Psychology Commons^™

Simulating Mars: Student Projects At Mars Desert Research Station (Mdrs), Ashley Hollis-Bussey, Lycourgos Manolopoulos, Marc Carofano, Hiroki Sugimoto, Cassandra Vella, John Herman

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

No abstract provided.

Observing Pfc Activation In Older Adults During Category Learning, Pooja Patel

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

There are many well-known theories of category learning, one of which is the COVIS (Competition between Verbal & Implicit Systems) theory. The COVIS theory postulates that there are two systems always competing to learn the classifying rule when categorizing—regions of basal ganglia, and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Literature supports that explicit learning is largely mediated by the PFC, while the more subcortical regions facilitates in categorizing non-verbalizable and implicit learning. Based off the assumptions of COVIS we can hypothesize that when an explicit method of categorization is being used for an implicit task, we should see greater activation, because the …

A Human Factors Approach To Improve The Department Of Defense's Patient Handoff Protocol, Nathan Walters, Agnes S. Fagerlund, Elizabeth H. Lazzara, Joseph Keebler, Elizabeth Blickensderfer

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

No abstract provided.

Virginity And Guilt Differences Between Men And Women, Caitlin M. Lipman, Alexis J. Moore

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

In this research, the authors measured the levels of sexual guilt between two groups of people on multiple levels, virgins and nonvirgins, by gender. The differences between men and women when it comes to virginity will also be studied. Based on the sample size of college students, N = 364. College students (N=364) completed a 34-item online survey of questions that measure guilt levels. Ten out of the twenty questions are demographic questions, such as: age, ethnicity, religion, year, etc. The other questions were a combination of Likert scaled questions and open ended responses. We predicted that females will produce …

Motivation For Mathematics: The Development And Initial Validation Of An Abbreviated Instrument, Kenneth Lee Butler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study outlines the development and initial validation of an abbreviated instrument intended to measure motivation for mathematics of university students in developmental algebra courses. I look across many of the predominant theories on motivation with the aim of representing several of these theories as latent constructs in a single instrument that is short enough to be administered in a reasonable amount of time, but inclusive enough that it could incorporate subscales representing multiple distinct latent factors. This study answers a call by researchers expressing a need to investigate relationships between disparate theories on motivation and is a response to …

The Implicit Learning Of Base-Rates: Evidence From Working Memory Disruption, Andrew Wismer, Corey Bohil

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Base-rates, or relative prevalence in the environment, play an important role in many diagnostic and categorical decisions. For example, in order for a doctor to make an appropriate diagnosis or treatment plan, he/she must be sensitive to the underlying base-rates. Early base-rate research seemed to show that people were insensitive to base-rates and poor at incorporating them into their judgments (e.g., Kahneman & Tverksy, 1973). However, more recent research has shown that people are sensitive to base-rates when they are learned through direct experience rather than presented in summary form (e.g., Bohil & Maddox, 2001; Estes, 1989). Using a category …

An Evaluation On How General Aviaton Pilots Learn Basic Meteorology, Jayde M. King, Elizabeth Blickensderfer, Jessica Cruit M.D.

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

An Evaluation on How General Aviation Pilots Learn Basic Meteorology

Jayde M. King, Jessica Cruit, M.S., Beth Blickensderfer, PhD.

Introduction. As General Aviation (GA) accidents continue to occur each year, industry officials as well as researchers search for insights into possible causes to these accidents. Weather, in particular degraded weather poses a threat to general aviation. In fact, according to Jarboe (2005), “weather-related airplane accidents led to 240 fatalities in the United States (U.S) and Puerto Rico”(pp.3-11). Considering these facts, questions rise to the degree to which GA pilots actually understand aviation weather knowledge. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) …

Evaluating Virtual Reality Simulators As A Training Tool For Minimally Invasive Surgery, Jennifer F. Louie, Misa Shimono

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Minimally invasive surgery offers a number of advantages over traditional open surgeries, including faster patient recovery time, fewer side effects, and improved cosmesis. However, there are also a number of difficulties involved with performing this type of surgery, including poor visuo-spatial mapping, poor depth perception, and mechanical difficulties (e.g., the fulcrum effect). Considering the decrease in residency training hours required for surgical trainees in 2011 (Rajaram et al., 2014), it is essential that surgical trainees employ training methods that would best result in high accuracy and efficiency.

