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Articles 1 - 30 of 211

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Academic Cheating And Stressors At The University Level, Samuel Borge Jan 2024

Academic Cheating And Stressors At The University Level, Samuel Borge

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine why academic cheating occurs. Prior studies have investigated students’ reasons for their academic cheating, and this study aimed to further this research by trying to determine variables that might influence the behavior. A total of 56 Assumption University undergraduate students participated. Self-report measures included the Survey on Academic Dishonesty (SAD) (McCabe & Trevino, 1997), the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983), and a measure of self-control (Tangney et al., 2004). In addition, a novel probability discounting task was created as a second measure of academic cheating. This task assessed participants’ likelihood …

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Telling A Story Through Posters: A Comparison Of Nazi And Soviet Propaganda Posters During World War Ii, Kolbe Bell Jan 2024

Telling A Story Through Posters: A Comparison Of Nazi And Soviet Propaganda Posters During World War Ii, Kolbe Bell

Honors Theses

The time around World War II saw an increase of countries using propaganda to spread their message, the result of which can be seen even today with modern advertising. During the war these countries had to convince their populations to support their militaries in both victories and defeats. Despite the differences between the fascism in Nazi Germany and the communism in the Soviet Union, many of these propaganda posters have some overarching similarities that can be connected. Some of which can be seen in their depictions of the enemy and with their call back to nationalism. To gain a better …

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Exploring The Complexities Of Latino Immigration To The United States: "I'M So Much Smarter In Spanish.", Michael Santana Jan 2024

Exploring The Complexities Of Latino Immigration To The United States: "I'M So Much Smarter In Spanish.", Michael Santana

Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis is to first provide a greater understanding of the barriers Latino immigrants face in the United States and whether these barriers differ based on factors such as biological sex, age, education and employment statuses, country of origin, and length of residency in the United States. Second, this thesis will highlight Latino immigrants’ resiliency and how they attempt to overcome these barriers in hopes of achieving success and well-being. Third, this thesis will discuss what types of assistance, if any, Latino immigrants have found most helpful in contributing to those areas of success and well-being they …

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The Factors Affecting Racial Disparities In The Juvenile Justice System, Julia Martin Jan 2023

The Factors Affecting Racial Disparities In The Juvenile Justice System, Julia Martin

Honors Theses

The neglect of the best interests of minority youth is a problem running rampant in the United States juvenile justice system. In order to address this problem, the factors influencing why racial disparities exist within the juvenile justice system must be known, so that they can eventually be diminished. This thesis will first evaluate prior research on the factors influencing such racial disparities. Once previously discovered factors have been identified and discussed, additional research will be conducted to examine what attempts are currently being made in jurisdictions throughout the country to reduce the influence of these factors in how youth …

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Marketing Through Microcultures On Social Media: An Examination Of Booktok And Independent Bookstores, Wandzia Prytko Jan 2023

Marketing Through Microcultures On Social Media: An Examination Of Booktok And Independent Bookstores, Wandzia Prytko

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the role of microcultures in social media marketing, by focusing on the BookTok microculture and its significant role in the marketing strategies of independent bookstores. The research includes an examination of microcultures and their impact on businesses, the effectiveness of the key social media marketing tactics used on TikTok, what BookTok is, how independent bookstores engage with BookTok, and an interview with an independent bookstore on their uses of BookTok.

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Justice In The American Legal System: Challenges To The Confrontation Clause In Criminal Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Kelsey Savoy Jan 2023

Justice In The American Legal System: Challenges To The Confrontation Clause In Criminal Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Kelsey Savoy

Honors Theses

The following thesis will look at the original intent of the Founders when the Sixth Amendment was written. It will then examine the challenges presented to justice both substantively and procedurally in cases of criminal child sexual abuse specifically, including the challenges faced by victims forced to testify during trial long after the trial is over. After establishing these challenges, this thesis will then examine legal precedent set by the courts that illustrates how exceptions have been made to traditional courtroom procedures over time, such as exceptions to the hearsay rule and in-person testimony on the witness stand, to allow …

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Implicit Racial Bias In Healthcare: A Concept Analysis And Call To Action, Rachel Ferguson Jan 2023

Implicit Racial Bias In Healthcare: A Concept Analysis And Call To Action, Rachel Ferguson

Honors Theses

For students pursuing a nursing degree, exposure to implicit bias during their educational program is as concerning as the lack of training to acknowledge and conquer the development of implicit bias. Both facets can root negative attitudes and behaviors in the student nurse that will be carried into their practice throughout the healthcare system. It is a professional obligation for the registered nurse to be aware of implicit bias and understand its strong connection to increased risk of mortality, health complications, and other adverse health outcomes, especially in racial minority patient populations (Maina et al., 2018). This thesis contains a …

