Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Listening Effort: Separating The Subjective From The Objective, Joseph E. Rovetti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Challenges such as background noise may increase “listening effort.” This construct has been operationalized as the recruitment of cognitive resources during listening (objective effort) or as the self-reported feeling of effort (subjective effort). In the current study, I compared these two dimensions of listening effort directly. Normal-hearing adults listened to highly intelligible passages across several signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), with reaction time on a secondary task (objective effort) and effort ratings (subjective effort) measured in separate blocks. As the SNR became less favourable, subjective effort appeared to increase continuously, while objective effort only began to increase at a much less favourable …

Changes In Audiovisual Integration In Aging, Alyssa S. Lynn

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The proposed study will examine changes in audiovisual integration between younger and older adults. Audiovisual integration enables us to associate and bind related auditory and visual information and experience it as a single percept (Spence, 2007). Being able to properly integrate is crucial in our everyday lives. When perceiving speech, audiovisual integration binds visual information from lip movements with auditory information from the speaker's utterances so that speech can be perceived multimodally. With age, our auditory and visual sensory acuity tends to decline with audiovisual integration being impacted as a result (Brooks et al., 2018; Mahoney et al., 2011). We …

Category Learning - Studies In Mood Induction And Neural Representations Across Modalities, Raha Afkhami Nemati

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

In this powerpoint presentation, I discuss the two projects I worked on this summer: study focusing on how mood induction impacts categorization and a systematic review on stimulus categories across modalities. Throughout the presentation, I show the work I have done this past year, this summer and what I plan to continue with over the year. I discuss the papers, applications and criteria used throughout.

The Ommaba Project, Katsiaryna Buchko

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The Open Multimodal Music and Auditory Brain Archive (OMMABA) is the first multimodal (behavioural, EEG, and neuroimaging) database characterizing normal human auditory processing. My project aims to shed light on the importance of this collaborative project that is transforming the field of auditory cognitive neuroscience.

Motor Learning By Observing The Movements Of A Computer-Animated, Human-Like Actor And A Non-Limb Observational Video, Mudia Iyayi

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Our project is looking at the phenomenon of observational motor learning using a two-joint robotic manipulandum (robotic arm). When someone learns a new motor skill (i.e. throwing a football to a wide receiver) the brain must make and map an internal model of the forces required for that movement. The plasticity of the brain in constructing these representations is termed “motor learning” and can occur through physical practice or—for the purposes of our investigation—observation. Previous studies have used videos of human actors learning new skills to drive motor learning in the observer, however, it is not known what components of …

Auditory Sensory Filtering And Development In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Hiruthika Ravi, Ala Seif, Ryan A. Stevenson

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Sensory filtering is the process of separating and distilling relevant sensory information from irrelevant, which in turn greatly reduces the quantity of sensory information that is fully processed and leads to significant increases in efficiency. Atypical sensory filtering can result in sensory hypo- or hypersensitivity — atypical sensory filtering and hypo/hypersensitivity have been observed in people with autism. Atypical sensory filtering contributes to canonical symptoms in Autism.

Sensory filtering can be measured in a few different ways, one of which is the Acoustic Startle Response (ASR). ASR is a reflexively produced muscular reaction to sudden auditory stimuli.

Our study aims …

The Aspiring Entrepreneur Model For Flourishing - A Model Designed To Keep Aspiring Entrepreneurs Engaged, Committed, And Flourishing, Aaron Marcum

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects

The entrepreneurial experience is not for the faint of heart. Due to the stress associated with starting a new business, it can challenge the well-being of even the best intended entrepreneurs, especially those early on in their journey, whom I call aspiring entrepreneurs (AE). It is possible for an AE to flourish, where they thrive and continue to grow through the experience, as long as they invest in certain key well-being dimensions that positive psychology researchers and practitioners have identified as foundational to entrepreneurial flourishing. This paper explores three of these dimensions, (1) purpose in life, (2) autonomy, and (3) …

