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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Cognitive Psychology

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

2023

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Formalizing The Faustian Bargain Within The Healthcare Domain: An End-Of-Life Approach., Rachel Appel Dec 2023

Formalizing The Faustian Bargain Within The Healthcare Domain: An End-Of-Life Approach., Rachel Appel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Faustian Bargain refers to an individual making a “deal with the devil,” exchanging something moral or sacred for an unattainable earthly good. The Faustian Bargain has been used to describe a ubiquitous social dilemma inherent to human civilization: exchanging individual liberty for public goods (e.g., security) provided by societal leaders and governments (Ostrom, 1980). Research on Faustian Bargains often examines tradeoffs between outcome utility (i.e., value derived from the outcomes of a decision) and procedural utility (i.e., value derived from being involved in the decision process (e.g., Frey et al., 2004). Much of the research on Faustian Bargains has …

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The Self-Reference Effect On Memory Among 4- To 6-Year-Olds: The Role Of Active Encoding And Cognitive Abilities, Alicia Nicole Bartlett Sep 2023

The Self-Reference Effect On Memory Among 4- To 6-Year-Olds: The Role Of Active Encoding And Cognitive Abilities, Alicia Nicole Bartlett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The self-reference effect (SRE) is the enhanced memory for information encoded with reference to oneself relative to information encoded with reference to another non-intimate person or the linguistic properties of a word (Rogers et al., 1977). This effect is measured with an encoding task and a surprise recall and/or recognition task. An important distinction among encoding tasks is whether they involve active or passive engagement with the to-be-remembered information. Tasks with active engagement require the participant to identify the relation between the referent and target object and then to perform a mental (e.g., evaluate desirability of objects) or physical (e.g., …

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Exploring The Relationship Between Of Subjective And Objective Cognition Among Older Adults Living In Canada, Astrid Dawn Coleman Sep 2023

Exploring The Relationship Between Of Subjective And Objective Cognition Among Older Adults Living In Canada, Astrid Dawn Coleman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The older adult population in Canada is growing rapidly, increasing the prevalence and burden of conditions that impact these individuals, such as dementia. Given that early detection and intervention are strongly associated with better disease outcomes, understanding the progression from healthy aging to dementia is critical. Two factors contributing to disease progression are cognitive impairment on objective neuropsychological measures and subjective cognitive complaints. However, the association between individuals’ perceptions of their cognitive abilities and their performance on cognitive tests remains unclear. Therefore, the goal of this project was to gain insight into the relationship between subjective and objective cognitive functioning …

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Investigating Visual Vigilance Following Chronic Behavioural Immune System Activation, Jessica Hurtubise Sep 2023

Investigating Visual Vigilance Following Chronic Behavioural Immune System Activation, Jessica Hurtubise

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The behavioural immune system (BIS) is a coordinated set of cognitive, affective, and behavioural responses that minimize pathogen contact. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of research on the BIS was limited to situations of acute pathogen threat. These studies identified that personal predispositions and environmental stimuli interact and lead to cognitive changes, including perceptual enhancements and attentional biases, as well as sensations of disgust. The cognitive and affective changes that follow pathogen exposure motivate pathogen avoidance behaviours and reduce the risk of infection. The BIS is highly adaptive in the context of acute pathogen threat, but less is …

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Oral Contraception And Cognition, Kathleen Gerencer Aug 2023

Oral Contraception And Cognition, Kathleen Gerencer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Oral contraception is currently used by over 100 million women worldwide. Women utilize contraception not only to prevent pregnancy but also to manage a wide range of health concerns, such as acne and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Although this medication has granted women bodily autonomy, helped them attain higher levels of education, and helped them enter the workforce in greater numbers, little is known about the consequences outside of the intended contraceptive effects, specifically the cognitive and behavioral consequences. Moreover, because doctors can prescribe contraception after the first menstrual cycle and during puberty, it’s possible that this critical window of development …

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Nutrition As A Modifiable Risk Factor For Cognitive Decline: Associated Cognitive And Physical Health Changes, Taylor Mcmillan Aug 2023

