Digital Commons Network^™

Stability Of Neurocognitive Abilities In Heterogeneous Subgroups Of Schizophrenia, Megan L. Becker Wright

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Considerable work has been devoted to characterizing the latent structure of cognition in schizophrenia (SZ) to understand important clinical outcomes associated with generalized or specific deficits but findings are limited in a number of ways. Previous work has not assessed bifactor and other complex models of cognition in SZ, which might provide a better understanding of the structure of cognitive abilities. It is also unclear whether the latent structure of cognitive abilities is similar between men and women with SZ or whether the latent structure of cognitive abilities is stable over time with repeated assessment. These limitations must be addressed …

The Effects Of Physical Function And Genetics On Cognition And Blood Biomarkers In Individuals At-Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Dementias, Joshua Louis Gills

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) rates are expected to triple by the year 2050. Early detection and specific mitigation efforts are warranted to blunt the alarming rate. Physical function (PF) declines with age, but higher physical function is associated with better cognitive functioning in middle-to- older age individuals. Moreover, greater physical activity (PA) is associated with better global cognition; however, Apoliporotein e4 carriers may not gain the same benefits with exercise. Additionally, plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217) has been identified as a novel diagnostic ADRD biomarker which needs further research to examine associations with risk factors. Therefore, the aims …

Lifetime Racism And John Henryism On Cognition And Cardiovascular Health In Black Men, Roy Mitchell

Dissertations

Lifetime racism is a type of chronic stress that is often accompanied by depression. Racism is the experience of many Black men because of several psychosocial stressors such as reduced resources and institutional barriers, to name a few. Active coping is typically utilized by Black men as a consistent means to reduce the negative outcomes linked to racism, however, this up-tempo coping style can contribute to poor cardiovascular health and cognitive impairment over time. The present study aimed to provide data to support the effects of lifetime racism and active coping on cardiovascular health and cognition. There were three hypotheses …

Selfies And The Self: The Influence Of Instagram Posting On Self And Cognition, Giovanni Castillo

Theses

Research on Social Networking Sites (SNS) has shown a variety of both beneficial and detrimental psychological and cognitive outcomes associated with high frequency usage. We conducted an online study consisting of a series of questionnaires and a working memory task to explore the relationship between Instagram use intensity and cognition. The present study first investigated the relationship between Instagram (IG) use intensity, rumination, and cognitive failures. We randomly assigned participants into a selfie-posting, selfie-sending, or likes/comments reporting condition to determine whether selfie-posting behavior affects working memory performance. While we did not find significant associations between IG use intensity, rumination, and …

Sound Judgment: Review Of Noise: A Flaw In Human Judgment (2021) By Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, And Cass R. Sunstein, Anne Kelly

Numeracy

In Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (2021), Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein convincingly demonstrate the pervasiveness and harmfulness of unwanted internal variability or noise. Using examples from both public and private sectors to demonstrate the quality and limits of the judgments we make, they argue that, despite objections based on possible cost, difficulty, and dehumanization, the reduction of noise is imperative for the fairness and equitability of systems upon which we depend.

The Influence Of Parental Psychological Control On Offspring Anxiety Symptomatology: A Cognitive Model, Yu Ping Wong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Parental control has often been purported to be a risk factor for offspring anxiety. Recent studies however, identify that a particular dimension of control - parental psychological control - is an especially important contributor to anxiety. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unknown. Thus, in this study, we seek to bridge this gap in the literature by examining whether a cognitive mechanism underlies this relationship. Drawing on Beck's model of emotional disorders, we propose that control- related beliefs and negative automatic thoughts would serially mediate the influence of psychological control on anxiety symptoms. Moreover, we sought to examine the …

Cross-Modal Perception Of Identity By Sound And Taste In Bottlenose Dolphins, Jason N. Bruck, Sam F. Walmsley, Vincent M. Janik

