Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Skeletal Muscle Mass On Basal Metabolic Rate In College-Age Males 2013, Chase Vaughn

Master's Theses

There are many misconceptions within the fitness community. One such misconception is that an increase in muscle mass will have a large increase in basal metabolic rate, yet this may not be the best way for successful weight loss. The purpose of this study was to determine the strength of the correlation between skeletal muscle mass and basal metabolic rate. The hypothesis tested was that basal metabolic rate is strongly correlated with skeletal muscle mass. The participants were college-aged males (n =17). Skeletal muscle mass (SMM) was estimated using the skin-fold circumference model (SFCM): SMM (kg) = Ht (0.00744 CAG2 …

The Effects Of Music On Concentration, Logan Rizzo

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

This study covered the origins of music and discussed the various implementations of music into our everyday society. We still do not quite understand how one comes to have a preference for music, although through research we have made some really good estimates regarding how one chooses a favorite. Researchers have proposed the ideas that music preference is chosen based on context as well as overall mood of the listener, but suggest maybe there is a more in depth reason. Using the idea of musical preference, we have studied performance on a variety of tasks including, but not limited to; …

Associative Processes In Statistical Learning: Paradoxical Predictions Of The Past, Jennifer Patricia Provyn

Psychology - Dissertations

The ability to process sequences of input and extract regularity across the distribution of input is fundamental for making predictions from the observed past to the future. Prediction is rooted in the extraction of both frequency- and conditional statistics from the distribution of inputs. For example, an animal hunting for food may consistently return to a particular area to hunt if relative to all other areas visited, that area has the highest frequency of prey. In contrast, humans asked to predict the next word in a sentence must make a prediction based upon higher-order regularities rather than simple frequency statistics …

Bullying And Sensitivity To Rejection: The Role Of Individual Difference Variables In Social Exclusion’S Impact On Eating Behaviors, Karen M. Ramos

Psychology Honors Projects

Social exclusion negatively impacts health behaviors such as eating, and new research suggests that individual difference variables can influence the strength of its effects. Two studies examined whether prior experience with bullying is an individual difference variable that could influence ostracism’s impact on food consumption. I hypothesized that people with a history of bullying would be more likely to eat unhealthy foods than healthy foods after experiencing social exclusion, and that this group would likely consume more food after experiencing social exclusion. Neither study found that prior experience with bullying impacted the strength of ostracism’s effect on food consumption, although …

Does The Difference Between Handwriting And Typing Influence Memory Ability?, Ai Shinohara

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Technology has had a great impact on education today. Computer skills are necessary in order to complete many school assignments, and typing on the computer has become a main writing method for younger generations (Burnhart & Goldinger, 2010). Many college students bring their computers in the classroom, and more and more students have started to take notes by typing on their computer instead of handwriting their notes. The question to this convenient society is whether the new writing method, typing, affects students’ memory abilities in a classroom situation. The current study was conducted to determine if handwriting or typing was …

Intrinsic And Extrinsic Motivation: Abraham Lincoln As An Adult Learner, Warren Greer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Over the last two decades, research has identified factors that foster versus undermine human motivation and well being with important implications for learning and performance. Much of the research is concerned with intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation and autonomous versus non-autonomous learning environments. The data suggests that learning and performance are often significantly enhanced in autonomy-supportive environments that foster intrinsic motivational perspectives. This study examines the lived experience of Abraham Lincoln in the context of his adult learning motivation, forming a qualitative narrative around his adult educational experiences. It was hypothesized that Abraham Lincoln benefited from learning experiences with high levels …

91st Annual Meeting Of The Virginia Academy Of Science: Proceedings

Virginia Journal of Science

Proceedings of the 91st Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, May 22-24, 2013.

The Role Of Appearance In Perceptions Of Personal Trainers 2013., Patrick R. Boerner

Master's Theses

The field of personal training in the United States is believed to have begun in the late 1970‟s and the early 1980‟s (Brooks, 2004). Today, personal training is a healthy profession that, according to the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012), is expected to grow 24% (60,400 jobs) between 2010 and 2020. In comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012) predicts the average growth rate for all occupations within the U.S. to be only 14% during the same ten-year span. Rapid growth within the field of personal training has brought an increased scrutiny on …

