Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Encoding Strategy In Younger And Older Adult Associative Recognition: A Think-Aloud Analysis, Mark C. Fox, Zachary Baldock, Sara P. Freeman, Jane M. Berry

Psychology Faculty Publications

Older adults have especially poor recognition memory for word pairs, and recent research suggests this associative deficit manifests primarily in older adults’ higher rates of false alarms compared to younger adults. This could result from older adults either failing to generate meaningful (deep) mediators at study, or failing to benefit from having generated deep mediators at test. Younger and older adults performed a recognition memory task for words and word-pairs. A think-aloud analysis of their spontaneous encoding strategies (e.g., repetition, shallow mediators, and deep mediators) revealed that generation of deep mediators did not differ between younger and older adults, and …

Reflections: Students' Tribute To Stan Kuczaj (1950-2016), Mark J. Xitco, Heather M. Hill, Marie Trone, Rachel T. Walker, Kymbr Wright, Radhika Macheka, Andrew J. Wright, Erica Hernandez, Deirdre Yeater, Lauren Highfill, Lance Miller, Holli Eskelinen, Courtney E. Smith, Pepper Hanna, Beri Brown, Kelly Winship, Natalia Botero, Erin E. Frick, Lisa Lauderdale, Kelsey Moreno, Kendal Smith, Audra Ames, Ali Taylor, Malin Lilley, Briana Cappiello, Riley Macgregor, Jennifer Vonk, Michael Beran

Psychology Faculty Publications

On April 14th, 2016, Animal Behavior and Cognition lost its Editor-in-Chief. But the scientific community and the friends and colleagues of Stanley ‘Stan’ Kuczaj III lost so much more. As many know, Stan began his career in Developmental Psychology, making enormous contributions in the area of language development, but became best known for his many innovative contributions in the area of marine mammal behavior. Stan founded Animal Behavior and Cognition because he was deeply passionate about research with a broad range of topics concerning animal behavior, animal cognition, and animal welfare. He was equally passionate about the idea that science …

Emotion Regulation During Threat: Parsing The Time Course And Consequences Of Safety Signal Processing, Kathryn R. Hefner, Edelyn Verona, John J. Curtin

Psychology Faculty Publications

Improved understanding of fear inhibition processes can inform the etiology and treatment of anxiety disorders. Safety signals can reduce fear to threat, but precise mechanisms remain unclear. Safety signals may acquire attentional salience and affective properties (e.g., relief) independent of the threat; alternatively, safety signals may only hold affective value in the presence of simultaneous threat. To clarify such mechanisms, an experimental paradigm assessed independent processing of threat and safety cues. Participants viewed a series of red and green words from two semantic categories. Shocks were administered following red words (cue+). No shocks followed green words (cue‐). Words from one …

Impulsivity, Rejection Sensitivity, And Reactions To Stressors In Borderline Personality Disorder, Kathy R. Berenson, Wesley Ellen Gregory, Erin Glaser, Aliza Romirowsky, Eshkol Rafaeli, Xiao Yang, Geraldine Downey

Psychology Faculty Publications

This research investigated baseline impulsivity, rejection sensitivity, and reactions to stressors in individuals with borderline personality disorder compared to healthy individuals and those with avoidant personality disorder . The borderline group showed greater impulsivity than the avoidant and healthy groups both in a delay-discounting task with real monetary rewards and in self-reported reactions to stressors; moreover, these findings could not be explained by co-occurring substance use disorders. Distress reactions to stressors were equally elevated in both personality disorder groups (relative to the healthy group). The borderline and avoidant groups also reported more maladaptive reactions to a stressor of an interpersonal …

The Effect Of Problem Construction Creativity On Solution Creativity Across Multiple Everyday Problems, Nicholas J. Arreola, Roni Reiter-Palmon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research on creativity has indicated that problem construction, which is the process of making sense out of an ill-defined and ambiguous problem, has a positive influence on solution creativity. This relationship was more closely examined in a sample of university students using multiple everyday problems. Specifically, participants restated the problems in their own words and generated subsequent solutions. In addition, participants’ fluency and problem construction ability were assessed. It was found that how participants constructed problems played an intervening role in the relationship between their overall problem construction ability and the creativity of the solutions they generated above and beyond …

