Digital Commons Network^™

Multimodal Depression Detection: An Investigation Of Features And Fusion Techniques For Automated Systems, Michelle Renee Morales

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Depression is a serious illness that affects a large portion of the world’s population. Given the large effect it has on society, it is evident that depression is a serious health issue. This thesis evaluates, at length, how technology may aid in assessing depression. We present an in-depth investigation of features and fusion techniques for depression detection systems. We also present OpenMM: a novel tool for multimodal feature extraction. Lastly, we present novel techniques for multimodal fusion. The contributions of this work add considerably to our knowledge of depression detection systems and have the potential to improve future systems by …

Being In Performance: A Philosophical Account Of The Embodied Actor, Brad M. Krumholz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I present and analyze three distinct actor-training exercises primarily through the lens of the Embodied Cognition (EC) branch of contemporary philosophy, which attempts to frame human understanding as a fully embodied interaction with the environment. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and other branches of philosophy, EC provides both an excellent set of tools and a strong theoretical framework to help explain how people encounter meaning in life. I apply its unique perspectives to this philosophical account of the embodied actor as I analyze the various elements at play in actor training praxis, which allows me to shed …

The Nature Of Defenses Used By School-Aged Children With Adhd, Laurie G. Slodounik

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study sought to develop a more nuanced clinical picture of children with ADHD by examining the relationship between their emotional dysregulation and their use of defense mechanisms—the unconscious mental processes that guard against strong emotions. Children’s responses to the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) were examined for evidence of defense mechanisms using an empirically validated scale, the Defense Mechanism Manual. The study employed a mixed between-within nonequivalent group design to examine the responses of 37 children ages 7-10. It was hypothesized that children with ADHD would use more frequent and more immature defenses than their peers without the disorder. Additionally, …

Definition Of Intercultural Competence (Ic) In Undergraduate Students At A Private University In The Usa: A Mixed-Methods Study., Lioba Gierke, Nadine Binder, Mark Heckmann, Özen Odağ, Anne Leiser, Karina K. Kedzior

Touro University Berlin

Introduction

Intercultural competence (IC) is an important skill to be gained from higher education. However, it remains unclear what IC means to students and what factors might influence their definitions of IC. The aim of the current study was to qualitatively assess how students at one higher education institution in the USA define IC and to quantitatively test for relationships among IC components and various demographic characteristics, including intercultural experience and study context. A further aim was to descriptively compare the IC definitions from the US sample with the definitions obtained from another sample of university students in Germany.

Materials …

Disclosing An Eating Disorder: A Situational Analysis Of Online Accounts, Emily P. Williams, Shelly Russell-Mayhew, Alana Ireland

The Qualitative Report

Disclosing a mental illness can be difficult, especially for those affected by eating disorders. Individuals impacted by eating disorders often worry that disclosing their situation may lead to fear, judgment, and stigmatization. Online eating disorder communities have become increasingly popular, hosting thousands of users worldwide, and may be safe places for individuals with eating disorders to communicate and connect. In this postmodern study, we utilized situational analysis to examine online accounts on publically accessible websites where individuals discussed disclosing eating disorders. Situational Analysis utilizes illustrative mapping techniques to demonstrate the complexity of the situation of inquiry, allowing researchers to highlight …

Culture In Context: A Pilot Study On Culturally-Oriented Metacognitive Feedback (Comf), Daniela Maltais

Honors Capstones

Many institutions aim to bring new social dynamics to their education system, as well as to increase diversity within and between institutions. One way higher-education institutions reach this goal is with outreach programs geared towards international students. These students’ cultures have provided a framework that built their schemas, and this in turn molded their style of writing. Lacking years of foundation building through the American school system, international students may struggle to fulfill the requirements for successful writing in American universities. However, professors have at their disposal a tool to aide students – feedback that incorporates metacognition. This study investigated …

Fresa Style In Mexico: Sociolinguistic Stereotypes And The Variability Of Social Meanings, Rebeca Martinez Gomez

Linguistics ETDs

This dissertation examines the flexibility in the social meanings of sociolinguistic stereotypes and how linguistic and non-linguistic information affect these meanings. The investigation consists of four empirical studies surrounding the case of fresas in Mexico –members of the upper class that are perceived as using a unique linguistic style.

