Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Infant Object Recognition: Two- And Three-Dimensional Visual Processing, Alexandra Chelsea Romano

Masters Theses

Visual attention and recognition memory in infancy are highly dependent on the type of stimulus the infant is familiarized to and the conditions of familiarization. For example, in studies that initially exposed infants to test stimuli in laboratory settings (e.g., Courchesne, Ganz, & Norcia, 1981; Reynolds & Richards, 2005), the Negative Central (Nc) event-related potential (ERP) component associated with infant visual attention has shown greater amplitude for novel compared to familiar stimuli. Conversely, when initial stimulus exposure occured outside of the laboratory and the stimulus was highly familiar, studies have shown greater amplitude Nc to familiar compared to novel stimuli …

Keeping Them Close: A Qualitative Examination Of Mothers’ Perceptions, Motivations, And Experiences With Babywearing, Hayley Brooke Moran

Masters Theses

As American mothers’ responsibilities and lifestyles evolve, parents adapt by changing their parenting practices to meet the needs of their families. Many mothers in the U.S. have begun carrying their infants on their bodies, a practice referred to in the U.S. as “babywearing.” The present study is one of the first studies to explore the practice of babywearing in the US and how babywearing intersects with a mother’s relationship with her infant and her family. Although there has been research examining the connection between babywearing and technology (Russell, 2014; Lupton, 2012), the purpose of the present study is to examine …

The Modulating Role Of Motor Action Anticipation In Relation To Visual Attention To A Scene, Rebecca Faith Wiener

Masters Theses

This study investigates how visual attention to a scene is modified when the actor has a reaching goal or not. Thirty-six 7-month-olds were recruited, with 18 in a reaching group and 18 in a non-reaching group. Infants in both groups were presented with objects out of their reaching space until they accumulated approximately six seconds of active looking as measured by an eye-tracker. For the infants in the non-reaching group, the trial ended after the six seconds. For the reaching group, the object was then moved into the infants’ reaching space where they could reach for it. We were interested …

Is Quantitative Ultrasound A Valid Technique For Assessing Bone Quality In Deceased Infants?, Miriam Elizabeth Soto Martinez

Doctoral Dissertations

There is no quantitative method for evaluating infant bone quality that is non-invasive, portable, brief in scan duration, and does not use ionizing radiation. This study investigates the relationship between components of infant bone quality and a measure of quantitative ultrasound (QUS), speed of sound (SOS), to provide insight into the validity of QUS as a diagnostic tool for evaluating infant bone quality. The study sample was comprised of 78 infants between the age of 30 weeks estimated gestational age and 12 postnatal months receiving an autopsy at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences and Texas Children’s Hospital. Bone …

The Effect Of Local Element Density On Processing Of Visual Hierarchical Patterns: An Infant Erp Study, Sara M. Mosteller

Masters Theses

Previous research with infants, children, and adults has shown that global, or configural, information is processed before local, or featural, information in high density visual hierarchical patterns (Freeseman, Colombo, & Coldren, 1993; Ghim & Eimas, 1988; Kimchi, 1988; Navon, 1981; Navon, 1977). The current study used event-related potential to determine if a well documented bias toward global processing in infancy can be disrupted when the number and density of local elements is reduced through increasing the distance between elements. Infant responses were compared between high and low density conditions to global and local novel patterns and to familiar patterns. A …

Electrophysiological Cross-Modality Comparisons Of Infant Individual Differences In Holistic Processing And Selective Inhibition, Matthew Singh

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

5- And 8-Month-Olds’ Visual Exploration Of 2d Scenes: The Relative Impact Of Object Size, Object Detail, And Depth Cue On Infants’ Visual Attention, Yu Guan

Doctoral Dissertations

How infants visually explore complex scenes containing objects varying in size, depth cues, and amount of detail is still an open question. When infants are presented with a complex scene, we do not know which dimensions of the scene are more likely to catch their attention first, and which are more likely to sustain their looking duration the most. This study aimed to investigate how infants’ explore 2D displays containing different combinations of object size, depth cues, and detail.

In experiment 1, forty infants (twenty of 5 months old and twenty of 8 months old) were presented with stimuli containing …

Revisiting The Causal Link Between Finite Cognitive Capacity And Perseveration: A Dynamic Systems Account, Benjamin Craddock

Masters Theses

The current study revisits the causal link between finite cognitive capacity and infant perseveration originally put forth by Berger (2004) wherein perseverative errors resulted from a limited amount of cognitive resources. A dynamic systems perspective was used to test the interaction of a limited cognitive capacity and task difficulty by manipulating the contextual layout of Berger’s stair A-not-B paradigm (i.e. from 90-degrees to 180-degrees). Two groups of infants, differing in walking experience but not in biological age, were presented the task of descending A-side 5 consecutive times and to B-side on the 6th trial. Perseveration was not seen in either …

Resilient Parenting: Overcoming Poor Parental Bonding, W. Travis, Terri Combs-Orme

Social Work Publications and Other Works

This study identified groups of mothers with varying patterns of adaptive functioning and bonds with their own parents. These patterns were related to mothers' parenting of their own children to understand how some mothers avoid repeating the cycle of poor parenting. Data from 210 new mothers were analyzed before hospital discharge about bonding with their caregivers during childhood and six to 12 months later about adaptive functioning, life circumstances, and parenting. Latent cluster analysis identified four distinct groups of mothers with regard to parental bonds and adaptive functioning: positive-adaptive mothers (good bonding and good adaptive functioning), positive-maladaptive mothers (good bonding …