Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Smoking And Exercise: Mechanisms And Effects During Simulated And Genuine Quit Attempts, Stefanie De Jesus

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cigarette smoking is a leading agent for premature morbidity and mortality among the global community. Most individuals surrender to tobacco use disorder due to the inability to cope with cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Exercise appears to provide acute relief. Currently, it is unclear how exercise attenuates these reductions. Furthermore, the available evidence has focused on acute outcomes besides smoking behaviour and is limited to simulated quit attempts. Three experimental studies were designed to address these outstanding issues. Not surprisingly, a bout of moderate intensity exercise was found in study 1 (chapter 2) to reduce cravings associated with a temporary period …

Mathematical Modeling Of Stress Management Via Decisional Control, Matthew J. Shanahan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Engaging the environment through reason, humankind evaluates information, compares it to a standard of desirability, and selects the best option available. Stress is theorized to arise from the perception of survival-related demands on an organism. Cognitive efforts are no mere intellectual exercise when ontologically backed by survival-relevant reward or punishment. This dissertation examines the stressful impact, and countervailing peaceful impact, of environmental demands on cognitive efforts and of successful cognitive efforts on a person’s day-to-day environment, through mathematical modeling of ‘decisional control’. A modeling approach to clinical considerations is introduced in the first paper, “Clinical Mathematical Psychology”. A general exposition …

The Use Of Exercise Self-Talk By Female Adolescents, Sadie Puddister

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Already below recommended levels, physical activity participation in female youth is known to decline throughout adolescence. Self-talk, a form of self-regulation has been demonstrated to influence behaviour in both sport and exercise settings. The purpose of the present research was to explore the exercise related self-talk of teen girls (aged 14-18) with the intent of uncovering reoccurring themes and attributes in the self-talk of both low frequency exercisers (LFEs) and high frequency exercisers (HFEs). Participants were teen girls (N=28, M_age=15.56, SD_age=1.47) recruited from A. B. Lucas Secondary School in London, Ontario. Physical activity …

Social Networking Sites And Personnel Selection: An Initial Validity Assessment, Travis J. Schneider

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this dissertation was to add to the literature on the use of social networking sites (SNSs) for personnel selection. The first goal was to evaluate whether SNSs have the potential to be used as a valid source of information for selection. Specific SNS Indicator scales were created to test whether they have better validity evidence than the more traditionally-used Global SNS Rating. In a study of 141 undergraduate students at a large Canadian university, the Specific SNS Indicators demonstrated fairly weak evidence of interrater reliability, but some evidence of structural validity, and construct validity (convergent and discriminant). …

Exploring And Training Spatial Reasoning Via Eye Movements: Implications On Performance, Victoria A. Roach

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation sought to determine if eye movements could serve as an indicator of success in spatial reasoning, and if eye movements associated with successful completion could be applied to strategically improve spatial reasoning.

Using the line images of Shepard and Metzler, an electronic test of mental rotations ability (EMRT) was designed. Two versions of the test were created, allowing for both a timed (6 seconds per question) and untimed testing environment. Four experiments were designed and completed to relate mental rotation ability (MRA) scores from the EMRT, to patterns in chrononumeric and visual salience data. In each experiment, participants …

Greater Magnocellular Saccadic Suppression In High Versus Low Autistic Tendency Suggests A Causal Path To Local Perceptual Style., David P Crewther, Daniel Crewther, Stephanie Bevan, Melvyn A Goodale, Sheila G Crewther

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Saccadic suppression-the reduction of visual sensitivity during rapid eye movements-has previously been proposed to reflect a specific suppression of the magnocellular visual system, with the initial neural site of that suppression at or prior to afferent visual information reaching striate cortex. Dysfunction in the magnocellular visual pathway has also been associated with perceptual and physiological anomalies in individuals with autism spectrum disorder or high autistic tendency, leading us to question whether saccadic suppression is altered in the broader autism phenotype. Here we show that individuals with high autistic tendency show greater saccadic suppression of low versus high spatial frequency gratings …

