Digital Commons Network^™

Music And Language Development: Traits Of Nursery Rhymes And Their Impact On Children's Language Development, Ashley Lauren Gonzalez

Music

From birth--possibly even before birth--the amount and array of external stimuli profoundly affect a child’s cognitive and linguistic development. In addition to verbal communication from parent to child, singing proves to be an integral aid to a child’s development of speech and language, allegedly due to repetitions of words and rhythms. Nursery rhymes are, from infancy, among the most commonly presented forms of musical stimulus for children. The repetitive nature of the nursery rhymes undoubtedly supports language and speech development, but various characteristics of nursery rhymes, specifically pitch interval, meter, phrase length, contour, and harmony, also contribute substantially to the …

Spiritual Attitudes And Values In Young Children, Maryl Deputy, Jessica Devivo, Nicole Fasolo, Lydia Jones, Debbie Martin, Victoria Pennant

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

Research has shown that spirituality is an important function of a child’s social, emotional, and personal development. Nevertheless, minimal research exists on spiritual attitudes and values in young children. This study examined children’s development and spirituality using a modified version of the Attitudes and Values Questionnaire (AVQ). The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) developed the AVQ with the dimensions of Conscience, Compassion, Social Growth, Emotional Growth, Service to Others, Commitment to God, and Commitment to Jesus. Commitment to God and Commitment to Jesus were optional dimensions later added by ACER to focus specifically on Christian principles. Following permission from …

Academic Choices Matter For Collegiate Student-Athletes, Kendra Arielle Berry

Masters Theses

As college athletics has grown during the last two decades, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing institution of college athletics in the United States, has renewed its focus on academic reform and the academic performance of student-athletes (Petr & McArdle, 2012). Athletic administrators and academic support units have started to exert a greater amount of control over student-athletes’ academic lives. However, research with general samples of college students has suggested that having some degree of autonomy is important for academic performance. This raises questions about whether increased control (and reduced autonomy) is actually in the best interest of …

Preschoolers’ Use Of Verbal And Musical Strategies For Solving A Spatial Reasoning Task, Alyssa Marie Iulianetti

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Spatial reasoning is the ability to visualize and interact with one’s three-dimensional environment. A spatial problem that is particularly challenging for young children is the tube task, developed by Hood in 1995. Children are presented with an apparatus that consists of a large frame with three intertwining tubes attached to the top and bottom. Children are asked to predict where a ball will emerge when it is dropped down one of the tubes. Young children typically make what is known as the gravity bias error, in which they believe a ball will drop straight down even though its path is …

Human Growth And Development, Ellen Cotter, Gary Fisk, Judy Orton Grissett

Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Human Growth and Development was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

This Grants Collection is based on the psychology open textbook Boundless Psychology. Lumen Learning has become the host for all Boundless Learning Materials. To access Boundless Psychology, please use this new link:

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/

This project led to the creation of two sets of ancillary materials:

Lecture Slides Set

Question Library

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims …

The Effects Of Scaling On Trends Of Development: Classical Test Theory And Item Response Theory, Weldon Z. Smith

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The scale metrics used in educational testing are often arbitrary, and this can impact interpretation of scores on measurements. Both classical test theory sum scores and item response theory estimates measure the same underlying dimension, but differences in the two scales may lead one to be more preferential than the other in interpreting data. Mismatch between individual ability and test difficulty can further result in difficulties in correctly interpreting trends of development in longitudinal data. A previous limited simulation by Embretson (2007) demonstrated that classical test theory sum scores result in misinterpretation of linear trends of development, and that item …

Urban African American Youths' Academic Performance As Related To Fathers' Involvement During Development, Travis A. Goldwire

Wayne State University Dissertations

Father involvement in the context of urban African American youth was examined using a subsample (n = 556) of a large cohort of participants followed longitudinally through development. Data was collected at regular intervals (e.g., Age 7, 14, 19 and young adult). Young adults (n = 93) were surveyed for retrospective accounts of their fathers’ involvement in their lives before age 18. In the young adult data collection phase (the main subject of this project), most participants reported varying levels and frequency of involvement from their fathers while growing up, including helping at school, providing social support, and encouraging academic …

Assessing Risk And Resilience Factors For Early Childhood Development, Danielle Rioux

Honors Program Theses

Adequate early child developmental screenings are often not available in many child care centers despite considerable research that points toward the importance and necessity of such screenings in assuring quality educational and social outcomes for children. A wealth of influences can affect how a child develops, with both negative risk and positive resilience factors playing a key role in determining outcomes. The present study was conducted through chart review of 55 children attending Winter Park Day Nursery (WPDN). We explored the relationships between risk factors, resilience, and outcomes by using measures currently collected by the center, and combining them in …