Simulator-based training addresses many of the issues of traditional master-apprentice surgical training methods …

Investigating The Effects Of Stress On Cognitive And Emotional Moral Decision Making, Jessica Adams, Andrea Frankenstein, James Alabisa, Tyler Robinson, Tracy Alloway, Lori Lange

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

The dual-process theory accounts for how moral judgments are made: personal emotional dilemmas and impersonal cognitive dilemmas (Greene, 2007). In the Fisher and Ravizza (1992) Trolley Problem personal dilemma, you stop a runaway trolley and save all the workmen by pushing and killing one person on the tracks. In the Trolley Problem impersonal dilemma, you divert a runaway trolley and save all the workmen by throwing a switch and diverting the trolley killing one person on the tracks. In support of the dual-process theory, brain imaging research has demonstrated that brain regions linked with emotion (e.g., amygdala) are activated during …

Individual Differences In Working Memory Capacity And Reading Comprehension Of Electronic Texts, Jenny A. Walker, Thomas R. Redick

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Technology is unquestionably changing the nature of education. Computers, tablets, e-readers, and cell phones are rapidly replacing print text and handwritten notes. These devices are not only the dominating sources of communication in current society; they also represent a connecting point between information and the minds of modern students. The term working memory refers to the immediate, transitory processing and storage that takes place as an individual completes higher-order cognitive tasks. Working memory has a clear relationship with learning, reasoning, and comprehension in the classroom (Baddeley, 1992). However, each individual has a working memory capacity (WMC) which limits how much …

Using Debated Definitions Of Affordances For A Qualitative Discussion Of Campus Affordances, Daphne Kopel, Valerie K. Sims

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

The goal of human factors is to examine and improve the relationship between individuals and their environment. This presentation will be a qualitative review and discussion of everyday environmental cues and affordances located around the University of Central Florida campus. The goal will be to discuss the relationship between the design of perceptual affordances and the user’s interpretation of the object's intention. In general, affordances explain how perception guides an individual to respond to an object or situation. The theory of affordances is widely debated in the literature. As a result, two definitions of affordances will be compared and contrasted. …

Effects Of Various Texting Engagement Levels On Recall, Katlin Anglin, Rachel M. Cunningham, Fawaaz Diljohn, Jayde King, Youngjun Kim

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Text messaging is a popular mode of communication for current college students, which is a concern due to its association with decreasing academic performance in a classroom environment. This study examined the effects of texting engagement level on learning. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students (n=74) were shown four, one-minute lecture videos and given a quiz after each video regarding the content, which tested recall accuracy. The participants were randomly assigned to three testing engagement conditions: No texting, Low Engagement texting, and High Engagement texting. By varying the type of responses to be generated and texted, we evaluated whether the higher engagement …

Team Interaction Dynamics During Collaborative Problem Solving, Travis J. Wiltshire, Stephen M. Fiore Ph.D.

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

The need for better understanding collaborative problem solving (CPS) is rising in prominence as many organizations are increasingly addressing complex problems requiring the combination of diverse sets of individual expertise to address novel situations. This research draws from theoretical and empirical work that describes the knowledge coordination arising from team communications during CPS and builds from this by incorporating methods to study interaction dynamics. Interaction between team members in such contexts is inherently dynamic and exhibits nonlinear patterns not accounted for by extant research methods. To redress this gap, the present study draws from methods designed to study social and …

Effects Of Self-Monitoring And Social Support On Exercise Adherence, Dominic Cauteruccio

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

The purpose of this study was to look at the effects of self-monitoring and social support on minutes of exercise per week. Specifically, self-monitoring examined whether self-monitoring and self-monitoring in combination with social support would increase minutes of exercise over a four week period. The study was four weeks long, with participants randomly assigned into three groups: a control group (group 1), a self-monitoring group (group 2), and a self-monitoring plus social support group (group 3). Exercise time was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and social support was measured using the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB). …

Optimal Motivation And Cognitive Load For Enhanced Math Performance, Manooch S. Saeedi

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Educational research has a long history of investigating factors that are linked to improved academic performance. Here I examined research on three factors that impact academic performance—working memory (WM), cognitive load, and motivation. Although each of these factors were known to impact academic performance, there were no studies that examined the combined effect of these three factors on performance. The current study attempted to examine the potential connections between these factors, and their collective impact on strategies for learning in the context of math performance. Experiment 1 tested the impact of WM, cognitive load, and motivation for a math task …

Best Practice Methods For Social Work With North Koreans, Bethany Johnson

Selected Honors Theses

The people of North Korea are in deep need of social work aid. This systematic literature review highlights key best practices for working with North Koreans, both in and out of their home country. Areas of work highlighted included addressing mental illnesses, specifically PTSD, reintegration into South Korea and other neighboring nations, advocating for international human rights policies, and humanitarian aid. Specific best practice suggestions are made for each section. In addition to this review, interviews were conducted with two expert professors in order to gain greater insight on the topic.

