Digital Commons Network^™

A Missionary's Memoirs: Mongolia Revisited, Isaac Smith

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This is my story. It is a very personal story, but one that I want to share with others. Although it takes place predominantly in Mongolia, it is not merely a story about Mongolia, or even the Mongolian people. It is not really even a story about me. What is it then? It is a story about faith and love. It is an attempt to better understand how the gospel of Jesus Christ intricately fits into people’s lives all over the world—even in Mongolia. It is a compilation of essays, of memoirs, of my experiences. It is a story about …

From Assistance To Impact: The Expanding Role Of Undergraduate Teaching Assistants In Higher Education, Erin Measom

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is presented in a three-article format. It explores the evolving role of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) in higher education, with a particular focus on how they facilitate interaction, engagement, and student success in online courses. As higher education institutions expand online learning and seek innovative ways to enhance student support, UTAs have emerged as key players in bridging the gap between students and instructors. The first article provides a scoping review of the literature on UTAs, tracing their historical evolution and examining their expanding role. While traditionally viewed as logistical or grading assistants, UTAs are increasingly taking on …

Multi-Field Quantum Conference Key Agreement Using An Integrated Photonic Green Machine, Benjamin J. Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum Conference Key Agreement (QCKA) enables a group of users to generate a shared secret key, which reduces the latency and equipment overhead of establishing multiple Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) links. Conventional QCKA protocols send a multi-photon entangled state from one user to others and a key is generated only when all photons are detected, which is inefficient at high loss and opens side-channels at the receiver side. Here, we overcome this barrier through a multi-field QCKA protocol enabled by designing, fabricating, and testing an integrated photonic Green Machine that implements an eight-mode Hadamard unitary transformation through a beam-splitter network. …

Who's On The Phone: Effectiveness Of Cloned Vishing Messages, Katherine A. Rackliffe

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Voice cloning is increasingly used as a form of phone-based phishing attack (i.e., vishing attack). The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of voice cloning on the success rate of vishing/phishing attacks. We hypothesize that calls utilizing cloned voices are more likely to deceive recipients compared to traditional vishing calls or text messages with the same phishing content. As AI cloning is a new technology, there is not much literature on this topic. To evaluate this hypothesis, we conduct a field experiment with students in university courses who receive a message purporting to be from a professor …

Optimized Wireless Power Transmission For Low-Cost, Energy-Efficient Internet Of Things Devices In Residential Environments, Daniel Brook Hatch

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless power transmission (WPT) offers a promising solution for powering devices in locations where traditional electrical outlets are inaccessible, such as ceilings or outdoor environments. By utilizing electromagnetic waves, such as light, WPT enables power delivery without the need for physical connections. With line-of-sight (LoS) as its primary limitation, this technology offers significant flexibility and potential for a wide range of applications, making it a compelling focus for research and innovation. Despite the advancements in WPT technologies, their practical application for powering Internet of Things (IoT) devices in real-world scenarios remains underexplored. Many IoT devices are installed in locations where …

Language Style Evaluation Validation For Implementation On Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Augmentative And Alternative Communication Devices, Meghan A. Hunter

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored various methods of evaluating language style for integration into prompts designed for a sophisticated augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. A total of 395 individuals without a language disorder were recruited via a crowdsourcing platform to complete five surveys. The initial four surveys were designed to assess individuals' language style using different approaches (questionnaire developed with ChatGPT, self-written, questionnaire developed by Hartman and McCambridge, and choosing tags). Following the completion of these four surveys, a fifth survey was dynamically created based on the responses in the previous four surveys. Each possible response in the fifth survey was …

A Modular Simulation Environment And B-Spline Trajectory Generation Methods For Multi-Agent Uav Systems, Landon D. Shumway

Theses and Dissertations

Multi-agent UAV systems present a complex challenge requiring solutions to numerous subproblems. This research addresses two key issues: simulation testing and path planning. A modular simulation environment is developed, enabling users to run diverse mission scenarios with heterogeneous UAV teams and to implement custom dynamic models and guidance laws. Additionally, two novel B-spline trajectory generation methods are proposed. The first generates time-synchronized B-spline paths for UAVs with arbitrary initial and final states in 2D space, accommodating scenarios where agents must follow predetermined speed profiles. The second guidance method converts spline paths between MINVO, Bézier, and non-uniform B-spline representations, leveraging the …

Exploring Consequences Of The Double Empathy Problem Across The Autistic Trait Spectrum: First Person Accounts, Cammy C. Peck