An Examination Of Daily Humour Styles And Relationship Satisfaction In Dating Couples, Sara Caird

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Humour can be both beneficial and harmful to romantic relationships. Research indicates that affiliative humour is associated with higher levels of relationship satisfaction, whereas aggressive humour is associated with lower levels of relationship satisfaction. However, past research is limited by its reliance on cross-sectional designs and general measures of humour use. Furthermore, little research has examined potential mediators that may account for the observed relationships between humour styles and relationship satisfaction. The current daily diary studies were the among the first to examine daily within-person associations between humour styles (specifically in the context of romantic relationship), relationship satisfaction, and positive …

Functional Differences Between Statistical Learning With And Without Explicit Training., Laura J Batterink, Paul J Reber, Ken A Paller

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Humans are capable of rapidly extracting regularities from environmental input, a process known as statistical learning. This type of learning typically occurs automatically, through passive exposure to environmental input. The presumed function of statistical learning is to optimize processing, allowing the brain to more accurately predict and prepare for incoming input. In this study, we ask whether the function of statistical learning may be enhanced through supplementary explicit training, in which underlying regularities are explicitly taught rather than simply abstracted through exposure. Learners were randomly assigned either to an explicit group or an implicit group. All learners were exposed to …

Dual Optimization Method Of Radiofrequency And Quasistatic Field Simulations For Reduction Of Eddy Currents Generated On 7t Radiofrequency Coil Shielding., Yujuan Zhao, Tiejun Zhao, Shailesh B Raval, Narayanan Krishnamurthy, Hai Zheng, Chad T Harris, William B Handler, Blaine A Chronik, Tamer S Ibrahim

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

PURPOSE: To optimize the design of radiofrequency (RF) shielding of transmit coils at 7T and reduce eddy currents generated on the RF shielding when imaging with rapid gradient waveforms.

METHODS: One set of a four-element, 2 × 2 Tic-Tac-Toe head coil structure was selected and constructed to study eddy currents on the RF coil shielding. The generated eddy currents were quantitatively studied in the time and frequency domains. The RF characteristics were studied using the finite difference time domain method. Five different kinds of RF shielding were tested on a 7T MRI scanner with phantoms and in vivo human subjects. …

Behavioral, Perceptual, And Neural Alterations In Sensory And Multisensory Function In Autism Spectrum Disorder., Sarah H Baum, Ryan A Stevenson, Mark T Wallace

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Although sensory processing challenges have been noted since the first clinical descriptions of autism, it has taken until the release of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in 2013 for sensory problems to be included as part of the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the diagnostic profile. Because sensory information forms the building blocks for higher-order social and cognitive functions, we argue that sensory processing is not only an additional piece of the puzzle, but rather a critical cornerstone for characterizing and understanding ASD. In this review we discuss what …

Striving For Teaching Success: Enhancing Emotional Intelligence In Pre-Service Teachers, Ashley K. Vesely-Maillefer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Research has confirmed job dissatisfaction, and high levels of occupational stress and burnout resulting from the emotional demands of teaching. This dissertation focuses on a potential solution to support teachers’ psychological wellbeing in their paramount role to society: training in emotional intelligence. Recent research has demonstrated not only the positive role of emotional intelligence (EI) in enhancing stress management, coping skills, psychological wellbeing, and resilience, but that EI can be developed through EI training. Empirical evidence has recently shown support for EI training specifically within the teaching population. However, there remains a dearth of applicable empirically-based training programs aimed at …

Differential Modification Of Cortical And Thalamic Projections To Cat Primary Auditory Cortex Following Early- And Late-Onset Deafness., Nicole Chabot, Blake E Butler, Stephen G Lomber

