Digital Commons Network^™

Attention Bias To Climate Change Images Following Emotional Inducements Of Pride And Guilt, Caleb W. Coughtry-Carpenter

All NMU Master's Theses

Climate change is the most important issue facing modern day humans, and the solutions are not developing at a quick enough rate. In many cases, human-derived climate effects have crossed the threshold to becoming irreversible, and, as we remain inactive, are continuing to worsen as mitigating steps are not taken. Some of the most devastating effects facing humans include rising sea levels that threaten to flood coastal regions, and heatwaves of heightened intensity which threaten access to potable water and loss of food crops. Humans are not the only victims of climate change. Ecosystems are also greatly threatened by climate …

Resting-State Functional Connectivity Correlates Of Attentional Bias In An Emotional Free Viewing Paradigm: An Eye-Tracking Investigation, Andrew Hauler

All NMU Master's Theses

Threat detection, the process of searching complex environments for harmful stimuli, represents a vastly important job that promotes the biological fitness of the organism. Decades of experimental evidence suggests individuals either diagnosed, or at risk for, affective disorders display altered patterns of attentional engagement (hypervigilance or maintenance) with external stimuli; referred to as attentional biases. To date, the extent to which underlying neural mechanisms drive attentional biases, both in affective disorders as well as unselected populations, remain to be resolved. Thus, using eye-tracking and a passive emotional free viewing task, this study set to clarify resting-state network contributions from three …

Teaching Perspective Taking Skills To Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Mitchell Cox

All NMU Master's Theses

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often lack perspective taking skills as evidenced by deficits in social communication and social interaction. The PEAK-T program Deictic: Single-Reversal I and You has previously been utilized to teach and establish singular I-YOU perspective taking repertoires in children with ASD, however no such studies exist for teaching plural WE-THEY perspective taking repertoires. The present study replicated the methods from a previous study (Belisle et al., 2016) to establish simple and single-reversal I-YOU deictic relations, and extended the evaluation to establish simple and single-reversal WE-THEY deictic relations. Of the four participants in this study, …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Flexibility And Rumination: From Laboratory To Daily Life, Cassidy R. Girard

All NMU Master's Theses

Cognitive flexibility has been considered one of the risk factors for anxiety. People with high levels of anxiety tend to stick to more maladaptive strategies such as rumination. The interaction between cognitive flexibility and rumination may help explain the contribution of cognitive flexibility to the development of anxiety. This study investigated the relationship between cognitive flexibility and rumination. Each individual’s level of cognitive flexibility, anxiety, and rumination were measured through questionnaires and computer tasks. Daily changes in emotion and rumination were assessed using the experience sampling method. The results showed interesting relationship between rumination (both trait and momentary) and cognitive …

Measuring Affective Responses To Different Types Of Nature Exposure, Abigail P. Moffett

All NMU Master's Theses

Natural environments provide many physical and physiological benefits for an individual. Examples may include decreased stress levels, increased intrinsic motivations and prosocial behavior, and more. Fueled by the curiosity of the extent to which nature provides these benefits, this study investigated whether pre-existing preference for either waterscape scenes or mountainous scenes, as well as self-reported affective and associative responses to those environmental exposures are possible explanations for the experience of wellbeing when one is exposed to nature. Measures included the Nature Relatedness Scale, State Vitality Scale, Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and a nature preference scale (mountainous vs. waterscape). Nature …

Factors Influencing Attitudes Towards Ex-Offenders, Sydney Mosser

All NMU Master's Theses

Every day, incarcerated individuals are being released back into the general population having served their time. However, these released ex-offenders are 83% likely to re-offend if they are not able to reintegrate properly (Alper et al., 2018). The present research explored how various factors of ex-offenders and community observers could have an influence on attitudes towards ex-offenders upon reintegration. Specifically, we looked at the influence of three manipulated characteristics of a hypothetical ex-offender, race, gender, and age, which were presented to the participant in the form of a vignette. After reading one randomly assigned vignette, the participants were asked to …

The Mental Noise Hypothesis: A Relation Between Neuroticism And P3 Latency Variance In A Stroop-Style Reaction Time Task, Jeremy Lawrence

