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The Relationship Of Depression To Associations And Immediate Recall, Karen Eggen Gundersen

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Motivational Differences Between Depressed And Nondepressed Students In Detecting Noncontingency, Gerald D. Oster

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of learned helplessness assigns a mediating role to the recognition that events may be unrelated. However, current representation of individuals as "intuitive statisticians" unveils a lack of these information-processing abilities. This is particuIarIy apparent in the skill required to recognize noncontingent events. Similarly, in a series of experiments on the detection of contingent and noncontingent events, Allo and Abramson (1979) demonstrated that this “illusion of controI” couId discriminate between depressed and nondepressed students.

In extending their research, the concept of "contrast effects," on animal Iearning phenomenon, was introduced as a competing motivational framework to account for differences between …

Components Of State Anxiety For Varying Levels And Dimensions Of Trait Anxiety, Dennis C. Donat

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research has provided support for a multidimensional view of trait anxiety to supplant the former unidimensional approach. Unidimensional measures of general trait anxiety have been found to be inadequate as predictors of state anxiety reactions across a wide variety of situations. As such, they are poor measures of general trait anxiety. The present investigation was conducted to examine the possible utility of a single anxiety trait score, summed from the subscales of the Stimulus - Response Inventory of General Trait Anxiety (S-R GTA), a multidimensional measure of trait anxiety, in supplementing the ability of individual subscale scores to predict …

The Effects Of A Transfer Of Stimulus Control Procedure, Probes, And Reinforcement On The Acquisition And Generalization Of An Intraverbal Repertoire, Steven John Braam

Masters Theses

A deaf, mentally-impaired youth was trained to emit intraverbal responses within the same response class to verbal stimuli which were presented in daily probe sessions (e.g., "food" evoked "apple", "bread","hot dog", etc.). Training consisted of a transfer of stimulus control procedure. If an incorrect response was made, the therapist would re-present the verbal training stimulus and immediately present a non-verbal prompt (picture) which evoked a verbal response. Since the transfer procedure was only Implemented contingent upon incorrect responding, it resulted in longer delays to trade-in for back-up reinforcers in sessions where mistakes were made. Correct responding Increased only as training …

An Analysis Of The Role Of Reinforcement Magnitude In The Transfer Of Stimulus Control In A Receptive Discrimination Task, Beverly S. Adler

Masters Theses

The role of reinforcement magnitude in the transfer of stimulus control was analyzed using a delayed prompting procedure. A delay was gradually lengthened between the presentations of the relevant discriminative stimulus and an imitative prompt. During one condition, the contingencies of reinforcement were arranged such that the reinforcement available for anticipatory and prompt-controlled responses were equal. During another condition, responses which preceded delivery of the prompt were given more reinforcement than prompt-controlled responses. Two subjects were exposed to these conditions in the context of acquiring a series of receptive discrimination tasks. Results were inconclusive. Mean trials to criterion showed little …

Developing A Verbal Repertoire Using Sign Language And Skinner's Analysis Of Verbal Behavior, Mark L. Sundberg

Dissertations

A series of experiments on the use of sign language with hearing, non-vocal, mentally impaired individuals was conducted. Several researchers have shown that such persons can acquire signs; but in a recent review of the literature (Pulton & Algozzine, 1980), the authors conclude that there was no evidence that a "functional communication system" was acquired and in only one case had manual signing become a primary mode of communication. The problem may be related to the issue that most of the previous work on sign training has been based on traditional programs of language instruction. Such programs often place an …

Ethology And Laboratory Animal Welfare, James A. Cohen

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

No abstract provided.

Stress: What Is It And How Can It Be Quantified?, T. H. Friend

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

An animal may be considered to be in a state of stress if abnormal behavior or extreme adjustments in its behavior or physiology are necessary in order to cope with adverse aspects of its environment. Methods used to determine if an animal is stressed can be either behavioral or physiological. Behavioral methods may be highly erroneous due to their subjective nature since alterations in behavior do not necessarily prove that an animal is stressed. There is no single measure of stress that can be used in all situations at this time. Every measure must be critically evaluated to ensure that …

The Relationship Between Attributional Style And Learned Helplessness In Interpersonal Situations, Hedy L. Weinberger

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

An initial investigation was done to assess the relationship between attributional style and learned helplessness in an interpersonal situation. Forty female subjects were given the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) at the beginning of the semester and were called a month or more later to participate in a dating experiment. The subjects gave attributions for rejection and acceptance for the dating situations as well as their expectations for being accepted by each man. Depressive affect was measured at the beginning of the experiment, after the first rejection and after they were to assume a second rejection or acceptance. The ASQ was …

Self-Starvation Of Rats In Running Wheels As A Function Of Activity-Food Interval And Food Consistency, Ingrid Kalwas Stephens

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Rats under restricted food schedules are generally capable of maintaining stable body weights by reducing energy output. However, if they are given access to running wheels, they fail to respond with this adaptive strategy. Instead, they show an increase in activity and a paradoxical decrease in caloric intake, leading to the development of stomach ulcers and death. Since food-yoked controls kept in standard cages remain ulcer-free and survive, the formation of stomach lesions appears to be due to the combination of increased energy expenditure and insufficient food intake. The present study attempted to attenuate this self-starvation effect by providing more …

