Digital Commons Network^™

Interleaved Effects In Inductive Category Learning: The Role Of Memory Retention, Alex Mackendrick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interleaved effects are widely documented. Research demonstrates that interleaved presentation orders, as opposed to blocked orders typically benefit inductive category learning. What drives interleaved effects is less straightforward. Interleaved presentations provide both the opportunity to compare and contrast between different types of category exemplars, which are temporally juxtaposed, and the opportunity to space study of the same type of category exemplars, which are temporally separated within the presentation span. Accordingly, interleaved effects might be driven by enhanced discrimination, enhanced memory retention, or both in some measure. Though recent studies have largely endorsed enhanced discrimination as the critical mechanism driving interleaved …

Heidegger And The Problem Of Modern Moral Philosophy, Megan Emily Altman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The guiding question of this project is, "Why does it count as a critique of Heidegger that he does not defend a particular moral position?" A standard criticism levied against Heidegger is that, since he has nothing positive to say about post-Enlightenment moral theory, he has nothing to contribute to moral philosophy, and this marks his greatest shortcoming as a philosopher. Why is there a demand for Heidegger, or any other philosopher, to theorize about morality, when we do not have this expectation for, say, aesthetics, theology, or various other regional domains of human life? Why should we expect Heidegger …

Weakness Of Will: An Inquiry On Value, Michael Funke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One dominant scientific view holds that willpower is a type of muscle which can be weakened through use in the short term and strengthened through use over time. However, evidence from neuroscience, social psychology and behavioral economics suggest that willpower is regional, subverted through desire and strengthened by strategy--these are features a muscular account would not predict. It is better to think about willpower as a skill with a physiological component. Willpower strategies extend the brute effort of self-control through the use of reason and have the practical effect of increasing self-regulation. Willpower is "worth wanting" because there is a …

Associations Between Social Determinants Of Health And Adolescent Pregnancy: An Analysis Of Data From The National Longitudinal Study Of Adolescent To Adult Health, Sarah Britney Maness

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study utilized the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to analyze empirical relationships between social determinants of health and adolescent pregnancy. Although rates of adolescent pregnancy are at an all-time low in the United States, disparities persist. Examining relationships between the social determinants of health and adolescent pregnancy provides support for funding and interventions that expand on the current focus of individual and interpersonal level factors. Based on the Healthy People 2020 Social Determinants of Health Framework, proxy measures for social determinants of health were identified within the Add Health study and analyzed in relationship with …

Consequences Of Non-Modeled And Modeled Between Case Variation In The Level-1 Error Structure In Multilevel Models For Single-Case Data: A Monte Carlo Study, Eun Kyeng Baek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Multilevel modeling (MLM) approach has a great flexibility in that can handle various methodological issues that may arise with single-case studies, such as the need to model possible dependency in the errors, linear or nonlinear trends, and count outcomes (e.g.,Van den Noortgate & Onghena, 2003a). By using the MLM framework, researchers can not only model dependency in the errors but also model a variety of level-1error structures.

The effect of misspecification in the level-1 error structure has been well studied for MLM analyses. Generally, it was found that the estimates of the fixed effects were unbiased but the estimates …

Hpv Vaccine Decision-Making Among Male Sexual Minorities: An Integrative Theoretical Framework For Vaccine Promotion, Christopher W. Wheldon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at increased risk of anal cancer as a result of anal HPV infection. Routine HPV vaccination is recommended for all MSM up through age 26; however, vaccine uptake among this population is low. The Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (IM) was used to identify, describe, and explain psychosocial factors related to HPV vaccine decision-making for young MSM. A sequential mixed-methods approach consisting of semi-structured interviews, a quantitative survey, and a qualitative open-ended survey was used to address the following aims: (1) Determine salient outcome, normative, efficacy, and control beliefs related to HPV-vaccination …

Theatre Safety In Louisiana Secondary Schools: A Survey Study, Christopher Pyfrom

LSU Master's Theses

Participation in secondary school theatre can have many benefits including the development of improved reading comprehension, self-concept, and empathy. In the world of professional theatre, each design area has its own department head and several levels of assistants and workers below them. Yet in the world of secondary school theatre, we expect one person to assume all of those roles in addition to the regular responsibilities of teaching. Not many people see theatre as being dangerous when compared to sports, science labs, or vocational education. However, it can contain many of the same risks. This study investigated several factors that …

An Experimental Investigation Of Autonomy Support Versus Thwart In An Exergaming Context, Amanda Joy Weathers-Meyer

