Psychology Commons^™

Assessing The Impact Of Lipopolysaccharide On Learning And Memory In Rats, Anahat Luthra

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The immune system and the central nervous system (CNS) have a bi-direction relationship, modulating one another.⁴ Proinflammatory cytokines released from CNS immune cells have an impact on cognitive processes such as learning and memory.¹ Liposaccharide (LPS), a cell wall component of Gram-negative bacteria, which is used to activate proinflammatory cytokine release has been found to impact learning and memory processes, such as in the anticipatory nausea paradigm (ANP).² Anticipatory nausea and vomiting is that which may occur before a chemotherapy treatment session begins in a patient who has had chemotherapy before. It is caused by triggers like …

The Differences Between Visual And Auditory Pattern Separation, Alvira Khurram

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

• There has been limited investigation into pattern separation in modalities other than the visual domain, specifically little study of auditory pattern separation.

• Research on developing a measure of auditory pattern separation can aid in growing our understanding of memory and encourage further research of pattern separation in the auditory domain.

• Using Stark’s visual MST and an auditory MST (created by Helena Wang) the differences in performance of participants across the tasks was compared.

• The performance of the visual MST group was found to be not significantly different from the performance of the auditory MST group, as …

Does A Sender’S And Recipient’S Relationship Influence Readers’ Interpretation Of Message Tone?, Allison Arp

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Given the importance of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the uniqueness of the cues that have meaning in this environment, research is warranted to investigate how the relationship between the people communicating via CMC might impact the way the message and cues are interpreted. This study aims to investigate whether different inherent levels of authority and familiarity between a message sender and recipient affect how email tone is interpreted. Previous studies demonstrate that when individuals communicate with authority figures, they employ different strategies than when communicating with peers. Furthermore, individuals adapt their behavior to mimic the interactants behavior, which in turn …

An Innocent Bystander Walks Into A Bar: The Influence Of Temporal Proximity And Familiarity On Unconscious Transference, Nia Gipson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to The Innocence Project, 69% of DNA exonerations in the United States involved mistaken eyewitness identification as a contributing factor to these errant convictions. Psychologists have contributed towards minimizing mistaken identifications by proposing best practices that law enforcement still follow today. One understudied cause of mistaken eyewitness identification is unconscious transference (UT). UT is a memory error in which a person encountered in an innocent context becomes confused with a person seen in a guilty context (Loftus, 1976). Past research has established some boundary conditions for when UT can occur; however, the limited methodology has resulted in narrow conclusions …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Misinformation Warnings To Alter Stereotypes For Public Figures And Memories For Public Events, Madalyn P. Prince

Student Theses

Social media allows individuals to share, receive and engage with information and content on an international scale, often with other likeminded individuals and relatively few restrictions (Carr & Hayes, 2015). However, with this access comes the likelihood of engaging with and disseminating misinformation (Allcott et al., 2019), a form of information that may seem true initially but is later revealed as false (Cook et al., 2015). Misinformation is often disseminated by those whose political ideology matches that of the misinformation (Kahan, 2017; Kahan, 2013). The current study aims to expand on the extant literature to examine how misinformation warnings impact …

Memory, Mindfulness, And Perfectionism: Is There A Relationship Between Memory And Perfectionism, And Can Mindfulness Reduce False Alarms?, Stefani Morgan

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Memory has been found to improve with experience of mindfulness training. However, it has also been found to be impaired after mindfulness training. These mixed results are interesting and warrant further investigation into the relationship between memory and mindfulness. Additionally, perfectionism has been seen to play a role in task performance, making its role in memory task performance of interest to the current study. Perfectionism has been framed in a two-dimensional view, dividing it into two types. Perfectionistic concerns occurs when an individual is preoccupied with worry and concern over their performance, and perfectionistic striving occurs when an individual sets …

The Hidden Power Of Images: An Allegory Of Chaos And Performance In The Digital Age, Livia Xandersmith

MFA in Visual Art

Within this text, I explore the hidden power of images in American visual culture through painting-based installations. I investigate images of the past and present juxtaposed in a surrealist landscape. Through the use of images in the news, entertainment, advertising, and images within the home, I depict how the problems of the past bleed into our perceptions of the present. I find that this cycle of problem inheritance connects us as humans regardless of time, generation, and place. In my work, I explore the complexity of image culture and its shifting presence within the digital age. Using surrealist collage, I …

Effects Of Music Exposure On Autobiographical Memory In Alzheimer's Patients: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Gregory Vance

