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An Analytical Investigation Of Instructions Designed To Elicit Test Anxiety, Karl Kilby Long

Psychology ETDs

Three components of motivating instructions typically used to elicit performance decrements in high test-anxious Ss were investigated to determine whether: (a) the mention of a test, (b) identifying the test as an intelligence test, or (c) suggesting evaluation in relation to a peer-group is primarily responsible for the observed decrement. High and low test-anxious Ss were given 12 paired-associate lists of English word pairs, with the experimental instructions given between the 8th and 9th lists. Analyses of post-instruction changes in learning behavior revealed significant differences only between the instruction condition containing the full set of components and the controls. These …

Stimulus Compounding And Generalization, William P. Bellingham

Psychology ETDs

pp. iii-iv

Removed for insertion in original dissertation

Brighton Rock: Growth In Psychological Insight, Sister Catherine Madigan Dc

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis, presented at Xavier University in 1969, examines Graham Greene's novel "Brighton Rock" as a significant early step in Greene's development of psychologically complex characterization. Madigan argues that the novel represents the first sustained combination of three elements in Greene's fiction: the "thriller" plot structure, the "Catholic element" as a framework of belief opposing his characters' actions, and genuine psychological depth, distinguishing it from both his earlier thrillers and his lighter "entertainments."

The thesis compares "Brighton Rock" to Greene's short story "A Drive in the Country," which shares a similar plot but, due to its brevity and narrative point …

Click-Intensity Discrimination In Relation To The Statistics Of The N1 Response, Harvey B. Taub

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

No abstract available.

A Cross-Cultural Study Of The Perceived Seriousness Of Crimes, Mira Aghi

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Field Independent Girls And Their Ability To Solve Problems While Distracted, Paul J. Wolf

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Relationship Between Personality Adjustment And Openness, John J. Hurley

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of The Relation Of Sentence Completion Scales To Academic Aptitude And Achievement, Margaret J. La Plante

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Intentional And Incidental Concept Formation As A Function Of Conceptual Structure, Information, Intelligence, And Authoritarianism, David J. Marx

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of An Intake Interview In An Out-Patient Clinic On The Client's Anxiety And "Maladjustment", Chacko K. Poovathumkal

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Relationship Between Children's Verbal Ability And Social Class, Ronald P. Mcdermott

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Standardization Of The Loyola Language Study For Male High School Freshmen, Clyde Benjamin Kelly

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Prognostic Validation Of Several Measures For Indices Of Cognitive Functioning In Educable Mentally Retarded Pupils, Richard Harris Freer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Concept Identification As A Function Of Three Semantic Dimensions, Richard Eugene Edwards

All Master's Theses

It is the purpose of the present study to determine the differential effects of the three primary semantic dimensions on the ability of Ss to solve a concept identification problem. It was hypothesized that the performance level, as measured by a criterion of learning ten successive responses containing no more than one error, time to completion, and the total number of errors, will be higher for Ss working on the evaluative dimension than for Ss working on the potency or activity dimensions. Two additional hypotheses were formulated in an attempt to answer the following questions: 1) Is the ability to …

Verbal Conditioning With Vicarious Reinforcement As Related To Peer Attitudes In Grade-School Children, Margaret Mccutcheon Lauterbach

All Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of peer attitudes toward performers in a verbal conditioning experiment using vicarious reinforcement, and to determine whether birth order or need for social approval had any effect on conditioning. Fifth grade and sixth grade students served as subjects, with performers (those to be directly reinforced) from the same grades as the observers.

The Effect Of Dominance Level When Using Mediated Generalization To Facilitate Concept Formation, Delbert Smith Mchenry

All Master's Theses

This investigation was concerned with demonstrating differences in order of concept attainment as a function of the degree of association between a concept instance and concept response, using mediated generalization.

Play Preparation For The Adeno-Tonsillectomy Patient, Carol Brown, Harriet Hecker

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Hospitalization and surgery have been recognized as being psychologically stressful for the majority of children. Hospital personnel have attempted to reduce some of the unnecessary psychological stress incurred by children by the use of many different methods. This study attempted to evaluate the use of preoperative play preparation sessions for minimizing this stress. The method was experimental with one variable. The subjects were forty-one children aged three and one-half to seven and one-half who had adeno-tonsillectomies. Twenty-one children comprising Group E were involved in a play session by the researchers. Twenty children were not prepared in this way. The tools …

The Modification And Generalization Of Voice Loudness In An Emotionally Disturbed, Aphonic Girl As A Function Of Reinforcement Contingencies In A Laboratory Setting, Donald Alan Jackson

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Decrement In An Auditory Task As A Function Of Time During A Prolonged Vigil, Wain Saeger

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Relation Between Measured Intelligence And The Ability To Learn, Robert Stephen Peddicord

Master's Theses

There are perhaps as many definitions of intelligence as there are definers. However, one definition which has extensive commonsense appeal, according to Simrall (1947), identifies intelligence with the ability to learn, or to profit from experience. Certainly, many practicing psychologists have interpreted intelligence test scores as reflective of an individual's learning ability or potential for future learning. In his address as retiring president of the American Psychological Association, Garrett commented that: "It is undoubtedly true that intelligence involves the ability to learn..." (Garrett, 1946, p. 372).

