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Preschool Executive Control And Adolescent Dietary Outcomes: Highlighting The Role Of Context, Marla Lopez

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Research has identified executive control (EC) as an important predictor of dietary outcomes among youth. Executive control in preschool age has been shown to predict important outcomes across development for youth, indicating that good, foundational EC abilities are associated with successful development in later life. Dietary outcomes across adolescence, an important transitional period for establishing healthy eating behaviors, are understudied. Therefore, the current study sought to link two critical developmental periods, examining how preschool EC is associated with dietary trajectories across adolescence. Further, the study aimed to identify how contextual factors, specifically indices of socio-economic status and the home and …

Psychophysiological Insights Into Child-Centered Play Therapy For Trauma: A Case Study, Kristi L. Perryman, Samantha Robinson, Timothy J. Schoonover, Julia Conroy

Counseling, Leadership, and Research Methods Faculty Publications and Presentations

Existing literature thoroughly reviews the detrimental consequences that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have physically, emotionally, neurobiologically, and financially. It is imperative to develop effective treatments that offer a sense of hope to children who have been impacted. The established relationship between high ACE scores and physiological hyperarousal due to emotional dysregulation is clear in the literature. This relationship indicates that taking psychophysiological measures may be an effective method of gauging the effectiveness of trauma treatments. This study measured the heart rate of a child who had experienced multiple ACEs, during 16 child-centered play therapy (CCPT) sessions, using the Empatica (E4) …

High Fat Diet & Social Isolation: Interactive Effects On Pain, Cognition, & Neuroinflammation, Ian M. Campuzano

Research Psychology Theses

Prior research has established a role for both social isolation and exposure to high fat Western diets in altering a range of behaviors from reduced memory performance to increased depression-like behaviors. The present study scrutinizes the interplay among these variables during the peri-adolescent developmental phase, utilizing Long-Evans rats as the experimental model. Our overarching hypothesis is that rats exposed to either social isolation, a high-fat diet, or both will result in heightened pain sensitivity, diminished cognitive flexibility, and increased neuroinflammatory responses within brain regions implicated in sociability, cognition, memory, and pain processing. Behavioral flexibility will be assessed using a maze-based …

The Role Of 5-Ht6 Receptor Activation In Learning Consolidation, Jasmine Alyssa Robinson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The focus on serotonergic dysfunction as a contributor to cognitive deficits in disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and schizophrenia drives researchers to investigate the functional impact of specific serotonin receptor types on executive functioning. By discerning the potential enhancement or impairment effects, this endeavor seeks to unravel the complex interplay between serotonin receptors and cognitive abilities. Specifically, within the three domains of learning, acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval, we find serotonergic modulation to be pivotal. Recent studies have highlighted the 5-HT6 receptor as a novel target for cognitive enhancement. However, the majority of the research investigates the effects …

Facilitating Parental Scaffolding Of Joint Book Reading With Toddlers, Tiffany Pempek Rahl

Dissertations, 2020-current

Developmental research confirms the importance of early parental language input for building children’s vocabulary and language skills (Hart & Risley, 1995). While reading with a caregiver is a common way for language input to occur, the approaches parents utilize often fail to capitalize on techniques for improving language and pre-literacy skills (Huebner & Meltzoff, 2005). The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of embedding tips for scaffolding parent reading strategies into a children’s book. Thirty-eight parent-child dyads participated in a 2-week intervention. Families were randomly assigned to receive either a book with embedded tips (experimental condition) or …

Factors That Help And Hinder Experience Of Reflective Functioning In An Attachment-Based Intervention: An Enhanced Critical Incident Technique Analysis Of Parents’ Experiences, Shelly-Ann Peart James

Dissertations, 2020-current

This study explored parents’ experiences as it relates to their capacity to think about their child’s thinking and feeling, Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF), an attachment theory construct. PRF was explored in the context of an attachment-based intervention, the Secure Child Program (SCP), that focuses on children and their families. Parents’ voices were centered in this study through the employment of narrative research methodology, specifically, the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique. Participants consisted of seven parents within the SCP. A semi-structured interview developed for the study was informed by extant measures of PRF. Findings indicate helping and hindering categories with the vast …

