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Full-Text Articles in Cognitive Psychology

The Roles Of Biophilic Attitudes And Auditory Stimuli Within Attention Restoration Theory, Jason B. Boggs Dec 2018

The Roles Of Biophilic Attitudes And Auditory Stimuli Within Attention Restoration Theory, Jason B. Boggs

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Attention Restoration Theory indicates that interacting with nature allows one’s fatigued, directed attention to be restored. This effect has been documented and produced through directed interaction with nature, such as a walk in the park, as well as through indirect interactions (e.g., photographs). The current dissertation was designed to: 1) investigate whether and how biophilic attitudes affect the attention-restoring effects incurred from interactions with nature, and 2) extend the research on ART by assessing the impact of nature-related audio stimuli. A total of 184 participants completed an assessment of biophilic attitudes, engaged in attention fatiguing exercises, and participated in one …


The Consequences Of Processing Of Goal-Irrelevant Information During The Stroop Task In Younger And Older Adults, Jessica Nicosia Dec 2018

The Consequences Of Processing Of Goal-Irrelevant Information During The Stroop Task In Younger And Older Adults, Jessica Nicosia

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent evidence from memory paradigms indicates that older adults can sometimes benefit more from processing goal-irrelevant information than younger adults, however these studies have often failed to simultaneously provide evidence of age-related control deficits. In the present experiments, participants initially studied a list of words. They then received a color-naming Stroop task where neutral words were either previously studied or new words. Across three experiments, participants were given different types of memory tests to examine the lingering effects of the neutral words during color-naming in younger and older adults. The results from all three experiments (including an attempted replication study) …


Hearing And Seeing A Speaker: How Perceptual And Cognitive Factors Modulate The Dynamics Of Audiovisual Speech Perception, Elina Kaplan Oct 2018

Hearing And Seeing A Speaker: How Perceptual And Cognitive Factors Modulate The Dynamics Of Audiovisual Speech Perception, Elina Kaplan

Doctoral Dissertations

In face-to-face conversations, listeners process and combine speech information obtained from hearing and seeing the speaker talk. Audiovisual speech typically leads to more robust recognition of speech, as it provides more information for recognition but also as it helps listeners adjust to speaker idiosyncrasies. The goal of the current thesis was to examine how certain perceptual and cognitive factors modulate how listeners use visual speech to facilitate momentary speech perception and to adjust to a speaker’s idiosyncrasies. Results showed that (older) listeners’ sensitivity to cross-modal synchrony is related to the size of the audiovisual interactions during early perceptual processing. Furthermore, …


Rumination And Rebound From Failure: Investigating How Trait And State Forms Of Ruminative Thought Influence Attention To Errors And The Ability To Correct Them In A Challenging Academic Environment, Ronald C. Whiteman Sep 2018

Rumination And Rebound From Failure: Investigating How Trait And State Forms Of Ruminative Thought Influence Attention To Errors And The Ability To Correct Them In A Challenging Academic Environment, Ronald C. Whiteman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rumination is a recurrent and repetitive manner of thinking that can be triggered by blockage of personally-relevant goals, creating a temporary state of abstract and evaluative self-focus that can also become a chronic trait-like style of responding to personal challenges. Despite claims that rumination helps down-regulate unwanted emotion, cope with problems, and lead to goal attainment, it often increases negative affect, interferes with problem solving, and exacerbates goal-state discrepancies, particularly for women. Given the pervasiveness of rumination and its potential impact on cognitive processes and emotional states, one important yet untested question is how it might impact individuals’ ability to …


Long-Term Focus Of Attentional Biases, Garrett Pollert Aug 2018

Long-Term Focus Of Attentional Biases, Garrett Pollert

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prior research regarding attentional biases, or patterns of visual attention, have focused on attention over the initial second when exposed to pictoral food stimuli. This manuscript reviews the literature regarding attentional biases in overweight/obese individuals over this timeframe for the two previously defined components of attentional bias (attentional orientation and attentional maintenance). A new component is proposed, called “attentional re-engagement,” defined as the pattern of attentional shifts towards target stimulus types over longer periods of time. Overweight/Obese and Normal-weighted participants were recruited and engaged in an Extended Dot Probe task, wherein attentional orientation, maintenance, and re-engagement were assessed using the …


Examining The Influence Of Executive Resources And Mathematical Abilities On Framing Biases, Gabriel Allred May 2018

Examining The Influence Of Executive Resources And Mathematical Abilities On Framing Biases, Gabriel Allred