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The Effect Of Gratitude And Compassion On Persuasion Processing, Patrick Otto Jan 2023

The Effect Of Gratitude And Compassion On Persuasion Processing, Patrick Otto

Honors Theses

The present study investigated the relationship between two positive emotions (gratitude and compassion) and persuasion susceptibility. Participants were randomly assigned to be induced to feel gratitude or compassion and read either strong or weak arguments. Participants then rated how favorable they found the arguments. We hypothesized that participants feeling gratitude would be more easily persuaded than those feeling compassion, particularly in the weak argument condition. The hypotheses were not supported. In the strong argument condition, the gratitude and compassion groups were equally persuaded. In the weak argument condition, the compassion group was more persuaded than the gratitude group, though not …

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The R.I.C.O. Act: America's Approach Against The Mafia And Corporate Crime, Andrew Brooks Jan 2023

The R.I.C.O. Act: America's Approach Against The Mafia And Corporate Crime, Andrew Brooks

Honors Theses

A full explanation of how the federal government has made provisions to take down the Mafia that can and have been used against corporate crime through something known as the R.I.C.O. Act of 1970, and how the courts have failed to interpret the laws that were developed with the intent to neutralize both crime syndicates and corporate crimes.

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Quality Of School-Based Mental Health Services And Student Well-Being, Angelina Davis Jan 2023

Quality Of School-Based Mental Health Services And Student Well-Being, Angelina Davis

Honors Theses

Schools are essential in providing both students who struggle with mental health problems as well as the overall student population with services that improve well-being. Previous research has shown that, among other factors, the involvement of caregivers is important for the effectiveness of such programs, thus improving their quality. However, there is little evidence about the relationship between the quality of these mental health services and student well-being. This study aimed to fill this gap in literature. It was predicted that high quality mental health services and high caregiver involvement would be associated with increased student well-being, as indicated by …

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Elevating Our Voices: An Exploration And Demonstration Of Modern Feminist Poetry, Kelly Knutelski Jan 2023

Elevating Our Voices: An Exploration And Demonstration Of Modern Feminist Poetry, Kelly Knutelski

Honors Theses

This paper is formatted with several pages of background information on two poets, Rupi Kaur and Kim Addonizio, who have greatly contributed to modern feminist poetry within the past decade or two. This background will serve as a supportive feature for my portfolio, the main goal of this experience. The themes of Addonizio and Kaur and their poetic techniques inspire my collection of unique poetry. These poems represent the ups and many downs already lived by a twenty-two-year-old woman just trying to find her place in this beautiful, yet dark and twisted world.

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Defensio Reipublicae, Joseph Vanacore Jan 2023

Defensio Reipublicae, Joseph Vanacore

Honors Theses

In my thesis idea of Defensio Reipublicae I intend to analyze the founding of the American republic, while also briefly touching upon the history of republicanism in the Roman republic, in order to formulate a defense in support of republicanism. By looking at sources of the foundation of the United States, as well as political philosophy, I plan to lay out why republicanism—as a form of governance—is a prime choice for the self-governance of human societies. Sources such as the Federalist Papers, scholarly articles, political philosophers like Montesquieu, Locke, and Machiavelli, in addition to the expertise of my advisor, President …

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Mediators Between Adversity And Well-Being Of College Students, Maria Kalpidou, Adam M. Volungis, Cassandra Bates Jan 2022

Mediators Between Adversity And Well-Being Of College Students, Maria Kalpidou, Adam M. Volungis, Cassandra Bates

Psychology Department Faculty Works

Although the concurrent link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and both physical and mental health is established, little is known about the mechanisms that explain it. We investigated the relationship between ACEs and well-being and the mediating roles of coping, executive function (EF), and cognitive failure in a non-clinical sample of college students. Participants (N = 194) completed behavioral measures and self-reports. More than half of the sample had at least one ACE. Correlational and mediational analyses examined the relationships between ACEs, college adaptation, psychopathology, substance use, coping, and cognitive failure. ACEs did not correlate with indices of EF …

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Hitting It Out Of The Park: How Major League Baseball Changed The Game By Not Changing Anything At All, Kyle Sorgi Jan 2022

Hitting It Out Of The Park: How Major League Baseball Changed The Game By Not Changing Anything At All, Kyle Sorgi

