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The Mediating Role Of Self-Efficacy Expectations And Self-Evaluation In The Rehabilitation Process, Daniel Wayne Malloy

Doctoral Dissertations

Bandura (1977) has argued that the consideration of cognitive mechanisms is central to the understanding of behavioral change and the maintenance of these behavioral patterns. More specifically, Bandura (1977, 1982) has proposed two cognitive mechanisms, self-efficacy and self-evaluation, that mediate the initiation of and persistence toward behavioral change. The purpose of the present study was to assess whether the medium through which feedback is presented to patients participating in rehabilitation would have an effect on their future expectations of performance for motor tasks encountered in therapy and the actual performance of strength and endurance tasks. It was hypothesized that knee …

Electroencephalographic And Electromyographic Biofeedback Training Of Occipital Lobe Theta Rhythm, David William Lawson

Doctoral Dissertations

Three biofeedback training methods were used to train human subjects to enhance levels of occipital lobe theta electro-encephalographic rhythms. It was hypothesized that the subject's level of physiological arousal would differentially influence the effectiveness of the training methods. The independent variables were: (1) baseline arousal, (2) training methods, and (3) pre/posttraining recording sessions. The dependent variables included: (1) theta EEG, (2) frontalis EMG, and (3) alpha EEG levels. For the baseline arousal variable, subjects were divided into low and high arousal groups based on a median-split of their pretraining frontalis EMG levels. The training methods included: (1) one-phase EMG/EMG feedback …

What Is It That You Know When "You Know"? Comprehension Goals And Comprehension Mismatches In College Students (Study Behaviors, Metacomprehension, Test Taking), Marcy Lois Kraus

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the comprehension mismatch experience as it related to students' comprehension goals and testing experiences. In Study 1, subjects reported their reading-related comprehension goals while studying a 3500-word text. A questionnaire was administered assessing comprehension of and interest in the text, frequency of mismatches and general studying behavior. Results of Study 1 indicated that eighty-seven percent of the students surveyed reported moderate to frequent mismatches. Subjects varying in mismatch frequency did not differ significantly with regard to any of the performance measures. The comprehension level quiz items were rated as most appropriate …

Effects Of Leupeptin On Aversively Motivated Spatial Memory, Timothy Andrew Otto

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent evidence indicates that the activation of a calcium-dependent proteinase, calpain, results in the formation of new glutamate receptors in the hippocampus (Lynch, Halpain, & Baudry, 1982), a brain area commonly thought to play a crucial role in mammalian memory formation. In vitro, this effect is correlated with a long-lasting enhancement of efficacy in synaptic transmission (long-term potentiation, LTP) following brief pulses of electrical stimulation in the hippocampus (Dunwiddie & Lynch, 1979). Because the induction properties of LTP are similar to the behavioral properties of memory, it has been proposed to be the physiological basis of memory (Lynch & Baudry, …

Participative Decision-Making And The Quality Of Work Life: A Quasi-Experimental Study, James Warren Grosch

Doctoral Dissertations

A quasi-experiment was conducted to explore the impact of a type of participative decision making on the quality of work life. Quality circles were developed for operating room (OR) nurses and technicians in three New England hospitals. These circles, each consisting of 8-12 OR staff members, met regularly over a seven month period with the goal of identifying and solving problems in the work environment of the OR. The OR staffs in three other New England hospitals served as the control group and did not participate in any quality circle activities.

Quality of work life was measured primarily with a …

Timing Relationships In Human Cortical Processing, Daniel Michael Rice

Doctoral Dissertations

Although a number of studies have suggested that the phases of the alpha cycle and the cardiac cycle reflect temporal relationships in cortical processing, these studies are not conclusive. The reason is that almost all of these suggestions have been based upon the demonstration that a measure of visual processing varies with the phase of the alpha cycle or the cardiac cycle at which stimuli are presented. These visual effects could have been caused by a peripheral mechanism involving the tremor of the eyes. Because of this, this dissertation was interested in the effect of these physiological cycles on auditory …

The Utilitarian - Associationist Tradition And The Development Of Britishpsychology, 1855-1903 (Volumes I And Ii) (Alexander Bain, Cambridge University, James Ward, University Of London), Deborah Frances Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

The Utilitarian-Associationist program formulated by Jeremy Bentham, James Mill and John Stuart Mill shaped the framework of British psychology throughout the nineteenth century. These thinkers believed that an associationist and hedonistic science of mind provided a sound foundation for a non-intuitionistic philosophy (including epistemology, logic and ethics) and a program of social reform. The tasks set by this program led to a focus on higher mental processes and the nature of conduct within nineteenth century British psychology.

The work of Alexander Bain is reinterpreted in the light of this tradition. Specifically, I argue that Bain's "physiological psychology" represents an attempt …