Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Appearance Change And Partial Face Visibility On Eyewitness Identification, Raina-Lynn A. Brock M.A., Judy Eaton Ph.D.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

There is limited research examining the possibility of a temporary appearance change (e.g. a black eye) between exposure to a perpetrator at the time of a crime and later identification attempts by eyewitnesses. Across two experimental studies, this research examines how eyewitness identification decisions are impacted by an appearance change and how lineup procedures can influence eyewitness accuracy. Study 1 examined how a transient facial feature, a black eye, affects the accuracy of eyewitnesses’ identification decisions, while manipulating the severity of the black eye (prominent bruising, faded bruising, no bruising). Participants (N=403) were exposed to a 43-second mock crime video …

Fear Across The Map: A Cross-Municipal Analysis Of Fear Of Crime In Canada, Muhammad Ali

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examines the predictors of fear of crime (FOC) across three Canadian municipalities: Hamilton, Ontario; Brantford, Ontario; and North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Data from 1,956 survey responses were analyzed to understand how certain factors shape FOC across different municipal contexts in Canada. This study uses descriptive statistics, reliability analyses, correlation matrices, and Ordinary Least Squares regression models to examine whether FOC, and the predictors of FOC, operate consistently across municipalities. The findings indicate that the predictors of FOC are relatively reliable across municipal contexts. However, the influence of the predictors of FOC can vary across municipalities. Importantly, the level of …

Exploring Parent-Child Reminiscing Style And Internal-State Talk When Discussing Positive And Negative Shared Events, Komal Verma Miss.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Conversations between parents and children about past events play a critical role in children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Parents scaffold their children in learning to recount details of their autobiographical memories by creating a space to reflect on internal states, specifically emotions and cognitions. Parents with an ‘elaborative’ reminiscing style are responsive to children’s utterances and ask open-ended questions (e.g., What do you remember about...?). Parents who are less ‘elaborative’ typically ask narrow questions like Did you like it?” that do not encourage conversation. Children whose parents use an elaborative reminiscing style have children who produce the most detailed …

From Meaning To Memory: Assessing The Capacity And Representational Structure Of Visual Working Memory With Meaningful Stimuli, Yong Hoon Chung

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Visual working memory is thought to be strictly limited. Yet we remember meaningful, real-world objects better than abstract stimuli. Here I show that this advantage arises from the semantic structure of meaningful objects, not their perceptual features alone, and that it extends even to memory for associated features such as color. In the brain, meaningful objects elicit greater and more distributed delay activity, consistent with the recruitment of higher-level neural processes during maintenance. I propose that semantic knowledge adds representational dimensions that make items more distinctive, and that these dimensions are organized hierarchically with lower-level visual features. These findings recast …

Designing Narrative-Based Ai Assistance For Sensemaking In Collaborative Environments: Case Studies In Education And Dementia Care, Dylan Edward Moore

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

This thesis addresses a gap in the human-computer interaction literature regarding the design, development, and evaluation of narrative-based AI assistance for collaborative, complex problem solving. I explore this design space through three case studies across the domains of education and dementia care. This work encompasses multi-year industry partnerships and longitudinal fieldwork, user-centered design, dataset curation, model training, and system evaluation.

Specifically, the first case study considers a story-based web platform for teaching AI literacy through peer-generated, personalized narrative scaffolding. Learners on the platform showed significant knowledge gains and other learning-related outcomes. To describe the novel design of this system, I …

The Phone Eats First: Reconfiguring Cultural Capital And Performing Taste On Tiktok’S #Torontoeats, Annie M. Willick

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigates how TikTok reconfigures cultural capital through the visual commodification and performative display of Toronto’s food culture using the hashtag “#TorontoEats”. Through a digital ethnographic multimodal critical discourse analysis, my research considers Bourdieu’s (1984) definition of cultural capital as the guiding definition of distinction, status, and personal taste. This analysis considers how cultural capital manifests through algorithmic engagement, adherence to platform norms, and TikTok’s multimodal format that blends video, sound, text, and gesture to entice audiences. Findings suggest that mundane food practices and activities are transformed into conspicuous commodities on TikTok, where creators position themselves as tastemakers and …

Eeg Correlates Of Tactile Synchrony, Devon K. R. Gallagher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

New research on the tactile system has suggested that cortical representations of body parts are not fixed, as previously thought, and are instead dynamically maintained through constant sensorimotor information and feedback. Within the somatosensory cortex (S1), the capacity for both permanent and temporary changes have been the topic of ongoing research. The current study aimed to corroborate whether 24 hours of a finger adhesion manipulation is sufficient to elicit behavioural and electrophysiological correlates from cortical reorganization of digit representations in S1, using a behavioural paradigm outlined by Kolasinski et al. (2016). Through electroencephalography (EEG) recording during a tactile discrimination task, …