Faculty Publications

While studies have demonstrated concept formation in animals, only humans are known to label concepts to use them in mental simulations or predictions. To investigate whether other animals use labels comparably, we studied cross-modal, individual recognition in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that use signature whistles as labels for conspecifics in their own communication. First, we tested whether dolphins could use gustatory stimuli and found that they could distinguish between water and urine samples, as well as between urine from familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Then, we paired playbacks of signature whistles of known animals with urine samples from either the same …

The Influence Of Environmental Sounds On Cognition And Mood, Huda Ahmed

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Exposure to nature has evidently been shown to benefit affective states and improve cognitive performance. Due to the predominant focus on the influence of immersive environments on restoration in prior research, the current study aimed to examine the extent to which nature-related benefits are linked to perceptual richness. The study consisted of 204 participants, recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to either unaltered nature sounds, unaltered urban sounds, degraded nature sounds, or degraded urban sounds. Participants completed the Auditory N-Back task, self-reported fatigue levels, and provided mood ratings prior to and after listening to the …

Effects Of Recess On Educational Outcomes In Elementary School Children, Katelyn Whitham

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Introduction: Because physical activity is beneficial for physical and mental health, the declining opportunities to implement adequate recesses in schools are devastating for children. If educational outcomes are positively affected by increased recess time or quality, schools are more likely to receive funding for programs and resources that support this renovation to recesses, providing research in lacking topics. Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to find related, academic articles for cross examination of data collected on the effects that recess has on educational outcomes so that schools may use this as a resource to receive funding to increase …

Occupational Depression In A Spanish-Speaking Sample: Associations With Cognitive Performance And Work-Life Characteristics, Bianchi Renzo, Guadalupe Manzano García, Maria Pilar Montanes, Emily A. Schonfeld, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This 386-participant study investigated the structural and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI). Exploratory structural equation modeling bifactor analysis revealed that the ODI meets the requirements for essential unidimensionality. Measurement invariance held across our sample and the English- and French-speaking samples used in the ODI’s initial validation study. Mokken scale analysis indicated that (a) the scalability of the instrument was strong, (b) no violations of monotonicity or local independence were present, and (c) invariant item ordering was sufficiently accurate. The ODI’s reliability was optimal. The ODI exhibited both convergent validity and discriminant validity vis-à-vis …

Avatars And Empathy: The Use Of Video Games To Affect Prejudicial Evaluations Of African Americans, Christopher J. Corr

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research sought to test the relation between video game avatars (online representations of the self), empathy, social dominance orientation, and prejudice. By having participants imagine playing in a game as an avatar I sought to test three hypotheses. Th first hypothesis proposed that that participants would be more inclined to support policies regarding a specific racial group when imagining play as an avatar representing that group. The second hypothesis proposed that empathy would influence the connection between the avatar and participant race variables. The third, which was split into three parts, tested for a negative correlation between prejudice and …

The Lived Experience Of Individuals Thinking About Food And Coping With Stress, Tobi Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Stress results in many people altering their eating patterns, often consuming food high in sugar and fat. Such behavior is a factor in the growing obesity epidemic and can potentially cause the development of chronic diseases, resulting in employment problems and billions of extra dollars spent on national health care programs. Researchers have focused on the concept of “emotional eating” while overlooking the overarching research question of this study, which was about exploring the experience of individuals using eating behavior as a coping mechanism to deal with stress. All responses were viewed through the lens of social cognitive theory. Interviews …

Mild Cognitive Impairment In Presurgical Deep Brain Stimulation For Parkinson's Disease, Elizabeth Roslyn Wallace

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Although clinically characterized by motor impairments, Parkinson's disease (PD) often affects cognition early in the disease course. Cognitive changes common in PD include visuospatial abnormalities and prominent executive function (EF) deficits, with 30% of individuals eventually developing Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been identified as a transitional state between normal cognition and PDD. A large cohort of individuals with PD at the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute have undergone pre-surgical evaluations for deep brain stimulation, although cognitive performance in this cohort has never been probed. Baseline cognitive performance of this cohort from 2017-2020 was examined to characterize the …