Informed Consent Document Delivery: Effects On Appalachian Caregivers' Comprehension, Trust In Researchers, And Willingness To Participate, Tess A. Simpson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether altering an informed consent document (ICD), in ways that either promote or inhibit accessibility, would affect potential participants’ willingness to participate in a child development laboratory-based study. Specifically, I was interested in assessing the willingness to participate of historically underrepresented groups, especially Appalachian caregiver-child dyads. I altered three parameters of a previously approved and employed ICD to explore whether these parameters impacted Appalachian caregivers’ comprehension of the study, willingness to participate, and trust in the researchers. The manipulated parameters included reading level, utilization of illustrative pictures, and inclusion of text-to-speech …

Serotonin 1a Receptor Modulation On Behavioral Flexibility In Btbr And C57bl/6j Mice, Cassandra Cavazos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by a subset of symptoms known as restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs). RRBs are categorized into both lower order and higher order RRBs, where the latter can be described as behavioral inflexibility. The BTBR T+ tf/J (BTBR) mouse strain has been an extensively used animal model that demonstrate the behavioral symptoms of these individuals, including inflexible behavior. Currently, there are few effective treatments for individuals with ASD that express RRBs. Past research has investigated treatments that target serotonin due its historic involvement in ASD. 8-OH-DPAT (8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamine) tetralin) is a research …

Praying To Tiktok, Seeking The Self: How Rhetoric Reveals And Conceals The World’S Most Powerful Guru Of The Postindustrial Age, Samantha L. Gillespie-Hoffman

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Imagine a world where the most powerful leader is a wellness guru that runs an elaborate church with millions of followers. The guru is so powerful that everyone believes they can read minds and make ordinary people rich and famous. The guru controls forms of communication, media channels, consumer tastes, and what people eat, drink, say, and even think. What if this guru was not human but actually an algorithm? Does this sound like the plot of a science fiction novel? I argue that this scenario is closer to reality than most will admit. In this project, readers encounter a …

Social Support In The Time Of Social Media: Predicting Gen Zers’ Preferences For In-Person And Virtual Support, Carla Mastroianni

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Increased usage of social networking sites (SNS) among young people, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, is well documented. Both positive and negative associations with SNS usage have been found. However, findings lack causal links and describe frequency of usage, applications used, and generalized descriptions of usage type (e.g., to connect with others versus consume content). There is considerable movement toward understanding SNS usage type and trends by subgroup—a precursor to better understanding which groups are using SNS for what purposes, particularly those more likely to experience negative outcomes associated with SNS. This study utilized a cross-sectional design to …

Spaces Of Progress And The Challenge Of “Mindfulness” In A Postcolonial World, M. Satish Kumar

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Progress implied both change and improvement in the colonial and postcolonial world. Such a concept of progress came to be enshrined in specific geographical places. The notions of development and underdevelopment in the postcolonial context thereafter supplanted this idea. Over time, while the structures of colonial domination dissolved, those of embedded regional inequalities came to be deeply entrenched, thereby urging for Thich Nhat Hanh’s approach to “mindfulness” in a “postcapitalist,” postcolonial world. The key question is whether postcolonialism has reached an impasse in its delivery and deployment of ideas across the widening gulf between the spaces of progress and stagnancy. …

Translational Approaches To The Neurobiological Study Of Conditional Discrimination And Inhibition: Implications For Psychiatric Disease, Susan Sangha, Jacklynn M. Fitzgerald

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

There is a growing number of studies investigating discriminatory fear conditioning and conditioned inhibition of fear to assess safety learning, in addition to extinction of cued fear. Despite all of these paradigms resulting in a reduction in fear expression, there are nuanced differences among them, which could be mediated through distinct behavioral and neural mechanisms. These differences could impact how we approach potential treatment options in clinical disorders with dysregulated fear responses. The objective of this review is to give an overview of the conditional discrimination and inhibition findings reported in both animal models and human neuropsychiatric disorders. Both behavioral …