Investigating The Impact Of Winter Exposure To Natural Environments On Perceived Health And Well-Being Using Geographic Ecological Momentary Assessment: A Case Study At Arrowhead Provincial Park, Faith M. Laing

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examined how winter exposure to specific natural environments influenced perceived health and well-being outcomes using Geographic Ecological Momentary Assessment (GEMA) in Arrowhead Provincial Park. Studies performed in the wintertime are limited, as is our understanding of how specific park features and/or activities impact health and well-being. To address this, GEMA was used with a video component to capture participants’ real-time experience and emotional responses in specific park locations defined by polygon boundaries. Two surveys were administered through participants mobile devices, one being an in-situ engagement survey triggered by entering a bounded location, which included a video and …

Injury To Insight: Exploring The Influence Of Media On Acl Rehabilitation Experiences Of Female Soccer Players, Chynna Ho-Young Cadogan, Jill Tracey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Participation in soccer inherently carries a risk of injury, with female athletes facing a significantly higher susceptibility to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries (Campbell et al., 2014; Le et al., 2025; Silvers-Granelli, 2021). The increasing participation in women’s soccer, coupled with the growing demand for its consumption through spectatorship, has contributed to a rise in ACL injuries, and increase in media coverage on this phenomenon (Parsons et al., 2021). Understanding how media narratives surrounding ACL injuries and recovery may influence rehabilitation experiences can educate coaches, mental performance consultants, athletic therapists, and female soccer players to better understand and navigate ACL …

Shaping Ai With Purpose: Priming, Pre-Prompting And Iterative Questioning To Improve Ai Responses, Carrie Fry

Copley Library: Faculty Scholarship

Presentation/Workshop for the MLGSCA & NCNMLG Joint Meeting, January 17-18, 2026.

Abstract: Librarians and library staff are increasingly called on to support faculty, clinicians, and students in navigating large-language-model generative AI tools (e.g. Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT). Yet many of these systems default to generic, bland, and even hallucinated responses that overlook the nuance of clinical inquiry, the expertise of the user, or the tone appropriate for academic and healthcare settings.

This session introduces three strategies—priming, pre-prompting, and iterative questioning—to allow users to guide AI tools toward more useful, context-aware output. Through hands-on work and guided exercises, attendees will shape AI …

Motivational Factors Influencing Military Service: A Structural Equation Model Of Rotc Students And Service Members’ Motivation-Confidence To Serve, Brian J. Vansingel

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Amid declining college enrollment across the United States, academic institutions with United States Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) programs must consider underrecruited populations, such as military-bound young adults, in their recruiting strategies. To support this effort, this study examined the motivational factors associated with individuals’ decisions to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. This study utilized a quantitative, correlational research design with a survey comprising multiple sections: sociodemographic variables, items across six motivational factors for military service, and a Motivation-Confidence to Serve scale. The study used data from a convenience sample of 709 respondents, including college military science students …

Rigidity And Risk: A State Space Grid Analysis Of Parent-Child Interactions, Sleep, And Early Internalizing Symptoms, Brianna Trudeau

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Background. Internalizing problems in preschoolers are prevalent, cause significant impairment, and often persist into later development. Emerging research uses state space grid (SSG) methodology to examine dynamic parent-child interaction processes that may contribute to these difficulties. While affective rigidity has been linked to maladaptive outcomes, less is known about behavioral rigidity and its association with child internalizing symptoms.

Objective. This study examined whether dyadic behavioral rigidity could be represented as a latent construct across tasks, whether behavioral rigidity predicted preschool internalizing symptoms, and whether rigidity mediated the relationship between parent and child sleep problems and child internalizing symptoms.

Method. Participants …

A Living Epidemic: The Persistence Of Tuberculosis In Contemporary Indigenous Alaska, Sharon Kim , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

A Quest For Food In Bedford-Stuyvesant And Brooklyn Heights: Residential Interactions With Neighborhood Food Resources, Aidan Carroll , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis examines urban inequalities situated across Brooklyn, New York by speculating residential interactions with food resources in their neighborhood such as gardens, grocery stores, restaurants, and food pantries. With a specific focus on the areas Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Heights of Brooklyn, New York, the study utilized qualitative data such as interviews and dietary food logs during ethnographic fieldwork in order to assess the ways in which experiences with accessing food can reveal a deeper message about systemic inequalities along the lines of racism and class if we are to consider food apartheid. That said, I found that food apartheid …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 2nd International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Daniela Morganti

Faculty Publications

The report provides an overview of the second international workshop on Seismic Resilience of Arctic Infrastructure and Social Systems. The report discusses agenda, workshop activities, interdisciplinary working groups, and results. It ends with several strategic questions and investigation plans that were developed as part of the workshop activities.