Study 1 investigates the linguistic and non-linguistic characteristics associated with the fresa stereotype. Through a qualitative analysis of 64 webpages and 3 performances of the style, it is shown that fresasare perceived as the counterpart of another construct, nacos,and that their linguistic style is linked to English due to …

Content Of Qualitative Feedback Provided During Structured, Confidential Reference Checks, Cynthia A. Hedricks, Disha Rupayana, Leigh Puchalski, Chet Robie

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

The present study used text analytics software to examine the unstructured (or qualitative) data provided by job references during confidential, multi-rater reference checks. With respect to both work-related strengths and areas of improvement, job references more frequently provided words or short phrases relating to “soft skills” such as working with others and communication as opposed to “hard skills” such as computer programming or mathematics. While some commonalities across jobs were found to exist, the frequency of identified categories for both work-related strengths and areas of improvement did differ across jobs.

The Effect Of Classroom Context On Head Start Teacher Feedback, Jasmine Renee Ernst

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS, LaParo, Pianta, & Stuhlman, 2004) assesses quality of teacher social and instructional interactions with children, and classroom management and productivity. Prior research indicated low quality of feedback scores in programs serving low-income children (Early et al., 2005). The purpose of this study was to compare the quantity and quality of managing interaction utterances (i.e. a type of feedback) provided by Head Start teachers (N = 8) in two classroom contexts. Video-recorded book-reading and 20-minute center-time sessions in the fall and spring of a school year were used to assess managing interaction utterances in structured …

Language And Personal Growth In Study Abroad, Cynthia Columbus

Capstone Collection

Language and Personal Growth in Study Abroad will explore student perceptions of the role language learning during study abroad played in four key areas of personal growth: self-confidence, ability to problem-solve, learning about their host culture, and learning about themselves. This study aims to highlight and increase understanding of the individual’s study abroad experience. Eight students participated in this research. Data was collected from participants through an online survey and through individual semi-structured interviews. Student blogs written both pre-departure and during study abroad were also analyzed. Findings reveal a belief amongst participants that language learning helped them to become more …

The Heart Wants What It Wants: Effects Of Desirability And Body Part Salience On Distance Perceptions (Heath), Jason B. Heath

Student Publications

Previous research has shown that the desirability of an object influences perceived distance from the object, such that desirable objects are perceived as closer than objects that are not desirable (Balcetis & Dunning, 2010). It has also been suggested that metaphors reflect how our knowledge is represented; so, for example, making the head or heart more salient produces characteristics commonly associated with those body parts (i.e., emotionality for the heart, rationality for the head) (Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). The current study examined the effects of head or heart salience and object desirability on distance perception. We hypothesized that, since common …

Assessment For Mild Cognitive Impairment: Striving For Best Practice, Julie Leigh Dalmasso

Dissertations

This dissertation is a series of three studies aimed at determining the best assessment practices for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that can employed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The first study was non-experimental and descriptive examining whether three commonly used assessment instruments yielded similar categorical results. The data were analyzed to determine whether the Eight-Item Interview to Differentiate Aging and Dementia (AD8), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Cognitive-Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT) identified the same participants from a neurotypical sample as having cognitive deficits. Very little agreement was found amongst the three tools.

Study two was modified to include two …

Do Normative And Pathological Personality Traits Overlap? Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses Of The Neo-Pi-3 And Pid-5, Lisa Eileen Stone

Honors Theses

Historically, personality disorders have been conceptualized as qualitatively distinct clinical syndromes, based on operational criteria. Consistent with this model, ten distinct set personality disorder criteria are outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, debate persists about the clinical utility of this categorical model, with many (Krueger, et al.) researchers supporting a dimensional model that focuses on pathological levels of normative personality traits.

An exploratory factor analysis (De Fruyt et al., 2013) of the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEOPI-3; Costa & McCrae, 2010) and The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5; Krueger, Derringer, …

Mind, Rationality, And Cognition: An Interdisciplinary Debate, N. Chater, T. Felin, D. C. Funder, G. Gigerenzer, J. J. Koenderink, J. I. Krueger, D. Noble, S. A. Nordli, M. Oaksford, Barry Schwartz, K. E. Stanovich, P. M. Todd

Psychology Faculty Works

This article features an interdisciplinary debate and dialogue about the nature of mind, perception, and rationality. Scholars from a range of disciplines—cognitive science, applied and experimental psychology, behavioral economics, and biology—offer critiques and commentaries of a target article by Felin, Koenderink, and Krueger (2017): “Rationality, Perception, and the All-Seeing Eye,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. The commentaries raise a number of criticisms and issues concerning rationality and the all-seeing-eye argument, including the nature of judgment and reasoning, biases versus heuristics, organism–environment relations, perception and situational construal, equilibrium analysis in economics, efficient markets, and the nature of empirical observation and the scientific …

Cognitive Fusion And Post-Trauma Functioning In Veterans: Examining The Mediating Roles Of Emotion Dysregulation, Daniel W. Cox, Thomas C. Motl, A. Myfanwy Bakker, Rachael A. Lunt

