Digital Commons Network^™

Acceptability Study And Pilot Rct Of A Guide To Understanding Reproductive Health For Ladeez (Gurhl) Code: An Hiv Risk Reduction App Intervention For Black And Latina Young Women In New York City, Sonia K. Gonzalez Gladstein

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Young Black and Latina women suffer from higher sexually transmitted disease (STD) incidences than White women, increasing their susceptibility to contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The adoption and widespread usage of mobile devices has contributed to the public’s ability to access available information at all hours, including information on sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Despite a growing body of mobile health literature, there is limited understanding of how mobile-based sexual and reproductive health interventions for use by young adult Black and Latina women could improve sexual health knowledge and connection to clinical care.

Methods: This pilot randomized controlled trial …

Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries And Their Implications On Changes In Event Related Potentials: A Look Into Visual Gating (P50), Katelynn M. Kozak

Dissertations and Theses

Concussions are a prevalent injury that affect a wide range of individuals. Commonly seen amongst individuals who play contact sports, there are many underlying factors that doctors and clinicians have yet to understand which include properties such as proper diagnosis standards or lasting impacts. In this study, we look at those impacts by using electroencephalographic (EEG) measures to study the changes in event related potentials (ERPs) associated with sensory gating and how this cognitive property is affected in those who have a self-reported concussion. Here we show that a visual attention and gating mechanism exists in both populations (control and …

Dimension Reduction On Measures Of Impulsivity, Christina T. Schulz

Dissertations and Theses

The main focus of this study was twofold: the first purpose being the assessment of convergent validity on six different measures of impulsivity, and the second being a comparison of dimension reduction techniques for quantitative data. Results from a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) were compared with results from a novel dimension technique known as Local Linear Embedding (LLE). LLE is an analysis of dimension reduction for nonlinear, high dimensional data. By computing neighborhood preserving embeddings, LLE aims to map newly constructed coordinates into a global coordinate structure of a lower dimension. Past research using LLE has solely been conducted on …

Making Smart Choices When Faced With Risk: The Role Of Interoceptive Awareness And Life Stress On Implicit Learning., Ronald A. Nicholson

Dissertations and Theses

In complex situations where there is an unclear link between the available options and an advantageous outcome, visceral signals of arousal play a role in decision-making. Perception of the body’s various visceral signals is called interoceptive awareness (IA). Exposure to stressful events can impede the production and perception of these signals, leading to a potentially impaired perception of risk and impeded decision-making. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the impact of life event stress on IA, or how both of these factors may influence the dynamic process of decision-making during risk. To address this gap the current study …

Well-Being And Academic Performance In Immigrant Students: The Role Of Inequality Of Country Of Origin And Resilience, Yumiko Yamaguchi

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

Research on the psychology of immigrants has primarily focused on their socioeconomic status, but has not factored in macroeconomic indicators. These provide a deeper understanding of the stressors experienced by immigrants through the lens of cultural gaps between home and host countries. This study examined predictors of psychological well-being (PWB) and academic performance among 376 immigrant college students by employing Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of development (1994) consisting of four levels of environmental factors: Macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem. The results revealed that higher PWB was predicted by mesosystem variables (lower perceived stress, lower acculturative stress) and microsystem variables (higher …

The Behavioral And Electrophysiological Effects Of Discrimination And Inhibition Training On Visual Selective Attention: An Erp And Time-Frequency Analysis, Arooj Abid

Dissertations and Theses

Enhancement of task relevant information and the suppression of task irrelevant information are the two co-occurring mechanisms of selective attention. Studies have shown that ERP components (specifically N2, P3, and RP) and the alpha band (8-14 Hz) rhythm correspond to neural mechanisms and processes of visual selective attention, especially conflict resolution. Tested by a modified version of the visual flanker task, a conflict task employing inhibitory control, two groups of healthy adults were exposed to three weeks of cognitive training; either discrimination training (trained to discriminate target orientation) or inhibition training (trained to ignore interfering distractors) to investigate whether training …