Digital Commons Network^™

Phase Change Lines, Scale Breaks And Trend Lines Using Excel 2013Tm, Neil Deochand

Masters Theses

The development of graphing skills for the behavior analyst is an ongoing process. Specialized graphing software is often expensive, not widely disseminated, and may require specific training. Dixon, et al. (2009) provided an updated task analysis (Carr & Burkholder, 1998) in the widely used platform Excel 2007. Vanselow and Bourret (2012) provided online tutorials outlining some alternate methods also using Office 2007. This article serves as an update to those task analyses with alternative and under-utilized methods in Excel 2013. To examine the utility of our recommendations twelve psychology graduate students were presented with the task analyses and the experimenters …

The Experience Of Social Flow In Vocal Jazz Improvisation, Brittany Neuser

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of experimental research procedures and gather initial data in studying the experience of social flow within the context of group music production tasks. Participants completed two different group vocal music production tasks: Performance of a pre-composed song and an improvised performance. The Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2), a 36-item survey in which a mean score of 45 implies the ultimate flow experience and a score of 9 implies that no flow was experienced during the event in question, was used to assess the level of social flow experienced by the participants …

Formant Frequency Transitions In The Fluent Speech Of Adults Who Do And Do Not Stutter: Testing The Over-Reliance On Feedback Hypothesis, Kaitlin Arnold

Masters Theses

A recent theory proposed by Civier and colleagues (Civer et al. 2010; Civer et al. 2013) developed a model of stuttering that implicates a faulty feedforward control system. The hypothesis suggests that stuttering results from relying too heavily on sensory feedback to guide speech movements. An overreliance on sensory feedback would result in subtle anomalies in fluent speech (such as slowed articulatory transitions) as well as overt stuttering behaviors (such as sound repetitions). The present study tested this general hypothesis by comparing articulatory transition rates of adults who do and do not stutter across casual and fast speech rates. Participants …

Prohibit, Tolerate, Or Prefer: A Content Analysis Of Agenda-Setting And The Lgbt In Msnbc And Fox News, Ashley Elizabeth Wiktorek

Masters Theses

Social movements have one common theme. A common theme of change. The lesbian gay bisexual transgender [LGBT] movement is no different. With change happening all around us, the LGBT movement is slowing trying to gain a voice and make its objectives known to society and in turn demand society accept the movement's specific desire for change. The LGBT movement has an agenda; however, the media also portrays another agenda about information and issues presented on the LGBT movement. In this analysis, the LGBT movement research surrounding agenda-setting theory will be reviewed. The purpose of this study is to analyze numerous …

Mad To Be Sincere: Authenticity, Irony, And Kerouac’S Response To Modern Reality, Jonathan Michael Devin

Masters Theses

This project explores the qualities of sincerity, authenticity, and irony in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. The thesis asserts that that On the Road is neither ironic nor authentic, but, rather, that it both possesses aspects of traditional sincerity and anticipates the New Sincerity movement in contemporary literature. Through observing the characteristics of traditional sincerity and New Sincerity in the novel, the thesis amends the novel's critical position by showing a level of complexity, foresight, and nuance in the text. Ultimately, the thesis shows Kerouac's response to modern reality, presenting the limitations of authenticity and irony while esteeming the …

Differential Effects Of Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (Mdpv) And Mephedrone In Rats Trained To Discriminate Mdma Or A D-Amphetamine+Mdma Mixture, Eric Louis Harvey

Masters Theses

Recent reports on the abuse of novel synthetic cathinone derivatives call attention to serious public health risks of these substances. In response to this concern, a growing body of preclinical research has characterized the psychopharmacology of these substances, particularly mephedrone (MEPH) or methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), noting their similarities to MDMA and cocaine. The present study employed drug discrimination methodology to assess the discriminative stimulus effects of MEPH and MDPV in male Sprague-Dawley rats trained to discriminate 1.5 mg/kg 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or a mixture of 1.5 mg/kg MDMA and 0.5 mg/kg d-amphetamine (MDMA+AMPH). After establishing dose response functions with each training …

Sleep Hygiene Practices: A Cross Cultural Survey Of Sleeping And Dreaming In College Students, Ivan Noe Martinez Salazar

Masters Theses

There is consensus that a sizeable percentage of people in most developed countries do not obtain adequate amounts or quality of sleep. These disruptions in sleep, when chronic and severe, can lead to psychological, behavioral and health consequences. The focus on behavioral and contextual factors that impact sleep has been termed “sleep hygiene”. An on-line anonymous survey collected sociodemographic information, as well as self-reports on sleep, sleep hygiene practices and dreaming across two cultural groups (English & Spanish speaking responders). A total of 204 participants (majority of them college and graduate students) answered the survey. Both cultural groups, English and …