Honors Theses

The progression of Alzheimer’s disease is primarily characterized by a loss of memory concerning past events, as well as a lack in ability to create new memories. While this spans across many subsets of memory, such as recognition, recall, and autobiographical memory, there seems to be a lesser impact on musical memory in those with Alzheimer’s. Multiple studies have suggested that exposure to music and introduction of music therapy can even improve other aspects of memory in Alzheimer’s patients. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to examine the relationship between music exposure and autobiographical memory specifically. A pool of electronic …

A Moody Memory: The Impact Of Affective State On Source Memory And Reality Monitoring, Rebecca Lynn Greenberg

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Many researchers have studied the impact of mood on various cognitive processes, but few have analyzed how it affects source memory and internal-external reality monitoring processes. Numerous findings indicate that sad moods are likely to yield more accurate memory than happy moods due to different information processing techniques, suggesting that sad mood could improve source memory and reality monitoring as well. After being induced into either a happy or sad mood, participants were presented with a list of 30 noun-verb-noun phrases in which the second noun was either generated for them by the computer or they were asked to fill …

Mirror Tracing: The Effect Of Different Shapes On Transfer Performance, Jillian Brennan

The Compass

No abstract provided.

Culture And Language Influence How Hispanics/Latinos In The U.S. Think About Themselves Through Time, Alicia Camuy

Senior Theses and Projects

Culture has been implicated in episodic memory, but this has not been explored in episodic future thought. Episodic information helps to form an identity. Thus, this is an exploratory study to identify unique ways in which Spanish-English Hispanic/Latino populations remember and project to the future, perceive themselves over time, and perceive the passage of time. Participants (n = 50) were healthy bilingual Hispanics/Latinos living in the U.S. tested over Zoom. Materials included background information, an acculturation scale, Temporal Focus Scale (TFS), and Thinking About Life Experiences (TALE) Scale. A time estimation measure and Pre- and Re- experiencing Mental Events (PRIME) …

People Remember Liked Political Policies As Having Been Attributed To Their Own Party, Dalton Thomas Bailey

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A robust finding in psychology shows that people tend to like information more when it supports their existing beliefs, or comes from their own ingroup, a finding known as motivated reasoning. These findings are especially prominent in a political context. Quite consistently, research suggests people increase their liking of political information like political policies when they are attributed to their own party. What is unknown, however, is if people also tend to attribute personally liked information to their own party. These studies were conducted to investigate this question.

Two, within-subjects studies were conducted. In both, participants (undergraduate students) saw various …

Mental Construal And Alterations In Emotional Memory, Olivia D. Beers

Dissertations

Psychological distancing refers to a shift from a psychologically immersed perspective that involves thinking about the details of an event (concretely) or stepping back from it and watching the event from an outside point of view (abstractly)––this can help individuals change how they feel about the experience. Investigating how construal levels affect emotional memories may provide more insight into how individuals may potentially alter the recall of their memories. The current study reflects a new examination of the effect of primed high and low construal levels on the recall of positive and negative arousing stimuli. This study included a pilot …

The Motivational Role Of Feedback On Working Memory, Danielle Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that motivation plays a vital role in what we remember. Motivation can be either extrinsic (e.g., a reward for doing well) or intrinsic (e.g., wanting to do well). Here we test if intrinsic motivation improves Working Memory (WM) performance. In an online study, undergraduate students (N=358, 334 after excluding participants that did not complete at least 25% of the survey) completed reverse letter span tasks, recalling 42 sets of 4-9 letters that were shown for one second in reverse order. We manipulate intrinsic motivation via feedback. Participants were randomly assigned to feedback (FB) and no-feedback (NFB) …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Validity And Memory Measures In Retired Nfl Players, Huda Abu-Suwa

Theses and Dissertations

Neuropsychologists have increasingly become involved in assessing sports-related concussions; however, an important concern is the validity of the evaluations. This study examined the relationship between Performance Validity Tests (PVTs) and memory measures in a comprehensive standardized battery administered to retired NFL players, with the purpose of exploring how predictive PVTs are for memory performance in this population. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between four PVTs (TOMM, MSVT, RDS, and Word Choice) and six memory tasks (WMS-IV LM I and LM II, VPA I and VPA II, VR I and VR II). A regression analysis was …

Memory For Emotional Expressions In Adults With Acquired Brain Injuries, Lauren Jeanne Radigan

