The Relationship Between Adhd And Trait Facets Of The Five-Factor Model, Todd William Bennett

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Facets of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) were examined in order to understand its interaction with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)-symptoms. By utilizing archival data, in a correlational design, adults between the ages of 18-66 were tested for the presence of ADHD, which was then compared with data gathered from the NEO-PI-R. Comorbid psychiatric conditions often associated with ADHD were accounted for in the design. Results partially supported the hypotheses, specifically, that altruism was inversely related to Impulsivity, as predicted. However, other findings largely did not support a relationship between other specific NEO-PI-R facets and ADHD. Other significant relationships that were …

The Behavioral Effects Of First-Generation Electronic Cigarettes After 24-Hour Tobacco Deprivation, Arit M. Harvanko

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Little is currently known about the ability of electronic cigarettes to manage tobacco withdrawal symptoms and their abuse liability. In the current study eight conventional cigarette smokers completed nine within-subject study sessions. In the first session participants practiced using an electronic cigarette containing 16 mg/ml of nicotine over six 10-puff bouts. Remaining study sessions were comprised of four two-day blocks (one for each condition), which assessed measures of tobacco withdrawal symptoms and abuse liability following unrestricted cigarette smoking and 24-hour tobacco deprivation. Study conditions included an electronic cigarette with 0, 8, or 16 mg/ml nicotine concentrations, or preferred brand of …

The Balloon Analogue Risk Task And Behavioral Correlates In Pigeons, Aaron P. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Individuals experience risk ubiquitously, but measuring risk taking is difficult. The balloon analogue risk task (BART) was developed in order to assess risk taking through having subjects press a key that accrues reward but also risk losing all reward with each press. In humans, greater responding in this task is associated with other maladaptive risk taking behaviors. The present research modeled this relationship in pigeons due to their previously shown propensity towards risk taking behavior. Experiment 1 used an unsignaled balloon task in which losing could only occur after 5 pecks. Results showed below optimal performance with greater pecks associated …

Human Behavior During Spaceflight - Evidence From An Analog Environment, Kenny M. Arnaldi, Guy Smith, Jennifer E. Thropp

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Spaceflight offers a multitude of stressors to humans living and working in space, originating from the external space environment and the life-support system. Future space participants may be ordinary people with different medical and psychosocial backgrounds who may not receive the intense spaceflight preparation of astronauts. Consequently, during a mission, a space participant’s mood and behavior could differ from a trained astronaut. This study was an exploratory research project that used an artificial habitat to replicate an orbital environment and the activities performed by humans in space. The study evaluated whether the type of environment affects mood and temperament. Two …

From Sex Objects To Human Beings: Masking Sexual Body Parts And Humanization As Moderators To Women’S Objectification, Philippe Bernard, Sarah Gervais, Jill Allen, Alice Delmée, Olivier Klein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Recent studies have shown that sexualized female bodies are objectified at a cognitive level. Research using the body-inversion recognition task, a robust indicator of configural (vs. analytic processing) within cognitive psychology, shows that for sexualized female bodies, people recognize upright and inverted bodies similarly rather than recognizing upright bodies better than inverted bodies (i.e., an inversion effect). This finding suggests that sexualized female bodies, like objects, are recognized analytically (rather than configurally). Nonetheless, it remains unclear when and why sexualized female bodies are objectified at a basic cognitive level. Grounded in objectification theory, the present experiments examine moderating factors that …

Repeated Administration Of Aripiprazole Produces A Sensitization Effect In The Suppression Of Avoidance Responding And Phencyclidine-Induced Hyperlocomotion And Increases D2 Receptor-Mediated Behavioral Function, Jun Gao, Rongyin Qin, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study investigated how repeated administration of aripiprazole (a novel antipsychotic drug) alters its behavioral effects in two behavioral tests of antipsychotic activity and whether this alteration is correlated with an increase in dopamine D₂ receptor function. Male adult Sprague-Dawley rats were first repeatedly tested with aripiprazole (3, 10 and 30 mg/kg, subcutaneously (sc)) or vehicle in a conditioned avoidance response (CAR) test or a phencyclidine (PCP) (3.20 mg/kg, sc)-induced hyperlocomotion test daily for five consecutive days. After 2–3 days of drug-free retraining or resting, all rats were then challenged with aripiprazole (1.5 or 3.0 mg/kg, sc). Repeated …

