Digital Commons Network^™

The Dynamics Of Development: Challenges For Bayesian Rationality, Nils Straubinger, Edward T. Cokely, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Commentary on Oaksford & Chater, Precis of Bayesian Rationality

Oaksford & Chater draw a rather static picture of human reasoning by focusing on typical patterns of responses from adults. We propose a more dynamic perspective, which considers that reasoning systematically varies within individuals over the lifespan (Howe & Rabinowitz 1996; Markovits & Barrouillet 2002) and between individuals with different levels of knowledge and expertise (Ericsson et al. 2006).

The original articles, the full set of commentaries, and the authors' response are attached (below) as an "Additional file."

Cultural Competence In Long Term Care : A Qualitative Phenomenological Study Of Nursing Home Administrators' Knowledge And Perception Of Cultural Competence, Sashai A. Green

HIM 1990-2015

This qualitative phenomenological study examined central Florida's nursing home administrators' knowledge and perception of cultural competence and how they perceive that their knowledge and perceptions impact residents, families, and healthcare. The theoretical framework for this study was explained through Campinha-Bacote's interdisciplinary model of The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services. The theoretical framework was used to guide research questions, and individual interview questions to obtain nursing home administrator's knowledge and perception of cultural competence. The study explored the level of cultural competence reported by nursing home administrators, their individual perception of cultural competence, their degree of …

A Team Approach To Cortical Visual Impairment (Cvi) In Schools, Donna Shaman

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is presently the fastest growing cause of visual impairment in children. The influx of children with CVI entering school districts requires Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams to gain expertise about CVI and learn best practices to work with these children. CVI experts agree that a collaborative transdisciplinary team can best serve the complex needs of the children. Written by an occupational therapist, this project designs a CVI manual, A Team Approach to CVI in Schools, which reviews current literature and provides support for client centered, occupational based education for children with CVI. The literature review points …

Demographic Data For Development: Uganda, Richard Kibombo, Wendy Baldwin, Sarah Engebretsen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

A recent increase in decentralization and democratization in developing countries has expanded the role that data plays in informing policies and measuring program results. Increasingly, programs and policies are being assessed by their ability to reach goals that have evidence-based indicators. This growing focus on evidence places greater and greater demand on those who generate clear, timely, reliable, and relevant data. In an effort to strengthen data, initiatives around the globe, such as PARIS21 and Health Metrics Network, have been designed to increase access to and use of data by harmonizing measures, providing technical support in data collection, and increasing …

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Change Is Possible, Frontiers In Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health

Changing long-standing cultural practices—even when such practices are harmful—is difficult, but the impressive success in reducing the acceptability and incidence of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in several settings shows it is possible. Research by FRONTIERS in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, and Senegal has provided insight into the sociocultural and religious underpinnings of FGM/C and has identified approaches that, over time, have contributed to individual and community decisions to abandon the practice. This information can help reduce the risk of undergoing FGM/C faced by three million girls and women every year. This is one of eight Legacy Papers synthesizing …

Ot Cultural Competence Website, Kelly Bjoralt, Kristy Henson

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Cultural competence, in health care, is becoming increasingly important as minority populations continue to grow in the United States. Although it is clear that cultural sensitive, client-centered care directly effects treatment outcomes, students and clinicians may not know where or how to access cultural resources. Culturally competent care is vital to the field of occupational therapy as client-centered care is viewed as a means of providing the best outcomes and quality of care.

A literature review was conducted to identify current cultural resources available. Based on the findings, an adult learning theory was used in conjunction with effective website design …

A Quest Through Chaos: My Narrative Of Illness And Recovery, Katie Ellis

Research outputs pre 2011

Narrative is vital, as the ill person works out their changing identity, and position in the world of health, continuing when they are no longer ill, but remain marked by their experience. 2 Following the tradition of illness auto ethnographers (Frank, The Wounded Storyteller; Ettore; Rier), this article critically examines the role of narrative throughout recovery from serious illness or trauma by connecting the (my) autobiographical to the social, political and cultural. The focus then shifts to the recent emergence of illness narrative blogging to consider their cultural significance before exploring stigma and resistance to the telling of illness narratives …

Intra-Speaker Variability In Palatometric Measures Of Consonant Articulation, Christopher Dromey, Marybeth Sanders

