Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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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.

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    Determining the Mechanisms of Spoken Language Processing Delay for Children with Cochlear Implants
    (2023) Blomquist, Christina Marie; Edwards, Jan R; Newman, Rochelle S; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The long-term objective of this project was to better understand how shorter auditory experience and spectral degradation of the cochlear implant (CI) signal impact spoken language processing in deaf children with CIs. The specific objective of this research was to utilize psycholinguistic methods to investigate the mechanisms underlying observed delays in spoken word recognition and the access of networks of semantically related words in the lexicon, which are both vital components for efficient spoken language comprehension. The first experiment used eye-tracking to investigate the contributions of early auditory deprivation and the degraded CI signal to spoken word recognition delays in children with CIs. Performance of children with CIs was compared to various typical hearing (TH) control groups matched for either chronological age or hearing age, and who heard either clear or vocoded speech. The second experiment investigated semantic processing in the face of a spectrally degraded signal (TH adult listeners presented with vocoded speech) by recording event-related potentials, specifically the N400. Results children with CIs show slower lexical access and less immediate lexical competition, and while early hearing experience supports more efficient recognition, much of these observed delays can be attributed to listening to a degraded signal in the moment, as children with TH demonstrate similar patterns of processing when presented with vocoded speech. However, some group differences remain, specifically children with CIs show slower speed of lexical access and longer-lasting competition, suggesting potential effects of learning from a degraded speech signal. With regards to higher-level semantic processing, TH adult listeners demonstrate more limited access of semantic networks when presented with a degraded speech signal. This finding suggests that uncertainty due the degraded speech signal may lead to less immediate cascading processing at both the word-level and higher-level semantic processing. Clinically, these results highlight the importance of early cochlear implantation and maximizing access to spectral detail in the speech signal for children with CIs. Additionally, it is possible that some of the delays in spoken language processing are the result of an alternative listening strategy that may be engaged to reduce the chance of incorrect predictions, thus preventing costly revision processes.
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    Fast mapping in linguistic context: Processing and complexity effects
    (2015) Arnold, Alison Reese; Huang, Yi Ting; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Young children readily use syntactic cues for word learning in structurally-simple contexts (Naigles, 1990). However, developmental differences in children's language processing abilities might interfere with their access to syntactic cues when novel words are presented in structurally-challenging contexts. To understand the role of processing on syntactic bootstrapping, we used an eye-tracking paradigm to examine children's fast-mapping abilities in active (structurally-simple) and passive (structurally-complex) sentences. Actions after sentences indicated children were more successful mapping words in passive sentences when novel words were presented in NP2 ("The seal will be quickly eaten by the blicket") than when novel words were presented in NP1 ("The blicket will be quickly eaten by the seal"), indicating presenting more prominent nouns in NP1 increases children's agent-first bias and sabotages interpretation of passives. Later recall data indicate children were less likely to remember new words in structurally-challenging contexts.
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    Statistical Analysis of Online Eye and Face-Tracking Applications in Marketing
    (2015) Liu, Xuan; Wedel, Michel; Mathematics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Eye-tracking and face-tracking technology have been widely adopted to study viewers' attention and emotional response. In the dissertation, we apply these two technologies to investigate effective online contents that are designed to attract and direct attention and engage viewers emotional responses. In the first part of the dissertation, we conduct a series of experiments that use eye-tracking technology to explore how online models' facial cues affect users' attention on static e-commerce websites. The joint effects of two facial cues, gaze direction and facial expression on attention, are estimated by Bayesian ANOVA, allowing various distributional assumptions. We also consider the similarities and differences in the effects of facial cues among American and Chinese consumers. This study offers insights on how to attract and retain customers' attentions for advertisers that use static advertisement on various websites or ad networks. In the second part of the dissertation, we conduct a face-tracking study where we investigate the relation between experiment participants' emotional responseswhile watching comedy movie trailers and their watching intentions to the actual movies. Viewers' facial expressions are collected in real-time and converted to emo- tional responses with algorithms based on facial coding system. To analyze the data, we propose to use a joint modeling method that link viewers' longitudinal emotion measurements and their watching intentions. This research provides recommenda- tions to filmmakers on how to improve the effectiveness of movie trailers, and how to boost audiences' desire to watch the movies.
