Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Cognitive Model of Voting and New Issues

由唐斯提出并被许多学者扩展的投票空间模型是旨在解释政治行为的理论的基准。 然而，反对这一理论的假设和预测的证据正在积累。 此外，空间理论还没有适应解释认知科学、神经网络和人工智能领域的新发现。 这项研究测试了PI开发的记忆和注意力的动态模型，因为它为投票行为的替代模型提供了信息。 通过关注新问题在选民决策中的作用，该理论将在一个传统空间理论几乎没有发言权的领域进行测试：选民受到新信息影响的动荡环境。 300名市民将参加一系列受控实验，这些实验将提供替代的暴露条件和替代的内容。

The spatial model of voting proposed by Downs and extended by many scholars is a benchmark for theories purporting to explain political behavior. Yet evidence against the assumptions and predictions of this theory is accumulating. Further, spatial theory has not adapted to account for new findings in the fields of cognitive science, neural networks and artificial intelligence. This research tests a dynamic model of memory and attention, developed by the PI, as it informs alternative models of voting behavior. By focusing attention on the role of new issues in voter decision making, the theory will be tested in an area that traditional spatial theory has little to say: volatile environments where voters are subjected to new information. Three hundred citizens will participate in a series of controlled experiments that present alternative exposure conditions and atlternative contents.***