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Working Alliances: The Implications Of Person-Centered Theory For Student-Teacher Relationships And Learning, Adam Parker Cogbill

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation project, I interview four therapists and four writing teachers to learn if there were any significant similarities in differences in their approaches to dyadic relationships with students and clients. By dyadic, I mean what happens between individuals in a 1-on-1 setting when subjectivities collide. I was guided in my investigation by the core concepts of person-centered theory, which have heavily influenced the work of clinical therapists for the past half-century or more. These concepts are congruence, or whether one’s behaviors and speech match what one is feeling; empathy, the process of entering and becoming familiar with another’s …

Ultrasonic Vocalizations And Stress Resilience: Behavioral And Neurobiological Correlates, Nathaniel P. Stafford

Doctoral Dissertations

When we are exposed to a traumatic or stressful life event, some individuals may develop symptoms of anxiety or depression while others may appear unaffected. In humans and nonhuman organisms, the ability to cope plays a large role in how an organism responds to a stressor, and this coping may be influenced by innate mechanisms. We have identified the use of ultrasonic vocalizations during intermittent swim stress (ISS) to forecast innate behavioral differences in stress reactivity. Vocalizing rats are resilient as they exhibit less cognitive impairment, motivational changes, and fewer anxiety-like behaviors typically observed post-ISS. Resilience should be associated with …

Personal Intelligence And Learning About Personality In Everyday Life, Jayne L. Allen

Doctoral Dissertations

As we encounter other people, we form impressions of and judgments about them. Based on these evaluations, we choose whether we want to interact any further, and if we do, what type of relationship we want to have. Although such choices can have far-reaching consequences, we typically base them on tacit knowledge. Our abilities to reason about our own and others’ personalities—abilities theorized to be part of a personal intelligence (Mayer, 2008)—determine in part the relationship outcomes we experience.

The existence of such an intelligence implies that people have a “database” they consult when making personality-relevant decisions. This raises the …

The Effects Of Encouraging Student-Faculty Interaction On Academic Success, Identity Development, And Student Retention In The First Year Of College, Katerina Karaivanova

Doctoral Dissertations

The study presented in this dissertation was designed to investigate the effects of a brief intervention encouraging student-faculty interaction among college students on their academic achievement, college adjustment and intent to withdraw. Additionally, the effects of identity style on academic achievement, college adjustment, and student-faculty interaction were examined. Two hundred and five first year students participated in a four-part study, measuring the frequency and quality of student-faculty interaction, college adjustment, and identity development at three different time points. Students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups; only one group received the advice to meet with faculty outside of …

The Role Of Social Agency In Student Learning, Michael C. Melville

Doctoral Dissertations

Although the pedagogical strategy known as the personalization principle has received considerable support in the laboratory, there is little work examining its generalizability, ecological validity, and potential for statistical mediation and moderation. In 5 experiments, these topics are examined in the laboratory as well as in a real classroom setting. Experiment 1a provides evidence for moderation of the effect of the personalization principle by the learner’s score on the need to belong scale. Experiment 1b shows support for a variable that measures subjective perceptions of the learning material mediating the effect of the personalization principle on learning outcomes. Experiments 2 …

Cellular Coding Properties Of Goal Directed Behavior In The Mediodorsal And Intralaminar Nucleus Of The Rat: Comparisons To Prefrontal Cortex, Rikki Lou Ann Miller

Doctoral Dissertations

The mediodorsal (MD) and rostral intralaminar (IL) nuclei of central thalamus interact with prefrontal cortex (PFC) through multiple pathways to control goal directed behavior. The initial purpose of this dissertation was to characterize cellular coding properties of these nuclei in central thalamus using electrophysiological measures in awake, behaving rats performing a dynamic delayed non-match to position (DNMTP) task. Two major aims were developed. The first of these was based on the strong reciprocal connections between central thalamus and PFC. Therefore, the current data was compared to data previously collected in prefrontal cortex (Onos et al., 2015). The second was that …

