Digital Commons Network^™

The Perception Of Children As Reliable Eyewitnesses, Shelby Mcdonald

Psychology Student Papers and Posters

Eyewitness accounts have been integral to the criminal justice system. However, given that not every criminal case has forensic evidence that is available or admissible, the reliance on eyewitness accounts conjures questions about believability. This is an important area of research because the over-belief of witnesses may lead to wrongful convictions, yet under-belief may leave the victim without justice. The current study investigated how child-witness age, race, role as a witness (bystander versus victim), and the gender of the juror influenced the perception of child eyewitnesses through the lens of the Witness Credibility Model. Participants were presented with the testimony …

Mementos And The Endowment Effect, Charlene K. Chu, Suzanne B. Shu

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This research provides evidence for a new moderator of the endowment effect: having a memento of the endowed object. Three studies adapting classic endowment effect paradigms and using a variety of endowment objects and mementos demonstrate that having a memento of an endowment increases willingness to trade the endowment and decreases selling prices for the endowment. We provide evidence that mementos attenuate the endowment effect regardless of whether the memento is a separate small gain when facing the loss of the endowment or a small part of the original endowment that is kept. Examining mementos in context of the endowment …

The Role Of Ethnicity And Nativity In The Correspondence Between Subjective And Objective Measures Of In-Home Smoking, Vincent Berardi, Georgiana Bostean, Lydia Q. Ong, Britney S. Wong, Bradley N. Collins, Melbourne F. Hovell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Studies are needed to understand the association between self-reported home smoking bans and objective measures of in-home smoking according to smokers’ ethnicity/nativity. Data came from a trial that used air particle monitors to reduce children’s secondhand smoke exposure in smokers’ households (N = 251). Linear regressions modeled (a) full home smoking bans by ethnicity/nativity, and (b) objectively measured in-home smoking events, predicted by main and interaction effects of self-reported home smoking bans and ethnicity/nativity. Among smokers reporting < a full ban, US-born and Foreign-born Latinos had fewer in-home smoking events than US-born Whites (p < 0.001). Participants who reported a full smoking ban had a similar frequency of smoking events regardless of ethnicity/nativity. Results indicate that self-reported home smoking bans can be used as a proxy for in-home smoking. Establishing smoking bans in the households of US-born White smokers has the largest impact on potential exposure compared to other ethnicity/nativity groups.

Body Swapping With A Black Person Boosts Empathy: Using Virtual Reality To Embody Another, Rémi Thériault, Jay A. Olson, Sonia A. Krol, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Perspective-taking, whether through imagination or virtual-reality interventions, seems to improve intergroup relations; however, which intervention leads to better outcomes remains unclear. This preregistered study collected measures of empathy and race bias from 90 participants, split into one of three perspective-taking groups: embodied perspective-taking, mental perspective-taking, and a control group. We drew on virtual-reality technology alongside a Black confederate across all conditions. Only in the first group, participants got to exchange real-time viewpoints with the confederate and literally “see through the eyes of another.” In the two other conditions, participants either imagined a day in the life of the Black confederate …

Qanon: The Effects Of Radical Ideology On Conspiracy Belief, Sam Andrus

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The study of conspiracy theories has existed for many decades, however, a new species of conspiracy, labeled QAnon, has surfaced in recent years - QAnon theories are directly tied to current radical politics and former President Donald Trump. My research will aim to explain how the outlandish and often racist beliefs of QAnon followers have come to be not only believed but have affected so many people that a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol occurred as a result. My research will include analysis of the Chapman Survey of American Fears which includes people on both sides of the …

Cannabis Use, Sedentary Behavior, And Physical Activity In A Nationally Representative Sample Of Us Adults, Lydia Q. Ong, John Belletierre, Citlali Alvorado, Paul Chavez, Vincent Berardi

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Prior research examining the relationship between cannabis use, sedentary behavior, and physical activity has generated conflicting findings, potentially due to biases in the self-reported measures used to assess physical activity. This study aimed to more precisely explore the relationship between cannabis use and sedentary behavior/physical activity using objective measures.

Methods

Data were obtained from the 2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A total of 2,092 participants (ages 20–59; 48.8% female) had accelerometer-measured sedentary behavior, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Participants were classified as light, moderate, frequent, or non-current cannabis users depending on how often they used …

Exploring The Spirit In U.S. Audiences: The Role Of The Virtue Of Transcendence In Inspiring Media Consumption, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Arthur A. Raney, Mary Beth Oliver, Katherine R. Dale, Robert P. Jones, Daniel Cox

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Little is yet known about audiences who routinely seek out media content that is inspirational in nature. The current study expands the research on inspirational media by utilizing a nationally representative sample of U.S. audiences (n = 2,016) to explore relationships between inspiring media exposure, trait transcendence, and self-transcendent emotions. Results show that media content is a reliable source for everyday self-transcendent emotional experiences in U.S. audiences. These experiences are most frequently encountered by persons with high levels of trait spirituality and gratitude. The profile of U.S. audiences that seek out inspiring media is discussed.

