Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Word Sociality On Word Recognition, Sean Seaman

Wayne State University Dissertations

While research into the role of semantic structure in the recognition of written and spoken words has grown, it has not looked specifically at the role of conversational context on the recognition of isolated words. This study was a corpus-based and behavioral exploration of a new semantic variable - sociality - and used on-line behavioral testing to obtain new word recognition data using the visual and auditory lexical decision tasks. The results consistently demonstrated that sociality is one of the most robust predictors of lexical decision performance. Overall, it appears that the visual lexical decision task is quite sensitive to …

The Perception Of Fairness Of Performance Appraisals, Tracy M. Prather

ETD Archive

The perception of fairness in performance appraisals (PA) is one of the most important factors and considered a criterion when reviewing PA effectiveness (Jacobs, Kafry, and Zedeck, 1980). In this particular study, I examined numerous variables in three main categories: interpersonal, procedural, and outcome fairness. Keep in mind that although these are three distinct categories, they are all inter-related. One hundred ninety-two employees, from the research and development section of a large retail company, voluntarily participated. The results were slightly contradictory to what was expected yet they were good results. The interpersonal variable, manager effectiveness, along with the outcome variables, …

A Dissociation Between Perception And Action In The Material‐Weight Illusion, Gavin Buckingham, Jonathan S. Cant, Kai-Ling C. Kao, Melvyn A. Goodale

Psychology Presentations

We examined what forces are applied to objects that elicit this illusion when they are lifted.We predicted that:

(1) Forces on early trials will scale to each participant’s expectations of how much a particular block will weigh ‐ excessive force will be applied to the metal block and insufficient force applied to the polystyrene block.

(2) Forces on later trials will scale to the real weight of each block ‐ identical levels of force applied to all the blocks.

(3) MWI will persist throughout ‐ polystyrene block will feel the heaviest, metal block will feel the lightest.

Perceiving Sacredness In Life: Correlates And Predictors, Carrie Doehring, Ann Clarke, Kenneth I. Pargament, Alice Hayes, Dean Hammer, Markos Nickolas, Patricia Hughes

Kenneth I Pargament

Building on research demonstrating relationships between well being and perceptions of aspects of life as sacred, this study describes the rationale for and development of a scale measuring perceiving sacredness in life. It then explores associations between perceptions of sacredness in life and these four domains: religious/spiritual (intrinsic/extrinsic religiosity, quest, mysticism, religious/spiritual history, worship attendance, frequency of prayer, importance of religion/spirituality), personal (purpose in life, commitment to empiricism, narcissism, self esteem, relational attachment), social (community service attitude and helping, social support, imagination tutoring), and situational (enjoyment and frequency of everyday pleasant events, impact of negative events, positive childhood recollections). Participants …

Investigation Of The Attitudes Of Doctor Of Psychology Students In An American Psychological Association Accredited Doctoral Program, Mckenzie L. Walker

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Student and faculty/administration perceptions of a quality doctoral psychology program may vary. There is minimal research on the perceived quality of doctoral programs and how this is measured, based on student perceptions. Doctoral programs require great investments of time and money. This study focuses specifically on a program self assessment for the 2008-2009 academic year of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Doctor of Psychology program, self-study survey with the doctoral students. The study was conducted using archival data from 108 Doctor of Psychology students identified as being currently enrolled in the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Doctor of Psychology …

A Dissociation Between Perception And Action In The Material‐Weight Illusion, Gavin Buckingham, Jonathan Cant, Kai-Ling Kao, Melvyn Goodale

Gavin Buckingham

We examined what forces are applied to objects that elicit this illusion when they are lifted.We predicted that:

(1) Forces on early trials will scale to each participant’s expectations of how much a particular block will weigh ‐ excessive force will be applied to the metal block and insufficient force applied to the polystyrene block.

(2) Forces on later trials will scale to the real weight of each block ‐ identical levels of force applied to all the blocks.

(3) MWI will persist throughout ‐ polystyrene block will feel the heaviest, metal block will feel the lightest.

Overattribution Effect, Sally Eimer

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of judgments undergraduate students made regarding a child’s behavior they observed in a brief video clip. Their attributions were expected to be affected by a key situational factor that only some were informed of. The researcher hypothesized that participants informed that the child, in the clip, was recently diagnosed with leukemia would attribute the child’s behavior to situational factors, whereas participants not given any information about the child in the clip, would attribute the child’s behavior to things intrinsic of the child.

