Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

Childhood Depressive Symptoms: Comparison Of Diverse Medical Diagnoses, Ida Babakhanyan

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Childhood depression is a serious problem and has long term implications including increased risk for suicide and comorbid conditions. In addition, depressed children are at greater risk for social difficulties, non-compliance to medical regime, and academic difficulties. Children undergoing a medical illness are at increased risk for developing depression, however, there have been few recent studies looking at emotional distress for this population. With thousands of children hospitalized every day, assessing for depressive symptoms is important in order to provide proper referrals and treatment recommendations following discharge. The purpose of the current study was to increase understanding of pediatric depression …

Integrating Terror Management Theory Into Fear Appeal Research, David Hunt, Omar Shehryar

David M. Hunt

Fear appeal communications have sustained the interest of researchers for over a half century. The dominant paradigm guiding fear appeal research asserts that differences in level of fear lead to differences in the persuasiveness of a message. Research grounded in the level of fear perspective has produced equivocal results, failed to explain why fear appeals sometimes backfire, and has not provided an a priori explanation for who may reject fear appeal messages. By emphasizing differences between individuals’ responses to the fear of death versus the fear of physically or socially undesirable consequences, terror management theory (TMT) offers a complementary theoretical …

The Structure Of Equine Personality, Rachel Etta Kristiansen

Dissertations

The current study was designed to investigate the structure of equine personality. Two personality questionnaires were replicated from previous studies and implemented simultaneously to test the theory that different questionnaires may extract different personality structures. Breed and sex differences were also hypothesized to be significantly different for some personality dimensions. A total of 827 horses were rated on a 90-item personality questionnaire. Participants were recruited online via email and completed the survey at their own convenience. An additional 121 respondents rated a horse that had already been rated; these results were used to calculate inter-rater reliability.

After data collection was …

A Field Experiment To Test The Effects Of Automated Feedback And Monetary Incentive On Speeding Behavior, Ian J. Reagan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This field experiment tested the effects of two systems on speeding, mental workload, and driver acceptance of the systems. Using GPS technology integrated with GIS referenced speed limit information, eight vehicles were instrumented in a manner that allowed real time knowledge of vehicle speed relative to the speed limit. Fifty participants drove these vehicles, with each individual driving his or her assigned vehicle for a four week trial. During one week, 40 participants experienced an automated feedback system, which provided visual and auditory alerts when they sped five or more mph over the limit. Twenty of these 40 individuals experienced …

Effects Of Mood On Using Analogies To Solve Problems And Reduce Conflict, Erin Good

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Past research has shown that analogies and metaphors can be useful tools in problem solving tasks (e.g., Gick & Holyoak, 1980). In addition, mood has been shown to have an effect on a person’s ability to generate solutions to problems (Abele, 1992). The present study was designed to investigate how mood affects analogical problem solving, especially in relation to conflict resolution. I examined whether mood has the same effect on the use of analogies to solve interpersonal conflict problems as it does on the use of analogies to solve cognitive problems. In this experiment, participants began by writing about an …

Feeling Of Knowing And Retrieval Failure: Tip-Of-The-Tongue State Is Not The Only Option, Amanda C. Gingerich

Amanda C. Gingerich

We investigated whether individuals are able to differentiate being in a tip-of-the-tongue state from the metacognitive experience of knowing information, but being unable to recall it. Results indicate that being unable to recall known information is separate from, and more common than, experiencing a tip-of-the-tongue state.