Rationale, Design, And Baseline Characteristics Of Walkit Arizona: A Factorial Randomized Trial Testing Adaptive Goals And Financial Reinforcement To Increase Walking Across Higher And Lower Walkable Neighborhoods, Marc A. Adams, Jane Hurley, Christine Phillips, Michael Todd, Siddhartha Angadi, Vincent Berardi, Melbourne F. Hovell, Steven Hooker

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Little change over the decades has been seen in adults meeting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) guidelines. Numerous individual-level interventions to increase MVPA have been designed, mostly static interventions without consideration for neighborhood context. Recent technologies make adaptive interventions for MVPA feasible. Unlike static interventions, adaptive intervention components (e.g., goal setting) adjust frequently to an individual's performance. Such technologies also allow for more precise delivery of “smaller, sooner incentives” that may result in greater MVPA than “larger, later incentives”. Combined, these factors could enhance MVPA adoption. Additionally, a central tenet of ecological models is that MVPA is sensitive to neighborhood environment …

Paper Prototyping Comfortable Vr Play For Diverse Sensory Needs, Louanne E. Boyd, Kendra Day, Ben Wasserman, Kaitlyn Abdo, Gillian Hayes, Erik J. Linstead

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We co-designed paper prototype dashboards for virtual environments for three children with diverse sensory needs. Our goal was to determine individual interaction styles in order to enable comfortable and inclusive play. As a first step towards an inclusive virtual world, we began with designing for three sensory-diverse children who have labels of neurotypical, ADHD, and autism respectively. We focused on their leisure interests and their individual sensory profiles. We present the results of co-design with family members and paper prototyping sessions conducted by family members with the children. The results contribute preliminary empirical findings for accommodating different levels of engagement …

Delay Discount Rate Moderates A Physical Activity Intervention Testing Immediate Rewards, Christine B. Phillips, Jane C. Hurley, Siddhartha S. Angadi, Michael Todd, Vincent Berardi, Melbourne Hovell, Marc A. Adams

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Financial incentives can increase physical activity (PA), but differences in the immediacy of reward delivery and individual differences in delay discount rates (i.e., higher discount values associated with less tolerance for delayed rewards) may explain differential responding. The current study tested whether delay discount rate moderated the relative effectiveness of immediate financial rewards on increasing daily PA. Inactive, overweight adults (ages 18–60, N = 96) were randomized to receive either smaller, immediate goal-contingent rewards or larger, delayed rewards for participation. Delay discount rates were derived for those who completed the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (N = 85). Linear mixed models tested …

Prompts To Increase Physical Activity At Points-Of-Choice Between Stairs And Escalators: What About Escalator Climbers?, John Belletierre, Ben Nguyen, Sandy Liles, Vincent Berardi, Marc A. Adams, Paddy Dempsey, Yael Benporat, Jacqueline Kerr, Andrea Z. Lacroix, Melbourne Hovell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Since 1980, many studies have evaluated whether stair-use prompts increased physical activity by quantifying changes in stair use. To more completely evaluate changes in physical activity, this study addressed the often-overlooked assessment of climbing up escalators by evaluating the degree to which stair-use sign prompts increased active ascent—defined as stair use or escalator climbing. Over 5 months, at an airport stairs/escalator point of choice, we video-recorded passersby (N = 13,544) who ascended either stairs or escalators, on 10 days with signs and 10 days without signs. Ascenders using the stairs, standing on the escalator, and climbing the escalator were …

Treating Adhd With Suggestion: Neurofeedback And Placebo Therapeutics, Robert T. Thibault, Samuel Vassière, Jay A. Olson, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: We propose that clinicians can use suggestion to help treat conditions such as ADHD. Methods: We use EEG neurofeedback as a case study, alongside evidence from a recent pilot experiment utilizing a sham MRI scanner to highlight the therapeutic potential of suggestion-based treatments. Results: The medical literature demonstrates that many practitioners already prescribe treatments that hardly outperform placebo comparators. Moreover, the sham MRI experiment showed that, even with full disclosure of the procedure, suggestion alone can reduce the symptomatology of ADHD. Conclusion: Non-deceptive suggestion-based treatments, especially those drawing on accessories from neuroscience, may offer a safe complement and potential …

Finding Meaning At Work: The Role Of Inspiring And Funny Youtube Videos On Work-Related Well-Being, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Diana Rieger, Winston Connor Iii

