Digital Commons Network^™

Unresolved Issues Of Behavioral Analysis In Invertebrates, Charles I. Abramson, Paco Calvo

Animal Sentience

Crump et al. (2022) provide a framework for determining the presence of sentience in organisms. Their target article is interesting and thought-provoking, but it does not consider the many unresolved issues related to behavioral analysis – especially when it concerns invertebrates. We feel that no real progress can be made until such fundamental issues as the need for a consistent definition of conditioning phenomena, the lack of a generally accepted behavioral taxonomy, and the use of cognitive terms to explain invertebrate behavior are examined critically.

Does The Sentience Framework Imply All Animals Are Sentient?, Kristin Andrews

Animal Sentience

The eight criteria proposed in Crump et al.’s framework for evaluating pain sentience in decapod crustaceans are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to markers that could increase confidence in an animal’s sentience more generally. Some of the commentaries have already pointed out that pain is only one kind of sentience (Souza Valente). It has also already been pointed out that there are other criteria for pain that could be usefully added to the framework’s eight (Burrell). This expansive thinking about criteria that can be used to increase confidence in sentience raisess the question: in an expansive …

Distinguishing Epistemic And Moral Grounds For Legal Protection, Carlos Montemayor

Animal Sentience

The criteria proposed by Crump et al. are based on various cognitive roles associated with sentience. A subset of them may be sufficient for certain kinds of welfare, but the presence of all of them should be considered as clearly sufficient for substantial kinds of legal protection based on their relation to capacities that we consider essential for moral standing in human beings.

Unconscious Humans, Autonomous Machines And The Difficulty Of Knowing Which Animals Are Sentient, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Animal Sentience

The framework proposed by Crump et al. still leaves much doubt about whether invertebrates such as crabs are sentient. For example, many complex behaviours - even in humans - occur without sentience. Also, simple machines could easily meet all of Crump et al.’s eight proposed criteria for sentience. Acknowledging the limitations of what we currently know about sentience is important both for formulating legislation correctly and for advancing scientific understanding of this most puzzling of biological phenomena.

Sentience Criteria To Persuade The Reasonable Sceptic, Patrick Butlin

Animal Sentience

When presented with evidence that Crump et al.’s criteria are satisfied for the animals in some taxon, a sceptic could reasonably continue to suspend judgement about whether those animals are sentient. This is because the criteria refer to abilities which are associated with sentience in humans, but it is not clear that sentience is necessary for these abilities. The criteria could be strengthed by requiring evidence of a contrast in performance between cases in which information is carried by felt and unfelt states.

Spanish-English Bilingual Toddlers’ Vocabulary Skills: The Role Of Caregiver Language Input And Warmth, Perla B. Gámez, Francisco Palermo, Jordan S. Perry, Maily Galindo

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is a well-documented link between bilingual language development and the relative amounts of exposure to each language. Less is known about the role of quality indicators of caregiver-child interactions in bilingual homes, including caregiver input diversity, warmth and sensitivity. This longitudinal study examines the relation between caregiver input (lexical diversity, amount), warmth and sensitivity and bilingual toddlers’ subsequent vocabulary outcomes. We video-recorded caregiver-child interactions in Spanish-English Latino homes when toddlers (n = 47) were 18 months of age (M = 18.32 months; SD = 1.02 months). At the 24-month follow-up, we measured children's vocabulary as total vocabulary (English, Spanish …

Parenting, Neighborhood Characteristics, And Disruptive Child Behavior In Low-Income African American Families, Alyssa Buthman

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to further examine the multifaceted relationship between parenting, neighborhood characteristics, and child disruptive behavior. Examining data from a low-income, African American preschool sample, this study investigated how self-reported neighborhood characteristics and observed parenting behaviors uniquely predicted observed disruptive behavior in children. Findings supported the strong relationship between parenting behaviors and child disruptive behavior where parenting sensitivity and engagement were predictive of fewer child disruptive behaviors while verbal and physical parenting interference and intrusiveness was predictive of greater disruptive child behavior. Neighborhood characteristics did not directly relate to parenting or child behaviors. However, neighborhood characteristics …