Culture And Classification: Investigating Analytic Vs. Holistic Thinking Styles, Neha Khemani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This paper sought to explore cultural preferences for analytic and holistic thinking in classification. Experiment 1 paired the Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (SHJ) tasks with the Analysis-Holism scale (AHS) and a demographics questionnaire. Effects of culture on learning rates, alongside the feasibility of online data collection, were assessed. Learning difficulty differences among the six SHJ category sets were observed. Further, as predicted, higher holistic thinking correlated positively with the family resemblance task. Experiment 2 replicated the Norenzayan et al. (2002) task. Unlike in the original study, the effect of instructional condition was not significant across our full sample. Nevertheless, the …

Threat Detection From Phenotypic Facial Features, Melissa L. Kern

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated people's ability to accurately and quickly make snap judgments of trustworthiness from viewing individuals' faces (Todorov, Pakrashi, & Oosterhof, 2009; Willis & Todorov, 2006). The study of how human beings make meaningful predictions from phenotypic facial features about trustworthiness, among other traits, warrants additional scrutiny and investigation. Further, other research suggests the facial width to height ratio (fWHR) is a more specific indicator used by human beings to gauge, often accurately gauge, trustworthiness with some accuracy. As such, past research found participants rated people with larger fWHRs as less trustworthy and more aggressive (Carré & McCormick, …

Posttraumatic Growth And Primal World Beliefs Among People Who Have Caused Accidental Death Or Serious Injury, Mark L. O'Brien

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects

Background. Posttraumatic growth (PTG)—positive changes that people may experience in the aftermath of highly distressing experiences—has been observed in survivors of a variety of events but has not been previously studied among people who have caused accidental death or injury (PCADIs). In addition, questions remain about the role, in PTG, of changes in the assumptive world and the relationships between PTG and distress, personality, and social support. Methods. Participants (N = 528), included PCADIs (n = 44) and a non-trauma comparison group (n = 484), who completed the Primals Inventory and measures of personality, anxiety, and depression. …

Presence: A Mechanism For Developing Rapport In Physician Interprofessional Engagement, Maura F. Koutoujian

Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects

Inspired by my work as a coach in an academic medical center, this paper explores the mechanisms of presence and mindfulness as axioms to developing rapport within physician interprofessional engagement. Away from the physician-patient relationship, the focus here is on faculty, physicians, residents, and other clinical providers and how they relate to one another. Transpersonal experiences foster a connectedness of rapport that allows for deeper connection and mutuality. Participation in the mindfulness mechanisms of intention and attention can mitigate negative affective behavior in relationship with oneself and others. Mindful awareness encourages curiosity, presence, and rapport, which support healthy relationships. My …

Lifetime Racism And John Henryism On Cognition And Cardiovascular Health In Black Men, Roy Mitchell

Dissertations

Lifetime racism is a type of chronic stress that is often accompanied by depression. Racism is the experience of many Black men because of several psychosocial stressors such as reduced resources and institutional barriers, to name a few. Active coping is typically utilized by Black men as a consistent means to reduce the negative outcomes linked to racism, however, this up-tempo coping style can contribute to poor cardiovascular health and cognitive impairment over time. The present study aimed to provide data to support the effects of lifetime racism and active coping on cardiovascular health and cognition. There were three hypotheses …

Mentors In Violence Prevention: Differential Impacts On Adolescent Bystander Intentions About Bullying, Dating Violence, And Sexual Harassment, Ayla Mapes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bystander approaches are promising interventions that can engage bystanders as prosocial allies to intervene in interpersonal violence situations among youth within school settings. The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) bystander intervention program targets interpersonal violence using a peer-to-peer mentoring model to engage students in a discussion about violence prevention. Research on the MVP program is promising but limited. The current study examined the specificity of MVP intervention effects in two high school samples. The first was a pre/post-test design that included a smaller sample of high school students who participated in the MVP program in the 2013-2014 academic year. The …

Pandemic Pressure: Race, Job Insecurity, And Stress During The Covid-19 Pandemic, David B. Taullahu, Jason S. Snyder, Alyssa R. Minton, Brooke Nyberg, Joseph A. Mikels