All NMU Master's Theses

Neuroticism is a relatively stable personality dimension characterized by tendencies to experience negative thoughts and affect. Its empirically related outcome measures range from anxiety and mood disorders to increases in mortality. Traditional theories of neuroticism, link the construct to greater threat sensitivity, however, these conceptions fail to account for certain salient features of neuroticism, such as negative affect in threat benign environments. The mental noise hypothesis posits that neuroticism results from a more variable mental control system, with support coming from behavioral, psychometric, and neuroimaging paradigms. To assess whether this more chaotic mental control system would variably disrupt the stimulus …

Differences Between First-Generation And Continuing-Generation College Students In Psychological Need Fulfillment, Academic Engagement, And Retention, Cole A. Holt

All NMU Master's Theses

First-generation college students (FGCS) often struggle to find academic success unlike continuing-generation college students (CGCS) who often obtain higher GPA by the end of the semester. Using self-determination theory (SDT) as a lens, differences between FGCS and CGCS both at the beginning and end of the semester were investigated. Measures included psychological need fulfillment (autonomy, competence, relatedness), academic self-regulation (relative autonomy index), stress, academic engagement (learning involvement), academic performance (GPA), and retention. Between groups t-tests were used to assess differences in FGCS and CGCS, whereas multiple regression analyses were conducted to test relationships among the measured variables. FGCS reported …

Evaluating The Undesired Outcomes Of Response Interruption And Redirection, Nicole Lafoille

All NMU Master's Theses

Stereotypy is commonly defined as “frequent repetition of the same, typically purposeless movements, gestures, vocal sounds or utterances”, (Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, n.d.) and is a common perseverative behavior that is observed among children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. Stereotypy may result in interference with educational and therapeutic activities for the child. The present study sought to determine if the punishment procedure, response interruption and redirection (RIRD), is effective in reducing stereotypy during natural environment training without demonstrating other undesired behaviors that are associated with punishment procedures, including aggression, avoidance of staff, etc. Results of this study indicated …

In Search Of A Simplified, Objective Attachment Style Assessment: The Attachment Implicit Measure, Lisa Savage

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

IN SEARCH OF A SIMPLIFIED, OBJECTIVE ATTACHMENT STYLE ASSESSMENT: THE ATTACHMENT IMPLICIT MEASURE

By

Lisa M. Savage

Attachment is a lasting bond between two people (Bowlby, 1958). Bonding starts at birth and lasts through the lifetime (Bowlby, 1958). Emotional and social development is impacted by attachment (Bowlby, 1976). Measuring attachment is beneficial to clinical psychologists and psychological research. There are both implicit and explicit measures of attachment. Explicit measures are subject to social desirability and other bias and require a person's honesty and understanding of self. Current implicit measures are lengthy and expensive to administer and score. The development …

Efficacy Of Acceptance And Commitment Training (Act) In A Tele-Health Format To Treat Individuals With An Eating Disorder, Morgan Angel

All NMU Master's Theses

Disordered eating is a serious condition which affects an individual’s mental and physical health (Donaldson & Gordon, 2015; Forney et al., 2016). Patients exhibiting the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder are most commonly treated through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and, more specifically, enhanced CBT (CBT-E). Recent studies have evaluated Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) in reducing disordered eating behaviors and increasing psychological flexibility, demonstrating positive patient outcomes (Berman, Boutelle, & Crow, 2009; Juarascio et al., 2013; Hill et al., 2015; Hill et al., 2020). The purpose of the present study is to further evaluate ACT as an effective treatment …

Cerebellum-Seeded Functional Connectivity Changes In Trait-Anxious Individuals Undergoing Attention Bias Modification Training, Katherine Elwell

All NMU Master's Theses

Anxiety and anxiety related disorders are increasing at a drastic rate in the past decade, with the NIMH reporting that 31.1% of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Anxiety is commonly characterized by increased attention bias to threat. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) is a new treatment used to reduce individual’s attention bias towards threat. The extent to which ABM leads to underlying neural changes is still unknown. The cerebellum is a neglected brain structure, with new research provides evidence that cerebellum’s functional connectivity and shared networks with threat processing regions has a direct …