Nutrition As A Modifiable Risk Factor For Cognitive Decline: Associated Cognitive And Physical Health Changes, Taylor Mcmillan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dementia is defined as gradual, progressive loss of cognitive functioning, greater than what is expected of normal aging, resulting in functional impairment. There are several types of dementia clinical syndromes that are accompanied by unique patterns of cognitive dysfunction and neuropathological changes. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of clinical dementia syndrome, accounting for approximately 60-70% of cases. Neuropathological mechanisms associated with AD include the disruption of the cholinergic system, accumulation of amyloid-beta plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau, as well as vascular pathology. Vascular pathology complicates the characterization of clinical and neuropathic changes in AD, as there becomes significant …

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Risky Behavior As Motivated Emotion Regulation: A Mixed-Method Approach, Lyneé A. Herrera Aug 2023

Risky Behavior As Motivated Emotion Regulation: A Mixed-Method Approach, Lyneé A. Herrera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Engaging in risky health behaviors is a ubiquitous human experience that often marks developmental progression from adolescence into adulthood. While much previous research has framed risky behaviors in terms of negative legal, social, and public health consequences, less empirical work has been done on potential benefits of their engagement. A growing body of research has identified emotion regulation deficits as a significant driver of risky behavior engagement, suggesting that these behaviors may offer perceived emotional benefits when other regulation strategies are less accessible. Previous research has shown that emotional outcomes can be influenced by the regulation strategies one chooses to …

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Interactive Computer-Based Simulations As Exploratory Learning Activities., Derek Mcclellan Aug 2023

Interactive Computer-Based Simulations As Exploratory Learning Activities., Derek Mcclellan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Typical college lectures follow a direct instruction framework, where instructors deliver a lecture, followed by an activity. Exploratory learning flips this routine by providing students with an activity prior to instruction. Research suggests that this inversion benefits students’ conceptual understanding and ability to transfer their knowledge. The majority of exploratory learning tasks in the literature are problem-solving activities. The current work investigates the use of computer-based simulations during exploratory learning, and whether manipulating the cognitive load of the activity impacts learning. In Experiment 1, undergraduate students (N=66) were randomly assigned to explore a simulation-based circuit construction activity prior …

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False Memories Are Impacted By Semantic Pairing Of Drm Lists., Ryan Coleman Aug 2023

False Memories Are Impacted By Semantic Pairing Of Drm Lists., Ryan Coleman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the DRM paradigm, experience of semantically related words leads to false memories of related words called critical lures. These false memories serve as evidence that the relationship between items in a DRM list contribute to an overall gist or central concept for the experience. The present studies aim to investigate whether the higher-order semantic relationship that exists between different DRM lists can also influence recognition memory. Study 1 compared memory confidence ratings for list items and critical lures to two metrics: “Temporal Contiguity”, how closely in time lists appeared to each other at encoding, and “Semantic Distance”, the semantic …

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Reference Frames In Human Sensory, Motor, And Cognitive Processing, Dongcheng He Mar 2023

Reference Frames In Human Sensory, Motor, And Cognitive Processing, Dongcheng He

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reference-frames, or coordinate systems, are used to express properties and relationships of objects in the environment. While the use of reference-frames is well understood in physical sciences, how the brain uses reference-frames remains a fundamental question. The goal of this dissertation is to reach a better understanding of reference-frames in human perceptual, motor, and cognitive processing. In the first project, we study reference-frames in perception and develop a model to explain the transition from egocentric (based on the observer) to exocentric (based outside the observer) reference-frames to account for the perception of relative motion. In a second project, we focus …

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Adhd Symptoms And Inattentional Blindness In An Undergraduate Sample, Katherine Rose Matchett Jan 2023

Adhd Symptoms And Inattentional Blindness In An Undergraduate Sample, Katherine Rose Matchett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the phenomenon of inattentional blindness has received little empirical attention, with only a single published study on the topic. The purpose of the present study was to investigate individual differences in ADHD symptom severity in a non-clinical, undergraduate sample as they relate to susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Because research conducted in an individual differences framework requires the use of reliable measurement instruments, the present study also set out to develop and pilot a task that could induce inattentional blindness repeatedly and reliably in the same participants. The results showed that a) the measure …

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