Reasons For Revealing And Concealing Interpersonal Trauma, Sidney Bennett

Doctoral Dissertations

Prior research has documented the role that revealing and concealing interpersonal violence has on health outcomes for victims (e.g., Ullman, 2010). The present paper aims to add to the existing research by presenting a new model, The Revealing and Concealing Process Model for Interpersonal Trauma, to describe the process that occurs when victims reveal or conceal interpersonal violence. The second stage of the model (i.e., reasons for revealing/concealing interpersonal violence) was tested by: 1. Creating a measure to assess the reasons for revealing and concealing interpersonal violence and 2. Identifying whether getting goals met for revealing/concealing is related to health …

Using Your Mind To Train Your Body: An Experimental Autobiographical Memory Intervention For Adolescent Physical Activity, Mathew Biondolillo

Doctoral Dissertations

Developmentally, physical activity levels tend to decline from adolescence to early adulthood. Adolescent physical activity programs have been largely ineffective, leading to a call for new low-cost interventions. This study examined the effects of an autobiographical memory intervention on adolescent physical activity. Over six weeks, students (N = 558) in a New England middle school completed questionnaires and were timed weekly in physical education classes while training for a school-wide race. During Week Three, some students were asked to provide a positive motivational physical activity memory and others a control memory. Students indicated their intentions to be physical active, completed …

What Is Self-Potential And How Does It Relate To Personal Intelligence?, Bonnie Ann Barlow

Doctoral Dissertations

Intelligence is an important ability that we use in our everyday lives to understand people, such as choosing the best partner to work with on a project. Personal intelligence is the ability to “reason about personality and its processes, as applied to one’s self and others” (Mayer, Panter & Caruso, 2012). The Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI) was developed to test this important ability. If the TOPI measures people’s ability to understand their own and other’s personality, as personal intelligence increases so should a person’s level of self-potential. This idea was tested in two studies by conducting correlations between the …

Major Decisions: Personal Intelligence And Students' Reasoning About College Majors, Kateryna Sylaska

Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers and universities have devoted substantial resources to understanding college students’ experiences in college. One gap in the literature surrounds understanding students’ major selection process. In the current series of studies, I utilized previous research and semi-structured interviews to create the Students’ Reasoning about their Major Survey (RAMS). I conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on the items in two distinct samples and found a general factor (Satisfaction with the Major) and seven secondary factors (Balance and Flexibility, Prestige, Interpersonal Similarity, Effort and Difficulty, Interest, Perceived Competence, and Decision Aversion). I hypothesized that the RAMS would be related to personal …

Examining Situations Involving Intimate Partner Aggression: A Dyadic Study Of Agreement On Behaviors, Attributions, And Emotional Effects, Angela Marie Neal

Doctoral Dissertations

There is a growing body of literature investigating agreement of partners on instances of intimate partner aggression (IPA) well as attributions for why people engage in IPA. Although our understanding has increased, there remains a major gap in the literature: the utilization of only one member of a couple's reports of the aggression and attributions (i.e., partners' perceptions of why an event of IPA occurred). Using a dyadic study, romantic couples were asked to independently discuss the same psychological, physical, and sexual IPA incidents in their relationship. Seeking to bridge the two bodies of literature of both perpetrators' and victims' …

Asymmetry In The Magnocellular And Parvocellular Pathways, Jenny Louise Lang

Doctoral Dissertations

Why humans are less sensitive to increment than decrement contrast remains unknown. One hypothesis is that the psychophysical asymmetry in increment and decrement thresholds results from an asymmetry in respective ON and OFF cell contrast gains. Contrast gain also differs, however, by the visual pathway within which the ON and OFF cells travel. Cells show greater contrast gain in the magnocellular (M) than parvocellular (P) pathway. Therefore, the asymmetry in increment and decrement thresholds may also differ by visual pathway. My first three experiments established that observers were more sensitive to decrement than increment contrast in both pathways, in monocular …

