Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Living On Autopilot: How Your Brain Thinks For You, Andrea Stathopoulos '10

Honor Scholar Theses

One way in which humans are set apart from other animals is by our impressive intellectual capacities. Humans are commonly considered to be true masters of rational, conscious control over our actions. However, that feeling of control may be mostly illusory. Accumulating evidence suggests that unconscious cognitive processes can account for much of human behavior. Homeostasis is a clear example of the evolutionary benefit of automation, allowing valuable energy and limited attention to be diverted elsewhere. I instead want to focus on the automaticity of more complicated behaviors, ones that are typically thought to require a large amount of cognitive …

A Butterfly Effect: The Impact Of Marriage And Family Therapy Training On Students' Spouses, Carla M. Dahl, Mary L. Jensen, Jane L. Mccampbell

Faculty Publications

This qualitative study examines the impact of mar- riage and family therapy (MFT) training on the

marriages of trainees. Analysis of data from 18 spouses of alumni from a training program in an evangelical Protestant seminary found participants reporting mostly negative impacts related to time and finances, both negative and positive impacts related to role changes and adjustments, and mostly positive impacts related to marital communication. The additional contribution of this study has to do with the report of an overwhelmingly positive impact of systemic, integrative MFT training on the student’s faith as observed by their spouse and on the …

College Students Who Self-Injure: A Study Of Knowledge And Perceptions Of Self-Injury, Stacey Edwards Clinard

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Archived data was utilized for the present study which examined self-injurious behaviors in a college population. College students, who engage in non-suicidal self-injury, or NSSI, were expected to evidence a higher knowledge base for the behavior than those who do not. The demographic variables of gender and sexual orientation were predicted to be over represented in the NSSI group. Further, this study examines the perceived riskiness of the behavior in individuals who self-injure, as well as their perceptions of others who engage in NSSI. The survey consisted of four sections: demographics, knowledge ofNSSI, experience with NSSI, and perceptions ofNSSI. Individuals …

An Analysis Of Continuous Chest Compression Cpr For Ems Providers During Out Of Hospital Cardiac Arrest, Megan L. Gleason

Honors Projects

A significant amount of research has been done in an attempt to improve the outcomes of patients found in cardiac arrest outside the hospital. The American Heart Association has long advocated Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), a procedure that encompasses cycles of chest compressions with advanced airway maintenance and defibrillation. Recent evidence has suggested that these current guidelines are ineffective due to prolonged “hands off” time. New research suggests utilizing a technique known as continuous chest compression CPR that delays advanced airway management and instead focuses on defibrillation and continuous chest compressions. Across the country, research has demonstrated that when …

Cognitive And Psychiatric Predictors To Psychosis In Velocardiofacial Syndrome: A 3-Year Follow-Up Study, Kevin M. Antshel, Robert J. Shprintzen, Wanda Fremont, Anne Marie Higgins, Stephen V. Faraone, Wendy R. Kates

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Objective: To predict prodromal psychosis in adolescents with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS). Method: 70 youth with VCFS, 27 siblings of youth with VCFS and 25 community controls were followed from childhood (Mean age = 11.8 years) into mid-adolescence (mean age 15.0 years). Psychological tests measuring intelligence, academic achievement, learning/memory, attention and executive functioning as well as measures of parent and clinician ratings of child psychiatric functioning were completed at both time point. Results: Major depressive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder diagnoses increased in the VCFS sample. With very low false positive rates, the best predictor of adolescent prodromal …

The Instructional And Emotional Quality Of Parent–Child Book Reading And Early Head Start Children’S Learning Outcomes, Keely D. Cline

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The primary objective of this study was to understand how two dimensions of parent-child book-reading quality – instructional and emotional –interact and relate to learning in a sample of linguistically and culturally diverse, low-income children. Participants included 81 parents and their children who took part in home-based Early Head Start programs in rural counties in the Midwest. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to test two hypotheses: (1) the instructional and emotional qualities of parent behavior during shared book reading interact and relate to infants’ and toddlers’ cognitive scores (as measured by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development Second …

