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Educational Ability, Practice And Short Term Memory, Barbara Jean Arthur

Master's Theses

Thirty-six fourth grade students were selected and classified into one of three groups on the basis of participation in the DISTAR Reading Program, educational ability as measured by the STEA and a reading readiness factor, Each group received two tests of short term memory (STM ) involving auditory presentation and either auditory or visual recall after a retention interval of 4, 8 or 12 seconds. Analysis verified previous research in this area with respect of task difficulty, retention as a function of interval length and acoustic similarity of response errors. Neither educational ability nor practice elevated the students' performance on …

The Relationship Of Resting Cardiac Activity And Locus Of Control To Impulse Control, Carol Kress Coukos

Master's Theses

The relationship between the autonomic nervous system and various personlity characteristics has become a popular area of scientific investigation with the advent of accurate means of measurement of autnomic nervous system activity. The act of measuring autonomic nervous system activity carries great clinical value. Clinicians practicing systematic desensitization use the galvanic skin resistance -as an indication of whether the stimulus in question produces too much· anxiety for the client. The clinician, of course, also relies on the client's verbal response. Measurement of galvanic skin resistance provides additional information for the clinician. The clinician can draw from more than one response, …

Test For A Learned Drinking Response : Support For Appetitive Preparedness, Brian L. West

Master's Theses

Seligman, Ives, Ames and Mineka (1970a) have suggested that by the nature of the stimulus-response association in appetitive states a prepared mechanism using "mild" deprivation cues exists which will activate an appetitional resolution. Pairing of a neutral stimulus with this prepared mechanism results in a conditioned stimulus capable of electing the drinking response. Contrary to this hypothesis, Mowrer (1956) posited that a water deprived state induces an emotional reaction or "thirst fear." It is assumed that reduction of this stimulus may be accomplished by means of alleviating the deprived state. A conditioned external stimulus can therefore elicit the drinking response …

A Partial Test Of The Contingency Model On Adult-Led Groups Of Children, Jeffrey Wayne Jones

Master's Theses

The problem was to test the applicability of Fiedler's contingency model on 15 adult-led groups of children in a field situation. The effectiveness of high and low least preferred co-worker (LPC) leaders on structured and unstructured group tasks was investigated when leader­ member relations were good and leaders had strong power. The data were analyzed in a 2 x 2 factorial design using the analysis of variance. None of the F tests reached statistical significance, thus the model was not supported. Several possible reasons for the findings were given as well as suggestions for future research.

The Effects Of Crowding On The Dominance Behavior Of Laboratory Rats As Assessed By Three Measures Of Dominance, Barbara C. Worthington

Master's Theses

The present study was designed to assess behavioral changes in social dominance, which may accompany or be affected by short term crowding and any adrenal enlargement which may be a concomitant of crowding. To avoid methodological inaccuracy and further establish whether different measures of dominance would accrue the same results a multimethod approach suggested by Howells and Kise (1974) was employed. · Additionally sequence of test presentation was considered and both male and female subjects were used to determine if the measures differentially discriminated between the sexes.

This experiment as designed to evaluate the effects of crowding (independent variable) on …

The Effect Of Interpersonal Trust, S̲ Naivete, And The Use Of Deception Upon S̲ Perceived Demand Awareness, Robert George De Laney

Master's Theses

The present experiment was designed to study the effect of the variables of naivete concerning psychological experimenta­ tion, the use of deception, and level of trust on a S's ability to become demand aware. It was hypothesized tha t the demand awareness of high and low trust s would be differentially affected by their level of knowledge about psychological experi­ menta tion, and by the type of explanation given to them (none, honest, deceptive) as to the purpose of the experiment. Non­ significant results indica ted no support for this hypothesis. Difficulties with the subjective aspect of the demand awareness …

Closed-Loop Theory And The Partial Recall Hypothesis : Explanations Of The Sources Of Information About Knowledge In Memory, Thomas Beverly Watkins

Master's Theses

Examples of information about knowledge in memory are described, and two conceptualizations of the source of such information--the partial recall hypothesis and the closed-loop theory--are reviewed. Wearing (1970) conducted a study to support the closed-loop theory using 60 CVC pairs in a paired-associate task with recall measure and confidence ratings. An attempt is made to replicate and extend some of his findings. Some are replicated, except for one finding with which he supported closed-loop theory. With support for closed-loop theory thus reduced, the partial recall hypothesis seems more plausible.