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Characterizing A Novel Mobile Game Battery Assessment: A Comparison Of Performance-Based And Survey-Based Executive Functioning Instruments, Josephine A. Pham

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Exploratory characterization of a novel mobile game battery was conducted via a correlational comparison with a standardized assessment of executive functioning. Previous literature has shown that computer-based and survey-based instruments have either very weak correlation or no correlation at all – giving the impression that these instruments may not measure the same constructs of executive functioning. Findings from the current exploratory study demonstrated significant associations but weak correlational strength between tasks from the computer-based game battery and an updated standardized survey-based instrument. This confirmed a trend found in previous literature, demonstrating little overlap between both instruments in executive functioning measurement. …

Conscious Perception And Implicit Memory Formation Of A Narrative Presented During Sleep, Sarah E. Hollywood

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present study sought to determine the extent of conscious awareness and implicit memory formation of a narrative presented during sleep. Participants were played an excerpt of J.D. Salinger’s Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes while napping. Afterwards, participants completed a task designed to assess implicit memory to determine if they had formed any memories about words that were either directly stated in the story, or directly related to the plot. Participants who heard the story while asleep responded more quickly to words that had appeared in the story than to words from another story they had not heard. Exactly …

Children’S Perspectives On The Social Exclusion Of Peers With Behavioural Difficulties, Kayla Edwards

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children who display externalizing behaviours are more likely than their peers to experience social exclusion. To better examine this topic, the perspectives of peers were investigated. Thirty-six participants were interviewed from a school in Southwestern Ontario. Participants were asked why they believe children with behavioural difficulties may be socially excluded by peers. Unique statements were extracted from the transcribed data. Participants were invited back to sort the statements into meaningful categories. Sorted data were analyzed using multi-dimensional scaling and cluster analysis. A five-cluster solution was selected as the best conceptual and statistical fit for the data. The clusters in this …

The Psychosocial Functioning Of Children With Chronic Health Conditions: A Meta-Analysis, Serena Thompson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Chronic health conditions are highly prevalent among childhood populations and lead to restrictions in everyday life. Previous research indicates that children and youth with a chronic health condition are at an elevated risk of psychosocial difficulties, including mental illness and social exclusion, compared to typically developing populations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of chronic health conditions on psychosocial factors during childhood by comparing the psychosocial functioning of children with chronic health conditions and children without chronic illnesses using a meta-analysis. Specifically, three elements of psychosocial functioning were examined, (a) social-emotional functioning, (b) behavioural functioning, …

The Impact Of Levodopa Administration On Learning From Short-Term And Long-Term Action Consequences: A Paradigm Validation., Masood Rezaei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Behavioral and neuroimaging studies have identified two valuation systems in the human brain for controlling behavior known as model-free (MF) and model-based (MB). MF is based on immediate evaluation and MB is based on long-term evaluation of the outcome of our decisions. Previous studies suggest that dopamine baseline activity may play an important role in the balance between the two systems and determine how they compete or interact in controlling our actions. The overarching aims of this study is to investigate the impact of levodopa administration on learning from immediate and long-term action consequences, and to dissociate the role of …

Toward A Fluid Cinematic Spectatorship And Desire: Revisiting Laura Mulvey’S Psychoanalytic Film Theories, Taylor Ashton Mcgoey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis project re-evaluates Laura Mulvey’s film theories regarding psychoanalysis and the “male gaze,” first found in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975). By re-evaluating the limitations of Mulvey’s use of the Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic model this project seeks to understand the desires and processes of identification of cinematic spectators who reject the ideological imperative of the “male gaze”. As many critics have noted, Mulvey’s initial examination of cinema does not account for LGBTQ+ spectators and/or black spectators who occupy looking relations that reject cis-normative and heteronormative white Hollywood cinematic conventions. From this standpoint, we begin the …

Autistic Traits And Cognitive Biases For Emotional Faces In Neurotypicals, Meara Stow

