Psychology Commons^™

The Sensitivity And Psychometric Properties Of A Brief Computer-Based Cognitive Screening Battery In A Depression Clinic, Scott Aaron Langenecker, Angela F. Caveney, Bruno Giordani, Elizabeth A. Young, Kristy A. Nielson, Lisa J. Rapport, Linas A. Bieliauskas, Matthew J. Mordhorst, Sheila Marcus, Naomi Yodkovik, Kevin Kerber, Stanley Berent, Jon-Kar Zubieta

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

At present, there is poor accuracy in assessing cognitive and vegetative symptoms in depression using clinician or self-rated measures, suggesting the need for development of standardized tasks to assess these functions. The current study assessed the psychometric properties and diagnostic specificity of a brief neuropsychological screening battery designed to assess core signs of depression; psychomotor retardation, attention and executive functioning difficulties, and impaired emotion perception within an outpatient psychiatry setting. Three hundred eighty-four patients with mood disorders and 77 healthy volunteers participated. A large percentage of patients met diagnostic criteria for Major Depressive Disorder alone (49%) or with another comorbid …

Cognitive Predictors Of Adaptive Functioning In Children With Tumors Of The Cerebellar And Third Ventricle Regions, Aimilia Papazoglou

Psychology Theses

As pediatric brain tumor survival rates increase, research has begun to further explore the influence of brain tumors and their treatment on functioning. The current study explored the ability of attention, learning, and memory abilities as measured by the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and receptive language abilities as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test to predict adaptive functioning on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Children with tumors of the cerebellar region were hypothesized to display relative impairments in attention, whereas children with tumors of the third ventricle region were hypothesized to display relative impairments in learning and memory. …

Naturalizing Anthropomorphism: Behavioral Prompts To Our Humanizing Of Animals, Alexandra C. Horowitz, Marc Bekoff

Human and Animal Bonding Collection

Anthropomorphism is the use of human characteristics to describe or explain nonhuman animals. In the present paper, we propose a model for a unified study of such anthropomorphizing. We bring together previously disparate accounts of why and how we anthropomorphize and suggest a means to analyze anthropomorphizing behavior itself. We introduce an analysis of bouts of dyadic play between humans and a heavily anthropomorphized animal, the domestic dog. Four distinct patterns of social interaction recur in successful dog–human play: directed responses by one player to the other, indications of intent, mutual behaviors, and contingent activity. These findings serve as a …

Joint Attention And Word Learning In Ngas-Speaking Toddlers In Nigeria, Jane B. Childers, J. Vaughan, D. A. Burquest

Psychology Faculty Research

This study examines infants’ joint attention behavior and language development in a rural village in Nigeria. Participants included eight younger (1;0 to 1;5, M age=1;2) and eight older toddlers (1;7 to 2;7, M age=2; 1). Joint attention behaviors in social interaction contexts were recorded and coded at two time points six months apart. Analyses revealed that these toddlers were producing more high-level joint attention behaviors than less complex behaviors. In addition, the quality and quantity of behaviors produced by these Nigerian children was similar to those found in other cultures. In analyses of children’s noun and verb comprehension and production …

A Comparison Of Attentional Reserve Capacity Across Three Sensory Modalities, John Brill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are two theoretical approaches to the nature of attentional resources. One proposes a single, flexible pool of cognitive resources; the other poses there are multiple resources. This study was designed to systematically examine whether there is evidence for multiple resource theory using a counting task consisting of visual, auditory, and tactile signals using two experiments. The goal of the first experiment was the validation of a multi-modal secondary loading task. Thirty-two participants performed nine variations of a multi-modal counting task incorporating three modalities and three demand levels. Performance and subjective ratings of workload were measured for each of the …

The Relative Sensitivity Of An Olfactory Identification Deficit In Individuals With Schizotypal Personality Features, Vidyulata Kamath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Olfactory identification deficits have received recent attention as a potentially useful endophenotype for schizophrenia. Examination of this deficit in individuals with schizotypal personality features (SPF) offers an alternative approach to multiple confounds present when examining individuals with schizophrenia. The aim of the current study was to compare the relative sensitivity of performance on measures of olfaction identification and sustained attention to the presence of SPF. Twenty-six undergraduates were defined as having SPF based on scoring in the top 10% of the Abbreviated Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ-B; mean age 19.6, SD = 1.1; 62% female). These individuals were compared to twenty-six …

Conditional Discrimination And Reversal In Amnesia Subsequent To Hypoxic Brain Injury Or Anterior Communicating Artery Aneurysm Rupture, C. E. Myers, J. Deluca, Ramona O. Hopkins, M. A. Gluck

Faculty Publications

Human anterograde amnesia can develop following bilateral damage to the hippocampus and medial temporal lobes, as in hypoxic brain injury, or following damage to the basal forebrain, as following anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm rupture. In both cases, the mnestic deficit may be similar when assessed by standard neuropsychological measures. However, animal and computational models suggest that there are qualitative differences in the pattern of impaired and spared memory abilities following damage to hippocampus versus basal forebrain. Here, we show such a dissociation in human amnesia using a single two-stage task, involving conditional discrimination and reversal. Consistent with a prior …

Asymmetries In Attention Toward The Dominant Hand: Input Or Output?, Gavin Buckingham, Julie Main, David Carey

Gavin Buckingham

Peters (1981) suggested that an asymmetrical bias in attention (toward the right hand of right handers) could account for many manual asymmetries in bimanual task performance. Support for this notion comes from Honda (1982), who demonstrated preferential monitoring of the dominant hand during a bimanual reaching task, while Buckingham and Carey (2007) observed shorter refractory periods (dwell time in a bimanual discontinuous double-step reaching task) for the right hand.

Recent evidence may indicate an intentional (i.e. selection related behaviour – motor attention) bias toward the dominant hand (Bestelmeyer & Carey, 2004). The current study tests the hypothesis that the right …