Social Support, Problem Solving, And The Longitudinal Course Of Newlywed Marriage, Kieran T. Sullivan, Lauri A. Pasch, Matthew D. Johnson, Thomas N. Bradbury

Psychology

Married couples (N = 172) were observed as newlyweds and again one year later while engaging in 2 problem-solving and 2 personal support discussions. Microanalytic coding of these conversations was used to examine associations between problem-solving and social support behaviors over one year and their relative contributions to 10-year trajectories of self-reported relationship satisfaction and dissolution. Results demonstrated that initially lower levels of positive support behaviors and higher levels of negative support behaviors predicted 1-year increases in negative emotion displayed during problem-solving conversations. Emotions coded from the initial problem-solving conversations did not predict 1-year changes in social support behaviors. Controlling …

Volume 03, Cheryl Peck, Charles Hoever, Longwood Theater Department, Brittany Anderson, J. Ervin Sheldon, Richard Hayden, Yuri Calustro, Candice Fleming, Rebecca Franklin, Ashley Yocum, Danielle M. Jagoda, Cristina M. Valdivieso, Jameka Jones, Amy Ellis, Ashley Maser, Erikk Shupp, Jamie Yurasits, Joshua Davis, Alexander Leonhart, Kenny Wolfe, Sally Meadows, J. Haley, Amy Jackson, Morgan Howard, Adrienne Heinbaugh, Melissa Dorton, Ciarra Stalker

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Dean Dr. Charles Ross

Little Shop of Horrors by Longwood Theater Department

Who Has the Hottest Hotsauce in Farmville: A Quantitative Comparison of Sauces from Local Restaurants by Cheryl Peck and Charles Hoever

Precipitation Effects on the Growth of White Oaks and Virginia Pines on the Mt. Vernon Plantation by Brittany Anderson

Design and Synthesis of Novel Ion Binding Molecules for Self-Assembly and Sensing Applications by J. Ervin Sheldon

A Statistical Analysis of Algorithms for Playing SameGame by Richard Hayden

Intersecting Cylinders at Arbitrary Angles by Yuri Calustro

Putting a Foot in the Revolving Door: Strategies for Reducing …

The Effectiveness Of Counselors As Care Managers In Improving Self-Management And Medical Outcomes In Persons With Poorly Controlled Diabetes, Ularisi Rebecca Green

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated whether providing counselors as care managers to individuals who were having difficulty managing their Type II diabetes improved their self-management, health, and functioning. Counselors used the Motivational Interviewing Model and met weekly over a six month period with patients who had Type II diabetes who had been identified as not functioning well in managing their disease. The success of the intervention was determined by a number of measures including physical symptoms of patients; patients' perceptions of the care they received; and patients' self-efficacy in managing their diabetes. The results of this study suggested that providing counselors as …

Effects Of Perceived Fitness Level Of Exercise Partner On Intensity Of Exertion, Thomas G. Plante, Meghan Madden, Sonia Mann, Grace Lee

Psychology

Problem statement: Social comparison theory was used to examine if exercising with a research confederate posing as either high fit or low fit would increase the exertion in exercising. Approach: 91 college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Biking alone, biking with a high fit confederate, or biking with a low fit confederate. All participants were instructed to complete 20 min of exercise at 60-70% of their maximum target heart rate. Results: Results indicated that participants in the high fit condition exercised harder than those in the low fit condition. However, no mood differences emerged between conditions. …

Motor Output Evoked By Subsaccadic Stimulation Of Primate Frontal Eye Fields., Brian D Corneil, James K Elsley, Benjamin Nagy, Sharon L Cushing

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

In addition to its role in shifting the line of sight, the oculomotor system is also involved in the covert orienting of visuospatial attention. Causal evidence supporting this premotor theory of attention, or oculomotor readiness hypothesis, comes from the effect of subsaccadic threshold stimulation of the oculomotor system on behavior and neural activity in the absence of evoked saccades, which parallels the effects of covert attention. Here, by recording neck-muscle activity from monkeys and systematically titrating the level of stimulation current delivered to the frontal eye fields (FEF), we show that such subsaccadic stimulation is not divorced from immediate motor …

Locus Of Control And The Age Difference In Free Recall From Episodic Memory, Paul Amrhein, Judith K. Bond, Derek Hamilton