Honors Theses

In this paper, I will examine the integration of baseball into American culture and statistics’ involvement in that process. This paper will paint a clear picture of the emergence and acceptance of analytics in baseball through a gradual transformation of the style of play spanning the past few decades in the form of increased strikeouts, homeruns, and extra-base hits. Furthermore, this paper will explore the polarizing implications of analytical baseball on and off the field. One of the main questions that this paper will explore is whether or not MLB can go too far with its statistic-minded initiative (if it …

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The Leaky Pipeline Of Women In Stem, Lauren Jakobs Jan 2022

The Leaky Pipeline Of Women In Stem, Lauren Jakobs

Honors Theses

Women make up more than half of biology-related doctoral degrees yet are still underrepresented in the faculty and higher-level positions of this field. This disparity is referred to as the leaky pipeline problem and exists in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field. The goal of the research paper is to bring the leaky pipeline problem to the forefront and analyze solutions that can address it. This thesis will address the impacts of gender biases that people experience through childhood, adolescence, and high school into college and contribute to the lower retention of women in science. It will also …

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Exploration Of The Experiences And Perceptions Of Club Athletes Using Mindfulness And Meditation Techniques During Their Basketball Season, Brigett Fithian-Giantonio Jan 2022

Exploration Of The Experiences And Perceptions Of Club Athletes Using Mindfulness And Meditation Techniques During Their Basketball Season, Brigett Fithian-Giantonio

Honors Theses

Literature reveals that there is a direct effect of mindfulness and meditation on athletes at various levels in their career. The present study aims to explore the experience and perceptions of mindfulness and meditation on female collegiate club basketball players. A sample of 8 undergraduates at Assumption University completed daily guided mindfulness and meditation sessions via the Smiling Mind application. Simultaneously, they wrote journal entries expressing their thoughts. Participants were interviewed at the conclusion of the study. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data from the interviews and the journal entries finding two major themes, (1) mindful expressions and …

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Preventing The Collapse: A Study Of Civilizational Decline, Martin Mcmahon Jan 2022

Preventing The Collapse: A Study Of Civilizational Decline, Martin Mcmahon

Honors Theses

To explore the meaning of the term "civilization," the significance and nature of civilizational decline, and the possible means of reversing such declines, it is worthwhile to consult some of the most exhaustive and renowned works on the subject—namely, Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History and Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West. It will also be useful to consider other works by Samuel Huntington, Adda Bozeman, Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Jefferson, and Şükrü Yazğan. Each thinker’s examination of the term "civilization," the topic of civilizational decline, and the question of recovery varies, but the overlap and disagreement between them …

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The Relationship Between Trait Mindfulness And Memory Performance, Kyra Belden Jan 2022

The Relationship Between Trait Mindfulness And Memory Performance, Kyra Belden

Honors Theses

Previous research has found a link between trait mindfulness and various aspects of wellbeing and cognition. Further, research on state mindfulness has found it to relate to performance on a memory task designed to examine eyewitness susceptibility. In the present study, I sought to expand on these findings by examining whether levels of trait mindfulness would also predict how susceptible individuals’ memories are to external suggestion. Seventy-three participants studied six common household scenes, and then rated the pleasantness of items they were told were recalled by another participant. These items included six suggested items not present in the scenes. After …

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Ptsd And Ipv: Pre- And Post- 9/11 War Veterans' Risks For Perpetrating Violence, Alison Joanis Jan 2021

Ptsd And Ipv: Pre- And Post- 9/11 War Veterans' Risks For Perpetrating Violence, Alison Joanis

Honors Theses

Throughout this thesis, past research will be outlined regarding the relationship between PTSD and IPV among war veterans. This research will display why people with PTSD from war are more likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence than are civilians. Then, I will present more evidence as to why veterans post-9/11 veterans may be more likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence than pre-9/11 veterans. Post-9/11 veterans are less likely to get help for their mental health problems, leading them to face a host of life difficulties including disconnectedness from family and friends, unemployment, and substance abuse problems, all of which are …

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Psychological Factors And Consumer Behavior During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Adolfo Di Crosta, Irene Ceccato, Daniela Marchetti, Pasquale La Malva, Roberta Maiella, Loreta Cannito, Mario Cipi, Nicola Mammarella, Riccardo Palumbo, Maria Cristina Verrocchio, Rocco Palumbo, Alberto Di Domenico Jan 2021

Psychological Factors And Consumer Behavior During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Adolfo Di Crosta, Irene Ceccato, Daniela Marchetti, Pasquale La Malva, Roberta Maiella, Loreta Cannito, Mario Cipi, Nicola Mammarella, Riccardo Palumbo, Maria Cristina Verrocchio, Rocco Palumbo, Alberto Di Domenico

