Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Consumers’ Responses To New Technologies In The Marketplace, Umair Usman

Theses and Dissertations--Marketing and Supply Chain

Chapter 1. This research examines whether the use of blockchain technology to back a brand’s claims (i.e., blockchain augmented claims) influences consumer preference for sustainable products. Consumers are demanding higher levels of transparency from brands and are also showing keen interest in consuming sustainable products, which includes products that promote social, environmental and economic sustainability. Recent advancement in digital technology, specifically blockchain, is offering an opportunity for brands to meet both these consumer demands. In five laboratory studies, I demonstrate that blockchain augmented claims, as compared to traditional industry practices (i.e., use of third-party labels and brand’s self-made claims), increases …

Are Menstrual Cycles A Biological Determinant Of Well-Being Amongst Sierra Leonean Schoolchildren?, Ashwini Shridhar

Master's Theses

The influence of hormones and biology on behavior is a topic that is rife with controversy, especially when it comes to sexual hormones. There is even more murkiness when it comes to the topic of menstruation and knowledge about women’s menstrual cycles. Recent research on this topic have seen a link between the hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and various behavioral implications on competition, cooperation, and risk behavior. This study tries to expand existing knowledge by examining whether there is a link between hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and risk preferential behavior using economic experiments in the largely understudied context …

Spatialized Auditory And Vibrotactile Cueing For Dynamic Three-Dimensional Visual Search, Rachel J. Cunio

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The traditional method of maintaining spatial awareness through visual displays can cause visual system overload and lead to performance decrements. This study examined the benefits of spatialized auditory, tactile, and audio-tactile cues for maintaining awareness as a method of enhancing visual search performance. I examined visual search performance in an immersive, dynamic, three-dimensional (360-degree), virtual reality environment with no cues, spatialized auditory cues, degraded spatialized auditory cues, spatialized tactile cues, spatialized audio-tactile cues, and degraded spatialized auditory with tactile cues. Results indicated a significant reduction in visual search time from the no-cue condition when any cues were presented. The tactile …

Individualism, Collectivism, And Trade, Aidin Hajikhameneh, Erik O. Kimbrough

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

While economists recognize the important role of formal institutions in the promotion of trade, there is increasing agreement that institutions are typically endogenous to culture, making it difficult to disentangle their separate contributions. Lab experiments that assign institutions exogenously and measure and control individual cultural characteristics can allow for clean identification of the effects of institutions, conditional on culture, and help us understand the relationship between behavior and culture, under a given institutional framework. We focus on cultural tendencies toward individualism/collectivism, which social psychologists highlight as an important determinant of many behavioral differences across groups and people. We design an …

The Power And Pathologies Of Language: How Human Rights Messaging Can Also Affect Support For Violent Non-State Actors, Alexandra Haines, Michele Leiby, Matthew Krain

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Are framing strategies that are effective at encouraging pro-social behavior such as participation in human rights campaigns also effective at mobilizing support for “anti-social” and violent causes? Using an experimental research design, we seek to understand under what conditions individuals will express support for retributive violent action.

We hypothesize that a personal story of victimization, wherein the humanity and vulnerability of the victim and the intensity of the violence suffered are described in vivid detail, will be necessary and sufficient to cause the audience to express support for the victim’s subsequent participation in organized, retaliatory violence. We expect that personal …

The Mars Desert Research Station - Erau Crew 160 Expedition, Lycourgos Manolopoulos, Ashley Hollis-Bussey, Hiroki Sugimoto, Cassandra Vella, John Herman, Marc Carofano

Student Works

The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is a research program which is owned and operated by the Mars Society. The MDRS is located in Hanksville, Utah which hosts simulations that are typically two weeks long for professional scientists and engineers as well as college students of all levels, in training for human operations specifically on Mars. This space analog facility is in isolation, allowing for rigorous field studies regarding research that represents a true mission as if the crew members are conducting a real expedition on Mars. Participants are assigned specific roles and tasks that are typically aligned with their …

Benefits And Challenges Of Multidisciplinary Project Teams: "Lessons Learned" For Researchers And Practitioners, Haydee M. Cuevas, Cheryl A. Bolstad, Robert Oberbreckling, Noelle Lavoie, Diane Kuhl Mitchell, James Fielder, Peter W. Foltz

Haydee M. Cuevas

Adopting a multidisciplinary research approach would enable test and evaluation professionals to more effective!y investigate the complex human performance problems faced in today's technologically advanced operational domains. To illustrate the utility of this approach, we present "lessons learned" based on our experiences as a multi-agency, multidisciplinary team collaborating on an Army research project involving a dynamic military command and control simulation. Our goal with these lessons learned is to provide guidance to researchers and practitioners alike concerning the benefits and challenges of such collaboration. Our project team's diverse members, drawn from both industry and government organizations, offer their multiple p …

Socially-Mediated Internet Surveys (Smis): Recruiting Participants For Online Experiments, Erin C. Cassese, Leonie Huddy, Todd K. Hartman, Lilliana Mason, Christopher R. Weber