Assessing The Efficacy Of Training Parents Via Telehealth To Administer Natural Environment Training, Olivia Laforest

All NMU Master's Theses

Telehealth has recently emerged as a not only a potentially effective means of preparing parents and educators as interventionists for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but for many in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been the only way of safely delivering behaviorally analytic services to clients during this time. Due to these recent changes in Behavior analysis service providing, the transition to Telehealth was considered essential for many clinicians to continue providing services to their clients. With little research supporting the use of telehealth for providing Behavior Analysis services to clients, expansion on literature in this area …

Resurgence In Dogs, Monica Jones

All NMU Master's Theses

After a long tradition of using aversive training techniques, animal trainers have now widely adopted science-based methods using positive reinforcement. The field of applied behavior analysis routinely employs procedures to preempt problem behaviors by establishing and maintaining more acceptable alternative behaviors. Previous studies have shown that some of these procedures can nevertheless result in recurrence of original problematic behavior once training is completed and reinforcement of the alternative behavior is discontinued, a phenomenon called “resurgence.” Although observed in many species (e.g., rats, fish, and humans), resurgence has not been demonstrated with dogs, one of the most commonly trained animals in …

Electrocortical Changes Observed In The N2 As An Outcome Of Attention Bias Modification Training, Hayley Gilbertson

All NMU Master's Theses

Anxiety disorders are currently one of the most predominant mental health conditions worldwide. Increased anxiety is associated with elevated attentional focus to threat also known as attentional bias to threat. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) is a type of computerized training, attempting to reduce attentional focus for threatening stimuli and has been found to successfully reduce symptoms of anxiety. Past studies have implemented ABM training as a possible tool to modulate attention away from threat in attempt to decrease pathological anxiety. The N2 is an event-related potential (ERP) detected in scalp EEG recordings that is associated with conflict monitoring and complex …

Assessment Of Sex Differences And Amphetamine On Schedule-Induced Polydipsia, Min Park

All NMU Master's Theses

Amphetamine (AMPH) is one of the most common psychotropic drugs abused in the United States. Its major pharmacological effect is to increase synaptic dopamine levels in the mesolimbic reward pathway, which in turn causes behavioral effects in animals, and subjective effects in humans. These reinforcing properties of AMPH trigger very strong levels of craving the drug, and eventually result in patterns of compulsive use of AMPH. Regarding psychostimulant action, female rats have been reported to be more vulnerable to the reinforcing effects of psychostimulants. In the current study, schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP), an animal model of compulsive behavior, was applied for …

Players' Preference For Losses Disguised As Wins In Keno: A Concurrent Choice Procedure, Sarah Hall

All NMU Master's Theses

Roughly 3% of American citizens are considered to be problem gamblers (NCPG, 2014). This compulsion can have a detrimental impact on the pathological gambler’s life. One factor that has been considered to lead to this compulsive gambling is the loss disguised as a win (LDW). These LDWs have been shown to increase slot machine playing in numerous studies. However, their effect has not been studied in connection to Club Keno, which is also a highly prevalent game. In 2017 the Michigan lottery took in over $600 million in revenue from Club Keno (FGSAD, 2017). The present study sought to determine …

Threat Perception Alteration As An Effect Of Use-Of-Force Simulation Training, Ellyse Vandyke

All NMU Master's Theses

Due to the nature of police work police officers are often placed in life threatening situations. To prepare officers for these interactions police academies employ use-of-force simulations to train relevant skills such as situational awareness and judgement. Repeated exposure to threatening situations, such as those in the use-of-force simulations, may alter the threat perception of the participant. Using self-report measures of anxiety (STAI-6 Item) and affect (PANAS), as well as respiration rate data, and short answer self-reports, the present study aims to determine if perception of threat is altered as a result of the use-of-force training, both directly after one …

Evaluating Changes In Error-Monitoring Electrocortcial Responses As An Outcome Of Attention Bias Modification Training, Jeremy Andrzejewski

