Psychology Commons^™

Identifying Chaos In Human Interactive Decision-Making, Susan E. Rhoads

Honors Theses

Human subjects played two computer versions of the Prisoner's Dilemma (Poundstone, 1992). By varying the payoff scales and instructions, one version of the game encouraged competition whereas the other encouraged cooperation. The data were entered into a computer program capable of generating a Sierpinski carpet with strings of random variables. The completion percentage of the resulting carpets indicated the degree to which the game-specific interactions approached chaos. The Sierpinski carpets resulting from the cooperation games showed significantly higher completion percentages than the carpets resulting from the competition games. Because chaotic behavior is unpredictable in the stream of its occurrence, research …

The Effects Of Noise And Music Upon Task Performance, Tina Johnson

Honors Theses

Forty-eight subjects from a university general psychology class took a series of four timed arithmetic tests of two differing complexities. Vocal music was played during half of the tests while instrumental music was played during the other half. Results were analyzed for the number of problems correct, number attempted and percentage of problems answered correctly. Results showed that subjects in the instrumental music condition had a significantly higher number of problems correct and attempted than the vocal condition, but the percentage correct was not significantly higher. Results for task complexity showed difficult problems had a significantly lower number correct and …

Hallucinations Induced By Sensory Deprivation: Fact Or Fiction?, Larry M. Latham

Honors Theses

Ancient mediators, ascetics, and others on religious quests deliberately withdrew from all sensory experience and even transcended awareness of their own body in order to open up the "inner rooms of the house of mind."

Experimenters of the modern era have attempted to analyze the various forms of hallucinations that have occurred under such "mysterious" circumstances. Contemporary sensory deprivation situations have yielded results which correspond very closely to the transcendentalism of the ancient mystics. However, the scientists of today have various means of complex experimentation available. Thus, hallucinations are no longer the mystical experiences of transcendentalists--hallucinations can be explained through …

Modern Concepts Of Schizophrenia, Wanda Hamilton

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.