Adult Development Of Positive Personality Traits Through Character Formation Mentoring, Robert Mark Colborn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Positive psychologists have published hundreds of empirical studies correlating positive personality traits with improved outcomes in mental health, physical health, academic and career success, resilience, relationships, and personal happiness. But there remains a dearth of research on the emergence and development of positive personality traits. This grounded theory, qualitative research sought to discover whether positive personality traits can be developed in adult mentoring relationships. Sixteen participants responded in structured interviews about the benefits of their mentoring experiences, and in addition to performing coding analysis as described by Strauss and Corbin (1990), the researcher also compared the answers to Peterson and …

Social Media Usage And Subjective Well-Being In Middle School Students, Kimberly R. Hutcheson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

With more people using social media platforms at younger ages, it is imperative to understand the relationship between social media use and subjective well-being. Previous research regarding young adults and their use of social media has shown inconclusive results concerning frequency of social media use and well-being. The current study focused on a younger adolescent population and on their motivations for posting on social media as opposed to their general frequency of use. Thirty seven middle school students took an online survey asking questions regarding frequency of social media use, motivations for use, self esteem, life satisfaction, and source of …

Effects Of Premature Birth And/Or Low Birthweight On Developmental Outcomes, Rachel L. Goldin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Advances in neonatal technology have improved survival rates of children born at lower and lower birthweight and after fewer and fewer weeks of gestation. However, these children are at increased risk of experiencing developmental delays. As weeks of gestation and birthweight decrease, the risk of developmental impairment and severity increases. Yet to be determined is whether premature birth and low birthweight (LBW) effect development differentially, and if the combined, have an additive effect on developmental outcomes. The first part of this study aimed to examine the independent effects of preterm birth and LBW in children at risk for developmental delays. …

Expectations And Violations Of Privacy During Adolescence, Matthew D. Marrero

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study tested a conceptual model of adolescents’ feelings of privacy invasion derived from CPM. Specifically, goals were to describe adolescents’ expectations of privacy, to describe how often adolescents are exposed to behaviors that threaten privacy, and to test privacy beliefs, potentially invasive behaviors, and having things to hide as predictors of individual differences in feelings of privacy invasion. Furthermore, each question and hypothesis was examined across four privacy domains and four relationships to determine whether privacy functions similarly or uniquely across domains and relationships. Participants were 118 adolescents (59% female), ranging from age 15 to 18 years of age …

Eyetracking Of Coarticulatory Cue Responses In Children And Adults, Alexandra M. Cross

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Studies examining sensitivity to coarticulatory cues during spoken word recognition have typically examined children and adults separately. The present thesis compared sensitivity to coarticulatory cues in school-aged children and adults using eyetracking. Children and adults listened to words containing congruent and incongruent coarticulatory cues while looking at a two-picture display. Contrary to theories positing weakened attention to phonetic detail in children, we observed equal or greater sensitivity to coarticulatory cues in children compared to adults. This effect was related to predictors of reading and language proficiency, and was also modulated by phoneme contrasts such that children were overly sensitive to …

Longitudinal Effects Of School Climate On Middle-School Students' Academic, Social-Emotional And Behavioral Outcomes, Jennifer Lynn Engelland-Schultz

Theses and Dissertations

Millions of youth are at risk for low academic achievement, school dropout, risky behavior, bullying, and mental health concerns, especially those living in rural areas. Protective factors can reduce the likelihood of children and adolescents experiencing these negative outcomes. Research shows that positive school climate is a powerful protective factor for youth. The present study investigated the longitudinal relations between middle school students' school climate perceptions and their academic, social-emotional, and behavioral development over two years. Specifically, 510 students in grades 5-9 from six rural schools rated their support and influence at school as well as their internalizing problems, personal …

Effects Of Early-Adolescent, Mid-Adolescent, Or Adult Stress On Morphine Conditioned Place Preference, Chloe Shields

Senior Theses

In light of previous work demonstrating that stress can increase subjective drug reward in adult rats, the present study investigated the influence of stress on morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) in early-adolescent, mid-adolescent, and adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Subjects in each age group were assigned to either a no stress condition or a stress condition in which they were exposed to an unpredictable eight-day schedule of elevated platform and synthetic fox odor stressors. Place conditioning then evaluated subjective morphine reward in all animals. Using a biased procedure, subjects were assigned to receive morphine on the initially non-preferred side of the …

Location, Location, Location: Alterations In The Functional Topography Of Face- But Not Object- Or Place-Related Cortex In Adolescents With Autism, K. Suzanne Scherf, Beatriz Luna, Nancy Minshew, Marlene Behrmann