Inferring Task Based On Eye Movements: The Living Classifier, Jordan E. Marshall, Mallory Richert, Mark Mills, Michael D. Dodd

UCARE: Research Products

Several studies, including Yarbus (1967), have found that various task instructions for viewing images influence visual behavior. This holds true for both experimenter driven and participant driven tasks. Research has also shown that classifier technology is capable of determining the task that was being performed based on the individual’s eye movements. Typically classifier technology is designed to perform tasks humans are known to be cable of performing. However, little research has been done on the human ability, or lack thereof, to determine task based on eye movements.

Purpose: To determine to what extent humans are able to classify task performed …

Emotion Regulation And Valance Bias, Drue Marr, Catherine Brown, Maital Neta

UCARE: Research Products

In this study we wanted to look at the affects of emotion regulation on individual differences in valance bias. The ability to regulate emotions brings into question how difficult/easy it is for individuals that have a more natural positive bias/disposition to them, or have a more natural negative bias/disposition to them. We would expect someone with a negative disposition to have a more difficult time regulating his or her emotions, as evidenced by the elevated EMG levels and EDA readings that we acquired. The purpose of this study was to better understand the way one perceives surprised expressions, as surprised …

Creativity In Organizations: Antecedents And Outcomes Of Individual Creativity, Goran Calic

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation I set out to expand our collective understanding of creativity in organizations. I accomplish this through three related studies, each organized into independent chapters of this dissertation.

The first study explores how demands of organizations, particularly strategic contradictions faced by decision makers, affect creative processes and products. In this chapter I develop the theory of paradoxical creativity, which posits that creative discovery is a function of how strategic contradictions are perceived by decision-makers. The key insight of the theory of paradoxical creativity is that strategic contradictions have independent effects on the two stages of creative discovery (generation …

Race And Gender And The Perception Of Masculinity And Femininity Of The American Political Parties, Jessica Dulz

Political Science Theses and Capstones

How Americans select and identify with a political party can have many different sources. One important source has been found to be the effects of gender and perceptions of masculinity and femininity on party identification. I look deeper into this phenomenon to analyze the effects of race on the perception of masculine and feminine traits within Democrats and Republicans. In order to study this, I analyze 2012 American National Election Study (ANES) data. I hypothesize that among whites the results will be similar to previous studies which found Republicans to be much more favorable of masculine traits and Democrats to …

Game-Based Selective Attention Intervention: Effect Of Blink On Selective Attention For Street Youth In Zambia, Brittany S. Richard

Senior Honors Theses

The following study was conducted to evaluate the effect of a game-based intervention in the form of a card game, Blink, on selective attention for a sample of street youth in Zambia, Africa. Based on previous research suggesting that selective attention and executive functioning may be modified by game-based interventions in various populations and contexts, this study sought to employ a card game intervention for selective attention. The study was conducted with a repeated measures design, with a paired sample within-groups t-test adapted from the TEA-Ch Sky Search measure of selective attention, and the card game Blink as a …

The Sankofa Bird And Reflection, Appiah Kubi Kwarteng

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

As a minister of the Gospel, I have often reflected on the tension between Paul’s counsel in Philippians 3:13, 14 (forgetting those things that are behind, I press toward the mark) and Ellen G. White’s (1902) counsel that “we have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and his teaching in our past history” (p. 196). On the one hand it seems that we should forget the past, while on the other hand we are advised to remember our past and the way the Lord has led us in …

Acute Stress Exposure And Expression Of Instrumentally Conditioned Financial Preferences: An Fmri Study, William Travis Mccuddy

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Recent research suggests acute stress exposure is associated with increased habit-based over goal-oriented decision making (e.g., Schwabe & Wolf, 2011). The current study examined whether acute stress promotes the expression of simple financial preferences “overtrained” to the point of habit in the face of a changing environment where said preferences were later rendered non-optimal. Over three days participants (N = 28) learned to discriminate between visual stimuli probabilistically associated with monetary gains or losses and made decisions between stimuli with real financial outcomes. On the fourth day after exposure to either an acute stressor or control procedure participants performed the …

