Psychology Commons^™

Neurocorrelates Of The Mirror Neuron System In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome, Ade Marais

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Activation of brain regions that make up the mirror neuron system (MNS) is thought to reflect processing and perceiving behavior, action, and intentionality of other organisms. Sensing and perceiving motor behavior in others is an important component of understanding and participating in social interactions. Children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) are diagnosed with serious medical, cognitive, and socio-emotional symptoms. Atypical development and function of the MNS may underpin some aspects of socio-emotional impairment and autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-like symptomology reported. This study of the MNS investigates differences in activation in the operculum, sensorimotor areas, and basal ganglia (BG) in …

Stasi Brainwashing In The Gdr 1957 - 1990, Jacob H. Solbrig, Jacob Hagen Solbrig

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the methods used by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), more commonly known as the Stasi, or East German secret police, for extraction of information from citizens of the German Democratic Republic for the purpose of espionage and covert operations inside East Germany, as it pertains to the deliberate brainwashing of East German citizens. As one of the most efficient intelligence agencies to ever exist, the Stasi’s main purpose was to monitor the population, gather intelligence, and collect or turn informants. They used brainwashing techniques to control the people of the GDR, keeping the populace paralyzed with fear …

Pigeons Choose To Gamble In A Categorical Discrimination Task, Nathaniel C. Rice, Elizabeth G. E. Kyonka

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

In slot-machine play, near wins are stimuli that visually approximate winning stimuli but deliver no reinforcers. In two experiments, a categorical discrimination task was embedded in a concurrent chain to investigate how near wins affect preference for probabilistic versus certain food. Pecking in variable-interval initial links produced access to a fixed-ratio (FR) 1-FR 1-FR 1 chain. When all links were red, the chain was a “win” that produced access to food. A “clear loss” chain involved three green stimuli, and in a “near win,” key colors during successive FR 1 links were red, red, and green. In Experiment 1, the …

More Than Just Talking: The Role Of Self-Disclosure In The Fast Friends Procedure, Chloe Shearer

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Fast Friends (FF) procedure was developed to generate feelings of closeness in the laboratory through escalating, mutual self-disclosure by partners (Aron, Melinant, Aron, Vallone, & Bator, 1997). Research indicates that, in addition to generating feelings of closeness, self-disclosure can also benefit mood. This study examined not only the total, but also the relative amount of self-disclosure between dyad partners in the FF vs. control condition. It was found that while participants in FF engaged in more self-disclosure overall, disclosure within FF dyads was not equitable. Contrary to prediction, the FF procedure did not generate more positive feelings than the …

Escorting Of Mother-Calf Pairs Of Humpback Whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae) In The Colombian Pacific During The Breeding Season, Natalia Botero Acosta

Dissertations

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) belonging to the “breeding G-stock” annually migrate from the Antarctic Peninsula and southern Chile to the southeastern Pacific to reproduce. Associations between mother-calf pairs and escorts were examined in the Gulf of Tribugá, northern Colombian Pacific, using photo-identification and behavioral/spatial sampling. Research hypotheses included: 1. The association between cows and escorts is short-lived, consistent with a male reproductive strategy, 2. The presence of escort(s) elicits a behavioral response from mother-calf pairs and, 3. The patterns of spatial distribution reflect the spatial segregation of maternal females. Groups were classified as mother-calf pairs (Mc), mother, calf …

Liking, Craving, And Attentional Bias In Non-Dependent Drinkers, David Lovett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to better understand alcohol use problems by examining the effect of alcohol liking on alcohol attentional bias among non-dependent drinkers. An adapted model of Robinson and Berridge’s (1993) incentive-sensitization theory of addiction was proposed which theorized that manipulation of alcohol liking would produce alcohol attentional bias (assessed via visual probe task) among non-dependent drinkers. To test this adapted model, alcohol liking was manipulated and the effect on alcohol attentional bias was examined. Participants were 53 legal-age, college drinkers (Mage = 23.49; 32.1% female; 67.9% White Non-Hispanic). Participants completed measures of alcohol drink preference, …

Subjective Beat Perception In Musical Rhythms In Adult Listeners, Karli M. Nave

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Synchronization to rhythmic stimuli is an everyday experience, whether it is exercising to the beat of music, dancing salsa, or rocking a baby to sleep. Commonly, humans synchronize their movements with the frequency of the beat (a quasi-isochronous pattern of prominent time points). Previous research has shown that the intended beat periodicity of a rhythmic stimulus can be observed in periodic neural activity; however, the extent to which this reflects robust perception of musical rhythm versus purely stimulus-driven activity is unknown. In Experiment 1 and 2, I investigated how long listeners can maintain a percept of the beat once the …

Associations Among Benevolent Sexism, Relationship-Contingent Self-Esteem, And Relationship Maintenance Strategies In Heterosexual Women, Carrie Underwood