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Watching online videos on social media is a common activity in today’s digital age, but its’ impact on employee well-being at work has not been investigated yet. The current study tried to fill this gap by investigating the role hedonic and eudaimonic online videos play on employee’s stress levels and well-being at work. An online experiment with 200 full time employees in the US was conducted exploring the role of inspiring affect and positive affect on three distinct well-being outcomes: subjective well-being, psychological well-being and social well-being at the workplace. A path model suggests unique effects for inspiring videos on …

Volition And Action In The Human Brain: Processes, Pathologies, And Reasons, Itzhak Fried, Patrick Haggard, Biyu J. He, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans seem to decide for themselves what to do, and when to do it. This distinctive capacity may emerge from an ability, shared with other animals, to make decisions for action that are related to future goals, or at least free from the constraints of immediate environmental inputs. Studying such volitional acts proves a major challenge for neuroscience. This review highlights key mechanisms in the generation of voluntary, as opposed to stimulus-driven actions, and highlights three issues. The first part focuses on the apparent spontaneity of voluntary action. The second part focuses on one of the most distinctive, but elusive, …

Entrainment Of Voluntary Movement To Undetected Auditory Regularities, Aaron Schurger, Nathan Faivre, Leila Cammoun, Bianca Trovó, Olaf Blanke

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In physics “entrainment” refers to the synchronization of two coupled oscillators with similar fundamental frequencies. In behavioral science, entrainment refers to the tendency of humans to synchronize their movements with rhythmic stimuli. Here, we asked whether human subjects performing a tapping task would entrain their tapping to an undetected auditory rhythm surreptitiously introduced in the guise of ambient background noise in the room. Subjects performed two different tasks, one in which they tapped their finger at a steady rate of their own choosing and one in which they performed a single abrupt finger tap on each trial after a delay …

Ask The Pendulum: Personality Predictors Of Ideomotor Performance, Jay A. Olson, Ewalina Jeyanesan, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

For centuries, people have asked questions to hand-held pendulums and interpreted their movements as responses from the divine. These movements occur due to the ideomotor effect, wherein priming or thinking of a motion causes muscle movements that end up swinging the pendulum. By associating particular swinging movements with “yes” and “no” responses, we investigated whether pendulums can aid decision-making and which personality traits correlate with this performance. Participants (N=80) completed a visual detection task in which they searched for a target letter among rapidly presented characters. In the verbal condition, participants stated whether they saw the target in each trial. …

Entertainment-Education Videos As A Persuasive Tool In The Substance Use Prevention Intervention "Keepin' It Real", Youngju Shin, Michelle Miller-Day, Michael L. Hecht, Janice L. Krieger

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Based on social cognitive theory and narrative engagement theory, the current study examined hypothesized indirect effects of engagement with keepin’ it REAL (kiR) curriculum entertainment–education (E–E) videos on youth alcohol use via youth drug offer refusal efficacy. Students in 7th grade (N = 1,464) at 25 public schools in two Midwestern states were randomly assigned to one of the two versions of the kiR curriculum, the kiR urban version and the kiR rural version. Each version had their own set of five culturally-grounded E–E videos depicting communicative skills to refuse drug offers. Differential effects for engagement components …

Psychological Abuse, Mental Health, And Acceptance Of Dating Violence Among Adolescents, Jeff R. Temple, Hye Jeong Choi, Joanna Elmquist, Michael L. Hecht, Michelle Miller-Day, Gregory L. Stuart, Meagan Brem, Caitlin Wolford-Clevenger

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

Existing literature indicates that acceptance of dating violence is a significant and robust risk factor for psychological dating abuse perpetration. Past work also indicates a significant relationship between psychological dating abuse perpetration and poor mental health. However, no known research has examined the relationship between acceptance of dating violence, perpetration of dating abuse, and mental health. In addition to exploring this complex relationship, the present study examines whether psychological abuse perpetration mediates the relationship between acceptance of dating violence and mental health (i.e., internalizing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hostility).

Methods

Three waves of longitudinal data were obtained from …

Paradoxical Interaction Between Ocular Activity, Perception, And Decision Confidence At The Threshold Of Vision, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In humans and some other species perceptual decision-making is complemented by the ability to make confidence judgements about the certainty of sensory evidence. While both forms of decision process have been studied empirically, the precise relationship between them remains poorly understood. We performed an experiment that combined a perceptual decision-making task (identifying the category of a faint visual stimulus) with a confidence-judgement task (wagering on the accuracy of each perceptual decision). The visual stimulation paradigm required steady fixation, so we used eye-tracking to control for stray eye movements. Our data analyses revealed an unexpected and counterintuitive interaction between the steadiness …

A Preliminary Study Of Distracted Driving, Sarina Karwande, Ashley Nieto, Lauren Rhodes

