Psychology Commons^™

Short-Term Effects Of A Western Diet On The Number Of Brainderived Neurotrophic Factor Immunoreactive Neurons In The Hypothalamic Arcuate, Ventromedial And Paraventricular Nuclei, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Gilland

Open Access Theses

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an important anorexogenic factor and has been shown to be involved in obesity. It is important to know when changes in BDNF expression occur to possibly prevent development of dietary obesity. BDNF mRNA decreases in response to long-term western diet (WD) exposure in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH), yet no study has investigated the short-term effects of WD on BDNF expression in the hypothalamus. It was hypothesized BDNF protein would mirror a decrease in BDNF mRNA in the VMH when mice were fasted for 48-hours or fed WD for 6-hours, 48-hours, 1-week and 3-week and decrease …

A Descriptive Analysis Of The Appropriate Use Of Cognitive Bias Terminology In Forensic Science Literature, Courtney A. Winters, Evelyn M. Buday, Trevor I. Stamper

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cognitive bias occurs without a person’s awareness and can affect decision-making abilities. In forensic science, bias can be especially detrimental to making accurate decisions about the evidence in a criminal investigation. There are many academic studies in identifying, describing, and suggesting ways to mitigate cognitive biases in forensic science. Many authors will give a known cognitive science concept a new name or create their own bias. This is a problem in the literature because nobody knows for sure how many published studies are referring to or testing the same phenomena since authors are using different definitions or terminology to describe …

Developing Wildland Firefighters’ Performance Capacity Through Awareness-Based Processes: A Qualitative Investigation, Alexis L. Waldron, Vicki Ebbeck

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

Wildland firefighting is environmentally and socially a risky and complex occupation. Although much attention has been given to understanding the physical components in fighting wildland fire, much less time has been devoted to understanding and developing the capacity of wildland firefighters to handle the dynamic pressures of the physical and social environments. The purpose of this study was to explore the receptiveness, utility, effectiveness, and potential improvements for a mindful and self-compassionate awareness program developed for the wildland fire environment. The program was based on the use of a conceptual tool to refocus awareness and move self-compassionately through key aspects …

Summary Of The Performance Effects Of Sustained Operations, Valerie Gawron

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

Sustained operations missions are performed in diverse environments. These environments include military command and control, process control, medical practice, and security surveillance. Research on the related fatigue effects of sustained operations is reviewed for each of these diverse environments. For military surge operations, both ground and airborne command and control operators show similar decrements in visual performance as a function of sleep loss. Other decrements include increased number of errors in vigilance tasks and reaction time tasks. In process control experiments, longer shifts resulted in more variance in reaction time to grammatical reasoning tasks. Night shift was associated with slower …

Image Segmentation Using Fuzzy-Spatial Taxon Cut, Lauren Barghout

MODVIS Workshop

Images convey multiple meanings that depend on the context in which the viewer perceptually organizes the scene. This presents a problem for automated image segmentation, because it adds uncertainty to the process of selecting which objects to include or not include within a segment. I’ll discuss the implementation of a fuzzy-logic-natural-vision-processing engine that solves this problem by assuming the scene architecture prior to processing. The scene architecture, a standardized natural-scene-perception-taxonomy comprised of a hierarchy of nested spatial-taxons. Spatial-taxons are regions (pixel-sets) that are figure-like, in that they are perceived as having a contour, are either `thing-like', or a `group of …

‘Edge’ Integration Explains Contrast And Assimilation In A Gradient Lightness Illusion, Michael E. Rudd

MODVIS Workshop

In the ‘phantom’ illusion (Galmonte, Soranzo, Rudd, & Agostini, submitted), either an incremental or a decremental target, when surrounded by a luminance gradient, can to be made to appear as an increment or a decrement, depending on the gradient width. For wide gradients, incremental targets appear as increments and decremental targets appear as decrements. For narrow gradients, the reverse is true. Here, I model these phenomena with a two-stage neural lightness theory (Rudd, 2013, 2014) in which local steps in log luminance are first encoded by oriented spatial filters operating on a log-transformed version of the image; then the filter …

A Linearized Model For Flicker And Contrast Thresholds At Various Retinal Illuminances, Albert Ahumada, Andrew B. Watson

MODVIS Workshop

Watson and Ahumada (1992 SID) predicted flicker thresholds for bright displays using a temporal contrast sensitivity function (TCSF). Under the assumptions that the falling limb of the TCSF is linear at all retinal illuminations and that the Ferry-Porter law can be extended to supra-threshold levels, the thresholds for any of the three variables (frequency in Hz, log10 contrast, and retinal illuminance in log Trolands) can be predicted from the other two from a linear model with four parameters.

