the brain as when a person senses that they are being watched. The paper uses observations from several documentary films, reality television shows, and the author's documentary film as supporting evidence in exploring this concept.
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    Educating psychiatric nurses in cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescent patients: a quality improvement project
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 2021) Thralls, Claire Eileen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Tracy Hellem
    It is estimated that 20% of adolescents have a diagnosable mental health disorder. However, there is a deficit of providers that are available to treat this population. This gap in care can potentially be mitigated by increasing mental health caregivers' education on therapeutic interventions. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered to be the gold standard of care for the population of adolescent mental health patients. This project set out to educate nurses working on an inpatient adolescent unit on topics of evidence-based CBT and adolescent group therapy. Nurses interacted in a 3-hour educational intervention that reviewed topics of CBT, group therapy with adolescents, and the Creating Opportunity for Empowerment (COPE) program. Additionally, the nurses participated in a role-playing group therapy session to practice implementing CBT interventions to adolescent patient populations. This intervention was utilized to determine the feasibility and effectiveness in educating psychiatric nursing staff on CBT concepts with regard to group therapy for adolescent populations. After participation in the intervention, nursing staff reported benefits and satisfaction with the CBT and group therapy intervention, increased understanding of CBT concepts and interventions, and enhanced preparation for working with adolescent psychiatric patients. It is hoped that this project will guide adolescent-mental-health caregivers in seeking additional education in CBT practices to enhance their education in evidence-based interventions.
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    Large-scale spatiotemporal cortical dynamics in visual short-term memory: from spiking activity to oscillations
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2020) Hoffman, Steven Joseph; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Charles M. Gray and Jamie Mazer (co-chair); Nicholas M. Dotson was an author and Baldwin Goodell and Charles M. Gray were co-authors of the article, 'A large-scale semi-chronic microdrive recording system for non-human primates' in the journal 'Neuron' which is contained within this dissertation.; Nicholas M. Dotson and Charles M. Gray were co-authors of the article, 'The cortical local field potential exhibits distinct spatial gradients that vary with frequency and time during visual short-term memory' which is contained within this dissertation.; Dissertation contains a article of which Steven Joseph Hoffman is not the main author.
    Cognitive processes occur through coordinated activity via disparate cortical and subcortical brain structures. Although these structures may be widely separated, evolutionary pressures dictate that cognition must occur rapidly and efficiently. In order to capture these brain-wide activity patterns the tools for measuring them need to be similarly capable of measurements of both high spatial coverage, and high temporal resolution. Additionally, the measurements would ideally be of the activity of the fundamental units involved in cognition, that is the neurons, rather than an extrapolation of their activity via a different signal source. However, outside of the work presented here, current technologies are rare that allow both the requisite coverage and spatiotemporal resolution to achieve these measurements. The results of the studies presented in Chapters 2-4 provide both the tools for making such measurements, and the initial analyses of the neuronal dynamics during short-term memory. In Chapter 2 we present the technological and methodological process for recording neural activity (both action potentials and local field potentials) from across roughly a hemisphere of cortex in the macaque monkey performing a visual short-term memory task. In visual short-term memory a visual percept must be maintained then recalled when it is no longer present. This cognitive process is one we use nearly incessantly in every-day life. In Chapter 3 we found task dependent spiking activity during short-term memory is wide-spread, and that most areas display a balanced state of both increases and decreases in firing rate. Within these areas we found a hierarchically organized subset of cortical areas that also showed stimulus specific activity during the memory period of the task. In Chapter 4 we used spectral analysis to investigate the oscillatory make-up of neural activity across the recorded areas. We found within specific frequency bands there are different gradients of amplitude of spectral power across cortex. Additionally, we found that we could use a small number of spectrally derived variables in order to decode the brain area origin of the signal. This shows that areas have a characteristic spectral composition, that varies systematically across the cortical mantle.
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    The role of working memory capacity and cognitive load in producing and detecting deception
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2016) Maldonado, Ted; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Keith A. Hutchison
    The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of age, working memory capacity (WMC) and cognitive load on people's ability to tell and detect lies. The literature is inconsistent on what individual characteristics are critical to being a good liar. Zukerman, DePaulo, and Rosenthal (1981) suggested that lying is cognitively demanding. Therefore, WMC might provide an advantage for some when telling a convincing lie, such that higher WMC individuals can handle the high cognitive load associated with lying. I examined this across two experiments. I predicted that individuals with higher WMC would be able to better tell more convincing lies, because such individuals are better at suppressing prepotent, but goal irrelevant information, such as the truth. Additionally, higher WMC individuals are better equipped to focus and tune out distraction that accompanies a high cognitive load. I also predicted that younger individuals will have an easier time telling convincing lies than older adults. As we age, cognitive functioning, like WMC, declines, and with this decline, so does our ability to deceive others. In Experiment 1, young adult dyads took turns telling truths and lies, under high and low cognitive load. The detector tried to determine whether their partner was truthful or deceitful. In Experiment 2, younger and older adults told truths and lies into a camera and two young adult detectors tried to detect the truths and lies, at a later time. I found a positive relationship between WMC and telling lies such that higher WMC individuals had fewer of their lies detected when under high load. I also found that a higher WMC improved the ability to comply when asked to tell a truth or lie. I also found that when responding to questions, participants found it easier to comply when asked to lie or when under high cognitive load. In regard to age differences, older adults found it more difficult to tell lies than truths. Issues within deception could involve specific memory processes and require more research to understand what aspects of memory are involved in telling a convincing lie.
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