Psychology Commons^™

Effects Of Repeated Quetiapine Treatment On Conditioned Avoidance Responding In Rats, Jun Gao, Min Feng, Natashia Swalve, Collin Davis, Nan Sui, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study characterized the behavioral mechanisms of avoidance–disruptive effect of quetiapine in the conditioned avoidance response test under two behavioral testing (2 warning signals vs. 1 warning signal) and two drug administration conditions (subcutaneous vs. intravenous). In Experiments 1 and 2, well-trained adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were tested under the subcutaneous (s.c.) quetiapine treatment (5.0, 15.0, 25.0, 50.0 mg/kg) for 7 days in a novel procedure consisting of two conditioned stimuli (CS) (white noise serving as CS1 and pure tone as CS2). Only the highest dose (50.0 mg/kg) produced a persistent suppression of the avoidance response without impairing the …

Incentive Contrast As A Relative Reward, Alexandra Schmidt

Honors Projects

This study examines the relationship between rapid relative reward comparisons and incentive contrast among rats (n=5). Animals were trained to lever-press in order to obtain access to a sucrose solution (concentration used: 1%, 10% or 20% in tap water). These rewards were placed outside an operant box which could be reached through a small hole displaying sessions with mixed comparisons (1v20%, 20v1%) or single sessions (1v1%, 10v10%, 20v20%) that rotated between two spouts containing the pre-randomized order of paired blocks; allowing for comparative analysis between two spouts/concentrations and blocks of responses. Throughout weekly testing each animal experienced a …

How The Rat Turned White, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

This is the first in a three-part series on the use of animals in psychological research. In it, I describe how animals got into laboratories in the first place, and their purpose and life there. In the second, I will describe animal model research, the strategy whereby psychologists' develop nonhuman animal models to study human psychopathology. In the concluding piece, I will present a critique of this enterprise, using original data I gathered. The three articles are based on a forthcoming book, Animal Models of Human Psychology: Science, Ethics, and Policy.

A Rodent For Your Thoughts: The Animal Model Strategy In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

In this second of three essays, I describe how the early modern psychologists adopted the strategy of further transforming rats and other species into models of human thought, feeling, and behavior, and, particularly, of disorders of these - in effect taking "a rodent for your thoughts." In the third essay I will provide a critique and empirically-based evaluation of animal model research. Here I indicate what the model strategy in the biomedical sciences, properly understand, is intended to achieve and how, by contrast, particular models are presented to the public and funding agencies. Finally, I describe how they are utilized …

Psychology's Use Of Animals: Current Practices And Attitudes, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

In this chapter, I present a psychology primer for the uninitiated, with special emphasis on psychology's uses of animals. After sketching the scope of the field generally, I review available data on present numbers and species of animals used in psychological research, level of suffering induced and current trends. I also provide several concrete examples of psychological research involving animals. Finally, the chapter concludes with a presentation of attitudes of psychologists toward animals and these practices.

The Ingrown World Of Animal Model Research In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

In the previous essay, I described the proper function of models in science as heuristic, as a way of generating hypotheses about the actual object of study. Turning to animal models in psychology, I offered a general characterization of that enterprise using sham feeding, an animal model of the eating disorder called bulimia, as an example. In this final of three essays, I offer an evaluation of this animal model strategy that largely employs the tools of social science. I close with a recommendation and a prediction.

Use Morality As Basis For Animal Treatment, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

No abstract provided.

Exploring And Training Spatial Reasoning Via Eye Movements: Implications On Performance, Victoria A. Roach

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation sought to determine if eye movements could serve as an indicator of success in spatial reasoning, and if eye movements associated with successful completion could be applied to strategically improve spatial reasoning.