LSU Master's Theses

Considerable literature in self-determination theory (SDT) establishes satisfaction of basic psychological needs related to competence, autonomy, and relatedness as important determinants of well-being and motivation. Despite the abundance of SDT literature, few studies provide an investigation of autonomy support and autonomy thwart within an experimental design. Using SDT as a guiding framework, the effects of autonomy support (AS) versus autonomy thwart (AT) were examined within an exergaming context. Specifically, this study investigated the impact of autonomy support / thwart on five variables: perceived autonomy need satisfaction and autonomy thwart, affect, game performance, and willingness to recommend the study to others. …

Regarding Suicide: A Textually Informed Rhetorical And Psychoanalytic Construct Of The State Of Disconstituency, Disconstitutive Rhetoric, And The Disconstituent As Related To The Constitutive Rhetorical Structure Of The Vanishing Subject, Charles Stowers Womelsdorf

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Suicide contagion is a real phenomenon. The stigmatization of suicide attempters, completers, survivors of suicide loss, and the idea of suicide itself is at least partly to blame for these outbreaks. Regarding suicide as an analyst, journalist, witness, responder, or bereaved family member or friend can be a devastating form of metaphorical and literal looking. Through a psychoanalytic understanding of constitutive rhetoric, this dissertation offers a textualized way of considering the difficult process of giving individuals who have completed suicide one’s regard. Beyond just suicide, this rhetoric of regard presents the disconstituent as the lost persona that withdraws from identification …

Investigating The Effect Of Photographic Representations On Scores Of The Stroke And Aphasia Quality Of Life Scale-39 For People With Moderate To Severe Aphasia, Samantha Studrawa

LSU Master's Theses

Background: The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life-39 (SAQOL-39) is a valid and reliable measure of quality of life (QOL) for stroke survivors and people with mild-to-moderate aphasia However, it could not be validated for people with severe aphasia due to their language deficits. Research has shown that combining pictures with written text can support communication effectiveness of people with aphasia. Combining language modalities in this way is a form of alternative or augmentative communication (AAC). The use of AAC has been explored as a possibility to improve communication for people with severe aphasia (Dietz, McKelvey & Beukelman, 2006). Aim: …

Attachment, Social Support Satisfaction, And Well-Being During Life Transition In Emerging Adulthood, Joel A. Lane, Robert S. Fink

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The present study was designed to investigate the relations among attachment, social support satisfaction, and well-being in a cross-sectional sample of emerging adults (N = 213) experiencing one or more normative life transitions. The sample represented a range of educational and vocational backgrounds. The primary hypotheses were that social support satisfaction would mediate the associations between each attachment dimension and well-being. A corresponding theoretical model was tested using structural equation modeling. The model provided an excellent fit to the sample data. Social support satisfaction mediated the association between attachment anxiety and well-being, but not the association between attachment avoidance …

Single Or Dual Resources: The Role Of Working Memory In Syntactic Processing, Rebecca Ann Horn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Within the field of psycholinguistics there are those who argue for a close relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and syntactic processing (Just and Carpenter, 1992) and those who argue that there is no such relationship (Waters and Caplan, 1996b; 2004). Despite years of research, empirical data has yet to settle this disagreement, perhaps because a number of methodological differences between studies from each side make direct comparisons of data nearly impossible. The current study was designed to partially replicate three previous studies using their own experimental sentence types in a self-paced word-by-word reading paradigm in order to examine the …

Hearing Voices: Non-Party Stories In Abortion And Gay Rights Advocacy, Linda H. Edwards

Scholarly Works

During the twelve years after Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court considered a number of abortion issues, but Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists was the first case to raise a direct call for Roe’s demise. The issues galvanized interests on all sides. Among the welter of amicus briefs was a remarkable brief destined to create a new, controversial, and potentially powerful form of appellate advocacy. Primarily authored by Lynn M. Paltrow, the brief was submitted on behalf of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). Like a Brandeis Brief, the NARAL brief relies on sources outside …

Debunking Unequal Burdens, Trivial Violations, Harmless Stereotypes, And Similar Judicial Myths: The Convergence Of Title Vii Literalism, Congressional Intent, And Kantian Dignity Theory, Peter Brandon Bayer