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The authors investigated the relation of locus of control (LOC) to age differences in free-recall memory performance. Older and younger participants completed P. C. Duttweiler's (1984) Internal Control Index (ICI) and subsequently performed free-recall memory tasks. Compared with the younger participants, the older participants exhibited poorer recall with more intrusions and uncorrected repetition errors as well as reduced categorical clustering. For the older participants with less internal LOC, recall proportion and item-pair associative recall clustering were lower than for the older participants with more internal LOC. By contrast, the younger participants did not exhibit any LOC effects in their recall …

Predictors Of Retention In Physical Therapy: Client-, Disease-, And Treatment-Related Factors, Marc A. Silva

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Research Exchange Conference

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study are to (1) document the incidence of veterans who prematurely terminate physical therapy before medically indicated, and (2) identify reliable predictors of treatment retention and attrition. The potential benefit of this study is the identification of reliable variables that predict who is at risk for terminating physical therapy prematurely, which may lead to targeted interventions designed to increase treatment retention. RESEARCH DESIGN: This study will be a retrospective design involving a review of medical records of veterans receiving referral to physical therapy. METHODOLOGY: Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) will be used to examine the effects …

Latino Family Variables And Sexual Activity In Latino Adolescents, Brittany Nicole Barber

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Research Exchange Conference

Researchers’ focused examination of Latino adolescents’ cultural values and sexual activity has yielded questions regarding the cultural- and gender-specific attitudes and practices of these youth (Deardorff, Tschann, & Flores, 2008). Cultural values include family-related variables such as different aspects of familism, parent-adolescent communication, and parental monitoring, which have been found to decrease adolescents’ engagement in other negative activities such as aggressive behavior, (Dishion & McMahon, 1998), substance use (Estrada, Rabow, & Watts, 1982), and delinquency (Clark & Shields, 1997). Research investigating these risk behaviors has often implicated Latino adolescents’ level of assimilation to White, mainstream society as a potential risk …

Language Outcome After Left Anterior Temporal Lobectomy In Patients With Discordant Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging And Intracarotid Sodium Amobarbital Testing Results, Julie K. Janecek

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Research Exchange Conference

Language Outcome after Left Temporal Anterior Lobectomy in Patients with Discordant Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Intracarotid Sodium Amobarbital Testing Results Rationale: Previous research has examined concordance rates between Wada and fMRI language lateralization indices (LIs) and has yielded variable results with limited post-surgical language outcome data. Therefore, additional evidence of the concurrent and predictive validity of fMRI LIs is needed. We will calculate Wada/fMRI LI concordance rates in the largest sample to date, investigate predictors of discordance and examine the ability of each procedure to predict language outcome in discordant cases. Methods: A consecutive series of 229 presurgical epilepsy …

Theta-Activity In Anterior Cingulate Cortex Predicts Task Rules And Their Adjustments Following Errors, Thilo Womelsdorf, Kevin Johnston, Martin Vinck, Stefan Everling

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Accomplishing even simple tasks depend on neuronal circuits to configure how incoming sensory stimuli map onto responses. Controlling these stimulus-response (SR) mapping rules relies on a cognitive control network comprising the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Single neurons within the ACC convey information about currently relevant SR mapping rules and signal unexpected action outcomes, which can be used to optimize behavioral choices. However, its functional significance and the mechanistic means of interaction with other nodes of the cognitive control network remain elusive and poorly understood. Here, we report that core aspects of cognitive control are encoded by rhythmic theta-band activity within …

Bold Signal In Both Ipsilateral And Contralateral Retinotopic Cortex Modulates With Perceptual Fading, Po-Jang Hsieh, Peter U. Tse

Dartmouth Scholarship

Under conditions of visual fixation, perceptual fading occurs when a stationary object, though present in the world and continually casting light upon the retina, vanishes from visual consciousness. The neural correlates of the consciousness of such an object will presumably modulate in activity with the onset and cessation of perceptual fading.