Catecholaminergic Neuromodulation Shapes Intrinsic Mri Functional Connectivity In The Human Brain, Ruud L. Van Den Brink, Thomas Pfeffer, Christopher M. Warren, Peter R. Murphy, Klodiana-Daphne Tona, Nic J. Van Der Wee, Eric Giltay, Martijn S. Van Noorden, Serge A. Rombouts, Tobias H. Donner, Sander Nieuwenhuis

Psychology Faculty Publications

The brain commonly exhibits spontaneous (i.e., in the absence of a task) fluctuations in neural activity that are correlated across brain regions. It has been established that the spatial structure, or topography, of these intrinsic correlations is in part determined by the fixed anatomical connectivity between regions. However, it remains unclear which factors dynamically sculpt this topography as a function of brain state. Potential candidate factors are subcortical catecholaminergic neuromodulatory systems, such as the locus ceruleus-norepinephrine system, which send diffuse projections to most parts of the forebrain. Here, we systematically characterized the effects of endogenous central neuromodulation on correlated fluctuations …

Suboptimal Choice In Pigeons: Stimulus Value Predicts Choice Over Frequencies, Aaron P. Smith, Alexandria R. Bailey, Jonathan J. Chow, Joshua S. Beckmann, Thomas R. Zentall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Pigeons have shown suboptimal gambling-like behavior when preferring a stimulus that infrequently signals reliable reinforcement over alternatives that provide greater reinforcement overall. As a mechanism for this behavior, recent research proposed that the stimulus value of alternatives with more reliable signals for reinforcement will be preferred relatively independently of their frequencies. The present study tested this hypothesis using a simplified design of a Discriminative alternative that, 50% of the time, led to either a signal for 100% reinforcement or a blackout period indicative of 0% reinforcement against a Nondiscriminative alternative that always led to a signal that predicted 50% reinforcement. …

Are Hand Preference And Sexual Orientation Possible Predicting Factors For Finasteride Adverse Effects In Male Androgenic Alopecia?, Ion G. Motofei, David L. Rowland, Simona Georgescu, Mircea Tampa, Bogdan C. Baleanu, Stana Paunica

Psychology Faculty Publications

Sexual side effects of finasteride seem to be redoubtable, being encountered not only during therapy but also after treatment cessation. Consequently, any possible clinical/paraclinical elements that might predict these adverse effects would be useful in the selection of a therapeutic strategy for male androgenic alopecia. Previous published studies show that some compounds that interfere with sexual hormones can decrease sexual activation and response, according to hand preference (as reported for finasteride and tamoxifen) and according to sexual orientation (as noted for bicalutamide). Our preliminary published data and the arguments presented here suggest that these two individual parameters might be used …

Evaluating Treatments And Interventions: What Constitutes “Evidence-Based” Treatment?, Lisa Jobe-Shields, Amanda Costello, Carrie Jackson, Rochelle F. Hanson

Psychology Faculty Publications

This chapter provides an overview of the evidence-based treatment (EBT) paradigm, beginning with definitional issues, followed by a discussion on use of the iterative process and the importance of strong academic–practice partnerships to inform the development, selection, and implementation of EBTs. The discussion then turns to the importance of attaining, measuring, and sustaining fidelity to the treatment models; and identifying common barriers to sustained EBT use. Drawing from our expertise related to interventions for children and adolescents, a few dissemination/implementation models are highlighted as examples of current efforts to achieve sustained use of EBTs among practitioners, within agencies, and across …

Placing Evidence-Based Interventions At The Fingertips Of School Social Workers, Jose Castillo, Tommi Rivers, Catherine Randall, Ken Gaughan, Tiina Ojanen, Oliver Tom Massey, Donna L. Burton

Psychology Faculty Publications

Through a university-community collaborative partnership, the perceived needs of evidence-based practices (EBPs) among school social workers (SSWs) in a large school district in central Florida was assessed. A survey (response rate = 83.6%) found that although 70% of SSWs claim to use EBPs in their everyday practice, 40% do not know where to find them, which may partially explain why 78% of respondents claim to spend 1 to 4 h every week looking for adequate EBPs. From this needs assessment, the translational model was used to address these perceived needs. A systematic review of the literature found 40 tier 2 …

Positive Affectivity Is Dampened In Youths With Histories Of Major Depression And Their Never-Depressed Adolescent Siblings, Maria Kovacs, Lauren M. Bylsma, Ilya Yaroslavsky, Jonathan Rottenberg, Charles J George, Enikő Kiss, Kitti Halas, István Benák, Ildiko Baji, Ágnes Vetro, Krisztina Kapornai