Our Thoughts Matter: The Mental Health Of College Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Caitlin Zarzeczny

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to explore the mental health of undergraduate college students within the context of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as cognitions about health threat and engagement in protective health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were (N = 276) undergraduate students attending the University of North Florida. Students completed a SONA systems survey between March 2021 and December 2021. Participants received course credit for completing the survey. Survey questions were taken from the Perceived Effectiveness of COVID-19 Prevention Effectiveness Protocols scale (Prasetyo et al., 2020). Three types of variables were assessed: demographics, perceived threat, and planned action. Correlational …

Parent Reports Of Executive Functions In Students With Learning Disability, Jane Roitsch, Annemarie L. Horn, Lisa Morin

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

This study examines the results of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-2) (Gioia et al., 2015) reported by parents of children with Specific Learning Disability (LD) and/or other comorbid disabilities. LD is most notably associated with comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Alloway & Stein, 2014; Westby &Watson, 2004; Willcutt et al., 2013). A total of 43 parents completed the BRIEF-2 rating scale. Findings suggest children with LD and ADHD display greater challenges with inhibition, working memory, planning, along with greater challenges in organization and metacognition. Parents of children with LD reported their children have greater levels of …

Exploring The Association Between Female Infertility Stigma, Women’S Cognitions, And Coping Responses, Spencer Paige Brown

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Infertility is becoming a significant problem for many women around the globe. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infertility impacts 186 million individuals worldwide. Women who experience infertility may be exposed to increased pressure from family and friends to get pregnant, feelings of isolation, and inadequacy. Both cultural and societal views that promote the connection between womanhood and motherhood may increase a woman’s negative view about herself due to her inability to conceive a child. The purpose of this study was to bring awareness about the impact that social stigma of infertility has on a woman’s cognitions and ability …

The Effect Of State/Trait Rumination On A Prospective Memory Task Delivered Remotely Using A Real-Time And Repeated Approach, Iulia Niculescu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background. Prospective memory (PM) refers to the intention to perform a future task held in memory that is executed without any explicit prompts. PM may be negatively impacted by depression, but the mechanisms that drive this association remain unclear. One idea is that rumination increases the frequency of task-irrelevant thoughts, depleting attentional capacity, and thereby reducing PM accuracy and increasing response times. To date, no studies have examined the effects of state and trait rumination on PM using online testing to collect real-time data over time. Objectives. To examine the effect of (1) state and (2) trait rumination on a …

Eye Movement And Pupil Measures: A Review, Bhanuka Mahanama, Yasith Jayawardana, Sundararaman Rengarajan, Gavindya Jayawardena, Leanne Chukoskie, Joseph Snider, Sampath Jayarathna

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Our subjective visual experiences involve complex interaction between our eyes, our brain, and the surrounding world. It gives us the sense of sight, color, stereopsis, distance, pattern recognition, motor coordination, and more. The increasing ubiquity of gaze-aware technology brings with it the ability to track gaze and pupil measures with varying degrees of fidelity. With this in mind, a review that considers the various gaze measures becomes increasingly relevant, especially considering our ability to make sense of these signals given different spatio-temporal sampling capacities. In this paper, we selectively review prior work on eye movements and pupil measures. We first …

The Evolution Of Quantitative Sensitivity, Margaret A H Bryer, Sarah E. Koopman, Jessica F. Cantlon, Steven T. Piantadosi, Evan L. Maclean, Joseph M. Baker, Michael J. Beran, Sarah M. Jones, Kerry E. Jordan, Salif Mahamane, Andreas Nieder, Bonnie M. Perdue, Friederike Range, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Masaki Tomonaga, Dorottya Ujfalussy, Jennifer Vonk

