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Six-To-One Gets The Job Done: Comments On The Reviews, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff Oct 2006

Six-To-One Gets The Job Done: Comments On The Reviews, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff

Psychology Faculty Research

We are pleased to note that six of the seven responses to our article were marked by approval, and/or thoughtful contemplation, regarding our central theses—that the research said to support biological causation of mental disorders is relatively weak, and that the claims of drug effectiveness are often overstated.

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The Locomotor Kinematics Of Asian And African Elephants: Changes With Speed And Size, John R. Hutchinson, Delf Schwerda, Daniel J. Famini, Robert H.I. Dale, Martin S. Fischer, Rodger Kram Oct 2006

The Locomotor Kinematics Of Asian And African Elephants: Changes With Speed And Size, John R. Hutchinson, Delf Schwerda, Daniel J. Famini, Robert H.I. Dale, Martin S. Fischer, Rodger Kram

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

For centuries, elephant locomotion has been a contentious and confusing challenge for locomotion scientists to understand, not only because of technical difficulties but also because elephant locomotion is in some ways atypical of more familiar quadrupedal gaits. We analyzed the locomotor kinematics of over 2400 strides from 14 African and 48 Asian elephant individuals (body mass 116-4632 kg) freely moving over ground at a 17-fold range of speeds, from slow walking at 0.40 m s-1 to the fastest reliably recorded speed for elephants, 6.8 m s-1. These data reveal that African and Asian elephants have some subtle …

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Cognitive Benefits Of Participation In Lifelong Learning Institutes, Patricia M. Simone, Melinda Scuilli Oct 2006

Cognitive Benefits Of Participation In Lifelong Learning Institutes, Patricia M. Simone, Melinda Scuilli

Psychology

This essay examines the role of cognitive stimulation in maintaining high cognitive functioning in later life. Cognition is dependent upon brain function and brain function can be improved through physical exercise and cognitive stimulation. Lifelong learning institutes offer older adults a myriad of opportunities to enhance their cognitive function. These institutes are not unique to the United States and need not offer courses in any particular format in order to facilitate cognitive benefits.

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Paradoxical Facilitation Of Object Recognition Memory After Infusion Of Scopolamine Into Perirhinal Cortex: Implications For Cholinergic System Function., Boyer D Winters, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey Sep 2006

Paradoxical Facilitation Of Object Recognition Memory After Infusion Of Scopolamine Into Perirhinal Cortex: Implications For Cholinergic System Function., Boyer D Winters, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The cholinergic system has long been implicated in learning and memory, yet its specific function remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of cortical acetylcholine in a rodent model of declarative memory by infusing the cholinergic muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine into the rat perirhinal cortex during different stages (encoding, storage/consolidation, and retrieval) of the spontaneous object recognition task. Presample infusions of scopolamine significantly impaired object recognition compared with performance of the same group of rats on saline trials; this result is consistent with previous reports supporting a role for perirhinal acetylcholine in object information acquisition. Scopolamine infusions …

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Mother-Young Recognition In An Ungulate Hider Species: A Unidirectional Proce, Marco V.G. Torriani, Elisabetta Vannoni, Alan G. Mcelligott Sep 2006

Mother-Young Recognition In An Ungulate Hider Species: A Unidirectional Proce, Marco V.G. Torriani, Elisabetta Vannoni, Alan G. Mcelligott

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Parent‐offspring recognition is usually crucial for survival of young. In mammals, olfaction often only permits identification at short range, and vocalizations are important at longer distances. Following and hiding antipredator strategies found in newborn mammals may also affect parental recognition mechanisms. We investigated mother‐offspring recognition in fallow deer, an ungulate hider species. We analyzed the structure of adult female and fawn contact calls to determine whether they are individually distinctive and tested for mother‐offspring recognition. Only females (and not fawns) have individualized vocalizations, with the fundamental frequency as the most distinctive parameter. Playback experiments showed that fawns can distinguish the …

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Temperament And Character Correlates Of The Startle Reflex, Kristen Lee Godenick Sep 2006

Temperament And Character Correlates Of The Startle Reflex, Kristen Lee Godenick

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Some literature suggests that individual temperament traits can modulate the startle reflex. There is evidence supporting Cloninger’s concept of Harm Avoidance as being predictive of individual differences in reactivity to aversive stimuli. (Corr, 1997). Since this finding, a new version Cloninger’s measure includes character subscales that like temperament, have been proposed to modify the meaning of experiences, changing emotional reactions. High scorers on the character variables are less susceptible to excessive anxiety and tend to have neurochemical profiles that are not consistent with anxiety disorders (Gillespie, 2003; Tse & Bond, 2001; Peirson et al., 1999). It was thus hypothesized that …

