Live Fay Braaten will defend her thesis "Attending Behavior in Matching-to-Sample Procedures: An Investigation of Variables Affecting Restrictive Stimulus Control and Eye Movements" for the PhD in Behavioral Analysis.
Trial lecture: Review theory, methods, and some general results of research on various types of "attention".
The ordinary opponents are:
The leader of the public defense is Head of Department Jan Egil Nordvik, OsloMet.
The main supervisor is Professor Erik Arntzen, OsloMet. The co-supervisors are Professor Gerson Tomanari, University of Sao Paulo and Associate Professor Torunn Lian, OsloMet.
This thesis comprises three studies investigating variables affecting restrictive stimulus control and observation responses, often associated with attention, using matching-to-sample (MTS) procedures with complex stimuli.
Studies 1 and 2 found that restrictive stimulus control, also called selective attention, is affected by various experimental conditions that have not been previously investigated.
Study 1 shows that a time delay in training affects restrictive stimulus control. Study 2 found that the direction and manner in which stimulus-stimulus relations were trained influenced restrictive stimulus control.
Study 3 analyzed eye movements to abstract and meaningful stimuli and found that meaningful stimuli reduced fixation time and transitions between stimuli.
The thesis highlights the importance of compound stimuli, demonstrating that variables such as time delay, training structure, and meaningful stimuli influence restrictive stimulus control and observational responses.
The paper also emphasizes the significance of incorporating eye-tracking technology to better understand how individuals learn in MTS procedures. The findings suggest that eye movements can provide additional insights not captured by looking at accuracy and reaction time alone.