Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptual Grouping By Closure In Visual Working Memory, Sofia Neira

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Research on visual working memory (VWM) suggests a capacity limit of three to four objects (Luck & Vogel, 1997), but recent studies on the fidelity of VWM capacity for objects indicates that informational bandwidth, which can vary with factors like complexity and amenability to perceptual grouping, can interact with this capacity (Brady, Konkle & Alvarez, 2011). For example, individual features can be grouped into objects for an added benefit in VWM capacity (Xu, 2002). Along these lines, the Gestalt principles of proximity and connectedness have been shown to benefit VWM, although they do not influence capacity equally (Xu 2006; Woodman, …

Self-Efficacy And Coping In Transition Of Care After Remission Of Cancer In Adolescents, Leah M. Mcdonnell

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The improvement in cancer remission rates in children and adolescents due to advances in cancer treatment and therapy has led to the development of guidelines that address long-term follow up for survivors of childhood cancers. Adolescents often experience negative emotions related to the fear of uncertainty about long-term survival after cancer remission, yet often report feelings of hope and optimism for the future more than adult cancer survivors. The purpose of this study was to understand the role of self-efficacy and coping in adolescents after remission of cancer. A secondary purpose was to analyze which coping strategies supported long-term survival …

Evaluating Competition Between Verbal And Implicit Systems With Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, Troy A. Schiebel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In category learning, explicit processes function through the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and implicit processes function through the basal ganglia. Research suggested that these two systems compete with each other. The goal of this study was to shed light on this theory. 15 undergraduate subjects took part in an event-related experiment that required them to categorize computer-generated line-stimuli, which varied in length and/or angle depending on condition. Subjects participated in an explicit "rule-based" (RB) condition and an implicit "information-integration" (II) condition while connected to a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) apparatus, which measured the hemodynamic response (HR) in their PFC. Each condition …

The Effect Of Neighborhood Size And Morphology In The Chinese Language, Long Nguyen

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Neighborhood Size Effect (NSE), characterized as the effect in word determination based on changing one orthographic aspect of that word. The amount of words that can be created through such manipulation is called a neighborhood size (NS). Number of other factors such as frequency, how often a word appears and morphology, the combination of meaningful word units, have been suggested to have an overriding effect on NSE. In addition, there is a lack of research on NSE with non-alphabetical languages such as Chinese, which uses characters comprising of a multitude of semantic or phonetic markers. In this experiment, participants …

Five Degrees: A Short Story, Cassia E. Hinds

Honors Undergraduate Theses

An interwoven fiction piece representing four perspectives and its effects on self-awareness. The most effective way to blur the line of self in this structure is to braid the minds, voices, and stories, of each perspective. With a focal point where all the voices eventually drift to being the frame of the story, there will be a unique distance between the stories. This thesis explores the effects of different types of mental and physiological illnesses through fiction, highlighting the effect of perception on fact and the perspective of the mentally ill.

The Effect Of Social Media On Sexual Cognitions And Behaviors, Joshua Duarte

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Pop culture and social media have become a prime source of entertainment and communication. The current study focuses on the potential effects of consuming this form of media and how it affects our sexual cognitions and behaviors. A sample of nine hundred and two university students were given self-reporting questionnaires concerning demographics, sexual cognitions, and exposure to sexual content in music. An analysis of music artist’s posts on social media was also performed. It was hypothesized that artists who have sexual content published in their work will also have the same amount of sexual content on social media. However, there …

Informational Efficiency And The Reaction To Terrorism: A Financial Perspective, Nicholas Roland

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to measure the message terror organizations hope to convey using the financial markets as a proxy of measurement to determine patterns within the marketplace and the effects on the terrorists’ ability to deliver a desired message due to the increased use of digital devices and access to instantaneous news, seen over the past decade. Using death count, geographic location, and event type, this study identified 109 attacks between 1985 and 2015 to be analyzed against 5 market indices and 5 securities. Measuring the effects within a 10-day sample window from the time of the …

Perception Of Facial Expressions In Social Anxiety And Gaze Anxiety, Aaron Necaise