Using the line images of Shepard and Metzler, an electronic test of mental rotations ability (EMRT) was designed. Two versions of the test were created, allowing for both a timed (6 seconds per question) and untimed testing environment. Four experiments were designed and completed to relate mental rotation ability (MRA) scores from the EMRT, to patterns in chrononumeric and visual salience data. In each experiment, participants …

Color Me, Please: How Color-Emotion Pairs Affect Our Perceptions, Russell T. Rogers

Honors College Theses

Color-emotion pairings are part of everyday experience, and they develop in early childhood. Emotional experiences are typically much stronger when emotional stimuli (e.g., pictures or videos) are paired with sensory stimuli (e.g., sights or sounds). Since the presence of these sensory stimuli seems to heighten the emotional experience of emotion-evoking visual stimuli, it should be the case that such pairings will allow the manipulation of color-emotion pairings through the presence of a color (a visual stimulus) during an emotional situation (such as watching a video). In this study (N = 44), we paired both a positive and negative video …

Olfactory Enrichment In California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus), Mystera M. Samuelson

Dissertations

In the wild, California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are exposed to a wide array of sensory information at all times. However, it is impossible for captive environments to provide this level of complexity. Therefore unique procedures and practices are necessary for the maintenance of physiological and psychological health in captive animals (Wells, 2009). This project aims to explore the behavioral effect of scent added to the environment, with the goal of improving the welfare of captive sea lions by introducing two scent types: 1.) Natural scents, found in their native environment, and 2.) Non-natural scents, not found in …

Feasibility Of A Peer Support Oriented Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training Massive Open Online Course For Emotion Dysregulation, Rachel Gill

Senior Theses

Public interest in mental health care modernization has steadily gained momentum since ratifying The United States Health Care Affordability Act (U.S. Office of the Legislative Counsel, 2010). Furthermore, with 1 in every 1000 people seeking online support for mental health issues (DeAndrea & Anthony, 2013), research concerning the development of virtual mental health applications is critical to ensure science guides their innovation. To this end, this study explores the feasibility of a mental health intervention that unites the experiential, recovery-oriented, and self-determined values of mental health peer support (Kaufman et al., 2014) with dialectical behavior therapy skills training (DBT-ST) (Linehan, …

“God Hates Fags”—The Use Of Religion As Justification For Prejudice Towards Homosexuals, Michelle S. Fabros

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Westboro Baptist Church and Phelps family are notorious for their signs proclaiming anti-homosexuality epithets such as “God Hates Fag,” and references to Biblical verses to revile homosexuality (e.g., Romans 1:24-27). Although the homonegativity bias that Westboro patrons and many traditional Christians express is often understood as being rooted in religion, I proposed the possibility that religion can be a justification rather than source of homonegativity. That is, although religion typically is seen as the source of prejudice towards LGBT+ people, I argued that this relationship might work in reverse. I examined under which conditions this “reverse” phenomena might occur …

Effects Of Failure On Subsequent Performance In The Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus), Lisa Kay Lauderdale

Master's Theses

The current study examined the immediate effects of two types of failure during operant-conditioning based training sessions in 11 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) at the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego, CA. While learning a multi-faceted behavior not commonly found in nature, such as beaching, animals are likely to perform approximations of the behavior that are not successful and do not result in reinforcement. The effects of failure on beaching trials were systematically investigated over a three-month period by determining the mean failure rate and the probability of success after initial success, initial attempts, and initial …

Same-Sex Socio-Sexual Interactions Among A Group Of Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Natalia Botero Acosta

Master's Theses

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) frequently engage in non-reproductive sexual behavior, including homosexual encounters. In order to better understand the nature and function of these interactions, a longitudinal study of the patterns of association and the dynamics of initiator/recipient role exchange was conducted. Underwater video footage of a colony of bottlenose dolphins housed at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS), collected between March of 2010 and May of 2013, was analyzed. Associations occurring during homosexual interactions were transitory for most individuals. Nonetheless, subsequent analyses allowed the rejection of the null hypothesis of random association, suggesting the existence of …

Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter (Fall 2015), Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparing Implicit And Explicit Measures Of Sex Guilt In Predicting Sexual Behavior, Delaram Asadzadeh Totonchi

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sex guilt is a generalized expectancy for self-mediated punishment for violating or anticipating violating standards of proper sexual conduct. Our current knowledge about sex guilt is primarily achieved through using explicit measures, particularly the widely used Mosher Sex Guilt Inventory. Research has shown that explicit sex guilt can predict many sexual behaviors such as sexual activity, number of sexual partners, and condom use. Responses on explicit measures, however, are influenced by dissimulation and social desirability, especially when assessing socially sensitive domains such as sexual attitudes. The present study hypothesized that adding implicit sex guilt as a second predictor to the …

Compliance: Film About A Real-Life Milgram Experiment, Christina J. Taylor, Ryan Bushman, Lori Gwilliam, Michael Novis, Johanna Tiarks

Psychology Faculty Publications

The film, Compliance, tells the story of a real-life Milgram experiment in which strip-search scams were perpetrated in USA fast-food restaurants. A pilot study was carried out to explore the appropriateness of the film for classroom instruction about the psychology of obedience to authority. Participants with more knowledge about Milgram's research were significantly more likely to endorse use of the film than the less knowledgeable participants. Results suggest that substantive instruction on obedience to authority is a prerequisite to using Compliance in the classroom.

