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Intradimensional Variability With Numbers And Alphabetical Letters In Conceptual Rules, Thomas Henry Clayton

All Master's Theses

Subjects were assigned to bidimensional rule problems that contained either 5, 10, or 15 levels of intradimensional variability. The stimuli consisted of numbers and alphabetical letters. There were no performance differences by either males or females when the number of levels within each rule was increased. There was a significant difference in performance among the three rules (disjunctive, conditional, and biconditional), however, the conditional was more difficult than the biconditional which is inconsistent with earlier research.

The Effect Of An Increase Of A Mother's Complimentary Behavior On Her Child's Crying Rate And In-Task School Behavior, Mark Connot

All Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to decrease an eight year old boy's disruptive crying rate in his home by ignoring his negative behavior and selectively complimenting his acceptable behavior. A check in the boy's classroom was made to determine if a generalization effect or transference of positive behavior from the home occurred. Crying behavior in the home was reduced significantly. There was no observed significant change in school behavior.

Operantly Conditioning A College Student's Study Behaviors, Norman L. Culbertson

All Master's Theses

A 20 year old, male, sophomore college student, who was considered an underachiever, was confined to a laboratory study room for a specified number of observed hours during a period of three weeks. An attempt was made to operantly condition increased study behaviors by the E's control of study break reinforcers. The experiment consisted of three phases, conditioning, reversal, and reconditioning. Statistical results showed that when reinforced in this manner for study behaviors, the S significantly increased his amount of study time and number of pages read. It was concluded that (1) operant conditioning procedures could be used successfully to …

The Effects Of Truth Table Pretraining And Intradimensional Variability On Rule Learning And Attribute Identification Tasks, Eric S. Gebelein

All Master's Theses

Ss were required to sort geometrical patterns into positive or negative instances. According to (a) an attribute identification problem (wherein one of three conceptual rules was given: Disjunctive, Conditional, or Biconditional) or (b) Rule learning problem (wherein the two relevant attributes were given: either yellow, triangle or blue, circle). Intradimensional variability for each condition was either five, seven, or nine levels. The Rule effect was the only significant source of variance even though performance did worsen as intradimensional variability was increased.

False Physiological Feedback And Acceptance Of A High Fear Message, Michael T. Gray

All Master's Theses

This paper presents an attempt to differentiate between the drive reduction and parallel response theories as explanations of results obtained in fear communication research.

Forty-eight subjects were divided into four equal groups and while listening to a high fear message, three groups received false GSR feedback. The fourth group (control) received no feedback. The results failed to differentiate between the two theoretical models and also failed to support findings of an earlier study which used similar feedback techniques.

It was concluded that further research using false feedback techniques needs to be done.

A Case Study Of The Relationship Between Role-Taking Skills And Intellectual Development, Linda Suzanne Green

All Master's Theses

A series of thirteen role-taking and cognitive development tasks, taken from research done on Piaget's developmental theories, were presented to ascertain the relationship between refined role-taking skills and the level of intellectual development demonstrated by a child in Piaget's pre-operational phase (two to seven years).

The results indicated that a child in this age range is not able to remove himself from his egocentric position and utilize the concepts of decentering and reversibility in constructing a meaningful message. This would indicate a lack of role-taking skill refinement.

It was concluded that the use of this type of task series would …

A Comparison Of Verbal And Geometric Stimuli In Concept Learning, Robert William Greenway

All Master's Theses

Subjects classified stimulus patterns into positive or negative instances of the concept according to either an attribute identification (AI) problem or a rule learning (RL) problem. Four types of stimulus materials were used: verbal stimuli (V), geometric stimuli (G), or two combinations of these modes, verbal geometric (VG) or verbal colored (VC). The only main effects that were significant were the Type of rule and Type of problem. Some interactions were obtained between these factors and the stimulus mode employed.

Evaluation Of The Consistency Of Informants’ Reports For Children’S Ratings With The Progress Assessment Chart, Craig Allen Gilroy

All Master's Theses

Seven TMR, seven EMR, and seven regular pupils were rated on the P-A-C I by observers who viewed the children in their classrooms or by using parents and teachers as informants. Ratings were compared for consistency between groups and between raters by means of percent agreement figures and proportional t tests. Few significant differences were found between raters within groups. Significant differences were found in the majority of the cases when parent, teacher, and observer ratings of handicapped and regular children were compared.