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications

When cognitively fused, people have difficulty accepting and clearly perceiving their internal experiences. Following trauma, emotional non-acceptance and emotional non-clarity have been associated with post-trauma functioning. The aim of the present study was to integrate theory and research on cognitive fusion and posttrauma functioning to evaluate a theory-based model in which emotion dysregulation—specifically, emotional non-acceptance and emotional non-clarity—mediated the association between cognitive fusion and post-trauma functioning in a veteran sample. Participants were 149 veterans with a history of military-related trauma. Veterans completed measures of cognitive fusion, emotion dysregulation, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and life satisfaction. Overall, emotion dysregulation and …

The Aftermath Of War: Improving Psychosocial Measures To Address Trauma In Child Refugees In The Schengen Zone, Nivedha Meyyappan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With the large number of refugee children currently displaced due to war and conflict, there is a necessity to look into alleviating any resulting trauma so that these children don’t face further social or health effects later in life. The study focuses on how to improve psychosocial care for child refugees in the Schengen zone suffering from war trauma. Through a combination of research done using existing literature and interviews with experts, there were three main findings on improving psychosocial support for this population. These include improving consolidation of psychosocial programs and focusing on education, having greater cultural awareness when …

The Heart Wants What It Wants: Effects Of Desirability And Body Part Salience On Distance Perceptions (Campbell), Celeste M. Campbell

Student Publications

Previous research has shown that desirability influences perceived distance to an object, such that desirable objects are perceived as closer to the viewer than undesirable objects (Balcetis & Dunning, 2010). Research regarding conceptual metaphors has suggested that making the head or heart salient by placing the index finger there produces characteristics commonly associated with these body parts (i.e., emotionality for the heart and rationality for the head) (Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). The current studies examined the effects of desirability and head or heart salience on distance perception. Participants had their attention drawn to their head or their heart by touching …

The Heart Wants What It Wants: Effects Of Desirability And Body Part Salience On Distance Perceptions (Dewitt), Caroline C. Dewitt

Student Publications

Previous research has shown that the desirability of an object influences perceived distance from the object, such that desirable objects are perceived as closer than objects that are not desirable (Balcetis & Dunning, 2010). It has also been suggested that metaphors reflect how our knowledge is represented; so, for example, making the head or heart more salient produces characteristics commonly associated with those body parts (i.e., emotionality for the heart and rationality for the head) (Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). The current study examined the effects of head or heart salience and desirability on distance perception. We hypothesized that since common …

Identity And Suicide: An Analysis Of The Connections Between Demographic Characteristics And Suicide Behaviors In Adolescents, Jessica Williamson

Senior Theses

The Youth Risk Behaviors Survey is a questionnaire developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to monitor “priority health risk behaviors that contribute markedly to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States” (CDC, 2017). This thesis uses Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests to determine if there are statistically significant relationships between age, sex, ethnicity, and English proficiency and a participant’s response to each question about suicide behaviors on the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Each demographic category exhibited a statistically significant relationship with at least two different suicide …

Multisensory Integration And Autistic Traits Using Non-Sociolinguistic Information, Sébastien A. Lauzon, Samantha E. Schulz, Zack I. Cohen, Ryan A. Stevenson

Western Research Forum

Background: Sensory processing issues are one of the most common complaints in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One area of sensory difficulties in ASD that has been the focus of intense research in recent years is multisensory integration (MSI), or the ability to bind auditory and visual information into a single, unified percept. While integration of social or linguistic information is consistently shown to be an area of difficulty in ASD, results are less clear with simple, non-sociolinguistic stimuli. This study aims to address this ambiguity by determining whether MSI of non-sociolinguistic sensory information is related to traits and symptomatology …

Benevolent Sexism And Racial Stereotypes: Targets, Functions, And Consequences, Jean Marie Mcmahon

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, I present three manuscripts in which I integrate race into an ambivalent sexism framework using experimental, correlational, and cross-sectional methods. The first paper tests whether a female's race acts as a subtype to differentially elicit benevolent sexism (BS). Two experiments demonstrated that BS is more strongly associated with White women than Black women. The second paper explores the relationship between protective paternalism (a subcomponent of BS), anti-minority attitudes, and threat. Threat was associated with stronger endorsement of protective paternalism and a corresponding increase in anti-minority attitudes, particularly for White men, implicating BS in the maintenance of racial …

Early Intervention Aba For Toddlers With Asd: Effect Of Age And Amount, Peter Vietze, Leah Esther Lax