All NMU Master's Theses

Anxiety disorders are among one of the most debilitating and prevalent mental disorders. Maladaptive anxiety has been associated with enhanced attention bias to threat as well as heightened error-monitoring following an erroneous response. In an effort to reduce an anxious individual’s attention bias to threat, an attention training paradigm known as attention bias modification (ABM) was developed. While ABM training has demonstrated the ability to reduce attention bias and anxiety symptoms, there are inconsistencies in the magnitude of symptom reduction and there is a lack of neuroimaging support in regards to ABM outcome. Therefore, this study evaluated the outcome of …

Discriminative Stimulus Effects Of Putative Antipsychotic Drugs, Alex Lekander

All NMU Master's Theses

This study attempted to further explore the discriminative stimulus properties of antipsychotic drugs, by establishing the typical antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine, and the atypical antipsychotic drug clozapine as discriminative stimulus in two different groups of rats. The rats trained to discriminate chlorpromazine from vehicle failed to do so reliably, however nine of ten rats trained to discriminate 1.25 mg/kg clozapine from vehicle were able to acquire the discrimination in 19.1 sessions. The clozapine cue partially generalized (63.13% drug lever responding [SEM = ± 18.91]) to the antimalarial drug methylene blue at the 7.5 mg/kg dose, but not to the antimalarial quinacrine. …

Effects Of Choice On Multiplication And Division Fluency Acquisition For Third Grade Students, Terri Tammelin

All NMU Master's Theses

Students with the most pronounced behavioral needs are the ones missing the most instruction. A three-tiered system of intervention that is data driven and uses evidence based interventions is used within schools to meet the needs of all students. Within this tiered system, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), founded in the sciences of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), are used. Of the many PBIS interventions, instructional choice at Tier I has been established as an effective, low intensity, teacher delivered support that aims to reduce challenging behaviors and increase academic engagement. Instructional choice involves two parts: selection in response to …

Behavioral And Psychophysiological Effects Of Near-Miss Outcomes In A Game Of War, Erin Wylie

All NMU Master's Theses

Within the gambling literature, the misidentification of outcomes has been shown to affect gambling behaviors in players. A notably salient stimulus frequently cited as leading to the misidentification of wins is near-misses. Near-misses occur when the outcome of an event closely resembles a winning outcome, even though it is a loss. The current study intended to further investigate the effects of near-misses relative to wins and losses on player’s inter-trial latencies and the presence of the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 event related potentials (ERPs) in a game of war card game. FRN is a negative fronto-central ERP component occurring …

Affective Images Of Climate Change: Analysis And Database Development, Elizabeth Lehman

All NMU Master's Theses

Although climate change has become an increasingly popular topic in both research and the public-eye, there is little standardization of the images used to represent it. The differences in expert and non-expert climate imagery is also problematic. This study aims to resolve both of these issues: first by analyzing participants’ ratings of 320 images on their relevance to climate change as well as emotional arousal and valence; then by compiling these images and their affective characteristics into a database for use in future climate-related research. Participants’ environmental attitudes were surveyed to investigate the relationship between attitudes and image ratings. High-arousal, …

Assessing The Emotional Dimensions Of The Cutaneous-Rabbit Effect Using Faces, Bartholomew Endres

All NMU Master's Theses

This research investigated how emotional images affects tactile saltation. More specifically, we combined visual faces with three different emotions: angry, sad and happy with a tactile illusion known as the cutaneous rabbit effect (CRE) that was delivered on participants’ shoulder at different durations. Because some of the faces were political figures, we assessed participant’s political affiliation using Political Typology Quiz. Participants rated their emotional response using the self-assessment manikin (SAM), a three dimensional scale that measures valence, arousal and dominance. For the valence dimension, our results indicate that participants found it less pleasant to see likeable faces sad than any …

Student Athletes' Perception Of Smartphone Use And Its Effects On Sleep Quality, Anxiety, And Depression, Alexis Schaefer