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Past research shows that heterosexual women who endorse benevolent sexism (a sex-role attitude) tend to be highly invested in romantic relationships (Lee, Fiske, Glick, & Chen, 2010). Consequently, they may be more likely than other women to remain in relationships that are troubled. The current study aimed to shed light on this possibility by examining whether benevolent sexism was associated with the relationship maintenance strategies that women use in troubled relationships. I presented women with a scenario of a troubled relationship and manipulated the type of sexism the male partner in the scenario endorsed. Repeated measures ANCOVA revealed that women …

Volition And Action In The Human Brain: Processes, Pathologies, And Reasons, Itzhak Fried, Patrick Haggard, Biyu J. He, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans seem to decide for themselves what to do, and when to do it. This distinctive capacity may emerge from an ability, shared with other animals, to make decisions for action that are related to future goals, or at least free from the constraints of immediate environmental inputs. Studying such volitional acts proves a major challenge for neuroscience. This review highlights key mechanisms in the generation of voluntary, as opposed to stimulus-driven actions, and highlights three issues. The first part focuses on the apparent spontaneity of voluntary action. The second part focuses on one of the most distinctive, but elusive, …

The Effect Of Text Color And Text Grouping On Attention And Short Term Recall Memory, Emily Haynes

Honors College Research

This study sought to discover whether there was a connection between the attentional draw of a word, as represented by text color and grouping, and the likelihood of it being transferred into short term recall memory. College students at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas were given one of six timed memory test scenarios and asked to recreate the list to the best of their ability. The students were then asked to complete a series of post-test questions designed to measure their perception of their own performance on the test. The students were also asked to complete a demographics questionnaire that …

The Neural Basis Of Human Female Mate Copying: An Empathy-Based Social Learning Process, Jin-Ying Zhuang, Xiaoqing Ji, Zhiyong Zhao, Mingxia Fan, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural basis of human female mate copying.Consistent with previous mate copying effects, women's attractiveness ratings for target males increased significantlygreater after the males were observed paired with romantic partners versus ordinary friends, and this wasmainly accounted for by males being paired with attractive romantic partners. Attractiveness ratings for male targetswere lower when they were paired with an attractive opposite-sex friend. The fMRI data showed that the observationallearning process in mate copying recruited brain regions including the putamen, the inferior frontal gyrus, themiddle cingulate, the SMA, the insula, and the thalamus …

Entrainment Of Voluntary Movement To Undetected Auditory Regularities, Aaron Schurger, Nathan Faivre, Leila Cammoun, Bianca Trovó, Olaf Blanke

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In physics “entrainment” refers to the synchronization of two coupled oscillators with similar fundamental frequencies. In behavioral science, entrainment refers to the tendency of humans to synchronize their movements with rhythmic stimuli. Here, we asked whether human subjects performing a tapping task would entrain their tapping to an undetected auditory rhythm surreptitiously introduced in the guise of ambient background noise in the room. Subjects performed two different tasks, one in which they tapped their finger at a steady rate of their own choosing and one in which they performed a single abrupt finger tap on each trial after a delay …

Usability Of A Smartphone Application To Support The Prevention And Early Intervention Of Anxiety In Youth, Ryan D. Stoll, Armando A. Pina, Kevin Gary, Ashish Amresh

Ashish Amresh

Webinar: Racial Bias In Driver Yielding Behavior At Crosswalks, Kimberly Barsamian Kahn

TREC Webinar Series

This webinar discusses research exploring how social identity factors (race and gender) influence drivers’ behavior in interactions with pedestrians at crosswalks. One dangerous potential point of conflict for pedestrians within the transportation system is interactions with drivers at crosswalks (NHTSA, 2009), and racial minorities are disproportionately represented in pedestrian fatalities (CDC, 2013). This project examines whether racial discrimination occurs at crosswalks, which may lead to disparate crossing experiences and disproportionate safety outcomes.

Our initial research on this topic revealed predicted racial bias in drivers’ yielding behavior at crosswalks: Black male pedestrians were passed by twice as many cars as, and …

Readiness For Inter-Institutional Collaboration: A Path Forward For Online Learning, Robert Arthur Paulson Phd, Shirley Ann Freed

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

An environment conducive to inter-institutional collaboration greater utilizes intellectual and structural assets for the good of all in a growing learning community. As small colleges and universities struggle to maintain financial viability many have recognized the positive impact a collaborative environment has for all aspects of the institution. The leaders in this transition from autonomous to collaborative have been librarians and their use of technology to share databases and other assets. Organizations like the Concordia University System and The Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance have been sharing structural and intellectual assets to reduce costs and risks in offering online …

Trajectories Of Quality Of Life, Life Satisfaction, And Psychological Adjustment After Prostate Cancer, Suzanne K. Chambers, Shu K. Ng, Peter C. Baad, Joanne F. Aitken, Melissa K. Hyde

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background

To describe trajectories of health-related quality of life (QoL), life satisfaction, and psychological adjustment for men with prostate cancer over the medium to long term and identify predictors of poorer outcomes using growth mixture models.

