Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons^™

Neurologists Look At Causes Of Baffling Brain Condition, Maggie Freleng

Capstones

It can be hard getting help for someone with mental illness, but almost impossible when that person doesn't think they are sick. At at least half of people with schizophrenia, for example, insist that the voices they hear are real. People who do not know they are ill often refuse therapy and medication -- and their symptoms can spiral out of control. Doctors call this lack of awareness anosognosia. Neurologists are trying to discover what causes this baffling condition--and how to treat it.

The Happy Older Latinos Are Active (Hola) Health Promotion And Prevention Study: Study Protocol For A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, Daniel E. Jimenez, Charles F. Reynolds, Margarita Alegría, Philip Harvey, Stephen Bartels

Dartmouth Scholarship

Results of previous studies attest to the greater illness burden of common mental disorders (anxiety and depression) in older Latinos and the need for developing preventive interventions that are effective, acceptable, and scalable. Happy Older Latinos are Active (HOLA) is a newly developed intervention that uses a community health worker (CHW) to lead a health promotion program in order to prevent common mental disorders among at-risk older Latinos. This pilot study tests the feasibility and acceptability of delivering HOLA to older, at-risk Latinos.

Methods/Design: HOLA is a multi-component, health promotion intervention funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). …

Nucleus Accumbens Deep Brain Stimulation In A Rat Model Of Binge Eating, W. T. Doucette, J. Y. Khokhar, A. I. Green

Dartmouth Scholarship

Binge eating (BE) is a difficult-to-treat behavior with high relapse rates, thus complicating several disorders including obesity. In this study, we tested the effects of high-frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) in a rodent model of BE. We hypothesized that BE rats receiving high-frequency DBS in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core would have reduced binge sizes compared with sham stimulation in both a 'chronic BE' model as well as in a 'relapse to chronic BE' model. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (N=18) were implanted with stimulating electrodes in bilateral NAc core, and they received either active stimulation (N=12) or sham stimulation (N=6) for …

The Visual Priming Of Motion-Defined 3d Objects, Xiong Jiang, Yang Jiang, Raja Parasuraman

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

The perception of a stimulus can be influenced by previous perceptual experience, a phenomenon known as perceptual priming. However, there has been limited investigation on perceptual priming of shape perception of three-dimensional object structures defined by moving dots. Here we examined the perceptual priming of a 3D object shape defined purely by motion-in-depth cues (i.e., Shape-From-Motion, SFM) using a classic prime-target paradigm. The results from the first two experiments revealed a significant increase in accuracy when a "cloudy" SFM stimulus (whose object structure was difficult to recognize due to the presence of strong noise) was preceded by an unambiguous SFM …

Effects Of Repeated Quetiapine Treatment On Conditioned Avoidance Responding In Rats, Jun Gao, Min Feng, Natashia Swalve, Collin Davis, Nan Sui, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study characterized the behavioral mechanisms of avoidance–disruptive effect of quetiapine in the conditioned avoidance response test under two behavioral testing (2 warning signals vs. 1 warning signal) and two drug administration conditions (subcutaneous vs. intravenous). In Experiments 1 and 2, well-trained adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were tested under the subcutaneous (s.c.) quetiapine treatment (5.0, 15.0, 25.0, 50.0 mg/kg) for 7 days in a novel procedure consisting of two conditioned stimuli (CS) (white noise serving as CS1 and pure tone as CS2). Only the highest dose (50.0 mg/kg) produced a persistent suppression of the avoidance response without impairing the …

My Way Or The Highway: The Development And Use Of Behavior Management And School Discipline, Patricia Thomas

University Honors Program

Behavior management is a crucial topic in education. The management of student behavior in a classroom can affect the entire learning experience. As the needs of students and teachers change, the methods of behavior management adapt to accommodate new needs. This thesis identifies behavior management starting in the 1960’s and research determining its effectiveness. The causes of change in classroom and school-wide discipline systems are addressed, including political climates, court involvement, and tragic events within schools. The behavior management methods used in the current day are discussed. Through a review of literature and online sources, the information provided was gathered …

