Digital Commons Network^™

Processing Speed And Executive Abilities In Children With Phenylketonuria, Alicia Janos

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Objective: Phenylketonuria: PKU) is a hereditary metabolic disorder that often results in neuropsychological impairment, even in individuals treated early and continuously. This study was conducted to examine processing speed, variability in processing speed, and the relationship between processing speed variables and executive abilities in children with early- and continuously-treated PKU. Method: Participants were 42 children with PKU and 81 typically-developing children ranging from 7 to 18 years of age. Children completed three computerized reaction time: RT) tasks: simple reaction time, go/no-go, stimulus-response compatibility) and seven tasks assessing various aspects of executive abilities: working memory, inhibitory control, strategic processing). Results: The …

Likely Old Or Likely New? Taking Memory Advice During Recognition Decisions, Diana Selmeczy

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

We examined the influence of external recommendations on recognition memory decisions. In contrast to prior literature that primarily focuses on the negative impacts of external influences during memory judgments, we investigated whether participants can capitalize on explicit reliable recommendations in order to improve their performance. In the first experiment, participants were given explicit external recommendations: “Likely Old” or “Likely New”) that were 75% accurate for deeply and shallowly encoded test items. In the second experiment, participants were given varying levels of recommendations: 65% and 85% accurate). Across both experiments we found that participants improved their performance when given external recommendations …

Social Anxiety And Gaze Aversion: Manipulating Eye Contact In A Social Interaction, Julia Langer

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Often Wrong But Never In Doubt: Categorized Lists Produce Confident False Memories, Kurt Desoto

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In the categorized list procedure, subjects study words from semantic categories, then take a recognition test on those items. Subjects are likely to recognize common: high output dominance) category members even when they are not studied. Across three experiments, we sought to extend the categorized list procedure, further develop an explanation of why false recognition of category members occurs in this procedure, and modulate false recognition of category members by manipulating encoding and retrieval phases. Experiment 1 extended previous categorized list research, showing that subjects are likely to false alarm with high confidence to high output dominance category members that …

Speling "Successful" Sucesfuly: Statistical Learning In Spelling, Siti Syuhada Binte Faizal

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Many spelling errors in English are doubling errors, as when people are stumped by the double ‹l› in ‹trellis›. In Study 1, we tabulated statistical patterns with regards to doubling in English. In Study 2, we collected behavioral data to see if people were sensitive to these statistical patterns in doubling and to explore other factors that might influence doubling such as context, individual differences: language background and spelling ability), and task. We gave two nonword spelling tasks to US college students: N=68) and bilingual Singaporean college students from an English-based education system but with diverse language backgrounds: Mandarin: N=54), …

Age, Creativity, And Wellbeing: Benefits Of Creative Behavior Among Younger And Older Artists And Nonartists, Sarah Zoller

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Examining The Relationship Between Fact Learning And Higher Order Learning Via Retrieval Practice, Pooja Agarwal

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The development of higher order skills is a desired outcome of education. Some believe that higher order learning can be improved directly, whereas others argue that higher order learning can be improved via the enhancement of factual or conceptual knowledge. The relationship between fact and higher order learning is often speculated, but empirically unknown. This project examines whether retrieval practice via quizzing, a strategy typically used to enhance fact learning, can be used as a strategy to improve higher order skills in both laboratory and applied settings. In the current study, higher order skills were considered to comprise the understand, …

Lustmord And Loving The Other: A History Of Sexual Murder In Modern Germany And Austria (1873-1932), Amber Aragon-Yoshida

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Lustmord and Loving the Other: A History of Sexual Murder in Modern Germany and Austria: 1873–1932) examines the historical significance of German–speaking Europeans’ responses to crises of modernity vis–Ã –vis their fin de siècle cultural fascination with crimes and representations of Lustmord. I address the emergence and development of the concept of Lustmord, particularly the changing ways in which medical, legal, and criminal experts, survivors, perpetrators, neighbors, the press, and artists understood and attempted to explain this modern phenomenon. I demonstrate the ways in which a society came to name, understand, and, to some degree, even accept a troubling new …

