Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Teaching Of Concrete Thinking Strategies To Five-Year-Old Children And Its Effect On Performance On The Bender-Gestalt Test, Ronald C. Bennett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to examine the effect teaching five and one-half to six-year-old children analytical and conceptual thinking strategies would have on their subsequent performance on the Bender-Gestalt Test. The sample was composed of 34 kindergarten children in this age range from the Providence Elementary School. They were randomly divided into two groups of equal size; one group was then given three 10-minute training sessions over three days which were designed to teach them analytical and conceptual thinking strategies. The other group was also given three 10-minute sessions with the investigator; however, they were only involved in looking at …

The Effect Of Freshman And Sophomore College Students' Impressions Of Counseling On Awareness And Use Of The Utah State University Counseling Center, William Richard Wood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to provide information about: (1) Utah State University students' impressions of counseling, (2) the sources of these impressions, (3) students' awareness of the University Counseling Center, and (4) the effect of the foregoing factors on student use of the counseling facilities.

The sample consisted of a group of 107 freshmen and 43 sophomores randomly selected from the general psychology courses at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Student information was obtained by a questionnaire and students' impressions of counseling were assessed by a semantic differential. The data were analyzed by t-test, chi-square and analysis of variance.

The …

An Evaluation Of The Collegiate Experience Of The Usu Student, Mark G. Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The American College Testing Program's Institutional Self-Study Survey was used in this study to consider USU students' goals, achievements, and evaluations of their collegiate experience. Goals included were students' educational majors, vocational plans, final college degree sought, and the relative importance attached to attaining Vocational, Academic, Social, and Non-Conventional goals. Achievements studied were both intellectual and nonacademic out-of-class accomplishments, and students' perceived progress in achieving Intellectual-Humanistic, Group-Welfare, Scientific-Independent, and Practical-status outcomes of their collegiate experience. Student evaluations of instructors, college services, selected policies, practices, facilities, and required courses were also studied. National normative data were compared with USU data in …

Mmpi Characteristics Of Students Showing Conduct Infractions At Utah State University, Carl S. Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A study of the personality characteristic as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic personality Inventory (MMPI) was made of an experimental group of students brought before the Standards Committee at Utah State University for infractions against the school's code of conduct. It was then compared with personality characteristics of a control group representing the remaining student body.

The result was no significant difference between the two groups on any of the MMPI scales.

After checking the activities of the two groups, it was found that the experimental group was lower in grade point average than the general student body, but this …

"Natural Counselors": An Assessment Of Their Facilitative Abilities, George Louis Lindenfeld

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Statement of the problem
Within each community there exist individuals who, although untrained in the techniques of therapeutic psychology, are able to facilitate positive growth experiences among their acquaintances. Although research concerning the "natural counselor" is sparse, current focus on the potential contributions of lay personnel is a closely related area. The problem, then, with which this study is concerned, is the present lack of knowledge regarding those individuals who may be classified as "natural counselors."

Objective
The objective of this study was to assess one aspect of the alternative sources of aid that are available to those individuals who …

Measurement Of The Perceptual Rotation Of Visual Stimuli, Floyd W. Stettler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Apparatus for study of the phenomenon of rotation consisted of two rotating turntables constructed to receive disks for presenting varied visual stimuli. Turntables were graduated into 360 degrees for measurement of angular discrepancy in the task of visually matching rotational positions. Subjects from ages four through eleven attempted to match six compass positions for each of three designs--a boxlike house, a straight line, and Bender-Gestalt Figure No. 3.

Errors of rotation were classed as either transpositional or nontranspositional, Transpositional error, involving reversal or mirroring of the directional aspect of the designs, largely disappeared by age six. Non-transpositional error declined rapidly …

The Effects Of Cholinergic And Adrenergic Chemicals On Drinking Behavior (Thirst), G. Ron Norton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because of inconsistencies in the research literature following Grossman's (1960) demonstration that drinking behavior (thirst) could be modulated by intrahypothalamic injections of adrenergic and cholinergic chemicals, a series of studies were undertaken to clarify the relation between introducing chemicals into the brain and drinking behaviors.

The first study attempted to determine the effect of water deprivation on post-deprivation drink sequencing. It has been demonstrated that 75% - 90% of the water consumed by normal rats is taken during the evening hours (Fitzsimmons, 1957; Stellar & Hill, 1952). Grossman's (1960; 1962a) studies failed to consider normal drinking rhythms and consequently modulated …

The Use Of Defensiveness As A Covariate Of Self-Report In The Assessment Of Self-Concept Among Navajo Adolescents, Bruce Leon Arneklev

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The study investigated the relationship between defensiveness scores and self-report scores as they interrelate in the assessment of self-concept and its change. Data were analyzed to determine if self-report scores adjusted by regression for defensiveness would be more congruent with a criterion measure than unadjusted scores.