Exploring Acceptance Of Using An Online Platform To Teach Parents Of Children With Autism Methods In Applied Behavior Analysis (Aba), Marwah S. Zagzoug

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Background and Purpose of the Study: A diagnosis of autism can lead to lifelong struggles for parents and children. These families face profound difficulties in coping with stress while seeking out early interventions and managing imperative service needs. Parents are increasingly turning to the internet for information, advice, and even formal training. Breakthroughs in technology have made the internet more accessible and more sophisticated. The involvement of parents in applying intervention strategies to help their autistic children has long been advocated as a useful approach. Enabling parents as interventionists provides renewed confidence and reduced stress for parents as well as …

The Transformative And Healing Powers Of Compassion, Forgiveness, And Wonder, Anna C. Eriksson-Marty

Senior Theses

Since time immemorial, humankind has struggled to coexist peacefully together. As human beings, we strive on our relationships with each other and, yet, with actions of hatred and prejudice, we seem to consistently destroy those very relationships we value so deeply. Our current society is plagued by fear, which seems to run more rampant now – more than ever – with assistance of our rapidly evolving communication technology. The question must be asked, “How can we end this madness and heal ourselves into a kinder and more fulfilling future?” By providing up-to-date scientific research on the human emotions of compassion, …

The Effects Of Alpha Stimulation On Induced Anxiety, Nolan Thomas Hill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety is defined as an emotional and physical reaction that prepares us to confront a feared stimulus. Among the many measureable changes induced by anxiety are changes in facial electromyography (EMG), heart rate (HR), and sweat gland activity (EDG). At a pathological level anxiety interferes with cognitive processes. Currently, when anxiety crosses into the pathological level, it is treated with a variety of therapies that share in their use of periods of exposure to anxiety-inducing stimuli. Several devices have been developed to alter brain activity by transcranial electrical stimulation (TCES). One such device, Alpha-Stim^®, has been shown to …

Investigating The Influences Of Language Delay And/Or Familial Risk For Dyslexia On Brain Structure In 5-Year-Olds, Nora Maria Raschle, Bryce Larkin Chessell Becker, Sara Smith, Lynn Valérie Fehlbaum, Yingying Wang, Nadine Gaab

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Early language delay has often been associated with atypical language/literacy development. Neuroimaging studies further indicate functional disruptions during language and print processing in school-age children with a retrospective report of early language delay. Behavioral data of 114 5-year-olds with a retrospective report of early language delay in infancy (N = 34) and those without (N = 80) and with a familial risk for dyslexia and those without are presented. Behaviorally, children with a retrospective report of early language delay exhibited reduced performance in language/reading-related measures. A voxel-based morphometry analysis in a subset (N = 46) demonstrated an association between reduced …

Assessing The Synergistic Effect Of Caffeine And Sugar On Cognitive Performance In Undergraduate Students, Sandra P. Urquiza, Michelle Vieyra

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Working independently, both caffeine and sugar provide benefits to attention and memory. However, there is sparse literature on the synergistic effects on improved cognitive performance between caffeine and sugar when taken together. This study explored the dynamics between caffeine and sugar when consumed under ordinary conditions – as a cup of coffee. Twenty-four undergraduate students (15 women and 9 men) were asked to complete a baseline cognitive test, and one of the three variables was given at random in the form of a cup of coffee: decaffeinated with sugar, caffeinated with no sugar, and caffeinated with sugar. The remaining two …

How We Saved Ourselves: A Look At The Positive Coping Strategies The Orphans Of The 1994 Genocide Against Tutsis Implemented During Bereavement, Gregory Barber

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Recent estimates report that there are approximately 145 million children worldwide who have lost at least one parent as a result of various causes (Development, 2008). Parental death is one of the most traumatic events that can occur in childhood (Haine, 2006). Literature has also indicated that parental death places children at risk for many negative outcomes, including mental health problems, grief, lower academic success, self-esteem, and greater external locus of control (Lutzke, 1997). Between April and July 1994, 800,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans died in the 1994 genocide against Tutsis. Because of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis, nearly 75,000 children …