DePaul Discoveries

With the ongoing pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic, the working world has been drastically altered. Additionally, pandemic related pressures are not evenly distributed across racial groups–with negative outcomes being exacerbated as a byproduct of structural inequities for people of color (Seldan & Berdahl, 2020). Using the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983), and Job Insecurity Scale (Ashford et al., 1989), we aimed to determine how various work-related factors such as job insecurity, essential worker status, and race relate to overall perceived stress in daily life. Participants (n = 266; M_age = 50.56 years, SD = 7.83; age …

Temperament And Individual Differences In Category Learning, Tianshu Zhu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Objectives. Individuals can differ in their strategic approach in learning the same categorization task, researchers have sought to study what specific stable individual differences traits can help explain these differences. This dissertation first surveyed extant literature on the impact of trait differences on category learning then examined the effect of temperament traits on these dependent variables. Chapter 2 (scoping review): This scoping review synthesized the past literature that examined the relationship between sources of stable individual differences and category learning performance and strategy use outcomes. Five database platforms were searched to identify relevant articles, cross-referencing was also performed. Sixty-nine studies …

Psychology In The Modern World, Kutay Agardici

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus is created for the two courses I will be teaching at City College in the psychology dept. Topics include cognition, language, learning, memory, nature vs. nurture, abnormal psychology, social psychology, etc.

Longitudinal Associations Of Perceived Mastery And Constraints With Coping And Their Implications For Functional Health For Aging Adults, Masahiro Toyama, Joel M. Hektner

Psychology Faculty Research

The present study examined longitudinal associations of distinct dimensions of perceived control (i.e., perceived mastery and constraints) with approach and avoidance coping relating to functional health for aging adults, which had not been well studied previously. Using data from two waves of Midlife in the United States (N = 4,963, whose mean age was 55.4 [SD = 12.5]), a longitudinal path model was analyzed for direct and indirect effects among perceived mastery and constraints, approach and avoidance coping, and functional limitations. Bidirectional associations were observed between perceived mastery and approach coping and between perceived constraints and avoidance coping. …

Does Trait Self-Esteem Serve As A Resilience Factor In Maintaining Affective Well-Being? Findings From Daily Diary Studies In Singapore And The United States, Matthew H. S. Ng, Verity Y. Q. Lua, Nadyanna M. Majeed, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research suggests that self-esteem could be a protective factor in stressful or unfavorable situations. However, little research has been done on the buffering role of self-esteem in the context of daily stressors on affective reactivity. Three daily diary studies (of which two were conducted in Singapore and one in the United States) were carried out to examine this relationship. In all three studies, trait self-esteem was measured at baseline. Subsequently, daily assessment was conducted on exposure to daily stressors, and positive and negative affect for seven to eight days. Multilevel modeling showed that trait self-esteem did not moderate the relationship …

Examining The Generalizability Of Research Findings From Archival Data, Andrew Delios, Et. Al.

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This initiative examined systematically the extent to which a large set of archival research findings generalizes across contexts. We repeated the key analyses for 29 original strategic management effects in the same context (direct reproduction) as well as in 52 novel time periods and geographies; 45% of the reproductions returned results matching the original reports together with 55% of tests in different spans of years and 40% of tests in novel geographies. Some original findings were associated with multiple new tests. Reproducibility was the best predictor of generalizability—for the findings that proved directly reproducible, 84% emerged in other available time …

The Impact Of Juvenile Offender Race On Public Perception Of Crime Seriousness, Megan Whitaker

Dissertations

Public perception of crime is an important focus of research, especially when considering juvenile offenders. However, there is very limited research in this area. This study looked at how the public perceives crime seriousness and how race of the juvenile offender impacts the overall seriousness rating. An online survey that included 15 crime scenarios was completed by 176 participants. It was hypothesized that a crime would be rated as more severe when the juvenile offender is African American as compared to a Caucasian juvenile offender. Results found that participants overall rated the seriousness of offenses as significantly higher for Caucasian …