A secondary problem was to evaluate the extent to which the self criticism scale on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) and the self-report vs. objective rating discrepancy method would identify the same individuals as defensive.

Samples were drawn from a population of adolescent Navajo boarding school students. A treatment sample participated in an …

A Comparison Of Choice And Forced Alcohol Consumption And Alcohol Dehydrogenase Activity, David Bertsch Gray

Masters Theses

Earlier studies using both mice and rats have revealed a significant, positive correlation between preference of alcohol concentration and activity of the liver enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase. In this study two groups of Sprague- Dawley rats, matched for sex, were presented alcohol by either a choice or forced condition for three twelve day periods in a choice-forced-choice or forced-choice-forced sequence. Data were recorded as the amount of alcohol - consumed under each consumption condition. After the rats were sacrificed, their livers were removed and assays were made for the alcohol dehydrogenase activity. While several correlations between consumption and alcohol dehydrogenase activity …

The Effectiveness Of Teacher Attention As A Reinforcer In The Conditioning And Extinction Of Classroom Behaviors Of Delinquent Girls, Mary Fulcher Geis

Master's Theses

The present study was designed to assess the effectiveness of a combination of teacher approval for appropriate behavior and teacher ignoring of inappropriate behavior in modifying the classroom behavior of institutionalized juvenile delinquents.In a classroom at a residential facility for female juvenile offenders, baseline recordings of student and teacher behaviors were collected. After baseline, the teacher introduced three rules specifying appropriate student behavior. Next , in a multiple baseline procedure, the teacher approved of the students' appropriate interrupting and ignored their inappropriate interrupting; later, she also approved of the students not engaging in inappropriate talking and ignored their inappropriate talking.The …

Some Relationships Among Intelligence, Empathy And Leadership Attributes, Franklyn W. Jackson

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Alcohol On Timing Behavior In The Pigeon, Robert J. Boyd

All Master's Theses

Although no one knows how alcohol affects an animal's perception or why it does not appear to affect his retention of time, this study, analyzing the IRTs that were between 10 and 40 seconds, supports the conclusions of previous studies and indicates that the effect of alcohol is much the same for pigeons as it is for rats.

Electrophysiological Correlates Of The Basolateral And Corticomedial Amygdaloid Divisions Associated With Biting-Behavior, Jon F. Defrance

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Inequitable Payment Upon Selected Task-Related Cognitions, Robert Dennis Moulton

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of Information Feedback On The Conformity Behavior Of Children, John Jay Wicks

Student Work

This paper summarizes a developmental study concerning the effects of correctness feedback on the conformity behavior of children. Specifically, the study proposes to test the following assumption: (1) that conformity is a positive function of age on ambiguous stimulus tasks and (2) that the effectiveness of correctness feedback is greater for older than younger Ss. To test these assumptions, the Ss were divided, at each grade level, into three groups: (1) a reward conformity group where the Ss received a "correct” signal for agreeing with the group and a "wrong" signal for disagreeing, (2) a reward nonconformity group where Ss …

Interference Effects In Recognition Memory For Visual Forms., David M. Del Castillo

Psychology ETDs

Recent research has shown that attaching relevant or descriptive verbal labels to form stimuli facilitates recognition of these forms when compared to control groups which either had no labels for the forms, or which had irrelevant, nondescriptive labels for the forms. One account of this facilitating effect asserts that relevant verbal labels aid S in relating the forms to familiar concepts. If a particular form is a positive instance of a given concept, S can encode the forms in terms of his experience with the concept. A second account of the facilitating effects of relevant verbal labels on recognition memory …

Effects Of Pre-Exposure On Perceptual Curiosity For Stimulus Similarity And Novelty., Mohammed Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman

Psychology ETDs

The present study was concerned with the analysis of the limita­tions of the existing approaches to curiosity behavior, and the proposal of a new formulation. The basic assumption was that novel information in a stimulus arouses a "drive to organize" or process the information, and that such a drive continues to operate until an adequate amount of information has been processed. It was also assumed that the interruption of this drive process leads to a continued state of motivation to resolve the information when it becomes available on a subsequent occasion.