Motivational Differences In Why Sports Fans Attend Minor League Baseball And Roller Derby Events, Anissa S. Pugh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The aim of the current study was to examine the differences in sport fan motivation factors between mainstream (Minor League baseball) and atypical (roller derby) fans. Eighty-one fans (40 Minor League baseball and 41 roller derby) completed an 8 question demographic survey, a 26-item Sport Fan Motivation Scale, a 7-item Sport Spectator Identification Scale, and a 10-item Sport Fan Exploratory Curiosity Scale. It was believed that fans of Minor League baseball would be more motivated by the entertainment factor than roller derby fans. While roller derby fans would be more motivated by eustress, group affiliation and family factors at the …

The Effects Of Aging On Associative Learning And Memory Retrieval In Causal Judgment, Jessica Parks Arnold

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has shown that detecting and judging causal relationships requires associative learning and memory. Retrospective revaluation of causal cues requires associative memory (Aitken, Larkin, & Dickinson, 2001) to bind multiple cues together and use these associations to retrieve unseen cues for revaluation of their associative value. The difficulty that older adults experience with respect to retrospective revaluation could occur because of their deficit in associative binding and retrieval (Mutter, Atchley, & Plumlee, 2012). Like retrospective revaluation, blocking requires cue – outcome associative learning, but unlike retrospective revaluation, blocking does not require binding two cues together nor does it require using …

Examining The Relationship Between Functions Of Self-Directed Violence And The Suicide Implicit Association Test, Cody D. Haynes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Suicide and non-suicidal self-injury are concerning and prevalent phenomena in the United States; as a result, much research has been undertaken in order to investigate these topics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015a). Although the exploration of risk factors is a common approach, other novel approaches have been developed in order to better understand self-directed violence (Klonsky & May, 2013). One of these is a focus on functions served by these behaviors, which is theorized to contribute to grasping their etiologies and help provide effective treatment (Glenn & Klonsky, 2011). Another approach is investigating implicit cognition and selfassociations’ influences …

One-Session Mindfulness Meditation: The Effects Of Stress Anticipation, Christina Dorothy Colgary

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The current study concerns three main questions that are related to mindfulness meditation: the benefits of a brief preventative one-session mindfulness meditation, the effects of mindfulness meditation compared to a concentrative meditation, and correlations between rumination and stress when facing anticipated and unanticipated stressors. Type of meditation and whether or not participants could anticipate an upcoming stressor were varied in four conditions. Participants completed one 20-minute session of either mindfulness meditation or guided imagery meditation and were informed of a speech preparation task either before or after completing the meditation. Both one-session of mindfulness meditation and guided imagery meditation were …

The Effects Of Trade Competition On Health, And Determinants Of Workplace Behavior, Thomas Clayton Mcmanus

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation consists of three essays related to workplace behavior. In the first paper, we design a controlled laboratory experiment to study image motives in a setting where decisions signal intelligence. The experiment results show that in some settings social scrutiny can discourage individuals from making choices that signal their intelligence, despite evidence that the signal was privately valuable. In the second paper, we study the effect of Chinese import competition on occupational safety and health at US manufacturers. We find that a change in US trade policy and Chinese import shocks significantly increases worker injury and illness rates in …

Adult Attachment Styles And Psychopathic Traits: A Relationship Mediated By Empathy And Emotional Regulation?, Chelsea Heim

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Psychopathic personality traits encompass an array of characteristics that emerge early in life and are influenced by insecure attachments between children and their parents. Disruptions in parent-child interactions also affect the development of empathy (Panfile & Laible, 2010) and emotion regulation (Waters, S. F., Virmani, E. A., Thompson, R. A., Meyer, S., Raikes, H. A. & Jochem, R., 2010), which contributes to lasting impairments in interpersonal working models about the self and others (Mack, Hackney & Pile, 2010). The interactions between psychopathy and insecure attachment, low levels of empathy, and the ability to regulate one’s emotions have been separately investigated …