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report distracted driving is a “problem on the rise” with increasing numbers injuries and deaths each year. More than 9 people are killed each day while more than 1,153 people are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. Specifically, the number one killer of adolescents (ages 15-24) is automobile related deaths due to distracted driving. One of the most dangerous forms of distracted driving is texting while driving because it combines all three types of distraction: visual, manual, and cognitive. Texting and driving is a growing public safety hazard as seen through media and …

On Reporting The Onset Of The Intention To Move, Uri Maoz, Liad Mudrik, Ram Rivlin, Ian Ross, Adam Mamelak, Gideon Yaffe

Psychology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In 1965, Hans Kornhuber and Luder Deecke made a discovery that greatly influenced the study of voluntary action. Using electroencephalography (EEG), they showed that when aligning some tens of trials to movement onset and averaging, a slowly decreasing electrical potential emerges over central regions of the brain. It starts 1 second ( s) or so before the onset of the voluntary action1 and continues until shortly after the action begins. They termed this the Bereitschaftspotential, or readiness potential (RP; Kornhuber & Deecke, 1965).2 This became the first well-established neural marker of voluntary action. In that, the RP allowed for more …

Does Breastfeeding Offer Protection Against Maternal Depressive Symptomatology? A Prospective Study From Pregnancy To 2 Years After Birth, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Martie G. Haselton, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Depression is the leading cause of disability in women (Nobel 2005) and is the most prevalent of all childbearing-related illnesses, affecting approximately 13% of women worldwide within the first 12 [...] Mothers who breastfeed typically exhibit lower levels of depressive symptomatology than mothers who do not. However, very few studies have investigated the directionality of this relationship. Of the prospective studies published, all but one focus exclusively on whether maternal depression reduces rates of subsequent breastfeeding. This study again examines this relationship, but also the reverse--that breastfeeding might predict lower levels of later depression. Using multilevel modeling, we investigated the …

Randomized Clinical Trial Of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cbt) Versus Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (Act) For Mixed Anxiety Disorders, Joanna Arch, Georg Eifert, Carolyn Davies, Jennifer C. Plumb Vilardaga, Raphael D. Rose, Michael G. Craske

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective—Randomized comparisons of acceptance-based treatments with traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders are lacking. To address this research gap, we compared acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to CBT for heterogeneous anxiety disorders.

Method—One hundred twenty eight individuals (52% female, mean age = 38, 33% minority) with one or more DSM-IV anxiety disorders began treatment following randomization to 12 sessions of CBT or ACT; both treatments included behavioral exposure. Assessments at pre-treatment, post-treatment, 6-month, and 12-month follow-up measured anxiety specific (principal disorder Clinical Severity Ratings [CSR], Anxiety Sensitivity Index, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Fear Questionnaire avoidance) and …

The Role Of Self‐Injury In The Organisation Of Behaviour, Curt A. Sandman, Aaron S. Kemp, Christopher Mabini, David Pincus, Magnus Magnusson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background—Self-injuring acts are among the most dramatic behaviours exhibited by human beings. There is no known single cause and there is no universally agreed upon treatment. Sophisticated sequential and temporal analysis of behaviour has provided alternative descriptions of self-injury that provide new insights into its initiation and maintenance.

Method—Forty hours of observations for each of 32 participants were collected in a contiguous two-week period. Twenty categories of behavioural and environmental events were recorded electronically that captured the precise time each observation occurred. Temporal behavioural/ environmental patterns associated with self-injurious events were revealed with a method (tpatterns; THEME) for …

Becoming Happier Takes Both A Will And A Proper Way: An Experimental Longitudinal Intervention To Boost Well-Being, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Rene Dickerhoof, Julia K. Boehm, Kennon M. Sheldon

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

An 8-month-long experimental study examined the immediate and longer term effects of regularly practicing two assigned positive activities (expressing optimism and gratitude) on well-being. More important, this intervention allowed us to explore the impact of two metafactors that are likely to influence the success of any positive activity: whether one self-selects into the study knowing that it is about increasing happiness and whether one invests effort into the activity over time. Our results indicate that initial self-selection makes a difference, but only in the two positive activity conditions, not the control, and that continued effort also makes a difference, but, …

Oxytocin Increases Generosity In Humans, Paul J. Zak, Angela Stanton, Sheila Ahmadi

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Human beings routinely help strangers at costs to themselves. Sometimes the help offered is generous-offering more than the other expects. The proximate mechanisms supporting generosity are not well-understood, but several lines of research suggest a role for empathy. In this study, participants were infused with 40 IU oxytocin (OT) or placebo and engaged in a blinded, one-shot decision on how to split a sum of money with a stranger that could be rejected. Those on OT were 80% more generous than those given a placebo. OT had no effect on a unilateral monetary transfer task dissociating generosity from altruism. OT …