Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Publication Date
Spring 5-1-2023
Journal
Undergraduate Honours Theses
Abstract
Previous research has suggested that increasing cognitive fatigue (CF) may facilitate implicit learning, including statistical learning (SL). The present study assessed whether this relationship between CF and SL is dependent on other factors known to interact with learning efficacy and susceptibility to CF – namely, age and the personality trait Need for Cognition (NFC). The study included 71 older participants (aged 55 years or older) and 95 younger participants (aged between 18 and 30). Participants were recruited into either a control group or a CF group, with all participants completing explicit and implicit assessments of SL. Results showed that SL occurred in both explicit and implicit forms. There were no significant differences in SL performance between age groups or conditions, although younger participants marginally outperformed older participants. There was, however, a significant difference between participants with high and low NFC scores, with high NFC participants having better performance in a SL task than those with low NFC scores. The study also found a borderline significant interaction effect between conditions and NFC in implicit SL. Participants with low NFC scores performed worse when fatigued compared to low NFC participants in the control condition, while high NFC participants had better performance when fatigued compared to high NFC participants in the control condition. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Notes
Thesis Advisor(s): Dr. Stephen Van Hedger