Browsing by Subject "Contagion"
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Item Children's and adults' conceptions of authentic objects and the role of authenticity in learning(2016-08) Miller, Brooke Jessica; Woolley, Jacqueline D.; Bigler, Rebecca; Echols, Catherine; Reeves, Lauretta; Owen, Pamela; Seales, ChadQuestions concerning the level of authenticity of an object are of primary importance in many fields. For historians, archeologists, and museum workers, such questions go hand in hand with the way objects are usually found: broken, discolored, and of unknown origin. Even so, psychological research on authenticity tends to ignore the idea that authenticity is not a ‘perfect’ feature within an object, instead presenting a false dichotomy between completely authentic and completely inauthentic objects. In a series of studies the following questions were addressed: (1) How do children compare and contrast objects with different kinds of authenticity, (2) What qualities must an object have in order for children and adults to consider it to be authentic, and (3) What role might authenticity play in learning as it relates to exposure to authentic versus inauthentic objects? These questions were addressed in three studies that make up this dissertation.Item Contagious agendas : the spread of issue attention in the policy process(2015-08) Thomas, Herschel Fred III; Jones, Bryan D.; Baumgartner, Frank R; Wlezien, Chris; Roberts, Brian E; Theriault, Sean MThis dissertation is a study of contagion effects in policymaking. The policy process behaves in many ways like a complex system, which is characterized by communication among actors, dynamic interaction, and evolution in behavior over time. As a result, the attention of policy elites rapidly jumps from issue to issue as they struggle to address an array of pressing issues and problems simultaneously. I argue that a process of issue contagion explains these rapid changes as policy elites are highly interdependent actors who are subject to cognitive limits, have incentives to closely monitor the political environment, and frequently mimic the behavior of their peers. Drawing on the methods of computational social science, I build a simulation model of agenda-setting behavior and examine issue contagion through an experimental research design. I test the empirical implications of the model by applying it to real-world datasets—from the disclosed lobbying activity of organized interests to the bill introductions of members of Congress. The core contribution of the project is that patterns in attention to policy issues are a function of a contagion process generated by cue-taking behavior among elites.