Development Of Speed, Memory, And Fluid Reasoning In Children, Duneesha De Alwis

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Children's memory and higher-order cognitive abilities such as fluid reasoning improve with age, but the relationships between these abilities are not well understood. The developmental cascade model proposed by Fry and Hale: 1996) suggests that age related improvements in speed of processing are related to improvements in working memory, which in turn influence fluid reasoning. Recent research in adults suggests secondary memory is also an important predictor of fluid reasoning. The relations between working memory and fluid reasoning have been studied extensively in both adults and children. However, the relationships between working memory, secondary memory, and fluid reasoning have not …

Joachim Du Bellay's Occasional Poetry: The Poetics Of Female Patronage, Elizabeth Landers

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This study seeks to demonstrate that female patrons at the Valois court--particularly Marguerite de France, and, to a lesser extent Diane de Poitiers--had a defining influence on both the career and the aesthetic choices of the sixteenth-century French poet Joachim Du Bellay. Although it has often been acknowledged that Du Bellay and Marguerite enjoyed a special relationship, the current study reveals the extent to which Marguerite served as an organizing principal for Du Bellay's entire writing life. As an admired patron, she provided moral support and networking opportunities that encouraged and rewarded Du Bellay's poetic production; her erudition and literary …

Family Policy, Family Resources, And Children's Educational Achievement: A Comparative Study Of 18 Rich Countries, Yung Soo Lee

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Educational achievement among children is one of the most important concerns for most contemporary societies. While numerous studies have explored factors associated with children's educational achievement, little research fully incorporated multi-level, multi-faceted contexts of child education. More specifically, less attention has been paid to the role of macro-level, policy contexts and their interactions with various aspects of family-level resources. To help fill the gap in the literature, this study investigates: 1) the role of various aspects of family-level resources, that is family financial, human, and social capital, in children's educational achievement,: 2) mediating pathways among those family-level resources, and: 3) …

Emerson And The Vision Of The Child, Matthew Mcclelland

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This work argues for a reading of Ralph Waldo Emerson that takes into account his childhood and early upbringing, and thereby reads his mature philosophical works as reactionary enabling mythologies that were forged by his troubled childhood.

Three Essays On Labor And Personality, Nidhi Pande

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In my essays I focus on personality and its impact on the labor market outcomes. Using a randomized experiment, the first essay examines the impact of mother's human capital on the cognitive and non cognitive skills of her preschool children. The second paper examines the impact of the big five personality traits on the decision to be self employed and on the income of salaried vs. self employed people. We try to distinguish the impact of personality traits on labor market performance from the relationship between personality and preferences for entrepreneurship. In the third paper, we are trying to estimate …

Sleep, Memory, And Aging: Effects Of Pre- And Post-Sleep Delays And Interference On Memory In Younger And Older Adults, Michael Scullin

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The present research investigated the relationship between sleep and memory in younger and older adults. Previous research has demonstrated that during the deep sleep stage: i.e., slow wave sleep), recently learned memories are reactivated and consolidated in younger adults. However, little research has examined whether memory consolidation occurs during deep sleep in older adults. Younger adults and older adults encoded word pairs: e.g., channel - result) in the morning or evening and then returned 12 hours or 24 hours later for a final test: three groups: 12-hr wake, 12-hr sleep, 24-hr PM-PM sleep). Sleep stage scoring was obtained by having …

Strategic Management In Nonprofit Mental Health Service Organizations: Understanding Processes And Impact On Performance, Jennifer Schurer Coldiron

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Managing the performance of social service-providing nonprofit organizations: NPOs) has become more and more complex in the past few decades as executives have had to cope with increasing competition, demands from a diversified set of stakeholders, rapidly changing technologies, and mounting scrutiny from funders and consumers. To help reduce the complexity of strategic management, organizations have been encouraged to adopt formal strategy formation processes, such as highly-structured strategic planning models. However, there are no demonstrated "best practices" or conclusive evidence of the utility of formal strategy formation within the nonprofit sector. The stakes of mismanagement are high for the organizations …

The Earned Income Tax Credit And Financial Capability Among Native Households, Kristen Wagner

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

EITC refunds are often substantial sums of money entering households of working families each year. Many households use the EITC to meet their basic needs such as rent, utilities, food, groceries, clothing, and other household expenses. Other EITC recipients view the tax system as a savings mechanism. This is the first study of how the EITC is being used among Native populations. Study data includes 9,482 household surveys collected in over 80 urban, rural, and reservation communities across the U.S. Surveys were completed by EITC eligible households, both Native and non-Native in tax years 2005 - 2008. Results from this …

The Effect Of Sensory Experience And Movement Observation On Motor Adaptation To Novel Force Perturbations, Paul Wanda