How Young Children Perceive Their Teachers: A Developmental Study, Mary Meta Lowe

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This is a developmental study of how young children perceive their teachers. The primary aims of the study are: 1) to provide a developmental picture of elementary school children's perceptions of their teachers, and 2) to determine the accuracy of teachers' awareness of the perceptions of the children. Instrumental to these primary aims are two subordinate objectives: 1) to construct a scale of reactions to teacher characteristic behaviors that are understandable for young children and yet meaningful to adults, and 2) to test the utility of the scale for obtaining measures of affect. Within each of two schools, approximately 15 …

Polydipsia's Contribution To The Temporal Discrimination Of Rats In The Development Of Fixed Interval Behavior And As A Function Of Fixed Interval Length, Linda Griffith Cruser

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

A two-phase experiment was undertaken to study the contribution of polydipsia, excessive water drinking, to the temporal discrimination of rats on fixed internal schedules of 60, 120, 180, and 300 seconds. In the first phase of the experiment, the timing accuracy of 12 rats who had access to water was compared to 12 rats who had no water. The rats were trained for 25 sessions on an FI 60-second schedule. In early sessions, before polydipsia was fully developed, no differences emerged between the timing accuracy of the water and no-water groups. As the amount of water drunk by the water …

The Psychological Relations Hip Between Dairy Cows And Dairy Cowmen And Its Implications For Animal Welfare, Martin F. Seabrook

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Stress On Livestock And Meat Quality Prior To And During Slaughter, Temple Grandin

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The effects of stress on cattle, pigs and sheep prior to slaughter are reviewed. Long-term preslaughter stress, such as fighting, cold weather, fasting and transit, which occurs 12 to 48 hours prior to slaughter depletes muscle glycogen, resulting in meat which has a higher pH, darker color, and is drier. Short-term acute stress, such as excitement or fighting immediately prior to slaughter, produced lactic acid from the breakdown of glycogen. This results in meat which has a lower pH, lighter color, reduced water binding capacity, and is possibly tougher. Psychological stressors, such as excitement and fighting, will often have a …

Effects Of Fixed-Interval And Random-Interval Escape Paradigms On Presession And Postsession Levels Of Corticosterone In The Rat, Duane Dregits

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Generalization In The Acquisition Of Autoshaping A Replication Procedure, Omar Mangrum

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Teaching Health-Related Behaviors To Young Children Through Social Skills Training, Mary Louise Stevens

Dissertations

Part I consisted of training four kindergarten subjects to make eye contact, assertive comments and assertive actions in reference to social and health-related situations. Training occurred on a one-to-one basis with an adult female and results were assessed with a multiple baseline design. Skill acquisition and maintenance were assessed by measuring ratio of eye contact to speech duration, assertive content and assertive actions on training scenes. Generalization of social skills was assessed by means of: (1) similar, but untrained scenes, (2) choice tests between products with and without sugar, (3) in vivo tests in the school and home environment, (4) …

The Repeated Acquisition Procedure As A Means Of Analyzing Rule-Governed Behavior, Margaret E. Peterson

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Review Of The Behavioural Mechanism Of Milk Ejection Of The Domestic Pig, David Fraser

Feeding Behavior Collection

The domestic pig has complex nursing and suckling behaviour, consisting of several distinct phases of suckling by the piglets and a characteristic pattern of grunting by the sow. A review of observations and experimental findings suggests cause-and-effect relationships between the different elements of sow and piglet behaviour, and the relationship of the behaviour to milk ejection. Characteristic features of pig nursing and suckling behaviour are interpreted as an adaptation promoting even distribution of milk among a number of precocious litter-mates.

The Effect Of Tone Frequency Spacing On Perception Of Order In Repeating Tone Sequences, James Raymond Comstock Jr.

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The "stream" hypothesis states that the order of repeating tone sequences in which the tones are closely spaced in frequency is easier for subjects to report, than is the order of sequences in which the tones are widely spaced. To permit a partial replication of prior tests of this hypothesis in the present experiment, a uniformly-spaced-narrow condition (sinusoidal waves spaced at intervals of 1/4 octave), and a uniformly spaced-wide condition (intervals of 1 1/8 octave), were used. Two additional conditions were created to test the hypothesis that a large frequency separation, or "gap," between the highest or lowest tone in …

Effects Of The Step Parent Education Program On Parenting Styles And Reported Child Behavior Problems, Patty H. Lee

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Three groups of parents were given a nine week parent education course using Dinkmeyer and McKay's Systematic Training for Effective Parenting. Three control groups were given no training. Pretest and posttest data were obtained from all six groups to test the hypotheses: Training with the STEP program will change parent attitudes toward a less authoritarian parenting style, and these changes will result in fewer problems reported by the parents in child behavior. Using Ernhart and Loevinger's Authoritarian Ideology Scale no significant differences in authoritarianism were found after training [F(1,5) = 2.45, p = .123]. Using McKay's Adlerian Parental Assessment of …

Semantic Information In The Long-Term Memory Traces Of Nouns, John K. Adams

Student Work

What is the nature of the long-term memory trace of an event or episode (Tulving, 1972)? Recently, several studies (MacLeod, 1976; Nelson, 1971; Nelson, Fehling, & Moore-Glascock, 1979; Nelson & Rothbart, 1972) have addressed this question.