Speeded Retrieval Abolishes The False Memory Suppression Effect: Evidence For The Distinctiveness Heuristic, C. S. Dodson, Amanda C. Gingerich

Amanda C. Gingerich

We examined two different accounts of why studying distinctive information reduces false memories within the DRM paradigm. The impoverished relational encoding account predicts that less memorial information, such as overall famililarity, is elicited by the critical lure after distinctive encoding than after non-distinctive encoding. By contrast, the distinctiveness heuristic predicts that participants use a deliberate retrieval strategy to withhold responding to the critical lures. This retrieval strategy refers to a decision rule whereby the absence of memory for expected distinctive information is taken as evidence for an event’s nonoccurrence. We show that the typical false recognition suppression effect only occurs …

Why Distinctive Information Reduces False Memories: Evidence For Both Impoverished Relational-Encoding And Distinctiveness Heuristic Accounts, Amanda C. Gingerich, C. S. Dodson

Amanda C. Gingerich

Two accounts explain why studying pictures reduces false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995). The impoverished relational-encoding account suggests that studying pictures interferes with the encoding of relational information, which is the primary basis for false memories in this paradigm. Alternatively, the distinctiveness heuristic assumes that critical lures are actively withheld by the use of a retrieval strategy. When participants were given inclusion recall instructions to report studied items as well as related items, they still reported critical lures less often after picture encoding than they did after word encoding. …

Hope Over Experience Desirability And The Persistence Of Optimism, Cade Massey, Joseph P. Simmons, David A. Armor

Operations, Information and Decisions Papers

Many important decisions hinge on expectations of future outcomes. Decisions about health, investments, and relationships all depend on predictions of the future. These expectations are often optimistic: People frequently believe that their preferred outcomes are more likely than is merited. Yet it is unclear whether optimism persists with experience and, surprisingly, whether optimism is truly caused by desire. These are important questions because life’s most consequential decisions often feature both strong preferences and the opportunity to learn. We investigated these questions by collecting football predictions from National Football League fans during each week of the 2008 season. Despite accuracy incentives …

A Rat Model Of Gambling Behavior And Its Extinction: Effects Of "Win" Probability On Choice In A Concurrent-Chains Procedure, David N. Kearns, Maria A. Gomez-Serrano

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Two experiments examined the effects of varying the probability of “wins” within a rat model of gambling. On a concurrent-chains procedure, rats could choose between a “work” lever on which a fixed 20 responses produced a food pellet or a “gamble” lever, where on some trials (“wins”) only one response was required for reinforcement while on other trials 40 responses were required. Despite the fact that the work lever was always associated with the higher overall reinforcement rate, rats frequently chose to respond on the gamble lever. The frequency with which rats chose the gamble lever varied as a function …

The Contingencies Controlling Gambling Behavior: A Preliminary Cultural Analysis In American Indian University Students, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Research on pathological gambling has suggested that the disorder afflicts American Indians at a greater frequency than the majority population. The present study investigated whether potential pathology and/or contingencies maintaining gambling behavior differed between 29 American Indian undergraduate students and 29 Caucasian students who were matched to the American Indian students in terms of sex, age, and grade point average. The American Indian participants scored lower on all dependent measures of gambling than did the Caucasian students, although several of the differences approached, but did not reach, statistical significance. The present results suggest that the increased rates of pathological gambling …

Do Scores On The Gambling Functional Assessment-Revised Predict Discounting Of Delayed Gains And/Or Losses In A University Sample, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study investigated whether participants’ scores on the Gambling Functional Assessment – Revised (GFA-R) would be predictive of their level of discounting of delayed hypothetical monetary gains and losses. One hundred twenty eight university students completed the GFA-R and a discounting task involving two hypothetical monetary amounts that were framed either as gains or losses. Participants endorsed gambling for positive reinforcement significantly more than gambling for negative reinforcement. They discounted losses significantly more than gains and displayed a magnitude effect for losses (the effect was not statistically significant for gains). GFA-R scores were significant predictors of discounting for only …

Anticipating Happiness In A Future Negotiation: Anticipated Happiness, Propensity To Initiate A Negotiation, And Individual Outcomes, Dejun Tony Kong, Ece Tuncel, Judi Mclean Parks

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

We examined the role of anticipated happiness in negotiation settings. Anticipated happiness is the happiness that individuals expect to experience in the future if certain events do or do not occur. In two studies, we tested the argument that anticipated happiness initiates an approach goal, leading individuals to promote economic interests. Study 1 revealed that anticipated happiness was positively related to the propensity to initiate a negotiation, mediated by an approach goal. In Study 2, we found that anticipated happiness about reaching the target value increased the individual negotiation outcome, mediated by actual target value. Our studies provide insight into …

Editorial Comment: Turning The Corner At Analysis Of Gambling Behvaior, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.