Intermittent Swim Stress Effects On Anxiety Behavior, Timothy A. Warner

Doctoral Dissertations

Millions of Americans are suffering from depression each year, leading to a significant number of individuals who seek treatment for their ailment. However, fewer than 50 percent of depressed individuals fully recover using current methods. The comorbidity between depression and anxiety could be a contributing factor in the lower rates of recovery. The demonstrated correlation between anxiety and depression has led to the term "anxious depression," which is associated with difficulty in coping, a poorer rate of recovery, and more severe symptoms of depression. The purpose of this dissertation was to expand on an existing animal model of depression (intermittent …

A Longitudinal Analysis Of The Effect Of Disability Type And Emotional/Behavior Problems On Different Forms Of Maltreatment Across Childhood, Jennifer A. Vanderminden

Doctoral Dissertations

Children are among the most vulnerable people in our population, especially those with disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems (EBP), and those who experience maltreatment. This dissertation increases our understanding of the complex relationships between disability, internalizing symptoms (IS), externalizing symptoms (ES), and maltreatment across developmental stages. Previous literature suggests that children with disabilities (CWD) are at a heightened risk for maltreatment (Spencer, Devereux, Wallace, Sundrum, Shenoy, Bacchus, and Logan 2005 ; Sullivan and Knutson 2000). Yet, recently the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) has challenged the notion that CWD are at increased risk, showing that …

Investigating Priming, Inhibition, And Individual Differences In Visual Attention, Jennifer Lechak

Doctoral Dissertations

While much has been explored within the attentional control literature, questions still exist as to how attentional processing is modulated, and how different types of visual search paradigms can elucidate the underlying mechanisms involved in successful visual search. Throughout this dissertation, I will focus on the multifaceted aspects that come with the study of visual attention. After discussing visual attention I explore priming of pop out along two different dimensions. Specifically, using a rapid serial visual presentation design, I demonstrate that temporal and spatial priming interact along a similar mechanism. This result adds to the priming literature by demonstrating simultaneous …

Impressions Of College Intructors: Stability And Change In Student Ratings, Kari L. Dudley

Doctoral Dissertations

Although the topic of stability and change in classroom impressions research is not new, there remain unanswered questions about what impressions are stable, when they are likely to change, and for whom they are likely to change over the course of a semester. My research will begin to answer those questions.

My research took place in four college classroom studies and assessed students' impressions of their instructor's teaching effectiveness and personal qualities 1) after the first day of class, 2) before and following at least one exam, and 3) at the end of the semester. My results supported previous findings …

Examining Social Climate And Youth Social Goals On Extended Wilderness Courses: A Path Toward Improving Participant Experiences, Benjamin J. Mirkin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined participants' expectations of the social climate on extended wilderness courses, how students' actually experienced the social climate during their course, and how these expectations, perceptions and the influence of environmental characteristics, impacted their goals for peer interactions. Pre and posttest surveys were used to assess students' expectations and perceptions of their experience and multi level modeling was used to better understand the relationship of social climate to peer interaction. The research was undertaken to improve the practical and theoretical understanding of organizations' and leaders' ability to facilitate a social climate that promotes adaptive forms of social motivation. …

Movements, Dive Behavior And Trophic Ecology Of Leatherback Turtles (Dermochelys Coriacea) In The Northwest Atlantic, Kara Dodge

Doctoral Dissertations

The endangered leatherback turtle is a highly migratory predator that feeds exclusively on gelatinous zooplankton. Leatherbacks spend most of their lives submerged or offshore, and their at-sea biology (particularly that of males and sub-adults) is poorly understood throughout much of their range. I used satellite telemetry to monitor movements and dive behavior of nine adult and eleven sub-adult leatherbacks captured off Massachusetts, USA, and tracked throughout the NW Atlantic. Leatherback movements and environmental associations varied by oceanographic region, with slow, sinuous, area-restricted search behavior and shorter, shallower dives occurring in cool, productive, shallow shelf habitat at temperate latitudes. Leatherbacks were …

Enhancing Memory Access For Less-Skilled Readers, Emily R. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Ericcson and Kintch (1995) suggested that less-skilled readers often have an impoverished representation of text. The results of five experiments demonstrated that the addition of causality enhanced the text representation of less-skilled readers. Experiments 1-3 showed that the addition of causal information enhanced less-skilled readers' ability to detect global inconsistencies. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that the addition of causal information to updating information resulted in less-skilled readers updating to the same extent as skilled readers.