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: Memory for emotions expressed by others forms the continuity that characterizes unique and intimate relationships. Successful memory for facial expressions requires the ability to remember the identity of the face (who showed the emotion) as well as the emotion (which emotion they showed). People with acquired brain injuries (ABI) frequently have problems with social cognition, which involves understanding cues that communicate emotional and interpersonal information. ABI is commonly associated with trouble perceiving emotional expressions and recognizing the identity of faces; however, research on memory for emotions after ABI is sparse. This study examined cognitive and emotional characteristics that contribute …

Inferences Training Affects Memory, Rumination, And Mood, B. Perlman, N. Mor, Y. Wisney Jacobinski, A. Doron Zakon, N. Avirbach, Paula T. Hertel

Psychology Faculty Research

Making negative inferences for negative events, ruminating about them, and retrieving negative aspects of memories have all been associated with depression. However, the causal mechanisms that link negative inferences to negative mood and the interplay between inferences, rumination, and memory have not been explored. In the current study, we used a cognitive-bias modification (CBM) procedure to train causal inferences and assessed training effects on ruminative thinking, memory, and negative mood among people with varying levels of depression. Training had immediate effects on negative mood and rumination but not after recall of a negative autobiographical memory. Note that training affected memory: …

Effects Of Dissociation And Hyperarousal On Item And Association Memory, Naomi M. Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dual representation theory (DRT) asserts that when an individual experiences an acutely stressful or traumatic event, encoding of memory of individual parts of an event (i.e., items) is enhanced, while connections between parts of an event (i.e., associations) is impaired due to peritraumatic changes in cognitive functioning. The current project sought to refine understanding of DRT by examining the differential effect of dissociation and hyperarousal, two common peritraumatic cognitive reactions, on memory for item and association information. Method: Using experimental methods from the cognitive study of memory, two studies evaluated how individual differences in cognitive states (Study 1) and experimentally …

Flashbulb Memories Among College Students During Covid-19, Sabah Qureshi

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Flashbulb memories are formed through widely shared events that have affected the culture and community. The “flash” in flashbulb memories refers to the specific details that individuals have developed in their memories. The presented research focuses on the specific event of college students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) hearing about university closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research study sought to identify the variables that have affected the accuracy of flashbulb memories formation regarding the event of college students hearing about university closure because of the pandemic. The variables of the students’ relevance to the university, location, …

Examining The Impact Of Discrete And Contextual Stress Factors On Memory, Jillian Rae Silva-Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Stress is a complex and multifaceted process which is often not perceived as such. Therefore, given the unidimensional conceptualization of stress in previous research the current understanding of the associations between stress and memory are not well understood. This study investigates the association between stress and memory by capturing the complexity of stress through discrete and contextual stress factors. The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and geocoded indices (i.e., zip codes) of population density (i.e., urbanicity) and deprivation (socioeconomic disadvantage) in a large and diverse sample of U.S. participants (N = 8817) to examine the relationship between …

Relationships Between Executive Functioning, Memory, And Source Judgements On Children’S Responses To Online Advertising, Samantha Barbosa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Children’s understanding of online content is a topic of interest, yet little is known about how children distinguish distracting and often misleading information (e.g., advertisements) from relevant information. Our aim is to measure the relationship between executive functioning, memory and source monitoring in a population that has heavy internet usage and are also the most at risk for mistakenly recalling false or irrelevant information. Children aged 7-12 years old (N = 30), with no known developmental or cognitive disorders, were recruited for the study. In an online session, the children viewed two novel online media sources (i.e., a website …

Constructing Engineering Knowledge Through Tinkering, Reflection, And Digital Storytelling, Lauren C. Pagano

Dissertations

Educators and researchers suggest that informal learning activities in museums, libraries, and families’ homes can promote children’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning (Sobel & Jipson, 2016). Tinkering, a form of hands-on problem-solving involving real tools and materials, is one way to engage families in engineering design processes. However, tinkering activities vary greatly in terms of the goals presented, the resources available, and opportunities to test (Bevan, 2017). Across three studies, we examined how variations in tinkering exhibit design and parent-child interaction relate to children’s memory and STEM learning. In Study 1, we examined the structure and content of …

Neural Correlates And Neuroanatomy Of Juvenile And Adult Contextual Fear Memory Retention, Natalie Odynocki

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

AbstractFear is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism that allows an organism to discern potential harm and act accordingly by engaging in defensive behaviors. While fear is an adaptive response, dysregulation of fear by means of a traumatic event can lead to psychiatric conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Animal research using rodents in Pavlovian context fear conditioning experiments allows for the ability to study the underlying neural circuitry of threat-appropriate and aberrant fear learning and memory that may contribute to PTSD. However, despite reports that women are more than two times more likely to develop PTSD compared to men, the …