An Experimental Analysis Of Superstitious Behavior In College Males, Nancy Alice Metzler

All Master's Theses

The possibility that superstitious responses would occur when aversive stimulation was randomly presented was investigated. There were three groups of 20 male introductory psychology students each. The Shock Group (SG) was given 45 unavoidable shocks. The Reinforcement Shock Group {RSG) was given 100 positive reinforcements and then 45 unavoidable shocks. The Reinforcement Punishment Group received 100 positive reinforcements and then 45 response contingent shocks and served to test the effectiveness of the shock as a punishing stimulus. Superstitious responses seemed to occur, but Ss of SG showed response patterns typical of punishment, while Ss of RSG showed increases in rates …

The Effect Of Modification Of Hyperactive-Aggressive Behavior On Oral Expressive Language Behavior, Betty Susan Dowdell

All Master's Theses

The question the study sought to answer was: Will the affect of modification of hyperactive-aggressive behavior effect a change in the oral expressive language behavior of the children?

The Value Of Mixed Fixed-Interval Schedules With And Without Informative Stimuli, Phillip B. Wootton

Psychology ETDs

A number of observing response experiments indicate animals prefer informative over noninformative response alternatives. This preference is exhibited even though there is no objective difference in reward conditions to favor one alternative over the other. In the present experiment, an equivalent mixture of short and long fixed-interval schedules was programmed in informative and noninformative response alternatives. The present approach sought to determine whether preference for the informative alternative could be rationalized from an estimation of the relative values of the fixed-interval schedules and mixtures. In conjunction with this purpose, preferences were evaluated over a broad range of short and long …

Effects Of Stimulus Codability And Duration Of Stimulus Exposure On Recognition Memory For Random Shapes, Terry Clyde Daniel

Psychology ETDs

An experiment was conducted investigating the role of distinctive verbal labels and scaled stimulus codability on the temporal course of recognition memory for complex random shapes. Three between-S variables, delay interval, pretraining type, and stimulus codability, were combined with one within-S variable, stimulus exposure duration, into a 3x2x2x(2) factorial design. Subjects were given observation or relevant verbal label pretraining with either high or low codability stimuli and were subsequently tested on a five-stimulus forced-choice recognition task either immediately, 15 minutes, or 1 week after training. All subjects saw one half of the stimuli for their condition for 6.0 seconds on …

Role Of Observing Responses In Perceptual Learning, Dieter W. Jahns

Psychology ETDs

The experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that the distributions of observing responses made within a stimulus differ during tactual stimulus predifferentiation training as a function of the labeling task used and that subsequent perceptual performance can be related to correlated differential practice with the stimuli during predifferentiation, as exhibited by differences in observing-response distributions during the earlier task. One hundred twenty Ss were given a multiple-shape recognition test subsequent to one of 12 experimental conditions: 2, 4, or 8 trials of either observation or equivalence stimulus-predifferentiation training under one of two conditions of observing-response freedom. The results indicated …

Conditioned Response Sub-Class Variability., David Perkins

Psychology ETDs

In order to test the hypothesis that resistance to extinction is directly related to the amount of response sub-class variability reinforced during acquisition, the number of different response subclasses reinforced during acquisition was directly controlled and subsequently related to resistance to extinction. A response subclass was defined as a response to one of eight key locations on a horizontally oriented response strip which was presumed to represent a topographical response continuum.

Seven groups of 3 pigeons each were first trained to peck the transilluminated response strip for 3-sec. access to grain reinforcement. Each group received a total of 752 reinforcements …

Hippocampal Eeg Correlates Of Behavior, Thomas Leroy Bennett Jr.

Psychology ETDs

Implications that the hippocampus plays a major role in mediating behavior have been described by animal lesion and human clinical studies. The exact function of this structure is, however, in dispute. This is particularly true with regard to orienting, learning and decision making as reflected by electrical activity (theta) recorded from this structure. Contrary evidence concerning these functions has been obtained by Grastyán, Adey and their associates. In the present research, three task variables which may have accounted for their different findings were examined. These methodological variations included the modality of the stimuli presented to the animal, the presence of …

The Relationship Between Activity Delay And Freshman Academic Achievement, Richard R. Carlson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between arrival time in coming to take the ACT test and academic achievement.

The individuals who met the general criteria were used in this study numbered 129; 46 of these met the additional criteria of arriving early and they composed the early group.

The early and late groups were compared on ACT composite score and cumulative grade point average.

Significant differences between the means could not be found, by analysis of variance; between the early and late groups using either ACT composite score or cumulative grade point average.

The Effects Of Confirmation And Disconfirmation Of The Self-Concept On Task Performance Under Two Test Conditions, Richard Craig Steele

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Self-Concept Attitudes Of Incarcerated And Nonincarcerated Male Adolescents, Joseph Petty

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Three general comparisons were made in the present study: (1) Four groups of subjects were compared with one-another on the four Bills' Index of Adjustment and Values variables. The variables included: (a) Self-concept (perception of self), (b) self-acceptance (feelings about perception of self), (c) ideal-self (aspired self), and (d) the discrepancy score between self-concept and ideal-self. The four main groups consisted of: (a) Nonincarcerated nondelinquents (adolescents, in public school, without a police record), (b) nonincarcerated delinquents (with police record), (c) incarcerated adolescents attending the institutional academic school, (d) incarcerated adolescents not attending the institutional academic school. (2) The two incarcerated …