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Efficacy Of Virtual Models In A Production Systems Course, Lawrence Whitman, Barbara Chaparro Sep 2006

Efficacy Of Virtual Models In A Production Systems Course, Lawrence Whitman, Barbara Chaparro

Publications

Wichita State University has developed an integrated set of virtual reality models of an aircraft assembly line. These models are intended to provide students an ‘artifact’ of industrial and manufacturing engineering by providing a realistic environment for initial learning and application. By utilizing a virtual model of the line, students are able to view the process and interrogate the process details, make changes and observe the effects, and gain a better understanding of the concepts and their interrelationships. This paper presents the method used to assess if virtual models (computer models of a real factory) lead to: improved perception of …

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Ordinality And Inferential Abilities Of A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg Aug 2006

Ordinality And Inferential Abilities Of A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg

Sentience Collection

A grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), able to label the color of the bigger or smaller object in a pair (I. M. Pepperberg & M. V. Brezinsky, 1991), to vocally quantify ≤6 item sets (including heterogeneous subsets; I. M. Pepperberg, 1994), and separately trained to identify Arabic numerals 1–6 with the same vocal English labels but not to associate Arabic numbers with their relevant physical quantities, was shown pairs of Arabic numbers or an Arabic numeral and a set of objects and was asked for the color of the bigger or smaller one. The parrot’s success showed he (a) understood number …

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The Effects Of Item Grouping On Test Reliability, Holly Mackey Aug 2006

The Effects Of Item Grouping On Test Reliability, Holly Mackey

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Optimal ordering of items on a multidimensional test has been the focus of several studies. In all but one study, previous research centered on measures of personality or opinion. The current study examines item grouping effects for a cognitive ability test. Two forms of a cognitive ability test containing four constructs (verbal ability, basic computation, number series, and spatial visualization) were prepared. Form A consisted of items grouped by construct, and Form B had items dispersed randomly throughout the test. The order of items within a construct remained the same for both forms. Tests were administered to 186 undergraduate psychology …

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Human Aggression And Sports Media Violence, Justin Wright Aug 2006

Human Aggression And Sports Media Violence, Justin Wright

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present study was designed to gain more perspective on human aggression and how sports media violence affects aggression levels. Anderson (1997) defined aggression as behavior that is intended to harm others or one's self. Anderson (2001) defined media violence as a portrayal of intentional harmful behavior directed at another person or the self. To define sports aggression, the definition of aggression must be manipulated slightly. The definition should be changed to a form of behavior intended to injure, whether or not an actual injury occurs, directed at an opposing team or opposing player to gain an advantage during the …

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The Role Of Cingulate Cortex In Spatial Learning And Pain Processing, Rebecca Weaver Aug 2006

The Role Of Cingulate Cortex In Spatial Learning And Pain Processing, Rebecca Weaver

Psychology Theses - Archive

Research implicates the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) mediates the affective component of pain processing but not spatial learning. The Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC) mediates spatial learning but not pain processes. This study investigated the roles of each cortex in spatial learning and pain processing. Lesions were made using standard stereotaxic procedures on 96 animals. Inflammatory condition was induced via carageenan. Animals were randomly assigned between both MPWT and PEAP followed by Morris Swim Test or vice versa in order to prevent an order effect. As hypothesized, ACC lesioned animals resulted in no spatial learning decrement, but showed no avoidance behavior …

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Social Familiarity As A Predictor Of Observational Learning In The Domestic Dog (Canis Familiaris), Lana Gent Aug 2006

Social Familiarity As A Predictor Of Observational Learning In The Domestic Dog (Canis Familiaris), Lana Gent

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Experiments utilizing observational learning in dogs are becoming more frequent, but few investigate the familiarity relationship between model and observer. Two experiments were designed to explore the familiarity relationship between conspecifics and heterospecifics. The first experiment utilized a heterospecific-conspecific training dynamic and the conditions of the experiment varied how familiar (familiar or unfamiliar) observing dogs were to the heterospecific and conspecific models. Forty-eight dogs were assigned to four conditions varying in familiarity of the human demonstrator and model dog. A separate control condition (n=12) were trained with operant techniques and did not receive demonstration or familiarity variables. Analysis of data …

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Learned Fear And Reaction To Novel Stimuli: Behavioral And Hormonal Stress Responses In The Maternal Rat, Brandi Nicole Rima Aug 2006