Effects Of Altering Motivation In Pigeons Performing A Titrating-Delayed-Matching-To-Sample Task, Zachary J. Zimmermann

Masters Theses

In order to better understand the role motivating operations (MOs) serve in preceding and evoking behavior, it is useful to examine the effects of whether manipulating motivation can influence performance on tasks with known behavioral outcomes. It is well established that altered stimulus control is responsible for changes in responding on tasks of generalization and discrimination. Therefore, if stimulus control could be influenced by MOs, then perhaps stimulus discriminations could be improved by manipulating the relevant MO. To this end, the effects of altering motivation via food deprivation were examined in pigeons using a titrating-delayed-matching-to-sample task. Additional pharmacological variables (i.e., …

A Study Of Motivation And Assimilation: Examining Asian International And American College Students' Employment On Campus, Yasa Guo

Masters Theses

The author researched the topic of this thesis from six different aspects: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, international students, student employment, motivation, Cultural Intelligence Theory, and cross-cultural adaptation. There are twenty participants that participated in this research. Among them, ten are Asian international students and ten are American students. All students have been a student at a private Christian university and working for at least one semester. The researcher developed twelve questions related to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for all participants and nine questions related to Cultural Intelligence Theory to only Asian international students. The research methodology of this thesis is …

'Sing Unto The Lord A New Song--Just Not That One!' A Case Study Of Music Censorship In Free Will Baptist Colleges, Jon Edward Bullock

Masters Theses

Like so many of the world’s other religious institutions, the Christian church has a long and well-documented history of using music to enhance and enliven the spiritual experiences of believers. Many of the church’s greatest champions throughout history have spoken about the inherent power of music, but as history always seems to demonstrate, along with power comes the need for control. As long as church leaders have used music to attain spiritual progress, they have also censored music that threatens to impede that progress. Even today, many church leaders still rely on music censorship to protect the future and identity …

Music Therapists Behind Locked Doors: The Role Of Trauma Exposure And Current Music Therapy Practices In Correctional And Forensic Psychiatry, Deanna K. Bush

Masters Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore the role trauma exposure has on the possible development of symptoms of Vicarious Traumatization (VT) in the lives of Board Certified Music Therapists employed in correctional and forensic settings. Research was conducted through completion of an electronic survey. Additionally, the researcher sought to identify current music therapy practices as well as differences between practicing in forensic settings and correctional settings. The participants involved in this study were Board Certified Music Therapists who work in forensic and correctional settings. Survey invitations were electronically sent to 133 prospective participants as listed on either …

American Dreams And Dystopias: Examining Dystopian Parallels In The Great Gatsby And To Kill A Mockingbird, Samuel Nathan Harris

Masters Theses

In this study I consider the recent trend of dystopian fiction in literature—both the broader genre of dystopias of the past century or so, and the contemporarily popular subgenre of young adult dystopian fiction—and examine whether certain American novels, while not typically considered dystopias, can fit into this genre or at least be established as having some parallels with works of this genre. Based on certain shared archetypes of the genre, such as “speculative myth,” a governing “ritual habit,” and a dissatisfied narrator or protagonist, I here propose that other American classics, specifically F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and …

The Many Paths Of Cyberspace: William Gibson's The Sprawl As Prototype For Structural, Thematic, And Narrative Multilinearity In New Media, Erik Marsh

Masters Theses

William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy helped set a new direction for science fiction, but his work is also a valuable tool for examining changes in the approach both readers and writers began to take to approaching literature as the text medium began its rapid evolution with the introduction of electronic hypertext. In this examination of Gibson’s fiction, a pattern of multilinear truth emerges, showing how Western culture began to fully embrace Postmodern approaches to truth claims as a default, how even a pre-electronic text can exhibit hypertext-like aspects, and how this shift in interpretive response to literature is important for Christians …

The Self Reconfigured, Soe Yu Nwe

Masters Theses

In my work, I explore different ways of narrating my experience of alienation, confusion, pain, and psychological confinement as a cultural outsider. I seek to create narrative spaces that explore the spatial relationships between the fragmented and dislocated self with the surrounding environment along with a yearning for connection. I convey these experiences through the use of symbols (house, shrine, vessel, and snake) as metaphors for the self. As a third generation Chinese immigrant in Myanmar, I look back to Buddhist and Animistic practices in my native country, in addition to Chinese cultural practices, for inspiration in my work. The …