Digitally Connected, Evolutionarily Wired: An Evolutionary Mismatch Perspective On Digital Work, Mark Van Vugt, Stephen M. Colarelli, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper makes the case for an evolutionary mismatch between digital work and the way human ancestors engaged in work. Psychological adaptations for producing things that early humans needed to survive and thrive, such as cognitive mechanisms for obtaining and processing food, toolmaking, and learning valuable working skills, evolved in the context of small networks of hunter–gatherers. These adaptations are central to understanding the significance of work in human evolution. Evolutionary mismatches operate when novel environments cue ancestral adaptations in ways that no longer provide adaptive benefits. We argue that digital work, although efficient and productive, is misaligned with some …

A Multiagency Approach To Animal Hoarding In Central Iowa, Gary W. Rasmussen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This research explored animal hoarding in Iowa using the qualitative method with the resource dependency theory and a case study approach. These cases were studied using multiple sources of information, from media reports in initial locating cases to court documents, to examine the results of each case. It examined how different sized law enforcement agencies’ investigations into these cases impacted the outcomes of the cases in sentencing and the use of mental health evaluations and treatments. It also explored the efficacy of how different sized law enforcement agencies investigated animal hoarding cases. The law enforcement agencies were divided into two …

Gpr171 Modulates Mood, Consummatory Behaviors, And Morphine Antinociception In A Sexually Dimorphic Pattern In Mice, Megan C. Raddatz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Receptors in the brain influence everything from complex behaviors related to mood, all the way to simple physiological functions like the way a person moves. Receptors are activated or inactivated by chemicals or hormones that the body produces or that are created to mimic the body’s natural chemicals. Of the hundreds of receptors in the brain, GPR171 is particularly interesting because new drugs have been created to activate or block the receptor, and are being proposed for the treatment of different disorders, particularly disorders related to pain. GPR171 has been shown to affect pain behaviors, eating, and mood-related behaviors, but …

Healing Through Caring And Knowledge-Making In Everyday Food Practices Among Lgbtq+ Black, Indigenous, People Of Colour, Elizabeth Grace Wong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Three different models are used in this study to understand how everyday food practices carry healing potential through the interwoven process of caring and knowledge-making. Daily food practices reflect a mixture of tradition and modernity— borne out of our roots and our contexts. Anzaldúa’s (1987) Borderland Theory helps us understand how this mixture is made by people who straddle two borders or worlds and contest those confines. Chavez-Dueñas et al.’s (2019) HEART model names strengthening our cultural and familial traditions and roots as part of the broader processes of building cultural consciousness and connection, and engaging in collective healing. Finally, …

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Factors Related To Outcomes In Depression Among Youth With Hiv, Betsy D Kennard, Larry K Brown, Kristin Baltrusaitis, Miriam Chernoff, Graham J Emslie, Jessica Jones, Sarah Buisson, Jaime Deville, Megan Wilkins, Amber Bunch, Chivon Mcmullen Jackson, Christy Beneri, David E Shapiro

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSE: This is a secondary analysis of a multi-site, cluster (site) randomized trial of the efficacy of a combined Health and Wellness Cognitive Behavior Therapy (H&W CBT) and medication management approach for depression in youth with HIV (YWH) compared to standard care. In this study, we explored the association between H&W CBT factors and depression outcomes after 24 weeks of treatment to discover treatment elements associated with symptom reduction.

