Digital Commons Network^™

Success And The Balance Of Commitment And Time: Effects Of Perceived Time Management Control On College Student Performance, Ashley Twehues

Honors Theses

This study explores how time management and the perception of control over time contribute to undergraduates success in college. Although students have good grades in college, they may not be able to achieve the desirable combination of a high GPA, extracurricular involvement and a career-related employment history. Students often become overwhelmed with the pressure to achieve this success, but lack the time management skills to balance everything. This paper explores how students best use their time in order to gain college success. Extant literature suggests that students who are more involved on-campus with academics, extracurricular activities and employment opportunities achieve …

"How Did We Do?": Evaluating The Instruction Program With A Senior Survey, Heather Jagman, Terry S. Taylor

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2011

Library instruction programs often center around reaching first year students in a required course. Predictable contact with a student pool of this size is not only an excellent foundation for consistent delivery of information literacy instruction, it can also be a valuable component of an assessment plan.

Frequently, assessment focuses on learning outcomes of instruction sessions. How else might we examine the impact of instruction through our students? DePaul's Library surveyed seniors in capstone courses university-wide to gauge their perceptions of the instruction they had received over their years at the university. Their responses provided information about the reach of …

The Effect Of Product Density On Perceived Price And Quality, Joshua Jc Holston

Honors Theses

This study explores whether product density affects crowding, perceived quality, and perceived price of products within the retail space. The goal is to determine whether product density directly affects customers’ perceptions of price and quality of merchandise within retail spaces. It tests the hypotheses that increased product density will lead to an increase in crowding perceptions but a decrease in perceived price and quality. The study uses photographs of retail spaces with differing densities to manipulate product density and an online questionnaire to gather data. A student sample is used to collect the data. ANOVAs are used to determine the …

Principal Leadership Styles, Faculty Morale, And Faculty Job Satisfaction At Selected Elementary Schools, Dawn Vyola Ramsey Hearn

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant relationship existed between principal leadership styles, faculty morale, and faculty job satisfaction at selected elementary schools. Specifically, the study examined if the perception teachers had of their principals‟ leadership styles had an impact on faculty morale and faculty job satisfaction of teachers in Kindergarten through sixth grade at selected elementary schools in one school district located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) provided data that identified the perceived leadership styles of the school principals. The Purdue Teacher Opinionnaire (PTO) provided data that identified faculty morale …

Teachers' Perceptions About The Types, Quality, And Impact Of Their Job-Embedded Professional Development Experiences, Delilah Mitchell

Dissertations

This study was designed to determine eighth grade teachers’ perceptions of the impact, quality, and types of job-embedded professional development activities they have participated in and the relationship to student achievement in language arts, math, or science. The researcher identified school districts with 50% or more of their eighth grade students scoring proficient or advanced on all three areas of Mississippi’s Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2). Sixty-four eighth grade language arts, math, or science teachers who had been at their current school at least two years completed a questionnaire created by the researcher. Multiple Linear Regression and Pearson’s Correlation were …

Synesthesia: A Colorful Word With A Touching Sound?, Myrto I. Mylopoulos, Tony Ro

Publications and Research

Synesthesia is a fairly common condition in which individuals experience atypical responses (such as color experiences) in association with certain types of stimuli (such as non-colored letters). Although synesthesia has been described for centuries, only very recently has there been an explosive growth of systematic scientific examinations of this condition. In this article, we review and critically evaluate current methods for both assessing synesthesia and examining its psychological basis, including the “test-retest” procedure, online battery assessments, and behavioral experiments. We highlight the limitations of these methods for understanding the nature of this complex condition and propose potential solutions to address …

Assessing Attitudes Towards Global Climate Change Among Utah State University Faculty, Amy C. Rohman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Climate change is a polarizing issue in which there are significant differences in perception between the scientific community and the general public. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has formally acknowledged an increasing body of evidence that supports primarily human-caused climate change. No scientific organization has dissented, and over thirty national academies of the sciences have issued joint declarations confirming the evidence of anthropogenic climate change. Therefore, polarization is not caused by a lack of available scientific information. This study surveys Utah State University faculty to solicit their knowledge of and attitudes towards global climate change. Responses are assessed …

Happy Is The Woman Who Has No History : An Historical Discourse Analysis Of Women, Their Changing Roles And Society's Changing Perceptions, 1890-1920 In America, Sarah E. Pulver