The Bounded Log-Odds Model Of Frequency And Probability Distortion, Hang Zhang, Laurence T. Maloney

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

A Signal Detection Experiment With Limited Number Of Trials, Tadamasa Sawada

MODVIS Workshop

Signal detection theory has been well accepted in vision science to measure human sensitivity to stimuli in a Psychophysical experiment. The theory is formulated so that the measured sensitivity is independent from a response bias (criterion). The formulation is based on an assumption that number of trials in the experiment is infinite but this assumption cannot be satisfied in practice. The assumption came from two normal distributions used in the formulation. The distributions respectively represent a set of signal trial and that of noise trials in the experiment. In this study, I will show how the violation of the assumption …

Testing The Bayesian Confidence Hypothesis, Wei Ji Ma, Ronald Van Den Berg

MODVIS Workshop

Asking subjects to rate their confidence is one of the oldest procedures in psychophysics. Remarkably, quantitative models of confidence ratings have been scarce. The Bayesian confidence hypothesis (BCH) states that an observer’s confidence rating is monotonically related to the posterior probability of their choice. I will report tests of this hypothesis in two visual categorization tasks: one requiring rapid categorization of a single oriented stimulus, the other a deliberative judgment typically made by scientists, namely interpreting scatterplots. We find evidence against the Bayesian confidence hypothesis in both tasks.

A Conceptual Framework Of Computations In Mid-Level Vision, Jonas Kubilius, Johan Wagemans, Hans P. Op De Beeck

MODVIS Workshop

The goal of visual processing is to extract information necessary for a variety of tasks, such as grasping objects, navigating in scenes, and recognizing them. While ultimately these tasks might be carried out by separate processing pathways, they nonetheless share a common root in the early and intermediate visual areas. What representations should these areas develop in order to facilitate all of these higher-level tasks? Several distinct ideas have received empirical support in the literature so far: (i) boundary feature detection, such as edge, corner, and curved segment extraction; (ii) second-order feature detection, such as the difference in orientation or …

Metacognition: Using Confidence Ratings For Type 2 And Type 1 Roc Curves, S A. Klein

MODVIS Workshop

In the past five years there has been a surge of renewed interest in metacognition ("thinking about thinking"). The typical experiment involves a binary judgment followed by a multilevel confidence rating. It is a confusing topic because the rating could be made either on one's confidence in the binary response (standard rating Type 1 ROC) or on one's confidence sorted by whether the response was correct (Type 2 ROC). Both are metacognition. After a few remarks on challenging aspects of the Type 2 approach, I will present some interesting results for Type 1 ROC for both memory and vision research. …

Two Correspondence Problems Easier Than One, Aaron Michaux, Zygmunt Pizlo

MODVIS Workshop

Computer vision research rarely makes use of symmetry in stereo reconstruction despite its established importance in perceptual psychology. Such stereo reconstructions produce visually satisfying figures with precisely located points and lines, even when input images have low or moderate resolution. However, because few invariants exist, there are no known general approaches to solving symmetry correspondence on real images. The problem is significantly easier when combined with the binocular correspondence problem, because each correspondence problem provides strong non-overlapping constraints on the solution space. We demonstrate a system that leverages these constraints to produce accurate stereo models from pairs of binocular images …

Binocular 3d Motion Perception As Bayesian Inference, Martin Lages, Suzanne Heron

MODVIS Workshop

The human visual system encodes monocular motion and binocular disparity input before it is integrated into a single 3D percept. Here we propose a geometric-statistical model of human 3D motion perception that solves the aperture problem in 3D by assuming that (i) velocity constraints arise from inverse projection of local 2D velocity constraints in a binocular viewing geometry, (ii) noise from monocular motion and binocular disparity processing is independent, and (iii) slower motions are more likely to occur than faster ones. In two experiments we found that instantiation of this Bayesian model can explain perceived 3D line motion direction under …

Computational Modeling Of Depth-Ordering In Occlusion 
Through Accretion Or Deletion Of Texture, Harald Ruda, Gennady Livitz, Guillaume Riesen, Ennio Mingolla

MODVIS Workshop

Understanding the depth-ordering of surfaces in the natural world is one of the most fundamental operations of the primate visual system. Surfaces that undergo accretion or deletion (AD) of texture are always perceived to behind an adjacent surface.

An updated ForMotionOcclusion (FMO) model (Barnes & Mingolla, 2013) includes two streams for computing motion signals and boundary signals. The two streams generate depth percepts such that AD signals together with boundary signals generate a farther depth on the occluded side of the boundary. The model fits the classical data (Kaplan, 1969) as well as the observation that moving surfaces tend to …

Spatially-Global Integration Of Closed Contours By Means Of Shortest-Path In A Log-Polar Representation, Terry Kwon, Kunal Agrawal, Yunfeng Li, Zygmunt Pizlo

MODVIS Workshop

See the one page PDF with abstract and images.

