Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Future Possibilities For Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Nicolas Leonardi

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder’s nature of presenting socially awkward behaviors creates barriers for those with ASD in the job interview process. This problem raises questions on how the interview process can be redefined to be more inclusive. Dillenburger et al. conducted a study on interventions provided for individuals with ASD. The study concluded that most jobs do not provide an appropriate job interview process for those with ASD. Solomon et al. and Maras et al. both conducted studies that highlighted the social behaviors presented by individuals with ASD that prevented them from being hired during the job interview process. Both of …

Crowd Salience Heightens Tolerance To Healthy Facial Features, Mitch Brown, Ryan E. Tracy, Steven G. Young, Donald F. Sacco

Publications and Research

Objective: Recent findings suggest crowd salience heightens pathogen-avoidant motives, serving to reduce individuals’ infection risk through interpersonal contact. Such experiences may similarly facilitate the identification, and avoidance, of diseased conspecifics. The current experiment sought to replicate and extend previous crowding research.

Methods: In this experiment, we primed participants at two universities with either a crowding or control experience before having them evaluate faces manipulated to appear healthy or diseased by indicating the degree to which they would want to interact with them.

Results: Crowding-primed participants reported a more heightened preferences for healthy faces than control-primed participants. Additionally, crowd salience reduced …

Stories Of Survival. Book Review: Stripped, 2nd Edition: Inside The Lives Of Exotic Dancers By Bernadette Barton, Tk Logan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Lgbt Inclusivity In Transpersonal Psychology: A Case For Incorporating Lgbt Spiritual Experiences In Transpersonal Education, Daniel A. Seda, Phd

Journal of Conscious Evolution

After conducting three qualitative interviews on the somatic experiences of transgender individuals and finding relatively few resources with which to draw significant conclusions in the field, it is clear that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) scholarship is severely lacking in transpersonal psychology.

Method: This research revealed that an understanding and appreciation for the lived experiences of gay people––specifically that of gay men––are also limited and are not appropriately represented through the use of feminist or queer models. Therefore, an alarming number of issues affecting the transgender and gay male populations are not being adequately addressed within the discipline of …

Book Review: If Women Rose Rooted: A Life Changing Journey To Authenticity And Healing By Sharon Blackie, Katherine T. Ziemke

Journal of Conscious Evolution

No abstract provided.

Relative And Absolute: States Of Consciousness And Turiya, Jenna Mcdonald

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This paper aims to explore the phenomena of dreaming, waking, sleeping and the witness-consciousness that is exists in and through all three states. It draws from current and past literature about consciousness, helping to build a framework for both psychological and spiritual development. It correlates the pause between the inhale and exhale to the self-evident junction between dreaming, sleep and waking states.

Book Review: Mythic Imagination Today: The Interpenetration Of Mythology And Science, Alexandra Sedgwick

Journal of Conscious Evolution

No abstract provided.

Nondual Writing: A Perspective On Who Owns Ideas, And A Way To Write With Greater Ease, Andrew Erdman

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The act of writing can cause great anxiety, stoking flames of perfectionism and fears of criticism, narcissistic injury, or indifference. While Buddhist teachings provide liberation from such egoic loneliness, it is not often recognized that postmodern and post-structural thought may also put the “author” and their “writing” in a less-individualized context—one in which a written work is understood to be in fact an ongoing process taking shape in interactions among writer, reader, critic, fan, and the world of literature at large. Keeping such a model in mind can help return joy to the act of writing as it poses the …

Book Review: Mythic Imagination Today: The Interpretation Of Mythology And Science By Terry Marks-Tarlow, Ivana Gligoric

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Terry Marks-Tarlow interprets mythology and science as endless curiosity about the workings of the Universe, combing with humans’ creative urges to transform inner and outer worlds. The author perceives mythology as a universal product of the human imagination in interaction with the physical and social world, driven by the urge to communicate with others symbolically and make meaning out of life experiences. Moreover, Marks-Tarlow studied the origins of a human story within the social brain, mythmakers, and myths from multiple cultures. At the same time, she explored how contemporary sciences of chaos, complexity theories, and fractal geometry unite with ancient …