Comparing Three Strategies Of Motivating Gambling Behavior In The Laboratory Environment, Jeffrey M. Peterson, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study compared three methods of motivating participants’ gambling behavior in a laboratory environment. Thirteen university students played in three sessions of video poker, which differed in whether participants were 1) asked to play “as if” gambling real money, 2) staked with real money, and 3) in competition with other participants for a gift card. Also measured was whether participants’ reported annual income would influence their gambling behavior under these conditions. Results showed that the number of hands played and the accuracy of game play did not differ across the different sessions. The number of credits bet, which is …

Discounting By Problem And Non-Problem Gambers When The Hypothetical Context Is Manipulated, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The majority of the previous research on delay discounting in pathological gamblers has found that these individuals discount monetary consequences more steeply than do nongamblers. The present study attempted to replicate this effect, as well as determine whether changes in the context in which the discounting decision was made would differentially influence the discounting of non-gamblers and problem/pathological gamblers. Participants discounted $1,000 after being informed that their hypothetical annual salary was a certain amount. Participants then completed the discounting task a second time after being informed that their hypothetical annual salary remained the same, had been halved, or had been …

Video-Poker Play In The Laboratory: The Effect Of Information And Monetary Value On Rates Of Play, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Kevin S. Montes, Chase Rost, Daniel Larrabee

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Previous research has found that participants will risk more credits across a video-poker session when they are required to play the optimal cards than when they have complete control over the game, a finding that would seem at least partially inconsistent with the illusion of control (Langer, 1975). Forty-two participants were recruited to play video poker in two sessions, one in which the game informed them of the optimal cards to play and one in which it did not. The session length for some participants was limited by time and for other participants by the number of hands played. Some …

Altering Probability Discounting In A Gambling Simulation, Benjamin N. Witts, Patrick M. Ghezzi, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

In gambling, our decisions regarding what gambles to take and how much we are willing to wager might, in part, be influenced by our histories with respect to gambling outcomes. Given a less temporally-distant history with gambling that favors losses, wins, or breaking even may create alterations in one’s discounting pattern, albeit most likely temporary. Given the topographical similarity between gambling procedures and probabilistic discounting tasks, probability discounting was used to assess potential changes in discounting resulting from a gambling task designed specifically for this study. Probabilistic discounting patterns for 38 undergraduate students before and after exposure to a simulated …

Are We Becoming Superhuman Cyborgs? How Technomorphism Influences Our Perceptions Of The World Around Us, Heather Christina Lum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although traditionally researchers have focused on making robotics more user-friendly from a human perspective, a new theory has begun to take shape in which humans take on the perspective of a robotic entity. The following set of studies examined the concept of technomorphism defined as the attribution of technological characteristics to humans. This concept has been mentioned anecdotally and studied indirectly, but there is nothing currently available to tap in to the various forms that technomorphism may take. Therefore, one goal of this dissertation was to develop a scale to fill that purpose. The results of the Technomorphic Tendencies Scale …

Assessing The Effects Of A Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacon On Vehicle Speeds Along A Four-Lane Divided Highway, Michelle Van Wagner

Dissertations

In 2008, nearly 31% of vehicle fatalities were related to failure to adhere to safe vehicle speeds (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2009). Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of a Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacon (RRFB) triggered by excessive speed on vehicle speed using a combined alternating treatments and reversal design. Experiment 1 assessed the RRFB's impact on speeds as compared to baseline conditions only. Experiment 2 compared the RRFB to two standard beacon configurations. Both experiments were conducted at the same site during approximately the same time period and both employed the same data collection methodology. The …