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How Communication And Confirmatory Strategies Affect The Search For Truth, Michael Ernest Gorman

Doctoral Dissertations

Scientific reasoning has become a topic of recent psychological research. Studies have focused on Karl Popper's idea that scientists should try to falsify, or disconfirm, their hypotheses instead of verifying them. Results indicate that both scientists and college students prefer to use confirmatory logic on simple tasks that model scientific reasoning. The only attempt to instruct subjects to use disconfirmatory reasoning failed (Mynatt, Doherty & Tweney, 1977) though subjects that falsified on their own initiative were more successful than subjects who tried to confirm.

All the studies of scientific reasoning have focused on individuals. But major advances in science are …

The Influence Of Visual Texture On The Visual Facilitation Of Auditory Localization, George Raymond Mastroianni

Doctoral Dissertations

A substantial but contradictory literature on intersensory effects exists. Studies have been reported showing facilitation of sensitivity in one modality when other modalities are stimulated, as have studies showing inhibition of sensitivity in one modality when other modalities are stimulated. Studies reporting no effects whatever of multimodal stimulation have also been reported. This literature is reviewed in detail.

A recent series of experiments by Warren and his colleagues report a facilitating effect of simultaneous visual facilitation on the variability of responding in an auditory localization task. They hypothesize that the presence of visual texture in the light in conjunction with …

Maintenance Of Nonsmoking Following Self-Initiated Cessation, Susan J. Goldstein

Doctoral Dissertations

The process of trying to maintain abstinence from cigarettes was assessed in a longitudinal, descriptive study of self-initiated quitters. Participants completed: (1) a preliminary questionnaire; (2) six follow-up questionnaire packets mailed to them monthly; and (3) a final questionnaire sent with the sixth follow-up packet.

Abstainers and relapsers differed in the following ways: (1) Relapsers more often indicated cessation goals which left open the possibility of future smoking; (2) Although both groups began their participation with relatively high levels of commitment to quit, abstainers' levels were slightly higher than relapsers'. At the conclusion of their participation, relapsers' commitment to quit …

Simple And Contingent Chromatic Aftereffects In Pigeons, Jean Roberts Atak

Doctoral Dissertations

In order to assess whether pigeons acquire simple and contingent chromatic aftereffects, four White Carneaux pigeons were trained to discriminate between colored and achromatic slides: Right and left key-pecks were reinforced following exposure to colored and achromatic slides, respectively. The chromatic set included slides of six different hues, added sequentially. Behavior on the first day each new color was added and on two transfer tests involving novel stimuli indicated that a 'chromaticity' concept had been acquired by all four birds.

In Experiment II, an attempt was made to demonstrate the McCollough effect (ME). In five procedures, various conditions known to …

Drinking Induced By Second-Order Food Schedules: Multiple Controlling Factors, Leroy Keene Clark

Doctoral Dissertations

Second-order schedules, in which brief stimuli replace some food presentations, have been used to differentiate between physiological and psychological factors which might contribute to the induction of excessive drinking during exposure to periodic food schedules. Post-stimulus drinking is regarded as reflecting the influence of psychological factors.

In preliminary research, post-stimulus drinking was typically less reliable than post-food drinking. Rats which drank most reliably during post-stimulus periods also often resumed drinking after lever-pressing during post-food periods. Such drinking, like post-stimulus drinking, consisted of short bouts which alternated with bouts of lever-pressing. It was hypothesized that short-bout licking might be a terminal …

Dietary Obesity, Exercise Training, And Thermogenesis In Rats, James Oakley Hill

Doctoral Dissertations

The exact contributions of changes in thermogenesis to the energy balance of either rats or humans is not known. There is some evidence that differences in post-prandial heat production (dietary-induced thermogenesis), can explain why some individuals gain weight easily when overeating and others do not. There is also evidence that exercise enhances dietary-induced thermogenesis. However, it may be the effects of exercise training rather than the exercise itself which enhances dietary-induced thermogenesis. Aerobic exercise training may produce increases in dietary-induced thermogenesis and allow more calories to be expanded as heat when overeating.

In these three experiments, the effects of diet …

The Development Of Picture-Generated Stories, Dina Lee Anselmi

Doctoral Dissertations

Recently, certain aspects of story production, comprehension, and recall have stirred up much interest within psychology. Most of this research has focused on these story processes in adults; less work has been done on the development of story knowledge in young children. This dissertation explored the similarities and differences among nursery school, first and second grade children, and adults. Each individual was asked to produce an oral story after having viewed a set of story-book pictures.

The stories were evaluated on several different dimensions which included: the thoughts, intentions and emotions of the characters, how single elements from the pictures …

Effects Of Stimulus Complexity, Subject Age, And Stimulus Coding On Selective Stimulus Control, Ronald Louis Michaud

Doctoral Dissertations

Selective stimulus control refers to the functional relationships that are developed between the various stimulus elements of a discriminative stimulus and the subject's response. A multi-element conditional discrimination problem is an effective means of studying these relationships. In the first experiment, preschool and adult subjects were presented with a series of conditional discrimination problems. They were required to respond differentially to two multi-element stimulus cards by touching one of two response circles, one red and one blue. Each problem set contained either two, four, six, or eight elements per stimulus card. The discrimination was established using an errorless training procedure …

A Family Structural Approach To The Study Of Adolescent Depression, Tina Marie Lindegren

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to better understand the antecedents of depression among adolescents by taking a family structural perspective. Based on clinical observations, Minuchin (1974) and Haley (1976) have developed theories of family functioning which define types of dysfunctional family structures (described as patterns of relating among family members) characteristic of disturbed families. This research attempts to empirically assess these dysfunctional structures in relation to adolescent depression.

A self-report questionnaire was designed and administered to 358 students from three high schools in southern New Hampshire. The questionnaire included assessments of: (1) behavioral interactions among family members representing …