Digital Commons Network^™

Artificial Intelligence Ratings Of Facial Feature Similarity As Predictors Of Eyewitness Performance, Agata K. Bugajczyk

Student Theses

Eyewitness identification plays an important role in the criminal justice system, yet it is often prone to error. Diagnostic Feature Theory (DFD) suggests that lineup fillers should match the eyewitness’s description of the suspect but be different in other ways (Wixted & Mickes, 2014). According to this theory, people remember faces using multiple features (e.g., age, race, face shape), some of which are useful for recognition and some that are not. This approach has been shown to improve the ability to tell the difference between guilty and innocent suspects (e.g., Colloff et al., 2021), but it also increases identification rates …

Info 7009 / Lbsci 709: Research In Library And Information Studies, Ping Li

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus of INFO 7009 / LBSCI 709: Research in Library and Information Studies. Funded in part by the CUNY OER Initiative, this class uses open educational resources or zero-textbook-cost materials.

Growing, Connecting, And Reflecting: Interpersonal Communication In Relationships, Gordon Alley-Young

Open Educational Resources

"Growing, Connecting, and Reflecting: Interpersonal Communication in Relationships" by Gordon Alley-Young is an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook exploring communication in interpersonal relationships. The text emphasizing that communication is a collaborative, co-creation of meaning across many contexts and channels. The text recognizes the pervasive influence of culture on communication to recognize how our diverse backgrounds shape relational dynamics and dialogue. Topics and themes explored in the text include: self-concept, perception, cultural awareness, effective listening, emotion, verbal and nonverbal communication, relational climates and conflict, and the formation and evolution of foundational interpersonal relationships. The text encourages individual reflection on the reader's …

Fast Discovery Of Motivic Patterns In Symbolic Music Via Lossy Compression, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

Generative systems that react to live musicians require rapid analysis of musical data, which rules out deep learning models: they cannot be trained within the time constraints of live performance. But because analysis results are often transformed before use, we are free to reduce the parameters that undergo transformation to a small set of primitive states. We address this coincidence of constraint and opportunity with an algorithm for online discovery of maximal musical motives that achieves speed through lossy compression: the pitch and inter-onset-interval deltas for all pairs of events in a potential motive are reduced to two-bit values, conceptualized …

Allyship And Affect: Qualitative Investigations Into Social Transformation, Michael Lucinda Jane Greer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Allies have faced several critiques in feminist philosophy. Some have argued that they lack the requisite political interests to be motivated to dismantle the social structures from which they stand to benefit. Others have argued that the epistemic limitations resulting from their social privilege are insurmountable. Yet others have argued that allyship is too individualistic a concept, preferring a more collectivist concept like solidarity. However, there remain privileged individuals who understand themselves as complicit in perpetuating oppressive forms of life, and who wish to transform themselves and work in coalition across difference to dismantle structural oppression. How ought these individuals …

Distinguishing Between Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Role Of Childhood Maltreatment, Catherine Harris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current study examined whether court-substantiated childhood maltreatment may be associated with increased risk for Complex PTSD (CPTSD) and whether individuals with CPTSD and individuals with PTSD could be distinguished in terms of complex trauma exposure. Children with documented cases of abuse and neglect prior to age 11 were matched on age, race, sex, and approximate family socioeconomic status with children without documented histories of maltreatment (controls) and both groups were followed prospectively into adulthood. Participants (N = 1,196) were assessed using a DSM-III-R based structured interview of PTSD symptoms and other self-report measures of psychiatric symptoms at mean age …

Intimate Partner Violence And Emotion Regulation Among Emerging Adults: Investigating The Roles Of Dispositional Mindfulness And Executive Function In The Context Of A Laboratory-Induced Stress Paradigm, Mikell Bursky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major public health concern that impacts an estimated 10 million men and women in the United States annually. IPV refers to a range of physical, sexual or psychological forms of aggression committed against a current or former romantic partner in the context of a relationship. The highest rates of IPV are observed in emerging adulthood, a developmental period between the ages of 18 to 25 that is significant for the transition from adolescence into adulthood, and the establishment of first meaningful intimate relationships. Although distal risk factors for IPV such as violence in the …

Teaching Third Graders To Read Multisyllable Words: Segmentation Versus Whole Word Reading, Jolie D. Heath

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the early years of elementary school when children are still learning to read, they are presented with words of increased syllable length, and orthographic and morphological complexity in the texts they read.  Although multisyllabic words comprise 90% of words in the English lexicon and carry important linguistic information for expanding vocabularies and comprehension of content, few studies have focused on teaching middle elementary children to read multisyllabic words.  Many children lack strategies to identify these longer more complex words accurately and easily, leading to reading difficulties that place weaker readers at higher risk for school related problems and limit …

