Digital Commons Network^™

Residents' Perspectives Of Young, Street-Facing Trees: Three Cases From Legacy Cities With Active Tree Planting Initiatives, Alicia Coleman

Doctoral Dissertations

Organized tree planting initiatives are underway in cities across the world in order to expand tree canopy cover, combat environmental threats, and create more livable places for urban residents. Trees along and near city streets provide a number of services for residents; however, evidence from environmental design and landscape preference research suggests that the perceptual effect of large-statured, mature trees may differ from small-statured, young trees. This dissertation explored these differences in three studies based in communities with active tree planting initiatives. Chapter 2 compares tree preferences from a hypothetical tree planting initiative to preferences for trees in other settings …

Locomotor Coordination, Visual Perception And Head Stability During Running, Joseph Hamill, Jongil Lim, Richard Van Emmerik

Kinesiology Department Faculty Publication Series

Perception and action are coupled such that information from the perceptual system is related to the dynamics of action in order to regulate behavior adaptively. Using running as a model of a cyclic behavior, this coupling involves a continuous, cyclic relationship between the runner’s perception of the environment and the necessary adjustments of the body that ultimately result in a stable pattern of behavior. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how individuals relate visual perception to rhythmic locomotor coordination patterns in conditions during which foot–ground collisions and visual task demands are altered. We review the findings of studies …

Characteristics For Teaching Gifted Students: The Saudi Teachers' Perspective, Majed S. Al Dalham

Doctoral Dissertations

Teachers of gifted students (GT) are the key to a fruitful learning environment for gifted students who have unique abilities and are different from their peers. There is a growing demand to identify effective GT teachers in Saudi Arabia who have specific characteristics that will help them successfully tailor their teaching to the needs of gifted students. Consequently, exploring the characteristics of Saudi GT teachers is an essential component of ensuring the quality of the teaching of gifted students in their settings. The characteristics of GT teachers have been adequately addressed in several countries, but there is a paucity of …

Perceptions And Perspectives Of Core Subject High School Teachers On The Phenomenon Of Creative Learning, Ralph Caouette

Doctoral Dissertations

Many schools, particularly high schools, struggle with creativity within their schools. Whether it is coming to terms in a contemporary manner with what creativity means in learning, or resourcing for implementation or inclusion of creativity, a lack of understanding and a wide array of perceptions persist amongst staff. Previous research on perceptions and perspectives of high school teachers toward creativity, particularly in mainstream subjects beyond the arts in high schools also remains lacking. The bulk of existing research has been primarily targeted at elementary and middle school levels, where strong sentiments for creativity’s place in schools and amongst youngsters is …

Residents’ Perceptions Of Tourism Development In Appalachian Forest Heritage Area, Jinyang Deng, David Mcgill, Phyllis Baxter, Georgette Plaugher

Travel and Tourism Research Association: Advancing Tourism Research Globally

The Appalachian Forest Heritage Area (AFHA) is made up of 18 counties which are located in the central Appalachia, a region rich in natural, historic and heritage resources with great potentials for tourism development. In order to know more about tourism development in the area, a study to understand AFHA community residents’ perceptions of tourism opportunities, issues, and potentials was conducted with funding from West Virginia University Extension Service. Results indicated that participants considered people, natural resources, and historical/heritage resources as the most valued assets that their communities can use for tourism development. They were also very positive about the …

Hovering, Benjamin J. Blatt

Masters Theses

Hovering is an attempt to navigate the contemporary digital environment through traditional means. The imagery created function as paintings, photographs, prints, and drawings. They explore and raise questions about visual perception and sensory awareness, as well as highlighting the modular limitations of the pixelated image and the illusion of reality in the digital landscape.

