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Improving Conversation Skills In A Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Textual Prompts And Front-To-Back Fading, Emily Knox

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

A central characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are deficits in social communication, which often results in delays in speech and impairments in communication skills. The present study’s goal was to improve the quality of conversation skills in a seven-year-old diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A multiple baseline across behaviors probe design was used to teach the child appropriate responses in three conversation scripts about topics of interest of the child. The scripts were presented to the child using visual text prompts that were faded out using a front-to-back fading procedure. When the child met criteria for reinforcement, it was …

Does The Relationship Matter?: Empathy, Hostility, And Drinking Outcomes In The Combine Study, Anthony J. O'Sickey

Psychology ETDs

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a pervasive problem in the United States, costing approximately 250 billion dollars in 2010. Several decades of rigorous scientific approaches to treatment have yielded several effective treatments for AUD, however, the human and economic cost continues to rise. Recently, Moyers and colleagues reported that higher than average therapist empathy within-subjects was significantly associated with reductions in drinking following treatment. The finding of a within-subjects effect indicates that either a client or therapist characteristic may be responsible for the variability in empathy within client therapist dyads. There is evidence to suggest that client levels of hostility …

Habit Formation In Active Avoidance, Kelsey J. Burke

Theses and Dissertations

Two studies explored feedback value in avoidance learning using rats. We show that limited, but not extended trained rats were sensitive to feedback devaluation via counterconditioning. Identical effects on motivational transfer were obtained. These results suggest that maladaptive avoidance may be established in a similar way to habits of consumption.

Electrophysiological Biomarkers Of Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Impairment In Hematological Malignancy Patients, David E. Anderson

Theses & Dissertations

Multiple cancer populations frequently report cognitive impairment following treatment with chemotherapy agents (“chemo-brain”). Impaired neuropsychological performance is commonly reported in cognitive domains of attention and executive function. Understanding neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments is essential to developing prevention and rehabilitation strategies. Brain imaging studies frequently show chemotherapy-related impairments within the attentional control network, which is comprised of a constellation of cortical regions that govern reportedly impaired cognitive functions. In the current dissertation research, I developed a novel electrophysiology battery aimed at recording near-instantaneous neural activity within the attentional control network during cognitive task performance. Cancer patients diagnosed with hematological malignancy …

Evaluating And Mitigating The Relapse Of Undesirable Caregiver Behavior, Daniel R. Mitteer

Theses & Dissertations

The success of behavioral treatments like functional communication training depends on their continued implementation outside of the clinical context, where failures in caregiver treatment adherence can lead to the relapse of destructive behavior (St. Peter Pipkin, Vollmer, & Sloman, 2010). In Chapter 2, we developed a laboratory model for evaluating the relapse of undesirable caregiver behavior (e.g., delivering reinforcers following destructive behavior) in which we used an adult confederate who engaged in destructive behavior to simulate a treatment-adherence challenge. Undesirable caregiver behavior relapsed in three of four treatment-adherence challenges despite a behavior analyst using behavioral skills training (BST) to teach …

Discounting In The Pigeon: Food-Specified Conditioned Reinforcers, Matthew Wolf

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Discounting has been observed across a wide range of species, procedures, and reinforcers. One of the main differences in the literature is that studies with humans use money (conditioned reinforcer) as the reinforcer being discounted. This is in contrast to studies with non-human animals where the discounted outcomes are usually directly consumable like food and water (primary reinforcers). At present, there is no non-human animal equivalent to money that has been identified in the discounting literature. To further bridge the remaining gaps in the methodology, a common currency is needed to study conditioned reinforcers in the discounting paradigm. An adjusting-amount …

Attentional Processing: Replication And Extension Of Selection Bias As A Predictor Of Intertemporal Choice Behavior, Dylan Rutter

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Basic underlying mechanisms of discounting delayed rewards remain unclear (Green & Myerson, 2013). There has been evidence that attentional mechanisms (e.g., fixation and fixation duration) could be further investigate processes related to the discounting of delayed rewards (Franco-Watkins, Matteson, & Jackson, 2016). Franco-Watkins et al. (2016) was the first to propose a measure of attentional mechanisms in a discounting paradigm, known as selection bias. The authors found selection bias was positively correlated with choice behavior. The present study replicated selection bias using a titration procedure and Area Under the Curve scores. This study also analyzed selection bias across choice presentations …

The Effects Of Alcohol Priming And Alcohol-Related Cues On Subsequent Alcohol Preferences, Kathleen R. Owens