Psychology Faculty Publications

While hedonic capacity is diminished during clinical depression, it is unclear whether that deficit constitutes a risk factor and/or persists after depression episodes remit. To examine these issues, adolescents with current/past major depression (probands; n=218), never depressed biological siblings of probands (n=207), and emotionally-well controls (n=183) were exposed to several positively valenced probes. Across baseline and hedonic probe conditions, controls consistently reported higher levels of positive affect than high-risk siblings, and siblings reported higher levels of positive affect than probands (remitted and depressed probands' reports were similar). Extent of positive affect across the protocol predicted adolescents' self-reports of social support …

Perceptions Of Race-Related Interactions In The Classroom, Lesther A. Papa, E. Murphy, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Androgyny In Liking And In Being Liked Are Antecedent To Well-Being In Pre-Adolescent Boys And Girls, William M. Bukowski, Bianca Panarello, Jonathan Santo

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present study is a two-wave longitudinal study of the concurrent and prospective associations between patterns of same- and other-gender liking and well-being in a sample of 403 fifth and sixth-grade girls and boys from Montréal Québec, Canada that was used to examine Sandra Bem’s perspective that androgyny is related to well-being. In our study androgyny was operationally defined as (a) the combination of liking for same- and other-gender peers and (b) the combination of being liked by same- and other-gender peers. Well-being was indexed with a measure of the self-concept. Findings drawn from analyses conducted with structural equation modeling …

Parenting Stress As A Mediator Of Exposure To Potentially Traumatic Events And Behavioral Health Outcomes In Children And Youth, Joy S. Kaufman, Melissa L. Whitson, Cindy A. Crusto

Psychology Faculty Publications

The research team has been examining parenting stress, defined as stress that parents feel in their parenting role, as a mediator of behavioral health outcomes for children exposed to potentially traumatic events. The results of our studies demonstrate the interplay between a child’s exposure to potentially traumatic events and their parent/caregiver’s report of stress related to parenting their child.

Pruning Or Tuning? Maturational Profiles Of Face Specialization During Typical Development, Xun Zhu, Ramesh S. Bhatt, Jane E. Joseph

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Face processing undergoes significant developmental change with age. Two kinds of developmental changes in face specialization were examined in this study: specialized maturation, or the continued tuning of a region to faces but little change in the tuning to other categories; and competitive interactions, or the continued tuning to faces accompanied by decreased tuning to nonfaces (i.e., pruning). Methods: Using fMRI, in regions where adults showed a face preference, a face- and object-specialization index were computed for younger children (5-8 years), older children (9-12 years) and adults (18-45 years). The specialization index was scaled to each subject's maximum activation …

Typing With Emg Using Myoware, L. Elizabeth Crawford, Dylan T. Vavra

Psychology Faculty Publications

In this tutorial, we show how to create a simple at-home electromyography (EMG) system that will sense muscle activation from the surface of the skin and use it to send a keypress to a computer, bypassing the keyboard. We used a classic MaKey MaKey and a MyoWare sensor to accomplish this, along with a bit of coding. First, we show how to accomplish this using one MyoWare sensor. Then, we show how to add a second sensor to the system. For our purposes we used two sensors, but the methods described in this tutorial can be used to add any …

Genes, Dopamine Pathways, And Sociality In Primates, Jeffrey French

Psychology Faculty Publications

Unraveling the complex sequence of molecular, biochemical, and neuronal cascades that transpire between gene action and behavioral phenotypes has been an exceptionally tough scientific nut to crack. The difficulties in connecting the links between genes and behavior have been especially problematic for social phenotypes, including species-typical social structure, in which multiple individuals are involved in interactions, and hence the appropriate behavioral responses are conditional on actions of a partner. Forty years ago, Robert Hinde (1) provided a critical insight into the dissection and analysis of social behavior, in which he argued that the social structure of a particular species is …

A Buffer Model Account Of Behavioral And Erp Patterns In The Von Restorff Paradigm, Siri-Maria Kamp, Melissa Lehman, Kenneth J. Malmberg, Emanuel Donchin

Psychology Faculty Publications

We combined a mechanistic model of episodic encoding with theories on the functional significance of two event-related potential (ERP) components to develop an integrated account for the Von Restorff effect, which refers to the enhanced recall probability for an item that deviates in some feature from other items in its study list. The buffer model of Lehman and Malmberg (2009, 2013) can account for this effect such that items encountered during encoding enter an episodic buffer where they are actively rehearsed. When a deviant item is encountered, in order to re-allocate encoding resources towards this item the buffer is emptied …

