Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.cognitive

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Root Cause Analysis Of Adverse Events Using A Human Reliability Analysis Approach
    (2022) Johnson, David Michael; Vaughn-Cooke, Monifa; Reliability Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Large scale analysis of adverse event data is challenging due to the unstructured nature of event reporting and narrative textual data in adverse event repositories. This issue is further complicated for human error adverse events, which are routinely treated as a root cause instead of as initiating events in a causal chain. Human error events are commonly misunderstood and underreported, which hinders the analysis of trends and the identification of risk mitigation strategies across industries. Currently, the prevailing means of human error investigation is the analysis of accident and incident data which are not designed around a framework of human cognition or psychomotor function. Existing approaches lack a theoretical foundation with sufficient cognitive granularity to identify root causes of human error. This research provides a cognitive task decomposition to standardize the investigation, reporting, and analysis of human error adverse event data in narrative textual form. The proposed method includes a qualitative structure to answer six questions (when, who, what, where, how, why) that are critical to comprehensively understand the events surrounding human error. This process is accomplished in five main stages: (1) Develop guidelines for a cognitively-driven adverse event investigation; (2) Perform a baseline cognitive task analysis (when) to document relevant stakeholders (who), products or processes (what), and environments (where) based on a taxonomy of cognitive and psychomotor function; (3) Identify deviations for the baseline task analysis in the form of unsafe acts (how) using a human error classification; (4) and Develop a root cause mapping to identify the performance shaping factors (PSFs) (why) for each unsafe act. The outcome of the proposed method will advance the fields of risk analysis and regulatory science by providing a standardized and repeatable process to input and analyze human error in adverse event databases. The method provides a foundation for more effective human error trending and accident analysis at a greater level of cognitive granularity. Application of this method to adverse event risk mitigations can inform prospective strategies such as resource allocation and system design, with the ultimate long-term goal of reducing the human contribution to risk.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    LET'S GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT: HOW DIFFERENT TOPICS AFFECT CONFLICT COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR
    (2011) Lowe, Adam Glenn; Epstein, Norman B; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Past research suggests it is not what a conflict is about or how much conflict exists between two people, but rather how the parties interact regarding their conflicting preferences that determines whether the conflict has negative effects on their relationship. The current study examined the degrees to which couples' communication behavior in specific situations in which they discuss a conflict-related topic is influenced by the conflict topic theme that they discuss and by their general communication patterns. Conflict topics were assessed with the Relationship Issues Survey, general communication patterns with the Communication Patterns Questionnaire, and specific communication behavior during discussions with the Marital Interaction Coding System - Global. Findings indicated several significant effects of both content area and general communication style on communication behavior. Post-hoc analyses indicated that couples discussing conflicts regarding basic life values, priorities, and consideration for one's partner exhibited more negative communication behavior than those discussing issues regarding closeness, relationship commitment, emotional connectivity, and expressiveness. Possible implications of the findings are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Linking Goals to Avoidance in Interpersonal Conflict Situations: A Cognitive Approach
    (2006-08-03) WANG, QI; Cai, Deborah A.; Fink, Edward L.; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    When an argument becomes overheated, is it better to insist on arguments until the other submits, or is it better to withdraw until both parties cool off? When a work team makes a decision, are the ideas offered always better than the ideas held back? Just as "the squeaky wheels get oiled," conflict communication research has focused on communicative strategies in dealing with conflict, and the non-communicative strategy of avoidance has rarely been examined. Avoidance has been largely viewed as a passive and ineffective conflict strategy. The goal of this dissertation is to develop and assess a cognitive model of conflict avoidance. A typology of conflict avoidance and a typology of goals in conflict situations are developed. Twelve hypotheses about how conflict goals determine individuals' likelihood of using specific avoidance strategies are proposed. In an experiment, the importance of a goal or a combination of goals was manipulated, and the likelihood of using specific avoidance strategies was measured. Twelve goals or combinations of goals were induced in a role-playing situation. Each goal induction was placed in one of two hypothetical scenarios (an interpersonal conflict in a group project in school and a similar conflict at work). With two scenarios and 12 goal inductions, 24 experimental conditions were created. A total of 352 student participants were randomly assigned to the 24 conditions. Participants imagined interacting in the hypothetical conflict scenario, which was presented in writing; they then provided their responses on a questionnaire. Results indicated that avoidance has various forms, some of which were caused by different levels of importance placed on different goals. Avoidance strategies were shown to have two components: communication avoidant strategies (withdrawal, passive competition, exit, and outflanking) and issue avoidant strategies (pretending and yielding). The former strategies were predicted by competitive goals, whereas the latter were predicted by cooperative goals. Interpretations and implications of the results, the limitations of the study, and future directions were discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A cognitive framework for analyzing and describing introductory students' use and understanding of mathematics in physics
    (2004-04-29) Tuminaro, Jonathan; Redish, Edward F.; Physics
    Many introductory, algebra-based physics students perform poorly on mathematical problem solving tasks in physics. There are at least two possible, distinct reasons for this poor performance: (1) students simply lack the mathematical skills needed to solve problems in physics, or (2) students do not know how to apply the mathematical skills they have to particular problem situations in physics. While many students do lack the requisite mathematical skills, a major finding from this work is that the majority of students possess the requisite mathematical skills, yet fail to use or interpret them in the context of physics. In this thesis I propose a theoretical framework to analyze and describe students' mathematical thinking in physics. In particular, I attempt to answer two questions. What are the cognitive tools involved in formal mathematical thinking in physics? And, why do students make the kinds of mistakes they do when using mathematics in physics? According to the proposed theoretical framework there are three major theoretical constructs: mathematical resources, which are the knowledge elements that are activated in mathematical thinking and problem solving; epistemic games, which are patterns of activities that use particular kinds of knowledge to create new knowledge or solve a problem; and frames, which are structures of expectations that determine how individuals interpret situations or events. The empirical basis for this study comes from videotaped sessions of college students solving homework problems. The students are enrolled in an algebra-based introductory physics course. The videotapes were transcribed and analyzed using the aforementioned theoretical framework. Two important results from this work are: (1) the construction of a theoretical framework that offers researchers a vocabulary (ontological classification of cognitive structures) and grammar (relationship between the cognitive structures) for understanding the nature and origin of mathematical use in the context physics, and (2) a detailed understanding, in terms of the proposed theoretical framework, of the errors that students make when using mathematics in the context of physics.