Method: In order to localize the neural correlates of perceptual fading, a green disk that had been individually set to be equiluminant with the orange background, was presented in one of the four visual quadrants; Subjects indicated with a button press whether or not the disk was subjectively visible …

Effects Of Leas And Mecury On The Blood Proteome Of Children, Robert E. Birsall, Michael P. Kiley, Zaneer M. Segu, Christopher D. Palmer, Milan Madera, Brooks B. Gump

Falk College Research Center

Heavy metal exposure in children has been associated with a variety of physiological and neurological problems. The goal of this study was to utilize proteomics to enhance the understanding of biochemical interactions responsible for the health problems related to lead and mercury exposure at concentrations well below CDC guidelines. Blood plasma and serum samples from 34 children were depleted of their most abundant proteins using antibody-based affinity columns and analyzed using two different methods, LC-MS/MS and 2-D electrophoresis coupled with MALDI-TOF/MS and tandem mass spectrometry. Apolipoprotein E demonstrated an inverse significant association with lead concentrations (average being one microgram/deciliter) as …

Validation Of The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument: An Application Of The Korean Version, Yun Seok Choi, Minhee Seo, David Scott, Jeffrey J. Martin

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Korean version of the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) based on the Competing Values Framework (CVF). More specially, cultural equivalence between the Korean version and the original English version of the OCAI was evaluated using 39 bilingual Koreans. Next, a field test was conducted to examine scale reliability and construct validity of the Korean version of the OCAI using 133 organizational members from the Korean Professional Baseball League (KPBL). The findings indicate that the Korean version was successfully translated, items maintained the same meaning of the original …

A Survey Of The Management And Development Of Captive African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana) Calves: Birth To Three Months Of Age, Nicole L. Kowalski, Robert H.I. Dale, Christa L. H. Mazur

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We used four surveys to collect information about the birth, physical growth, and behavioral development of 12 African elephant calves born in captivity. The management of the birth process and neonatal care involved a variety of standard procedures. All of the calves were born at night, between 7PM and 7AM. The calves showed a systematic progression in behavioral and physical development, attaining developmental milestones at least a quickly as calves in situ. This study emphasized birth-related events, changes in the ways that calves used their trunks, first instances of behaviors, and interactions of the calves with other, usually adult, elephants. …

Conceptions Regarding Children’S Health: An Examination Of Ethnotheories In A Sending And Receiving Community, Maria Rosario De Guzman, Jennifer Deleon, Gloria Gonzalez-Kruger, Rodrigo Cantarero

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Ethnotheories are beliefs that adults hold about children and the factors that impact upon their development. Scholars suggest that “ethnotheories” serve as cultural models that underlie motivations for parenting practices and the way adults organize children’s early experiences. This study examines Mexican adults’ ethnotheories about children’s health in two communities that are linked by transnational migrants and serve as sending and receiving communities for workers. Forty-four Mexican adults in six focus groups discussed well-being issues affecting children in their communities. Qualitative analyses using grounded theory revealed a complex conception of children’s health issues that included physical, psychological, and behavioral components …

Psychometric Properties Of The Psychopathic Personality Inventory In A Non-Criminal Population, Julie Madeleine Woltil

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) is a self-report measure which was created to identify the personality traits of psychopathy in noncriminal populations. These personality traits were grouped into eight subscales in the PPI including Machiavellian Egocentricity, Social Potency, Coldheartedness, Carefree Nonplanfulness, Fearlessness, Blame Externalization, Impulsive Nonconformity and Stress Immunity. The hypothesized relationships and factor structure of this study follow the theory of psychopathy as being a disorder rooted in antisocial behaviors (often aggressive and impulsive in nature) and inappropriate emotional reactivity (characterized as a lack in empathy and anxiety). A confirmatory factor analysis was done with an ethnically diverse undergraduate …

40th Annual Wku Student Research Conference, Student Research Council, Western Kentucky University

Student Research Conference Select Presentations

No abstract provided.