Theses and Dissertations

Historically, individuals on the autism spectrum were believed to have deficits in empathy. However, recent research suggests that empathy-related issues occur on both sides of the communication dynamic. This concept known as the Double Empathy Problem (DEP), posits that the perceived lack of empathy is not exclusive to autistic individuals; rather, neurotypical (NT) individuals also experience difficulty empathizing with autistic individuals (Milton, 2012). Milton et al. (2022) describes this as a "breakdown in mutual understanding". Such mutual misunderstanding can have adverse consequences for both autistic and neurotypical individuals. To our knowledge, no studies have directly examined these consequences in relation …

The Effect Of Personalized Profiles On Generating Customized Content In Artificial Intelligence Augmentative And Alternative Communication Devices, Rachel Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), several augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices have begun incorporating AI with the purpose of accelerating and improving message transmission for users. The results have shown that AI can significantly reduce a user's keystrokes, but the generated responses may lack personalization. The objective of this study was to investigate whether integrating a personalized profile containing user information enhances the perceived accuracy and personalization of AI generated messages. Various methods of collecting profile information and differing levels of information within the profile were evaluated. One hundred eighty-one neurotypical English-speakers with no history of language disorder …

Why Yelling Feels Like The Only Option (And What To Try Instead), Vanessa Brouse

Student Works

Why Yelling Feels Like the Only Option (and What to Try Instead) explores how emotional dysregulation in parents can lead to reactive patterns like yelling, shutting down, or withdrawing, and how these responses impact children’s emotional development. Drawing on principles of emotional regulation, the piece offers practical, compassionate strategies for parents to break intergenerational cycles and build stronger, more connected relationships with their children. This article is especially relevant for parents, caregivers, and educators interested in trauma-informed parenting, emotional resilience, and behavior challenges.

Comparison Of Elementary Dual Language Immersion Programs And Non-Dual Language Immersion Classes Before And After Attrition, Nathaniel Blain Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

Using a longitudinal, multi-cohort design, this study examines the academic and linguistic effects of student attrition from Spanish-English dual language immersion (DLI) programs, particularly among multilingual learners (MLs). Drawing on 10 years of assessment data from two schools, the study addresses four research questions through multinomial logistic regression and hierarchical linear modeling to evaluate predictors of attrition, reading growth trajectories, and English language proficiency across student subgroups. Results indicated that attrition was most common in the early grades and was modestly associated with disability rates. At the same time, assessment scores were not predictive of program exit. Growth modeling revealed …

Enhance K-12 Student Online Learning Engagement Through Parental Support And Parent-School Collaboration, Qi Guo

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role of parental support in K-12 online learning through a three-part research agenda grounded in the Academic Communities of Engagement (ACE) framework. The first article presents a systematic review of 31 empirical articles, identifying five key themes for effective parent-school collaboration, including improved communication, shared expertise, increased involvement, role clarification, and researcher-practitioner partnerships. The second study used a survey collecting data from 567 parents across eight online programs to explore challenges parents face in supporting their students' affective, behavioral, and cognitive (ABC) engagement. Eight primary challenges are identified, ranging from student struggles with focusing and motivation …

How Transitioning Autistic Adults Consciously Perform Neurotypical Communication, Makenna J. Allred

Theses and Dissertations

Using semi-structured interviews this research explored the experiences of transitioning autistic adults with online communication. Participants shared information about navigating online communication, highlighting specific challenges such as interpreting tone and sarcasm, managing unspoken social norms, like emoji use, and responding to ambiguous or unexpected interactions. Participants shared that misunderstandings do occur in their online communication and how they recognize those miscommunications and strategize around preventing and mitigating them. These findings reveal that while computer-mediated communication offers opportunities for connection, it also presents unique obstacles that can exacerbate feelings of frustration due to miscommunications or misunderstandings. To prevent these social frictions …

Couples And Pornography: A Dyadic Latent Profile Analysis Of Romantic Partners And Pornography Use, Michelle E. Haddock Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

Research on the outcomes of pornography use for romantic couples has been extensive yet inconclusive. Studies have examined pornography use in a wide variety of contexts, leading to a wide variety of outcomes and well-being. The current study uses latent profile analysis to account for many contextual factors at once, dyadic data to examine the perspective of both partners simultaneously, and a range of individual and relational well-being outcomes to understand how different relational pornography use patterns lead to well-being. Results provided evidence for six unique profiles of couples based on pornography use patterns (personal use frequency, perceived partner use …

Simulating And Designing Pyro Fx To Communicate A Hostile And Magical Environment, Rebekah L. Tran

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis aims to document the fire FX work completed on this year’s senior capstone film, Love & Gold, for the BYU Center of Animation. The story of the film is brought to life with many different types of effects including snow, sparks, lava, rock shattering, magic, hair, cloth, and the topic of this thesis, fire. The film has three main fire simulation needs: torches, braziers, and fire traps. The FX team on the film created these with Pyro simulations. Pyro simulations are a common type of simulation supported by Houdini FX, the software program that BYU Animation primarily uses …