Involvement Of The Right Hemisphere In Reading Comprehension: A Dti Study, Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, Yingying Wang, Elena Plante, Scott K. Holland

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

The Simple View of reading emphasizes the critical role of two factors in normal reading skills: word recognition and reading comprehension. The current study aims to identify the anatomical support for aspects of reading performance that fall within these two components. Fractional anisotropy (FA) values were obtained from Diffusion Tensor images in twenty-one typical adolescents and young adults using the Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) method. We focused on the Arcuate Fasciculus (AF) and Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus (ILF) as fiber tracts that connect regions already implicated in the distributed cortical network for reading. Our results demonstrate dissociation between word-level and …

Implicit And Explicit Self-Esteem As Predictors Of Reactive And Proactive Aggression In Adolescent Boys And Girls, Maya Suter, Sebastien Urben, Sandrine Pihet, Cybele Bertoni, Jill De Ridder, Philippe Stephan

Journal of Adolescent and Family Health

This study aims at examining gender differences and their association with implicit and explicit self-esteem (SE), and reactive and proactive aggression in adolescents. Hundred and eighteen adolescents (60 boys and 58 girls) performed the Implicit Association Test assessing implicit SE. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale was used to measure explicit SE. Reactive and proactive aggression were assessed with the self-report Reactive and Proactive Aggression Scale. Results showed that girls characterized by both low explicit and implicit SE (insecure SE), or by high explicit but low implicit SE (defensive SE), showed more reactive aggression than girls reporting high explicit and implicit SE …

Relationships Between Positive Psychological Constructs And Health Outcomes In Patients With Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review, Christina M. Dubois, Oriana Vesga Lopez, Eleanor E. Beale, Brian C. Healy, Julia K. Boehm, Jeff C. Huffman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Depression and anxiety are well-known to be associated with adverse health outcomes in cardiac patients. However, there has been less work synthesizing the effects of positive psychological constructs (e.g., optimism) on health-related outcomes in cardiac patients. We completed a systematic review of prospective observational studies using established guidelines. A search of PubMed and PsycINFO databases from inception to January 2014 was used to identify articles. To be eligible, studies were required to assess effects of a positive psychological construct on subsequent health-related outcomes (including mortality, rehospitalizations, self-reported health status) in patients with established heart disease. Exploratory random effects' meta-analyses were …

Digital Storytelling: A Tool For Health Promotion And Cancer Awareness In Rural Alaskan Communities, Melany Cueva, Regina Kuhnley, Laura Revels, Nancy E. Schoenberg, Mark Dignan

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to learn community members' perspectives about digital storytelling after viewing a digital story created by a Community Health Aide/Practitioner (CHA/P).

METHODS: Using a qualitative research design, we explored digital storytelling likeability as a health-messaging tool, health information viewers reported learning and, if viewing, cancer-related digital stories facilitated increased comfort in talking about cancer. In addition, we enquired if the digital stories affected how viewers felt about cancer, as well as if viewing the digital stories resulted in health behaviour change or intent to change health behaviour.

FINDINGS: A total of 15 adult community …

Nutrition And The Effects On Student Behavior And Academic Performance In The Classroom, Kaitlin Daniel

University Honors Program

Nutrition, behavior, and academic performance; these three words have a few commonalities. They each can be related to children. They each can be related to school and they each can be related to issues in education. The following research has found intriguing statistics that are useful when investigating or planning a classroom climate. It has always been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It jumpstarts the metabolism and awakens he body. Along with this it helps curb the appetite before lunch. An early addition to school nutrition was the availability of breakfast before school. This …

The G. Stanley Hall Papers, Granville Stanley Hall

Finding Aids

The papers of Granville Stanley Hall, Clark University's first president, include family and professional correspondence, official University correspondence, and correspondence with former students of Hall's.