METHODS: Participants (12-24 years of age) were YWH in the United States (US) diagnosed with moderate to severe depression [Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS), Clinician-Rated score ≥ 11]. Thirteen US …

Navigating Neuropsychology: Unraveling Anxiety’S Impact On Virtual Assessment With Older Adults, Hannah Henderson

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Digital technology plays a large role in our society and has for decades. Most recently, the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 jumpstarted more integrated use in daily living (Brem et al., 2021). The older adult population represents a minority of internet users; however, they are one of the fastest growing populations in their internet use (Gitlow, 2014) despite their hesitancy and related anxiety surrounding integration of technology into their daily lives. One facet of integration includes healthcare, particularly mental health and cognitive assessment. Cognitive assessments, also referred to as neuropsychological assessments, are particularly useful with older adult populations, as they can …

Species Vary In Within-Species Variability, Jennifer Vonk

Animal Sentience

Owens et al. (2024) add to the growing voices stressing the importance of considering individual differences in animal welfare and conservation. I advocate for an additional emphasis on the importance of between species comparisons of the degree of individual variation in cognition and emotion within species. A better understanding of the factors predicting within-species variability will help conservationists target their efforts. Additionally, I caution against invoking circularity in using “behavioural traits” to predict related behaviours.

A Human-Centered Power Conservation Framework Based On Reverse Auction Theory And Machine Learning, Enrico Casella, Simone Silvestri, Denise A. Baker, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Extreme outside temperatures resulting from heat waves, winter storms, and similar weather-related events trigger the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, resulting in challenging, and potentially catastrophic, peak loads. As a consequence, such extreme outside temperatures put a strain on power grids and may thus lead to blackouts. To avoid the financial and personal repercussions of peak loads, demand response and power conservation represent promising solutions. Despite numerous efforts, it has been shown that the current state-of-the-art fails to consider (1) the complexity of human behavior when interacting with power conservation systems and (2) realistic home-level power dynamics. As …

Ventral Hippocampus Mediates Inter-Trial Responding In Signaled Active Avoidance, Cecily R. Oleksiak, Samantha L. Plas, Denise Carriaga, Krithika Vasudevan, Stephen Maren, Justin M. Moscarello

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The hippocampus has a central role in regulating contextual processes in memory. We have shown that pharmacological inactivation of ventral hippocampus (VH) attenuates the context-dependence of signaled active avoidance (SAA) in rats. Here, we explore whether the VH mediates intertrial responses (ITRs), which are putative unreinforced avoidance responses that occur between trials. First, we examined whether VH inactivation would affect ITRs. Male rats underwent SAA training and subsequently received intra-VH infusions of saline or muscimol before retrieval tests in the training context. Rats that received muscimol performed significantly fewer ITRs, but equivalent avoidance responses, compared to controls. Next, we asked …

Leading With Joy: Lessons From The Literature, Jennifer A. Keach, Jenne M. Klotz, Galen J. Talis

Libraries

This article provides an introduction for library leaders at all levels to support equitable conditions for joy in the workplace, as well as for anyone who wants to develop their personal practice of joy through lessons discovered in popular, academic, and professional writing and multimedia. Joy has a place in contemporary libraries’ conversations about burnout, vocational awe, and care. The article begins with a guide to the annotated bibliography which explores five themes: defining joy, finding individual joy, work and organizational joy, empowering change with joy, and joy-adjacent emotions. The thematic guide may be read alone or used as an …

An Analysis Of The Development Of Cognitive Control In Young Children Within An Auditory And Visual Modality., Lauren A. Schiro

LSU Master's Theses

The Dual Mechanisms of Cognitive Control Framework (DMC) posits that cognitive control is directed through two different modes: proactive and reactive control. Proactive control involves the maintenance and manipulation of information in preparation of a response while reactive control would involve little to no preparation until after a response prompt. The AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) is a cognitive control task that is often utilized in studies looking at proactive and reactive control as it measures context processing and goal maintenance. The aims of this study were to validate the auditory version of the AX-CPT and to then apply this task …

The Influence Of Misconceptions On Pedagogical Choices Of Secondary Science Teachers: An Embedded Case Study, Tracey Beyer

Dissertations

This case study, using phenomenography within science disciplines, examines how educators' experiences with misconceptions affect teaching methods in high school physics, chemistry, and biology. Based on constructivist and interpretive theories it highlights that personal experiences shape learning and involve continuously reconstructing knowledge. The shared misconceptions of 13 educators across science disciplines reveal how those experiences influenced both their content knowledge and instructional practices. The findings indicate that educators who openly acknowledge and learn from their past experiences with misconceptions are better equipped to recognize and address gaps in understanding, an asset to furthering student learning. This research highlights the importance …