Scholarly Works

Title VII prohibits employers from imposing their racial, sex-based, ethnic, or religiously inspired grooming and appearance standards, even if, in light of widely accepted social conventions, the vast majority would feel exceptionally uncomfortable in the presence of employees who refuse to comport with their employers' discriminatory rules. Indeed, nearly four decades ago, with correct simplicity and directness the Supreme Court recognized Title VII's first principle: "Congress intended to prohibit all practices in whatever form which create inequality in employment opportunity due to discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin." Therefore, contrary to the harsh dismay expressed …

Organizational Twitter Use: A Qualitative Analysis Of Tweets During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Pratiti Diddi

LSU Master's Theses

One in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. The best-known awareness event to fight the health issue is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM). Twitter is a growing source of health information amongst users; however, little research exists into understanding how various organizations use their Twitter accounts to communicate about breast cancer during BCAM, as well as implications of this use for the health information consumers. In this context, there is also a dearth of research about if, and how organizations use behavioral change theories to tailor their social media content or not. The paper explored through qualitative …

Effects Of Traditional Versus Electronic Note Taking In A High School Biology Classroom, Chelsea Ann Duhon

LSU Master's Theses

This study investigated the effect of traditional and electronic note taking on student achievement and engagement in a Louisiana high school biology classroom. Over a 20-week period, traditional students (n= 58) took notes using pencil and paper and electronic note takers (n=46) used their laptop computers. Each group of students was given identical pre and posttests covering three units and a practice End of Course exam. Normalized learning gains were compared for each unit and suggest there is no significant difference in academic achievement between the traditional note takers and the electronic note takers. An attitudinal survey was also administered …

What Are The Possible Causes For Autism Spectrum Disorder?, Rochel Preiserowicz

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Ever since the mid 1980’s when Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) started to become increasingly prevalent, researchers have been trying to find a possible cause for it. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder that manifests itself in children who are between 18-30 months old. People with autism have reduced social skills, and they have a difficult time communicating verbally and non-verbally. Autism is diagnosed through a questionnaire and other instruments that allow psychologists, psychiatrists, speech therapists, neurologists and many other doctors to determine if a child has a form of ASD. There are many theories about what causes autism. It …

The Neurological Underpinnings Of Hypnosis And Its Clinical Applications, Raizy Leizerowski

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

The brain is so complex that it is almost impossible to select one variable as the reason for a specific observation. This paper will discuss the neurological basis of hypnosis, and how hypnosis has made unique contributions to the refinement and development of cognitive neuroscience. In addition, hypnosis has been proven to cure many psychological and neurologically based diseases. Due to in-depth study of the neurological underpinnings of hypnosis, much advancement has been made in elucidating the relationship between the complex neural circuitry of the brain, its direct correlation to consciousness, and both the efferent and afferent neurological systems. New …

When ‘Seeking Love Is Travel By Bus’: Deliberate Metaphors, Stories And Humor In A Romanian Song, Elena Negrea-Busuioc, L. David Ritchie

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on a song by Romanian blues rock singer and satirist Alexandru Andrieș, Transport în comun, we argue that both listeners and metaphor researchers must sometimes assume that a metaphor has been deliberately used and transformed in order to make sense of a metaphorical story, particularly when the metaphor is embedded in a particular cultural and political context. On the face of it Transport în comun is a song about seeking love, but it opens with a decidedly unromantic metaphor, “women are buses,” then develops this song into a story that is intelligible only on the assumption …

Statutory Interpretations And The Therapy Of The Obvious, Edward L. Rubin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Arthur Koestler wrote that "the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterward."' The same may be said about theories of law, and specifically about Robert Katzmann's new book, Judging Statutes. Judge Katzmann's approach to statutory interpretation seems so plausible and balanced that it is hard to believe that anyone ever believed anything else. In this particular case, however, there is in fact an "anything else." It is, of course, Justice Antonin Scalia's campaign to displace intentionalist or purposivist approaches to interpretation with what has come to be called "textualism," and his related effort to rule out reliance …

Heuristics, Biases, And Consumer Litigation Funding At The Bargaining Table, Jean Xiao

Vanderbilt Law Review

Imagine three plaintiffs. The first incurred serious back injuries as a passenger in an automobile collision.' The second suffered permanent head injuries as a day laborer in a construction accident. The third experienced a debilitating asthma attack, caused by exposure to floor-cleaning chemicals at her workplace. You now have the chance to advance money to the plaintiff that you believe has the lawsuit with the highest expected value. If the selected plaintiff settles or wins at trial, then you receive the money you gave the plaintiff plus interest that approaches 200% a year. Here is the catch: if the plaintiff …

Designing A Transactional Law Clinic For Life-Long Learning, Patience A. Crowder

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Feminism, Psychology And Social Justice: A Possible Meeting? An Interview With Michelle Fine, Karla Galvão Adrião

Publications and Research

Michelle Fine is a Feminist Psychologist Researcher and has contributed strongly in the past two decades to the Qualitative and Participatory Methodologies field, with special attention to Critical-Participatory-Action-Research (CPAR). Her research in Social Psychology and Education puts into question the positions of power and privilege, concepts such as social justice/injustice, the intersectional reading of gender, class, race, generation, and the notion of solidarity.