Sisyphus Smiles: Essays On Living Well In The Face Of Absurdity, Brooke N. Smith

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, I explore questions regarding the nature of meaningfulness and living well in the face of absurdity. Socrates famously stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” therefore, in the following essays I delve into these fundamental questions by reflecting on my own life and analyzing it in light of various philosophical notions. The two essays center around an analysis of Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus,” ultimately highlighting the distinction between Sisyphus’s situation and our own as human beings. The first essay largely examines Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of embodiment, how his conception of embodiment plays out in …

Implementing Exercise Is Medicine At Byu, Destiny Rose H. Romero

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Exercise has been proven for millennia to have significant health benefits, both preventative and curative. Many modern diseases and ailments can be prevented, alleviated, or even cured with increased physical activity. Unfortunately, the United States health system has yet to effectively integrate exercise into mainstream medical models. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is working to solve this disconnect through their global health initiative Exercise is Medicine (EIM). Most relevant to BYU is their EIM-On Campus program, which incorporates principles of exercise medicine into colleges and universities. This thesis first explores the dynamics of the health system that inhibit …

Untying The Knot: All Of Us Strangers And The Transgressive Encounter, Luka Romney

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Trauma is a perennial human problem that has only recently received sustained attention from the academic community. Within the interdisciplinary field of memory studies, there has been a significant push to not only identify and theorize trauma but also map out and propose ways to move through and beyond the constraints of trauma. This article will use Andrew Haigh’s 2023 film All of Us Strangers to theorize an experience that forms a redemptive foil to trauma that I term encounter. These redemptive encounters are sticky and unwieldy, and they require a variety of critical frames to draw out their ultimate …

University Counseling Center Therapists' Perspectives Of Counseling About Nutrition, Ana Lucia Pacheco

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined university counseling center therapists' perspectives on discussing nutrition in therapy. Despite the established link between nutrition and mental health, minimal research has explored how therapists approach these discussions. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to analyze semi-structured interviews with 10 university counseling center therapists from the Mountain West region. Four overarching themes emerged: a deficit view of nutrition, perceived utility, ethical practice, and holistic care. Therapists unanimously recognized the connection between nutrition and mental health and primarily discussed nutrition with clients presenting with eating disorders or disordered eating, those who express interest, or as part of …

Behavioral Skills Training: Comparing Parent Implementation To Registered Behavior Technician Implementation, Jessica Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is an evidence-based practice appropriate for practitioners, parents, clients, and other populations. It is frequently used in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy to support and augment skill development. Parent training in ABA has been found to be beneficial, and often critical, in the progress of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While BST is a popular method of parent training, it is unclear how effective this type of training is in comparison to the training given to a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT). This study took place in conjunction with an ABA clinic providing in home therapy. …

The Influence Of Father Involvement On Early Childhood Outcome In China, Shuiyan Guo

Theses and Dissertations

Using a sample from China, this study examined the influence of father involvement on child outcome in early childhood in areas of internalizing problems, externalizing problems and prosocial behaviors. The participants were drawn from the larger PACIFIC project, a cross-cultural study of family processes in Asia. 479 families with a preschool or kindergarten child living in Beijing and Dalian, China were included in this study. Using multiple regression analysis, result indicated that father involvement was not significantly associated with child’s internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behaviors. Moderation analysis was also conducted and found that the effect of father involvement …

Exploring The Figured Worlds And Identity Of Religious Women In Mathematics-Related Majors, Rachel K. Reynolds

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates how religious women in mathematics construct and navigate their identities within the intersecting figured worlds of gender, religion, and mathematics. Drawing on Holland et al.’s (1998) theory of figured worlds and informed by identity theory, this study examines how these women experience, negotiate, and position their identities within these figured worlds. Through interviews with women who are simultaneously committed to religious life and mathematical scholarship, the research reveals that rather than perceiving conflict between these domains, participants often find points of integration and mutual reinforcement. Their narratives illuminate how identity is shaped through cultural contexts, institutional expectations, …

Reactivity To Environmental And Social Demands In Autistic And Neurotypical Children: More Alike Than Different?, Sarah-Ann Louder James

Theses and Dissertations

Research has increasingly recognized that empathy difficulties between autistic and neurotypical individuals are mutual. As empathy depends on shared understanding, identifying common ground between autistic and neurotypical children is important to foster greater empathy. This study examined reactivity patterns in autistic and neurotypical children to explore how similarities in reactivity might promote empathy across neurodiverse groups. Using a quantitative, survey-based design, parents of 56 children (19 autistic, 37 neurotypical; ages 5-11) completed a novel measure developed for this study, the Reactivity to Scenarios of Differing Intensity (RSDI), which measures children's reactivity to various social and environmental scenarios of differing intensity. …

