Psychology Commons^™

The Relationship Between Role Models, Socioeconomic Mobility Beliefs, And Academic Outcomes, Christian Koeu, Marisol Espinoza Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Objective: This study aims to provide insights into the relationships between role models, socioeconomic mobility beliefs and the education outcomes of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. While previous studies highlight the positive influence of role models on academic and career aspirations, the specific relationship between role models and socioeconomic beliefs remains unexplored. Our study addresses this gap by examining whether the presence of role models relates with more optimistic socioeconomic beliefs and how these beliefs, in turn, affect academic outcomes (academic engagement, academic intentions, and grade point average [GPA]). Additionally, we investigate the influence of role model characteristics to …

Biomarkers Of Objective Criteria For Subtle Cognitive Decline In Parkinson’S Disease, Mary Ellen Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease (PD-MCI) is the continuum from normal cognitive function to dementia. Recent studies suggest that objectively defined subtle cognitive decline (Obj-SCD), which uses non-traditional “process” neuropsychological scores, may be a better pathway to earlier detection of cognitive impairment. Obj-SCD has been defined as the stage where cognition is not impaired, but biomarkers are present or cognitive impairment is minimal but not sufficient to meet MCI or dementia criteria. We examined the longitudinal trajectories of neurodegenerative markers among individuals who are classified as cognitive normal (CN), Obj-SCD, and PD-MCI. Past literature has been inconsistent about the …

Adverse Childhood Experiences Effects On Hot And Cool Executive Functioning, Miriam Gabrielle Fenton

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are related to executive functioning (EF). However, researchers have yet to explore the differences in hot and cool EF in participants who have experienced ACEs. This current study aims to measure ACEs' effects on EF while distinguishing between hot and cool EF. We did this by administering the WCST, Stroop task, and the Visual Digit Span (backward) to capture cool EF from an undergraduate sample. Additionally, we used the IGT, the emotional Stroop, and Go/No Go (EGNG) tasks to measure hot EF in the same participants. We predicted that participants who …

An Evaluation Of Therapeutically Applied Role-Playing Games For Psychological And Social Functioning Amongst Youth/Young Adults, Adam Thomas Soleski

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are “a collaborative narrative game where group members role-play a character that they create in order to solve puzzles, uncover treasure, and defeat monsters in a fictional environment that is created together using formal rules and participation structures'’ (Davis & Kilmer, 2020). TTRPGs have begun to increase in popularity and evoke new interest in exploring whether these new treatment modalities result in positive mental health outcomes. Specifically, therapeutically applied role-playing games (TARPGs) are TTRPGs that integrate therapeutic mechanisms in order to promote improved psychological and social functioning. The goal of the present study was to examine …

The Effect Of Numeracy And Math Anxiety On Whole Number Bias, Jasmine Jessica Leanna Bonsel

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Whole number bias (WNB) has been defined as the tendency to apply natural number knowledge to rational numbers. This misapplication can often lead to erroneous responses in mathematical tasks and understanding of rational number properties. Whole number bias can be explored using Dual Processing Theories. According to Dual Processing Theory we have two types of thinking: Type I and Type II. Type I is fast, heuristic based, intuitive, and doesn’t require working memory, while Type II is slow, logic based, analytical, and requires working memory. Some researchers argue that WNB is an intuitive phenomenon and occurs from a failure to …

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Comparing Short-Term, Intensive Therapy To Traditional, Long-Term Therapy, Laura Gonzalez, Sean Kruckenberg

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health diagnosis that occurs following a traumatic event, and military veterans are at higher risk of exposure to hazardous or life-threatening situations that may result in psychological trauma. PTSD sufferers experience symptoms such as distressing memories, nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance, and heightened arousal. Individuals with PTSD also experience higher rates of depressive and substance use disorders, involvement with the justice system, and self-harm and suicide. Many agencies, such as the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) provide treatment PTSD, however most programs experience dropout rates as high as 36%. Recent studies have shown that …

Does Working Memory Capacity Modulate The Relationship Between Intentional Mind-Wandering And Task Demand?, Stephen Ware

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mind wandering (MW) is affected by multiple factors. Among those factors, the present study investigated the effects of working memory capacity on task demands on types of mind wandering. It was hypothesized that individuals with high working memory capacity (WMC) would show more intentional mind wandering in a low demanding task, and in this case, task performance would not be impaired. On the other hand, individuals with low working memory capacity would show more unintentional mind wandering in the high demand condition; therefore, task performance would be affected. Task demand was manipulated with verbal n-back tasks and WMC was measured …