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of alcohol priming and alcohol-related cues on subsequent alcohol preferences. Researchers assigned randomly 35 university students to 1 of 3 conditions: alcohol delivered in a red disposable plastic cup (AC; alcohol cue; n = 12), alcohol delivered in a cafeteria cup (AN; neutral cue; n = 11), or alcohol placebo (P; n = 12) delivered in a red disposable plastic cup. Participants consumed their assigned beverages, and then completed the Multiple Choice Procedure (MCP), a procedure that allows participants to make discrete choices between a standard alcoholic beverage and …

Applied Behavior Analysis Function Based Procedures Contribute To Parent Child Interaction Therapy Child Outcomes, Melissa Grant

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Developmental disabilities affect nearly one in six children in the United States; up to 30 % of these individuals have problem behaviors causing stressors in both the child and their caregiver’s lives. These problem behaviors have various topographical and functional forms, such as property destruction, aggression, tantrums, self-injurious behavior, and many others. If these behaviors are not nipped in the bud during younger years they have the capability to bring about academic failure, alienation from typical peers and other adults, and in the longer term, substance abuse issues, and a decrease in functioning skills within their communities. Evidence-based practices are …

The Kids Are (Going To Be) Alright: Authorship Of A Post-Divorce Narrative, Caroline Hamby

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

This integrative literature review explores the suitability of narrative therapy for children ages 7-12 coping with divorce and family transition. Charting the history of research on post-divorce children, the review discusses common negative and positive post-divorce outcomes for children in academic, financial, and socio-emotional domains. It links the fundamental objectives of narrative therapy to the corresponding needs of post-divorce children and families, namely emotional security, internal control, and personal agency. It posits that narrative therapy is a modality uniquely situated to address these concerns and amplify the often-ignored voices of children otherwise lost in marital chaos. The developmental considerations of …

Hell On Earth: An Exploration Into What Drives Evil, Samuel Taylor Hogan

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Evil abounds. Even the most cursory glance at the news yields harsh headlines about bombings, school shootings, acid attacks, murder, rape, sex slavery, torture, and the occasional mass genocide. The 20th century alone featured roughly 135 million military and civilian deaths due to war and democide (White & Pinker, 2013). Recently, a cultural narrative has emerged proselytizing that evil is an aberrant, caustic mutation of the otherwise unsullied human soul. Philosophers and sociologists, among others, contend that “civilization needs to believe that it does not have an inhumane or barbaric side, leading members of the mainstream to constantly project unacceptable …

Evaluating The Benefits Of Art Therapy Interventions With Grieving Children, Meagan Dye

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Art therapy has numerous benefits when working with a variety of populations and many studies support the efficacy of art and art therapy interventions. This research paper aims to specifically assess the impact of a formal, semi-structured, individual art therapy intervention with grieving children. The researcher reviewed the records of thirteen clients who worked with three art therapists at a small palliative care agency in Central Virginia. Clients were between the ages of 5-18 years old and were assessed to gauge their positive and negative affect before the art therapy intervention and after the sixth session. Each therapist worked with …

Developing College Transition Supports Using Student Perceptions: Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Arsenio Moss

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

In recent years, there has been an increase in students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) enrolled four-year institutions in the United States. Current but inconclusive estimates state that between 2% and 8% of college students report clinically significant levels of ADHD (DuPaul Weyandt, O'Dell, & Varejao, 2009). The nature of the disorder and demands of higher education put these students at risk for several academic and mental health issues while in college. The purpose of the current research was to obtain information from current college students with ADHD about their college transition and adjustment experiences and use their perspectives in …

Contributory Factors Of Well-Being In New Mothers: An Exploratory Study, Molly Bowman

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The focus of maternal postpartum care has shifted in the past fifty years. Initially, medical doctors analyzed the physical well-being of the infant, and little attention was paid to the mother's recovery outside of physical wellness. Although knowledge of postpartum ailments, both psychological and physical are now pervasive, there are few measures that directly assess the factors that contribute to a mother's well-being and/or speak to her approach to parenting from the initial stages. Specific links from childhood, psychosocial factors, current relationship with spouses, and pain experienced as a result of childbirth are just a few examples of the elements …

In Search Of Equality: Developing An Equal Interval Likert Response Scale, Elisabeth M. Spratto

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Attitude scales are an important component of educational and psychological research. One consideration when seeking to make valid inferences from attitudinal data is the issue of the degree to which response options can be assumed to have equal intervals. Many response options on attitudinal measures may produce ordinal-level data rather than interval. This poses a problem for the statistical tests that may be used, as many analyses assume interval-level data. It also poses an interpretational issue if the conceptual distance between response options is not the same – for example, if a researcher believes that someone who answered Agree differs …