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cognitive biases can involve the tendency to extract some sensory inputs while ignoring others. Cognitive biases impact perception, and subsequent processing decisions made on the basis of perception. Cognitive biases can disrupt accurate and efficient processing of social information, and may underlie core features of social communication difficulties. How cognitive biases contribute to atypical social processing associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits is unknown. We examined whether cognitive biases for emotional faces were related to scores from the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), and whether our measures of cognitive biases from a dot- probe paradigm with concurrent eye tracking were comparable. …

Moving Beyond The Mat: Exploring The Application Of Mindfulness Training In Professional And Educational Settings, Emily G. Nielsen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Objectives. This dissertation provides an evaluation of three web-based mindfulness interventions administered to legal professionals and graduate students — populations characterized by high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress. Chapter 2, Study 1. Lawyers completed questionnaires before and after engaging in Cho and Gifford’s (2016) 8-week Anxious Lawyer program. Analyses revealed improvements in perceived stress; mood; resilience; trait mindfulness; and the severity of depression, anxiety, and stress-related symptoms over time. Chapter 2, Study 2. Lawyers were randomly assigned to either an experimental or waitlist control condition. Well-being was measured at the beginning of the study (i.e., Time 1), after experimental …

Understanding Differences In Social Learning, Joshua Patenaude

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Previous research has shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to learn from social and non-social rewards at different rates compared to typically developing individuals. Several hypotheses have been developed to explain these differences, including the social motivation hypothesis, the weak central coherence hypothesis and hypotheses related to probabilistic learning ability. However, in all cases, the literature shows only mixed support for these ideas. This dissertation focuses on identifying which assumptions from these hypotheses replicate and what replication successes and failures mean for the study of autism-spectrum traits within the general population.

This work takes a “spectrum” approach …

Homotopic Coupling In Persons With Epilepsy Using Movie-Driven And Resting-State Fmri, Caroline M. Chadwick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

For the 30-40% of persons with epilepsy (PWE) with refractory epilepsy, seizure freedom following surgery is affected by the localization of the epileptogenic zone (EZ). However, functional abnormalities can exist at a distance from the EZ, which may contribute to variable outcomes after surgery. Considering epilepsy as a network disorder (Pittau & Vulliemoz, 2015), and evaluating functional coupling among homotopic brain areas, may help predict cognitive outcomes. Homotopic areas are well connected anatomically and undoubtedly work synchronously to generate cognition. We evaluated 22 persons with focal epilepsy and 24 neurologically healthy controls using fMRI at rest and while watching a …

Linguistic Signaling In Speed-Dates, Negar Mohammad Vali Samani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How people use language may signal as much about a person as the conversation topic itself. For example, evidence suggests that similarities in language style may signal romantic interest as people become acquainted. Additionally, language may signal various personal attributes. In the current study, I analyzed linguistic signaling in 174 transcripts from 4-minute heterosexual speed-dates to explore how language style relates to interest in dating a partner and whether linguistic features indicate individual characteristics. I also explored how desired partner features related to actual popularity of dates as well as how partner perceptions predicted romantic interest. Contrary to previous research, …

Rapid Facial Reactions Of Emotional Expressions As A Function Of Trait Sadism, Cathleen Fleury

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using electromyography (EMG), it has been shown that facial muscles imperceptibly mirror the facial expressions of others, a phenomenon referred to as rapid facial reactions (RFRs). It was previously believed to follow the direct-matching hypothesis, however several recent studies have demonstrated that context and individual differences may be influencing factors on RFRs. At the present, it is unclear to what extent RFRs can be modulated. In the present study, we propose to determine the effects of facial stimuli versus non-facial stimuli on RFRs through measuring the EMG response of participants with trait sadism. The participants observed dynamic facial expressions as …

An Ontological Critique Of The Self: The Daoist ‘Non-Self’ At The Heart Of Jung’S Analytical Theory, Camilo Andrés Hoyos Lozano