Bayesian Modeling Of 3d Shape Inference From Line Drawings, Seha Kim, Jacob Feldman, Manish Singh

MODVIS Workshop

Human depth comparisons in line drawings reflect the underlying uncertainty of perceived 3D shape. We propose a Bayesian model that estimates the 3D shape from line drawings based on the local and non-local contour cues. This model estimates the posterior distribution over depth differences at two points on a line drawing. The likelihood is numerically computed by assuming a generative model, which generates random 3D surfaces and, via projection, random line drawings. The 3D surfaces are inflated from random skeletons and projected into line drawings. Given a novel line drawing, the model samples probable local surfaces based on the relations …

Formal Aspects Of Non-Rigid-Shape-From-Motion Perception, Vicky Froyen, Qasim Zaidi

MODVIS Workshop

Our world is full of objects that deform over time, for example animals, trees and clouds. Yet, the human visual system seems to readily disentangle object motions from non-rigid deformations, in order to categorize objects, recognize the nature of actions such as running or jumping, and even to infer intentions. A large body of experimental work has been devoted to extracting rigid structure from motion, but there is little experimental work on the perception of non-rigid 3-D shapes from motion (e.g. Jain, 2011). Similarly, until recently, almost all formal work had concentrated on the rigid case. In the last fifteen …

Appearance Controls Interpretation Of Orientation Flows For 3d Shape Estimation, Steven A. Cholewiak, Romain Vergne, Benjamin Kunsberg, Steven W. Zucker, Roland W. Fleming

MODVIS Workshop

The visual system can infer 3D shape from orientation flows arising from both texture and shading patterns. However, these two types of flows provide fundamentally different information about surface structure. Texture flows, when derived from distinct elements, mainly signal first-order features (surface slant), whereas shading flow orientations primarily relate to second-order surface properties (the change in surface slant).

The source of an image's structure is inherently ambiguous, it is therefore crucial for the brain to identify whether flow patterns originate from texture or shading to correctly infer shape from a 2D image. One possible approach would be to use 'surface …

Can Computational Models Of Shape Explain Object Perception?, Sp Arun, Rt Pramod

MODVIS Workshop

Despite advances in computation and machine learning, computers are still far behind humans in vision. This is most likely because humans use a sophisticated object representation which is very different from that used in computers today. Another challenge is that object representations in computer vision and human vision have not been systematically compared on the same objects. To address this issue, we measured perceptual dissimilarity between objects in humans in a visual search (taking search difficulty as an index of target-distracter similarity). We then compared these observed dissimilarities against the dissimilarity predicted by a large number of state-of-the-art computational models …

Object Recognition And Visual Search With A Physiologically Grounded Model Of Visual Attention, Frederik Beuth, Fred H. Hamker

MODVIS Workshop

Visual attention models can explain a rich set of physiological data (Reynolds & Heeger, 2009, Neuron), but can rarely link these findings to real-world tasks. Here, we would like to narrow this gap with a novel, physiologically grounded model of visual attention by demonstrating its objects recognition abilities in noisy scenes.

To base the model on physiological data, we used a recently developed microcircuit model of visual attention (Beuth & Hamker, in revision, Vision Res) which explains a large set of attention experiments, e.g. biased competition, modulation of contrast response functions, tuning curves, and surround suppression. Objects are represented by …

Human Factors In High-Altitude Mountaineering, Christopher D. Wickens, John W. Keller, Christopher Shaw

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

We describe the human performance and cognitive challenges of high altitude mountaineering. The physical (environmental) and internal (health) stresses are first described, followed by the motivational factors that lead people to climb. The statistics of mountaineering accidents in the Himalayas and Alaska are then described. We then present a detailed discussion of the role of decision-making biases in mountaineering mishaps. We conclude by discussing interpersonal factors, adaptation, and training issues.

