Psychology Commons^™

Effect Of Stressful And "Neutral" Moving Images And Still Images On Dreaming, Elizabeth Anne Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

A controlled presleep experience was used in an attempt to trace waking experience in dreams. Dream reports were collected in the laboratory from 12 dreamers (half men, half women; half recallers, half nonrecallers), using the electrophysiological method of Dement and Kleitman. Following a baseline night, each dreamer was awakened on three consecutive nights during every REM period (rapid eye movement and Stage 1-ascending EEG pattern). Immediately prior to sleep on Night 3, four of the dreamers viewed an emotionally arousing film, four others viewed a slide sequence having the same content as the stressful film, and four others viewed an …

Structure Vs. Meaning In Subliminal Perception, Margaret Anne Callan Hoisington

Dissertations and Theses

Subliminal perception is defined as a process whereby a subject reports no awareness of a visual stimulus, and yet his/her verbal behavior, subjectively experienced as “guesses”, is influenced by the stimulation. Various studies have found evidence for and against subliminal perception using discrimination tasks and subjective judgments. Explanations of subliminal perception include the partial cue hypothesis, the theory of perception of structural differences, and the theory that responses to subliminal stimuli are of a semantic nature.

This study was conducted to determine whether subliminal perception involves a discrimination of structural characteristics or a discrimination of the semantic quality of words …

The Correlation Between Specific Curiosity And Intelligence In Adults, Charles R. Schwenk

Dissertations and Theses

Previous studies done on the correlation between specific curiosity and intelligence have been inconclusive. In the present study, a test of state specific curiosity and a test of intelligence were administered to 76 Ss from two introductory psychology courses. Three hypotheses were tested. These were, (a) that a significant specific curiosity-intelligence correlation would exist, (b) that the specific curiosity-verbal subscale correlation would be higher than the specific curiosity-abstraction sub-scale correlation, and (c) that there would be a sex difference in the specific curiosity-intelligence correlations. The data did not support hypothesis (a) or (b). However, they did support hypothesis (c). …

The Impact Of College Speech Classes On Listening Skills Of Students., Candice Piazza

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of college speech classes upon developing improved listening skills. More specifically it sought to determine the extent to which the students who took Speech 100 or 111 have acquired listening skills.

There has been considerable theorizing concerning listening and auding [sic] with only a scattering of experimentation. According to existing data, listening would appear to be a complex human behavior that is only partially understood. There are, however definite listener functions, listening conditions and variables that affect listening. Aspects of attention are also important when considering the occurrence on unoccurrence …

A Cross-Class Survey Of Synaesthesia In High School Students And Its Biocultural Implications, Ina Jane Wundram

Dissertations and Theses

It has been suggested in the literature that Synaesthesia, as an expression of syncretic thought, would be more common in non-Western than in Western cultures. Given the lack of availability of widely divergent cultural groups and the general lack of knowledge about the phenomenon, it was decided to study the possibility that synaesthesia in our society might be related to socio-economic class. A group of high school students from a broad range of socio-economic backgrounds was studied, and the results suggest that the occurrence of synaesthesia is not related to class. In addition, it was found that 50% of the …

Ames Trapezoid Illusion: A New Model, Daniel Robert Kelly

Dissertations and Theses

Current explanations for the Ames Trapezoid Illusion are based upon the the absence of cues: the illusion is said to occur at chance. A review of recent literature showed that: (a) the illusion varies in frequency as a function of target shape (b) that the dominant cue to reduce the frequency of the illusion is the variant in retinal height. Based upon the dominance of this cue a new model was presented. Following this model it was hypothesized that observers viewing partial rotation when the target produces the greatest difference in the retinal height of the ends would determine the …

Schedule Interactions And Stimulus Control, Andrew Louis Homer

Dissertations and Theses

Four types of schedule interactions have been defined: positive contrast, negative contrast, positive induction, and negative induction. Most work has centered on the necessary conditions for positive contrast. One position states that a reduction in reinforcement frequency is necessary; the other view states that a reduction in response rate is necessary. Neither view can account for the occurrence of induction. The present experiment tests the hypothesis that stimulus control effects the occurrence of either contrast or induction. Three pigeons were trained to respond for primary reinforcement (strong stimulus control condition), and three pigeons were trained to respond for conditioned reinforcement …