Themen für Bachelorarbeiten

Beschreibung: Beschreibung: Working memory is a capacity-limited cognitive system essential for the temporary storage and manipulation of information. When storing two sets of items (e.g., sets A and B) for immediate testing, prior studies have shown that varying the number of items in one set disproportionately affects performance for that specific set compared to the other (e.g., Markov et al., 2019; Ni et al., 2024). However, the extent to which this effect depends on additional parameters and the underlying cognitive mechanisms remains unclear. The aim of this Bachelor?s thesis is to address these gaps by systematically reviewing studies that have reported such effects and comparing their methodologies. The findings will serve as a basis for generating hypotheses about the cognitive processes enabling these asymmetries, offering insights into the interaction between dual-set designs and working memory performance. References: Markov, Y. A., Tiurina, N. A., & Utochkin, I. S. (2019). Different features are stored independently in visual working memory but mediated by object-based representations. Acta Psychologica, 197, 52?63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.05.003 Ni, J., Fu, J., Wang, R., Yang, C., & Cai, Y. (2024). Asymmetric Interaction Effects of Information with Varying Priorities in Visual Working Memory. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5012309
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Eingabedatum: 21.01.2025
Kontakt: Noah Rischert, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Researchers distinguish between two types of working memory representations: declarative and procedural representations. Declarative representations refer to the objects of our thoughts. For example, when we try to remember the items on our shopping list. By contrast, procedural representations refer to the actions that we perform with these objects of thoughts. Continuing with our example, this could be for instance that if we find the eggs on our shopping list that we remember to place them on the very top of our shopping basket. However, it is an ongoing debate whether declarative and procedural working memory are independent of each other and draw on different limited working memory capacities or whether they are dependent on each other and draw on the same capacity. Oberauer (2009) proposed that declarative and procedural working memory are two subsystems within working memory that are structured and function analogously but are independent from one another (e.g., Souza et al., 2012). Yet, some researchers state that declarative and procedural working memory are (under certain circumstances) not independent from one another and share the same capacity (e.g., Barrouillet et al., 2015; Formica et al., 2020). The aim of this Bachelor?s thesis is to 1) gather and review the literature that discusses the independence between declarative and procedural working memory and 2) discuss based on the literature review whether these two working memory subsystems are independent or not. Barrouillet, P., Corbin, L., Dagry, I., & Camos, V. (2015). An empirical test of the independence between declarative and procedural working memory in Oberauer's (2009) theory. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(4), 1035?1040. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0787-y Formica, S., González-García, C., & Brass, M. (2020). The effects of declaratively maintaining and proactively proceduralizing novel stimulus-response mappings. Cognition, 201, 104295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104295 Oberauer, K. (2009). Design for a working memory. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (pp. 45?100). Elsevier Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(09)51002-X Souza, A. S., Oberauer, K., Gade, M., & Druey, M. D. (2012). Processing of representations in declarative and procedural working memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(5), 1006-1033. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2011.640403
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Eingabedatum: 31.07.2024
Kontakt: Isabel Courage, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit Literatur zu neuesten EEG Methoden und die Beantwortung der Frage, wie wir deren Paramter nutzen können, um offene Fragen beantworten und theoretische Diskurse im Bereich des Arbeitsgedächtnisses voranbringen zu können. Als Grundlage dienen Arbeiten von Kirsten Adam, David Sutterer und Edward Awh.
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Beschreibung: The Concealed Information Test (CIT) is a questioning paradigm that is used to detect if someone has specific knowledge that he/she tries to hide. This technique can be used with various measures (e.g. reaction time, skin conductance response, heart rate, EEG) but they don't all measure the same cognitive processes. The goal of this project is to take a close look at the cognitive and emotional processes involved in the CIT.
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Beschreibung: The unanticipated questions approach is an interviewing strategy that uses unanticipated questions to evoke a larger difference between truthful and deceptive answers which should lead to better truth/lie classification. The goal of this project is to look at the theoretical background of this approach and role of cognitive load (1) and critically evaluate the empirical evidence (2).