The Impacts Of Reward Salience On Rate Of Learning & Extinction, Elise Crause, Mykayla Spurlin, Davis Eddleman, Lindsey Mathews, Sarah Headapohl

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Salience of rewards is a critical component to learning and motivation, without salience, motivation would be insubstantial (Berridge, 2012). This study aims to investigate the relationship between reward salience and rate of learning. Rate of learning will be measured by the number of correct lever presses within twenty-to-twenty-five-minute periods. Extinction will additionally be measured to further examine the impact reward salience has on learning. Using standard operant chambers, six female food-restricted rats were trained to lever press the left front lever to obtain a food reward. Rats were separated into two groups, (n=3 per group), an experimental group of rats …

Evolving Evolutionary Psychology, Darcia Narvaez, David S. Moore, David C. Witherington, Timothy I. Vandiver, Robert Lickliter

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Which evolutionary theory can best benefit psychological theory, research, and application? The most well-known school of evolutionary psychology has a narrow conceptual perspective (a.k.a., “Narrow Evolutionary Psychology” or NEP). Proponents of NEP have long argued that their brand of evolutionary psychology represents a full-fledged scientific revolution, with Buss (2020) recently likening NEP’s scientific impact to that of a Copernican or Darwinian paradigm shift. However, NEP stands on two traditions that are now the subjects of serious debate and revision: the neo-Darwinian adaptationist framework within evolutionary biology, and the computationalist “mind-as-computer” framework within cognitive science. Although NEP calls itself revolutionary, the …

Leveraging Developmental Psychology To Evaluate Artificial Intelligence, David S. Moore, Lisa M. Oakes, Victoria L. Romero, Koleen C. Mccrink

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems do not exhibit human-like common sense. The principles and practices of experimental psychology – specifically, work on infant cognition – can be used to develop and test AIs, providing insight into the building blocks of common sense. Here, we describe how the evaluation team for DARPA’s Machine Common Sense program is applying conceptual content, experimental design techniques, and analysis tools used in the field of infant cognitive development to the field of AI evaluation.

Transformative, Noetic, And Transpersonal Experiences During Personal Development Workshops, Helané Wahbeh, Cassandra Vieten, Garrett Yount, Agnes Cartry-Jacobsen, Dean Radin, Arnaud Delorme

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The global personal development market was valued at $38.28 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow an additional 5% from 2020 to 2027. Many of these workshops promise to be transformational. This secondary analysis study examined transformative, transpersonal, and noetic aspects of personal development workshops. We found that 74% of post-survey records endorsed that participants experienced a moment of clarity or profound insight during their workshop. In addition, 66% endorsed that participants had experienced at least one noetic experience, and 84% endorsed at least one transpersonal experience. These analyses provide preliminary evidence for the transformational potential of personal development …

Eliciting Awe In The Spectator: The Case Of A Dhrupad-Based Dance Performance, Alfonso Santarpia, Andrée Martin, Armando Menicacci, Pierre De Oliveira, Daniel Lemieux, Laurence Éthier, Caroline Charbonneau, Bruno Pucella, Christophe Flambard, Les Frères Gundecha, Louis-Charles Lusignan, Alice Bourgasser, Élisabeth-Anne Dorléans, Ariane Dubé-Lavigne, Angélique Poulin

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper describes “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” an immersive Dhrupad-based dance installation designed to elicit feelings of awe in the spectators, in a real-life artistic context. This study used a mixed-methods approach in order to explore spectators’ awe experience (N=45), using specific scales and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results suggested that “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” with its combination of nature motifs and the slow dance-walk associated with the Dhrupad music in the choreography, was able to produce awe-related moments in some spectators and inspire a degree of positive emotions. Our qualitative results viewed awe explicitly as a positive emotion and showed that generally …