On Hold: Relationships In The Age Of Mobile Phone Distraction, Isabel M. Bourget

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Interpersonal communication has been transformed by the more than 70 percent of adults who own smartphones (Greenwood, Perrin & Duggan, 2016) and other forms of portable technology. It is now more convenient than ever to stay in touch, find lost friends, and access constantly updated information online, but research has linked mobile phone use to decreased relationship and interaction quality. For example, McDaniel and Coyne (2016) found that self-reported technology use among married couples predicted more partner conflict and less relationship satisfaction, particularly for women. Brown, Manago and Trimble (2016) found similar results in that the more friend dyads were …

Time Course Of Brain Network Reconfiguration Supporting Inhibitory Control, Tzvetan Popov, Britta U. Westner, Rebecca L. Silton, Sarah M. Sass, Jeffrey M. Speilberg, Brigitte Rockstroh, Wendy Heller, Gregory A. Miller

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Hemodynamic research has recently clarified key nodes and links in brain networks implementing inhibitory control. Although fMRI methods are optimized for identifying the structure of brain networks, the relatively slow temporal course of fMRI limits the ability to characterize network operation. The latter is crucial for developing a mechanistic understanding of how brain networks shift dynamically to support inhibitory control. To address this critical gap, we applied spectrally resolved Granger causality (GC) and random forest machine learning tools to human EEG data in two large samples of adults (test sample n = 96, replication sample n = 237, total N …

Spontaneous Thought And Goal Pursuit: From Functions Such As Planning To Dysfunctions Such As Rumination, Eric Klinger, Ernest H.W. Koster, Igor Marchetti

Psychology Publications

Spontaneous thoughts occur by default in the interstices between directed, task-oriented thoughts or moments of perceptual scrutiny. Their contents are overwhelmingly related to thinkers’ current goals, either directly or indirectly via associative networks, including past and future goals. Their evocation is accompanied by emotional responses that vary widely in type, valence, and intensity. Given these properties of thought flow, spontaneous thoughts are highly adaptive as (1) reminders of the individual’s larger agenda of goals while occupied with pursuing any one of them, (2) promotion of planning for future goal pursuits, (3) deeper understanding of past goal-related experiences, and (4) development …

Ai-Human Collaboration Via Eeg, Adam Noack

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

As AI becomes ever more competent and integrated into our lives, the issue of AI-human goal misalignment looms larger. This is partially because there is often a rift between what humans explicitly command and what they actually mean. Most contemporary AI systems cannot bridge this gap. In this study we attempted to reconcile the goals of human and machine by using EEG signals from a human to help a simulated agent complete a task.

Sex Differences In Aripiprazole Sensitization From Adolescence To Adulthood, Elizabeth Freeman, Joanne Lin, Shinnyi Chow, Collin Davis, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study investigated the potential sex differences in repeated aripiprazole (ARI) treatment-induced behavioral sensitization from adolescence to adulthood, and to determine whether ARI sensitization can be transferred to olanzapine (OLZ) and/or clozapine (CLZ) using the conditioned avoidance response (CAR) and phencyclidine-induced (PCP) hyperlocomotion tests of antipsychotic activity. Male and female Sprague-Dawley adolescence rats (P46) were first treated with ARI (10 mg/kg) for 5 consecutive days (P46–50) and tested for avoidance response and ARI-induced inhibition of PCP-induced hyperlocomotion. After they became adults (>P68), rats were challenged with ARI (1.5 mg/kg, sc) (P70), OLZ (0.5 mg/kg, sc; P73), CLZ (5 …

Differential Impact Of Psychological And Physiological Health Outcomes On Long-Term Associative Recognition, James D. Schaeffer

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Evidence suggests that lifestyle and environmental factors may contribute to later life cognitive decline and dementia. Although there is a large amount of evidence linking psychological and physiological factors to general memory performance, little focus has been given to specific memory systems. The present study was designed to investigate relationships between psychophysiological health predictors and recollection and familiarity processes of recognition memory. We hypothesized that these recognition processes may be differentially impacted by the included health variables. The present study involved 96 relatively healthy young adults between 17 and 25 years old. Health measures included visceral obesity (waist-to-hip ratio), heart …

Crowdsourcing Consciousness: You Think, Therefore I Am, Justin M. Campbell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The challenge to understand consciousness is a centuries-old interdisciplinary research program. The search entails fundamental questions about our nature - the desire to understand who we are has been around for nearly as long as experience itself. It is also one of the most important questions we can ask; meaning itself is predicated on having some sort of conscious experiencer for whom something can matter. Given the magnitude and intractability of explaining the paradox of how consciousness can be at once the most obvious thing in the universe, and also the most inaccessible, the endeavor is a tremendous undertaking. Until …