Deductions following from these assumptions were translated into two …

Effects Of Four Different Modality Training Programs On Iq And Reading Readiness Performance In The Lower Socio-Economic Level Kindergarten Child, Marilyn Segal

Theses and Dissertations

Four perceptual training programs were incorporated into an individualized kindergarten curriculum for disadvantaged children. One program stressed general auditory and visual perceptual skills, a second auditory skills specific to decoding, a third visual skills specific to decoding, and a fourth auditory and visual skills specific to decoding. Each of the four treatment groups were taught by the same teachers. Post-tests included IQ, auditory and visual measures of reading readiness, and two learning rate tests, the Murphy-Durrell learning rate test which uses a look-say instructional method, and a parallel learning rate test constructed by the investigator using a linguistic instructional approach. …

Accuracy Of Perceived-Other Attitudes Of College Students And Their Parents, Irene Moss Brennan

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

An Experimenter Variable: Subjects' Perception Of The Psychologist-Clergyman In Psychological Testing, John M. Cade

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Interference And Trace Decay In The Retention Of A Simple Psychomotor Task, Stephen David Southall

Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to try to distinguish between the interference theory and trace decay theory and to try to establish whether one or a combination of the two best accounts for the forgetting shown in motor short-term memory (STM). The experiment was a seven by three factorial design with repeated measures on the second factor. The first factor was number of prior responses which the S experienced on the linear slide apparatus, and the number of responses ranged from zero through six. The second factor, length of the retention interval between practice and recall, had values …

Biology, Purpose And Ethics, Conrad H. Waddington

Heinz Werner Lectures

"Dr. Waddington argues that a subjective element is necessarily involved in all science, and that the conventional scientific repudiation of the concept of purpose is unjustified. Using ideas derived from study of the dynamic processes in biological systems, he attempts to throw some light on problems of mind, spirit and ethics."

Effects Of Nurturance On Incidental Imitative Behavior, Ronald Raymond Monti

All Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was twofold. It was hypothesized that a prior nurturant interaction with an adult model (M) would significantly increase incidental imitation in a child subject (S) receiving this positive relationship over Ss who interacted with a non-nurturant M, or Ss who received no interaction with M. Secondly, the length of the experimental nurturant relationship was manipulated in an attempt to determine its importance in obtaining increased imitative behavior.

Use Of The Pals Test To Differentiate Between High Achieving And Low Achieving Fifth Gradestudents: A Validity Study, Mickey H. Parson

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the PALS Tests (Williams, 1958, 1961, 1964) would significantly differentiate between low achieving and hie;h achieving 5th-grade students. The basic design was the same basic design as used by Williams (1961), except that high achieving and low achieving students were used instead of acting-out and normal children. It was intended that this research supplement existing data concerning validity of the PALS Tests. The test author (Williams 1958, 1961, 1964) seems to be the only person who has conducted research regarding the PALS.

The Effects Of Motivation Level And Task Difficulty On Performance On A Vigilance Task, Donald C. Johnston

All Master's Theses

Although many variables affecting vigilance behavior have been identified, there has not been substantial agreement on the importance of these variables as contributors either to performance decrements often found in laboratory research or to performance levels in industrial inspection tasks. Two variables of presumed importance are level of motivation and task difficulty. The purpose of the present experiment was to assess the main and interactive effects of these variables on performance on a task which approximated more closely an industrial inspection task than have the bulk of traditional vigilance studies.

Type Of Instruction, Abstractness, And Mnemonic System, Gordon Wood, Martin Bolt

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Two experiments were conducted to determine if the effect of manipulating imagery instructions and peg list abstractness depends on whether a paired-associate or one-bun technique is used. It appears that the paired-associate and one-bun techniques yield comparable results regarding the effectiveness of imagery instructions and peg list abstractness.

The Curriculum Demonstration Project: How Effective Is It?: A Program In Quincy, Illinois For The Dropout Prone Student, Edward John. Baranowski

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Some Personality Variables In Relation To Problem Solving Processes Of College Students, Ana Maria Insua

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Modification Of A Specific Inappropriate Behavior By Using Visual Feedback, Stephen E. Jones

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The study demonstrated the use of self-observation via video tape as a treatment technique. The specific behavior modified was the inappropriate sitting position of ten mildly and moderately retarded adolescent girls. A repeated measures design with two matched groups was used with the experimental group receiving visual feedback of their behavior and the control group a non related visual presentation. The subjects in both groups were observed individually while participating in dyadic discussions with the experimenter. The dependent variable was the number of seconds the subjects exhibited the inappropriate sitting position per 15 minute discussion period. During the baseline and …

Effects Of Contingent Music On Performance Of Retarded Children In A Two-Choice Discrimination Task, Dieter H. Eberl

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

A 125-item, two-choice discrimination test was given to 14 institutionalized mentally retarded children who were subsequently matched on several relevant variables. After Test I was given, all subjects received a music-preference test, and according to their preference were placed in one of two experimental treatment groups. Experimental Group A received music as reinforcement, and Group B received M & M's. The results indicated that a reliable difference was found between the two groups with the music group showing a highly significant increase in performance over Test I and Group B.