Neoplastic Therapy : On Violence And Aesthetics, Mengyu Chen

Masters Theses

The goal of this thesis is to create a new theoretical framework to examine and understand the meaning of an art object and its relational social existence. This thesis serves as a critique on contemporary media culture and hierarchical social oppression. At the same time, it adopts a pseudoscientific way to introduce notions of art’s autonomy and its opposition to social functionality. By merging political theories on individualism, capitalism, and metaphysics with foundational structures of art creation, I am attempting to construct a new system of thinking that challenges traditional ways of understanding mediums, functions and the viewer’s relationship with …

In Light Of Light, Chen Sun

Masters Theses

The pursuit of architectural discourse is indeed a search for a better material existence of space serving the immaterial. Meaningful space should outreach beyond its actuality, satisfying more than the basic pragmatist. It should generate an experience evoking appropriate sequence of emotions, expressing the current life and culture.

Light should surely be the subject of the discourse then, because that space conveys most of its intentionality through altering the behavior of light, while we also contributes to the alteration with our inhabitation. Like a silent speech, Light doesn’t merely conduct the spatial actuality; it also conveys the emotions attached through …

Community In A Post-Diest World, Kirby Benjamin

Masters Theses

We are in need of a new sense of community, that doesn’t rely upon religion. There exists a demand to adapt the church typology to meet the needs of current society rather than allowing these important buildings to be demolished or preserved indefinitely in an unneeded state.

With the decline of Christian religious practice in America, thousands of churches become underutilized or vacant every year, leaving these icons with strong religious associations empty. This abandonment simultaneously impacts the communities these churches once held together. Today’s generations’ sense of community has transitioned from physical to virtual connections, leading to less meaningful …

F(R)Iction, Rami Hammour

Masters Theses

Architecture is a space for stories; stories of the inhabitants, the designers, and the builders...

In my thesis I’m using architecture to tell stories, and criticize ideologies. Stories become the program, the structure, and “building material”, my site is any place where the criticized ideology dominates.

Architecture becomes a question and discussion. It is my question about life, and it is the question of the characters of the story about life. Eventually it’s the question of every inhabitant of it. It’s also an armature for different conditions of interaction of private and public.

In my architecture, spaces are constructed from …

Objects In Mind, Leah Kenttämaa-Squires

Masters Theses

Daily distractions and interruptions are abundant and often cause anxiety, irritability, and impatience. The world is constantly in a battle for our attention making it difficult to be in one moment. Our continuous motion of both body and mind to combat these constant disturbances cause us to lose perspective, become quick to make judgments, and unable to recognize errors. We no longer take time to fully consider where our thoughts are leading, nor do we allow for a moment to let our thoughts go.

An object can promote open-minded thought by altering our perception or perspective of it, preventing automatic …

Multiple Influences: From Witnessing Language To Performing It, Viviane Jalil

Masters Theses

5The relationship between language and tools has always been one of influence. Our devices—pens, keyboards, smartphones—make language visible and affect its form and structure. But this exchange goes both ways: all acts of reading and writing are mediated by our expectations of content, and the instruments used to access it.

As modes of communication evolve, so too do the ways in which we think through language, creating a dynamic of perpetual adaptation. With the growing impact of technology upon our behaviors, this dialogue is becoming imbalanced, affecting how we engage with others, how we approach our machines, and how we …

Untitled, Esme Choi

Masters Theses

‘I’ is the most difficult entity for me to identify. The meaning of self, as I get closer, slips away. Sometimes I feel akin to one identity, and at other times, another. None of them feels completely accurate. In these moments of uncertainty, I remind myself that possessing multiple selves is acceptable and that in the spaces between them resides the power and possibility for eventually finding and defining my true self. My parents gave me four different names at different times due to our religion, Buddhism. At present, my name is Esme here in the United States, while in …

Mid-, Elise Kirk

Masters Theses

This thesis explores a personal and cultural tension between rootedness and restlessness, set against the backdrop of my native Midwest. The large-format portrait and landscape photographs reflect a paradoxical longing to pull up stakes and put down roots, and the liminal state we often dwell in as a result. Playing on the conception of the Midwest as a transient zone to be passed through en route to somewhere else, the work refers to the pervasive belief that our greatest hopes and potentials can only be realized in some other place, at some future or past time. It’s a syndrome I …

Power Shift: A Catalyst For Architectural Transformation : Rapid Transit, Cincinnati, Dachamont Kaewket

Masters Theses

Large-scale architectural projects rely on political stability, and take considerable time to realize. The survival of an architectural development depends on outliving the governing bodies that initiate these improvements. With a change in power, often these large-scale projects are halted, demolished, or left unfinished.