Alleviating Obesity Bias: Does Information Content Matter?, Kimberly Mendoza

HIM 1990-2015

Obesity bias has become the most acceptable form of prejudice in American society (Latner, O'Brien, Durso, Brinkman, & MacDonald, 2008). Stigmatization of the obese has tremendous social and economic costs both for the stigmatized population and for society as a whole. Few studies have been done to show effective ways to reduce obesity bias. This study looked to expand the research on effective ways to reduce obesity bias. Using a between-participants experimental design, the present study investigated whether multi-faceted information content about the causes of obesity (including psychological, social, and physiological causes) would be more effective in reducing obesity bias …

The Effects Of Gender And Implicit Theories On Science Achievement And Interest In Elementary-Aged Students, Savannah Benningfield

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study set out to determine the relationship between student grade
level, implicit views of science ability, science achievement and science interest.
Differences by grade level were also explored. The study also considered the differences in male and female implicit theories of science ability, science interest, and science achievement. Participants in the current study consisted of a total of 1910 students from six elementary schools from one south-central Kentucky district that participate in Project GEMS (Gifted Education in Math and Science). Data were analyzed by means of analysis of variance and Pearson correlations. Younger students evidenced lower scores on …

Conceptual Distinction Between The Critical P Value And The Type I Error Rate In Permutation Testing, Richard B. Anderson

Psychology Faculty Publications

To counter past assertions that permutation testing is not distribution-free, this article clarifies that the critical p value (alpha) in permutation testing is not a Type I error rate and that a test's validity is independent of the concept of Type I error.

Picture Superiority Effect In Prospective Memory: Examining The Influence Of Age And Attention Load, Nicole Fink

All Dissertations

The picture superiority effect (i.e. better memory for pictures than words) is well established in retrospective memory, but the examination of the picture superiority effect in prospective memory has been underrepresented in the literature. Understanding if pictures lead to better prospective memory than words has the theoretical benefit of increasing our understanding of what particular factors lead to spontaneous retrieval and the practical benefit of informing the design of memory aids. Additionally, I examine if there are differences in ongoing task and prospective memory task performance between age groups (old and young) and under different loads of attention (non-divided and …

Lazy Thinking: How Cognitive Easing Affects The Decision Making Process Of Business Professionals, Gianmarco Armenia

Honors College Theses

This paper examines how business and financial decision making are influenced by behavioral biases such as cognitive ease, overconfidence, herding and the endowment effect. I do this in two ways. First, I show historical examples of irrational decisions and the detrimental effects on the individual, society, the company, and shareholders from these decisions. Second, I conduct a survey of business students to examine how susceptible they are to behavioral biases. I find that most students are in fact allowing cognitive easing to alter their decisions negatively.

Early Life Stress, Drug Abuse, Exercise Effects On Bdnf And Sex-Influenced Excercise Differences, Karissa Dold

Honors College Theses

In 2011, the U.S. reported 3 million child maltreatment cases, an uncomfortably high but recurring figure each year. Research shows exposure to early life stress (ELS) increases an individual’s susceptibility to substance abuse, specifically of nicotine, alcohol, and cocaine. Increased susceptibility may result from dysregulation of the HPA axis sustaining activation into adulthood after ELS. Hyperactivation of the HPA axis significantly reduces hippocampal BDNF, a neurotrophin involved in neuronal growth and plasticity. Reduced hippocampal BDNF may be a factor in substance abuse vulnerability. Additionally, research shows exercise protects hippocampal BDNF from stress induced down-regulation. To explore these relationships, this study …

Odor Sensitivity And The Presence Of P-Cresol, Jessica Mi Mckinney

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Olfactory function declines throughout the different stages of kidney disease. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients have experienced improved olfactory function after dialysis, leading some researchers to suspect uremic toxins as the cause of olfactory decline (Raff et al., 2008; Bomback & Raff, 2011). It is thought that p-cresol is the specific uremic toxin to cause a decline in olfactory function because it is not easily filtered out of the blood during dialysis (Meijers et al., 2010). The study sought to set up a control group for future studies by demonstrating p-cresol is not in the blood of healthy participants and …

The Relationship Between Alcoholism And Satisfaction With Life, Michael William Albert

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between alcoholism and satisfaction with life. The sample was selected from students and non-students at Montclair State University. The materials were two questionnaires, the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). The MAST had 25 questions and the SWLS had 5 questions. These questionnaires were given to subjects at a staged bake sale. The participants filled out the questionnaires and put the completed forms into marked boxes to preserve anonymity.