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study explored the relationship between gaze anxiety and the perception of facial expressions. The literature suggests that individuals experiencing Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) might have a fear of making direct eye contact, and that these individuals also demonstrate a hypervigilance towards the eye region. It was thought that this increased anxiety concerning eye contact might be related to the tendency of socially anxious individuals to mislabel emotion in the faces of onlookers. A better understanding of the cognitive biases common to SAD could lead to more efficient intervention and assessment methods. In the present study, the Depression Anxiety Stress …

An Examination Of Individual Differences In The Context Of Performance On A Feedback V. No Feedback Vigilance Task, Jenny A. Walker

Honors Undergraduate Theses

When a task is boring, repetitive, and takes place over a long period of time, individuals have a propensity to experience a gradual decline in performance known as the vigilance decrement (Mackworth, 1948). This negative trend is consistent across most populations (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982), though slight variations can occur based on the characteristics of the task, as well as characteristics of the human performing it. However, despite the many differences between these tasks, most studies are similar in the sense that, more often than not, participants are provided with immediate feedback on their performance throughout most laboratory trials. Yet, …

Generation Rated X: Personality Traits, Sexual Attitudes, And The Effects Of Sexually Explicit Media On Attraction Among Men, H. Christopher Eckstein

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Previous research has indicated that exposure to pornography, or sexually explicit media (SEM), can lead married men to express a stronger desire for sexual intimacy (Staley & Prause, 2013). However, SEM exposure has also resulted in decreased physical attractiveness ratings among men evaluating their spouses (Kenrick, et al., 1989). Only a small amount of research has investigated the effects of SEM on attraction among unmarried males. The current study examined the effects of SEM in a sample of 108 heterosexual, undergraduate males. Participants evaluated pictures of 15 unknown women’s faces for physical attractiveness. They were then exposed to five minutes …

The Study Of The Adverse Effects Of Childhood Maltreatment, Katie A. Kennie

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study explores the link between the presence of childhood trauma and adult criminal behavior. In this study, four distinct categories of childhood trauma (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect) were examined. In addition, this study conducts a comparative analysis of the United States crime rate with that of Switzerland and Japan. This study examines and compares the policies utilized in ensuring the protection of child welfare. The ultimate goal is to provide research which may build a foundation that will assist in creating and improving policies which will ensure a child's psychological health.

Individual Differences In Eyewitness Testimony, Noel A. Cal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Eyewitness testimony plays a crucial role in the justice system. Misidentification from eyewitnesses was reported in 70% of 300 DNA exonerations of wrongfully convicted individuals (Wixted et al., 2015). Similarly, many convicts can also be set free because of juror’s faulty eyewitness recall during examination. Previous research indicated that females are more reliable in recall than men. However, these findings were not extensively examined with regards to time delay prior to the trial. Thus, it is important to systematically examine the various factors that influence eyewitness testimony.

The present study was designed to empirically examine the effects of gender, interview …

Sexual Content In Music Lyrics And Their Effects On Sexual Cognition, Nicole Nowotny

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the sexual content found in music lyrics of different genres and their relationship to specific sexual cognitions. The study included 902 participants, both male and female, belonging to various ethnic backgrounds, ages 18 and up. It was hypothesized that listening to music containing frequent sexual lyrics will have an affect on men and women’s sexual cognitive beliefs. Results indicated that there was a relationship between frequency of sexually explicit lyrics and views on sexual cognitions. The breakdown by genre shows a more detailed relationship between the lyrics and sexual cognitions. Overall, the …

Hebrew And Computer-Mediated Communication: The Effects Of A Language Manipulation On Perception, Identity, And Preservation, Tamar Nir

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study aimed to explore the ways in which Hebrew is currently being manipulated online through a linguistic deviation called Fakatsa. In this study, participants were asked to rate random statements of frivolous or serious topics in either standard grammatical Hebrew or Fakatsa Hebrew conditions on specific judgment values. It was hypothesized that participants would rate the Fakatsa writer negatively on certain characteristics, such as intelligence, education, religiosity, and nationalism and positively on other characteristics, such as femininity and creativity. Twenty-four participants completed this experiment. Results showed that participants responded as expected for certain negative attributes typical of Fakatsa and …