Methods

One-thousand sixty-four (82.4 % response) men diagnosed with prostate cancer were recruited close to diagnosis and assessed over a 72-month (6-year) period with self-report assessment of health-related QoL, life satisfaction, cancer-related distress, and prostate specific antigen anxiety. Urinary, bowel, and sexual function were also assessed using validated questionnaires.

Results

Poorer physical QOL was predicted by older age, lower education, lower income, comorbidities, and …

Adult Sexual Abuse, Disordered Eating Behaviors, And Substance Abuse: The Role Of Internalized Shame And Maladaptive Coping Strategies, Bilgé Özgé Yilmaz

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The prevalence of sexual abuse and disordered eating in young adulthood is increasing in the United States, with as many as one-quarter of women reporting unwanted sexual contact and two-thirds reporting extreme dieting. Among the numerous deleterious effects of sexual abuse are a greater risk of problematic eating, drinking and drug use among women, making this population at particular risk for co-occurrence of sexual abuse, disordered eating and substance use. Despite these statistics, the impact of adult sexual abuse (ASA) on disordered eating and substance use is largely unknown for this population. Shame and avoidance-focused coping have been identified as …

Initial Development And Validation Of The Deliberate Denial Of Disordered Eating Behaviors Scale, Lindsay Marie Howard

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

It is common for individuals who engage in disordered eating behaviors to intentionally conceal symptomatology. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure of deliberate denial as it relates to disordered eating behaviors in a non-clinical population. Deliberate denial of disordered eating behaviors can be defined as any conscious omission, concealment, or misrepresentation of behavior related to disordered eating. The present scale was developed within the context of two studies. Study 1 focused on item generation. Items were based on the definition of deliberate denial of disordered eating behaviors, taken from existing eating disorder assessments …

The Effects Of Presession Attention On The Acquisition Of Tacts And Intraverbals, Mirela Cengher

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined the effects of presession attention on the acquisition of tacts (Experiment 1) and intraverbals (Experiment 2) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. There were 3 conditions in each experiment. In the first 2 conditions, the experimenter first exposed the participants to a 15-min interval of either presession attention (PA) or no presession attention (NPA), then immediately conducted a teaching session. The third condition was a control condition, which involved no pressession interval or teaching procedures. The consequence for emitting tacts and intraverbals consisted of different forms of attention (e.g., praise and clapping). Across experiments, all participants acquired …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Animal Hoarding Symptoms In A Sample Of Adults Diagnosed With Hoarding Disorder, Jennifer E. Ung, Mary Dozier, Christiana Bratiotis, Catherine R. Ayers

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: The extant research on animal hoarding has a dearth of information on animal hoarding tendencies in adults diagnosed with hoarding disorder (HD). In the present study, we investigated possible recurrent animal hoarding behavioral and symptom patterns in individuals diagnosed with hoarding disorder. Methods: Hoarding severity scores from baseline assessments for 65 community-dwelling adults diagnosed with HD were analyzed with respect to their present and past animal ownership characteristics. Results: Approximately half of participants reported currently owning pets, and pet owners in the sample reported currently owning an average of two pets. Of the participants who reported currently owning animals, …

Mechanisms Of Navigation In Fiddler Crabs: An Analysis Of Allocentric And Egocentric Contributions, Stephen G. Volz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Navigation in biological systems is a complex task-set that involves learning processes and may include constructing representations of features of their environment. Across the animal kingdom, different learning mechanisms have evolved to similar spatial problems. The extent to which mechanisms are conserved across taxa are an important research area that can guide our understanding of the cognitive dimensions of navigation. Recent studies of mammals, birds, and arthropods has found that these animals often attend to multiple forms of sensory cues, and to either integrate the solutions generated by these cues, or at times prefer one form of cue over another. …

Roles Of Gabab, Muscarinic And Nicotinic Receptor Signaling In The Acquisition And Expression Of Fructose And Fat-Conditioned Flavor Preferences And Acquisition Of Quinine-Conditioned Flavor Avoidances In Rats, Francis M. Rotella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In addition to increased intake of sweet solutions by mammals, learning, particularly classically-conditioned “Pavlovian-like” learning, also plays an important role. An orosensory conditioned flavor preference (CFP) can be elicited by pairing one novel flavor (conditioned stimulus, CS+) with a fructose solution and a second novel flavor (CS-) with a saccharin solution. Rats will prefer the CS+ flavor in a subsequent 2-bottle choice test with both flavors mixed in saccharin. Previous pharmacological analyses revealed that systemic administration of dopamine (DA) D1 and D2 as well as NMDA, but not opioid, receptor antagonists eliminated the acquisition (learning) of fructose-CFP. Further, expression of …