Think Outside And Inside The Box:The Role Of Dual-Pathway Divergent Thinking In Creative Idea Generation, David Peterson, Marshall Pattie

Department of Business Management - Faculty Scholarship

The Dual Pathway to Creativity Model theorizes that creative performance arises from cognitive flexibility, persistence, or a combination of the two. Existing research has only examined these pathways independently, limiting our understanding of the model and of how people generate ideas. We extend the DPCM model by predicting that creative output arises from the generation of response sets containing both highly related (persistence pathway) and unrelated (flexibility) ideas, an idea generation strategy we call Dual Pathway Divergent Thinking (DPDT). In a study of 147 subjects, we propose a serial mediation model: people higher in Openness to Ideas use DPDT as …

Crossmodal Perception Of Object Shape: A Study On The Effect Of Modal Order On Successful Shape Recognition, Ashlyn Vale

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Visual and haptic (tactile) modes of perception, while occasionally exercised independently, most often occur concurrently. The degree to which the ordering of the two modes of perception affects successful recognition of three-dimensional shapes varies. Some have found that the cross-modal orders (vision followed by haptics or vice versa) produce equal performance (Caviness, 1964; Lacey, Peters, & Sathian, 2007; Norman et al., 2006), while other researchers found visual-haptic (VH) performance to be superior to haptic-visual (HV) performance (Davidson, Abbott, & Gershenfeld, 1974; Norman, Clayton, Norman, & Crabtree, 2008). The current experiment used an old-new recognition task (with cookie cutter stimuli). In …

Understanding Language Use Patterns Of People With Chronic Pain: A Novel Assessment Approach, Jodie Maccarrone

Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that 35% of Americans or 116 million people report experiencing chronic pain daily (Nahin, 2015). Due to the unique and individualized nature of chronic pain, successful treatment of this condition is difficult to achieve. The heterogeneity and complexity in presentation may help explain why, as all methods of treatment have fallen short of providing consistent and reliable outcomes (Finnerup et al., 2015; Lumley & Schubiner, 2019), resulting in unsuccessful treatment approaches that can lead to compounding negative consequences such as hyperalgesia (Garland et al., 2013) and even death (Scholl, Seth, Kariisa, Wilson, & Baldwin, 2019). As such, …

Doodling As Self-Expression: Building Self-Efficacy In Normally Functioning Adults, Journey Coward

Art Therapy | Theses and Dissertations

While previous studies identify doodling as a useful educational tool, this study sought to determine if doodling can build creative or emotional self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in their own capacity to express behaviors necessary to attain specific performance goals. The current study also sought to determine if doodling can be a form of self-care. Research collected was quantitative and qualitative using surveys to measure both creative and emotional self-efficacy along with a doodling activity. Ten participants were recruited through convenience sampling on social media and were included in the study after meeting the inclusion criteria of identifying themselves …

Perceptions Of Emotional Functionality: Similarities And Differences Among Dignity, Face, And Honor Cultures, Angela T. Maitner, Jamie Decoster, Per A. Andersson, Kimmo Eriksson, Adam W. Stivers

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Emotions are linked to wide sets of action tendencies, and it can be difficult to predict which specific action tendency will be motivated or indulged in response to individual experiences of emotion. Building on a functional perspective of emotion, we investigate whether anger and shame connect to different behavioral intentions in dignity, face, and honor cultures. Using simple animations that showed perpetrators taking resources from victims, we conducted two studies across eleven countries investigating the extent to which participants expected victims to feel anger and shame, how they thought victims should respond to such violations, and how expectations of emotions …

Does The Affirmative Consent Standard Increase The Accuracy Of Sexual Assault Perceptions? It Depends On How You Learn About The Standard, Abigail R. Riemer, Kathryn Holland, Evan Mccracken, Amanda Dale, Sarah Gervais

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective: Colleges and universities are increasingly adopting affirmative consent standards of sexual assault, in which consent is defined as conscious and voluntary “yeses” given throughout a sexual interaction. We examined the impact of affirmative consent standards on perceptions of assault and consent.