Does Whispering Improve Children’S Memory? Comparing Auditory Vigilance And Salience Hypotheses, Christina M. Barnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oral communication is one of the primary tools children use to learn new information and speech registers can deliver additional meaning to the words someone uses. Cirillo’s (2004) vigilance hypothesis states “Whispering can affect the psychobiological state of recipients, and in particular raise their auditory vigilance” (Cirillo, 2004, p. 76). Building on this theory, the current study investigates the role of whispering and children’s memory by examining a whispering vigilance, whispering salience which focused on the changes between normal and whisper registers, and combined vigilance and salience hypotheses to determine if whispering contributes to the recall of information. Using video …

An Erp Study Of The Effects Of Iconic And Nonsense Gestures On Memory Formation, Brianna E. Cairney

LSU Master's Theses

Co-speech gesture is an important part of human communication and aids in comprehension, learning, and memory. The addition of iconic gestures to speech has been shown in prior work to enhance memory for the speech. However, it remains unclear as to whether this benefit requires gestures to be meaningful, or, conversely, if any attentionally-engaging gesture will enhance memory. In the current study, we tested two theories to explain the mnemonic benefits of co-speech gesture: Dual Coding Theory, which attributes these benefits to multimodal encoding and enhanced imageability, and Attentional Highlighting Theory, which posits that gestures draw more attention to concurrent …

The Giver: Vision & Memory, Alexander J. Dontre

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

A memory hole is the banishment of problematic thoughts. We exile that which we prefer not to exist. Enter the perilous Memory Hole: The Psychology of Dystopia, to explore a legion of social and psychological themes through the lens of dystopian literature. The crushing fist of 1984 annihilating thoughts from existence as a means of persuasion. The exquisite seduction of addiction as an agent of control in Brave New World. Incineration of the written word to bask in the embers of peace of mind in Fahrenheit 451. Each chapter weaves in and out of the dystopian realms forged …

Rumination: Practicing Retrieval Of Autobiographical Memories, Paula T. Hertel, Paola Herrera, Pallavi Shamapant

Psychology Faculty Research

Background

People who ruminate about negative personal experiences seem to be engaged in practicing retrieval, with the expected consequences of perpetuating those very memories (see Roediger and Butler in Trends Cogn Sci 15:20–27, 2011).

Method

To provide an experimental model of the effect of retrieval practice on subsequent recall of autobiographical memories, we recruited students with low and high scores on the Ruminative Response Scale (Treynor et al. in Cogn Ther Res 27:247–259, 2003), gave them positive and ruminative cues to generate memories, and cued three rounds of practice of half of the memories from each valence.

Results

A week …

Control, Alter, And Delete: Investigating The Manipulation Of Memory And Memorial Beliefs By Suspected Psychopaths In Interpersonal Relationships, Kendra Nespoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Psychopaths are known to wreak havoc in the lives, careers, and relationships of people with whom they come into contact, triggering impacts that can extend for many years. To date, few studies have investigated the psychological tactics used by psychopaths to manipulate and control others in relationships. Previous research in the area of autobiographical memory has demonstrated that the decisions people make regarding belief in their memory for life events are influenced by feedback received from others. Social feedback has been shown to be a powerful influence in persuading others to revise beliefs about past events, particularly in the context …

Sustained Neural Activity Correlates With Rapid Perceptual Learning Of Auditory Patterns, Björn Herrmann, Kurdo Araz, Ingrid S. Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Repeating structures forming regular patterns are common in sounds. Learning such patterns may enable accurate perceptual organization. In five experiments, we investigated the behavioral and neural signatures of rapid perceptual learning of regular sound patterns. We show that recurring (compared to novel) patterns are detected more quickly and increase sensitivity to pattern deviations and to the temporal order of pattern onset relative to a visual stimulus. Sustained neural activity reflected perceptual learning in two ways. Firstly, sustained activity increased earlier for recurring than novel patterns when participants attended to sounds, but not when they ignored them; this earlier increase mirrored …

Examining Own-Race Bias: A Cooperation And Memory Study Using Diverse Emojis, Jillian Franks

Theses

Other-race-effect or own-race bias is a well-documented phenomenon in memory. Findings suggest that humans are better at recognizing and remembering faces of their own race than other races. Previous research suggests that these results are due to a lack of interracial contact or exposure to other racial groups. Evidence from previous studies has demonstrated that individuals process own-race faces differently than other-race faces, paying more attention to more salient features that become better encoded. While there is empirical support for both hypotheses, it has yet to be studied if the other-race effect for memory extends to representational human faces, for …