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This analysis examines the historical mental health needs that emerged for women at the turn of the 19th century as a result of drastic changes in the tenor of the United States. The research explores literature pertaining to women from 1890-1920 in the United States and relates to four main topic areas as a way to examine trends and patterns in mental health needs and supports at the time in history. The Historical Research approach is well suited for this research as the specific goal of the study is to examine the historical sources for patterns and trends to better …

Perception Of Elite And Universal Systems Of Higher Education: An Explanation Of The Empirical Thresholds, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Systems of higher education are usually divided into elite, mass, and universal, depending on the proportion of young people who attend college. Human experts perceive a system as elite is less than 15\% of young people of the 18--21 age group attend college, and as universal if more than 40% of young people of this age group attend college. The corresponding 15% and 40% thresholds are, however, purely empirical. In this paper, we provide an explanation for these empirical thresholds -- an explanation based on the known psychological 7 plus minus 2 law.

Equivalence Of Students' Scores On Timed And Untimed Anatomy Practical Examinations., Guiyan Zhang, Bruce Fenderson, Richard R Schmidt, J J. Veloski

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Untimed examinations are popular with students because there is a perception that first impressions may be incorrect, and that difficult questions require more time for reflection. In this report, we tested the hypothesis that timed anatomy practical examinations are inherently more difficult than untimed examinations. Students in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Thomas Jefferson University were assessed on their understanding of anatomic relationships using multiple-choice questions. For the class of 2012 (n = 46), students were allowed to circulate freely among 40 testing stations during the 40-minute testing session. For the class of 2013 (n = 46), students …

Near-Field Depth Perception In Optical See-Though Augmented Reality, Gurjot Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Augmented reality (AR) is a very promising display technology with many compelling industrial applications. However, before it can be used in actual settings, its fidelity needs to be investigated from a user-centric viewpoint. More specifically, how distance to the virtual objects is perceived in augmented reality is still an open question. To the best of our knowledge, there are only four previous studies that specifically studied distance perception in AR within reaching distances. Therefore, distance perception in augmented reality still remains a largely understudied phenomenon. This document presents research in depth perception in augmented reality in the near visual field. …

An Investigation Into Peripersonal Space Representations In Older Adults, Emily K. Bloesch

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Peripersonal space is the space immediately surrounding one's body. This space is believed to have a unique representation in order to facilitate successful interaction with the surrounding environment. Supporting this theory, there are consistent findings of changes in cognition within as compared to beyond peripersonal space, including differences in visual attention and perception. However, research on peripersonal space in healthy populations has largely focused on young adults. Representations of peripersonal space take place in multimodal brain regions, areas that show structural and functional changes during senescence. Because of this, there is reason to suspect that older adults represent peripersonal space …

The Effect Of Asian Origin, Culture And Learning Beliefs On High School Students' Physical Science Learning Beliefs, Xiaolan Li

Dissertations

Asian Americans have been recognized as the model minority in the United States since the 1960s. Students from Asian countries are winning in international competitions, especially in science and mathematics. Modern Western scholars working within the constructivist learning theory advocate malleable intelligence and effort, which actually corresponds to Asian learning beliefs and learning behaviors. This research is designed to test if American high school students and Chinese students from the mainland of China who are motivated to attend American universities are different in their learning beliefs of physical science and what accounts for the difference if there is any.

A Study Of The Effects Of Computer Animated Character Body Style On Perception Of Facial Expression, Katherine Cissell

Department of Computer Graphics Technology Degree Theses

This study examined if there is a difference in viewer perception of computer animated character facial expressions based on character body style, specifically, realistic and stylized character body styles. Participants viewed twenty clips of computer animated characters expressing one of five emotions: sadness, happiness, anger, surprise and fear. They then named the emotion and rated the sincerity, intensity, and typicality of each clip. The results indicated that for recognition, participants were more slightly more likely to recognize a stylized character although it was not a significant difference. Stylized characters were on average rated higher for sincerity and intensity and realistic …

Ecological Psychology And Media Consumption Among Young Adults: A New Framework, Alice Diana Cade Ferguson

Dissertations

The Pew Research Center (2010, March 1) identified three crucial “new metrics of news” (p. 2) that help to explain the appeal of new, interactive media forms among young adult news consumers. These metrics of Portability, Personalizability and Participation (Pew, 2010) highlight the rapid transformations in technology and user interests that have helped create a new manifestation of what McLuhan called an “age of anxiety” (1967/2001, pp. 8-9) in mass media industries and in mass communication education and scholarship. The purpose of this research is to investigate this very shift in how news is delivered and consumed, with particular attention …