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Beschreibung: The goal of this bachelor thesis is to list and evaluate the specific evidence for discrete-state (i.e., slot) models for visual working memory (VWM). A partial overview over the debate is given by Suchow et al. (2014). The main evidence for slots models is given by three findings: (1) A constant number of around 4 or 7 items in VWM (e.g., Zhang & Luck, 2008); (2) Linear receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) functions (Rouder et al., 2008); (3) specific response-time patterns (Donkin et al. 2013). The task of the thesis will be to provide a critical evaluation of a selection or each of those findings possibly discussing their limits.
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Beschreibung: A long-standing question in the domain of recognition memory concerns the nature of the representations that underlie our judgments when attempting to identify previously experienced stimuli or events. One hypothesis is that representations are discrete, In the sense that an individual can only be in one of few possible mental states, some associated with successful memory retrieval, others associated with complete absence of information (discrete-state models). Another hypothesis is that memory representations are continuous, reflecting a graded decay. When making recognition decisions, the memory strength associated with a representation is compared to an established threshold that is minimally required to judge a stimulus as previously experienced (signal detection models). A third possibility is a hybrid of the previous hypotheses and assumes the existence of two independent memory representations, a continuous process describing non-specific familiarity, and a discrete process associated with the retrieval of episodic content (hybrid models). The goal of this bachelor thesis is to evaluate the methods used to distinguish between the model classes (e.g., fitting the models to receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) functions).
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Beschreibung: Previous research has shown that describing what you see, such as saying “blue” when you are presented a blue banana helps you to remember it in the short term. Interestingly, this verbal labeling has not been shown as helpful in the long term. Even though thousands of objects can be stored in our long-term memory. The aim of this thesis is to (1) state research that has found a benefit for labeling in the short term for working memory, (2) state research that has not found a labeling benefit in the long term for long-term memory, (3) discuss the different findings of the role of labeling in visual memory. Remark: can be written in English or German.
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Beschreibung: A recent paper by Plancher et al. (2017) extend previous investigations of the underlying mechanisms that facilitate memory processes by presenting temporal regularities during the retention interval. The goal of the thesis is to critically discuss these findings as well as additional literature of the field of music cognition on the role of temporal regularities for guiding attention over time.
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Beschreibung: Elaboration as a candidate processes has been proposed to affect long-term memory and recent work has shown that the process of elaboration does not have similar beneficial effect on long-term memory in older compared to young adults. The goal of the thesis is to review the literature on age-related difference in the ability and efficiency to engage in elaboration of various forms and to critically discuss limitations of the research pursued to date.
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Beschreibung: Language: both German and English are possible, preferable in English Consolidation is an important process when creating a stable working memory representation. Imagine you were presented with a picture of a red heart. While you are looking at it, the information of this particular picture is held in sensory memory. In order to transform this information into a working memory representation you need the assistance of the process consolidation. The aim of this thesis is to review the findings about consolidation (1) in the short term for working memory, (2) in the long term in regard to long-term memory and (3) discuss neural findings of consolidation that could give insights when investigating consolidation in working memory. Remark: can be written in English or German.
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Beschreibung: A variety of approaches and cues have been studied with the goal to increase deception detection. A recent approach is based on the notion that lying is cognitively more demanding than truth-telling and therefore one can use indicators of cognitive load to infer whether someone is deceitful or not. The goal of the current thesis is 1) to identify signs of increased cognitive load, 2) to review the literature of deception detection focusing on the extent to which these signs have been studied and 3) to discuss the success/failure of detecting deception using sings of cognitive load. Remark: can be written in German or English
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Beschreibung: Pay attention! Attention, please! Across the day, we try to focus our attention on relevant aspects of our environment and to ignore distracting information. How is this accomplished? Cognitive theories have described many attentional processes: we could tune our focus to a face of friend, trying to find him/her in a crowd; we could attend to a location, hoping that important information appears; or we could even attend to a particular object in its entity (a car), in which case changes in any aspect of the object may become salient (any malfunctioning of the apparatus). So far, it is not clear whether attending to these different aspects yield the same behavioral effects (similar time-course, benefits, and limitations) and whether these different ways of attending reflect different individual abilities (can someone be very good at space-based attention but bad at feature-based one?). The goal of this thesis is to review the literature on attentional selection looking for evidence of similarities and differences in the way attention is deployed across these domains. This information can be relevant for planning of the engagement of attention in daily tasks, and for interventions targeting improvements in attentional control.