These studies made use of the savings paradigm, which is based upon a well-known phenomenon: Relearning forgotten verbal material is often easier than learning verbal material for the first time. The term savings was used by Ebbinghaus (1885/1964) to refer to this relearning advantage.

Effects Of Reinforcement On The Iq Scores Of Preschool Children As A Function Of Initial Iq, Richard H. Weiss

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effects of tokens as reinforcers on IQ test performance was investigated in 45 preschool Head Start children. There were 63 children assessed using the Slosson Intelligence Test for Children (SIT), and based upon these scores, were divided into three IQ groups: low, average and high. There were 15 children randomly selected from each group and within each of these groups, subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Control (C) , Pretest experimental (E₁), and no pretest experimental (E₂). The C and E₁ groups were administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), Form …

Regulation Of Sodium Intake In The Mongolian Gerbil, Kevin Douglas Stark

Master's Theses

In the present study, two experiments were conducted to examine how the gerbil (Merinos Unguiculatus) responds to a chronic sodium deficiency. Adult male gerbils with a mean body weight of 79.81 grams, were maintained for a baseline period on a normal Purina Rat Chow and then they were placed on a salt-free diet. In addition they had ad lib access to a salt solution and water in a two bottle test situation. The saline concentration was cut in half and doubled to test for regulation. There was no significant overall increase in saline consumption (expressed as a percentage of total …

Touching In The Psychotherapeutic Encounter, Kim Glaser Selbert

Theses

This thesis explores the role of physical touch as an adjunct to psychotherapy, analyzing both its therapeutic benefits and potential risks. Touch, defined in this study as physical contact including handshakes, touches on the arm or shoulder, hugs, kisses, and massage, is considered a fundamental human need and communication tool that extends across cultures and species. Drawing from psychological literature, developmental research, and the history of therapeutic practice, the study traces how touch has evolved in psychotherapy—from pre-Freudian physical treatments to Freud's rejection of touch in favor of neutrality, and to contemporary views that embrace limited, intentional touch as therapeutic. …

The Imitation Of Prosocial Behaviors In Children: The Effects Of Peer And Adult Models And Vicarious Reinforcement, Richard Louis Sanok

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the present laboratory study was to investigate the relative effects of sharing and nonsharing peer and adult models on the facilitation of prosocial behaviors with and without reinforcement to the model. One hundred and sixty second and third grade children served as subjects and were randomly assigned to six treatment groups and one control group. For replication purposes, half of the subjects participated in each condition prior to the second half doing so.

Children in the treatment groups viewed videotaped sequences portraying both a male and female model sharing or not sharing tokens with poor children. Models …

The Voyage Of Consciousness In People, Deborah M. Rogers

Theses

The Voyage of Consciousness in People explores the complex, layered development of human consciousness through a psychological and spiritual framework rooted in transpersonal and yogic traditions. Deborah M. Rogers presents consciousness as a dynamic process, best understood as a "voyage" through a spectrum of internal experiences and developmental stages. Drawing heavily on Eastern philosophy—particularly the chakra system of Tantric Yoga—she maps human awareness across seven levels: Physical, Affect, Effect, Mental, Ego, Transpersonal, and Pure Consciousness. Each level correlates with one of the seven major chakras and includes a progression through seven depths or "bands" of consciousness, adapted from Ken Wilber’s …

Primary Representational Systems As A Basis For Improved Comprehension And Communication, Alan Thomas "Chip" Mattar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the usefulness of primary representational systems (prs) as a basis for improved comprehension and communication. Primary representational systems were discussed as being cognitive representations of experience which are revealed through auditory (A), visual (V), or kinesthetic (K) language.

Specifically, this study tested Bandler and Grinder's assumption that an identified A, V, or K individual would better comprehend a communication which contained predicates representative of that individual's prs. Comprehension was operationalized into general information (GI) and specific predicate usage (SPU) segments in order to isolate possible group differences on this dimension.

A total …

The Translation Of Elementary Principles Of Behavior From English To Persian, Kambiz Alavi

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

State-Trait Anxiety And Incidental Learning Of Shapes And Colors In Learning Disabled Adolescents, Ladonna Gail Cabell

Master's Theses

The present study attempted to examine the effects of anxiety on incidental learning of colors and shapes. The central task was the learning of six eve syllables with meaningfulness association values between 2.41 and 2.49. The incidental taslc was the learning of the color or shape that the syllable was printed on. The subjects were thirty-four male and female adolescents identified as learning disabled. The subjects were divided into three anxiety groups (high, medium and low) using Spielberger's State­ Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results· indicated that anxiety (state or trait) had no significant effect on incidental learning in adolescent subjects. …