ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All of the friends I’ve had since I’ve worked on this dissertation have given me great support. There are too many to name individually, but I thank you all. However some folks in particular have helped me enormously and in particularly tangible ways: my committee members Ron Ferguson and Hari Narayanan, my parents, James and Janet Davies, for their love and support, Jennifer Rivlin Roberts, for being a great statistician and friend, David Craig for the use of his data, Richard Catrambone, for help with the experiment, my psychology advisor Dorrit O. Billman, and Patrick Yaner. Most of all I would like to thank my advisors and mentors Ashok K. Goel and Nancy J. Nersessian. Through conversations over the years they have presented me with a great deal of their wisdom. I will be forever grateful for the little bit that has stuck. iii TABLE OF CONTENT