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

The ability to represent approximate quantities appears to be phylogenetically widespread, but the selective pressures and proximate mechanisms favouring this ability remain unknown. We analysed quantity discrimination data from 672 subjects across 33 bird and mammal species, using a novel Bayesian model that combined phylogenetic regression with a model of number psychophysics and random effect components. This allowed us to combine data from 49 studies and calculate the Weber fraction (a measure of quantity representation precision) for each species. We then examined which cognitive, socioecological and biological factors were related to variance in Weber fraction. We found contributions of phylogeny …

Cognitive Effects Of Alcohol Use And Sleep Disruption In College Students, Taylor English

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alcohol use and sleep disruption are highly prevalent amongst college students, yet their combined effects on cognitive functioning and subsequent classroom performance have not been fully examined. Alcohol use has been shown to negatively impact cognitive functioning, especially in college students without fully matured brain regions. This has led to decreases in academic functioning and increases in college dropout. Disruptions in sleep functioning can lead to both lapses in attention and an overall decrease in attention, which can negatively impact learning in a classroom environment.

Participants were 96 undergraduate students who were invited to participate based on responses from a …

Improving The Methodology For Identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment In Intellectually High-Functioning Adults Using The Nih Toolbox Cognition Battery, Grant L. Iverson, Justin E. Karr

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: Low scores on neuropsychological tests are considered objective evidence of mild cognitive impairment. In clinical practice and research, it can be challenging to identify a cognitive deficit or mild cognitive impairment in high-functioning people because they are much less likely to obtain low test scores. This study was designed to improve the methodology for identifying mild cognitive impairment in adults who have above average or superior intellectual abilities.

Method: Participants completed the National Institutes of Health Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB). The sample included 384 adults between the ages of 20 and …

How Long Do Mood Induction Procedure (Mip) Primes Really Last? Implications For Cognitive Vulnerability Research., Jennifer C P Gillies, David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

BACKGROUND: Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are used widely in research on cognitive vulnerability to depression. Although empirical evidence supports certain MIPs as effective, little research has evaluated whether MIP-induced sad moods are sufficiently persistent. This study aimed to determine (1) how long an MIP-induced mood lasts according to commonly used operational definitions and (2) whether these findings vary according to the type of MIP used.

METHODS: Four-hundred-and-one undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of three commonly used sad MIPs (music, memory, music+memory) or to one of three matched neutral MIPs. Mood was repeatedly measured immediately prior to and following …

Memoir Dataset: Quantifying Image Memorability In Adolescents, Gal Almog, Yalda Mohsenzadeh

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Every day, humans observe and interact with hundreds of images and scenes; whether it be on a cellphone, on television, or in print. Yet a vast majority of these images are forgotten, some immediately and some after variable lengths of time. Memorability is indeed a property intrinsic to all images that can be extracted, as well as predicted. While memory itself is a process that occurs in the brain of an individual, the concept of memorability is an intrinsic, continuous property of a stimulus that can be both measured and manipulated. We selected images from the MemCat data set that …

Driving Habits, Cognition, And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Middle-Aged And Older Adults With Hiv, Josiah J. Robinson, Tess Walker, Cierra Hopkins, Brittany Bradley, Peggy Mckie, Jennifer S. Frank, Caitlin N. Pope, Pariya L. Fazeli, David E. Vance

Graduate Center for Gerontology Faculty Publications

Cognitive impairment is known to increase with aging in people living with HIV (PLWH). Impairment in cognitive domains required for safe driving may put PLWH at risk for poor driving outcomes, decreased mobility, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study described the driving behaviors of middle-aged and older PLWH and examined correlations between driving behaviors and cognitive functioning (Aim 1), and driving behaviors and HRQoL domains (Aim 2). A sample of 260 PLWH ages 40 and older completed a comprehensive assessment including a battery of cognitive tests, an HRQoL measure, and a measure of self-reported driving habits. Associations between …

Resting State Functional Connectivity In The Default Mode Network: Relationships Between Cannabis Use, Gender, And Cognition In Adolescents And Young Adults, Megan Ritchay