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research attempts to formulate a critique of the Jungian self from the Daoist, Lao-Zhuang notion of non-self. In post-modern societies an ontological critique of the self is also ideological, for the self is an indispensable device of neoliberal government. Because for Jung the self is an essential and autonomous reality, he advances a dualism that not only legitimizes the current economic and political order, but—focal to this analysis—also complicates the ‘realization’ of the ultimate spiritual ‘goal,’ and his own purpose of treating psychological suffering. Thus, the critical power and political potential of the Daoist non-self serves to demystify analytical …

Feeling-Of-Knowing Experiences Breed Curiosity, Gregory Brooks

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It is well-established that curiosity has benefits for learning. Less is known about potential links between curiosity and memory retrieval. In theoretical work on metacognition it has been argued that retrieval experiences that occur during memory search can exert control over behaviour. States of curiosity, which can be defined as behavioural tendencies to seek out information, may play a critical role in this control function. We conducted two experiments to address this idea, focusing on links between feeling-of knowing (FOK) experiences, memory-search duration, and subsequent information-seeking behaviour. We administered an episodic FOK paradigm that probed memory for previously studied arbitrary …

The Relationship Between Perfectionism And Procrastination: Examining Trait And Cognitive Conceptualizations, And The Mediating Roles Of Fear Of Failure And Overgeneralization Of Failure, Lital Yosopov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The relationship between perfectionism and procrastination has been established in the literature; however, findings regarding the magnitude of this correlation are inconsistent. Some studies found small-to-medium effects between trait-perfectionism and trait-procrastination, while others found large effects between perfectionistic cognitions and procrastinatory cognitions, suggesting that the association may be stronger when assessed from a cognitive perspective. The present study addressed this inconsistency, by exploring this association using both trait and cognitive measures. There was a significant and positive correlation between perfectionism and procrastination, and the largest effect size was observed between perfectionism (trait and cognitive measures) and procrastinatory cognitions, suggesting that …

What To Say And How To Say It: The Interplay Of Self-Disclosure Depth, Similarity, And Interpersonal Liking In Initial Social Interactions, Yixian Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We often initiate social relationships with others through revelations of personal information, or self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is heavily involved in shaping interpersonal liking, but there are disparate and sometimes contradictory findings in the literature regarding the causal relationship between them. Moreover, a lack of careful control in experimental designs in many existing studies failed to eliminate important confounding factors that might provide alternative explanations for the disclosure-liking relationship. Here, we examined the relationships between self-disclosure and interpersonal liking during initial social interactions, while carefully controlling for a potential confounding factor, similarity between the social partners.

Across the first five experiments, I …

Assessment Instruments And Basic Personality Underpinnings Of Hypersexuality, Stephanie L. Montgomery-Graham

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite rejection of the Hypersexual Disorder (HD) diagnosis from DSM-5, individuals continue to present clinically with feelings of out-of-control sexual behaviour, clinicians continue to treat “sexual addiction,” and researchers continue to study HD-type symptomology. To further investigation of the HD construct, Levaque and colleagues (2016) used common HD assessment measures and found that between 16.7% and 37.8% of young adult males met clinically significant scores for HD. Phase one of this dissertation replicated the surprising finding in a North American community sample and furthered the research by testing the assessment tool used in DSM-5 HD field trials, and the first …

The Role Of Neural Entrainment In Statistical Learning, Jordan-Jerrica Mulgrew

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Statistical learning (SL) refers to our ability to extract patterns from the environment. Research has long acknowledged the importance of SL in language; however, the neural mechanisms underlying SL remain largely unknown. One potential mechanism is neural entrainment, which refers to the tendency of endogenous neural oscillations to align with an ongoing rhythmic stimulus. In the context of SL, neural entrainment may align neural excitability to the ongoing structure of the speech stream, increasing sensitivity to underlying patterns and supporting the learning of word boundaries. This thesis tested the hypothesis that neural entrainment plays a causal role in SL by …