Management, Marketing, and Organizational Communication Department Student Works

The COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a health crisis: it has unpredictably changed our whole way of life. As suggested by the analysis of economic data on sales, this dramatic scenario has also heavily impacted individuals’ spending levels. To better understand these changes, the present study focused on consumer behavior and its psychological antecedents. Previous studies found that crises differently affect people’s willingness to buy necessities products (i.e., utilitarian shopping) and non-necessities products (i.e., hedonic shopping). Therefore, in examining whether changes in spending levels were associated with changes in consumer behavior, we adopted a fine-grained approach disentangling between necessities …

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The Long Reach Of Peer Influence On Emerging Adults' Sexual Activity, Angela M. Kaufman-Parks, Monica A. Longmore, Wendy D. Manning, Peggy C. Giordano Jan 2021

The Long Reach Of Peer Influence On Emerging Adults' Sexual Activity, Angela M. Kaufman-Parks, Monica A. Longmore, Wendy D. Manning, Peggy C. Giordano

Sociology and Criminology Department Faculty Works

Researchers, parents, and adolescents recognize that peers are central to adolescent development (e.g., Waldrip, Malcolm, & Jensen-Campbell, 2008) and often influence sexual activity (e.g., Dishion, Ha, & Veronneau, 2012). Yet, despite this abundance of evidence, several questions remain. First, most research has explored the influence of peers during adolescence in predicting sexual behaviors. Much less has examined whether and to what extent peers affect emerging adults' sexual behaviors both long term and contemporaneously (see Chapter 9, this volume). Second, of that research which does include an examination of peer influence on sexual activity among emerging adults, the issue of whether …

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Urban Neoliberal Debt Peonage: Prisoner Reentry, Work, And The New Jim Crow, Francis B. Prior Jan 2021

Urban Neoliberal Debt Peonage: Prisoner Reentry, Work, And The New Jim Crow, Francis B. Prior

Sociology and Criminology Department Faculty Works

In this study, I analyze the experiences of people leaving prison and jail, using the concept of urban neoliberal debt peonage. I define urban neoliberal debt peonage as the push of race-class subjugated (RCS) formerly incarcerated people into the low-wage labor market. I argue that urban neoliberal debt peonage is a social process of economic extraction from and racial control of RCS groups structured by state bureaucracies and corporate employers. I provide evidence for this argument using participant observation and interview methods in a large northeastern U.S. city at an employment-oriented prisoner reentry organization that I call “Afterward.” People came …

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Struggling To Make Good: The Dilemmas Of Fatherhood For Formerly Incarcerated African American Men, Francis B. Prior, Steven Farough Jan 2021

Struggling To Make Good: The Dilemmas Of Fatherhood For Formerly Incarcerated African American Men, Francis B. Prior, Steven Farough

Sociology and Criminology Department Faculty Works

While some have argued that absent low socioeconomic status black fathers are to blame for urban crime and poverty, others have highlighted how mass incarceration disproportionately separates low socioeconomic status black fathers from their children. Less frequently heard and acknowledged in the public conversations about low socioeconomic status black fatherhood and mass incarceration are the voices of those same fathers who have been impacted by the system. How do formerly incarcerated black fathers view their role as fathers? Based on 30 interviews of formerly incarcerated black men recruited from a prisoner reentry organization in a large northeastern city in the …

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Labor And Social Reproduction, Smriti Rao Jan 2021

Labor And Social Reproduction, Smriti Rao

Economics, Finance and International Business Department Faculty Works

This essay discusses the importance of embedding the concept of social reproduction within critical agrarian studies. I begin by reviewing the debate over the definition of social reproduction and then discuss what we know about the possible specificities of social reproduction in agrarian societies of the global South. I make the argument that societal transformations in the contemporary agrarian South can be usefully understood as the unfolding of the dynamics of social reproduction. If that is the case, a successful politics would have to take those dynamics into account.

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Work And Social Reproduction In Rural India: Lessons From Time-Use Data, Smriti Rao, Smita Ramnarain, Sirisha Naidu, Anupama Uppal, Avanti Mukherjee Jan 2021

Work And Social Reproduction In Rural India: Lessons From Time-Use Data, Smriti Rao, Smita Ramnarain, Sirisha Naidu, Anupama Uppal, Avanti Mukherjee

Economics, Finance and International Business Department Faculty Works

Even as the literature on work in the Global South acknowledges the importance of forms of non-waged work, it has not sufficiently incorporated consideration of the labor of social reproduction. We propose understanding work through four conceptual dyads: waged productive labor, non-waged productive labor, waged reproductive labor, and non-waged reproductive labor. Through an in-depth description of three specific cases from a Time Use Survey we conducted in rural Punjab, India, we argue not only that all four dyads are required to encompass the world of work, but that this more expansive conceptualization can help us produce richer analyses of the …