Increased Resting-State Functional Connectivity Of Visual- And Cognitive-Control Brain Networks After Training In Children With Reading Difficulties, Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, Mark Difrancesco, Benjamin Kay, Yingying Wang, Scott K. Holland

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

The Reading Acceleration Program, a computerized reading-training program, increases activation in neural circuits related to reading.We examined the effect of the training on the functional connectivity between independent components related to visual processing, executive functions, attention, memory, and language during rest after the training. Children 8–12 years old with reading difficulties and typical readers participated in the study. Behavioral testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed before and after the training. Imaging data were analyzed using an independent component analysis approach. After training, both reading groups showed increased single-word contextual reading and reading comprehension scores. Greater positive correlations between …

The Effects Of Alcohol On The Interpretation Of Social And Emotional Cues: A Field Study Of College Student Drinking, Emotion Recognition, And Perceptions Of A Hypothetical Sexual Assault, Alexander James Melkonian

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use and abuse among emerging adults is highly correlated with increased risk for sexual victimization. Alcohol myopia theory has been used to explain impairments in Social information processing resulting in decreased attention to environmental Social cues including risk factors for sexual assault as well as facial emotional recognition. Those with deficits in Social information processing may be at particular risk for the misperception of salient risk factors for sexual assault by victims, perpetrators, and bystanders when intoxicated. In this naturalistic field study, participants who had been consuming alcohol were recruited to engage in tasks of facial emotion recognition and …

Tradtional Alcohol Use Among Rural Yi Minority In China: An Application Of Theory Of Planned Behavior, Yonghua Feng

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

It is estimated that 25% of the alcohol consumed in China as traditional alcohol. This study explored the drinking patterns and the motives to use traditional alcohol among a sample of the Yi minority in southern China. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to explore motives.

Based on initial fieldwork among the Yi a questionnaire was developed to provide data to describe traditional alcohol use and to assess the constructs of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control as expressed the Theory of Planned Behavior. The questionnaire was refined and the results served as an adequate measurement to explore …

Executive Function Predictors Of Children's Talk, Jacqlyne D. Weber

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Relatively few studies have investigated the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and language development, and even fewer have researched hot and cool EF as a predictor language development. This study is an investigation into the relationship between EF and language development in preschool aged children. More specifically, the ability for hot or cool EF to predict language, this will be the focus of the study. It was found that hot EF was a better predictor of language development in preschool aged children.

Visual Feedback Dominates The Sense Of Agency For Brain-Machine Actions, Nathan Evans, Steven Gale, Aaron Schurger, Olaf Blanke

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Recent advances in neuroscience and engineering have led to the development of technologies that permit the control of external devices through real-time decoding of brain activity (brain-machine interfaces; BMI). Though the feeling of controlling bodily movements (sense of agency; SOA) has been well studied and a number of well-defined sensorimotor and cognitive mechanisms have been put forth, very little is known about the SOA for BMI-actions. Using an on-line BMI, and verifying that our subjects achieved a reasonable level of control, we sought to describe the SOA for BMI-mediated actions. Our results demonstrate that discrepancies between decoded neural activity and …

Effects Of Early-Adolescent, Mid-Adolescent, Or Adult Stress On Morphine Conditioned Place Preference, Chloe Shields

Senior Theses

In light of previous work demonstrating that stress can increase subjective drug reward in adult rats, the present study investigated the influence of stress on morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) in early-adolescent, mid-adolescent, and adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Subjects in each age group were assigned to either a no stress condition or a stress condition in which they were exposed to an unpredictable eight-day schedule of elevated platform and synthetic fox odor stressors. Place conditioning then evaluated subjective morphine reward in all animals. Using a biased procedure, subjects were assigned to receive morphine on the initially non-preferred side of the …

The Effects Of Arginine Vasopressin On Maternal Behavior And Aggression In Peromyscus Californicus Mothers, Nathaniel Ng