Changing Nonhuman Impulsive Choice, C. Renee Renda

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Preference for smaller-sooner over larger-later rewards characterizes one type of impulsivity—impulsive choice. Impulsive choice is related to a number of maladaptive behaviors including substance abuse, pathological gambling, and poor health behaviors. As such, interventions designed to reduce impulsive choice may have therapeutic benefits. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore two methods to change nonhuman impulsive choice. In doing so, we hope to provide a baseline that future research can use to assess variables that are less amenable to human research (e.g., drug self-administration following reductions in impulsive choice). In Chapter 2, we failed to reduce nonhuman impulsive choice …

Lifetime Estrogen Exposure And Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor: Implications For Cognitive Decline In Late Life, Joshua M. Matyi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Cache County Study on Memory in Aging (CCSMA) is a longitudinal population-based study which took place in Cache County, Utah. The study followed 5092 older-adult residents (aged 65+) for approximately 12 years to examine risk and protective factors for dementia. Participants completed dementia screening and follow-up assessments across four triennial visits. Additionally, researchers gathered information regarding demographics, reproductive history (e.g. age of menopause; hormone replacement therapy [HRT]) and other health-related factors, such as physical activity. Genotyping of DNA was completed for a genetic variation of genes for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein found in the brain associated with …

The Impact Of Reinforcement Contingency On Interresponse Time Variability In Rats, Jarod Clark Roberts

Student Theses and Dissertations

Current research in the area of operant variability suggests that response variability can be controlled by operant reinforcement; however, there have been few studies of variation in timing of responses. To investigate the latter phenomenon, five female Wistar rats were exposed to a series of contingencies in which subjects were required to vary the times between lever press responses in order to obtain reinforcement. After a baseline condition, rats were exposed to three increasingly demanding variability contingencies with a return to baseline following each, and finally a comparison phase in which reinforcement probability was limited. It was predicted that subjects …

A Change Of Heart: Internal Narratives, Forgiveness & Health, Keiko Ehret

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

In this thesis I investigate the interconnectedness of forgiveness as a narrative, as a philosophical, religious and cultural phenomenon, and the ways in which forgiveness is increasingly being used as a vehicle for improving health and psychological well-being. By threading together how scholars in a variety of fields have approached these areas of study, we can better understand the way the interdisciplinary nature of forgiveness grants access to heal not merely relationships with others, but also our bodies, our minds, and our relationship with ourselves.

Important to my investigation is understanding that the life circumstances that prompt forgiveness consist of …

The Ability Of Students With Dyslexia To Follow Sequential Oral Instructions, Crystal Hermann

Honors Theses

There seems to be differences between children with dyslexia and those without in their ability to follow sequential oral instructions. In this paper this possibility was explored by testing children with and without dyslexia on nine short term memory tasks that represented the different aspects that make up serial instruction. My hypothesis was that those students with dyslexia would have a smaller recall span than the controls for all sequential recall tasks. My hypothesis was not supported by the data; children in the control group only showed a significant advantage on three tasks: memory for items, non-sequential verbal memory span, …

When “Right Makes Might”: Moral Superiority And Its Effects On Decision-Making For Others, Emily Shakal

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Within the psychological literature of morality, little research has been done on the concept of moral superiority. The aim of this study was to determine whether a self-perception of moral superiority led to increased severity of judgment toward social issues and harsher moral action against perpetrators. Participants in the experimental condition were given a moral identity prime prior to all tasks. The results showed that the moral prime was not effective in increasing a sense of moral superiority in comparison to the control condition. Severity of judgment also did not differ between groups. There was no difference between groups on …

The Role Of Language In The Media In Influencing Public Perceptions Of Refugees, Alison M. Pulliam

Senior Honors Theses

The refugee crisis has become a worldwide epidemic in recent years. As refugee entrance into host countries is debated, media outlets are covering the issue regularly. These media outlets use various types of language when portraying refugees. Many publications have been found to convey hostile and divisive themes as well as use specific linguistic tools, which contribute to negative portrayals of refugees. Media outlets have the potential to influence public perceptions of refugees because the general public in a host country receives its information primarily from the media. Overt and subtle language used to describe refugees has been previously found …

Improving Operator Situation Awareness By Phasor Measurement Unit (Pmu) Data Visualization, Esa M. Rantanen, Ernest Fokoue, Jacob Haut, Chandini Ramesh, Kathleen Gegner, Thomas Overbye, Komal Shetye

Articles

The application of phasor measurement unit (PMU) data in the power industry is currently an area of intense interest. The key driver for PMU technology is to use the precise time sources provided by Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to accurately measure the relative voltage and current phase angles at buses across an interconnect at a very high sampling rate. Presenting PMU data to power system operators in a format that is truly useful for them and that affords improved situation awareness (SA) and fast and accurate decision making is a particular challenge to display design. This report describes development …