Influences Of Music Genre And Components On Food Perception And Acceptance, Alexandra Jean Fiegel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Managers of consumer goods companies (i.e., restaurants, grocery stores, and bars) have the potential to effectively utilize environmental factors to stimulate desired consumer behaviors. Background music has been identified as one of the most readily manipulated and influential elements to which a shopper or consumer may be exposed to in a service setting. Nevertheless, little is known about the effect of background sound on food perception and acceptance. This research sought whether background music genre and musical components can alter food perception and acceptance, but also to determine how the effect can vary as a function of food type (i.e., …

A Study Of How Selected Public School Junior-High Students Perceive The Effect Of Popular Music On Classroom Behavior, Christopher Mc Allister

Masters Theses

The objective of this study is to further the understanding of how junior-high students in the public schools perceive the effects of popular music on their behavior in the classroom. Two primary research questions serve as the foundation for this study. The first question investigates how themes disclosed in interviews of selected public school junior high students help to explain their personal perceptions of how popular music affects their behavior in the academic environment. The second question seeks to determine whether students that listen to a particular genre of popular music have different or similar perceptions of how music affects …

Colour And Light In Design - Levels Of Experiencing Colour And Light, Ulf Klarén, Harald Arnkil, Karin Fridell Anter

Learn X Design Conference Series

In our designed culture, every environment, object and picture is analyzed from the viewpoint of colour and light. Colour and light play an important role in social life and culture. This paper springs from an epistemological project about concept formation in the field of colour and light. Based on own observations and scientific and scholarly references it presents a graphic model describing possible constituent relations between colour and light experiences. Design is the art of using knowledge – implicit or explicit – about how humans perceive, experience, and relate to the world around. In design all senses are involved, but …

Prefrontal Cortical Microcircuits Bind Perception To Executive Control, Ioan Opris, Lucas Santos, Greg A. Gerhardt, Dong Song, Theodore W. Berger, Robert E. Hampson, Sam A. Deadwyler

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

During the perception-to-action cycle, our cerebral cortex mediates the interactions between the environment and the perceptual-executive systems of the brain. At the top of the executive hierarchy, prefrontal cortical microcircuits are assumed to bind perceptual and executive control information to guide goal-driven behavior. Here, we tested this hypothesis by comparing simultaneously recorded neuron firing in prefrontal cortical layers and the caudate-putamen of rhesus monkeys, trained in a spatial-versus-object, rule-based match-to-sample task. We found that during the perception and executive selection phases, cell firing in the localized prefrontal layers and caudate-putamen region exhibited similar location preferences on spatial-trials, but less on …

Perception Of Mooney Faces By Young Infants: The Role Of Local Feature Visibility, Contrast Polarity And Motion, Yumiko Otsuka, Harold C. H Hill, So Kanazawa, Masami K. Yamaguchi, Branka Spehar

Harold Hill

We examined the ability of young infants (3- and 4-month-olds) to detect faces in the two-tone images often referred to as Mooney faces. In Experiment 1, this performance was examined in conditions of high and low visibility of local features and with either the presence or absence of the outer head contour. We found that regardless of the presence of the outer head contour, infants preferred upright over inverted two-tone face images only when local features were highly visible (Experiment 1a). We showed that this upright preference disappeared when the contrast polarity of twotone images was reversed (Experiment 1b), reflecting …

Goldfield Studies, Dawn Roe

Faculty Publications

The dialogue within this essay serves as a response to the series, Goldfield Studies, a work itself prompted by the history and landscape of this eponymous region of Victoria, Australia. The imagery produced takes the form of paired and multiple still photographs and a digital video sequence, displayed in triple-projection. The discussion is framed by the artist’s introduction, which defines the project as a critical consideration of cultural memory in relation to the opposing perspectives of indigenous and colonial settler narratives, pastoral landscape representations, folklore and myth. A collaborative dialogue between an artist and art historian who share common research …

Parental Perception Of Music Therapy For Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jillian E. Mehler

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine retrospective and current parental perceptions of music therapy (MT) for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study also investigated the differences between parents’ retrospective and current perceptions, as well as the variables that predict current parental perceptions and changes in parental perceptions. Participants (N=50) were parents of children diagnosed with ASD under the age of seven years old, who had received or were receiving MT services. Participants completed an online survey, “Parental Perception of Music Therapy for Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders.” Results revealed that parents’ retrospective perceptions of …