Does The Type Of Crime Determine If An Image Of A Certain Criminal Is Pictured?, Amanda Vance

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

People have culturally been inclined to visualize a perpetrator simply based on the description of the crime. This experiment seeks to determine if a generalized criminal is expressed by the survey group for each crime. Simply put, it will identify if there exists a similar stereotype for each crime described. Each participant completed a questionnaire to identify their demographics. Next was given five crimes which were about robbery, shooting, rape, stolen identity, and murder to read over with the victim and location information omitted. Participants were asked to visualize and describe the perpetrator in each crime scene. The results concluded …

The Visual Perception Of Elasticity, Elizabeth Y. Wiesemann

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Two experiments were designed to evaluate human sensitivity to elasticity. Elastic objects bend when a force is applied to them. Observers saw two computer-generated bending rods (defined by the motions of 50 dots) on any given trial and were required to judge which rod was more flexible. Elasticity difference thresholds were calculated for each observer for each of three bending conditions. The rods bent in a plane that was either frontoparallel or oriented 42.5 or 85 degrees from frontoparallel. The results showed that observers could precisely discriminate between bending rods of different elasticities, independent of whether the bendings occurred in …

The A-B Signal Detection Theory Model, Ernesto A. Bustamante

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was threefold: (1) Present the a-b SDT model as an alternative framework to overcome the limitations of the underlying SDT model and the traditional measures of sensitivity and criterion setting, (2) Provide empirical support to validate the adequacy of the a-b SDT model, and (3) Conduct a Monte Carlo Study to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of both the traditional and the a-b SDT models across the full spectrum of response values with the goal of providing researchers and practitioners with recommendations regarding the adequacy of each model. The results from this research …

Face Processing In Humans And New World Monkeys: The Influence Of Experiential And Ecological Factors. Animal Cognition, Julie J. Neiworth, Janice M. Hassett, Cara J. Sylvester

Faculty Work

This study tests whether the face-processing sys- tem of humans and a nonhuman primate species share char- acteristics that would allow for early and quick processing of socially salient stimuli: a sensitivity toward conspecific faces, a sensitivity toward highly practiced face stimuli, and an ability to generalize changes in the face that do not sug- gest a new identity, such as a face differently oriented. The look rates by adult tamarins and humans toward conspecific and other primate faces were examined to determine if these characteristics are shared. A visual paired comparison (VPC) task presented subjects with either a human …

Planning To Reach For An Object Changes How The Reacher Perceives It., Peter Vishton, N J. Stephens, L A. Nelson, S E. Morra, Kaitlyn L. Brunick, Jennifer A. Stevens

Peter Vishton

Perception Precedes Computation: Can Familiarity Preferences Explain Apparent Calculation By Human Babies?, David S. Moore, Laura A. Cocas

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Two studies of 5-month-old infants explored whether a phenomenon reported by K. Wynn (1992) reflects a familiarity preference instead of a mathematical competence. Experiment 1 was a conceptual replication of Wynn's study. When data were analyzed with the relatively liberal statistical approach used by Wynn, the original phenomenon was replicated. However, an analysis of variance revealed that girls and boys behaved in different ways, and that boys did not behave as Wynn would have predicted. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, with one exception that should not have influenced computation: Infants in this study were completely familiarized with the …

Investigation Into The Perception Of Beauty, Elysa Priester, Heather Kraft

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

The possibility of a connection between the sense of smell and the perception of beauty was investigated. Twenty-two participants were sorted into three different groups: group 1 (no stimulus), group 2 (negative stimulus), and group 3 (positive stimulus). The research procedure consisted of participants filling out a quick survey before and after the experiment to evaluate mood. Each individual was then asked to rate the attractiveness of the ten models. The hypothesis was that smell would have an impact on perception, a negative impact associated with a negative smell, a positive impact associated with a positive smell. No statistical significance …

The Perceptions Of Pornography On Colby College Campus, Jessica Seymour, Elizabeth Wyckoff

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

No abstract provided.

Ethics And Welfare: Pain Perception In Fish, L. U. Sneddon

Aquaculture Collection

Fish welfare is currently a controversial subject with many scientific studies now demonstrating the possibility for fish to experience negative events such as pain, fear and stress. This has important implications in the treatment of fish during commercial and experimental procedures in terms of ethics and welfare. In this review, the evidence for pain perception in fish is considered and the repercussions for the use of fish as a research model as well as in aquaculture and largescale fisheries. These issues are discussed briefly from a welfare and ethical perspective.

Global And Local Processing In Adult Humans (Homo Sapiens), 5-Year Old Children (Homo Sapiens), And Adult Cotton Top Tamarins (Saguinus Oedipus), Julie J. Neiworth, Amy J. Gleichman, Anne S. Olinick, Kristen E. Lamb

Faculty Work

This study compared adults (Homo sapiens), young children (Homo sapiens), and adult tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) while they discriminated global and local properties of stimuli. Subjects were trained to discriminate a circle made of circle elements from a square made of square elements and were tested with circles made of squares and squares made of circles. Adult humans showed a global bias in testing that was unaffected by the density of the elements in the stimuli. Children showed a global bias with dense displays but discriminated by both local and global properties with sparse displays. Adult tamarins’ biases matched those of …

Social Emotional Development In School: The Anatomy Of One School's Role In Adolescent Female Development, Tanya Elizabeth Forneris

Theses and Dissertations

Social and emotional learning enables individuals to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish and maintain positive relationships, handle challenging situations effectively, achieve academically, and lead a healthy lifestyle. Research has shown that competent young people who are socially and emotionally competent are more likely to succeed both academically and personally and have strong personal and interpersonal skills. The purpose of this study was to examine one school's process in helping its students develop both socially and emotionally. For this study social-emotional learning was examined using the individual competencies and guidelines for schools …

Visual Adaptation To Masculine And Feminine Faces Influences Generalized Preferences And Perceptions Of Trustworthiness, Gavin Buckingham, L. Debruine, A. Little, L. Welling, C. Conway, B. Tiddeman, B. Jones

Gavin Buckingham

We compared the effects of adaptation to faces varying in sexual dimorphism of shape on perceptions of the trustworthiness and attractiveness of masculine faces.