Initial Findings On Visual Acuity Thresholds In An African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana), Melissa R. Shyan-Norwalt, Jeff Peterson, Barbara Milankow King, Timothy E. Staggs, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

There are only a few published examinations of elephant visual acuity. All involved Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and found visual acuity to be between 8′ and 11′ of arc for a stimulus near the tip of the trunk, equivalent to a 0.50 cm gap, at a distance of about 2 m from the eyes. We predicted that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) would have similarly high visual acuity, necessary to facilitate eye-trunk coordination for feeding, drinking and social interactions. When tested on a discrimination task using Landolt-C stimuli, one African elephant cow demonstrated a visual acuity of …

Running Enhances Spatial Pattern Separation In Mice., David J Creer, Carola Romberg, Lisa M Saksida, Henriette Van Praag, Timothy J Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Increasing evidence suggests that regular exercise improves brain health and promotes synaptic plasticity and hippocampal neurogenesis. Exercise improves learning, but specific mechanisms of information processing influenced by physical activity are unknown. Here, we report that voluntary running enhanced the ability of adult (3 months old) male C57BL/6 mice to discriminate between the locations of two adjacent identical stimuli. Improved spatial pattern separation in adult runners was tightly correlated with increased neurogenesis. In contrast, very aged (22 months old) mice had impaired spatial discrimination and low basal cell genesis that was refractory to running. These findings suggest that the addition of …

Neural Activity In The Hippocampus And Perirhinal Cortex During Encoding Is Associated With The Durability Of Episodic Memory, V. A. Carr, Indre Viskontas, S. A. Engel, B. J. Knowlton

Psychology

Studies examining medial temporal lobe (MTL) involvement in memory formation typically assess memory performance after a single, short delay. Thus, the relationship between MTL encoding activity and memory durability over time remains poorly characterized. To explore this relationship, we scanned participants using high-resolution functional imaging of the MTL as they encoded object pairs; using the remember/know paradigm, we then assessed memory performance for studied items both 10 min and 1 week later. Encoding trials were classified as either subsequently recollected across both delays, transiently recollected (i.e., recollected at 10 min but not after 1 week), consistently familiar, or consistently forgotten. …

Does Chinese Culture Influence Psychosocial Factors For Heroin Use Among Young Adolescents In China? A Cross-Sectional Study, Hongjie Liu, Jian Li, Zhouping Lu, Wei Liu, Zhiyong Zhang

Family Medicine and Population Health Publications

Background

Little empirical research has examined how cultural factors influence psychosocial factors for heroin drug use. The objectives of the study were to investigate the levels of individualism and collectivism among young adolescents and how cultural differences were associated with the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior and other psychosocial factors for heroin drug use.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among young adolescents in an HIV and heroin-stricken area in China. The Individualism-Collectivism Interpersonal Assessment Inventory (ICIAI) was used to measure cultural norms and values in the context of three social groups: family members, close friends, and classmates. …

Effects Of Patient Trauma On Hospital Staff Functioning: An Exploratory Study Of Psychological Distress Resulting From Trauma Exposure, Randy Allen Braley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study attempted to determine the relationship between exposure to traumatic experiences of hospitalized children and adolescents and the development of secondary traumatic stress, also known as compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, or burnout in clinical staff working with such patients. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses that: clinical treatment staff will experience higher levels of psychological distress following exposure to patient trauma and previous lifetime trauma events; clinical treatment staff will experience quality of patient relationships associated with the degree of exposure to patient trauma, previous lifetime or work-related trauma history, and level of supervisor support; clinical …

Correlates Of Weight Concern And Control In A Hispanic College Student Sample., J. Blow, T. Taylor, Theodore Cooper, C. Redfearn

Selected Works Temporary Series

No abstract provided.

Laterality, Perception, And Action During The Size-Weight Illusion, Gavin Buckingham, Nathalie S. Ranger, Melvyn A. Goodale

Psychology Presentations

In the classic size-weight illusion (SWI), a small object will feel heavier than an larger object of equal weight (Charpentier, 1891). Individuals continue to perceive this illusory difference in weight long after their gripping and lifting forces have scaled to the actual, identical, mass of the illusion-inducing stimuli (Flanagan & Beltzner, 2000).

The independence of our weight perception and fingertip force application has only been quantified in the right hand of right-handers. The immunity to this perceptual illusion may be affected by manual asymmetries (e.g., Gonzalez, Ganel & Goodale, 2006).

We examined perception of heaviness and fingertip force scaling in …