Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Psychology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Positive Affect During Goal Adoption : Why Happiness Breeds Success, Katherine Wainwright May 2011

Positive Affect During Goal Adoption : Why Happiness Breeds Success, Katherine Wainwright

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Prior research has shown that positive affect helps individuals to achieve their goals. typically by energizing individuals' performance during goal pursuit. However, questions remain as to whether other mechanisms might exist by which positive affect could facilitate success. Specifically, researchers have yet to address the role that positive affect might play during the process of goal adoption. In the current study, I examined whether positive affect experienced at the time of goal adoption facilitates goal achievement. Participants were induced into either a positive or neutral affective state by watching a video clip. They were also asked to adopt the goal …


What Do You Expect? : An Investigation Of How Caffeine Expectancies Affect College Students' Cognitive Performances, Katie Alyse Berg May 2011

What Do You Expect? : An Investigation Of How Caffeine Expectancies Affect College Students' Cognitive Performances, Katie Alyse Berg

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Caffeine use is common, but few studies have examined how the expectancies that people hold about caffeine relate to the effects they experience after consuming it. My study examined how typical caffeine consumption and students' expectancies about how caffeine generally affects them influence their decisions about caffeine use as well as their performance on memory and attention tests. I hypothesized that expectations about how caffeine affects students would interact with their beliefs about how much caffeine they had consumed to impact performance on tests of attention and memory. Undergraduate students were divided into four groups: high consumption and high expectancy, …


The Effects Of A Brief Mindfulness Intervention On Impulsivity In College Students, Myles Elgin Trapp May 2011

The Effects Of A Brief Mindfulness Intervention On Impulsivity In College Students, Myles Elgin Trapp

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This study investigated the impact of a brief, introductory mindfulness intervention on attention, executive control, and impulsivity. I randomly assigned forty-seven undergraduate students to a treatment group (TG) receiving mindfulness training and a waiting list control group (WLG). Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires and standardized neuropsychological tests before and after the intervention. Participants high in trait mindfulness suffered less interference on a Stroop task, were less impulsive on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, but also evidenced less cognitive flexibility on a dual fluency test at baseline. The TG demonstrated greater improvement than the WLG from baseline to re-test …


The Effect Of Caffeine On Relationship Memory, Elsa Carodenuto Apr 2011

The Effect Of Caffeine On Relationship Memory, Elsa Carodenuto

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Recollections of participants’ last failed relationship (first meeting, first kiss, and breakup) were examined as a personal flashbulb memory (FBM). Although FBM is usually caused by arousal at encoding, the effects of arousal at retrieval was investigated by giving participants caffeine to determine its effect on elaboration at recall. 72 Butler students completed a protocol containing narrative and probe sections on each event of their last relationship. Results showed that caffeine enhanced memory of events at retrieval.