Faculty Publications

Electropalatometry is a useful clinical and research tool for measuring linguapalatal contact. The goal of this study was to examine intra-speaker variability in performance. Twenty individuals spoke VCV nonsense words using a schwa in the initial position, the 15 palatal consonants, and three corner vowels, /ɑ/, /i/, /u/. A variability index was created to examine speaker consistency.
Different aspects of articulation (i.e. place, manner, voicing, coarticulation) were compared. Significant differences for variability were found for place of articulation in the /i/ vowel context and for manner of articulation in the /ɑ/ vowel context. Also for the /ɑ/ vowel, significant differences …

Conversational Behaviors In Youth With High-Functioning Asd And Asperger Syndrome, Rhea Paul, Stephanie Miles Orlovski, Hillary Chuba Marcinko, Fred Volkmar

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Twenty-nine youth with autism spectrum disorders and 26 with typical development between 12 and 18 years of age were engaged in structured interviews (ADOS). The interviews were videotaped and rated for atypical conversational behaviors by trained raters, using the Pragmatic Rating Scale (Landa et al. Psychol Med 22:245–254, 1992). The ASD group was divided into AS and HFA/PDD-NOS subgroups. Significant differences were found among groups on approximately one-third of the PRS items. These items involved primarily the management of topics and information, reciprocity, intonation, and gaze management. The only differences to reach significance between the AS and HFA/PDD-NOS group were …

Advances And Applications Of Dezert-Smarandache Theory (Dsmt) For Information Fusion (Collected Works), Vol. 3, Florentin Smarandache, Jean Dezert

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This volume has about 760 pages, split into 25 chapters, from 41 contributors. First part of this book presents advances of Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) which is becoming one of the most comprehensive and flexible fusion theory based on belief functions. It can work in all fusion spaces: power set, hyper-power set, and super-power set, and has various fusion and conditioning rules that can be applied depending on each application. Some new generalized rules are introduced in this volume with codes for implementing some of them. For the qualitative fusion, the DSm Field and Linear Algebra of Refined Labels (FLARL) is …

Promoting Breast Cancer Screening Among Chinese American Women Through Young Children's Theatrical Performance, Angela Sun

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has revealed that underutilization of breast cancer screening by ethnic minorities often is related to language difficulties and cultural values and beliefs about cancer. The problem addressed in this secondary data analysis was the late diagnosis of breast cancer in the Chinese immigrant community. The purpose of the quasi-experimental study was to test the efficacy of a theatrical preschool performance, guided by the diffusion of innovation theory, in educating Chinese American women about breast cancer detection. The research questions sought to determine whether the performance increased the participants' knowledge of breast cancer screening guidelines and whether country of origin, …

Cross-Linguistic Universals In Reading Acquisition With Applications To English-Language Learners With Reading Disabilities, Brenda K. Gorman

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

There is a considerable gap in English reading achievement between English-language learners and native speakers in the United States. Differentiation of whether English language learners’ struggles are symptomatic of reading disability or related to second language acquisition is often challenging. These issues highlight the need for increased insight into reading development and disability in this population. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of cross-linguistic universals in reading acquisition, how reading disabilities manifest in various languages, and whether diagnostic and instructional approaches that are effective for native English speakers are also appropriate for English-language learners. Recommendations for …

Perspective-Taking In Adolescents With Asperger Syndrome And Nonverbal Learning Disorder, Caitlin Scaliatine

Masters Theses

Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and other individuals, allowing us to predict the thoughts and feelings of others based on their behaviors. Research has established that individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) experience difficulty with advanced theory of mind tasks; however, theory of mind abilities have not been evaluated for individuals with nonverbal learning disability (NVLD). The following test battery was administered to four adolescents with AS, five adolescents with NVLD, and five adolescents with neurotypical development to examine their theory of mind abilities: the Pragmatic Judgment and lriferences subtests from the Comprehensive Assessment …

Categorical Perception Of Stop Consonants In Children With Autism, Laura Bourdeau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine whether children with autism recognize the same perceptual voicing boundaries of stop consonants as normally developing children of the same age group. This was explored using three groups of participants: ten children with autism between the ages of 8-14, five typically developing children between the ages of 8-14, and five typically developing seven-year-old children. Children in all groups listened to initial stop consonant syllables with voicing contrasts, with voiced and voiceless cognates presented. The initial consonants were altered along a voice onset time continuum within the typically perceived boundaries of each consonant. …