Social Media-Based Social Comparisons Among Socially Anxious Young Adults: The Role Of Cognitive Reappraisal, Jennifer L. De Rutte

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social media is a central context for social interaction and self-evaluation among young adults. For those with elevated social anxiety, these environments may be especially salient because they provide frequent opportunities for social comparison. Although upward social comparison on social media has been linked to poorer emotional outcomes, less is known about its experimental effects among socially anxious young adults or whether upward and downward comparison have distinct effects that extend to later socially evaluative situations. The present study examined these questions in 84 socially anxious young adults randomly assigned to view simulated Instagram feeds eliciting upward comparison, downward comparison, …

Retrieval Information From Working Memory: The Output Gating Framework Perspective And Its Underlying Processes, Chen Tiferet-Dweck

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Working memory (WM) keeps information accessible and available for further processing. However, not all the information we maintain in WM is behaviorally relevant at any given moment. To act effectively, we must dynamically control which memory representations are accessed to support ongoing goal-directed behavior. While the mechanisms underlying the selection of single items from WM access are comparatively well-studied, less is known about the principles governing multi-item access. Existing models of WM access imply that selecting multiple items should take longer and be more error-prone than single-item access. Yet, paradoxically, prior studies have shown that retrieving all items in WM …

Individual Intellectual Humility As A Predictor Of Perceived Information Sharing And Perceived Shared Leadership, Mary Beth Schroeder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cross-functional problem-solving teams are often assembled to address complex challenges by combining members’ distinct knowledge, ideas, and leadership capabilities. Yet teams do not always capitalize on these collective resources, because team members do not share the information they uniquely possess. This tendency to withhold information may be lessened by intellectually humility, a personality trait marked by a desire to close gaps in one’s knowledge and openness to what others contribute.

This study was originally designed to examine whether team intellectual humility relates to team creativity through information sharing and shared leadership. However, because of changes in the leadership development program …

Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Dementias Risk Profiles And Health Literacy Among South Asian Seniors, Sandra A. Kennedy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) pose significant health challenges globally, with South Asian seniors in the United States facing elevated risks due to high rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and limited health literacy. This study assessed dementia literacy and the prevalence of cardiovascular, psychosocial, and lifestyle risk factors among South Asian seniors in New York City, utilizing community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles in collaboration with India Home, a community-based organization. Fifty-six (N=56) South Asian seniors aged 55 and older (M = 69.05, SD = 6.36), primarily of Indian or Bangladeshi origin, participated in the study. Data collection involved a …

Modeling And Generating Trustworthy Speech, Yuwen Yu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As virtual agents become increasingly integrated into everyday communication, trust has become essential for effective human-AI interaction. Although recent advances in natural language generation and speech synthesis have significantly improved fluency and intelligibility, most systems are not designed to control how trustworthy they are perceived. As a result, a mismatch can emerge between perceived trustworthiness and actual system capability, leading to over-trust or under-trust. While trust is critical for meaningful interaction, current text-to-speech (TTS) systems are primarily optimized for naturalness and intelligibility rather than calibrated trustworthiness.

This dissertation investigates the perceptual foundations of trust in both human and synthesized speech …

The Effects Of Chronic Nicotine Exposure On Dopamine-Mediated Reinforcement Learning And Striatal Neurotransmission, Srishti Bose

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Tobacco is one of the most widely used substances across the United States; tobacco consumption is linked with several diseases and is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the country. Nicotine is the active substrate found in tobacco products, acting as a stimulant, which reinforces continued use. The introduction of tobacco-free options such as e-cigarettes and oral pouches has driven an increase in nicotine exposure across the population, especially in young adults. Acute nicotine use induces neuroadaptations in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, which mediates reinforcement learning and addiction, that potentiates reward-related neurotransmission. Furthermore, there are clinical studies …

The Impact Of Gun Control Policies On Firearm-Related Deaths: A Two Decade State-By-Year Analysis, Rabana Tajrin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This report analyzed firearm-related deaths rates in the United States at the state level over a two decade period between 2000 to 2019. The study used a state-by-year analytical framework created from the U.S. Gun Deaths by County, 1999–2019 dataset (Eltom, 2019) in order to examine national trends, state-level differences, changes over time, geographic concentration, and regional variation. The analysis focused on firearm-related deaths by adjusting for population size differences (i.e., the crude firearm-related death rate) across U.S. states from 2000 to 2019. These analyses indicated that firearm-related deaths increased nationally during the study period. Total firearm-related deaths rose from …