Socioeconomic Disparities In The Provision Of Outdoor Time In Portland, Oregon Public Elementary Schools, Sabine L. Lefkowitz

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and the amount of outdoor time in public elementary schools in Portland, Oregon. "Outdoor time" is defined as the percentage of the school day spent at recess. SES is determined based on the percentage of children at each school who receive free or reduced price lunch. Schools with a higher percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch are considered lower SES than schools with a lower percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch. A review of the current literature provides evidence that time spent outdoors has a …

Words That Help: A Journey Through Expressive Writing, Jaede Ishikawa

University Honors Theses

For the past three decades, researchers have studied the effects of "emotional writing" or "expressive writing" as a therapy tool, finding positive results for a myriad of chronic as well as intermittent psychological, emotional, and physical health issues. My interest in these findings, along with my academic interests in psychology and creative writing and my own experience with writing as therapy, led me to wonder if incorporating "expressive writing" techniques in a college setting would be beneficial. The few focused studies that have been done indeed show that it can be and my thesis aims to address a need for …

Fostering Critical Thought Alongside The Common Core State Standards, Bianca Arias

University Honors Theses

This thesis evaluates a segment of the second grade English language arts and literacy (ELA) curriculum presently utilized in Portland Public Schools (PPS) school district in Portland, Oregon, using five principles for evaluation. These principles address the extent to which lessons are hands-on, engage home life, integrate the academic disciplines, encourage student autonomy, and are relevant to society today. These criteria were established following a review of John Dewey’s ideas and philosophies, and of two practices that model Deweyan principles: Project-Based Learning (PBL) and progettazione in the Municipal Infant/Toddler Centers and Preschools of Reggio-Emilia, Italy. This analysis of the ELA …

Romantic Identity And Lgbtq Identification: Variations Of Experience In The Asexual Community, Alexa Bell

University Honors Theses

As a relatively new identity category, asexuality has received only a small amount of academic attention. With what little research has been done, it has been established that there is a great amount of variability of meaning within the label "asexual", particularly within the domain of romantic orientation. In light of this, and of asexuality’s invisibility even in comparison to other marginalized sexual orientations, this research sought to investigate the possibility that romantic identity impacts asexual individual’s relationship with the larger LGBTQ+ community by distributing an online quantitative survey to self-identified asexuals. The hypothesis was that hetero-romantic and aromantic individuals …

The Adverse Effects Of Maternal Depression And Poverty On Child Development, Courtney A. Nyseth

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the issues of maternal depression and poverty, their connection, and the overall adverse effects on child health, behavior, development, and school achievement. Poverty and maternal depression are ongoing social issues in the United States. They are both influenced by several factors such as socioeconomic status, maternal health, and family instability. These factors all directly relate to childhood health and social inequalities.

Poverty, maternal depression, substance abuse, and domestic violence are known to be the most common factors that place young children at high risk for poor health (Azzi-Lessing, 2013). Some of the health outcomes from poverty and …

Growing Writers, Katherine Moffitt

University Honors Theses

This thesis is about my internal process of finding and giving answers to the questions I had about life through my story "Uncle Loo" and sharing my characters and story with others so that they many grow as writers as well. I created and used my character Loo as a guide to wander into the questions I had and found answers in his life. I used a process of taking real life examples, picking the best part of the story and incorporating it into my writing. By taking true events from life and placing them in this story I was …

Spellbound: The Process Of Adaptation, Amanda Sonju

University Honors Theses

Writers write in many forms and, while most specialize in one form or another, there are those that move back and forth through multiple formats. Screenwriters are a special breed who are expected to write new material, adaptations and specs. As a screenwriter the pressure is on being able to write in someone else’s voice while still expressing your own. Unfortunately, the process of adaptation is a cloudy one. It is expected that a writer can alternate between forms by nature and not through education. The purpose of this thesis is to approach the adaptation process through a combination of …