Learning From Texts: Activation Of Information From Previous Texts During Reading, Katinka Beker, Dietsje Jolles, Robert F. Lorch Jr., Paul Van Den Broek

Psychology Faculty Publications

Learning often involves integration of information from multiple texts. The aim of the current study was to determine whether relevant information from previously read texts is spontaneously activated during reading, allowing for integration between texts (experiment 1 and 2), and whether this process is related to the representation of the texts (experiment 2). In both experiments, texts with inconsistent target sentences were preceded by texts that either did or did not contain explanations that resolved the inconsistencies. In experiment 1, the reading times of the target sentences introducing inconsistencies were faster if the preceding text contained an explanation for the …

Impact Of Comorbid Depressive Disorders On Subjective And Physiological Responses To Emotion In Generalized Anxiety Disorder., Saren H. Seeley, Douglas S. Mennin, Amelia Aldao, Katie A. Mclaughlin, Jonathan Rottenberg, David M Fresco

Psychology Faculty Publications

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and unipolar depressive disorders (UDD) have been shown to differ from each other in dimensions of affective functioning despite their high rates of comorbidity. We showed emotional film clips to a community sample (n = 170) with GAD, GAD with secondary UDD, or no diagnosis. Groups had comparable subjective responses to the clips, but the GAD group had significantly lower heart rate variability (HRV) during fear and after sadness, compared to controls. While HRV in the GAD and control groups rose in response to the sadness and happiness clips, it returned to baseline levels afterwards …

Socialization And Selection Effects In The Association Between Weight Conscious Peer Groups And Thin-Ideal Internalization: A Co-Twin Control Study, Jessica L. Vanhuysse, S. Alexandra Burt, Shannon M. O'Connor, Joel K. Thompson, Kelly L. Klump

Psychology Faculty Publications

Affiliation with weight conscious peer groups is theorized to increase thin-ideal internalization through socialization processes. However, selection effects could contribute if genetic and/or environmental predispositions lead to affiliation with weight conscious peers. Co-twin control methodology was used to examine socialization and selection effects in 614 female twins (ages 8-15) from the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR). Thin-ideal internalization and peer group characteristics were assessed via self-report questionnaires. Results suggested the presence of both socialization and selection effects. In terms of socialization, twins who reported increased exposure to weight conscious peers relative to their co-twins had elevated thin-ideal internalization scores, …

Enhancing Parenting Practices With Latino/A Immigrants: Integrating Evidence-Based Knowledge And Culture According To The Voices Of Latino/A Parents, José Rubén Parra-Cardona, Gabriela López-Zerón, Monica Villa, Efraín Zamudio, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

Effective and emotionally nurturing parenting practices constitute salient protective factors in the lives of children and youth. Although social workers have influenced in important ways the scholarship associated with the development and dissemination of culturally relevant evidence-based parenting interventions for underserved populations, low-income ethnic minorities continue to lack access to culturally relevant and efficacious parenting interventions in the United States due to widespread mental health disparities. Addressing this gap in service delivery is necessary, particularly because populations exposed to historical oppression and intense contextual adversity are at an increased risk for engaging in harsh parenting practices. The purpose of this …

Catecholamine-Mediated Increases In Neural Gain Improve The Precision Of Cortical Representations, Christopher M. Warren, Eran Eldar, Ruud L. Van Den Brink, Klodiana-Daphne Tona, Nic J. Van Der Wee, Eric J. Giltay, Martijn S. Van Noorden, Jos A. Bosch, Robert C. Wilson, Jonathan D. Cohen, Sander Nieuwenhuis

Psychology Faculty Publications

Neurophysiological evidence suggests that neuromodulators, such as norepinephrine and dopamine, increase neural gain in target brain areas. Computational models and prominent theoretical frameworks indicate that this should enhance the precision of neural representations, but direct empirical evidence for this hypothesis is lacking. In two functional MRI studies, we examine the effect of baseline catecholamine levels (as indexed by pupil diameter and manipulated pharmacologically) on the precision of object representations in the human ventral temporal cortex using angular dispersion, a powerful, multivariate metric of representational similarity (precision). We first report the results of computational model simulations indicating that increasing catecholaminergic gain …