When Life Gives You Lemons: The Development And Validation Of The Resilience Scale For Older Adults, Claire A. Wilson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study of resilience, or positive adaptation in the face of adversity, is important across the lifespan, but may be particularly relevant for older adults who tend to experience an increasing number of challenges. Traditionally, resilience assessment has largely focused on child and young-to-middle aged adult populations, and as such, the literature is lacking a validated resilience measure developed specifically for older adults. This dissertation aimed to improve the measurement of resilience in older populations by developing and validating a new resilience measure that is relevant and appropriate for older adults. In Study 1, a qualitative metasynthesis was conducted to …

Psychological Predictors Of Injury In Collegiate Cheerleaders, Alexander Marchand

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

According to the revised stress-injury model (Williams & Andersen, 1998), greater life stress predicts greater vulnerability to athletic injury, with this relationship being strongest among athletes exhibiting competitive anxiety, less social support, and non-adaptive coping skills. This study tested the validity of this model among collegiate cheerleaders, an injury-prone athlete group. Ninety-two collegiate cheerleaders recorded instances of injury over 12 weeks. Measures of life stress, competitive anxiety, coping style, social support, and previous injury were obtained. Heightened negative life stress did not coincide with greater injury. A positive stress-injury relationship was observed among cheerleaders reporting high avoidance coping. A negative …

Investigating The Relationship Between Event Knowledge, Autistic Traits, And Social Ability: A Network Science Approach, Kara E. Hannah

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Event knowledge, a person’s understanding of patterns of activities in the world, is crucial for everyday social interactions. Atypical event knowledge could contribute to social communication problems, which are prominent in autism spectrum disorder. Previous research has found atypical event knowledge in autistic individuals; however, research is minimal. In two studies, the relationship between event knowledge and autistic traits, namely social abilities, was investigated. I predicted associations between atypical event knowledge and poorer social abilities. In Study 1, lower social ability correlated with more atypical ordering of event activities. In Study 2, for atypical activity ordering, a relationship was found …

‘Instead Of Life In Prison, It Was Life In My Own Skin’: Scope And Limitations Of A Week-Long Daily Online Self-Compassionate Writing Intervention For Young Women’S Body Image, Katarina Huellemann

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Self-compassion involves reappraising negative events, accepting uncomfortable emotions, and practicing self-kindness. This thesis examined the effect of cultivating self-compassion via daily self-compassionate writing completed online for one week on stigmatizing and affirming self-perceptions in young undergraduate women. Undergraduate women (N = 254) were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (i.e., self-compassionate writing, attentional-control, wait-list control) and completed measures of trait self-compassion, fear of self-compassion, affirming self-perceptions (i.e., body appreciation and broad conceptualization of beauty), and stigmatizing self-perceptions (i.e., self-objectification and phenomenological body shame) at baseline, post-test, and one-month follow-up. Hypotheses were tested using MANCOVA and a latent …

An Information—Motivation—Behavioural Skills Model Of Sexual Consent, Erin J. Shumlich

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation proposed an Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills (IMB) model of affirmative sexual consent, which is consent that is ongoing, continuous, and clearly communicated. The overall objectives of the current dissertation research were to: 1) elicit — from young, sexually active individuals — information, motivation, and behavioural skills factors that are related to affirmative sexual consent behaviours; 2) develop and empirically test an Information–Motivation–Behavioural Skills (IMB) model of sexual consent and use this to examine the hypothesized relationships of affirmative consent-related information, motivation, and behavioural skills with affirmative consent behaviours; and 3) evaluate the psychometric properties of an IMB scale measuring …

Is Social Rank Correlated With Cognitive Ability In Black-Capped Chickadees?, Gloria Hyun Young Cho

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Traditionally, dominant animals have been regarded as better competitors in all aspects of life, including cognition. However, the survival and reproductive advantages of being a dominant chickadee are surprisingly modest. It is possible that subordinate individuals compensate for the disadvantages of a lower rank with better cognitive abilities. If dominants are monopolizing prime food sources, subordinates may have developed better associative learning skills by learning to associate novel types of stimuli with food rewards. In this thesis, I asked whether dominance rank is correlated with cognitive ability in Black-capped Chickadees. I determined dominance rank in six flocks of six chickadees, …