Negative Urgency's Influence On State-Level, Emotion-Based Changes In Alcohol-Related Cognitions, Noah Wolkowicz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project expanded on the Acquired Preparedness Model of Risk (APMR) by examining how Negative Urgency (NU), the tendency to act rashly in negative emotional states, affects emotion-based changes in alcohol cognitions to produce risk for alcohol use. The APMR prioritizes the role of outcome expectancies as the means through which traits such as NU, convey alcohol use risk. However, this model treats these cognitions as static and often fails to assess their valence; further, alcohol-cognitions fluctuate in response to negative emotions and may become more salient during these states. Therefore, this study examined: 1) how NU impacts negative emotion-based, …

Combating Conspiracy Theories: An Attitudes-Based Approach, Marie Altgilbers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of conspiracy theories is a topic of increasing concern among researchers. Much of the research in this area has been focused on why people endorse conspiracy theories, and relatively little attention has been paid to how they may be mitigated. What research has been done focused primarily on interventions with arguments based in cognitive, fact-based appeals, with mixed success. The present research draws on findings from the attitudes and persuasion literature to test the hypothesis that conspiracy theory endorsement is more effectively reduced by affectively-based arguments than by cognitively-based arguments. Two affectively-based interventions were tested against a cognitively-based …

Identity Transformation Through Substance Use Disorder Recovery: Introducing The Six Stage Model, Naomi Watkins, Austin Mcneill Brown, Kayce Courson

The Qualitative Report

Narratives of substance use disorder recovery experience can provide useful qualitative conceptual categories and novel theories about the way in which recovery is experienced by individuals. This information can better inform definitions, concepts, and supports for recovery processes. The current study reviewed 30 written personal recovery biographies which were contained within student applications to the collegiate recovery program housed in the Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery at Kennesaw State University. Using grounded theory methodology, common benchmarks, or topographic recovery features were revealed involving the evolution of identity as an inter-negotiated process throughout the addiction and recovery biographies (Charmaz, …

Social Distancing In The Context Of Covid-19 Anxiety: A Social Cognitive Approach, Allyson S. Graf, Abigail Nehrkorn-Bailey, Amy Knepple Carney

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

As the impact of COVID-19 continues, engagement in social distancing is essential. Using Social Cognitive Theory, the current study examined the unique roles of COVID-19 anxiety and self-efficacy on the relationships between information-seeking and risk perception as predictors of social distancing intention. A convenience sample of 960 adults (M = 37.81 years, SD = 11.65) completed an author-designed online survey. Participants completed measures on behavioral intention, information-seeking, risk perception, COVID-19 anxiety, and self-efficacy. Moderated mediations examined the theoretically proposed relationships among the variables. COVID-19 anxiety moderated the relationship between risk perception and self-efficacy, but not the association between information-seeking …

Environmental Cues And The Sociospatial Imaginary: An Examination Of Spatial Perception And Meaning-Making In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Todd Levon Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What could be more ordinary or pedestrian than two people walking down an urban street and talking about what we see and what we make of it? Yet this simple, quotidian act of walking a street—seeing, perceiving and experiencing physical spaces, places and objects—and making meaning of what is encountered, is the basis of my dissertation. It is also my basis for claiming that I have learned a great deal—and much unexpectedly—about how differently different people see and interpret the urban streetscape. What are the various environmental cues that stand out to different individuals? What are the psychosocial imaginaries that …

Forces Of Corruption: Effects Of Power On Perceptions Of Openness And Information-Sharing, Jiaying Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In considering the power relations that characterize a manager-subordinate relationship, upward information-sharing is often constrained by relative power differentials. However, a burgeoning volume of research has established that power holders are more attuned to situational goals, thus exhibit greater flexibility in behaviour than powerless persons. This paper therefore proposed a model with epistemic motivation as an intervening variable that enhances information-sharing between dyadic counterparts who have unequal power. However, this model was not supported by findings. Nonetheless, this can be attributed to experimental settings – which future studies should address with construct replication.

