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Emotion Regulation In Relation To Cognitive Functioning In The Preclinical Stages Of Dementia, Erica P. Meltzer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Emotion regulation (ER) is essential for effective functioning in daily life. Research suggests that ER improves in older adulthood despite concomitant declines in cognition and the presumed neural substrates of ER. The current understanding of ER in older adulthood, and particularly of the relationship between ER and cognition in older adulthood, is limited. This is likely because the construct of ER is challenging to operationalize and, therefore, difficult to study.

The current study investigates ER in relation to cognitive functioning, specifically executive functioning and memory, in individuals with varying degrees of cognitive difficulties (i.e., in the preclinical stages of dementia). …

Adult Neurogenesis In Avian Auditory Cortex, Caudomedial Nidopallium (Ncm): Lateralization And Effects Of Statins, Shuk C. Tsoi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the first part of this paper, we investigated the basic relationship between learning, memory and adult neurogenesis using zebra finches. We found that in the auditory cortex, the left hemisphere had more new neurons than the right hemisphere. This lateralization was correlated with song learning and memory. In the second part, we used juvenile zebra finches as a model organism to study the effects of Lipitor on learning, memory and neurogenesis. We found that Lipitor impaired song learning and memory storage. Lipitor treatments also changed the morphology of new neurons and size of old neurons, suggesting statins may affect …

Consciousness, Perception, And Short-Term Memory, Henry F. Shevlin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dissertation Abstract: Consciousness, Perception, and Short-Term Memory

When we engage in almost any perceptual activity – recognizing a face, listening out for a phone-call, or simply taking in a sunset – information must be briefly stored and processed in some form of short-term memory. For philosophers attempting to develop an empirically grounded account of perception and conscious experience, it is therefore crucial to engage with scientific theories of the kinds of short-term memory mechanisms that underlie our moment-to-moment retention of information about the world. To that end, in this dissertation I review recent scientific evidence for a new form of …

"What's The Use Of Trying To Read Shakespeare?": Modes Of Memory In Virginia Woolf's Fiction And Essays, Sara Remedios Bloom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation maps the relationship between Virginia Woolf’s fiction and essays, and William Shakespeare’s person and plays. I argue that Woolf’s writing is intended as an interactive practice of cultural memory, challenging her readers to become responders and to engage critically with the canon. I further argue that Woolf offers herself as inheritor of a literary practice that actively seeks to shape the values and social ideology of the time. The introduction defines three modes of memory operating in Woolf’s work: memory as opiate; memory as political instrument; and memory as dialectic. The first chapter shows the cultural memory of …

The Impact Of Modality Expectancy On Memory Accuracy For Brand Names, Daniel Rubin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It is proposed that an individual’s expectations regarding the modality by which to-be-remembered brand names will be communicated in the future can impact memory accuracy for those brand names. Specifically, we hypothesize that the likelihood of malapropistic errors (i.e., false recognition of phonetically similar brand names) increases with greater attention to phonemic codes relative to orthographic codes. Attention to these memorial representations is driven by expectations as to whether retrieval will be written or spoken. When visually presented with brand names, those expecting text-based retrieval pay relatively greater attention to the visual forms or orthographies of brand names, as this …

Crossing The Great Divide: An Investigation Of Data And Memory, Julia Pollack

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Crossing the Great Divide has been a working project for over two years. The project was initially inspired by the maps drawn and paths traversed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 1804-1806. From June to August of 2015 a few travelers and myself followed their historic journey and traversed the landscapes of the American frontier on bicycle. We chose this mode of travel as it put us into a direct intimate relationship with the landscape and thus a more sympathetic connection to the histories that preceded us. Leaving from Clark’s survey point of Indian Boundary Line on the shore of …