The data was analyzed by correlating MAST and SWLS scores. It was expected that there …

Comparing Grief As A Negative Emotion To Survival For Memory Enhancement, Sarah Pate

Psychology

The survival memory effect tested using a comparison of a survival scenario to the strong negative emotion of a grief scenario. The main hypothesis was that strong, negative emotions allow one’s self to relate to the scenario as it seems to do in the survival scenario. Strong negative emotions may outperform survival in a free recall memory task due to deeper levels of processing. Grief and survival scenarios were compared to a moving scenario that was used as a control condition. The three scenarios were each followed by a list of separate words to be rated on their relevancy to …

Rape Education For A Busy World : Creating A Brief Rape Prevention Program, Jessica Nilson

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Rape occurs too frequently in this country. What legally constitutes rape is a contentious issue and theorists debate the causes of rape. The current study discusses four theories which attempt to explain the causes of rape, including the just world, evolutionary, feminist, and social learning theories. Although theorists debate about the cause of rape, they agree the prevention of rape is important. Rape prevention often takes the form of educational programs requiring a large time commitment on the part of participants. No research study has attempted to use a brief method of rape education. Pornography research has shown educational briefings …

Social Affiliation: A Model Of Anxious Avoidance In Women, Milena Stoyanova

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is substantial evidence demonstrating that women experience greater anxiety and fear compared to men. However, our understanding of specific factors accounting for women’s greater vulnerability remains rather limited. Taylor and colleagues (2000) proposed that women may have a different biobehavioral response to stress, which has evolved to protect and nurture offspring. The tend-and-befriend model provides new opportunities to explore underlying processes that may contribute to women’s greater anxiety and fear.

The present study examined women’s stress response combined with the absence of positive social contact as it relates to the presentation of fear and anxiety. One hundred and seven …

I Am A Critical Thinker: Exploring The Relationship Between Self-Concept And Critical Thinking Ability, Melissa Antler

HIM 1990-2015

Critical thinking is an academically coveted skill important to all areas of education (Halpern, 1998). The ability to think critically requires an individual to question and possibly reject accepted ideals and authorities. A strong self-concept may play an important role in this process. The present study hypothesized a positive relationship between total self-concept and critical thinking ability. An additional purpose of this study was to explore whether self-concept accounted for more of the variance in critical thinking than other correlates of the ability, such as metacognition (Halpern, 1998; Magno, 2010) and openness to experience (Clifford, Boufal, & Kurtz, 2004). The …

Childhood Cat Bites And Disorganized Symptoms Of Schizotypy In Adulthood, Jenya Kolpakova

HIM 1990-2015

During recent years of schizophrenia research, many etiologies have been emphasized, some of them implicating infectious and autoimmune diseases. Many different infectious agents have been examined, but the root seems to stem from the secondary autoimmune deregulation, which can be caused by different infectious agents. Among the effects that autoimmune deregulation has on the body, one prominent effect is on the brain, resulting in either severe or mild encephalitis. The mild encephalitis that has been implicated as one of the causes of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders has been associated with different pathogens, many of which can be transmitted by the household cat. …

Emotional And Behavioral Reactions To Emotional And Physical Infidelity: An Evolutionary Perspective, Alyson Kay Baker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study examined the effect of sex on how people react, emotionally and behaviorally, to different types of partner infidelity. We expected to replicate previous findings that men experience more jealousy in reaction to their partner's sexual infidelity, and women experience more jealousy in reaction to their partners' emotional infidelity. We hypothesized that sex will affect behavioral reactions to infidelity as well. Specifically, we expected men to respond to sexual infidelity by terminating the relationship and to emotional infidelity by employing mate-guarding behaviors to prevent further infidelity. We hypothesized women would display the opposite pattern, leaving a relationship in …

Assessing The Conceptual Equivalence Of Measure Of Suppression In Culturally Diverse Samples, Amanda Louise Haboush

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In Western populations, some emotion regulation strategies have been associated with positive interpersonal abilities and mental health outcomes, while others, such as suppression, have been associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 1997; Esterling, Antoni, Kumar, & Schneiderman, 1993; Gross & Muñoz, 1995; Kovacs, Joormann, & Gotlib, 2008). However, Butler, Lee, & Gross (2007) have demonstrated that the negative effects of suppression do not occur in some Eastern cultures. This inconsistency may be due to a lack of measurement equivalence across cultures.

