Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating The Physiological And Behavioral Responses To Fear In A Virtual Reality Fear Conditioning Paradigm, Emily Errante

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Individual Differences In Sensitivity To Homophony In Visual Word Recognition, Henry George Wolf Vii

Master's Theses

Most research involving division of labor and visual word recognition has focused on the typical reader. More recently, there has been a shift toward research involving individual differences in division of labor between readers. While the imageability effect has been established as a measure of individual differences in use of the semantic pathway, a measure of the phonological pathway has yet to be established. The current study investigated the homophone effect in a semantic categorization task as one such possible measure. Data was also collected regarding imageability, wordlikeness, and pseudohomophony in a lexical decision task. Additionally, participants completed a battery …

How Did We Get Here? An Inquiry Into Pop Culture, Pop Culture Icons, And America's Support Of The Degradation Of Humanity Through Mass Media Consumption, Thomas Steele

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the contemporary human condition associated with the consumption of current entertainment media. Sampling on modes of thought from anthropological, biological, psychological, sociological, and biographical points of view I sought to define what it means to be uniquely human. Furthermore, I sought to compare and contrast contemporary human interactions as described through research studies associated with tabloid news sources, and the entertainment industry. The results of this study were then articulated through four works of art that visually describe that which was found amongst a variety of resources. They describe the rise and fall of the careers …

"There Was No Sign Of Man In It": Casting Dracula As Posthuman And Valuing The Progressive Vampire, Mary Elizabeth Wolverton

Master's Theses

Although not an immediate commercial success, Dracula has since become a seminal example of Gothic horror at the fin-de-siècle, leading not only to film, stage, and television adaptations, but also to literary reimaginings and a plethora of scholarship. I argue that the vampires in Dracula do not fit into the traditional critical understandings of the vampire; rather, they belong in two different but related categories recently theorized by science fiction studies and related to human evolution: transhuman and posthuman. I suggest that a reading of the novel that prioritizes the pervasive influence of evolutionary theory on Victorian literature encourages …

Effects Of A Function-Based Peer Management Intervention With Middle-School Students With Adhd, Kate A. Helbig

Master's Theses

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterized by impairment in functioning due to inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity, as well as difficulties in school with social rejection and academic underachievement (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a peer-mediated non-contingent reinforcement (NCR) intervention informed by functional assessment data to decrease disruptive behavior for students with a special education classification of OHI-ADHD. Participants included three student dyads in a middle school setting located in the Southeastern United States. An A/B/A/B withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. The primary dependent variables …

Born To Run: A Grounded Theory Study Of Cheating In The Online Speedrunning Community, Christopher G. Brewer

Master's Theses

Video games represent a growing genre of media quickly becoming one of the leading forms of entertainment (Jordan, 2014). This popularity has allowed new playstyles to emerge across the video game genre, such as e-Sports and speedrunning. In particular, the speedrunning community has somewhat redefined what it means to “cheat” in a video game by accepting the use certain software and hardware violations that could be seen as “cheating” to the general gaming community. This paper examined the social construction of cheating in this digital community through the use of grounded theory methods.

The Effects Of Plickers As Response Cards On Academic Engagement Behavior In High School Students, Morgan G. Mccargo

Master's Theses

Multiple studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of increasing student opportunities to respond for increasing academically engaged behavior. The use of response cards has held the most efficacy in terms of increasing opportunities to respond, yet no research has been done with the addition of a technology component. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of technology-based response cards on increasing academically engaged behavior of students in three high school general education classrooms. It is hypothesized that the use of Plickers® will increase academically engaged behavior classwide and decrease disruptive behavior across students in all three classrooms.

Solitary And Social Object Play In The Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus), Briana M. Cappiello

Master's Theses

Many comparative studies have focused on the emergence of solitary and social play in early development. However, few consider observer and parallel forms of solitary play. In this study, use of video analysis revealed that there is a significant difference between the frequency of solitary, observer, parallel, and social object play states, in calf, juvenile, subadult, and adult bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). While juveniles engaged in solitary play significantly more than any other age group, both juveniles and calves engaged in observer and social play significantly more than adults and subadults. Within their own age group, calves, juveniles, …

The Influence Of Perceived Job Flexibility And Spousal Support On The Marital Satisfaction Of Parents Of Children With Special Needs, Katie M. Perlowski