Honors Projects

Research studies since the 1950s have shown that a chemical within the brain called arginine vasopressin (AVP) is associated with the modulation of many different social behaviors in mammals. Some of these behaviors are related to parenting, such as parental care initiation, aggression, social recognition, depression and anxiety. Understanding the physiology behind AVP regulation could allow for the creation of new therapies for treating human social disorders, such as using an AVP receptor antagonist to attenuate anxiety. This project examines how neural injections of AVP and an AVP receptor antagonist affect both maternal care and aggression in female Peromyscus californicus …

The Clinical Utility Of The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System: A Clinician's Perspective, Ashley Gunterman

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP) is the first performance-based measure of adult attachment to be developed. The purpose of the measure is to provide a clinical understanding of an adult client's attachment status and associated coping mechanisms. The AAP is a relatively new measure that has yet to be examined from a utility perspective. In the current study, seven psychologists completed a structured survey in order to identify their perspectives of the AAP and its utility as a clinical instrument. A phenomenological qualitative analysis of the data was conducted to derive themes about the AAP and its clinical …

Gratitude And Kindness: Just What The Doctor Ordered, Kathleen E. Glynn

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In recent years, the positive psychology movement has grown and researchers have become interested in studying overall well-being and the predictors of happiness. Previous studies have indicated that biology plays a role in determining an individual’s happiness, but this is not the only contributing factor. Thought patterns and behaviors play a key role in one’s overall wellbeing. The current study evaluated the relationship that a practice of gratitude and performing acts of kindness had on participants’ scores on happiness, gratitude and social support scales. It was predicted that individuals who performed acts of kindness and practice gratitude for one week …

Revisiting A Common Measure Of Child Postoperative Recovery: Development Of The Post Hospitalization Behavior Questionnaire For Ambulatory Surgery (Phbq-As), Brooke N. Jenkins, Zeev N. Kain, Sherrie H. Kaplan, Robert S. Stevenson, Linda C. Mayes, Josue Guadarrama, Michelle A. Fortier

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

The Post Hospitalization Behavior Questionnaire (PHBQ) was designed for assessing children's posthospitalization and postoperative new‐onset behavioral changes. However, the psychometric properties of the scale have not been re‐evaluated in the past five decades despite substantial changes in the practice of surgery and anesthesia. In this investigation, we examined the psychometric properties of the PHBQ to potentially increase the efficacy and relevance of the instrument in current perioperative settings.

Method

This study used principal components analysis, a panel of experts, Cronbach's alpha, and correlations to examine the current subscale structure of the PHBQ and eliminate items to create the Post …

Paradoxical Interaction Between Ocular Activity, Perception, And Decision Confidence At The Threshold Of Vision, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In humans and some other species perceptual decision-making is complemented by the ability to make confidence judgements about the certainty of sensory evidence. While both forms of decision process have been studied empirically, the precise relationship between them remains poorly understood. We performed an experiment that combined a perceptual decision-making task (identifying the category of a faint visual stimulus) with a confidence-judgement task (wagering on the accuracy of each perceptual decision). The visual stimulation paradigm required steady fixation, so we used eye-tracking to control for stray eye movements. Our data analyses revealed an unexpected and counterintuitive interaction between the steadiness …

Physical Feature Encoding And Word Recognition Abilities Are Altered In Children With Intractable Epilepsy: Preliminary Neuromagnetic Evidence, Maria Pardos, Milena Korostenskaja, Jing Xiang, Hisako Fujiwara, Ki H. Lee, Paul S. Horn, Anna Byars, Jennifer Vannest, Yingying Wang, Nat Hemasilpin, Douglas F. Rose

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Objective evaluation of language function is critical for children with intractable epilepsy under consideration for epilepsy surgery. The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate word recognition in children with intractable epilepsy by using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Ten children with intractable epilepsy (M/F 6/4, mean ± SD 13.4 ± 2.2 years) were matched on age and sex to healthy controls. Common nouns were presented simultaneously from visual and auditory sensory inputs in “match” and “mismatch” conditions. Neuromagnetic responses M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5 with latencies of ∼100ms, ∼150ms, ∼250ms, ∼350ms, and ∼450ms, respectively, elicited during the “match” condition were …