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Following sensory deprivation, primary somatosensory and visual cortices undergo crossmodal plasticity, which subserves the remaining modalities. However, controversy remains regarding the neuroplastic potential of primary auditory cortex (A1). To examine this, we identified cortical and thalamic projections to A1 in hearing cats and those with early- and late-onset deafness. Following early deafness, inputs from second auditory cortex (A2) are amplified, whereas the number originating in the dorsal zone (DZ) decreases. In addition, inputs from the dorsal medial geniculate nucleus (dMGN) increase, whereas those from the ventral division (vMGN) are reduced. In late-deaf cats, projections from the anterior auditory field (AAF) …

Preserved Haptic Shape Processing After Bilateral Loc Lesions., Jacqueline C Snow, Melvyn A Goodale, Jody C Culham

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

UNLABELLED: The visual and haptic perceptual systems are understood to share a common neural representation of object shape. A region thought to be critical for recognizing visual and haptic shape information is the lateral occipital complex (LOC). We investigated whether LOC is essential for haptic shape recognition in humans by studying behavioral responses and brain activation for haptically explored objects in a patient (M.C.) with bilateral lesions of the occipitotemporal cortex, including LOC. Despite severe deficits in recognizing objects using vision, M.C. was able to accurately recognize objects via touch. M.C.'s psychophysical response profile to haptically explored shapes was also …

Maternal Postsecondary Education Associated With Improved Cerebellar Growth After Preterm Birth., Mikaela L Stiver, Daphne Kamino, Ting Guo, Angela Thompson, Emma G Duerden, Margot J Taylor, Emily W Y Tam

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The preterm cerebellum is vulnerable to impaired development impacting long-term outcome. Preterm newborns (<32 >weeks) underwent serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The association between parental education and cerebellar volume at each time point was assessed, adjusting for age at scan. In 26 infants, cerebellar volumes at term (P = .001), but not birth (P = .4), were associated with 2-year volumes. For 1 cm(3) smaller cerebellar volume (4% total volume) at term, the cerebellum was 3.18 cm(3) smaller (3% total volume) by 2 years. Maternal postsecondary education was not associated with cerebellar volume at term (P = .16). Maternal …

Effects Of Motion Pattern Characteristics On The Perception Of Visual Acceleration, Alexandra S. Mueller

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The ability to perceive visual motion is one that we use every day to perform goal-directed activities, such as intercepting or avoiding objects. As objects and observers rarely move at constant velocities, it is important to be able to detect changes in velocity. However, little attention has been paid to how we perceive visual acceleration in the literature. This thesis explored the influence of real world-relevant motion pattern characteristics on visual acceleration perception. Observers rarely see object motion with an unlimited field of view, and therefore we first examined how physically constraining the horizontal distance over which a stimulus can …

Factors Influencing Continuity Of Attachment Quality In Early Childhood, Ya F. Xue

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Although the study of attachment continuity has flourished over the last several decades, gaps remain in the literature. These include a dearth of studies that have examined: 1) how children differ in their patterns of continuity in attachment quality; 2) factors that underlie these patterns; and 3) the roles that infant characteristics, such as children’s levels of susceptibility to parenting influences, have in shaping attachment stability. Correspondingly, this dissertation aimed to identify children’s patterns of continuity in attachment quality across early childhood, and to elucidate the processes that influence the development of these different patterns. Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), …

The Sixties Scoop Among Aboriginal Veterans: A Critical Narrative Study, Munira Abdulwasi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explored the experience of Aboriginal Veterans adopted and/or fostered during the Sixties Scoop using critical narrative inquiry. The objectives were to: 1) understand the lived experience of Aboriginal veterans adopted and/or fostered during the Sixties Scoop, 2) explore any health needs expressed by Aboriginal veterans adopted and/or fostered during the Sixties Scoop, and 3) provide recommendations for the implementation of health services and programs to assist this group of Aboriginal veterans with their health needs. Eight individual interviews were conducted with participants in Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. All interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using …

Neural And Behavioural Responses To Rewards And Losses In Early Development: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study, Niki Hosseini-Kamkar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the neural and behavioural correlates of learning from rewards and losses in children. Greater blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) responses in the ventral striatum (VS) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) were found when participants received rewards compared to when they missed out on an opportunity to receive rewards. In contrast, greater BOLD responses in the anterior insula (AI) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were found when participants received losses compared to when they avoided losing. The BOLD response to rewards in the VS and VMPFC correlated positively with the tendency to …