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States, and nearly 1 in 4 young adults are current cannabis users. The psychoactive component of cannabis, THC, is active at cannabinoid receptors, type 1, or CB1 receptors. CB1 receptors play a critical role in neural development, and chronic cannabis use causes desensitization and downregulation of these receptors. Chronic cannabis use is associated with changes in resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in the default mode network (DMN) in adolescents and young adults, although results are somewhat inconsistent across studies, likely due to differing methodologies. Additionally, cannabis effects appear …

Ugandan Adolescents’ Descriptive Gender Stereotypes About Domestic And Recreational Activities, And Attitudes About Women, Flora Farago, Natalie Eggum-Wilkens, Linlin Zhang

Faculty Publications

In Eastern Uganda, 201 adolescents aged 11- to 17-years old (48% girls; M_age = 14.62) answered close- and open-ended questions about gender stereotypes of domestic and recreational activities and gender-role attitudes about women’s behavior, rights, and roles. Adolescents answered questions such as “who is more likely to . . .?” assessing descriptive stereotypes (i.e., stereotype knowledge) and questions such as “is it ok for women to . . .?” assessing prescriptive stereotypes (i.e., stereotype endorsement) about gender roles. Data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, correlations, and thematic coding. Findings indicate that Ugandan adolescents were fairly egalitarian in some domains …

Early Indicators Of Cognitive Dysfunction: The Role Of Mild Behavioral Impairment, Hillary J. Rouse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Older age is associated with an increased risk for cognitively impairing diseases such as dementia. Despite significant research to find ways to cure this disease, there has been little success. However, a critical need when an intervention is discovered is a need to find ways to identify people who are at the greatest risk of developing dementia earlier in the disease process so that interventions can be implemented at that time. This could potentially lessen their risk or delay when they are diagnosed. Using longitudinal data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC), the aims of this current dissertation were …

Negative Urgency's Influence On State-Level, Emotion-Based Changes In Alcohol-Related Cognitions, Noah Wolkowicz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project expanded on the Acquired Preparedness Model of Risk (APMR) by examining how Negative Urgency (NU), the tendency to act rashly in negative emotional states, affects emotion-based changes in alcohol cognitions to produce risk for alcohol use. The APMR prioritizes the role of outcome expectancies as the means through which traits such as NU, convey alcohol use risk. However, this model treats these cognitions as static and often fails to assess their valence; further, alcohol-cognitions fluctuate in response to negative emotions and may become more salient during these states. Therefore, this study examined: 1) how NU impacts negative emotion-based, …

The Cerebellum's Relationship To Language Function Following Perinatal Stroke, Carolina Alexis Vias

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While recent studies have demonstrated the association between the cerebellum and higher-order cognitive functioning, it is still unclear how volumetric differences of specific regions of interests within the cerebellum across typical and atypical development are related to language function. We have done so by measuring the volume of cerebellar subregions of healthy controls, and compared the volume to behavioral measures of language function. We then followed with an analysis of the cerebellum’s relationship to language function following perinatal stroke, which provides us with a greater knowledge of the impact of a cortical injury on cerebellar development and the cognitive outcomes …

Antidepressants, Circadian Rhythms, And Cognition: The Effects Of Ssris And Snris On Circadian Rhythms And Cognitive Performance, Gabriel Gilmore

Masters Theses, 2020-current

It has been well documented that individuals with depression commonly experience sleep disturbances. Decreased sleep quality, diminished sleep efficiency, and increased nighttime awakenings are all typical ailments. Deficits in cognitive functioning often co-occur, including impairments in working memory, learning, inhibition, and set shifting. Many studies have found that upon taking antidepressants (i.e. serotonin agonists), individuals with depression experience normalized sleep and cognitive performance. The impact of antidepressants, especially SSRIs and SNRIs, on sleep stages, particularly REM and slow wave sleep, has been the subject of numerous studies. However, there is currently very limited literature that examines their impact on sleep …