Seguir Adelante: A Qualitative Exploration Of Latino Farmworkers' Work And Non-Work Resources, Faviola Robles Saenz

Dissertations and Theses

Precarious work sectors within the United States have relied on Black and Brown labor for many decades. More specifically, Latino immigrant workers have been an exploited community within many dangerous workforces but especially within the agricultural industry. They are a crucial population for the labor and economy of the U.S., yet Latino farmworkers report feeling expendable, being discriminated against, and being exposed to hazardous working conditions. Due to these experiences, scholars have explored the role non-work resources have in providing support for this community, their social networks being especially beneficial for them. However, research on the links between their work …

Energy Safety Management: A Training Model To Improve Flight Safety, Juan R. Merkt, Matthijs H. J. Amelink, David G. Sizoo

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Failing to properly manage an airplane’s energy state can be unforgiving. Mismanagement of mechanical energy (altitude and/or airspeed) is a contributing factor to three common types of fatal accidents in aviation: loss of control in flight, approach and landing accidents, and controlled flight into terrain. Recognizing the importance of energy management, the Federal Aviation Administration has incorporated new elements into the Airman Certification Standards, emphasizing knowledge of energy management concepts and the consequences of mishandling an airplane’s energy state. Unfortunately, no adequate guidance has been available in terms of defining key energy management concepts or suggesting how these should be …

Cognitive Representation Of Mountaineering Risks And Its Change By Expertise, Shin Murakoshi, Kenta Mitsushita

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

Various risks exist during mountaineering. Appropriate representation of characteristics of risks is the basis of survival in such extreme environments. The aim of the present study is to clarify cognitive representation of risks of mountaineering and individual difference according to the experience by psychometric approach. Ninety-seven mountaineers, consisting of top-class leaders and prospective leaders who participated in the training courses of the National Mountaineering Training Center in Japan, were asked to evaluate nine target mountaineering risks repeatedly with nine judgment scales, and the responses were analyzed using three-mode principal component analysis (3MPCA). As a result, two types of risks, sudden …

Examining Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety, And Major Depression’S Symptom Comorbidity In Children And Adolescents: A Longintudinal Test Of The Multiple Pathway Model, Paige Picou

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Anxiety and depressive disorders are highly prevalent in and impairing for children and adolescents and are highly comorbid. Many theories have been proposed to explain this co- occurrence, with recent models postulating multiple pathways in which specific anxiety disorders and depression may co-occur both concurrently and over time. Unfortunately, little research has evaluated these pathways longitudinally across development in a community sample. The current study tested the multiple pathway model in a sample of 9 to 12-year-old youth (Mage = 9.48, SD= 0.51) at baseline and at two-year follow-up using a subsample of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development …

Peer Recovery Support Specialists' Attitudes Toward The Therapeutic Use Of Psilocybin To Treat Depression, Tammala Watkins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Psychedelic substances such as psilocybin are derived from various naturally occurring plants and fungi. During the 1950s and 60s, a great deal of research was conducted to examine the use of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions. However, research was halted in 1970 as a result of political and social pressure. Since 2000, there has been a renewed interest in the potential therapeutic value of psychedelics to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental health conditions. There has also been an increasing curiosity regarding attitudes towards psychedelics. While current attitudinal research has primarily focused on mental health providers, and patients, …

Using Behavioral Skills Training To Promote Online Safety Skills In Individuals With Developmental Disabilities, Robert Lynn

Theses

Abstract

Children are spending more time online, which is putting them at risk of encountering online predators. There have been attempts to minimize the occurrence of these encounters, but most of these involved instructional training and parent supervision. One alternative intervention for addressing safety skills that has been shown to be effective is behavior skills training (BST), which is a procedure based on behavior analytic literature. BST involves instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of BST on the acquisition of online safety skills in adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities. In-situ …