Experimenter Bias Effect At Varying Levels Of Motivation, Leslie Marie Slade Gray

All Master's Theses

This study examined the effects of experimenter motivation upon the experimenter bias effect on a person perception task. It was hypothesized that the experimenter bias effect would decrease as reward and threat of punishment increased.

Thirty-five experimenters were randomly assigned to five treatment groups including a control group, two reward groups, and two punishment conditions. Each experimenter administered the photo task to two subjects. The results failed to support the experimental hypotheses.

Interanimal Transfer Of A Learned Response Tendency With Control For Autonomic Arousal, Landgrave Thomas Smith

All Master's Theses

In three experiments using 180 rats, extracts of brain protein were used for interanimal transfer of an avoidance response from donors to recipients. In the first experiment it was found that avoidance learning in donors produced a response transfer, but autonomic arousal did not. The second experiment confirmed these results, and demonstrated a response transfer after a single donor training trial. The third experiment confirmed the results of the first two, and the recipient response strength showed evidence of extinction and spontaneous recovery.

A Study Of The Effect Of The Human Potential Seminar On The Self-Actualization And Academic Achievement Of College Underachievers, F. Dean Nemecek

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Stability Of Visual Fixation With And Without Feedback, Antoinette Ruth Appel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Of Leadership Effectiveness To L.P.C For University Department Chairmen, Carter W. Brown

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

For most of recorded history leadership ability has been considered a simple variable linearly related to the effectiveness of a team of workers. Everyone possessed it to some degree. When a king or corporate president had a task to be accomplished, all he needed to do to maximize the probability of the task being completed vas to locate the individual with the greatest leadership skill available. For centuries man has tried to quantify this variable so that identification of good leaders could be achieved more accurately. After years of futile attempts at quantification, leadership theorists began in the early 1900's …

Comparison Of Behavior Changes Of Children In The Home And School Setting After Parents Receive Instruction In Behavior Modification, Beverly Ann Beavers

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The mother of 1 grade school child and 2 sets of parents of 2 preschool children were trained in the home to use behavior modification techniques to reduce the undesirable behaviors of their children. Generalization from the home to the school setting was investigated. There was no support for or against changes in the homes generalizing to the classrooms. The mother of a 7-year-old girl with borderline intelligence used "time out" to curb the child's failure to follow instructions, tendency to be argumentative, and tendency to tantrum. The hyperactivity of a 41/2-year old girl was diminished. in part by changes …

The Effects Of Verbal Reinforcement On Three Subtests Of The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Michael C. Klinnert

Masters Theses

A verbal conditioning study was conducted in order to assess the effect of positive verbal reinforcement on the examinees' verbalization output and/or the individual scaled scores of the Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Similarities subtests of the WAIS. Twenty-seven female volunteer Ss were assigned to either a contingent reinforcement group, a random reinforcement group, or a non-reinforcement control group. A mixed design A.O.V. revealed no significant differences between treatment groups on the individual scaled scores of the subtests. An analysis of covariance for the composite of the three subtests scaled scores was also nonsignificant. A mixed design A.O.V. for the amount of …

The Social History Questionnaire As Related To Length Of Stay In Psychotherapy, David P. Jachim

Masters Theses

A serious problem encountered in clinical practice concerns the large proportion of clients who begin therapy but for various reasons terminate treatment after only a few interviews and without the consent of the therapist. Representative studies by Kurland (1956), Haddock and Mensch (1957), and Rosenthal and Frank (1958) have emphasized the severity of this problem by indicating that most mental health clinics face the possibility of losing half of their therapy clients prematurely.

This problem necessitates some objective means for identifying potential terminators and remainers prior to their entering therapy. Such a technique would permit a more efficient utilization of …

Voluntary Control Of Gsr Using Continuous Visual Display And Simultaneous Changes In Other Autonomic Functions, Laurence E. Boyce

Masters Theses

Using 28 male undergraduate university students provided with continuous oscilloscope display of basal skin resistance, this study investigated voluntary control of the GSR and concurrent changes in respiration. It was found, given feedback, subjects could voluntarily raise or lower their GSR. Subjects instructed to increase their GSR (N-14) could do so within the first trial session. However, subjects instructed to decrease their GSR (N-14) required additional practice. With less than 20 minutes of practice all subjects were able to reach a criterion of 2,500 ohms change from their basal level. Subjects increasing their GSR were found to have a significant …

Aldo Leopold's "Land Ethic": An Ecological Extension Of Albert Schweitzer's "Reverence For Life", John Lee Weaver

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

As a member of the world community, and in the process of becoming a professional ecologist, I have begun a search for a personal ecological ethic to guide my actions. Two of the paths I have taken in my search are Albert Schweitzer's Reverence for Life ethic and Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic. They are relevant because each has extended the scope of ethics beyond Homo Sapiens. Their thoughts, with similarities and dissimilarities, form herein my travels.