Finding The Engram., Sheena A Josselyn, Stefan Köhler, Paul W Frankland

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Many attempts have been made to localize the physical trace of a memory, or engram, in the brain. However, until recently, engrams have remained largely elusive. In this Review, we develop four defining criteria that enable us to critically assess the recent progress that has been made towards finding the engram. Recent 'capture' studies use novel approaches to tag populations of neurons that are active during memory encoding, thereby allowing these engram-associated neurons to be manipulated at later times. We propose that findings from these capture studies represent considerable progress in allowing us to observe, erase and express the engram.

The Impact Of The Operational Environment On The Commitment Profiles Of Canadian Armed Forces Soldiers, Christina L. Eastwood

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The aim of this study was to use latent profile analysis to determine whether commitment profiles found in previous studies could be replicated in a deployed Canadian military sample. This study examined antecedents contributing to the development of the profiles, outcomes associated with profile membership and stability of profiles solutions. A total of 4254 (pre-deployment) and 2365 (post-deployment) military personnel completed surveys related to affective (AC), normative (NC) and continuance (CC) organizational commitment, unit climate, operational preparedness, psychological distress, and intention to stay. Four commitment profiles (e.g., high AC- dominant, low CC/NC-dominant, Moderately and Weakly committed) emerged across both samples. …

Prosody: An Important Cue To Word Learning, Monica Dasilva

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Infants rely on cues from their environment during language acquisition. Prosodic features of words are one such cue and involve changes in stress and rhythmic patterns within speech. Studies have examined prosody’s influence on word segmentation and have found it to be a useful cue for detecting word boundaries (Johnson & Seidl, 2009). What is less understood is how prosody helps infants form associations between novel labels and their referents during word learning. The present thesis investigated the influence of prosodic cues on word learning. The looking times were recorded of 13 infants (19-25 months) exposed to object-label pairings that …

The Role Of Androgens In Life History Theories Of Attachment, Janani S. Sankar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Life history theories (LHTs) of attachment address how attachments to caregivers in infancy/childhood and to romantic partners in adulthood are used to negotiate mating and reproductive choices. Greater insecure-avoidant attachment has been suggested to be associated with the adoption of a low-investment, short-term reproductive strategy. The role of sex hormones, including the androgen testosterone (T), in the development of attachment-related reproductive strategies has been speculated in some LHTs. This research tested an integrated-LHT model of early environment, attachment, and reproductive strategies in men, using structural equation modeling. Androgen-related effects were hypothesized to occur prenatally and/or in adulthood, consistent with various …

"She Will Drive The ____": Verb-Based Prediction In Individuals With Parkinson Disease, Kelsey G. Santerre

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cognitive changes in Parkinson disease (PD) affect language processing, including sentence comprehension impairments, difficulties with processing verbs, and discourse impairments. In many theories of language comprehension, efficient language processing depends on successful implicit prediction of upcoming concepts and grammatical structures. Such prediction processes, in part, may be regulated by the neural dopaminergic system, which is markedly impaired in PD. In non-language tasks, persons with PD (PwPD) are impaired in prediction, sequencing, and probabilistic learning. However, the contributions of these dopaminergic-mediated prediction and probabilistic learning processes to language processing impairments in PD remain unexplored. We tested whether PwPD are impaired in …

The Cultural Connectedness Scale And Its Relation To Positive Mental Health Among First Nations Youth, Angela Snowshoe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The mental health and wellbeing of youth is one of the most urgent concerns affecting many First Nations communities across Canada. Despite a growing recognition that cultural connectedness (i.e., the extent to which an individual is integrated within his or her First Nations culture) is an important factor for promoting the mental health of First Nations youth, there remains a clear need for a conceptual model that organizes, explains, and leads to an understanding of the resiliency mechanisms underlying this construct. Study 1 involved the development of the Cultural Connectedness Scale (CCS) with a sample of 319 First Nations, Métis, …