Memory And Production Of Standard Frequencies In College-Level Musicians, Sarah E. Weber

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This thesis examines the nature of long-term absolute pitch memory—an ability traditionally assumed to belong only to absolute pitch (AP) possessors—by testing for evidence of this memory for “standard” frequencies in musicians without AP. Standard frequencies, those based on the equally tempered system with A = 440 Hz, are common in the sonic environment of the Western college musical education, and thus could have the opportunity to penetrate listeners’ long-term memories. Through four experimental tasks, this thesis examines musicians’ ability to recognize and produce frequencies from the set of equally tempered frequencies based on A = 440 Hz, without regard …

Contextual Factors That Influence Learning Effectiveness: Hospitality Students’ Perspectives, Sungmi Song, Robert Bosselman

Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism

The need for ensuring the quality of e-learning in higher education has been growing with the rapid development and increasing popularity of e-learning. While several researchers have focused on the comparison of the effectiveness of e-learning with that of face-to-face learning, few empirical studies have been conducted on students’ learning along with student satisfaction which is one of good measures of learning effectiveness. Focusing on Hospitality area, this study, investigates the relationship between the perceived quality of online learning course and student outcome as well as student satisfaction. Students of four year public research universities offering online hospitality courses will …

The Gay Gap – Are Gay And Lesbian Hotel Guests Getting What They Want?, Orie Berezan, Carola Raab, Curtis Love

Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism

The past decade has seen a surge in commercial efforts to attract the gay market, and this is evident in the hotel industry. The question remains, however, what does it take to become a truly gay friendly hotel? Do hoteliers know how to effectively target this market by offering features that are gay friendly? Is the perception of what is gay friendly the same for hotels and gay guests, or does a listening gap exist? Through gap analysis, this study looks at what hospitality managers know about their gay guests. By considering both service providers’ and gay guests’ perspectives (analyzing …

A Gap Analysis On Generation Y Customer Expectations And Perceptions Towards Lifestyle Hotels, Wen Hua, Hailin Qu

Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism

This study conducts a gap analysis on Generation Y (Gen Y) customer expectation and perception towards lifestyle hotels. In the result, 11 gaps between Gen Y customer expectation and perceptions on lifestyle hotels are identified. An Importance-Performance (I-P) map further demonstrates how lifestyle hotels satisfy Gen Y clients, and suggests future improvements for lifestyle hotels to better cater Gen Y guests. The findings indicate that Gen Yers are overall satisfied with lifestyle hotels, and lifestyle hotels have relatively high performance in general. But there are also a few aspects lifestyle hotels could enhance for higher customer satisfactions. This research not …

The Unfixedness Of It, Kerry O'Grady

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

My drawings contemplate the unfixed nature of my experience. I draw from a state of uncertainty about the relationship between self and space, between a moment of experience and the one that follows it. My process involves intuitive mark-making in which instances of perception are indeterminate and discontinuous. I draw from the experience of unhinged moments, from silence and stillness, and from the indefinable, inarticulable, interstitial moments of perception between those that can be concretely described.

The immediacy of drawing, the direct engagement with the mark on the surface, is central to my work. Intuitive mark-making is a way of …

Dream Destination: A Concept Of Perception Of Leisure Travellers, Bo (Wendy) Gao, Hanqin Qiu Zhang

International CHRIE Conference-Refereed Track

This exploratory study adopted grounded theory approach to investigate the concept of dream destination and its perception by travelers. The data were collected through three methods: Online travel forum, in-depth interview and focus group. Triangulation of data collected from the above three methods were used to establish the trustworthiness of the study. Based on the iteration of data analysis, the dream destination was classified into six categories and the conceptual framework of dream destination was generated.

The Role Of Lexical Contrast In The Perception Of Intonational Prominence In Japanese, Takahito Shinya

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

In this dissertation, I examine the effects of lexical accent on the perception of intonational prominence in Japanese. I look at how an F0 accent peak is perceived relative to another flanking F0 peak in the same utterance with respect to perceived intonational prominence. Through four experiments, I show that the lexical prosodic structure plays a significant role in the perception of intonational prominence.

I first show that two distinct perceptual processes are at play in the perception of relative perceived prominence in Japanese: accentual boost normalization and downstep normalization . Accentual boost normalization normalizes the accentual boost of an …

Assessment Practice And Perception Of Social Science Instructors In Afghanistan, Delawar Darmal

Master's Capstone Projects

This thesis has been prepared with three objectives in mind. First, investigating and identifying the problems and challenge of assessment is essential to the quality of education as well as to the reform of education in Afghanistan. Any reforms and the improvement of education are greatly based on the findings of research. Therefore, this project is targeting to facilitate this process.