Video Game Interventions To Improve Cognition In Older Adults, David E. C. Marra

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Cognitive abilities decline as part of the normal aging process. Various non-pharmacological interventions are being studied in an effort to ameliorate this cognitive decline. Some of these interventions include computerized cognitive training, such as neuropsychological software (i.e., brain training games) and video games. A previous study in our lab found that older adults who played a brain training game or a video poker game showed similar cognitive gains. The purpose of the present study was to follow the methodological procedures of our previous study to try and determine if the positive effects seen for the brain training program and video …

“My Logic Is Undeniable”: Replicating The Brain For Ideal Artificial Intelligence, Samuel C. Adams

Senior Honors Theses

Alan Turing asked if machines can think, but intelligence is more than logic and reason. I ask if a machine can feel pain or joy, have visions and dreams, or paint a masterpiece. The human brain sets the bar high, and despite our progress, artificial intelligence has a long way to go. Studying neurology from a software engineer’s perspective reveals numerous uncanny similarities between the functionality of the brain and that of a computer. If the brain is a biological computer, then it is the embodiment of artificial intelligence beyond anything we have yet achieved, and its architecture is advanced …

Language And Cognition: Insight From Exceptional Cases, Anna Snyder

Senior Honors Theses

The understanding of the world in the human mind is accomplished through cognitive processing and articulated through linguistic processing. Undoubtedly, there is a significant connection between language and cognition because of how intricately they work together to create and express meaning. Researchers from a variety of fields have sought to discover the specifics of these domains to determine what kind of relationship exists between them and how the involvement between language and cognition should be best represented. Though they obviously interact, the different characteristics of each domain provide evidence that linguistic processes and cognitive processes may be distinct. Rather than …

The Effects Of Alarm System Errors On Dependence: Moderated Mediation Of Trust With And Without Risk, Eric T. Chancey

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Research on sensor-based signaling systems suggests that false alarms and misses affect operator dependence via two independent psychological processes, hypothesized as two types of trust. These two types of trust manifest in two categorically different behaviors: compliance and reliance. The current study links the theoretical perspective outlined by Lee and See (2004) to the compliance-reliance paradigm, and argues that trust mediates the false alarm-compliance relationship but not the miss-reliance relationship. Specifically, the key conditions to allow the mediation of trust are: The operator is presented with a salient choice to depend on the signaling system and the risk associated with …

Reinforcement Learning, Error-Related Negativity, And Genetic Risk For Alzheimer's Disease, Christina Marie Figueroa

Dissertations (1934 -)

Reinforcement learning (RL) has been widely used as a model of animal and human learning and decision-making. The neural networks underlying RL involve many of the same structures primarily affected by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) such as the hippocampus. Yet, RL and non-invasive evaluation of its neural underpinnings have been underutilized as a framework for understanding disease pathology and its pre-clinical states. This study aimed to provide a novel approach for assessing subtle changes in asymptomatic apolipoprotein-E (APOE) carriers and non-carriers. Electroencephalography was collected from forty APOE genotyped older adults (Male n = 11; Mage = 79.30; Meducation = 14.88 years) …

Cognitive Dissonance Within The Realm Of Implicit Bias, Shelby Luptak

Undergraduate Research Conference

According to research professors from Harvard University, one’s individual actions will affect his fundamental preferences or beliefs. This is in compliance to cognitive dissonance theory, which posits that an “individual experiences a mental discomfort after taking an action that seems to be in conflict with his or her starting attitude” (Acharya, Blackwell, & Sen, p. 2) Individuals will then choose to subconsciously change their attitudes or beliefs to “conform more closely with their actions” (Acharya et al., p. 2). In other words, from a starting attitude, one makes the decision to engage in contradictory behavior, which results in a change …

The Memory Professor: With A $600,000 Grant, Jennifer Coane Continues To Probe What We Remember And Why, Jenny Chen

Colby Magazine

Assistant Professor of Psychology Jennifer Coane is an expert in the science of memory, studying how we construct false memories, how memory changes as we age, and how to apply cognitive psychology to study techniques. In August 2015 she received a multiyear $600,000 grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation for her work in understanding human cognition—a prestigious award the foundation typically gives to scientists at large research universities.