Attachment To God And Psychological Well-Being: Shame, Guilt, And Self-Compassion As Mediators, Mary Elizabeth Varghese

Open Access Dissertations

In this study, I used attachment theory to examine individual differences in people's relationships with God or their Higher Power and the influence of these relationships on shame, guilt, self-compassion, and overall psychological well-being. H1 was that shame, guilt, and self-compassion fully mediate the relatedness of anxious attachment to God and psychological well-being. H2 was that shame, guilt, and self-compassion fully mediate the relatedness of avoidant attachment to God and psychological well-being. Young adults (N = 163) of diverse religious backgrounds from a large Midwestern university completed demographic questions and four scales: (a) The Attachment to God Inventory (AGI; Beck …

Modeling The Experiences Of Customer-Customer Encounters (Cces) In Event Tourism, Wei Wei

Open Access Dissertations

Over the last two decades, the increase in research into the event industry is testimony to the importance of this industry to the burgeoning tourism economy. Despite a high level of interpersonal interactions among attendees at in-person events, a comprehensive review of related literature indicates a lack of theories explaining the process and rationale behind interpersonal interaction phenomenon at events. This dissertation promotes a deeper understanding of how interactions among attendees are subjectively experienced and has implications for the context of the most competitive segment of the business sector of events--conferences.^ The empirical investigation of this dissertation includes a qualitative …

Elucidation Of Pharmacologically Manipulated Responding In The Delay Discounting Task In High Alcohol Preferring Mice, Meredith Halcomb

Open Access Dissertations

Impulsive behavior is the hallmark of many psychopathologies. Uncovering the neurobiological mechanisms driving impulsivity is paramount in the development of through the delay discounting (DD) task in both human and animal models. The present study is an examination of the predictive validity of the two primary types of DD procedures in animals, the Adjusting Amounts (AA) and within session Increasing Delays (ID) tasks. Methods:Subjects were administered either1.25 mg/kg d-amphetamine (AMP), 1.5 g/kg ethanol (EtOH) or saline and tested in either the AA or ID method for 15 days to evaluate drug effects on impulsive behavior. Results: Stimulant administration resulted …

Elementary Preservice Teachers' Beliefs About Teacher Effectiveness, Mauricio A Herron Gloria

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore elementary preservice teachers' beliefs about effective classroom instruction and the characteristics and behaviors of effective teachers, and to examine how these beliefs may vary across teacher education. Participants were 24 students enrolled in a teacher education program at a large mid-west university in the United States. Data were collected using an intensive interview protocol consisting of semi-structured questions, and analyzed using grounded theory strategies (Charmaz, 2006, 2012). Using a constructive/interpretive framework (Lincoln & Guba, 2013), the analysis of the data indicated that participants' beliefs about teacher effectiveness dwell around 12 overreaching categories; …

Being Out Of The Loop On Pop Culture, Nicole Elizabeth Iannone

Open Access Dissertations

Being out of the loop is a form of partial ostracism that leads to lower need satisfaction (Jones, Carter-Sowell, Kelly, & Williams, 2009). Research has shown that people experience lower need satisfaction when they are out of the loop on pop culture (Iannone, Kelly, & Williams, in preparation). Five studies expanded on previous research by exploring theoretical issues and potential boundary conditions. Study 1 developed a new method and explored theoretical foundations of being out of the loop on pop culture - whether being unfamiliar makes people feel worse or whether being familiar makes people feel better. This study also …

Exclusion From Gender Counter-Stereotypic Activities: Proximal And Distal Effects, Megan Kathleen Mccarty

Open Access Dissertations

The current work explored whether an incidence of exclusion is experienced differently depending on the activity from which one is excluded. Specifically, we investigated whether exclusion from gender stereotypic vs. counter-stereotypic activities affects both how threatening the experience is and beliefs about gender stereotypes. The effects of exclusion activity on need threat and beliefs about gender stereotypes were explored in a series of four studies using multiple methods: participants relived exclusion or inclusion instances from their real lives (Study 1), imagined exclusion or inclusion scenarios (Study 2), were excluded from a virtual ball toss game (Study 3), and were included …

Understanding Representations Of Impulsivity In Dimensional Models Of Personality Pathology, Sarah Ann Griffin

Open Access Theses

Impulsivity is an individual difference that impacts many aspects of an individual's functioning; however, there as of yet has been no consensus on a single definition of impulsivity across the various fields that study it and its related outcomes. In fact, research at this point predominantly supports the idea that "impulsivity" is actually a multi-faceted construct comprised of multiple lower-order traits, but there is little agreement on what those lower-order facets should be. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the conceptualization of complex trait impulsivity within two new omnibus measures of maladaptive personality in terms of both …

Password Strength Analysis: User Coping Mechanisms In Password Selection, Brian Thomas Curnett

Open Access Theses

The security that passwords provide could be seriously flawed due to the way people cope with having to memorize and recall their passwords. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standard that is used to measure the password strength, known as entropy, is designed for a single use and does not consider that users may choose to keep parts of their password across password changes. This study shows that a portion of users keep some information from previous passwords across changes. These habits which will be called coping mechanisms that over time serve to erode the protection provided by …