Todd K. Hartman

Socially-Mediated Internet Surveys (SMIS) is a new method to obtain web-based, adult samples for experimental political science research. SMIS targets central figures in online social networks to help recruit participants, who visit their websites. We present data from six samples collected using the SMIS method and compare them to those gathered by other sampling approaches such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. While not representative of the general adult population, our SMIS samples are significantly more diverse than undergraduate convenience samples, not just demographically but also politically. Moreover, we also discuss how the SMIS approach can be used to target special subpopulations …

Benefits And Challenges Of Multidisciplinary Project Teams: "Lessons Learned" For Researchers And Practitioners, Haydee M. Cuevas, Cheryl A. Bolstad, Robert Oberbreckling, Noelle Lavoie, Diane Kuhl Mitchell, James Fielder, Peter W. Foltz

Publications

Adopting a multidisciplinary research approach would enable test and evaluation professionals to more effective!y investigate the complex human performance problems faced in today's technologically advanced operational domains. To illustrate the utility of this approach, we present "lessons learned" based on our experiences as a multi-agency, multidisciplinary team collaborating on an Army research project involving a dynamic military command and control simulation. Our goal with these lessons learned is to provide guidance to researchers and practitioners alike concerning the benefits and challenges of such collaboration. Our project team's diverse members, drawn from both industry and government organizations, offer their multiple p …

Principles Of Design For Complex Displays: A Comparative Evaluation, Sharolyn Ann Converse

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined the main and interactive effects of information format, information density, principle of information grouping, orientation of the airspeed scale, and task type on response time (RT) and accuracy in a decision making task. Forty-eight college students viewed static displays of primary flight instruments and signaled responses to the displays by pressing keys on the computer keyboard. Three levels of task type were employed. In the current state estimation task, subjects were required to determine whether each individual instrument reading was within prespecified limits. In the future state estimation task, subjects were required to attend to the …

Rational-Emotive Therapy And Progressive Relaxation In The Reduction Of Trait Anxiety Of College Undergraduate Students Who Enroll In Anxiety Reduction Workshops, Thomas Arthur Walsh

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET), Progressive Relaxation (PR), Attention Placebo (AP), and a no-treatment group in reducing levels of trait anxiety in undergraduate students who participated in anxiety reduction workshops. The subjects in this study were fifty-one volunteer male and female undergraduate students from the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, who chose to participate in a seven session anxiety reduction workshop. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups. The Attention Placebo procedure consisted of a discussion of learning styles, and the effects that the learning …

The Effect Of Prenatal Administration Of Amphetamine Upon The Cognitive-Intellectual Functioning Of The Offspring At Adulthood, Theodore Cole

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The effect of prenatal administration of amphetamine upon the offspring’s cognitive-intellectual functioning at adult levels was investigated. Three groups of Max hooded rats were used, each composed of seven females and twelve males. One group was subjected to prenatal injections of amphetamine, one group received injections of saline, and the final group received no treatment. After the subjects reached adulthood they were presented with a series of complex mazes, and the dependent variable was the number of errors committed during the series. The data were analyzed by an analysis of variance of a 3 x 2 factorial design. The results …

Memory For Crossed And Nested Classifications, John Ernest Garwood

Dissertations and Theses

Memory for crossed and nested classifications was investigated. Two experimental groups were exposed to stimuli which could be organized by both a crossed and nested classification. The stimuli consisted of nine drawings in a 3 x 3 matrix. Each drawing is characterized by attributes on five dimensions. The nested classification requires four dimensions to organize the nine drawings, while the crossed classification requires two dimensions. Of the five dimensions, three are unique to the nested classification, one is unique to the crossed classification, and one is common to both classifications. Subjects were presented the stimuli so that either the crossed …

The Effects Of A Sympathiomimetric Stressor On The Protestant Ethic Effect In Rats, Peter Mirabelle

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In an experiment which investigated the effects of stress on the Protestant Ethic Effect (PEE) 12 Wistar rats were trained for 20 days to barpress for their total water intake. Following training the rats were divided into two groups and were allowed to choose between barpressing for a 10% sucrose solution and consuming a freely available sucrose solution under either stress or nonstress conditions. Stress was defined as a .01 cc per 36g body weight injection of norepinephrine. The stress and nonstress conditions were counterbalanced during the choice session. Regardless of stress order both groups preferred the free over the …

The Effects Of A Drug-Induced Stress On The Contrafreeloading Phenomenon In Rats, Jeanne Bennett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if stress, induced by intraperitoneal (IP) injections of epinephrine, influenced rats' preference to freeload (drink sucrose solution from a drinking tube) or to work for a liquid reinforcer (obtain sucrose solution by barpressing). Furthermore, the order in which stress was introduced was investigated.

Following two weeks of water deprivation, 6 female and 6 male Hooded rats approximately 90 days old were divided into two experimental groups. The first group (S-N) was stressed the first and second experimental testing days in which a choice was presented between barpressing and freeloading for a 10% …