Master's Theses

Parents of children with special needs can experience more stress in their marriage than parents of children without special needs. Previous work has focused on the child as a major influence for the marital relationship, however this research sought to examine less commonly discussed factors that influence marital satisfaction for these parents. Perceived job flexibility and perceived spousal support in parenting were targeted as potential influencers. A mediation model was attempted to explain the mediating role of perceived spousal support in parenting in the relationship between perceived job flexibility and marital satisfaction. Results showed no correlation between perceived job flexibility …

The Classroom Password: An Independent Group Contingency Targeting Academic Engagement And Disruptive Behaviors In High School Classrooms, Kayla E. Bates-Brantley

Master's Theses

The classroom password, an independent class-wide group contingency, was implemented in a high school setting in effort to determine its effects on academically engaged behaviors, disruptive behaviors and passively off-task behaviors. This was done using a reversal design across three classes. The focal point of this study was to determine if the classroom password would increase academic engagement. The classroom password was implemented by having the teacher select a word of the day that was then incorporated into the classes lecture. The students were given the word for the day before the lectures began and were required to code each …

The Influence Of Parental Communication About Sexual Health On Quality Of Emerging Adult Romantic Relationships, Jaclyn Denise Powers

Master's Theses

The research on relationships between parent-child communication about sexuality and sexual communication between adult partners is currently lacking. The current study aims to examine the influence of parent-child sexual communication on adult sexual communication when those children reach adulthood and engage in romantic relationships. Parent-child sexual communication, attachment styles, sexual attitudes, and partner sexual communication were examined for influence on the physical and emotional relationship satisfaction of emerging adults. Study 1 included a quantitative analysis with 553 emerging adults participating in an online survey, and study 2 incorporated a qualitative analysis with an additional 7 emerging adults participating in online …

Neurophysiological Characteristics Of Magnetic Seizure Therapy Vs. Electroconvulsive Therapy In Geriatric Patients With Severe Depression, Monica T. Ly

Master's Theses

Objective: Magnetic seizure therapy (MST) is under development as an alternative to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), as it offers reduction in depression symptoms with fewer adverse cognitive effects. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of MST versus ECT in a randomized trial of geriatric patients with severe depression, then compared the neurophysiological characteristics of seizures induced by MST or ECT and investigated potential links between seizure expression and therapeutic response.

Method: Six patients (mean age: 64.8) with severe depression were randomized to receive MST (n=3) or ECT (n=3) until maximal antidepressant effect (mean number of sessions: 14.67). Depression symptoms were …

Two-Implant Supported Maxillary Overdentures: One-Year Assessment Of Patient-Centered Outcomes., Florian R. Kernen

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Perceptions And Actual Use Of Workplace Flexibility And Employee Engagement, Katherine Baer

Master's Theses

Previous research has identified both perceptions of the availability of flexible work arrangements and use of these arrangements as a predictor of engagement (Richman, Civian, Shannon, Hill, & Brennan, 2008; Ten Brummelhuis, Bakker, Hetland, & Keulemans, 2012). However, no studies have looked at the incremental effect use of flexible work arrangements have on engagement, above and beyond actual use. Very few studies have looked at how gender moderates the relationship between perceptions of flexible work arrangements and use of flexible work arrangements and engagement. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the relationships between perceptions and actual …

The Moderating Effect Of Gender And Tenure On The Relationship Between Perceived Supervisor Support And Organizational Commitment, Megan Evelyn Little

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which the demographic variables of gender and tenure influence the strength and direction of the relationship between perceived supervisor support and organizational commitment. Responses to a 2014 organization-wide employee opinion survey from 383 employees within a computer software company were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. In support of previous research, results from this study lay credence to the finding that perceived supervisor support has a positive, significant relationship with organizational commitment such that individuals who felt supported by their supervisors were more likely to report higher levels of organizational …

The Moderating Role Of Transformational Leadership And Perceived Organizational Support In The Relationship Between Openness To Experience And Creativity, Monica Luu

Master's Theses

Although openness to experience has been found to be a consistent and important determinant of creativity, organizations have been interested in ways in which they could alter the environment in order to increase creativity. Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin (1993) argue that organizational creativity is a function of the interaction between an individual’s personality and environment. Using Woodman’s theory, the present study was conducted to test whether two organizational factors, transformational leadership and perceived organizational support (POS), would moderate the relationship between openness to experience and creativity. Data were collected from 114 fulltime and parttime employees from various organizations through use …