Supervisor Expectations, Event Reporting, And Patient Safety Perceptions: Exploring Potential Moderators And Mediators, Claudia Hernandez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Given the high number of errors and negative events committed within medical settings, the emphasis on patient safety culture is becoming more prevalent. Despite this effort, underreporting has been and continues to be an issue in this area. Some research has shown a link between underreporting and lack of management responsiveness, but more work is necessary to identify reasons for underreporting and potential mitigating solutions. The objective of the present research is to answer questions regarding the impact supervisors have on staff’s patient safety perceptions and event reporting, through the use of archival survey data collected with the AHRQ Hospital …

Sexual Content In Music's Relationship With Consumers' Body Image, Sexualization And Objectification, Marika Gilbert

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The current study examined the relationship between sexual content in popular pop, rap, and R&B music videos and female consumers’ body image, self-objectification, the objectification of other women, and self-esteem. The current study had two main hypotheses: (1) exposure to sexual content in music videos would be negatively correlated with women’s body image, self-objectification, and the objectification of other women and (2) Women’s body image and self-objectification would mediate the relationship between exposure to sexual content in music videos and self-esteem. Participants included 308 female college students who answered questions related to the study aims online. Exposure to sexual content …

Individual Differences Of Directed Forgetting, Griselda Alavez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The present study set out to evaluate the relationship between list-method directed forgetting and one’s individual differences. Previous research has found personality and emotion as having an influence in how well participants were able to intentionally forget stimuli. Participants were split into a remember group and a forget group of 22 each and tasked to memorize a list of 10 words. They were then given a free recall test and the results for individual differences such as Need for Cognition, Mini-IPIP personality test, and Beck’s Depression Inventory were analyzed. Our first hypothesis presumes that participants in the forget group will …

Exploring Attachment Behaviors In Urban Mothers And Their Infants, Brooke G. Rusoff

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Infants enter this world relying on caregivers to nurture and protect them. Through this reliance, infants develop an attachment to their caregivers, thus setting the stage for how a child comes to view the world and the people in it. This study sought to further explore attachment behaviors through observation of a voluntary parent education course offered through the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County. Data were collected three times over the course of the nine week program on four mother-infant dyads. Across the three mothers who were present for at least two observations, negative behaviors decreased between the first …

Identity Development, Social Support, And Motherhood, Dayanara Rosado

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Adolescent pregnancy creates challenges for this minority population in balancing their motherhood identity with continuing to develop their identity at the adolescent stage, which presents a social problem today. The intent of this thesis is to explore the relationship between identity, adjustment, and social support among college students who were adolescent mothers. The following surveys: Personal Network Matrix (PNM), The Identity Distress Scale (IDS), and The Dimension of Identity Development Scale (DIDS), were administered through the UCF SONA system. Participants were divided into three groups: mothers who had their first child as a teenager (teen mothers; n = 6), mothers …

Music And Memory: A Qualitative Look At How Music Affects Episodic Memory, Jonathan A. Coad

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study was designed to examine qualitative data regarding gender and age differences about significant life events that are recalled when music is remembered. Two groups of participants were recruited, younger adults (M = 19.78, SD = 4.99) and older adults (M = 49.31, SD = 8.72). Data were collected by creating a survey and allowing participants to choose whichever songs, from their own experience, they like and asking them to list detailed memories that are attached to the song. Using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (2015) software, data was coded into categories of word count, positive and negative emotions, …

The Effects Of Cerebrovascular Aging On Sleep Quality In A Sample Of Aging Adults, Chelsea Tia Mapp

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Cerebrovascular burden (CVB) is a significant factor among the aging population. Age-related cognitive decline is an important social and economic issue, and understanding the mechanisms has clinical implications, both in selecting potential therapies and in choosing specific modifiers for their evaluation. In summary, past work suggests that high CVB is one source of variance in neurovascular functioning among older adults. High CVB and associated brain-changes have been identified as causes of age-related changes and it may be that high CVB is a correlate of age-related changes in sleep quality. The primary hypothesis to be tested is that cerebrovascular burden measured …