To examine suppression in other cultural groups, researchers often adapt existing measures that …

Tactile Behavior In A Group Of Captive Rough-Toothed Dolphins As A Function Of Opportunities To Play With Objects, Kelly Ann Caffery

Dissertations

Cetaceans live in complex physical and social environments that are frequently changing. In contrast, the captive environment for marine mammals is often lacking in stimulation. As a result, enrichment is often used to increase species-typical behaviors and enhance the well-being of the animals. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of enrichment objects on the social behavior of a group of seven captive rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis). Observations of this species in the wild suggest it may have a particular affinity for tactile and object play behaviors. Therefore, these behavior categories were a primary focus …

Witnessing Reconciliation Reduces Arousal Of Bystanders In A Baboon Group (Papio Hamadryas Hamadryas), Peter G. Judge, Katherine A. Bachmann

Faculty Journal Articles

Reconciliation is the occurrence of friendly behaviour between opponents shortly after an aggressive conflict. In primate groups, reconciliation reduces aggression and post-conflict arousal. Aggression within a group can also increase arousal of bystanders (e.g. increase bystanders’ rates of self-directed behaviour). Since reconciliation reduces aggression between opponents, we tested whether it also reduces self-directed behaviour in bystanders. Following aggression in a captive group of hamadryas baboons, one observer conducted a focal sample on one of the combatants to document reconciliation and a second observer simultaneously conducted a focal sample on a randomly selected bystander. Matched control observations were then collected on …

Hand Preference For Tool-Use In Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Apella) Is Associated With Asymmetry Of The Primary Motor Cortex, Kimberley A. Phillips, C. R. Thompson

Psychology Faculty Research

Skilled motor actions are associated with handedness and neuroanatomical specializations in humans. Recent reports have documented similar neuroanatomical asymmetries and their relationship to hand preference in some nonhuman primate species, including chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys. We investigated whether capuchins displayed significant hand preferences for a tool use task and whether such preferences were associated with motor-processing regions of the brain. Handedness data on a dipping tool-use task and high-resolution 3T MRI scans were collected from 15 monkeys. Capuchins displayed a significant group-level left-hand preference for this type of tool use, and handedness was associated with asymmetry of the primary motor …

The Influence Of Widowhood And Sociodemographic Moderators On Dementia And Alzheimer's Disease Risk, Daniel Joseph Hatch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are dramatic public health problems. In recent years, researchers have uncovered evidence demonstrating that chronic stress can lead to these conditions. Because of this, researchers have also investigated whether widowhood, one of the most stressful life events, may also lead to dementia and AD. However, these studies are conflicting, and few have investigated whether the influence of widowhood on dementia and AD varies in different contexts associated with aging and widowhood. For instance, evidence suggests that widowhood may exert greater influence among males and among those with a history of depression. Other such contextual factors …

Token Reinforcement And Resistance To Change, Eric A. Thrailkill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Interventions based on a token economy effectively reduce problematic behavior. Yet, treatment gains deteriorate once an intervention is discontinued. It is important to better understand the persistence of behavior maintained by token reinforcement in simple experimental procedures. A Pavlovian association with primary reinforcement is said to endow neutral stimuli (e.g., coins, poker chips, lights, signs, stickers, etc.) with their own function to strengthen behavior as conditioned reinforcers. Behavioral momentum theory suggests that resistance to change under conditions of disruption is the appropriate measure of response strength. However, some animal studies have suggested that conditioned reinforcement may not affect resistance to …

The Psychological And Physiological Effects Of Using A Therapy Dog In Mindfulness Training, Courtney L. Henry

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the psychological and physiological effects of adding animal-assisted therapy to a modified mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR) for clients experiencing psychological distress, including anxious and depressive symptoms. State and trait mindfulness, state and trait anxiety, psychological distress, blood pressure, and heart rate were collected during each session of the intervention from college students recruited at Utah State University. Results support that participants experienced less anxiety and depressive symptoms and increased mindfulness skills from pre- to posttreatment. No significant difference was found between the control and experimental groups, indicating that that interaction with a therapy dog had no …

A Comparison Of Resistance To Extinction Following Dynamic And Static Schedules Of Reinforcement, Andrew R. Craig

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Behavioral momentum theory states that the Pavlovian stimulus-reinforcer relation governs resistance to extinction. Thus, higher baseline reinforcer rates should produce more persistent behavior than lower baseline reinforcer rates. Though this positive relation generally is observed when behavior is maintained and subsequently disrupted in multiple schedules, the opposite relation is observed when single schedules are used. An alternative framework of extinction performance based on Bayesian change detection may be applied intuitively to describe resistance to extinction in single schedules of reinforcement. This approach asserts that detection of changes in reinforcer rates during extinction should be easier following training with rich reinforcer …