Devil In A White Dress: Marie-Antoinette And The Fashioning Of A Scandal, Sarah Lorraine Goodman

Master's Theses

The portrait of Marie-Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, known as La Reine en gaulle, has been discussed widely in art history owing to the scandal it provoked when it was exhibited in the Paris Salon in August 1783. Analysis has focused primarily on socio-economic issues of late-ancien regime France as a means of understanding how a relatively benign portrait of the Queen of France could engender so much anger when displayed for public consumption, centering around the queen’s identity as a public figure in contrast to the private individual painted by Vigée-Lebrun. However, very little has been discussed about the clothing …

Affective And Cognitive Effects Of Awe In Predicting Hopelessness And Brooding Rumination, Eldita Tarani

Master's Theses

This study investigated the effects of awe, as a positive emotion, in ameliorating

depressive symptoms such as hopelessness and rumination. Previous research indicates that awe is unique compared to other positive emotions in that is elicited by information rich-stimuli that facilitate shifts in cognition as one attempts to accommodate this new information to their current frame of reference. In addition, awe was found incite a self- diminishing effect that contrast the inflated significance one places on the self, during negative self-referential thinking (e.g. hopelessness). We hypothesized that exposure to an awe stimuli (video) would prompt subjects to feel less hopeless …

A Feminist Focus Group Analysis Of Women's Experiences In Postpartum Yoga Classes With Babies Present, Ky Carnell Russell

Master's Theses

Women in the postpartum period face a number of physical and emotional challenges that research results indicate could be alleviated through exercise. Unfortunately, many new mothers are unable to participate in regular exercise due to a variety of personal and societally constructed obstacles. There is a growing trend to incorporate babies into yoga classes in an effort to increase the accessibility of postpartum exercise. There has been limited research conducted regarding the effectiveness of this emerging trend, and none have examined the feelings of participants engaged in mother and baby yoga classes. To address this gap in the literature, the …

In Colbert We Trust: Teenagers And Comedic Persuasion, Peter G. Kistler

Master's Theses

In this study, high school students were exposed to either a comedy or conventional television news editorial segment, and each video’s persuasive effect was compared with the other. The sample consisted of 271 high school students from Valley Christian High School in San Jose, CA, a majority of whom were juniors and seniors. Students were separated into sample groups; one group viewed a Colbert Report editorial and guest interview focused on the concept of net neutrality, while the other group viewed an All In with Chris Hayes editorial and guest interview focused on the same subject. Both sample groups were …

Parent–Child Reciprocity? Parental Aggression And Oppositional Defiant Symptoms In Girls, Olivia J. Derella

Master's Theses

Objective. Evidence suggests that parents’ verbal aggression, corporal punishment, and inter-partner conflict are linked to children’s heightened conduct problems and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). While children mutually influence parenting, strength of bidirectional relationships among these specific behaviors have been inconsistent across gender; further investigation is warranted to understand links between parental aggression and girls’ ODD symptoms. The current study tests independent reciprocal effects between specific forms of parental aggression and girls’ ODD dimensions of oppositionality, antagonism, and irritability. Method. Annual data from the longitudinal Pittsburgh Girls Study were used to evaluate parental aggression and girls’ ODD symptoms in a …

“You Don’T Just Eat ‘Em, You Get Match Ready With ‘Em”: A Content Analysis Of Alcohol, Food, And Non-Alcoholic Beverage Advertising In The United States During The 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil, Melissa M. Feulner

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Hate Crimes: The Importance Of Victim Characteristics, Megan O. Iacocca

Master's Theses

Hate crimes in the United States are a growing problem that communities and affected individuals are struggling to address. Little research has been conducted regarding victim and crime characteristics’ (specifically, the SES of victim and level of bias clearly present in the incident) effects on objective evaluation. This study contains three segments, each building off the last and incorporating additional manipulations to assess non-victim interpretation of possible hate crime events. Across all phases, participants were randomly presented with a fake news story depicting a possible hate crime, in which the victim’s socioeconomic status, race, character, and presence of a racial …

Pink And Dude Chefs: Efficacy Of An Online Train-The-Trainer Mechanism And Student Program Outcomes, Jacqueline Chen

Master's Theses

Background: The rate of overweight and obesity among adolescents aged 12-19 years has quadrupled since 1980. Reducing obesity is a key public health priority, as obesity is associated with individual and population-level health and economic consequences. Afterschool-based obesity prevention programs that aim to develop nutrition and culinary self-efficacy have shown promise. However, the level of aptitude among program instructors is directly correlated with student success, suggesting the importance of effective train-the-trainer (TTT) mechanisms for implementing and scaling up these strategies.