Perceptions Of Hunting Among Recreation, Parks, And Tourism Administration Students At Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Matthew Cole

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Hunting is a form of recreation that is also used as a wildlife management strategy. In recent years the sport of hunting has come under fire resulting in heated debate over how it should be regulated. This debate is driven by the way people perceive hunting and these perceptions are influenced by many factors. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of hunting and the factors that influence these perceptions amongst Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration (RPTA) students at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. A questionnaire was distributed in three RPTA courses. RPTA students perceive hunting in …

The Perception Of Literary Quality Differing As A Function Of Authorial Gender And Emotionality, Sarah Dean

Honors Theses

Previous research suggests that gender acknowledgment yields significant consequences on subsequent judgments. In the current research, we examined whether gender of authorial names affected the perception of literary quality. Participants read a short story excerpt designated as male‐authored or female‐authored that contained either exaggerated emotional content or minimal emotional content. Following presentation of the passage, participants reported perceived quality and emotionality and then completed the 10-item short form of the Need for Affect Questionnaire (NAQ-S; cf. Maio & Esses, 2001) followed by the 18‐item Need for Cognition Scale (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao 1984). Results indicated that participants rated female authors …

Irish Travellers And The Transformative Nature Of Media Representation, Aisling Kearns

Honors Theses

The Travellers, a nomadic group of people indigenous to Ireland, have long been marginalized in Irish society as a result of discrimination. The Travellers themselves have had a history of working to keep themselves separate from the settled Irish, essentially maintaining their own ethnic identity. Traveller culture has undergone a number of changes since the 1960s, a period of increasing urbanization and economic transformation in Ireland. With the changes in both Traveller culture and Irish society as a whole, there has been a corresponding shift to a more positive relationship between the media (newspapers, documentaries, and commercial films and television) …

Decoding The Neural Mechanisms Of Human Tool Use., Jason P Gallivan, D Adam Mclean, Kenneth F Valyear, Jody C Culham

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Sophisticated tool use is a defining characteristic of the primate species but how is it supported by the brain, particularly the human brain? Here we show, using functional MRI and pattern classification methods, that tool use is subserved by multiple distributed action-centred neural representations that are both shared with and distinct from those of the hand. In areas of frontoparietal cortex we found a common representation for planned hand- and tool-related actions. In contrast, in parietal and occipitotemporal regions implicated in hand actions and body perception we found that coding remained selectively linked to upcoming actions of the hand whereas …

Remembering To Look Down: A Thing Not A Thesis, George Ian Mcmahon

Theses and Dissertations

Thoughts on magic, spectacle, arena, material, materiality, marrow, invincibility, repetition, performance, sculpture, time, decay, temporality, tools, marks, gestures, writing, coaxing, site, stage, architecture, and movement.

Locus, Claire Krueger

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores my practice as it has progressed into video and video installation. I detail my use of cinematic tropes and mechanisms as they function within a spatial installation. I discuss the relationship of my work to other artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, and Kevin Cooley who also deal with themes of landscape, spatial displacement, and video viewing. My work has evolved to video installation from a need to experience the traditionally flat viewing plane of photography in a more experiential way. The Locus installation is multi sensory, in that it addresses smell, …

"Just Perceiv'd & Next Door To Nothing:" An Investigation Of Minima In The Work Of George Berkeley, Nicholas Bryant Nash

Theses and Dissertations

For George Berkeley the minimum visibile and the minimum tangibile are the minimum points that can be perceived by the senses of sight and touch (NTV 54). His account of minima is considered by some to be central to his account of perception and his assault on skepticism, while others view the account as simply a digression from his main theme in the New Theory of Vision. One issue in particular that commentators disagree on is whether or not Berkeley understands minima to be extended or not extended. I argue that minima can only be understood as not extended. In …

Perceptions Of Probation Officers Around Class And Racial Disparities In The Juvenile Justice System, Jeffrey A. Hilliard

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

The pervasiveness of disparities related to race and class is an important topic in the juvenile justice systems. The current research examines perceptions of juvenile probation officers around disparities related to race and class in the juvenile justice system. A number of theoretical and methodological approaches are discussed in the literature review. A conceptual framework of intersectionality is used as an analytic technique to examine the simultaneous interplay of race and class and its impact on disparities related to race and class in the juvenile justice system. The sample of juvenile probation officers has been drawn from a department of …