Identity Development And Sexual Orientation Prejudice, Cassandra Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study examined the relationships among psychological variables of sexual prejudice, psychological adjustment, and identity development. It was hypothesized that sexual orientation prejudice would be negatively related to psychological adjustment. It was further hypothesized that identity formation would moderate the relationship between sexual orientation prejudice and psychological adjustment. Participants were 200 college students, ages ranged from 18-48 (M = 21.96, SD = 4.87). Sexual orientation for the participants included self-identified labels of Heterosexual (88.5%), Homosexual (6.5%), Bisexual (3.5%), Pansexual (1%), and Demisexual (0.5%). Survey data were collected through a Psychology Research Experience website (SONA). Results revealed a negative correlation between …

The Effect Of Aphasia On Quality Of Life, Coping Style, And Resilience, Nelson J. Hernandez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Approximately one million people in the United States suffer from aphasia. There are multiple types of aphasia, however they are usually placed into two categories: non-fluent or fluent. The psychosocial factors that are impacted due to the type of aphasia has not been systematically investigated. The purpose of this study is to examine how non-fluent and fluent Individuals With Aphasia (IWA) compare or contrast across three psychosocial factors, Quality of Life (QoL), coping style, and resilience. The World Health Quality of Life- BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), Assimilative-Accommodative Coping Scale (AACS), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 item version (CD-RISC-10), were administered once to …

Correlations Between Sexual Imagery And Sexual Cognitions, Jennifer L. Mcdonnell

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Analyzing the relationship between the visual imagery used in music videos, and the sexual cognition of viewers. Sexual cognition is the awareness of one's own sexual behavior, and its implications. The visual content of music videos was analyzed focusing only on the imagery used. The Heterosexual Script (Jhally, 2007) in particular is observed in most music videos, highlighting the sexual objectification of women and the dominant role of males. The direction of causality between the visual imagery and sexual cognitions can only be speculated using a number of theories, namely cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), cultivation theory (Gerbner et al., 1994), …

Authoritariansim And Collectivism: Antecedents And Consequences Among College Students, Jasmine Samuel Ms.

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) suggests there are five distinct moral dimensions, which define morality as a whole. MFT can be broken down into two groups binding: in group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity-which encompass group morality. Harm/Care, fairness/reciprocity are individualizing dimensions, which highlight individual morality. Recent work has found MFT predicts sociopolitical ideologies, as well as sociopolitical attitudes. In an effort to better understand the existing relationships we investigate MFT as a predictor of sociopolitical parties, and attitudes Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). We also draw on similarities between Individualism/Collectivism and MFT. Specifically we demonstrate individualizing foundations, and dimensions …

Right-Wing Aauthoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation, And Workplace Implications, Devin S. Burnell

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Workplace bullying is a recently recognized problem within organizations. Two personalities may be theoretically related, and may be able to predict this aggressive behavior: right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. However, it is still unclear how to measure right-wing authoritarianism as a construct. Two surveys were distributed. The first was to assess the factor structure inconsistency among the literature. A three-factor operationalization was supported. Analysis of the second survey examined the relationship between the aggression dimension of right-wing authoritarianism, dangerous worldview and workplace bullying; as well as the relationship between social dominance orientation and competitive worldview on workplace bullying. No …

Free To Be Accountable: Extended Self As A Moderator Of Cheating Among Those Primed With Determinism, Vincent M. Iula

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The idea that free will may be an illusion has been a source of great concern. It has led to suggestions that it may be wise to avoid public discussion of this topic lest it lead to a general moral decay. This concern has seemingly been supported by research demonstrating that individuals, when primed with the notion they lack free will, tend to cheat more and prefer less retributive punishment. The current research suggests that these effects can be moderated by the introduction of a second prime. In experiment one, participants believed they were being tested on note-taking and the …

The Relationship Between Substance Use And Social Class Among College Students, Kelcey Little

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Alcohol and substance use among a college population has become a norm for our society. Even more intriguing are the possible factors that may lead to use and abuse of alcohol and substances. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between multiple participant characteristics (i.e., ethnicity, gender, year in college, socioeconomic status) and alcohol and substance use. A total of 902 participants from the University of Central Florida answered multiple questionnaires via the Sona system. Items in the questionnaires included topics such as demographic variables, social class variables, and items regarding alcohol and substance use in …