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The finding that the presentation of a choice (i.e., either as a loss or a gain) can affect and bias our willingness to engage in risk is one of the paramount findings of behavioral economics. First discussed by Tversky and Kahneman (1981), the framing effect demonstrates that when given two choices framed as a loss, we tend to become risk seeking. However, when the exact same outcome is presented as a gain, we become risk averse, choosing the more conservative option, regardless of the actual expected value. The effect is not limited to general research samples but has been demonstrated …


Change Deafness: A Comprehensive Examinations, Vanessa Claire Irsik May 2018

Change Deafness: A Comprehensive Examinations, Vanessa Claire Irsik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Environmental changes are a vital source of information which can drive advantageous behavioral responses. For example, detecting visual changes can be critical when driving a vehicle or when simply walking down a busy street. Auditory perception is an essential complement to vision as it can allow awareness of changes in and out of sight. While subjective perception would suggest that our sensory representation of the world is complete, research on change deafness indicates that quite often the opposite is true. Healthy listeners often miss salient, suprathreshold auditory changes. Three separate manuscripts will be presented, each of which aims to advance …


Electrophysiological Biomarkers Of Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Impairment In Hematological Malignancy Patients, David E. Anderson May 2018

Electrophysiological Biomarkers Of Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Impairment In Hematological Malignancy Patients, David E. Anderson

Theses & Dissertations

Multiple cancer populations frequently report cognitive impairment following treatment with chemotherapy agents (“chemo-brain”). Impaired neuropsychological performance is commonly reported in cognitive domains of attention and executive function. Understanding neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments is essential to developing prevention and rehabilitation strategies. Brain imaging studies frequently show chemotherapy-related impairments within the attentional control network, which is comprised of a constellation of cortical regions that govern reportedly impaired cognitive functions. In the current dissertation research, I developed a novel electrophysiology battery aimed at recording near-instantaneous neural activity within the attentional control network during cognitive task performance. Cancer patients diagnosed with hematological malignancy …


The Effects Anxiety Has On Attentional Bias And Working Memory, Breana Mcswain Jan 2018

The Effects Anxiety Has On Attentional Bias And Working Memory, Breana Mcswain

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Research has shown that anxiety impairs attention and working memory, especially when it comes to completing a mentally demanding cognitive task such as the emotional Stroop paradigm or the n-back task. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether state anxiety affects behavioral performance on executive function tasks. State anxiety was induced using negatively valenced images from the International Affective Picture System, while neutral images served as the control. We compared behavioral performance between individuals in the negative mood induction against those in the neutral mood induction. Trait anxiety was used as a covariate for both groups. This allowed …


An Analysis Of The Ego-Depletion Effects Of Emotion Versus Attention Draining Tasks: Even Emotionally Arousing Depletion Tasks Do Not Show An Ego-Depletion Effect, Savannah Binion Jan 2018

An Analysis Of The Ego-Depletion Effects Of Emotion Versus Attention Draining Tasks: Even Emotionally Arousing Depletion Tasks Do Not Show An Ego-Depletion Effect, Savannah Binion

Senior Independent Study Theses

The theory of ego-depletion has come under intense scrutiny within the past few years. Beginning around 2010, researchers conducted meta-analyses and large replication studies that have investigated this topic, and found a wide range of evidence for and against the existence of an ego-depletion effect. Although the goal has been to determine whether this effect exists or not, the research has proved that the answer may be more complicated than that. The purpose of the current research was to examine the different theories about self-control, and to test two specific depleting tasks against a control group. The depleting tasks were …


Towards Improving Learning With Consumer-Grade, Closed-Loop, Electroencephalographic Neurofeedback, Zall Soren Hirschstein Jan 2018

Towards Improving Learning With Consumer-Grade, Closed-Loop, Electroencephalographic Neurofeedback, Zall Soren Hirschstein

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Learning is an enigmatic process composed of a multitude of cognitive systems that are functionally and neuroanatomically distinct. Nevertheless, two undeniable pillars which underpin learning are attention and memory; to learn, one must attend, and maintain a representation of, an event. Psychological and neuroscientific technologies that permit researchers to “mind-read” have revealed much about the dynamics of these distinct processes that contribute to learning. This investigation first outlines the cognitive pillars which support learning and the technologies that permit such an understanding. It then employs a novel task—the amSMART paradigm—with the goal of building a real-time, closed-loop, electroencephalographic (EEG) neurofeedback …