Processes Influencing Visual Awareness During Motion-Induced Blindness, Erika T. Wells

Doctoral Dissertations

Visual illusions, such as motion-induced blindness, arise when the visual system, balancing speed and efficiency, summarizes the information it receives to form a percept. Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is characterized as the disappearance of a salient target when surrounded by a moving mask. Efforts to determine the mechanism have focused on the role of target characteristics on perceived disappearance by a coherently moving mask. In this dissertation, I take another approach, paying specific attention to the role of motion characteristics of the mask.

In Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4, I investigate whether the property of common fate influences target disappearance …

An Investigation Of Non-Spatial Cognitive Abilities In An Asocial Corvid, The Clark's Nutcracker (Nucifraga Columbiana), Jan K. Tornick

Doctoral Dissertations

A great deal of research suggests that the cognitive abilities of birds in the family Corvidae (crows and jays) are comparable in many aspects to that of apes. Scientists have posited competing hypotheses to explain how complex cognitive abilities arise in a species or group of animals. One such hypothesis, the social-intelligence hypothesis, states that the demands of living in a large, dynamic group drive an animal's need for complex cognitive skills. The ecological-intelligence hypothesis, predicts that generalist foragers develop more highly flexible behaviors and a wider cognitive repertoire than specialist foragers. To date, cognitive research on corvids has focused …

Testing The Procedural Justice Model Of Legal Socialization: Expanding Beyond The Legal World, Rick Trinkner

Doctoral Dissertations

The procedural justice model of legal socialization predicts that perceptions of legitimacy and cynicism toward rules mediate the relation between procedural justice and engagement in rule-violating behavior. This dissertation used a multi-methodological approach to test this model in terms of three authority figures: parents, police, and teachers. In Study 1, cross-sectional methodology was used to test the model in a community sample of adolescents and young adults. Participants completed online surveys assessing the degree to which they perceived three authority figures as procedurally fair, the degree to which they perceived the authorities as legitimate, how cynical they were about the …

Flatfish Stock Enhancement: Examining Conditioning Strategies To Promote Success, Michelle Lynn Walsh

Doctoral Dissertations

Conditioning is the process of providing individuals reared for stock enhancement with some degree of "wild" experience prior to release. Flatfish trained for "wild" conditions may more easily and successfully transition to natural environments. This dissertation identifies strategies that optimize feeding-related performance of flatfish in the hatchery and subsequently post release in the wild.

The influence of live feed conditioning on feeding performance of juvenile winter flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus, was investigated. In the hatchery, fish reared on live feeds exhibited significantly higher survival (P < 0.0001) and growth (P < 0.01) than those reared on formulated feed. Once released into cages in the wild, amphipodreared fish had higher mean Stomach Contents Index and RNA/DNA of all feed types, including wild fish. Wild and worm-reared fish exhibited the most similar survival, baseline RNA/DNA values, overall stomach fullness, and diet composition profiles over time.

Pre-release, experimental cage conditioning was conducted for stocking Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, in Wakasa Bay, Japan. …

Violent Socialization Processes And Criminal Behavior: An International Perspective On Variations In Social Control During Late Adolescence And Emerging Adulthood, Aimee Delaney Lutz

Doctoral Dissertations

Using Gottfredson and Hirschi's parental socialization thesis as a theoretical framework, the present study explores whether or not violent socialization processes are associated with criminal behavior, both at the micro-level and macro-level, across 32 different nations. Analyses were conducted on data from the International Dating Violence Study (Straus & Members of the International Dating Violence Research Consortium, 2004). Bivariate statistical analyses show that violent socialization tends to be more prevalent among nations with indicators of violence (e.g., laws supporting the death penalty) compared to nations without such indicators. The results of ordinary least squares regression analysis indicate that violent familial …