Marlene Behrmann

In autism, impairments in face processing are a relatively recent discovery, but have quickly become a widely accepted aspect of the behavioral profile. Only a handful of studies have investigated potential atypicalities in autism in the development of the neural substrates mediating face processing. High-functioning individuals with autism (HFA) and matched typically developing (TD) controls watched dynamic movie vignettes of faces, common objects, buildings, and scenes of navigation while undergoing an fMRI scan. With these data, we mapped the functional topography of category-selective activation for faces bilaterally in the fusiform gyrus, occipital face area, and posterior superior temporal sulcus. Additionally, …

Honors Students’ Characteristics, Perceived Locus Of Control And Attributions, Maria E. Leatherwood

Senior Honors Theses

Recent literature has sought to identify variables which can positively affect at-risk student populations when students start college. In conjunction with high school achievement, motivational variables such as locus of control and goal orientation are strong predictors of student success at a university. Students with a strong internal locus of control and reported goals towards mastering content tend to view themselves as responsible for their work and do well academically. Little research has examined the presence of these variables in high-achieving populations. Although it would seem that students would maintain their attributions for their own success throughout school, locus of …

Work Groups And Teams In Organizations: Review Update, Steve W. J. Kozlowski, Bradford S. Bell

Bradford S Bell

This review chapter examines the literature on work team effectiveness. To begin, we consider their nature, define them, and identify four critical conceptual issues—context, workflow, levels, and time—that serve as review themes and discuss the multitude of forms that teams may assume. We then shift attention to the heart of the review, examining key aspects of the creation, development, operation, and management of work teams. To accomplish objectives of breadth and integration, we adopt a lifecycle perspective to organize the review. Topics involved in the team lifecycle include: (1) team composition; (2) team formation, socialization, and development; (3) …

Opportunities For Play-Based Experiences In Post "No Child Left Behind" Kindergarten Classrooms: The Role Of Training, Resources, And Accountability Pressures In Meeting Best Practices, Cristina Medellin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In response to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), opportunities for play-based experiences in classrooms have been challenged over the past decade. Despite research demonstrating the educational benefits of child driven play, teachers and schools have been pressured to focus on improving children's success on standardized assessments which may not relate to the developmental achievements expected from activity based experiences. To explore teachers' response to the tension between assessment driven mandates and best early childhood practices, this study investigated which factors influence teacher practices and values. Specifically, how do teacher training and classroom resources influence teachers' values about the appropriateness of …

The Neurophysiology Of Intersensory Selective Attention And Task Switching, Jeremy W. Murphy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our ability to selectively attend to certain aspects of the world and ignore others is fundamental to our day-to-day lives. The need for selective attention stems from capacity limitations inherent in our perceptual and cognitive processing architecture. Because not every elemental piece of our environment can be fully processed in parallel, the nervous system must prioritize processing. This prioritization is generally referred to as selective attention. Meanwhile, we are faced with a world that is constantly in flux, such that we have to frequently shift our attention from one piece of the environment to another and from one task to …

Neural Correlates Of Episodic Memory Formation In Children And Adults, Lingfei Tang

Wayne State University Theses

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are two key brain regions that support episodic memory formation in both children and adults, but the functional developmental of these regions remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the development of neural correlates of episodic memory formation using functional MRI with a subsequent memory paradigm, administered to a cross-sectional sample of 83 children and adults. We found that MTL subregions showed an age-related increase in activation supporting memory formation of complex scenes. In addition, a functionally defined scene-sensitive region in the posterior MTL also showed similar increase and predicted better …

What Develops In Moral Identities? A Critical Review, Tobias Krettenauer, Steven Hertz

Psychology Faculty Publications

According to the standard model of moral identity development, moral identities emerge during adolescence and early adulthood. Contrary to this assumption, however, moral identity research has consistently failed to demonstrate any age-related change in this developmental period. The present paper discusses implications of this non-finding. It is argued that researchers need to broaden the scope of inquiry and include developmental aspects of the moral identity construct that have been neglected in the past. Three areas are identified where moral identity development likely occurs in adolescence and beyond: (1) context-dependent differentiation and integration of the self-importance of moral values, (2) growth …

The Impact Of Baby Sign Training On Stress Levels Of Daycare Providers, Grisel Julieta Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Proponents of baby sign claim improvements in child-caregiver interactions and reductions in parental stress as benefits of implementing baby sign. Due to research contradicting the claims, and to the rise in daycare attendance, the current study investigated the effects of a baby sign workshop on the stress perception of daycare providers. A pre-test post-test between groups design with 20 participants was conducted using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10) and a workshop-specific descriptive survey as measures. The difference between the post-test stress levels of experimental and control groups approached significance, as did the differences between pre-test and post-test results for the …