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

On a daily basis, humans capably and effortlessly interact with their surrounding environment through the performance of accurate movements. Movements are often perturbed through the physical influence of the surrounding environment, interaction with objects, or injury, yet adaptation is both rapid and flexible. When adapting, humans are informed by their direct trial-and-error movement experience, incrementally updating predictive control on the next movement; how the brain processes sensed errors into adaptation is not fully known. We may also learn to move through the observation of the movements of others, as visually observed movement information may be transformed into motor memories that …

Asset Effects For Children With Disabilities: Analysis Of Educational And Health Outcomes, Jin Huang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In the last two decades, asset-based social policies, which encourage families, especially low-income families, to accumulate assets by providing appropriate institutional settings, have received increasing attention from policymakers and researchers. Various programs and strategies have been outlined to improve saving and asset ownership opportunities in disadvantaged populations. Although there are multiple proposals of asset-based programs for children with disabilities, few of them have been implemented. To better inform asset-based policy practices for children with disabilities, this study examines asset effects for this population using the secondary survey data. Asset effects refer to the hypothesized positive influences of household assets on …

Dramaturgical Crossroads And Aesthetic Transformations: Modern And Contemporary Adaptations Of Classical Japanese Nō Drama, Robert Neblett

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This study explores the various dramaturgical strategies at work within the twentieth and twenty-first-century theatrical adaptation of the Japanese Nō drama. At its core are questions regarding the methodology utilized in the updating of an innately supernatural and spiritual aesthetic into the increasingly secularized world of the present, and how those supernatural elements are often transformed into metaphorical constructs. Ultimately, I examine how the transformative aesthetic that has given the Nō its literary power over the past 700 years is the very aspect that permits it to facilitate, resist, and assimilate the strategies of dramatic adaptation. My primary categories for …

Effects Of Goal Maintenance Training On Executive Control In Older Adults, Jessica Paxton

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Due to the fact that executive control abilities are necessary for successful execution of many cognitive and real-world tasks, interest has arisen in determining how these abilities can be improved. A previous study demonstrated that both practice and strategy training improved performance in older adults on an executive control task requiring goal maintenance abilities: Paxton et al., 2006), but no previous research has investigated the amount of exposure to this executive control task during training. Thus, questions remained about whether amount of exposure: e.g., extended experience with one task or limited experience with multiple tasks) or type of intervention: e.g., …

Age Differences In Proactive Facilitation And Interference: The Role Of Remindings, Chris Wahlheim

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

A common finding is that specific types of memory performance decline as a function of age. Among the situations that produce these differences are those in which proactive interference: PI) occurs. PI refers to impaired memory for new information as a result of previous learning of competing information. However, research has shown that PI situations can sometimes be facilitative to memory performance for both young and older adults when information is integrated effectively. One potential integration mechanism is the retrieval of earlier competing information during study of new information. Such instances have been referred to as "remindings", and they serve …

Technology Corner: Brute Force Password Generation -- Basic Iterative And Recursive Algorithms, Nick V. Flor, Haile Shannon

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Most information systems are secured at minimum by some form of password protection. For various reasons a password may be unavailable, requiring some form of password recovery procedure. One such procedure is software-based automated password recovery, where a program attempts to log into a system by repeatedly trying different password combinations. At the core of such software is a password generator. This article describes the basic iterative and recursive algorithms for generating all possible passwords of a given length, which is commonly referred to as brute-force password generation. The paper ends with a discussion of alternative password recovery procedures one …

Clinical Prediction Models For Diagnosis Of Appendicitis In Children With Abdominal Pain, Dale W Steele

Open Access Master's Theses

Appendicitis is common in children, but remains difficult to diagnose accurately. The clinician must integrate information from the history, physical examination and screening laboratory tests to decide whether to reassure, order diagnostic imaging, or proceed to the operating room. This process is best framed as a decision problem with two thresholds; a lower threshold, below which further testing may be unnecessary, and an upper threshold, above which further testing need not delay appendectomy. The goal of this analysis was to model the probability of appendicitis.