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How (Not) To Count Indian Women's Work: Gendered Analyses And The Periodic Labour Force Survey, Smriti Rao Jan 2021

How (Not) To Count Indian Women's Work: Gendered Analyses And The Periodic Labour Force Survey, Smriti Rao

Economics, Finance and International Business Department Faculty Works

Unit-level Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data have been helpful in depicting the intensity of the employment crisis in India even before the Covid-19 related economic collapse. However, from the perspective of effective gendered analyses of the economy, the PLFS has failed to improve upon the old Employment–Unemployment Survey (EUS), and in one way has taken a step back, making it more difficult to understand the range and extent of women’s economic activities. It is past time that the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) adopted the now well-established recommendations of feminist economists, and reformed its data definition and data collection …

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Practical Considerations For Researchers At Teaching-Focused Colleges, Cody Morris, Karen M. Lionello-Denolf Jan 2021

Practical Considerations For Researchers At Teaching-Focused Colleges, Cody Morris, Karen M. Lionello-Denolf

Psychology Department Faculty Works

Growth in the discipline of behavior analysis depends on research production in basic, translational, and applied areas from a variety of perspectives and research groups. Although doctoral programs in behavior analysis prepare students to become productive researchers, leading behavior-analytic journals tend to publish articles from a more circumscribed set of researchers than might be expected given the recent growth in the field. One reason may be that as new researchers graduate from their training programs, they take positions in very different environments from those of their training, such as teaching-focused colleges or clinical settings. Establishing and maintaining research production in …

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Expansion Of Sidman's Theory: The Inclusion Of Prompt Stimuli In Equivalence Classes, Simone K. Palmer, R. W. Maguire, Karen M. Lionello-Denolf, Paula Braga-Kenyon Jan 2021

Expansion Of Sidman's Theory: The Inclusion Of Prompt Stimuli In Equivalence Classes, Simone K. Palmer, R. W. Maguire, Karen M. Lionello-Denolf, Paula Braga-Kenyon

Psychology Department Faculty Works

Stimulus equivalence is defined as the ability to relate stimuli in novel ways after training in which not all of the stimuli had been directly linked to one another. Sidman (2000) suggested all elements of conditional discrimination training contingencies that result in equivalence potentially become class members. Research has demonstrated the inclusion of samples, comparisons, responses, and reinforcers in equivalence classes. Given the evidence that all elements of a conditional discrimination become part of the class, the purpose of this study was to determine if class-specific prompts would also enter into their relevant equivalence classes. Experiment 1 investigated the inclusion …

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Social Desirability And The Celebrity Attitude Scale, Robert T. Hitlan, Lynn E. Mccutcheon, Adam M. Volungis, Anupama Joshi, C. Brendan Clark, Marta Pena Jan 2021

Social Desirability And The Celebrity Attitude Scale, Robert T. Hitlan, Lynn E. Mccutcheon, Adam M. Volungis, Anupama Joshi, C. Brendan Clark, Marta Pena

Psychology Department Faculty Works

The possibility of social desirability bias has often been neglected in the construction and evaluation of attitudinal scales and personality inventories in psychology and related disciplines. The present study aimed to explore the potential influence of such biases on respondents’ self-reported celebrity worship. Specifically, we had a student sample (n = 187) complete a) measures of two different forms of social desirability bias (externally-oriented “Impression management” vs. internally-oriented “self-deceptive positivity”) and b) the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS). Results showed that neither measure correlated significantly with the CAS. Furthermore, neither gender nor delivery mode (online vs. paper-and-pencil) mediated the non-significant …

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An Update On The Search For Symmetry In Nonhumans, Karen M. Lionello-Denolf Jan 2021

An Update On The Search For Symmetry In Nonhumans, Karen M. Lionello-Denolf

Psychology Department Faculty Works

Sidman et al.'s (1982) failure to find evidence for symmetry (bidirectional associations between stimuli) in monkeys and baboons set the stage for decades of work on emergent relations in nonhumans. They attributed the failure to the use of procedures that did not (1) promote stimulus control based on the relation between the sample and correct comparison and (2) reduce control by irrelevant stimulus features. Previous reviews of symmetry in nonhumans indicated that multiple exemplar training and successive matching might encourage appropriate stimulus control. This review examined 16 studies that investigated symmetry in 94 subjects, including pigeons, rats, capuchin monkeys, and …

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