Effect Of D-Amphetamine, Guanethidine, Disulfiram, And Stress On Gastric Ulceration In The Rat, Thomas M. Beall

Theses and Dissertations

Albino rats were injected with various doses of d-amphetamine (.02 mg/kg- 9 mg/kg) and subjected to 4 hours restraint in a cold (+5 degrees C) environment. Differential effects on ulceration were observed as a function ot the d-amphetamine dose level. Pretreatment with a .50 mg/kg injection of d-amphetamine significantly inhibited ulceration over that of saline injected, control animals, while a 9 mg/kg dose injection of the drug significantly facilitated it. Such results were explained in terms of a model interaction between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity, and the effect that such activity has on gastric conditions conducive to ulceration. …

Validation Of A Measure Of Aggression, Jack Edward Shook

Masters Theses

The study attempted to validate a questionnaire as a method of measuring aggression resulting from frustration. The method consisted of correlating aggression measured by the questionnaire with aggression produced by an actual frustrating situation. An insult-failure technique was used to produce the frustration during the administration of a bogus aptitude test. Evaluation of the experimenter was the direct expression and measurement of aggression. A control group was used to insure validity of the frustration technique. Eighty six students participated in the study. The correlation was significant for males. The correlation was not significant for females. Males were not more aggressive …

Impulsivity And Intelligence In Young Children, Allan Norbert Kaczala

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Two Types Of Frontal Lesions On Reversal Learning And Activity Level In Rats, Meredith Ann Davison

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this experiment was to compare traditional frontal pole lesions (FP) with lesions of the median dorsal nucleus projection (MDNP) described by Leonard. First, a comparison was made on the retention of spatial discrimination learning and the new learning of spatial discrimination reversals between these two groups of frontally lesioned rats. It was hypothesized that the most severe deficits in spatial reversal learning would be shown in rats receiving MDNP lesions since this area of the rat cortex appears to be homologous to the frontal cortex of higher species according to Leonard’s results. Second, activity was measured on …

Personal Freedom And The Environment As Determinants Of Interpersonally Trusting Relationships According To The Views Of Martin Buber, Carl Rogers, Frederick Perls, B.F. Skinner, And Eric Berne, Mary Anna Tuma Mcadams

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Small group interaction, as observed and evaluated by five major spokesmen of the past decade, will be the focal point of this investigation. Martin Buber, Eric Berne, Carl Rogers, B. P. Skinner, and Frederick Perls will each be examined, compared, and contrasted in terms of their views concerning human freedom, the essence of man, and man's relationship to his environment. These ideas expressed by the authors will be reviewed in terms of the possibility and potential for interpersonal trust, the manner in which trust between individuals is initiated, and those variables considered most relevant for the emergence of trust. Each …

Maintaining Culturally Disadvantaged Fourth-Graders' Attention To Oral Verbal Teaching Through Intermittent Auditory Stimulation, Evelyn M. Noren

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The present research was undertaken to determine whether a utilitarian method could be devised for directing and maintaining culturally disadvantaged students' attention to taped verbal lessons. Extraneous novel tone bell stimuli were inserted prior to the presentation of material about which the children were questioned. The purpose of the study was to learn whether the nature of the tone bell stimulus reflects the accuracy of responses due to attention having been directed to the lesson content. The author hypothesized that a combination of melody and rhythm would be most effective in attracting attention and, thus, in eliciting a greater number …

The Effect Of Periodicity Instability On The Detection Of Interaural Time-Of-Arrival Difference, Roy F. Sullivan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

A Factor Analytic Study Of Anxiety Inducing Situations, Anthony Paul Gillette

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Relational Judgments As A Function Of "Objective Reality," General Attitudinal Structures, And Trait Content As Represented By A Structural And Discriminal Model For Determining Judgmental Tendencies, David J. Marx

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Age, Sex, And Verbal Mediation On The Digit Symbol Test, Jerome S. Pietrzak

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Perception And Awareness Of Manipulative Intent, Joseph P. Reser

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Response Rate Controlled By Two Liquid Reinforcers In A Multiple Schedule, Randall Lee Morton

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

No abstract provided.