Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Effect Of Discrimination Training On Salt And Sugar Taste Thresholds Of Preschool Children, Susan M. Castine

Masters Theses

Using a single-subject A-B-C-D design, this study examined NaCl and sucrose taste thresholds in water, tomato juice, and milk with four 4-year-old children. Taste thresholds were determined by presenting several concentrations of an adulterant (i.e. NaCl, sucrose) in each vehicle, in blocks of ten trials. Subjects evaluated each taste sample by pressing one of two levers (Yes/No response). Detection threshold was defined as the level at which there was 50% correct responding. During Baseline, subjects received no feedback regarding the accuracy of their response. During the differential reinforcement phase, subjects received reinforcement following each correct response. Results suggested that detection …

Using Group Psychotherapy For Enhancing Late Adolescent Selfconcept: Comparing The Effects Of Hypnosis And Rational-Emotive Therapy, James J. Buldas

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether university students, classified as late adolescents, could enhance their self-concept as measured by the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) Total Positive Score. Seven hypotheses which stated the null relationship between self-concept enhancement and the treatment modalities of hypnosis and rational-emotive therapy, when compared over an eight week period of time were derived. A review of the literature showed that the belief that low self-concept is etiologic in psychopathology is widespread in the clinical literature.

A sample of university students enrolled in Psychology 100 (N = 54) were pre, post and follow-up tested …

The Effects Of Three Fixed Ratio Schedules Of Reinforcement On Stimulus Generalization, Michelle L. Gordon

Graduate Theses

The effects of three different schedules of reinforcement on generalization in rats were investigated. The rats were trained to bar press in the presence of a 2000 hz tone and then participated in tone/no tone discrimination training. Upon completion of discrimination training, the rats were assigned randomly to one of three groups, a FR 10 group, a FR 25 group or a FR 50 group. After seven days on these schedules, generalization testing was started. Six days of generalization testing were done with a 31.5 minute tape of 7 tones in a random sequence. The tones for which the subjects' …

Adult Age Differences In Recall And Reading Times For Prose, Dee Rene Ramsel

Theses and Dissertations

One strategy used by good college-age readers is to spend additional time viewing or reading information which is relevant to their goals or purpose in reading. Additional viewing time of goal-relevant information then presumably leads to superior retention of this information, at the expense of information which is irrelevant to the reader's goals. One way to detect different strategies used by younger and older readers is to measure how much viewing time readers allot to goal-relevant information and how much of this information is recalled. Relevant information can be designated as that material which contains answers to previously-memorized questions or …

Adolescent Egocentrism And Its Relationship To Parenting Styles And The Development Of Formal Operational Thought, Theo A. Riley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A predicted association between family relations and cognitive development and the emergence of adolescent egocentrism was explored in this study. A sample of seventh grade boys (n=131) and girls (n=120) completed Elkind and Bowen's Imaginary Audience Scale (a measure of egocentrism) and selected items from Heilbrun's Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scale and Schaefer's Parent-Behavior Inventory. A modified version of Lawson's Classroom Test of Formal Operations was used to measure cognitive development. Contrary to a theoretical based hypothesis a negative rather than positive relationship was found between level of formal operational thought egocentrism. For parenting style, perceived rejection/control …

The Problem Of Reductionism In Theories Of Hemispheric Specialization And Recovery Of Functions, Grant Jackson Butterbaugh

Masters Theses

A selective review of functional and anatomical hemispheric asymmetries in humans confirms the doctrine of hemispheric specialization. However, the post-insult phenomenon of recovery of functions challenges theories that posit too strict a correspondence between anatomical structures and functions. Follow-up studies on hemispherectomized and hemidecorticated patients, who later recovered language, support a hypothesis of hemispheric redundancy, rather than "invariant" hemispheric specialization for language. Thus, through an evolutionary selection process, the brain may have developed as two potentially similar organs. Neuropsychological research on recovery phenomena is criticized as neglecting environmental contributions to recovery. Several models of hemispheric specialization are compared with recovery …

On The Memory Code In Serial Feature-Positive Discriminations, Robert S. Mccann

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The aim of the present research was to examine the nature of the memory code that contributes to performance in a serial feature-positive discrimination. In order to test the hypothesis that a reinforce expectancy based on the first-order association between feature element and reinforce defines the content of the code, different groups of rats received various forms of pretraining involving either the feature element or the common element, or both. For some groups the feature element was trained as a CS+, while for others it was trained as a CS-. In addition, some groups received training establishing the common element …