A Model Of Treating Hyperfunctional Voice Disorders For School Age Children Within A Serious Gaming Environment, Suzanne King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study is to test the feasibility of implementing a video-game based intervention protocol as a means to improve therapy compliance in school age children with hyperfunctional voice disorders. Three levels of modification were made to an existing entertainment software program in order to implement the therapeutic protocol and test compatibility. The third level of modification included a two-phase quasi-experimental single subject design with a school age participant receiving the video game therapy protocol and traditional therapy for equal time. The independent variables for this study included the mode of voice therapy delivery (traditional vs. video …

The Incidence Of Postpartum Depression Among Hispanic Women, Renea L. Beckstrand, Ana C. Birkhead, Lynn Clark Callister, Nissa Lucero, Glauco Souza

Faculty Publications

There is a lack of sufficient knowledge concerning the prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) among Hispanic women. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to evaluate the incidence of PPD among Hispanic women.

A Study Of Possible Pre-Cognitive Advantages Of Bilingualism, Marisela Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Past research has suggested that second language acquisition has a beneficial effect on the development of inhibitory control processes in children and adults. This has been referred to as the "bilingual advantage" and is most commonly quantified using the Simon task. Whether the bilingual advantage extends to precognitive mechanisms has not yet been examined. The goals of this study were to examine the bilingual advantage in university students; and to examine whether the bilingual advantage extends to the precognitive filtering mechanism of sensorimotor gating. It was predicted that, as compared to monolinguals, bilingual university students would have greater inhibitory control, …

Does Type Of Stimulus Influence Task-Irrelevant Evaluative Categorization Processes?, Guadalupe Corral

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The effect of stimulus type on task-irrelevant evaluative categorization was examined in two separate studies by using the P3 component from event-related brain potentials. The first study presented idiosyncratic stimuli consisting of individuals that were rated by participants as either positive or negative within sequences of pictorial and verbal stimuli. The second study presented sequences of novel and familiar stimuli consisting of previously normed unattractive and neutral individuals. It was hypothesized that pictures would elicit task-irrelevant evaluative categorization processes and so would novel stimuli (relative to words and familiar stimuli, respectively). Task-irrelevance was examined by assessing P3 peak amplitude to …

An Audit Of Editorial Processing At Jcpsp: Issues And Compliance, Saba Sohail

Department of Radiology

No abstract provided.

A Meta-Analytical Study Of Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: Symptomology And Comorbidity, April Walter

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A meta-analysis approach was employed to research the symptomatology andcomorbidity of pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD). This approach was chosen due to the wide range of previously published research results and the limited size of the populations investigated. Database searches of peer-reviewed empirical research identified 861 journal articles published on the topic of pediatric bipolar disorder over the last 49 years. Fifty-four articles, with a total subject pool of 10,318, met specific inclusion criteria, which included being a quantitative study using standardized mean difference, correlation coefficient, or odds-ratio statistics. Fifteen separate meta-analyses were used to determine specificity regarding: differences reported in …

Acoustic And Spectral Patterns In Young Children’S Stop Consonant Productions, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study was to examine the acoustic and spectral patterns of stop articulation in the speech of pre-pubescent children. A set of voiceless stop consonants, /ptk/, produced by a group of adults and typically developing children 3–5 years of age were examined in terms of multiple acoustic and spectral parameters. Findings indicated that, with the exception of spectral kurtosis, the acoustic and spectral characteristics of the stop productions varied significantly as a function of place of articulation and vowel context. Sex-specific differences in spectral slope, mean, and skewness were found for the 5-year-old and adult speakers. Such …

Contextual Leadership: The Social Construction Of Leadership In A Comprehensive Healthcare System, Mark J. Moir

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Healthcare is a complex and dynamic environment containing a plurality of social forces and perspectives that shape the organizational culture and the nature of the leadership. As leadership is a social phenomenon, it is important to understand the complex social processes that mediate our perceptions and that in turn influence processes of leader attribution. The central purpose of this study has been to illuminate the nature of culturally specific processes that emerge within a specific organizational setting and that fuel leader attribution and the social construction of leadership. Accordingly, this qualitative study has developed a Grounded Theory utilizing Situational Analysis …

An Analysis Of The Current United States And State Of Washington's Mental Health Policies Serving Children And Families, Maile M. Bay

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Due to continued fragmentation and gaps in mental health services and the increase in the prevalence of mental health problems for children, youth, and their families, these populations remain underserved. In 2003, the federal New Freedom Commission (Commission) responded by publishing policies to address these concerns. As directed in 2005, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded planning incentive grants to states to transform their delivery of care.