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability manifested early in life. About 26–40% of young children with ASD have intellectual disability (ID). Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has been shown to be effective in reducing symptoms of ASD and improving cognitive and language function. The purpose of this study was to examine the optimal age, number of treatment hours and domains, for which ABA was effective in a community based early intervention program. An ABA program was implemented with 106 toddlers under 40 months, many of whom were from immigrant families with limited English proficiency. Bayley Scales, VBMAPP and CARS-2 …

Consequences Of Attributions For Unfair Healthcare Treatment Among Culturally Diverse Patients, Nathalie Serna

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Ethnic minority and lower SES populations report less positive healthcare encounters and worse health outcomes as compared to higher SES and mainstream populations. In Chile, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is one of the highest in South America and among the indigenous Mapuche population it has quadrupled over the last decade (Perez-Bravo et al., 2001). Research suggests that Mapuches have been historically discriminated in everyday life as well as in healthcare (Alarcon, et al., 2004). Based on Weiner’s attribution theory of motivation and emotion (1986, 1995, 2006) and guided by Betancourt’s integrative model of culture, psychological factors, and …

Language Translation For Mental Health Materials: A Comparison Of Current Back-Translation And Skopostheorie-Based Methods, Amelia Kathleen Black

Theses and Dissertations

As mental health professionals seek to disseminate information in many languages in order to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, it is important to consider the methods of written translation that the field is choosing to employ. The method chosen for translation can affect the accuracy and usability of the translated text. This study begins with a survey of current literature, the results of which suggest that the most popular translation method in the mental health field is back-translation, a translation method based in the premise that translating a text back into its original English after it has …

What Does "Happiness" Prompt In Your Mind? Culture, Word Choice, And Experienced Happiness, Ji Eun Shin, Eunkook M. Suh, Kimin Eom, Heejung S. Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What three words come to your mind in association with ‘‘happiness’’? We analyzed the 1563 words reported by 521 Korean and American participants in this free association task. The most frequently endorsed word was ‘‘family’’ in Korea, whereas the most popular word among Americans was ‘‘smile.’’ The overall frequency of social words(e.g., relationships, social emotions) reported by Koreans was higher, and the most often mentioned relationship type differed between the two groups (family in Korea; friend in the US). Nonetheless, both in Korea and the US, individuals who mentioned more social words were significantly more satisfied with their lives. The …

The Common Thread In Kuyper, Kuhn And Cognitive Psychology: Interpretive Frameworks, Daniel F. A. Hitchcock

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Calidad De Vida: An Exploratory Investigation Of Latino Breast Cancer Survivors And Intimate Partners, Sejal Barden, Daniel Gutierrez, Jessica Gonzalez, Shainna Ali

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Advances in addressing psychosocial issues related to cancer treatment and prevention are not reaching all survivors equally. Latina breast cancer survivors and intimate partners are underrepresented in psychosocial interventions, and there is a scarcity of research on the influence of cancer on Latino couples’ quality of life. The purpose of this manuscript is to present findings from a trans-linguistic, dyadic qualitative research study aimed at exploring the influence of cancer on quality of life for Latina breast cancer survivors and their intimate partners. Results highlight several areas that are helpful and hindering to supporting survivorship.

Short-Term Perceptual Tuning To Talker Characteristics, Robert E. Remez, Emily F. Thomas, Aislinn T. Crank, Katrina B. Kostro, Chloe B. Cheimets, Jennifer Pardo

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

When a listener encounters an unfamiliar talker, the ensuing perceptual accommodation to the unique characteristics of the talker has two aspects: (1) the listener assesses acoustic characteristics of speech to resolve the properties of the talker’s sound production; and, (2) the listener appraises the talker’s idiolect, subphonemic phonetic properties that compose the finest grain of linguistic production. A new study controlled a listener’s exposure to determine whether the perceptual benefit rests on specific segmental experience. Effects of sentence exposure were measured using a spoken word identification task of Easy words (likely words drawn from sparse neighbourhoods of less likely words) …

Lexical Predictability During Natural Reading: Effects Of Surprisal And Entropy Reduction, Matthew W. Lowder, Wonil Choi, Fernanda Ferreira, John M. Henderson

Psychology Faculty Publications

What are the effects of word‐by‐word predictability on sentence processing times during the natural reading of a text? Although information complexity metrics such as surprisal and entropy reduction have been useful in addressing this question, these metrics tend to be estimated using computational language models, which require some degree of commitment to a particular theory of language processing. Taking a different approach, this study implemented a large‐scale cumulative cloze task to collect word‐by‐word predictability data for 40 passages and compute surprisal and entropy reduction values in a theory‐neutral manner. A separate group of participants read the same texts while their …

Running Records And First Grade English Learners: An Analysis Of Language Related Errors, Allison Briceno, Adria Klein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.