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    A Multi-Method Examination of Partitioned Pricing
    (2015) Abraham, Ajay Thomas; Hamilton, Rebecca W; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation investigates the relationship between partitioned pricing (Morwitz, Greenleaf, and Johnson 1998) and dependent variables such as demand, preference, and attention. The first essay proposes a theoretical framework to examine extant and new moderators of partitioned pricing, classifying moderators based on the source of their impact as presentational, evaluative, or attentional. A meta-analysis of 17 years of research on partitioned pricing examines 149 observations from 43 studies in 27 papers (N = 12,878). The perceived benefit of the surcharge and the typicality of partitioning the surcharge in the category emerge as robust moderators of the effect of partitioned pricing on consumer demand. Surcharges for components perceived to provide high benefit and highly typical surcharges make partitioned prices more attractive. Replicating the meta-analytic effects of typicality, a follow-up experiment shows a more positive effect of partitioning on preference for typical surcharges than for atypical surcharges, and an eye-tracking experiment offers insight into the underlying mechanism by showing that people pay more attention to atypical surcharges than to typical surcharges. Different pricing strategies in the same market suggest different beliefs about the efficacy of partitioning prices on consumers' preferences. The second essay in this dissertation explores the impact of two countervailing theoretical influences that may predict how the numerical magnitude of surcharges can affect preferences. "Base price anchoring" suggests that as the magnitude of the surcharge increases (holding the total price constant), consumers may anchor on a lower base price, leading them to evaluate partitioned prices more favorably. In contrast, "surcharge salience" suggests that as the magnitude of the surcharge increases, attention to the surcharge increases, and evaluations of partitioned prices decrease. An analysis of eBay auction data reveals support for the influence of base price anchoring, and a follow-up experiment suggests that this mechanism dominates at lower levels of surcharge magnitude whereas surcharge salience dominates at higher levels of surcharge magnitude. Finally, an eye-tracking study demonstrates the influence of surcharge salience on preference and attention.
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    The Social Engagement System: Functional Differences in Individuals with Autism
    (2004-05-03) Denver, John William; Porges, Stephen W; Human Development
    The Polyvagal Theory links the evolution of the autonomic nervous system to affective experience, emotional expression, facial gestures, vocalization and social engagement behavior. Therefore, the theory provides a plausible explanation for the bio-behavioral indices of several psychiatric disorders. The vagus as a "system" provides a rich organizing principle to investigate several of the behavioral, psychological, and physiological features associated with compromised social behavior in several psychiatric disorders. The Polyvagal Theory describes this integrated system as the Social Engagement System. Observations of the behaviors and physiological responses of autistic individuals suggest that they have great difficulties in recruiting the neural circuit that regulates the social engagement system. This model predicts that a deficit in the system would produce atypical social behaviors such as social withdrawal; improper communication (i.e., poor intonation and prosody); difficulty listening (inability to extract human voice from background noise); poor eye contact; inappropriate facial expressivity (i.e., flat affect); and atypical visceral functioning (i.e., low cardiac vagal tone). These indices are directly related to the atypical behaviors associated with autism, and several other psychiatric disorders. In the current study, measures related to the functioning of these components were obtained to test the hypothesis that autistic individuals have a compromised social engagement system. Forty subjects participated in the study (20 autistic, 31 males, ages 9-24). Data were collected to assess autonomic functioning (i.e., cardiac vagal tone), the ability to extract human voice from a compromised environment, an estimate of right ear advantage, and looking behavior (i.e., eye contact). Analyses showed that autistic individuals scored poorer on all measures assessing social engagement system functioning. Compared to controls, the autistic group had lower mean cardiac vagal tone and shorter heart periods, performed poorer on extracting human voice from a compromised environment, on a dichotic listening task, and on a measure of right ear advantage. They also spent significantly less time fixating on the eyes and more time fixating off of the face when viewing a movie of a person telling them a story. Results support the hypothesized relation between a compromised social engagement system and the atypical features associated with autism.