This project analyzes observations by 23 physicians on 143 children with abdominal pain evaluated in …

Experiences Of Postpartum Psychosis From The Perspectives Of Women With The Diagnosis And Psychiatric Nurses, Inger Engqvist

Open Access Dissertations

Postpartum psychosis occurs in approximately two out of every 1000 women after childbirth. Although rare, it is a very serious illness with a potential for suicide and infanticide. The suffering associated with this illness and the effects on the entire family system are severe. Nurses need a comprehensive understanding of this disorder, how women present and experience the illness and the nursing care required to keep women and their newborns safe. They also need to promote early detection to facilitate prompt treatment. To date, there is little research examining the women’s experiences and the nursing care provided to this population. …

Exposures To Multiple Environmental Chemicals (Lead, Methylmercury And Polychlorinated Biphenyls) Among Childbearing-Aged Women In The U.S., Marcella Remer Thompson

Open Access Dissertations

It is estimated that 5 to 20% of neurodevelopmental disabilities in children are caused by environmental toxic exposures. Lead, methylmercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are known to have neurobehavioral and neurodevelopmental consequences in animal models and human population studies. Bioaccumulation and exposures during gestation transfer from mother to fetus via the placenta and to an infant and young child through lactation. Little is known about multiple environmental chemical exposures, especially among childbearing-aged women.

This descriptive and exploratory study involved analysis of existing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a national probability sample. Lead, methylmercury and the …

Theoretical Frames And Teaching Styles Of Physical Therapy Faculty Who Lead International Service-Learning Experiences, Jennifer Gail Audette

Open Access Dissertations

Purpose:

International service-learning (ISL) is popular in higher education, and many physical therapy educational programs are adding ISL opportunities to their curricula because doing so aligns with student interest and the increasingly global nature of the profession. The faculty leading these experiences have not been studied. Nearly all faculty in physical therapy programs are educated as therapists and not as teachers. Most do not have any background in pedagogical practice or educational theory. The purpose of this study was to describe faculty leading ISL experiences in physical therapy educational programs and compare them to faculty who do not participate in …

Objectification, Femininity Ideology, And Sexual Assertiveness: A Model Of Women’S Sexual Functioning, Patricia King Williams

Open Access Dissertations

Numerous research studies have investigated the relationship between sexual objectification and women's experience of their bodies, while fewer have focused on the possible role of endorsement of traditional femininity ideologies in helping to explain adult sexual functioning. The studies that do exist concentrate primarily on illuminating the differences between men and women versus exploring how endorsing particular attitudes or roles may affect women's experience of their bodies. This study investigated the relationships among traditional femininity ideology, sexual victimization, and self-objectification as well as how these variables related to body monitoring, sexual assertiveness for initiation and refusal, body shame, and appearance …

Application Of The Transtheoretical Model Parent Facilitation Of Healthy Anxiety Management In Their Children, Cailtin Burditt

Open Access Dissertations

Anxiety disorders represent one of the most common and debilitating forms of psychopathology among children, with prevalence rates estimated to be between 12% and 17.3%. Although a number of efficacious treatments for child anxiety exist, there is a distinct need for prevention programs as well. Moreover, research suggests that parents play a crucial role in how their children manage anxiety, underscoring the importance of involving parents in both the treatment and prevention of child anxiety. For a variety of reasons, parents may be at different levels of readiness to engage in behaviors that promote their child's healthy coping with anxiety. …

"I'M Telling On You": A Natural History Of Disclosure Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Trudy-Ann K. Gayle

Open Access Dissertations

The body of research that exists on disclosure of childhood sexual trauma is rich. However, the literature on disclosure has a noticeable shortcoming. For example, there is little or no research that explores the relationship between a victims' perceived response to disclosure and whether this response has any impact on subsequent help-seeking behavior. As a result of their experience of disclosure, do adult survivors of sexual abuse resort to secrecy or maladaptive coping behaviors aimed at controlling the stressful situation (e.g., use of drugs, alcohol, distraction, avoidance, engaging in sexual risk-taking behaviors)? Or do survivors of CSA utilize constructive strategies …

Spontaneous Recognition Memory Measured By Performance In A Memory Stroop Paradigm, Benjamin Anderson

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Studies of recognition memory have generally involved tests in which the participant's memory is directly questioned. There are occasions, however, in which memory is more spontaneous in nature: e.g., recognizing an acquaintance out of context). The current studies investigated spontaneous recognition memory through the use of a memory Stroop paradigm, which involved study of pictures and words followed by recognition memory decisions on either the picture or word component of stimuli with an old or new word superimposed over an old or new picture. Spontaneous recognition was measured by comparing the influence of old as compared to new distracters on …