The Effects Of Pre-Trial Event Stimulus Properties On Timing In The Peak Interval Procedure, Daniel A. Garces

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the peak interval procedure, intruded conditioned stimuli produce shifts in peak/middle time towards later values, regardless of whether these stimuli are presented prior to or during the timing signal. Although the effects of during-trial stimulus properties—temporal location, duration, and salience—have been previously reported, no research exists on how before-trial stimulus properties influence the extent of shifts in middle time. In the present study, we manipulated within subjects both the temporal location and type (i.e., cue alone, response-independent reinforcer alone, or cue and response-contingent reinforcer together) of the pre-trial event. An individual-trial analysis suggested that the type of stimulus event …

Harm And Victim Age As Factors In The Determination Of Intentionality And Culpability, Donal David Barnard Jr.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States criminal justice system, jurors are directed to determine a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by establishing both the act of committing a crime (actus reus) and the culpable mental state of the defendant (mens rea), that is, the defendant’s intentionality. The role of a juror in a criminal case is that of a factfinder, deciding whether the two elements of the crime have been met. Criminal cases where jurors are asked to decide the facts vary in the harm that resulted. The more severe the harm, the greater the perceived injustice. This …

Law And Psychology Grows Up, Goes Online, And Replicates, Krin Irvine, David A. Hoffman, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the last thirty years, legal scholars have increasingly deployed experimental studies, particularly hypothetical scenarios, to test intuitions about legal reasoning and behavior. That movement has accelerated in the last decade, facilitated in large part by cheap and convenient Internet participant recruiting platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk. The widespread use of MTurk subjects, a practice that dramatically lowers the barriers to entry for experimental research, has been controversial. At the same time, law and psychology’s home discipline is experiencing a public crisis of confidence widely discussed in terms of the “replication crisis.” At present, law and psychology research is arguably …

The Effects Of Corticosterone And Social Isolation On Song Stereotypy And Neural Plasticity In Zebra Finches, Pavlina Faltynek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Birdsong is important to male songbirds’ reproductive success. For male birds it is important to consistently reproduce their song with high stereotypy, and the effects of stress on song consistency are little studied. My current study examined the effects of social isolation and corticosterone administration on song production and migrating and apoptotic neurons in the song-control brain region HVC of zebra finches. All males significantly decreased in song stereotypy over time, independent of treatment or housing. Males who were housed in isolation had a significant decrease in their latency to sing, as well as a decrease in arborization in migratory …

What Factors Affect General Aviation Pilot Adoption Of Electronic Flight Bags?, Troy E. Techau

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

Why do some pilots choose to use electronic flight bags (EFBs) in their flight operations, yet others continue to rely on traditional avionics and paper charts? Does the use of EFBs differ by age, gender, or flight experience?

EFBs, now a common tool in aviation, can display navigational charts, weather, and traffic information, and automate calculation of critical fuel and aircraft performance data. Research that uses EFBs as interactive nodes to exchange data with the System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) network is underway. Understanding what factors may explain differences in pilot adoption and use of EFB technology could shape regulations governing …

Effects Of Fluoxetine On Social And Startle Behavior In The African Cichlid Astatotilapia Burtoni, Stephanie Shih

Theses and Dissertations

The commonly prescribed antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine) is found in waste water and affects aquatic animals. Here we ask how social hierarchy and startle behavior in an African cichlid fish community is impacted by chronic fluoxetine exposure. Results indicate reduced aggression and startle rates, implying possible ecological consequences.

Ask The Pendulum: Personality Predictors Of Ideomotor Performance, Jay A. Olson, Ewalina Jeyanesan, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

For centuries, people have asked questions to hand-held pendulums and interpreted their movements as responses from the divine. These movements occur due to the ideomotor effect, wherein priming or thinking of a motion causes muscle movements that end up swinging the pendulum. By associating particular swinging movements with “yes” and “no” responses, we investigated whether pendulums can aid decision-making and which personality traits correlate with this performance. Participants (N=80) completed a visual detection task in which they searched for a target letter among rapidly presented characters. In the verbal condition, participants stated whether they saw the target in each trial. …

Designing An Authentic Behavioral Research Experience In The Classroom Using Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta Splendens, Gianne Souza, Ronald M. Coleman

STAR Program Research Presentations

Recently there have been major shifts in biology education towards emphasizing the teaching of the scientific process to more closely reflect actual scientific practices. Authentic research experiences require the development of many higher order cognitive skills. Creating an authentic research experience that appropriately scaffolds the development of these complex skills while engaging individual student motivation remains challenging in classroom settings. Some common challenges include limited time available for working with large numbers of students, cramped working areas, and limited funding and materials resources. Using the Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta splendens, we have created an economically viable authentic animal behavioral …