Digital Commons Network^™

Canvassing Generations: Art Through Postmemory, Julianne Norton

Holster Scholar Projects

Investigated the legitimacy if postmemory, its relationship with art, and completed a creative project addressing the four generations of artists leading to the Norton family. What is postmemory? How does artwork allow for the conceptualization of memory? The research supported the existence of postmemory and led to an increased understanding, analyzing, and recreation of artwork from each of the previous four generations. This artwork served as a tangible form of my own postmemory.

Perceived Control And Adjustment: A Comparison Of Bereavement And Relationship Dissolution, Sara B. Greenberg

Honors Scholar Theses

The current study investigates the relationship between perceived control and adjustment across a comparison of two events; bereavement (n = 83) and relationship dissolution (n = 75). These events occurred in the six months prior to the study. Perceived control was assessed in terms of personal control, control of other forces, and control of a higher power, and how much control each had over the loss experienced. Adjustment was assessed in terms of current symptoms of distress (i.e., intrusion and avoidance), stress-related growth, positive states of mind, and life satisfaction. The relations between perceived control and adjustment differed …

Young Adult Cancer Survivors' Satisfaction With Interpersonal Life Changes, Kelly J. Foy

Honors Scholar Theses

This study looked at the life satisfaction of young adult cancer survivors in comparison to adult cancer survivors. Satisfaction was focused on three separate domains: romantic relationships, fertility and sexuality, and family and friendships. 292 participants completed the survey, which included measures such as the Zebrack Cancer Impact Scale, the Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index, the Post-Traumatic Growth Scale, and a new measure developed for this study. Bivariate correlation analyses were used to identify significant relationships among the domains. It was determined that there was no significant difference between young adult cancer survivors and adult cancer survivors in …

Longitudinal Changes In Pronoun Reversals In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Typically Developing Children, Michelle Cheng

Honors Scholar Theses

Pronoun reversals occur when a pronoun is incorrectly mapped to the wrong referent. For example, when a child says, “You eat the cookie!” and intended to state that he is eating a cookie. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, are known to be frequent reversers, but their development of these reversals; for example, incidence rate and endpoint, is still unknown. In this study, children interacted with their mothers in a 30-minute play session and their spontaneous pronoun usage were coded for the perspective of the pronoun, type of reversal, and case errors. Children with ASD to their typically developing (TD) …

Beliefs And Coping With Life Stress Among Uconn Students, John Paul Beninato

Honors Scholar Theses

Previous studies of religion and coping have looked at how an event can strengthen or weaken beliefs. However, few studies have explicitly examined the linkages between beliefs, coping strategies, and well-being. In an attempt to look at this more closely, the present study surveyed 193 undergraduates that believe or do not believe in God to see how they report coping with stress. The relationships between beliefs in God, worldview beliefs, different levels of life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and coping methods after a stressful event were also assessed in this study. We expected that stronger beliefs in a benevolent world, control, …

Using Music To Study: Variables That Affect A Student's Incorporation Of Music In Their Academic World, Kelly Perez

Honors Scholar Theses

This study reports relationships made between a student’s personality and his or her preferences to use music while studying. Other behaviors regarding music in a non-academic setting are also discussed. Data from 67 participants suggest that highly organized individuals show a tendency to use music for studying and to make use of playlists they created. They use music to enhance their mood. Many of the dimensions that describe agreeable people are related to using music for academic purposes, but also highly correlated to studying with other people. The results suggest that the way we use music in our lives is …

Habituation Effect In Attention Modification Training For Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Olivia E. Bogucki

Honors Scholar Theses

Attention biases influence the type of information that captures an individual’s attention. Cognitive theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) state that attention biases cause an increased amount of attention to personally relevant threatening information. Previous studies support this connection, and have examined attention modification training (AMT) as a means to direct attention away from threatening information for various anxiety disorders, including OCD. Results show that attention biases toward threatening information decrease during a single training session of AMT, which may be a result of habituation to threat. However, there is a lack of longitudinal data investigating the number of AMT sessions …

Young Black Children's Representations Of The Father Figure In Low-Income Households, Shawnae Shalae Thompson

Honors Scholar Theses

This study investigated the cognitive-emotional schemas surrounding the father role in 50 young, low-income, Black children in relation to the amount of father involvement in the first 5 years of their lives. These representations were framed within four parenting categories: Nice, Mean, Authoritative, and Authoritarian. Diana Baumrind’s parenting style framework was utilized to create the Authoritative and Authoritarian parenting categories. This question was investigated in low-income families; the impact of gender of the child was also considered. Information on fathers’ involvements in the children’s lives were gathered through interviews and self-reports from the children’s fathers and mothers. Story Stem Narrative …