The Loss-Processing Framework, Lawrence Childress

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The circumstances of responding to loss due to human death are among the most stressful experiences encountered in life. Although grief’s symptoms are typically considered essential to their gradual diminishment, possible negative impacts of complications related to grief are also well known, and have been associated with detriments to mental and physical health. Grief, however, can also generate transformative positive change. Thus, albeit ineludible, responding to loss is not uniformly experienced, expressed, or understood. It is also culturally-shaped, making attempts to define “normal” grief, as well as to label some grief “abnormal”—and to medicalize it—possibly problematic. Bereavement (the situation surrounding …

Assessing Rat Behavioral Response To Novelty, Neha Mathew

Honors Scholar Theses

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved in memory and navigation. Neurons in the hippocampus, known as place cells, fire in specific locations within this region of the brain as the subject navigates through their environment. As these cells fire, they create a map-like representation of this environment. However if the environment is altered in any way, the place cell firing pattern is adjusted to incorporate this new information. This adjustment will inevitably cause subjects to take more time to complete their task. The goal of our testing was to assess how various manipulations, both spatial …

Aerobic Physical Activity Participation And Correlates Of Participating In Muscle Strengthening Physical Activity: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Anthony Mcgaughey, Victor Andrews, Jason T. Sartor, Grace Fairchild Saidi, Katie M. Heinrich, Paul Branscum

Health Behavior Research

The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in correlates of muscle-strengthening physical activity (PA) between those meeting and not meeting aerobic PA guidelines. A sample of college students (n = 392) completed a survey measuring constructs from the reasoned action approach for muscle-strengthening PA. Overall, 56% (n = 220) met the aerobic PA recommendations, and 25% (n = 99) met the muscle-strengthening PA recommendations. The mean age of participants was 19.9 years (± 1.76) (meeting aerobic PA = 20.0 years old ± 1.73; not meeting aerobic PA = 19.8 years old ± 1.79), and there …

Using Cognitive Dissonance To Encourage Covid-Preventive Behaviours, Xuanqiao Wang

Brescia Psychology Undergraduate Honours Theses

This study investigated whether a hypocrisy-based intervention would increase students’ intentions to engage in COVID-preventive behaviours. We hypothesized that participants in the hypocrisy-induction condition (experimental condition) would express higher levels of intention to engage in COVID-preventative behaviours than participants in whom hypocrisy has not been induced (control condition). The sample consisted of 2 male and 64 female undergraduate students at Brescia University College. An independent t-test was conducted on the intention rating scores of practicing COVID-preventative behaviours for the experimental and control conditions. It was found that there was no significant difference in the average intention rating score between the …

Do Emotion Words Influence Age Effects In Delayed Match-To-Sample Performance For Emotional Faces?, Ying-Han Li

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Age differences are apparent in using verbal labels of emotion to categorize emotion face stimuli. Particularly, older adults have more difficulty detecting emotion cues like anger and fear relative to younger adults, but seem to have less difficulty with disgust cues. However, age differences are diminished in situations when participants are limited to two possible emotion choices or are required to simply match stimuli based on emotion cues without the use of labels. One question that emerges from the disparities in these findings is the role that emotion labels themselves play in driving possible age differences in emotion perception. The …

Lawrence Leshan’S Clairvoyant Reality As William James’ Revelation Of Veridical Reality, Jonathan Bricklin

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The “Clairvoyant Reality” of pioneering psychologist Lawrence LeShan and medium Eileen Garrett, reprinted here in honor of LeShan’s recent passing at age 100, may well be the understanding of “veridical reality” that James proclaimed would not be found “in this generation or the next”.

The Journey Back To Wholeness That Already Is, Jenna Dishy Wes

Journal of Conscious Evolution

If we are born into this world with in an already heightened state of consciousness, at what point in human development do we begin to disconnect? Is the human experience innately traumatic? Through the exploration of Piaget’s stages of development, and in coherence with the concept of transgenerational trauma, I explore moments and modes of intervention, with the intention of building on what is already whole instead of waiting until it is broken. Rather than spending another generation spending our lives trying to heal, reaching for enlightenment and soul connection, what if our end point was actually our beginning one?