Early Contexts Of Learning: Family And Community Socialization During Infancy And Toddlerhood, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lixin Ren, Jill Brown

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The contexts of early learning and socialization are diverse and complex but not without some predictability. The tension between predictability and variation fascinates researchers interested in childhood and culture and motivates careful exploration of different developmental niches to better understand socialization during infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood. Contexts of early socialization vary in the people and activities present, and the beliefs and norms of caregivers and daily companions. The chapter utilizes anthropological constructs (household structure and composition, settlement patterns and subsistence level, mothers’ workload, gender division of labor, intimacy levels between husbands and wives, and cultural roles and norms pertaining …

Social Factors Influencing Early Reading Development From Kindergarten To Grade One In English-Speaking Public Schools In Ontario And Quebec, Katherine Wood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research study examines the influence of providing parents with early literacy or socio-emotional instruction on their children’s performance in reading and social skill development. Parents were offered four interactive workshops designed to assist them in identifying everyday opportunities to reinforce either early reading skills or early social skills development. Two reading skills approaches were explored, traditional text reading and traditional text reading with computer-assisted learning opportunities. These two reading approaches were contrasted with a set of social development workshops derived from social-emotional learning models. Children’s performance was measured at three time intervals from early kindergarten to early in grade …

“Where Did I Learn That?” Exploring The Similarity Effect And Children’S Use Of Memory Cues For Source Monitoring, Leanne E. Bird

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

An individual’s ability to accurately monitor source (attribute known or remembered information to its particular source or origin) develops gradually throughout childhood. Along with task difficulty (i.e., delay between encoding and retrieval), source similarity is among the utmost hindrance to individuals’ ability to accurately monitor source; specifically, the greater the similarity between sources the more difficult source monitoring judgments have been found to be, and the smaller similarity between sources (i.e., the greater number of differences between sources) the more accurate source monitoring judgments have been found to be. The similarity effect has been said to apply to all age …

How Technology Interacts With Emerging Adulthood Psychosocial Developmental Tasks: An Examination Of Online Self-Presentation And Cell Phone Usage, Samantha Lynn Gray

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation outlines three distinct, yet interrelated, projects aimed at understanding the role of technology in relation to emerging adulthood developmental tasks: individuation & identity development. The first paper provides a context for understanding the developmental tasks of emerging adulthood, and the role that technology may serve in relation to those developmental tasks. This brief review of the literature on emerging adulthood developmental tasks provides a solid theoretical background and history for the theoretical premises proposed for the respective studies included in this dissertation. The second project is an empirical investigation that seeks to understand how the task of identity …

The Effect Of Functional Fixation In Problem Solving Among Preschool, Second Grade, And Ninth Grade Children, Michael Kenneth Nehring

Dissertations

Functional fixedness is a cognitive function whereby an individual becomes fixated on a given function of an object, which prevents the individual from using the object in an alternative fashion to solve a problem (Duncker, 1935/1945). The current study analyzed the effect of functional fixedness on 36 children from three different age groups, preschool, second grade, and ninth grade. The children were presented with a problem solving activity based on a problem used by German and Defeyter (2000), in which they concluded that young children are immune to the effects of functional fixedness. Research conducted by Chrysikou (2006) indicated using …

Age-Related Aspects Of Mirror-Use By Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Rachel A. Morrison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bottlenose dolphins are neuroanatomically different and evolutionarily divergent from primates yet they exhibit mirror self-recognition (MSR), a rare cognitive ability in non-human animals. This research investigated the developmental and age-related aspects of MSR in this species. During a longitudinal study, a social group of bottlenose dolphins at the National Aquarium, Baltimore, MD were exposed to a mirror and their behavioral responses were recorded to: 1) further confirm the presence of MSR in this species, 2) determine the age of emergence of MSR and 3) draw comparisons with data documenting the emergence of this ability in humans and great ape species. …

Biological Motion Processing In Typical Development And In The Autism Spectrum, Aaron Krakowski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Biological motion (BM) analysis and interpretation is a fundamental process of human neurocognition that has been only minimally explored neurophysiologically. In addition to its importance in understanding the underlying roots and development of social cognition, BM processing is a prime candidate domain for exploring the underlying etiology of social cognitive disorders such as the autism spectrum.

In an initial experiment, typical adults observed BM point-light displays of a human actor (UM) as well as their spatially scrambled counterparts (SM), in both an unattended distractor task as well as an explicit attention task. Results showed a neurophysiological response manifested as three …