Inducing Proactive Control With High Load Ax-Cpt, Mina Selim

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

A central hypothesis of cognitive control is that goal maintenance operates via two distinct modes: proactive control and reactive control (Braver, Gray, & Burgess, 2007). Individuals using a proactive strategy, focus on actively maintaining goal-relevant information in memory, whereas reactive individuals store goal-relevant information and retrieve it when cues are present. This theoretical framework for understanding the sources of variation in cognitive control is termed the dual mechanisms of control (DMC). When compared to high working memory capacity (WMC) individuals, low WMC individuals tend to utilize reactive control more often. However, some factors influence an individuals’ bias towards one type …

Treatment Access For Dual Diagnosis Substance Use And Mental Health Disorders, Pedro Banuelos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In 2018, of 1.3 million Latinx adults in the United States facing concurrent issues with substance use disorders (SUD) and mental health disorders (MHD) 93% remained untreated for either diagnosis. This is concerning since Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) data reveals that this population is at greater risk for suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. They also face structural barriers such as employment, housing, legal involvement, and insurability that further impede access to treatment.

This study’s purpose was to examine barriers to accessing treatment for Latinx populations confronting co-occurring SUDs and MHDs. This study used a qualitative design …

Dual Mechanisms Of Cognitive Control: An Eye Tracking Study, Kyle Mobly

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to attempt to provide an ocular signature for the dual mechanisms of cognitive control (proactivity and reactivity) by utilizing an eye tracker to record gaze patterns while participants were administered a modified version of the AX-CPT 40. Additionally, we sought to clarify whether context updating or maintenance was responsible for the higher Total Visit Duration (TVD) on the cue location during the ISI that was found in previous studies by providing both a short (1.5 seconds) and long (3 seconds) ISI length. This allowed us to disentangle context updating from maintenance by removing …

Body Image Role On Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Maria Ceja, Stephani Aguiar-Vasquez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study explores the association between adolescents body image concerns and self-injurious behaviors among students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade. The study is exploratory in nature and uses a quantitative design. The study collected archival data from counseling services provided through alocal school district’s counseling program. More specifically, the archival data was retrieved from initial assessments gathered from students participating in the local school district’s counseling program. Additionally, this research is a call for action that seeks to examine and support the further development of programs geared towards students. This study seeks to expand on the research that guides …

The Influence Of Social Media On Murder, Brandy Jones

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research contains information on how much or if at all social media influences murder. Social media has such a big impact on the lives of many around the world, it is almost impossible to avoid. There is research on how social media effects brain processes and may even cause addiction. And there is research on why people commit murder, but there is little to no research on the role social media can play in some murders. Social media is almost like an alternate universe where people can pretend to be the people they want to be in real life, …

The Role Of Numerical Processing And Working Memory Capacity On The Relationship Between Math Anxiety And Math Performance, Pilar Olid

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Math anxiety refers to a negative emotional response to math-related stimuli. Studies have found a negative correlation between math anxiety and math performance—as math anxiety increases, math performance decreases. According to Attentional Control Theory (Eysenck et al., 2007), anxiety impairs executive functions via depletion of working memory (WM) resources. Therefore, math anxiety affects math performance by consuming WM resources. Additionally, poor math performance is attributed to poor numerical processing (NP), which is the ability to estimate quantities. Recent research suggested that math anxiety affects arithmetic indirectly through working memory capacity (WMC) and NP, and that math anxiety affects numeracy—ratios, fractions, …

The Effects Of Working Memory Capacity And Trait Anxiety On Visual Short-Term Memory Performance, Celene Gonzalez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Anxiety is of importance within the field of cognition because it is often associated with adverse effects on attention, information processing, learning and memory (Eysenck, 1992, 2007). In existing literature, it has been reported that trait anxiety hinders cognitive performance (i.e., working memory capacity WMC). However, the relationship between trait anxiety and cognitive performance might be moderated by working memory capacity (WMC). For example, Owens (2014) reported that trait anxiety was negatively correlated with cognitive performance in the low WMC group and positively correlated to cognitive performance in the high WMC group. Although, past research on the working memory system …