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Beschreibung: Many of the behaviours we perform require searching (e.g., for the correct key on a keyboard when typing, for relevant information in memory when trying to answer a question, or for a track marker when hiking in the mountains). How do we perform such searches? Do we search in the same manner, irrespective of the type of thing we are looking for or the locations we have to search? Or are our search methods heavily context-dependent? The student completing this thesis will investigate these questions, with a particular focus on the domains of visual and short-term memory search.
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Beschreibung: Emotional experiences are part of our daily lives. These emotional states can be fleeting (i.e., change rapidly from moment-to-moment) or they can be enduring (i.e., last for days, weeks, or even months). Most of our daily activities, however, do not change because we are experiencing an emotional state: we may still need to deal with traffic, go to work, and run errands. All of these tasks place demands on working memory. Working memory is a limited-capacity system for the temporary storage of information that is currently in use. Given the limited capacity of this system, we often have difficulties in tasks that place large demands on it. One question of great relevance is therefore how the capacity of working memory is affected by variations in emotional states. The goal of the present thesis is to provide a systematic review of the literature on how emotional states change processing of information in working memory with a focus on the duration (short-lived ones vs. long-term ones) and valence (positive or negative) of the emotional state.
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Beschreibung: In our everyday interactions, we are exposed – among other things – to streams of visual inputs and verbal descriptions of these inputs. Whether these descriptions are self-generated or provided by others, language is involved in most of our activities. What is the impact of describing our visual experiences as they unfold? Are these descriptions helpful, inconsequential, or harmful? Despite the growing number of investigations on how language affects visual perception, learning, and episodic long-term memory, the role of language has been less investigated in the field of visual working memory (WM). WM is the cognitive device enabling the maintenance of information in an easy-to-retrieve state for ongoing processing. The goal of this thesis is to provide a systematic review of how verbalizations may change memory for visual details over the short and long-term, taking into consideration the differences in processing in these two systems.
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Beschreibung: The goal of this bachelor thesis is to list and evaluate the specific evidence for discrete-state (i.e., slot) models for (visual) working memory (WM). A partial overview over the debate is given by Suchow et al. (2014). The main evidence for slots models is given by three findings: (1) A constant number of around 4 or 7 items in WM (e.g., Zhang & Luck, 2008); (2) Linear receiver-operating-charateristics (ROC) functions (Rouder et al., 2008); (3) specific response-time patterns (Donkin et al. 2013). The task of the thesis will be to provide a critical evaluation of a selection or each of those findings possibly discussing their limits.
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Beschreibung: Forschung der letzten Jahre hat gezeigt, dass ältere im vergleich zu jungen Erwachsenen schlechtere Gedächtnisleistungen zeigen, jedoch ist nicht klar, warum die Fähigkeit Informationen über einen kurzen bzw. längeren Zeitraum zu erinnern im Alter abnimmt. Die Aufgabe dieser Arbeit ist es, die aktuelle Literatur zur Gedächtnisleistung älterer Erwachsener beim Erinnern von assoziativen Paaren (Wort-Wort Paaren) zusammenzutragen und vor dem Hintergrund aktueller Theorien, wie der associative deficit hypothesis (ADH; Naveh-Benjamin, 2000) zu diskutieren. Zudem soll die Rolle des Arbeitsgedächtnisses bei altersbedingten Abnahme der Langzeitgedächtnisleistung diskutiert werden.
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Beschreibung: Information, die bei der Enkodierung ins episodische Langzeitgedächtnis elaboriert wird, kann mit grösserer Wahrscheinlichkeit erinnert werden. Elaboration bedeutet, die enkodierte Information in einen sinnvollen Zusammenhang mit anderer Information zu bringen. Die Wirksamkeit von Elaboration ist empirisch gut etabliert, aber wir wissen noch nicht viel darüber, wie und warum Elaboration funktioniert. Ziel der Bachelorarbeit ist, die empirische Literatur zu Elaboration zu sichten, die dort diskutierten Hypothesen darüber, wie Elaboration funktioniert, zusammmen zu tragen, und die Evidenz für bzw. gegen diese Hypothesen kritisch zu diskutieren.