Hypotheses: We hypothesized that in sexual assault scenarios involving physical force or verbal coercion, exposure to the consent standard would increase perceptions of assault and decrease perceptions of consent relative to not being exposed to the standard. We then explored whether dehumanization of the perpetrator or the victim mediates the association between assault type and sexual assault perceptions …

Motherless Mothers: Attachment, Grief, And The Development Of Maternal Identity In A Sample Of Maternally Bereaved First-Time Pregnant Women, Ronit Grofman Margalit

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

This study investigated the development of maternal identity among maternally bereaved first-time pregnant women over 17 weeks of gestation, who lost their mother more than 12 months before their pregnancy. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among attachment-related avoidance, attachment-related anxiety, maternal identity, and grief reactions. Participants were recruited online via announcements on email listservs, social media, bereavement forums, and pregnancy forums. A cross-sectional study was conducted among N = 250 primigravida women who experienced the death of their mother at least a year prior to their pregnancy. Data were collected using online self-report measures. Attachment-related …

Applying Dialectical Behavior Therapy To Latinx Youth Experiencing Deportation Stress: A Critical Literature Review And Culturally Congruent Application, Desiree Curcio

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Deportation policies from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have harmful effects on the mental health of immigrant families in the US. These effects can be experienced at multiple points such as living in fear of deportation, undergoing ICE raids, becoming detained, or being deported. The children that witness these experiences of deportation within their families are impacted substantially. Some of the psychological effects of having a parent deported or detained can include internalizing and externalizing problems, attention difficulties, emotional and behavioral changes, interpersonal conflict, and feeling like a burden. While the impacts of deportation on youth are highlighted in the …

Memory For Emotional Expressions In Adults With Acquired Brain Injuries, Lauren Jeanne Radigan

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: Memory for emotions expressed by others forms the continuity that characterizes unique and intimate relationships. Successful memory for facial expressions requires the ability to remember the identity of the face (who showed the emotion) as well as the emotion (which emotion they showed). People with acquired brain injuries (ABI) frequently have problems with social cognition, which involves understanding cues that communicate emotional and interpersonal information. ABI is commonly associated with trouble perceiving emotional expressions and recognizing the identity of faces; however, research on memory for emotions after ABI is sparse. This study examined cognitive and emotional characteristics that contribute …

Differences In Performance Anxiety Between Expert And Amateur Dressage Riders, Hanna E. Benne

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Performance anxiety is a challenge most individuals in a sport face. From experts to novices in dressage, various individuals attempt to find harmony between horse and rider. Performance is a large part of dressage sport riding. This thesis will examine the following topics: the differences in expert and amateurs’ performance anxiety; the anxiety level of an expert or amateur who has been involved in a sport related injury; if the individual has a neurotic personality, whether more performance anxiety may occur while riding. A Mini IPIP five-factor personality test, Sports anxiety scale, Sports injury anxiety scales, and dressage questionnaires will …

The Role Of Individual Differences And Personality Factors In Distracted And Aggressive Driving Behaviors, Alyssa M. Holcomb

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Government reports indicate that, on average, more than 3000 people die due to distracted driving each year, accounting for nearly 10% of all fatal car crashes. Other reports claim that two-thirds of fatal car accidents result from aggressive driving. Previous research has been inconclusive regarding how personality impacts distracted and aggressive driving behaviors. Therefore, the goal of this current study is to fill the gap in the literature concerning the role that personality plays in distracted and aggressive driving behaviors. We also explored the role that distracted and aggressive driving behaviors played in accident involvement. A sample of (N=327) participants …

Effects Of Mental Health Disorders On Time Perception, Mirella S. Galliano-Rechani