Mystical Experience And The Evolution Of Consciousness: A Twenty-First Century Gnosis, Gary Lachman

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This article addresses three ideas: mystical experience, the evolution of consciousness, and gnosis. There are different interpretations of these ideas, so I begin by saying how I intend to understand them. Mystical experience I see as a wider, broader, deeper perception of things and their relations than our usual limited view allows. It provides an ‘unitive’ and ‘participatory’ form of consciousness, in which the usual ‘subject/object’ divide has dissolved. The evolution of consciousness is the notion that our present consciousness is not consciousness per se, but has been arrived at over time. This suggests that there have been other forms …

Decomorose: The Somatic Flowering Of The Living Quality, Shaun J. Martin

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This essay is an exploration of the human maturation process from a transpersonal point of view. The main premise of the essay is the notion that our maturation on the level of consciousness (the living quality) is not synonymous with our bodily maturation or the ongoing construction of our social personality (the identity project). It suggests that transpersonality is a fundamental component in human development, but has been overlooked and left out in most areas of modern culture. The recent rise of mental illnesses and the overall frustration or discontent within our society is a direct result of infrastructures that …

How Multidimensional Is Emotional Intelligence? Bifactor Modeling Of Global And Broad Emotional Abilities Of The Geneva Emotional Competence Test, Daniel Simonet, Katherine E. Miller, Kevin Askew, Kenneth Sumner, Marcello Mortillaro, Katja Schlegel

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Drawing upon multidimensional theories of intelligence, the current paper evaluates if the Geneva Emotional Competence Test (GECo) fits within a higher-order intelligence space and if emotional intelligence (EI) branches predict distinct criteria related to adjustment and motivation. Using a combination of classical and S-1 bifactor models, we find that (a) a first-order oblique and bifactor model provide excellent and comparably fitting representation of an EI structure with self-regulatory skills operating independent of general ability, (b) residualized EI abilities uniquely predict criteria over general cognitive ability as referenced by fluid intelligence, and (c) emotion recognition and regulation incrementally predict grade point …

Perceptions Of The Appropriate Response To Norm Violation In 57 Societies, Kimmo Erikkson, Pontus Strimling, Et Al., Andree Hartanto, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Norm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violations vary across cultures and across domains. In a preregistered study of 57 countries (using convenience samples of 22,863 students and non-students), we measured perceptions of the appropriateness of various responses to a violation of a cooperative norm and to atypical social behaviors. Our findings highlight both cultural universals and cultural variation. We find a universal negative relation between appropriateness ratings of norm violations and appropriateness ratings of responses in the form of confrontation, social ostracism and gossip. Moreover, …

The Role Of Perceived Warmth And Competence In Civil Trials With Corporate Litigants, Alexander C. Jay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Corporations are involved in approximately 40% of all civil litigation (Langton & Cohen, 2008), yet there is much to be learned concerning how jurors make decisions in trials involving corporate litigants. Mock juror research suggests that for-profit corporations are treated more harshly than other defendants, such as non-profit corporations and individuals (e.g., Hans, 1998). This discrepant treatment of for-profit corporate defendants might be linked to unmitigated stereotypical perceptions of them being low in warmth (i.e., likely to have immoral intentions) but high in competence (i.e., likely to be capable of acting on those intentions; Aaker et al., 2010). Research shows …

The Internet-Extended Mind: The Psychological Ramifications And Philosophical Implications Of Cognitive Offloading, Gloria Choi

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I explore the internet-extended mind through both philosophical and psychological lenses in order to investigate the questions “To what extent is the mind extended onto the internet and, more generally, outside our bodies?” and “How will an increasingly internet-extended brain change the ways in which humans communicate, remember, and behave?”. First, I introduce the idea of a mind that extends out into the world, instead of lying solely in the brain. Then, I outline existing research that introduces the challenges and implications of an internet-extended mind in an ever-changing internet landscape. Next, I discuss how the internet …

How Fast Are “Fast-Friends”? Do People Make Accurate Friendship-Relevant Judgements Of Strangers Within The First Minute Of Interaction, David Koehn Benson

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Impression formation involves the use of swift, automatic judgements in combination with slower controlled processing of incoming information to adjust those judgements. “Thin-slice” literature has also shown us that humans are capable of surprisingly accurate interpersonal judgements from small snippets of expressive behavior. Although friendship does take time to develop, assessing others along dimensions that seem to be related to friendship development during the acquaintance process often involves interpersonal judgements. This researcher sought to determine whether interpersonal judgements made in the first minute of zero-acquaintance interaction (strangers meeting) are accurate and resilient enough to resist adjustments made after a subsequent …