Learned Fear And Reaction To Novel Stimuli: Behavioral And Hormonal Stress Responses In The Maternal Rat, Brandi Nicole Rima

Master's Theses

The present thesis examines the relationship between reproductive experience and the behavioral, neural, and hormonal processes of learned fear in the female rat. Multiple research models indicate that reproductive experience functions to decrease the female's stress response in potentially harmful environments, thus providing her with numerous survival benefits, including decreased fearfulness, increased aggression, and refined hunting skills. Based on existing understandings of maternal experience and unconditioned fear, this study was designed to determine how nulliparous (no reproductive experience, NP), primiparous (one reproductive experience, PP) and multiparous (more than one reproductive experience, MP) rats comparatively respond to a Pavlovian paradigm of …

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Discriminating Between Cognitive And Supportive Group Therapies For Chronic Mental Illness, Sarah A. Hayes, Debra A. Hope, Lori S. Terryberry-Spohr, William D. Spaulding, Melanie Vandyke, Dirk T. Elting, Jeffrey Poland, Somaia Mohamed, Calvin P. Garbin, Dorie Reed, Mary Sullivan Aug 2006

Discriminating Between Cognitive And Supportive Group Therapies For Chronic Mental Illness, Sarah A. Hayes, Debra A. Hope, Lori S. Terryberry-Spohr, William D. Spaulding, Melanie Vandyke, Dirk T. Elting, Jeffrey Poland, Somaia Mohamed, Calvin P. Garbin, Dorie Reed, Mary Sullivan

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This descriptive and comparative study employed a Q-sort process to describe common factors of therapy in two group therapies for inpatients with chronic mental illness. While pharmacological treatments for chronic mental illness are prominent, there is growing evidence that cognitive therapy is also efficacious. Groups examined were part of a larger study comparing the added benefits of cognitive versus supportive group therapy to the treatment milieu. In general, items described the therapist’s attitudes and behaviors, the participants’ attitudes and behaviors, or the group interactions. Results present items that were most and least characteristic of each therapy and items that discriminate …

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Effects Of Anxiety Induction On Facial Recognition Skills Within A Sample Of Adult Victims Of Childhood Abuse, Kathryn M. Bell Aug 2006

Effects Of Anxiety Induction On Facial Recognition Skills Within A Sample Of Adult Victims Of Childhood Abuse, Kathryn M. Bell

Dissertations

Although it is well established that interpersonal victimization can lead to affect regulation problems, less is known about the extent to which childhood victimization impairs facial recognition skills. Most studies exploring this relationship have focused on emotion recognition (ER) in physically abused and neglected children. The degree to which these ER problems apply to sexual victimization and extend into adulthood is yet unknown. The current study examined the impact of physical and sexual childhood abuse on adult ER skills under a heightened arousal condition in 104 women with varying childhood victimization experiences. The relationship between childhood victimization and ER skills …

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An Evaluation Of Intraverbal Training And Listener Training For Teaching Categorization Skills, Anna Ingeborg Petursdottir Aug 2006

An Evaluation Of Intraverbal Training And Listener Training For Teaching Categorization Skills, Anna Ingeborg Petursdottir

Dissertations

Behavioral language interventions, such as those employed in early and intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) programs, target both expressive and receptive language skills. Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior provides a framework for analyzing expressive and receptive language in terms of stimulus control and reinforcement history. From this perspective, different expressive language programs target different verbal operants, such as tacts, intraverbals, and echoics , whereas most receptive language programs target a type of listener behavior that may be referred to as manded stimulus selection (Michael, 1995). Although EIBI curricula (e.g., Maurice, Green, & Luce, 1996; Leaf & McEachin, 1999) have frequently …

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Eating Disorder Risk In Subgroups Of College Freshman Women, Karen E. Gochnour Jul 2006

Eating Disorder Risk In Subgroups Of College Freshman Women, Karen E. Gochnour

Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this study was to identify subgroups within the college population having a heightened risk for eating disorders. The information for this analysis was retrieved from an existing data set. The two variables that were compared were self selection of college major at the initial collection during freshman year. The sample size of 1,924 was used to see if subgroups of college majors had a heightened risk. Twenty groups composed of similar majors were studied. The majors of Dance, Dietetics, Physical Education, and Communications had heightened risk according to analysis percentage of each group in the clinical range …

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Perception Precedes Computation: Can Familiarity Preferences Explain Apparent Calculation By Human Babies?, David S. Moore, Laura A. Cocas Jul 2006

Perception Precedes Computation: Can Familiarity Preferences Explain Apparent Calculation By Human Babies?, David S. Moore, Laura A. Cocas