Latent Profiles Of Couples' Marital Power And Gender Ideologies: Associations With Physical Intimate Partner Violence, Rylie Speirs

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to identify couple typologies regarding gender ideologies and marital power, and investigate how couple typologies relate to sociodemographic characteristics as well as rates of physical intimate partner violence (IPV). Several theoretical approaches connect marital power and gender ideologies to IPV but emphasize different couple typologies. For example, family violence perspectives suggest gender ideology mismatch is a stressor that increases the likelihood of either spouse reporting low power or engaging in physical IPV. Feminist theories add that men may use IPV to maintain patriarchal power dynamics when women deviate from traditional gender norms, emphasizing the risk of IPV …

The Play's The Thing: Using Game-Based Learning To Teach Romeo And Juliet And Critical Media Literacy As An Aspect Of Civic Engagment, Lucy A. Winkel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this capstone thesis project, a simulation unit on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is used to combine the teaching of literature with the teaching of critical media literacy. Research encompassing the need for teaching literature and media literacy, media literacy as an essential component of citizenship, and Generation Alpha’s challenges and needs in the classroom precedes a literature review on gamified and game-based learning. The challenges of teaching Generation Alpha in a post-pandemic world make gamified and game-based learning an important topic in the field of education. Today’s students struggle with traditional learning styles, but multiple studies show that they …

The Effect Of Family Communication On Adolescent Sexual Behaviors And Attitudes, Jonathan Young

Family Perspectives

Unhealthy sexual behaviors among adolescents, such as engaging with multiple partners or neglecting contraceptive use, can lead to significant physical, psychological, and relational consequences. This literature review explores the influence of family communication on adolescent sexual behaviors and attitudes, emphasizing the role of parent-adolescent discussions in promoting healthier sexual practices and reshaping sexual values. Research indicates that open, reciprocal family communication is associated with reduced sexual risk-taking, fewer sexual partners, delayed sexual debut, and increased contraceptive use. Moreover, conversations centered on positive sexual norms, such as love and respect, facilitate adolescents’ adoption of healthier sexual values. Effective family communication also …

The Case For Visual Art In Overcoming The Double Empathy Problem, Katelyn Milea Rose Nilson

Theses and Dissertations

A person's cognitive environment--made up of their thoughts, experiences, and tendencies--can affect how they empathize with others. Those with significantly different cognitive environments, such as autistic and neurotypical individuals, may have a difficult time empathizing with one another. This study aimed to facilitate empathy between the two groups by aligning their cognitive environments through discussion about visual art. Five autistic neurotypical dyads completed three discussion sessions where they observed and journaled about a piece of art, discussed their thoughts with each other, and filled out a questionnaire about their experience. All participants also completed a post-study interview. Data from questionnaires, …

New Definitions Of Library Use: Experimentation, Discovery, And Creation (Edc) Within A Library, Holt Zaugg

Faculty Publications

Why did you do this activity, project, or research?

Over the last decade, libraries have shifted from being primarily repositories for information and resources to active learning centers. Physical resources (e.g., books, journals, manuscripts) have moved to online access. Librarian roles have adjusted how they help patrons find and access resources in their local library and beyond, resulting in impactful input on research, learning, and scholarly endeavors. Additionally, due to a reduced need for storing materials, libraries have developed collaborative and innovative spaces to meet patrons’ needs. These spaces include group study rooms, experiential studios, makerspaces, green rooms, and podcast …

Comparing Emotional Facial Expressions Produced During Personal Narrative Discourse By People With And Without Aphasia, Chloe K. Houghton

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the differences in emotional facial expressivity between people with aphasia (PWA) and control participants during emotional discourse tasks. Participants consisted of 26 PWA and 26 control participants from Aphasia Talk Bank who retold a stroke or illness story and an important life event story, totaling 104 video files. Undergraduate research assistants were trained to code emotional facial expressions according to valence, intensity, and duration utilizing a modified Facial Expression Coding System (FACES; Kring & Sloan, 1991). Dependent variables included positive frequency, negative frequency, positive intensity, and negative intensity. Results from this study demonstrate that female participants used …

Perceptions Of Spirituality And Of God: A Psychological Qualitative Study, Christopher E. Peck, Timothy B. Smith, Jamila Mastny

Faculty Publications

The majority of people living in the U.S. report that spirituality is an important part of their life that is influential to their well-being. However, individuals vary widely in how they conceptualize spirituality, which often stems from and overlaps with their conceptualizations of God or so-called “God image”. Examination of people’s experiences of spirituality and conceptualization of God can enable psychologists to improve their understanding of individuals’ core personal experiences. This study evaluates both spirituality and God image, as well as the relationship between these two constructs, using qualitative hermeneutic analysis of interviews with 63 adults (51% women, 49% men, …