"I Remember When You Taught Me That!" Developmental And Gender Differences In Children's Episodic Memories Of Learning Events During The Early School Years, Rhyannon H. Bemis

Doctoral Dissertations

The study presented in this dissertation was designed to investigate young children's ability to accurately recall episodic (i.e., specific-one-moment-in-time) memories of learning events and whether this ability was related to another metacognitive skill, source monitoring. Further, the study investigated possible gender differences in the ability to recall learning events. Sixty children, ages four to six years, participated in two staged learning events about two novel topics, the Aleutian Islands and the visual system. Following a delay, children were interviewed and asked both general factual knowledge questions and questions about the target material learned in the staged events. Children were asked …

Ocular Dominance And Temporal Dynamics In The Venetian Blind Effect, Joshua Jay Dobias

Doctoral Dissertations

The visual system can use small disparities between the stimuli seen by each eye as a binocular cue for depth. Geometric disparities are the most commonly used cue for stereopsis, but disparities in contrast and luminance can also lead to the perception of depth and both can cancel perceived depth from a geometric disparity. Humans are able to perceive changes in depth from contrast disparities at frequencies up to approximately 1.4 Hz, whereas changes in depth from geometric disparities are visible at frequencies above 5 Hz (Dobias, 2008). This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part (experiments 1 …

Three Elements Of Self-Regulated Learning: Metacognitive Functioning, Self-Efficacy, And Study Behavior, Catherine E. Overson

Doctoral Dissertations

Individuals' metacognitive insight regarding their own performances -- what people think they know about what they know -- is often flawed. Students' metacognitive functioning was examined in two studies. In Study 1, exam performance estimates compared with actual scores were assessed across three in-class exams. Results demonstrated a systematic tendency for lower performers to overestimate their exam performances. Top performers underestimated their performance. In Study 2, an incentive to be as accurate as possible in exam performance estimations ($50 gift card) did not reduce estimation miscalculations for either bottom or top performers.

In Study 1, higher levels of students' self-efficacy …

Linking Goals To Outcomes: Exploring Students' Achievement Goals, Strategy Use, And Standards Of Success For Learning, Kirsten Nerissa Koritz

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored stability in achievement goals and learning behaviors within a two-part learning project. Based on previous literature exploring stability in achievement goal orientation, it was hypothesized that students' goals and self-efficacy would show evidence of change within and between the two task sessions. This was tested through a series of self-report surveys. Literature on the relationship between achievement goals and reading strategies showed that mastery oriented students used more reading strategies than performance oriented students. This was tested by imposing a performance oriented measure on one half of the participants. Data was analyzed with quantitative methods. Findings from …

The Effect Of Culture And Self-Construal On Memory Development: Mother-Child Conversations In Eastern Turkey, Western Turkey And The United States, Basak Sahin

Doctoral Dissertations

Eighty-seven mothers and their four-year-old children from Eastern Turkey (N = 32 mother-child pairs), Western Turkey (N =30 mother child pairs) and the United States (N = 25 mother-child pairs) participated in a study of mother-child memory talk, self-construal and parenting goals. Mother-child pairs were audio-recorded while drawing pictures and talking about shared past and anticipated future events. Mothers completed Balanced Integration-Differentiation questionnaires and were scored as high or low on individuation and relatedness orientations. They completed child rearing goals questionnaires that were scored for conformity, self-maximization and power factors. Memory and future talk differed across culture and self-construal groups. …

The Role Of Reuniens And Rhomboid Thalamic Nuclei In Spatial Memory, Jacqueline R. Hembrook

Doctoral Dissertations

Spatial working memory is the ability to encode and temporarily store information for future retrieval to guide behavioral responses. Two areas of the brain that are important for this process are prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus. The hippocampus has strong connections to medial PFC, however there are no direct return projections from medial PFC to hippocampus. The reuniens (Re) and rhomboid (Rh) nuclei of ventral midline thalamus have anatomical connections with PFC and hippocampus. This dissertation sought to provide behavioral evidence for the role of the ventral midline thalamic nuclei in spatial working memory. Four experiments were conducted in rats …