Second, this research project is aiming to explain the assessment that is practiced in Higher Education of Afghanistan. This is essential to two critical issues. It is useful not just to Afghan instructors to know about the assessment practices …

Research On Undergraduate Mathematics Education In Afghanistan: How Students Understand And Learn The Concept Of “Function”, Ahmad Khalid Mowahed

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate students’ conception of the concept of function in the education faculty of Balkh University, Afghanistan. In particular, the focus was to see what difficulties they had in learning the concept and to determine those factors that impeded/facilitated the learning of the concept in the curriculum. The research methodology was an exploratory approach where both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the data. The theoretical basis for the study was David Tall’s theory which focuses on understanding one’s knowledge and learning. David Tall’s theory was used to analyze qualitative data …

Assessment Practices: Student’S And Teachers’ Perceptions Of Classroom Assessment, Sayed Ahmad Javid Mussawy

Master's Capstone Projects

The primary aim of this study is to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions of classroom assessment. A secondary purpose is to explore the faculty members’ perceptions of classroom assessment and their expectations of students’ learning. This study examines what assessment approaches are being used in Baghlan Higher Education Institution, School of Education. In addition, the investigator was interested in learning the extent to which assessment results were used to improve students’ learning and classroom instruction.

Beyond Chess :: The Effects Of Anger On Person Perception., Daniel Shapiro

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Motivational And Accessibility Effects In Person Perception., Anthony O. Riley

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Episodic Priming And Object Probability Effects., Peter De Graef

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Context And Object Recognition., John M. Henderson

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

A Two Stage Model Of On Line Processing During The Reading Of Short Stories., Albrecht Werner Inhoff

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Perceptual Encoding And The Stimulus Probability Effect., Randall Stephen Hansen

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of stimulus probability on perceptual encoding. In Experiment 1, the role of an abstract code as a mediator of the effect was tested. Subjects viewed and responded to stimuli in conditions which either encouraged or discouraged the use of abstract codes. Contrary to prediction, the effect of probability tended to be greater at a low level of stimulus contrast when the use of abstract codes was discouraged, and unaffected by contrast when their use was encouraged. Subjects 1 responses to a questionnaire indicated that the use of abstract codes was determined to …

Locke On Primary And Secondary Qualities., Marcia Ann Mckelligan

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Alternative Audio And Visual Presentations On Individuals' Perceptions Of Television Commercials., Paul Rod Warshaw

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Visual Search For Letters Through Prose And Scrambled Prose., Robert M. Schindler

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Visual Tracking And Object Permanence In 5-Month-Old Infants., Susan. Goldberg

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Evoked Potential Correlates Of Perceived Fluctuations In An Ambiguous Visual Display., Bruce Edward Rideout

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Verbalization In Young Children As A Function Of Part-Whole Perception And Specific Training., Patricia A. Robertson

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

No abstract provided.

Perceived Freedom, Reinforcement Schedules, And Cost., Robert G. Bringle

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Though philosophers have invested great amounts of time and energy probing the dimensions of freedom as it relates to the human situation, psychologists have tended to avoid the topic. However, the relevance of freedom to the empirical investigations of psychology does not reside in an extension of its philosophical roots. The pertinent aspect of freedom for psychology is the freedom a person perceives himself and others to possess. Thus, it is the perception of freedom, be it valid or invalid, and how it influences behavior, that is relevant to psychology.

Aggressive Behavior And The Perception Of Violence., William J. Fremouw

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Carl Rogers (1965) stated that "the organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is, for the individual, 'reality 1 . 11 Thus, according to phenomenological theory, experience and perception determine reality and consequently behavior. The present study tests the assumption that perception is related to behavior. The validity of the a perception of violence task as a predictor of rated aggressive behavior is tested. Sex is included as an independent variable because no data are available on sex differences for perception of violence.