Behavioral And Neural Correlates Of Misses During Cued Recall, Lindsey Sirianni

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Recognition memory is thought to rely upon both recollection and familiarity. When people recall an episode from the past it is generally considered to reflect the memory process of recollection. Therefore, if people can successfully recall an item, they should be able to recognize it. However, in cued recall paradigms of memory research, participants sometimes correctly recall a studied target word in the presence of a strong semantic cue but then fail to recognize that word as actually having been studied. This paradox and underlying cognitive processes have been minimally studied by scientists, leaving this phenomenon poorly understood. Extant research …

Effects Of Anxiety And Working Memory Capacity On Performance In The Emotional Stroop Task, Gia Macias

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Emotional Stroop task results have been shown to be inconsistent throughout the literature due to a multitude of factors including both stimulus and population factors. There are also several theories to explain the emotional Stroop effects, including the attentional control theory (Eysenck et al., 2007). This theory states that anxiety consumes attentional and memory resources, resulting in impairment in executive functions, and thus cognitive performance is lowered. Recently, Owens et al. (2014) reported that the effects of anxiety on cognitive performance might be moderated by working memory capacity (WMC). The present study explored whether Owens et al.'s (2014) paradigm fit …

Neurological Correlates Of The Dunning-Kruger Effect, Alana Lauren Muller

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a metacognitive phenomenon in which individuals who perform poorly on a task believe they performed well, whereas individuals who performed very well believe their performance was only average. To date, this effect has only been investigated in the context of performance on mathematical, logical, or lexical tasks, but has yet to be explored for its generalizability in episodic memory task performance. We used a novel method to elicit the Dunning-Kruger Effect via a memory test of item and source recognition confidence. Participants studied 4 lists of words and were asked to make a simple decision about …

Child Welfare: Trauma Informed Practice At Time Of Child Removal, Ester Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As of 2018, approximately 442,995 children are in the foster care system in the United States according to the federal statistics from the Children’s Bureau. Entry into the foster system involves the removal of children from their home, making it a traumatic experience. The purpose of this study was to examine social workers’ perceptions of what trauma informed practice means and what it looks like in child welfare removals. The study also clarifies what trauma informed practice (TIP) is and how it can be applied in child welfare’s organizational structure. This was a qualitative study in which child welfare social …

Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies For Behavioral Neuroscience And Biological Psychology Classes, Richard Addante

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

Courses in Behavioral Neuroscience and Biological Psychology were taught while implementing evidence based teaching practices and several additional innovations. Students engaged in think-pair-share activities, group projects, and novel innovations of assignments including incentivized exam re-earns and creating modern memes of neuroscience content. Students exhibited evidence of learning, enjoyment, and teaching effectiveness.

The Effects Of Working Memory Training And Encoding Strategy On Working Memory Capacity, Frank Tuthill

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Undergraduate students from California State University, San Bernardino were recruited to examine the effects of working memory training and encoding strategy upon working memory capacity. Participants will be prescreened for low working memory capacity, and then will be tested on a battery of complex span measures. Participants will be divided into several strategy conditions: rehearsal, visual, and control. Then participants will be tested on their verbal working memory both before and after the 20 session n-back working memory training program. Participants are predicted to do the same or worse with the strategy instruction before working memory training while they will …

The Influence Of Control Strategy On Event Segmentation, Vanessa Carlos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The dual mechanism of cognitive control framework (DMC) describes cognitive control via two strategies: proactive and reactive. Individuals using a proactive strategy, focus on actively maintaining goal-relevant information in memory, whereas reactive individuals store goal-relevant information and retrieve it when cues are present. Reimer and colleagues (2015, 2017) added cue-probe location shifts to the typical AX-CPT, as well as, a virtual-reality environment version of the AX-CPT. Through this, they found that the effect of location shifts vary depending on whether a proactive or reactive mode of control is utilized. Thus, the aim of the present study was to test whether …

Radio Dispatch Cognitive Abilities And Working Memory, David A. Buitron

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Public safety radio dispatchers incontrovertibly have to manage multiple tasks at any given time, from relaying lifesaving information to field units, to simultaneously overseeing several monitors and keeping up with the radio transmissions in a timely manner. Interestingly, however, the underlying cognitive abilities necessitated for performing such tasks have not been thoroughly investigated. To begin understanding the cognitive faculties that underlie dispatching tasks, we gauged cognitive ability measures relevant to dispatcher duties and introduced Working Memory Capacity (WMC) as underlying the differentiation on performance. The four general dispatcher cognitive factors identified by Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) literature, were …