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Two studies of 5-month-old infants explored whether a phenomenon reported by K. Wynn (1992) reflects a familiarity preference instead of a mathematical competence. Experiment 1 was a conceptual replication of Wynn's study. When data were analyzed with the relatively liberal statistical approach used by Wynn, the original phenomenon was replicated. However, an analysis of variance revealed that girls and boys behaved in different ways, and that boys did not behave as Wynn would have predicted. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, with one exception that should not have influenced computation: Infants in this study were completely familiarized with the …

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Sleep Quality Of College Students And Its Relationship To Coping Styles And Well-Being, Cathy Alison Word Jul 2006

Sleep Quality Of College Students And Its Relationship To Coping Styles And Well-Being, Cathy Alison Word

Doctoral Dissertations

College students suffer from more sleep disturbances than the general population. Sleep difficulties in college students can lead to lower levels of performance, memory, and cognitive ability, as well as increased levels of anxiety and decreased levels of well-being. Sleep quality is known to impact individuals' physical and psychological health, which are indicators of well-being. Sleep also appears to influence individuals' choices of coping strategies. Sleep quality is also highly correlated with college students' emotional response to stress. The relationships between and among sleep quality, well-being, and coping style have not been fully examined. The purpose of this study was …

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Audio Narration And Reading Ability In Programmed Instruction, Wendy Jaehnig Jul 2006

Audio Narration And Reading Ability In Programmed Instruction, Wendy Jaehnig

Dissertations

This study compared the effects of audio, textual, and audio-textual narration in a programmed instructional module on the performance of individuals with different reading abilities. One hundred eighty-four college students were randomly assigned to audio, textual, or audio-narration. Dependent variables were posttest score and instruction completion time. An ANCOVA was used to analyze the results, with ACT reading test scores as the covariate. No differences were found between the groups on posttest scores (p = .56) or completion time (p = .90), and there was no interaction between narration type and reading score for either dependent variable. Audio …

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Neuroscience Workshops For Fifth-Grade School Children By Undergraduate Students: A University–School Partnership, Judith G. Foy, Marissa Feldman, Edward Lin, Margaret Mahoney, Chelsea Sjoblom Jul 2006

Neuroscience Workshops For Fifth-Grade School Children By Undergraduate Students: A University–School Partnership, Judith G. Foy, Marissa Feldman, Edward Lin, Margaret Mahoney, Chelsea Sjoblom

Psychological Science Faculty Works

The National Science Education Standards recommend that science be taught using inquiry-based approaches. Inspired by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, we examined whether undergraduate students could learn how to conduct field research by teaching elementary school children basic neuroscience concepts in interactive workshops. In an inquiry-based learning experience of their own, undergraduate psychology students working under the close supervision of their instructor designed and provided free, interactive, hour-long workshops focusing on brain structure and function, brain damage and disorders, perception and illusions, and drugs and hormones to fifth-graders from diverse backgrounds, and we assessed the effectiveness of the workshops …

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The Influence Of Children On Family Purchase Decisions: A Phenomenological Approach, Usman Majeed, Nadia S. Banoori Jul 2006

The Influence Of Children On Family Purchase Decisions: A Phenomenological Approach, Usman Majeed, Nadia S. Banoori

Business Review

This study was conducted to understand the influence of school-going children between seven to ten years of age on family’s buying decision-making in the area of North Nazimabad. A sample of three children was chosen to be interviewed and were asked a number of questions related to their influence on purchase. Later, their parents were interviewed to counter-check their perceptions about their children’s influence. The results showed that children did exert some influence on decisions, especially in cases where the product was for their own use. Another result was that the level of understanding of the children was high enough …

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Aging And Associative And Inductive Reasoning Processes In Discrimination Learning, Courtney Ortz Jun 2006

Aging And Associative And Inductive Reasoning Processes In Discrimination Learning, Courtney Ortz

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate how associative and inductive reasoning processes develop over trials in feature positive (FP) and feature negative (FN) discrimination learning. Younger and older adults completed initial and transfer tasks with either consistent or inconsistent transfer. Participants articulated a rule on every trial. The measure of discrimination learning was the number of trials it took participants to articulate the exact rule. In the initial task, older adults articulated the rule more slowly than younger adults in FP discrimination and took marginally more trials to articulate the rule in FN discrimination than younger adults. Age …

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What Do Children Want To Know About Animals And Artifacts? Domain-Specific Requests For Information, M. L. Greif, Deborah G. Kemler Nelson, F. C. Keil, F. Gutierrez Jun 2006