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Beschreibung: Hick's law---also known as the Hick/Hyman law---relating choice uncertainty to response time, is one of the most robust findings in experimental psychology. Originally discovered in the 1950s, this relationship is as important to experimental design and the conclusions drawn from behavioural data today as it was 65 years ago. Nonetheless, in contemporary research it is often misapplied, misunderstood, or ignored altogether. The student undertaking this thesis will select a small sample of recent research and analyse it with regard to the original law and its more recent refinements, to determine what implications its misapplication and neglect may have.
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Beschreibung: In a recently published article titled "Feeling the future", Daryl Bem argued that he found evidence that future events affect people’s current responses. The goal of this thesis is to take a closer look at the statistical methods that were applied. An alternative approach is to use Bayesian statistics. In this framework, prior odds (how likely is this finding before having seen the data) are taken into account. A further goal of this thesis is to state and defend one's prior odds for or against the proposition of precognition and to evaluate how the data found by Bem update these beliefs. The thesis can be written in German or English.
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Beschreibung: Da Lügenerkennung basierend auf nonverbalem Verhalten enorm schwierig ist, stellt sich die Frage, ob überhaupt und mit welchen Techniken Lügen trotzdem erkannt werden können. In aktuellen Untersuchungen wurden Hinweise auf die Wirksamkeit der Erhöhung des Cognitive Load (kognitive Anstrengung) beim Befragten gefunden. In dieser Arbeit soll die Forschung zu diesen Strategien genauer unter die Lupe genommen werden.
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Beschreibung: Der Titel ist sehr breit gewählt, damit das eigentliche Thema innerhalb der Kognition bei Tieren selber nach eigenem Interesse eingeschränkt werden kann, z.B. Soziale Kognition, Soziales Lernen, Erinnern, Schlussfolgern, Kommunikation.
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Beschreibung: "There is inconsistent evidence whether the ability to retain visual objects over the short-term can be increased by long-term knowledge. The aim of the thesis is to review conflicting results, look for similarities and differences between them and find a hypothesis, which could explain them. The thesis can be written in English or German."
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Beschreibung: Working memory is considered the blackboard of thought: it holds the information one needs to the moment to moment cognition. Working memory capacity is limited, hence limiting our ability to perform complex cognitive tasks. It is well known that performance in working memory tasks decline in the course of normal healthy aging. The causes of this decline are however not clear, with many hypotheses being advanced to explain for this decline. The goal of the current thesis is to review the explanations of age impairments in working memory, to assess the empirical evidence supporting and challenging these explanations, with the goal of identifying non-tested assumptions that could be used to distinguish between competing hypotheses.
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Beschreibung: Research suggests that we can store a small number of items in working memory, from where they can be more effectively accessed than information that is held in long-term memory. The aim of this project will be to investigate and review research into whether and how the similarity of items held in working memory affects their storage and retrieval. Relevant questions may include: 1. To what extent does inter-item similarity affect the precision of working memory representations? 2. Does inter-item similarity affect the resources we allocate to item maintenance?
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Beschreibung: Working memory is theorised to have considerable overlap with the construct of intelligence (usually operationalised as intelligence quotient, or IQ). This project will focus on the relationship between the two. For instance, it may involve identifying and comparing theories about the exact nature of this relationship, trying to determine whether working memory is important for all (or just some) components of intelligence, and investigating whether (and to what extent) all aspects of working memory use are reflected in intelligence test components.
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Beschreibung: The short-term maintenance of information in working memory is often accompanied by the overt or covert repetition of the information to oneself. This behavior is known as rehearsal. Rehearsal is a common strategy reported by participants of memory experiments. Most models of working memory have incorporated rehearsal in the form of either sub-vocal repetition of verbal material (articulatory rehearsal), deeper encoding of information (elaborative rehearsal), or by focusing attention on memory contents (attentional refreshing). Rehearsal has been ascribed at least two causal roles on memory: (1) restoration of degraded representations in working memory, and (2) transfer of memory traces from a transient form (short-term or working memory) to a more durable form (long-term memory). Empirically, the effect of different forms of rehearsal upon memory over short and long times is under-determined. The goal of this thesis is to look for possible ways in which rehearsal could impact memory performance taking, on the one hand, the current empirical evidence, and, in the other hand, possible cognitive computational implementations of rehearsal.
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Beschreibung: preferrably in English, but German is also possible.
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Beschreibung: preferrably in English, but German is possible as well.
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Beschreibung: preferably in English, but German is possible as well.
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