The Motherhood Penalty: Not So Black And White, Shruti Kumar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Working mothers experience discrimination in hiring, promotion, salary, and training opportunities. This “motherhood penalty” occurs, in part, due to stereotyped family role expectations: working mothers are often perceived as the primary caregivers in their families and are assumed to have additional domestic responsibilities compared to fathers or non-parents. Notably, when women are framed as breadwinners rather than caregivers, they do not experience a motherhood penalty. However, this line of research largely focuses on the experiences of White women and is lacking an intersectional approach. Using an experimental research design, I examined how candidate race and parenthood impacted breadwinner perceptions and …

The Conceptual Metaphor False Memory Effect, Jeffrey N. Reid

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Conceptual Metaphor Theory posits that cross-domain mappings play a fundamental role in thought. However, to date there has been little research investigating the influence of conceptual metaphors in the subdomains of cognitive psychology, such as learning, concepts, and memory, leading critics to argue that conceptual metaphors are not psychologically real. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore whether conceptual metaphors influence episodic memory. In four experiments, a modified version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was employed in which participants studied lists of expressions. Every expression within each list was based on a proposed conceptual metaphor. For example, the TIME …

The Role Of Dark Personalities In Intimate Partner Violence, Rachel A. Plouffe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an international public health concern that poses significant mental and physical health risks for affected individuals. To improve prevention and intervention efforts, it is imperative that researchers and government bodies understand risk factors for IPV. This dissertation sought to evaluate individual differences in personality and childhood experiences as risk factors for various forms of IPV. The first two studies in this dissertation assessed whether the Dark Tetrad personality traits moderated the relationships between participants’ and their partners’ levels of IPV perpetration. In these studies, we assessed whether the Dark Tetrad traits operated differently in their …

Understanding The Effects Of Physical Activity On Executive Functioning And Psycho-Emotional Well-Being In Children With Adhd, Hannah B. Bigelow

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A short bout of physical activity has been shown to improve executive functioning in children. However, the implications for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been understudied. We examined the impact of a 10min bout of physical activity on executive functioning and psycho-emotional well-being in children with ADHD. Participants engaged in two lab-based sessions separated by 1-week: a physical activity session and a control session. The physical activity session included a 10min bout of moderate-intensity biking, with a pre-post battery of cognitive and psycho-emotional assessments. The control session consisted of 10mins of silent reading. We used functional imaging …

Microdosing Mindfulness: Understanding The Effects Of Brief Mindfulness Meditation In Children With Adhd, Marcus D. Gottlieb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mindfulness Meditation (MM) is receiving increased empirical support as a method for addressing ADHD symptomology. Research shows that MM interventions lasting weeks or months promote key aspects of cognitive and psycho-emotional functioning in youth with ADHD. Using a pre-post within-subjects design, we sought to determine whether a single MM session supports neurocognitive and/or psycho-emotional functioning in youth with ADHD. Sixteen participants aged 10-14 completed measures of executive and psycho-emotional functioning before/after a 10-minute MM session and silent reading control. Functional neuroimaging assessed whether MM supported changes in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during cognitive tasks. We found that a single MM …

Recognizing Relational Boredom And Coping With It Through The Introduction Of Novelty, Kiersten Dobson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Relational boredom is a pervasive and potentially damaging relationship experience, but accurately perceiving these experiences in one’s partner may offer the opportunity for corrective action. The current studies examine whether romantic partners are accurate and biased in their perceptions of each other’s relational boredom (Studies 1-3), how these (in)accurate perceptions are associated with relationship quality (Studies 1-3), and the best practices for incorporating relationship maintenance behaviours to cope with the knowledge of one’s partner’s boredom (Studies 4-6). Studies 1 and 2 examine romantic couples’ accuracy, bias, and the consequences of these constructs on relationship quality cross-sectionally, while Study 3 examines …