Pink and Dude Chefs (PDC) is an afterschool nutrition education and culinary skills program for middle-school adolescents aged between 11-14 …

Create: Clinical Record Analysis Technology Ensemble, Skylar Eglowski

Master's Theses

In this thesis, we describe an approach that won a psychiatric symptom severity prediction challenge. The challenge was to correctly predict the severity of psychiatric symptoms on a 4-point scale. Our winning submission uses a novel stacked machine learning architecture in which (i) a base data ingestion/cleaning step was followed by the (ii) derivation of a base set of features defined using text analytics, after which (iii) association rule learning was used in a novel way to generate new features, followed by a (iv) feature selection step to eliminate irrelevant features, followed by a (v) classifier training algorithm in which …

Complementary Companion Behavior In Video Games, Gavin Scott

Master's Theses

Companion characters in are present in many video games across genres, serving the role of the player's partner. Their goal is to support the player's strategy and to immerse the player by providing a believable companion. These companions often only perform rigidly scripted actions and fail to adapt to an individual player's play-style, detracting from their usefulness. Behavior like this can also become frustrating to the player if the companions become more of a hindrance than they are a benefit. Other work, including this project's precursor, focused on building companions that mimic the player. These strategies customize the companion's actions …

An Ergonomics Investigation Of The Application Of Virtual Reality On Training For A Precision Task, Delaney M. Bales

Master's Theses

Virtual reality is rapidly expanding its capabilities and accessibility to consumers. The application of virtual reality in training for precision tasks has been limited to specialized equipment such as a haptic glove or a haptic stylus, but not studied for handheld controllers in consumer-grade systems such as the HTC Vive. A straight-line precision steadiness task was adopted in virtual reality to emulate basic linear movements in industrial operations and disability rehabilitation. This study collected the total time and the error time for the straight-line task in both virtual reality and a physical control experiment for 48 participants. The task was …

Do Marketing Strategies Impact Condom Sales In Uganda?, Meyhar Mohammed

Master's Theses

What attracts people to buy condoms? HIV/AIDS remain one of the biggest health dangers of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. A lot of efforts have been pursued in the past two decades to drastically reduce prevalence of HIV and increase awareness about preventive mechanisms. In order to prevent relapse of success achieved so far, it is important to recognize transformation of consumer behavior due to growth in social networks, education and awareness over time. There are a lot of behavioral triggers captured by social marketing interventions in the field of public health. In an attempt to investigate the role …

Inentives And Education: Experimental Evidence From Medellin, Colombia, Theodore D. Wisinski, Alessandra Cassar

Master's Theses

This research uses an experimental design to investigate how incentive structure influences goal achievement among disadvantaged high school students in Medellin, Colombia. Of particular interest is how treatment effects influence school performance as well as how this may vary with differing key characteristics of the participants. Medellin, Colombia, like much of South America suffers from high levels of inequality in the city proper. Improving educational outcomes in impoverished neighborhoods is essential for the growth of these neighborhoods and the greater community in which they are located. The model used in this experiment is inspired by the Family Independence Initiative (FII). …

Aspirations As A Component Of Life Satisfaction: A Look At Female Microfinance Borrowers In Oaxaca, Mexico, Joseph E. Kemler

Master's Theses

This research is an extension to the Oaxaca Hope Project by B. Wydick and T.J. Lybbert. How does an individual gauge her own satisfaction with life? Previous research has noted that many domains make up overall life satisfaction, i.e. career satisfaction, family life satisfaction & social life satisfaction. A burgeoning topic in this regard is the role that aspirations play in life satisfaction. Using survey data from female microfinance borrowers in Oaxaca, Mexico this project attempts to analyze the affect previous aspirations have on life satisfaction. By creating an “aspirational window” we objectively attempt to gauge the relationship between “high” …