Congruent Familiar Size Relationships Decrease Size Contrast Illusion, Margarita Maltseva

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We examined the effect of familiar size of objects on size perception. Participants matched the size of a target image to the perceived size of a central image in the Ebbinghaus illusion. The central image was identical throughout all trials (a 25-mm-wide dog), but the annuli varied in physical size (12 mm vs. 37 mm), semantic category (animate vs. inanimate), and familiar real-world size (cat vs. horse for the animate category; shoe vs. car for the inanimate category). Importantly, the familiar size relationship between the center and the annuli was either congruent (e.g., dog surrounded by small shoes or large …

The Coffee Shop Effect: Investigating The Relationship Between Ambient Noise And Cognitive Flexibility, Emily G. Nielsen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to think diversely in order to solve problems and learn concepts. It has also been suggested that cognitive flexibility supports creativity. Research has demonstrated that creativity is enhanced by moderate volumes of ambient noise. This thesis sought to replicate and extend this line of research by investigating how noise affects cognitive flexibility. Study 1 assessed the effects of noise on three creativity tasks. Performance was found to be enhanced by ambient noise, particularly among those who listen to music while they study/work. Study 2 examined how noise affects performance on a category learning task designed …

National Identity And Attitudes Toward Immigrants: The Role Of Social Comparison And Perceptions Of Competition, Kelly L. Barnes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Research has long demonstrated that negative types of national attachment, like nationalism, are related to relatively more negative intergroup attitudes while more positive forms of national identity, like patriotism, are either related to relatively more positive attitudes or unrelated. Most of this research has been conducted using individual difference measures of national identity. This series of studies seeks to test the difference between nationalism and patriotism empirically, by examining the idea that the presence of social comparison is what separates nationalism from patriotism. Further, the literature suggests that perceptions of competition between groups are an important factor in determining intergroup …

Naturalistic Paradigms For Neuroimaging And Bedside Measures Of Conscious Awareness, Leah J. Sinai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Complex, naturalistic stimuli can test for covert awareness in behaviourally non-responsive patients. For patients with poor visual function, this thesis aimed to identify an auditory-only stimulus that could evaluate executive function. Also, it assessed if Galvanic Skin Response could be a suitable bedside testing method. Healthy individuals listened to 4 auditory stimuli in the fMRI scanner. During Galvanic Skin Response recording, an independent group of controls listened to an audio narrative and watched a movie. Behaviourally non-responsive patients were also tested during movie viewing. Using fMRI, an audio narrative was identified that produced widespread brain synchronization between healthy participants, critically …

Biological And Contextual Predictors Of The Stability Of Behavioural Inhibition In Early Childhood, Victoria C. Johnson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Persistently elevated behavioural inhibition (BI) in children confers increased risk for anxiety disorders. However, little research has jointly examined exogenous and endogenous factors that may moderate BI stability in early childhood. To explore whether parent (i.e., parental overinvolvement, parent anxiety) and child (i.e., 5-HTTLPR and BDNF val66met genotype, positive emotionality) factors influenced the stability of early BI, a community sample of 371 preschoolers and their caregivers completed observational measures of child temperament, observational and questionnaire measures of parenting, and parent interviews for anxiety disorder history. Child BI at age 3 interacted with children’s 5-HTTLPR variants to predict age 5 BI; …

Reactions To Negative Feedback: The Role Of Resilience And Implications For Counterproductivity, Kabir N. Daljeet

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The model of Organizational Frustration (Spector, 1978) suggests that individuals are more likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) after having had a negative experience at work due to the negative emotions brought on by such an experience. The King and Rothstein (2010) model of resilience suggests that the degree to which an individual self-regulates after an adverse workplace experience influences how they subsequently behave. Using vignettes, participants were told they received either positive or negative feedback regarding their job performance and were asked to fill out measures of resilience and intentions to engage in CWB. In a sample …