Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Can Coloring Reduce Stress And Increase Working Memory In The Elderly?, Alexus Lepere

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores whether the observed effects of coloring on anxiety and stress apply to the elderly. Two coloring activities were administered to elderly participants to evaluate the effects on stress, anxiety, and working memory. The Mini Mental State Examination was used to establish cognitive level. The Perceived Stress Scale and Brief State Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered to obtain pretest and posttest scores on stress and anxiety levels. Working memory was measured using the Backward Digit Recall to test if the potential calming effects improve working memory. A near significant increase in stress scores was demonstrated in the mandala …

Prosociality And Risk: How Risky Decision-Making In Young Adults Relates To Altruistic Tendencies, Empathic Concern, And Prosocial Peer Affiliation, Sarah J. Beard

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence involves an increase in risky decisions, such as reckless driving and illicit substance use, but prosocial characteristics and peer affiliation have yet to be investigated as protective factors. The present study assessed altruistic tendencies, prosocial peer affiliation (PPA), and empathic concern as predictors and moderators of risk-taking, including both self-reported health risks and riskiness in a behavioral task. Young adults from ages 20 to 25 (M = 22.55, SD = 1.38) completed a battery of behavioral tasks (including the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and the Dictator Game) and questionnaires on Amazon MTurk, measuring risk-taking (drunk driving, texting while …

The Effects Of Ego Depletion And Emotional Intelligence On Risk-Taking, Travis Bishop

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ego depletion theory postulates that the ability to exert self-control depends upon the availability of a limited mental resource. In this experiment, we investigated the effects of ego depletion on risky decision-making. We also examined the moderating effect emotional intelligence may have on this relationship. First, participants completed a trait emotional intelligence questionnaire and a self-control task. This was followed by a mood questionnaire and a series of risky-decision scenarios. Results showed (1) participants who were depleted made more risky decisions than non-depleted participants, (2) no differences in perceived task effort between groups, (3) no evidence of a moderating effect …

Sentence Recall In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Brett Wallace

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an age-shift in neurotypical children: younger children tend to remember information in a verbatim manner so they store item-specific surface characteristics; between nine and ten children engage in gist recall where they store meanings of presented information. The aim of the present study was to explore false memory in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as some research suggests that they develop gist recall at a later age than neurotypical children. We are also interested in the role of working memory.

One approach to understanding false memory creation is activation-monitoring (AM) theory. Working memory can play a role …