The Effects Of Positive Feedback On Performance Perception, Traci Schmidt

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Nonverbal communication may have an effect on people’s perceptions of themselves and their performance on certain tasks. When people receive some type of positive feedback while performing an assignment, they may overestimate the extent to which the task was successfully completed. During this study, 22 participants were asked to take three short spelling tests, then evaluate their performance on each test. For one of the tests, the researcher provided words of encouragement and nods of approval while scoring the test. There was no feedback given during the scoring of the other two tests. While the subjects did not consistently rate …

Consumer Perception And Food Packaging, Dan Agnew, Patti Nibert, Shawna Wells

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Color in food packaging may influence consumer perception of various factors of health of the food product. If lighter colored food packages are seen as healthy, people who are concerned about health will purchase these products. In this study, fifty participants were asked to answer questions about food products based on the packaging color. There were four trials of products, all of which contained three packages that were colored red, green, or light blue. Ultimately, products that were lighter in color, i.e. light blue, were indicated as being the healthier products

Memory Perception And Strategy Use In Parkinson's Disease, Andrew Johnson, Carrie Pollard, Philip Vernon, Jennifer Tomes, Mandar Jog

Andrew M. Johnson

Although there is growing support for the existence of memory deficits within Parkinson's disease (PD), little has been done to evaluate the extent to which PD patients demonstrate differences in their use of metacognitive strategies. In the present study, 79 PD patients (46 men and 33 women) and 49 age-matched healthy participants (19 men and 30 women) were compared on a metamemory questionnaire. PD patients reported significantly less strategy-use than age-matched controls, particularly with regards to external memory strategies (such as making lists). This suggests that auxiliary treatments such as memory strategy training might be effective in this population.

Human Mental Models Of Humanoid Robots, Sau-Lai Lee, Ivy Yee-Man Lau, Sara Kiesler, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Effective communication between a person and a robot may depend on whether there exists a common ground of understanding between the two. In two experiments modelled after human-human studies we examined how people form a mental model of a robot's factual knowledge. Participants estimated the robot's knowledge by extrapolating from their own knowledge and from information about the robot's origin and language. These results suggest that designers of humanoid robots must attend not only to the social cues that robots emit but also to the information people use to create mental models of a robot.

When The Risk Is Strategically And Operationally Insignificant, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The article discusses some of the dangers in labelling a risk as strategically and operationally insignificant in a security setting.

Trends. Facts And Fantasy On Suicidal Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses perceptions of suicidal terrorism.

Recalibrating The Auditory System: A Speed–Accuracy Analysis Of Intensity Perception, Yoav Arieh, Lawrence E. Marks

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Recalibration in loudness perception refers to an adaptation-like change in relative responsiveness to auditory signals of different sound frequencies. Listening to relatively weak tones at one frequency and stronger tones at another make the latter appear softer. The authors showed recalibration not only in magnitude estimates of loudness but also in simple response times (RTs) and choice RTs. RTs depend on the sound intensity and may serve as surrogates for loudness. Most important, the speeded classification paradigm also provided measures of errors. RTs and errors can serve jointly to distinguish changes in sensitivity from changes in response criterion. The changes …

Depression And Perception Of Maternal Rejection In Latency Age, African American Children Of Alcoholic Mothers, Karen Marse

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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World Views, Political Attitudes And Risk Perception, Lennart Sjöberg

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Dr. Sjöberg questions the Cultural Theory approach to evaluating variance in risk perception. He also presents the results of a survey using elements of that and other scales to help explain individual differences in risk perception.

Assessment Of Customer Perceptions Of The Hazardous Materials Pharmacy, Sean M. O'Brien

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force began operations of a Hazardous Material Pharmacy (HMP) in the late 80s. This thesis identifies causes of positive and negative perceptions of the HMP among its customers. Focus groups were used to determine customer perceptions. Several Total Quality Management (TQM) tools were used in this analysis. Brainstorming was used to generate customer perceptions. Affinity diagrams were used to group data into meaningful categories. Interrelationship digraphs were used to determine influence among causes of perception and to rank the causes of perception. This study showed that lack of clear policy and support of the HMP were the leading …

"Brainwashing" And The Death Of Jean Pasqualini, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes some salient psychological Issues related to the concept of "brainwashing."