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

STUDENT ATHLETES’ PERCEPTION OF SMARTPHONE USE AND ITS EFFECTS ON SLEEP QUALITY, ANXIETY, AND DEPRESSION

By

Alexis Schaefer

This study investigated the perception of smartphone use and its perceived effects on sleep quality, depression, and anxiety among NCAA collegiate student athletes (SA). One hundred and ninety one Northern Michigan University SA’s completed an online questionnaire consisting of original content and select components from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale (MPPUS). Pearson product moment correlations examined relationships between demographic information and perception questions. Correlations …

Effects Of Norharmane And Nicotine On The Conditioned Place Preference Of Mice, Lindsey Galbo

All NMU Master's Theses

Tobacco smoking in the United States is used by approximately 25% of adults. Many studies using animal models have suggested that nicotine has rewarding properties. Contrastingly, several studies have also found it to be a weakly reinforcing substance at low and high dose levels. Due to this, other tobacco constituents, such as the monoamine oxidase inhibitor norharmane which is found in tobacco leaf and smoke, may be responsible for tobacco addiction by potentiating the rewarding properties of nicotine. Several studies have attempted to observe this phenomenon, however, monoamine oxidase inhibitors that are not found in tobacco leaf or smoke have …

Discriminative Stimulus Effects Of Gabapentin, Michael Zuidema

All NMU Master's Theses

The present study sought to evaluate the discriminative stimulus effects of the anticonvulsant gabapentin in rats trained to discriminate 30.0 mg/kg gabapentin from vehicle in a two-lever drug discrimination task. All of the ten rats tested were able to establish gabapentin as an interoceptive cue. Gabapentin produced full generalization (≥ 80% gabapentin-lever responding) for itself at 30.0, 60.0, and 120.0 mg/kg doses. Pentobarbital produced full substitution, while pregabalin, carbamazepine, fentanyl, and buspirone produced partial substitution (≥ 60% gabapentin-lever responding) for gabapentin. Ethanol and raclopride did not substitute for gabapentin. The psychostimulant amphetamine did not produce substitution; however, the 0.25 mg/kg …

Investigating Sexual Violence In College-Aged Dating Couples: Does The Medium Affect The Message?, Emily F. Plackowski

All NMU Master's Theses

This paper explores the reactions of college students to sexual violence scenarios. Scenarios depicted long-term, same-sex and opposite-sex dating couples. Eight scenarios were created, varying along the factors of: presentation medium (video, written) and sex(es) of assailant and victim (Male/Female (M/F), Male/Male (M/M), Female/Female (F/F), and Female/Male (F/M)). Each participant was presented with one of the eight scenarios, in a between-groups fashion. Participants’ conceptualizations of the scenarios were gathered via comprehension and interpretation questions. Participants were also asked questions to gather demographic information. Demographic analyses showed that over one-third of respondents had experienced sexual assault. Contrary to hypotheses, written scenarios …

An Assessment Of Frontal Lobe Activity And Bdnf Levels Following Concussion In Collegiate Athletes: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study, Keara Kangas

All NMU Master's Theses

Impacts to the head that are associated with sports related injuries, can result in a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), known as a concussion. Previous research has assessed how mTBIs affect the brain, but these assessments are limited in their ability to directly measure the consequences of mTBI. Along with concussion assessments, only a few studies have used neuroimaging techniques to evaluate brain injury. This study utilized a neuroimaging technique that is inexpensive, non-invasive, and portable, to measure brain activity post-concussion. In particular, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to measure prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during the dot-probe task of affective …

Better Health Through Horticulture: Using Horticulture To Influence Behavior And Reduce Stress, Rachel Ochylski

All NMU Master's Theses

Horticultural intervention in the form of gardening workshops connect participants to nature while they nurture another living organism. Horticultural intervention provides opportunities to socialize and engage in a meaningful activity, which have been recognized as helpful in the treatment of common mental health difficulties such as depression and anxiety. There is a lack of experimental studies based on quantitative data that focus on the effects of horticulture on holistic human health. The author evaluated the effects of a horticultural intervention on two separate groups, older adults and college students. The behavioral effects of engaging in gardening activities were evaluated using …