The study reviewed the federal policy, specifically the recommendations of the Commission’s Subcommittee on Children and Families, and Washington State’s policy and implementation actions of its five-year SAMHSA incentive …

Estimating Dysphonia Severity In Continuous Speech: Application Of A Multi-Parameter Spectral/Cepstral Model, Christopher Dromey, Shaheen N. Awan, Nelson Roy

Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to identify a sub-set of spectral/cepstral-based analysis methods that would most effectively predict dysphonia severity (as estimated via auditory-perceptual analysis) in samples of continuous speech. Acoustic estimates of dysphonia severity were used as an objective treatment outcomes measure in a set of pre- vs post-treatment speech samples. Pre- and post-treatment continuous speech samples from 104 females with primary muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) were rated by listeners using a 100 point visual analogue scale (VAS) and analysed acoustically with spectral/cepstral-based measures. Stepwise linear regression produced a three-factor model consisting of the cepstral peak prominence (CPP); …

Laryngeal-Level Amplitude Modulation In Vibrato, Christopher Dromey, Lorie Reese, J Arden Hopkin

Faculty Publications

Summary: The goal of this investigation was to test a new methodology for measuring amplitude modulation (AM) at the level of the vocal folds during vibrato in trained singers, because previous research has suggested that AM arises in large part as an acoustic epiphenomenon through an interaction of the harmonics in the laryngeal source with the resonances of the vocal tract as the fundamental frequency oscillates. A within-subjects model was used to compare vocal activity across three pitch and three loudness conditions. Seventeen female singers with a range of training and experience were recorded with a microphone and an electroglottograph …

Articulatory Changes In Muscle Tension Dysphonia: Evidence Of Vowel Space Expansion Following Manual Circumlaryngeal Therapy, Christopher Dromey, Nelson Roy, Shawn L. Nissen, Shimon Sapir

Faculty Publications

In a preliminary study, we documented significant changes in formant transitions associated with successful manual circumlaryngeal treatment (MCT) of muscle tension dysphonia (MTD), suggesting improvement in speech articulation. The present study explores further the effects of MTD on vowel articulation by means of additional vowel acoustic measures. Pre- and post-treatment audio recordings of 111 women with MTD were analyzed acoustically using two measures: vowel space area (VSA) and vowel articulation index (VAI), constructed using the first (F1) and second (F2) formants of 4 point vowels/ ", i, æ, u/, extracted from eight words within a standard reading passage. Pairwise t-tests …

Social Or Academic Language Intervention? You Don’T Have To Choose, Lee Robinson

Faculty Publications

Students with a variety of types of language impairments exhibit deficits that affect both social interactions and academic performance. Two types of theory of mind underlie social and academic language skills: interpersonal and intrapersonal. In this article, the authors describe strategies for developing interpersonal and intrapersonal theory of mind abilities with the goal of promoting the inferencing skills essential for comprehension of social and academic language.

The Effects Of Visual Representations On Teacher Training Of Phonological Awareness Principles, Rachel Kennedy Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Teachers are now being held to high accountability standards in reading instruction, yet studies show that teachers lack adequate knowledge in reading and phonological awareness principles (Moats, 1994, 2009; Spencer, Schuele, Guillot, & Lee, 2008). The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of visual representations of letter/sound production (i.e., Phonic Faces, Norris, 2001) on improving teacher knowledge of phonological awareness principles, and to determine if there is a concomitant improvement in phonological awareness and reading acquisition for children in those classrooms. Seventeen kindergarten teachers from a Mississippi school were pretested on phonological awareness principles, then divided into …

Effect Of Group Aphasia Treatment On Word Retrieval Skills, Claire Renee Zimmerman

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT The present single subject study investigated the treatment effects of group aphasia treatment (GAT) on word retrieval skills. Two participants participated in 1.5 hours of GAT, two times a week for 17 sessions. Both participants demonstrated significant improvements in percent of correct responses, but theses gains were not maintained. Slight improvements were noted on the Boston Naming Test (BNT; Kaplan et al., 2001) in one participant, but not the other. Both participants demonstrated improvement in discourse as evidenced by percent correct information units (CIUs; Nicholas & Brookshire, 1993) and in functional communication abilities as evidenced by the ASHA Functional …

Effects On L1 During Early Acquisition Of L2: Speech Changes In Spanish At First English Contact, Christina E. Gildersleeve-Neumann, Elizabeth D. Peña, Barbara L. Davis, Ellen S. Kester

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to …