Eye-Tracking And Corpus-Based Analyses Of Syntax-Semantics Interactions In Complement Coercion, Matthew W. Lowder, Peter C. Gordon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Previous work has shown that the difficulty associated with processing complex semantic expressions is reduced when the critical constituents appear in separate clauses as opposed to when they appear together in the same clause. We investigated this effect further, focusing in particular on complement coercion, in which an event-selecting verb (e.g., began) combines with a complement that represents an entity (e.g., began the memo). Experiment 1 compared reading times for coercion versus control expressions when the critical verb and complement appeared together in a subject-extracted relative clause (SRC) (e.g., The secretary that began/wrote the memo) compared to …

Planning A Successful Multigenerational Holiday, Jasmin Tahmaseb-Mcconatha

Psychology Faculty Publications

Has it been months since you had an unhurried conversation with your adult children or grandchildren? Consider a multi-generational holiday this summer. Millions of Americans are vacationing with three generations of family.

Women’S Behavioral Responses To The Threat Of A Hypothetical Date Rape Stimulus: A Qualitative Analysis, Raeann E. Anderson, Amanda M. Brouwer, Angela R. Wendorf, Shawn P. Cahill

Psychology Faculty Publications

One in four college women experience sexual assault on campus; yet, campuses rarely provide the in-depth self-defense programs needed to reduce sexual assault risk. Further, little is known about the range of possible behaviors elicited by sexual assault threat stimuli besides assertion. To fill this gap, the aim of the current study was to explore qualitative themes in women’s intended behavioral responses to a hypothetical sexual assault threat, date rape, by using a laboratory-controlled threat. College women (N = 139) were randomly assigned to one of four different levels of sexual assault threat presented via an audio-recorded vignette. Participants …

The Enigma Of Sexual Desire, Part 1: A Brief Review Of Classical, Historical, Philosophical, And Literary Perspectives, David L. Rowland

Psychology Faculty Publications

Throughout human history and across cultures, sexual desire has been of interest to the general public and, now more recently, to the medical/psychological community. Part 1 of this two part series examines the historical aspects of the concept of sexual desire throughout its many transformations, beginning with the writings and mythologies of the ancient Greeks and extending through the ages to the present through the writings of philosophers, playwrights, novelists, and historians. We explore the concept of desire as both a tolerated and celebrated construct over the ages, discussing Western sociocultural perspectives regarding its nature and condition. In our view, …

Eyes Wide Open: Pupil Size As A Proxy For Inhibition In The Masked-Priming Paradigm, Jason Geller, Mary L. Still, Alison L. Morris

Psychology Faculty Publications

A core assumption underlying competitive-network models of word recognition is that in order for a word to be recognized, the representations of competing orthographically similar words must be inhibited. This inhibitory mechanism is revealed in the masked-priming lexical-decision task (LDT) when responses to orthographically similar word prime-target pairs are slower than orthographically different word prime-target pairs (i.e., inhibitory priming). In English, however, behavioral evidence for inhibitory priming has been mixed. In the present study, we utilized a physiological correlate of cognitive effort never before used in the masked-priming LDT, pupil size, to replicate and extend behavioral demonstrations of inhibitory …

Influence Of Daily Social Stimulation On Behavioral And Physiological Outcomes In An Animal Model Of Ptsd., Shyam Seetharaman, Monika Fleshner, Collin R. Park, David M. Diamond

Psychology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: We have shown in previous work that acute episodes of predator exposure occurring in the context of chronic social instability produced PTSD-like sequelae in rats. Our animal model of PTSD contained two components: (1) acute trauma, immobilization of rats in close proximity to a cat twice in 10 days, and (2) chronic social instability, 31 days of randomized housing of cage cohorts. Here we tested the hypothesis that daily social stimulation would block the development of the PTSD-like sequelae.

METHODS: Beginning 24 h after the first cat exposure, adult male rats were given our established PTSD model, alone or …

A Brain Motivated To Play: Insights Into The Neurobiology Of Playfulness, Stephen M. Siviy

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play is an important part of normal childhood development and is seen in varied forms among many mammals. While not indispensable to normal development, playful social experiences as juveniles may provide an opportunity to develop flexible behavioural strategies when novel and uncertain situations arise as an adult. To understand the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for play and how the functions of play may relate to these neural substrates, the rat has become the model of choice. Play in the rat is easily quantified, tightly regulated, and can be modulated by genetic factors and postnatal experiences. Brain areas most likely to be …