The adaptation of these unfinished structures can reconcile the difference in a power shift, providing an important sense of continuum that is not only a record of the shift in power but also a source of connection through time with this fragmentation. For these reasons, Cincinnati’s subway system is a good example of a public project …

Make Every Day Count: Longing, Vision, & Painting, Sarah R. Pater

Masters Theses

Images are non-verbal holders of narrative and meaning in Western culture. Historically, painting served this function—a job that we now generally give to digital photography and cinema. One task for contemporary painting, then, might simply be as a self-reflective metaphor for the experience of vision that is mostly lost in photographic technologies: seeing as looking plus touching. Paintings are simultaneously objects and images—corporeal material constructions and visceral illusionary fields. Given the current state of rapid image production, consumption, and instrumentalization, painting’s insistence on singularity and a more ‘composed gaze’—one that asks the viewer to re-read—stands out as significant and potentially …

Why Abstain? Trends In And Origins Of Indifference And Estrangement In The United States, 1968-2012, Christopher R. Keeler

Masters Theses

Abstention rates have remained quite high in the United States for the last several decades. This thesis explores the trends in and origins of the nonvoters from 1968 to 2012 using a statistical model of abstention in presidential elections. The objective is to determine why nonvoters have chosen to abstain and who are they?

Using data from the American National Elections Studies, four groups of nonvoters are identified – voters who are both alienated and indifferent, voters who are neither alienated nor indifference, voters who are only alienated, and voters who are only indifferent. The two groups exclusively analyzed are …

Taking Art To The Next Level: Integration Of Advanced Placement Studio Art, 2-D Design, Krystal Kingsley

Masters Theses

Teaching High School art has brought me great joy. Along the way I have been challenged with many difficult questions. One that beckoned me to direct and intentional action is “how do I help students take their art work to the next level?” This project is the result of my personal discovery and development of an Advanced Placement Studio Art 2-D Design course. My research of multiple sources led to the development of an Advanced Placement (AP) approved course which includes: a syllabus, multiple breadth lessons, project rubrics, critiques, sketchbook assignments, summer homework, and a guide for helping students develop …

Think Again: The Decision Making Process In King Lear And Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres, Elizabeth Burgess

Masters Theses

This thesis is a feminist reading of Shakespeare‟s King Lear and Jane Smiley‟s Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Thousand Acres that applies psychological insights into human behavior to explain economic decision-making. Many of the traditional readings of King Lear, including the works of critics A. C. Bradley, Maynard Mack and Stephen Greenblatt, approach the play by accepting the patriarchal view of Lear as the rightful ruler, while Goneril and Regan are wicked for taking the kingdom from their father. Smiley‟s A Thousand Acres, however, approaches the text from what she imagines Goneril‟s perspective to be and includes the …

Examining The Effects Of Robot-Enacted Guilt Appeals In A Human-Robot Negotiation, Brett Stoll

Masters Theses

Social robotics is a quickly evolving and expanding field in which significant contributions may be made by the communication discipline. Prior research has demonstrated the successful employment of robots throughout varying contexts such as work team decision-making, education, and healthcare. The purpose of this study is to expand upon existing research and generate an understanding of how robots may be used in competitive communication environments. The study highlights face negotiation theory (FNT) and the computers are social actors (CASA) paradigm to frame predictions and understanding of how humans interact with robots in a negotiation context. The researcher uses a 2 …

Ways In Which Community Involvement May Influence Girls’ Education In Senegal, Babou Ndiaye

Masters Theses

This study attempts to examine through the lens of social feminist theory the ways in which community involvement may influence girls’ education in Senegal. It highlights the extent to which networking, advocacy, and meaningful interactions between community and school may contribute to improving access, learning conditions, and academic achievements for girls. The paper also provides an analysis of the adverse effects of community involvement on girls’ education in Senegal. It underscores the extent to which patriarchy and class interfere to shape community involvement and undermine girls’ education, in terms of both access and quality. The paper further sketches a combination …

Fostering The Efficacious Adolescent Artist, Regina Beltowski

Masters Theses

Low self-esteem and insecurity is common among adolescents. In the secondary-school art room, students often stop engaging in art practice, believing that they lack talent, when the truth is that they lack specific skills. Students who are fortunate to have teachers who help them develop their skills experience a boost in feelings of self-efficacy, and often reengage with art production. This thesis project focuses on strengthening students’ self-efficacy in the visual arts at the secondary level. Clarifying the differences between related terms – self-esteem, self-concept, and perceived control – I focus on self-efficacy as a characteristic that plays a significant …