Phase Change Lines, Scale Breaks And Trend Lines Using Excel 2013Tm, Neil Deochand

Masters Theses

The development of graphing skills for the behavior analyst is an ongoing process. Specialized graphing software is often expensive, not widely disseminated, and may require specific training. Dixon, et al. (2009) provided an updated task analysis (Carr & Burkholder, 1998) in the widely used platform Excel 2007. Vanselow and Bourret (2012) provided online tutorials outlining some alternate methods also using Office 2007. This article serves as an update to those task analyses with alternative and under-utilized methods in Excel 2013. To examine the utility of our recommendations twelve psychology graduate students were presented with the task analyses and the experimenters …

Effects Of Amplitude Modulation On Sound Localization In Reverberant Environments., Paul W. Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Auditory localization involves different cues depending on the spatial domain. Azimuth localization cues include interaural time differences (ITDs), interaural level differences (ILDs) and pinnae cues. Auditory distance perception (ADP) cues include intensity, spectral cues, binaural cues, and the direct-to-reverberant energy ratio (D/R). While D/R has been established as a primary ADP cue, it is unlikely that it is directly encoded in the auditory system because it can be difficult to extract from ongoing signals. It is also noteworthy that no neuronal population has been identified that specifically codes D/R. It has therefore been proposed that D/R is indirectly encoded in …

What We See Changes How We See : Analyzing The Plasticity Of The Horizontal Effect., April Marie Schweinhart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between the processing of orientations by the human visual system has been related to the orientation content of the natural environment; horizontal orientations, while predominant in natural environments, are perceived less well than vertical and oblique orientations are perceived best, though they are least prevalent in the natural world. This ‘horizontal effect’ has further extended the well-studied relationship between visual encoding and natural scene statistics as the differential perception of orientations in broadband scenes inversely matches their differential representation in the natural environment. However, the original hypothesis that this relationship may have evolved across millennia in order to …

Temporal Information Processing Across Primary Visual Cortical Layers In Normal And Red Light Reared Tree Shrews., Wenhao Dang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Visual neuroscience research has benefitted from decades of efforts of comparative studies of different species, since exploring and understanding the diversity of functional properties of visual system in different species has helped us identify both general organization rules and unique traits of certain species. In this study, spatio-temporal receptive fields (STRFs), together with some other functional properties (etc. stimulus preference to different visual stimuli, orientation tuning, temporal frequency tuning and the F1/F0 ratio of responses to sine-wave grating stimuli), of primary visual cortex (V1) cells were measured in normally reared and red-light reared tree shrews (Tupaia), a species considered the …

An Examination Of Several Variables Influencing The Efficacy Of The Gateway In Street Sign Configuration On Motorist Yielding Behavior, Miles Bennett

Dissertations

This study contains five different experiments that examine the effects of several variables influencing the effectiveness of the In-Street sign and various In-Street sign configurations. Experiment 1 and 2 compared the effects of the Gateway configuration using R1-6 signs to blank fluorescent yellow-green signs arranged in the Gateway configuration on motorist yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks. The results showed that the blank signs produced an increase in yielding from 7% to 33%, while the addition of the message and symbols to the sign increased yielding to 78%. Experiment 1, 2, and 4 examined the effects of different configurations of the …

Behavior Analysis Program To Improve Habits Of Physical Activity, Eating, And Sleeping, Ivan Noe Martinez Salazar

Dissertations

An Internet-based five-week duration program to improve “health habits” using behavior analysis principles and eHealth technology was developed and evaluated. The “health habits” include recurring behaviors that impact health status such as eating, sleeping, and physical activity.

Ten adult participants were recruited online from Mexico. A multiple baseline design was used and participants were randomly assigned into two different groups (i.e., ABBAA and AABBA groups). Participants received online training using videos describing the characteristics of the program and its components. Each participant recorded selected health behaviors using a Microsoft Excel® tool designed specifically for this program’s goal achievements. Participants reported …

Gait Transition Dynamics Are Modulated By Experimental Protocol, Mohammad Abdolvahab, Jason Gordon

Mohammad Abdolvahab

No abstract provided.