What Do Children Want To Know About Animals And Artifacts? Domain-Specific Requests For Information, M. L. Greif, Deborah G. Kemler Nelson, F. C. Keil, F. Gutierrez

Psychology Faculty Works

Children's questions may reveal a great deal about the characteristics of objects they consider to be conceptually important. Thirty-two preschool children were given opportunities to ask questions about unfamiliar artifacts and animals. The children asked ambiguous questions such as “What is it?” about artifacts and animals alike. However, they were more likely to ask about the functions of artifacts, but about category membership, food choices, and typical locations of animals. They never asked questions about either artifacts or animals that would be considered inappropriate by adults. The results indicate that children hold different expectations about the types of information important …

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A Biopsychosocial Perspective Of Gulf War Illness: A Structural Model, Katherine N. Nguyen Jun 2006

A Biopsychosocial Perspective Of Gulf War Illness: A Structural Model, Katherine N. Nguyen

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Veterans deployed during the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991 report significantly more nonspecific symptoms and poorer health than their nondeployed peers. This amalgamation of chronic, multisymptom health complaints is commonly referred to as Gulf War Illness. There are two major theoretical models within the medical/health field that may help explain these symptoms: 1) the traditional biomedical model, and 2) the more recently evolved (late 1970’s) biopsychosocial model. Theorists have proposed two major causal pathways in studying the etiology of health complaints of Gulf War veterans, the physical pathway and the psychosocial pathway. In the present study, the biopsychosocial model was …

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The Evolution Of Thought, Jennifer Vonk Jun 2006

The Evolution Of Thought, Jennifer Vonk

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Female Hormonal Influences On Stress- And Drug-Induced Reinstatement Of Extinguished Amphetamine-Induced Conditioned Place Preference, Melissa Elaine Bleile May 2006

Female Hormonal Influences On Stress- And Drug-Induced Reinstatement Of Extinguished Amphetamine-Induced Conditioned Place Preference, Melissa Elaine Bleile

Dissertations

One Animal paradigm used to study addiction is conditioned place preference. CPP is achieved when an animal develops a preference for environmental stimuli previously paired with subjective effects of a rewarding drug. Women may experience greater drug sensitivity than men, most likely due to estrogen levels. The purpose of this experiment was to assess the effects of female sex hormones on drug sensitivity and their interaction with the primary factors causing relapse, stress or drug re-exposure. Female rats were ovariectomized and received replacement hormones to control circulating hormone levels. These groups of animals were tested for amphetamine (AMPH)-induced CPP and …

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Impact Of Environmental Disturbance On The Stability And Benefits Of Individual Status Within Dominance Hierarchies, Lynne U. Sneddon, Sophie Hawkesworth, Victoria A. Braithwaite, Julia Yerbury May 2006

Impact Of Environmental Disturbance On The Stability And Benefits Of Individual Status Within Dominance Hierarchies, Lynne U. Sneddon, Sophie Hawkesworth, Victoria A. Braithwaite, Julia Yerbury

Ethology Collection

Changes in environmental conditions affect social interactions and thus may modify an individual’s competitive ability within a social group. We subjected three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, housed in groups of four individuals, to environmental perturbations to assess the impact on dominance hierarchy stability. Hierarchy stability decreased during increased turbulence or lowered water levels (‘simulated drought’) whereas control hierarchies became more stable in a constant environment. The dominant individual either became more aggressive and remained dominant during the environmental manipulation or was usurped by a lower rank member. Only simulated drought affected rates of aggression where levels of aggression were higher after …

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Blood Volume And Hemoglobin Oxygenation Response Following Electrical Stimulation Of Human Cortex, Minah Suh, Sonya Bahar, Ashesh Mehta, Theodore Schwartz May 2006

Blood Volume And Hemoglobin Oxygenation Response Following Electrical Stimulation Of Human Cortex, Minah Suh, Sonya Bahar, Ashesh Mehta, Theodore Schwartz

Physics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

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Memory & Cognition: What Difference Does Gender Make?, Donna J. Bridge May 2006

Memory & Cognition: What Difference Does Gender Make?, Donna J. Bridge

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Small but significant gender differences, typically favoring women, have previously been observed in experiments measuring human episodic memory performance. In three studies measuring episodic memory, we compared performance levels for men and women. Secondary analysis from a pairedassociate learning task revealed a superior ability for women to learn single function pairs (i.e. words that are represented in only one pair), but performance levels for double function pairs (i.e. pairs that contain words that are also used in one other pair) were similar for men and women. We also reanalyzed data from a recognition experiment that used pictures as stimuli, and …

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