Date of Award

Spring 5-5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Andrew Engell

Abstract

Several cognitive tasks, such as cognitive control and episodic memory, have been associated with frontal-midline theta (4-8 Hz) power. However, it is unclear if the theta power observed at this location across tasks is due to task-specific or common cognitive mechanisms. The traditional local approach of analyzing one or two frontal-midline electrode sites potentially excludes information distributed across the scalp that might help clarify this question. To address this limitation, the current study uses multivariate classification to investigate the distributed patterns of theta across the scalp during both a cognitive control and an episodic memory task. Consistent with prior reports, significant differences in theta power were observed at frontal-midline sites for both cognitive tasks. Importantly, conditions were also successfully differentiated within each task using theta oscillations from every electrode across the scalp in multivariate classification. However, multivariate cross-classification between tasks was unsuccessful. These results suggest that the frontal-midline theta observed in both cognitive control and episodic memory tasks does not reflect engagement of a common cognitive process. Rather, differences in frontal-midline theta power is part of a unique global response associated with each task.

Rights Statement

All rights reserved. This copy is provided to the Kenyon Community solely for individual academic use. For any other use, please contact the copyright holder for permission.

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