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Research suggests a relationship between time distortion and mental health disorders, and the present study sought to examine this proposition. Prior research suggests that negative emotions are associated with the slowing down of time. Because mental health disorder symptomology is associated with more negative emotions, it was predicted that negative emotions would mediate the relationship between mental health disorder symptomology and time distortion. A survey was administered to university students that contained measures of anxiety, depression, emotional experiences, and time perception. Mental health disorder symptomology was found to be related to negative emotions. However, negative emotions and mental health disorder …

Automation, Take The Wheel: An Examination Of Factors Influencing Trust In Automated Driver Assist Technologies, James Ferraro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Driving technology has progressed significantly since the introduction of anti-lock braking and cruise control decades ago. Current driver assist features can alert drivers of oncoming vehicles and even take control to keep the vehicle centered within its lane. The level of trust that people place in automation can impact how they monitor and accept these automated systems. Previous research has shown several performance outcomes associated with improper calibrations of trust in automation. However, there is still a need to examine trust in the context of advanced driving technologies. Research has yet to sufficiently investigate factors influencing trust in assistive driving …

Dancing The Storm: Neurobiological Correlates Of Trauma-Related Psychopathology In Youth Resettled As Refugees, And The Efficacy Of Creative Arts And Movement Therapies To Address Trauma-Related Psychopathology, Lana Ruvolo Grasser

Wayne State University Dissertations

Exposure to stress and trauma activates key adaptive pathways, including the sympathetic adrenomedullary system and the immune system, which can result in long-term health impacts of trauma especially when experienced during sensitive developmental periods. Alterations in these systems are measurable through non-invasive methods including skin conductance response (SCR), fear potentiated startle (FPS), and inflammation. Research regarding the impact of trauma, and more specifically posttraumatic stress disorder, has primarily focused on adults, and there is a paucity of neurobiological research in displaced populations—like refugees—who may experience higher rates of trauma exposure and related psychopathology. The present study measured SCR to a …

Correlation Of Meaning Making And Complex Trauma In Women Trafficked For Sex, Brenda Louise Tracey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe trafficking of women and girls into the sex industry is one of the world’s fastest growing crimes against humanity. The psychological impact of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation on survivors has not been widely studied, creating a gap in the literature that merits further research to understand the processes of survivor rehabilitation and community. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between complex posttraumatic stress disorder and having purpose in life among U.S. female citizens who were trafficked into the sex industry. Frankl’s theory of finding meaning was paired with Park’s theory of …

Social Competencies And Social Skills Of Adolescent Females With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Mary Kniola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent disorders diagnosed in children and adolescents in the United States, many of whom experience peer rejection and are at risk for subsequent employment difficulties, depression and anxiety, school failure, and substance abuse. The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in the social skills and social competence of females with and without ADHD in 6th and 12th grades. The theoretical foundation for this study was Barkley’s theory of ADHD. Facebook, Qualtrics, and Prolific were used to recruit 80 parents, who were placed into four groups based on the …

The Relationship Between Types Of Workplace Trauma Exposure, Burnout, And Ptsd In Mental Health Workers, Armando Dominguez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Work-related traumatic exposure has been studied but has not been concisely defined in the widest range of research studying trauma exposure. Specifically, it is not known from previous research whether direct, indirect, and vicarious trauma exposure predict burnout and PTSD in acute care mental health care workers. The emotional processing theory was used as theoretical foundation informing this study as the habituation of response to stress and trauma has been shown to occur incidentally and cumulatively; the theory supports the concept of dichotomous and continuous type of trauma exposure over time. The purpose of this study was to use a …

Independence, Weight And Priority Of Evidence For Sentience, Elizabeth Irvine

Animal Sentience

This commentary maps out relationships of dependency between the criteria proposed in the target article (Crump et al. 2022), identifying the criteria that carry most of the weight of the evidence, and suggesting which criteria should have priority in research on sentience.