Honors Retention: The Persistence Of Juniors And Seniors In The Honors Program Through Examination Of Commitment To Completion Of Honors Thesis, Amy A. Holland

Honors Scholar Theses

The goal of the Honors Program is to engage intellectually stimulated students in a unique, challenging experience culminating in the writing of an undergraduate thesis, a piece of scholarly work. The four elements to the mission of the Honors Program include challenging academics, a scholarly environment, a supportive community, and on-campus engagement. This study conducted a qualitative assessment of the Honors Program through written questionnaires and oral interviews of ten juniors or seniors either completing an Honors Thesis or not committed to the Thesis. This research did not find significant differences between these two groups due in part to small …

Childhood Sexual Abuse And Social Functioning: A Systematic Review Of Reviews, Evan Alden Leclair

Honors Scholar Theses

Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) has been widely studied for its effects in later life. Previous reviews of these studies have identified CSA as a risk factor for dysfunctions in later life such as risky sex, depression, teenage pregnancy, drug use, sexual re-victimization, and health disorders. This project systematically reviews the state of systematic reviews and meta-analyses addressing the link between CSA and social functioning in later life for men and women. Systematic reviewing and meta-analysis both apply scientific methods to gather and evaluate empirical evidence. The quality of reviews can vary, leaving the conclusions of poor reviews untrustworthy. The current …

Ketamine Can Disrupt Episodic Memory (Hours To Days) Consolidation: Effects Of Varying Dose And Retention Intervals, Ryan Darius Tabtabai

Honors Scholar Theses

Memory consolidation is the process wherein short-term, episodic memories are converted into stable, long-term representations. Forebrain N-methy-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), particularly frontal cortical and hippocampal receptors, are thought to play a key role in neuronal plasticity and memory consolidation. Ketamine is an NMDA antagonist that disrupts memory, particularly encoding and retrieval processes. Previously we have observed no effect of post-acquisition ketamine treatment (50-100 mg/kg) on memory consolidation in rats performing a delayed-match-to place radial water maze task. The current study reexamined the effects of ketamine (25-100 mg/kg) on memory consolidation in this task over varying retention intervals (4, 24, and 48 …

Adenosine-Dopamine Interactions In The Open Field Arena: Studies Related To Locomotion And Anxiety, Rothem Kovner

Honors Scholar Theses

Nucleus accumbens dopamine (DA) is an important regulator of locomotion. The neuromodulator adenosine also has a role in regulating locomotion. The adenosine A_2A receptor subtype is colocalized with DA D2 receptors on medium spiny neurons in the striatum and nucleus accumbens. Interactions between adenosine A_2A and DA D2 receptor antagonists are significant for regulating various aspects of motor and motivational function. The adenosine A_2A antagonist MSX-3 has been shown to reverse the suppression of locomotion induced by the DA D2 antagonist eticlopride. The structure of MSX-3 was modified to produce the prodrug MSX-4 which has high oral …

Hippocampal Theta And Gamma: Effects Of Aging, Environmental Change, Cholinergic Activation And Learning, Matthew D. Howe

Honors Scholar Theses

During aging, hippocampal functioning is impaired; specifically aged humans and rats show reduced performance on spatial memory tasks. An age-related reduction in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine has been postulated to underlie this impairment. Rhythmic oscillations (theta, gamma) may serve to synchronize activity within the hippocampus and across the brain during learning; these may also change with aging.

To determine what aspects of oscillation are important for memory processing, the effects of aging, encountering a novel situation, learning a new task and cholinergic system activation (with physostigmine) were examined. Both age groups showed increased theta, but not gamma activity when encoding a …

Effort-Related Choice Behavior Is Affected By Pharmacological Manipulations Associated With Depression: The Effects Of Tetrabenazine, Megan Huizenga

Honors Scholar Theses

In humans, psychiatric symptoms such as anergia and psychomotor retardation reflect pathologies in behavioral activation. These motivational symptoms are fundamental aspects of depression and other disorders. Drugs such as reserpine and tetrabenazine deplete monoamines, including dopamine, and induce depressive like behaviors in humans. Our results indicate that administration of low doses of tetrabenazine can alter effort-related choice behavior, biasing animals towards low effort alternatives. These findings may be related to the ability of monoamine depleting agents such as tetrabenazine to blunt behavioral activation and induce psychomotor retardation, anergia and fatigue in humans, and this research could be useful for the …