Cognitive-Affective And Somatic Depressive Symptom Domains Related To Psychological Mechanisms And Sociodemographic Factors, Danielle B. Hazeltine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Major depressive disorder is prevalent, chronic, and heterogeneous, including cognitive- affective (e.g., maladaptive beliefs or thinking patterns and sad mood) and somatic (e.g., fatigue, appetite, or sleep changes) symptom domains. While depression domains have been long theorized, research examining psychological mechanisms underlying this distinction is limited. Preliminary research suggests cognitive-affective symptoms relate more strongly to cognitive mechanisms (cognitive bias, perseverative thought), somatic symptoms relate more strongly to behavioral mechanisms (behavioral inhibition/activation), and gender, race, and ethnicity moderate these relationships. This study examined whether cognitive-affective and somatic symptom domains differentially relate to cognitive and behavioral mechanisms, and whether these relationships are …

Authoritarianism, Hostility And Threat: An Analysis Of American Political Podcasts Surrounding The 2024 Presidential Election, Noah D. Cohen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Political rhetoric surrounding key events has seen sharp increases in emotionally affective speech, intergroup sentiment, and rhetoric unbecoming of democratic societies in recent years. Similarly, semi-democratic and ideologically driven speech has become increasingly normalized within an era of political polarization and hardline beliefs in modern media. Within this economy of outrage, sensational and largely unmoderated media formats, particularly podcasts, have become a mainstay of political information and discourse. This raises an important question: how does rhetoric surrounding political events construct intergroup sentiment and authoritarian rhetoric within political media, particularly American political podcasts? Further, given political podcasts’ growing social influence in …

The Cranial Nerves And Electrical Stimulation, Devin K. P. Adair

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cranial nerves provide afferent pathways that enable bottom-up modulation of central autonomic and cognitive neural pathways. Because these pathways project to brainstem nuclei such as the nucleus tractus solitarius and engage neuromodulatory systems, including the locus coeruleus, electrical stimulation offers a mechanistically grounded approach to influencing brain function. This thesis tested whether active transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) produces physiological responses indicative of parasympathetic engagement, defined as decreases in heart rate, increases in heart rate variability, and decreases in respiration relative to a dose-matched earlobe control condition. Using cardiac and respiratory measures as physiological markers, taVNS at the tragus …

Scientific Uncertainty As Political Aggression: A Manifesto For Those Who Value Science And Want To Save It From State And Corporate Control, Stephen Demeo

Publications and Research

A manifesto is an opportunity to publicly express strongly held beliefs about a topic that is personally important to an author. It is analytical as it is creative. “Scientific Uncertainty as Political Aggression” is a manifesto that intersects science and politics. It urges those interested in science to examine two different but related topics: scientific uncertainty in measurement—what it is, how it is determined, why it’s important— and the magnification of uncertainty through legal and linguistic tactics used by right-wing politicians and politically supported corporations.

For some time now, the Republican Establishment has cast excessive doubt on scientific findings through …

The Role Of Temperament In Criminal Trajectories: Development, Stability, And Predictive Power Across The Life Course, Joshua A. Lang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Temperament, an individual's largely innate tendency to experience and regulate responses to their environment, has long been studied but was only recently introduced as a primary predictor of criminal behavior (DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014). While prior criminological theories have incorporated temperament-related constructs, such as negative affect (Agnew, 1992; Moffitt, 1993) and self-control (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990), no other theory has explicitly positioned temperament as the central factor in offending. DeLisi and Vaughn’s temperament-based theory of antisocial behavior posits that individuals with low effortful control and high negative emotionality—features of a difficult temperament—are more likely to engage in criminal behavior. Despite …

New York City Women’S Experiences With Perinatal Depression Inquiries, Diagnosis, And Treatment Initiation, Caterina Pisciotta

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Perinatal depression represents a significant public health concern, yet many women who experience depression symptoms during the perinatal period (either during pregnancy and/or after birth) do not receive treatment. Initiatives, such as ThriveNYC, were designed to address these gaps by screening and treating perinatal women for maternal depression, integrating screening into routine perinatal care and strengthening pathways to treatment. Using representative survey data collected between 2016 and 2021 via the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), this study examined trends in perinatal depression inquiries (a proxy for “screening”) and postpartum diagnosis, as well as …

Towards Identifying Fear And Safety Network States Across Sex, Rhonda Kolaric

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma- and stressor-related disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 5-6% in men, and 10-12% in women (National Center for PTSD). Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a highly prevalent anxiety- and depression-related psychiatric disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 1-2% in men, and 3-4% in women (National Institutes of Health). Both of these disorders disproportionately affect women. A hallmark feature of both disorders is the maladaptive generalization of fear, in which defensive responses extend beyond the original traumatic or threatening stimulus to neutral or unrelated cues. This overgeneralization can become debilitating, disrupting cognitive, emotional, and …