Maternal Scaffolding And First Graders' Near And Far Transfer On Problem-Solving Tasks, Andria R. Clausell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study examined correlations between four dimensions of maternal scaffolding, maternal beliefs and values, children’s temperament, and children’s performance and use of self‑regulation strategies on problem‑solving tasks. There are two foci of this study: examining factors that predict the quality of maternal scaffolding, and assessing the relationship between quality of maternal scaffolding and children’s problem solving. Participants consisted of 10 mother‑child dyads in the experimental group and 10 children in the control group. Using a pre- and post‑test design, children were given near and far transfer independent problem‑solving tasks. The experimental group also worked with their mothers on one task …

Toward A Two-Stage Model Of Free Categorization, Gregory J. Smith

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research examines how comparison of objects underlies free categorization, an essential component of human cognition. Previous results using our binomial labeling task have shown that classification probabilities are affected in a graded manner as a function of similarity, i.e., the number of features shared by two objects. In a similarity rating task, people also rated objects sharing more features as more similar. However, the effect of matching features was approximately linear in the similarity task, but superadditive (exponential) in the labeling task. We hypothesize that this difference is due to the fact that people must select specific objects to …

Distance Effects In Similarity Based Free Categorization, Benjamin Alan Miller

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This experiment investigated the processes underlying similarity-based free categorization. Of particular interest was how temporal distance between similar objects affects the likelihood that people will put them into the same novel category. Participants engaged in a free categorization task referred to as binomial labeling. This task required participants to generate a two-part label (A1, B1, C1, etc.) indicating family (superordinate) and species (subordinate) levels of categorization for each object in a visual display. Participants were shown the objects one at a time in a sequential presentation; after labeling each object, they were asked to describe the similarity between that …

Incarceration And Reintegration: How It Impacts Mental Health, April M. Marier, Alex Alfredo Reyes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Background: Previous criminal justice policies have been non-effective leading to overpopulated prisons and unsuccessful reintegration. There is a lack of effective supportive and/or rehabilitative services resulting in high rates of recidivism and mental health implications. Objective: This study investigated the perceived impact that incarceration and reintegration with little to no supportive and/or rehabilitative services has on the mental health status of an individual. The emphasis was on participant perception and not on professional reports because of underreporting and lack of attention to mental health in the criminal justice system. Methods: Focus groups in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley …

The Role Of Working Memory Resources In Mind Wandering: The Difference Between Working Memory Capacity And Working Memory Load, Jason Seiichi Tsukahara

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

There is no consensus on the relationship between working memory resources and mind wandering. The purpose of the current study is to investigate whether mind wandering requires working memory resources to be sustained. The resource-demanding view is that mind wandering requires working memory resources to sustain an internal train of thought (Smallwood, 2010). The resource-free view is that mind wandering is a result of executive control failures and this internal train of thought proceeds in a resource-free manner (McVay & Kane, 2010). Participants were presented with thought probes while they performed a Simon task in single and dual task conditions. …

An Examination Of The Young Schema Model: Permissive Parenting, Early Maladaptive Schemas, And Procrastination, Wade Lee Kidner

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to test specific hypotheses based on the Young Schema Model (YSM). In this model, poor parenting and traumatic events early in life result in maladaptive behaviors in adulthood. The present study tests the specific prediction that permissive parenting will have an indirect effect to increase procrastination by way of the intervening variables of entitlement/grandiosity and insufficient self-control/self-discipline cognitive schemas.

Creative Achievement, Feedback, And Regulation Of Motivation For Creative Behaviors, Ryan Edward Holt

Theses Digitization Project

This study will explore the effects of self-regulation and the tendency to commit to or refrain from creative projects. The relationship between one's feelings of creative achievement and motivation to pursue creative activities will also be investigated. A total of 274 students of California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) were recruited from lower division and upper division psychology courses. Participants rated 12 questions regarding their creative identity on a 4 point scale.

The Influence Of Menstrual Cycle Phase On Threat Recognition, Melanie Lynn Beaussart

Theses Digitization Project

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between women's perception of different types of threats and the menstrual cycle. This thesis argues for the existence of a specific cognitive adaptation in human females that reduces the possibility of rape during the time of maximum pregnancy risk.