Parenthood And Re-Appraisal Of Childhood Maltreatment, Gayathri Cheran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Child maltreatment is associated with poorer physical and mental health outcomes across the lifespan.  Individuals’ appraisals of childhood maltreatment have important implications for these outcomes.  Appraisal is shaped by biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors, each of which undergoes change in parenthood.  Parenthood may prompt re-appraisal of childhood maltreatment in that being a parent evokes one’s experience of being parented.

Hypotheses: (1) Re-appraisal will be more likely in parents than non-parents.  In parents, re-appraisal will be more likely among: (2) primiparous parents, (3) parents with offspring of the same sex, and (4) parents who experienced maltreatment older in childhood (at …

Opportunities For Learning Through Object Exploration During Early Physical Therapy: Physical Therapists’ And Caregivers’ Assistance And Interference Behaviors, Michele Goncalves Maia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Early physical therapy (EPT) for infants with motor delays has traditionally emphasized motor milestone acquisition, yet growing evidence indicates that motor and cognitive development are fundamentally interconnected. Grounded in embodied cognition and developmental cascade theories, this dissertation conceptualized object exploration as a primary mechanism through which infants learn during EPT and examined how intervention approaches and adult behaviors shape opportunities for object exploration. Using retrospective analyses of video-recorded EPT sessions, two studies investigated how intervention approaches and adult behaviors influence infants' opportunities to learn through object exploration. Study 1 compared object exploration in the START-Play (SP) intervention and Usual Care …

Comm 11 Fundamentals Of Interpersonal Communication Textbook, Teresa A. Fisher

Open Educational Resources

A survey of interpersonal communication.

“When I’M Not Heard, I Feel Like I Don’T Matter”: Advancing Equity In Disability Policy Through Critical Participatory Action Research With People With Intellectual Disability, Cris Marchionne

Student Theses

People with intellectual disability deserve a system that offers flexible, timely, and person-centered support — one that is innovative, sustainable, and holistic in enabling them to live fulfilling lives. This qualitative study, grounded in Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), examines how people with intellectual disability experience participation in decision-making within New York State's disability service system. By centering lived experience, the study identifies factors that facilitate or hinder participation in decision-making and examines structural, social, and policy-related barriers that limit agency. Through six focus groups and a Photovoice project with self-advocates receiving OPWDD services, participants described systemic barriers that limited …

Artificial Intelligence And Social Equities: Navigating The Intersectionalities In A Digital Age (Editorial), Daisuke Akiba, Julie Albright

Publications and Research

This editorial article introduces and synthesizes the Special Issue, “Artificial intelligence and social equities: navigating the intersectionalities in a digital age,” which examines how AI systems intersect with race, ethnicity, and interconnected identity dimensions across global contexts. The eight contributions span healthcare, digital media, higher education, organizational communication, and speculative futures, addressing anti-racist psychiatric algorithms, AI-generated visual disinformation, epistemic injustice between the Global North and South, algorithmically mediated rural–urban divides, culturally untranslated technology transfer, accessibility auditing across the AI lifecycle, and the tension between mechanical objectivity and empathic understanding. Read together, they show that AI is neither inherently …

‘Passing’ The Baton Of Trauma: Queer Failure Of The Women’S Sport Policy Working Group’S Anti-Trans ‘Position’, Meredith M. Bagley, Mary Anne Taylor, Sarah F. Price

Publications and Research

Engaging in critical rhetorical theory and methodology, we interrogate the contemporary landscape of anti-trans backlash in women’s sport. Specifically, we read the ‘TERF wars’ (Pearce et al.) across critiques of biofeminism (Pape) and whiteness (Fischer) while drawing upon critical social science research into trauma-bonding, bullying, and the structural impacts of gender verification policies. Our analysis focuses on the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group (WSPWG), offering a trauma-informed reading of the WSPWG’s ‘Position’ statement to illuminate how lesbian female athletes who were previously slandered for failing to meet femininity norms in sport are unable to overcome that trauma to recognize and …

Eece310w Oer Syllabus, Daisuke Akiba

Open Educational Resources

This course has been designated Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) under the CUNY OER Initiative.

Seventeenth Century Poetry And Music: A Syllabus (English 721), Carrie Hintz

Open Educational Resources

A syllabus for my fall English 721 class (Seventeenth Century Literature: Poetry and Music).