Peer Tutoring To Teach Children To Seek Help When Lost, Andrew J. Arellano

All Master's Theses

There are many programs that are designed to teach children safety skills. Skills such as gun safety, first aid, and abduction prevention have all been taught using a method called Behavioral Skills Training (BST). However, BST only teaches a few children at a time and is often taught by an expert. This study aimed to test whether young children (5 year olds) can learn from older peer trainers (11 & 12 year olds) who have been taught to use BST. The safety skill targeted for the current study was the behavior of seeking help when lost in a store because …

Empirical Investigation Of Samhsa’S (Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration) Model Of Wellness, Dipanjana Das

Dissertations and Theses

The quest to operationalize the construct of wellness has been elusive. Part of the difficulty resides in the way wellness has been conceptualized in the literature, using different non-overlapping models. Another drawback is that many existing models are not based on solid empirical evidence. The current study addressed these limitations by assessing the empirical validity of SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) model of wellness. We created an instrument to assess wellness based on a thorough review of the literature that serves as the basis of the SAMHSA model that can be used to assess wellness. Findings revealed …

Reducing Subjectivity: Meditation And Implicit Bias, Diana M. Ciuca

CMC Senior Theses

Implicit association of racial stereotypes is brought about by social conditioning (Greenwald & Krieger, 2006). This conditioning can be explained by attractor networks (Sharp, 2011). Reducing implicit bias through meditation can show the effectiveness of reducing the rigidity of attractor networks, thereby reducing subjectivity. Mindfulness meditation has shown to reduce bias from the use of one single guided session conducted before performing an Implicit Association Test (Lueke & Gibson, 2015). Attachment to socially conditioned racial bias should become less prevalent through practicing meditation over time. An experimental model is proposed to test this claim along with a reconceptualization of consciousness …

The Gaze-Cueing Effect In The United States And Japan: Influence Of Cultural Differences In Cognitive Strategies On Control Of Attention, Saki Takao, Yusuke Yamani, Atsunori Ariga

Psychology Faculty Publications

The direction of seen gaze automatically and exogenously guides visual spatial attention, a phenomenon termed as the gaze-cueing effect. Although this effect arises when the duration of stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) between a non-predictive gaze cue and the target is relatively long, no empirical research examined the factors underlying this extended cueing effect. Two experiments compared the gaze-cueing effect at longer SOAs (700 ms) in Japanese and American participants. Cross-cultural studies on cognition suggest that Westerners tend to use a context-independent analytical strategy to process visual environments, whereas Asians use a context-dependent holistic approach. We hypothesized that Japanese participants would …

Effects Of Headings On Processing Of Audio Texts, Hung-Tao Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Text-to-speech devices often do a poor job of translating signals such as headings from visual into audio mode. Previous research studies have attempted to address this problem but these studies have mainly used heading detection tasks. The current study seeks to investigate 1) whether listeners find the presence of audio headings useful in natural learning tasks, and 2) the type of heading rendering that is most useful in natural learning tasks. The three learning tasks in this study include note-taking, cued recall, and knowledge transfer. Results from this study reveal that listeners find audio headings useful in the note-taking task. …

The Effects Of Alcohol-Related Visual Stimuli On Inhibitory Control And Attentional Bias: Testing The Roles Of Classical Conditioning And Semantic Priming, Ramey G. Monem

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol research has shown that alcohol-related stimuli can disrupt behavioral control and attract more attention in alcohol drinkers. Stimuli typically used in tasks assessing these mechanisms are likely representative of an individual's history. Responses to visual stimuli that no longer closely resemble an individual's history may help shed light on whether these behaviors are due to classical conditioning or processes such as semantic priming. Hypotheses were tested using typical visual stimuli and modified, abstract versions in these tasks. 41 participants were exposed to these stimuli types while using a visual dot probe task. The difference in degree of attentional bias …

Representation Of Affect From Fmri Data As A Function Of Stimulus Modality And Judgment Task, Jongwan Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The theory of core affect posits that the neural system processes affective aspects of stimuli encountered by the organism quickly and automatically, resulting in a unified affective state described along the dimensions of valence and arousal. Core affect theory posits two functional subsystems that guide affective processing: a sensory integration and a visceramotor network. The proposed study investigates how the representation of affective dimensions depends on sensory modality, features of the task, and brain regions. A series of behavioral studies was run to develop an experimental stimulus set of silent videos and musical clips that met requirements of equating valence …

The Syntax-Space Effect, Timothy W. Boiteau

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has linked the concept of number and other ordinal series to space via a spatially-oriented number line. Other researchers have shown that language as well may have an underlying spatial representation, though this seems to be tied to visual scene recognition and production and is potentially an idiosyncratic effect of a limited set of concrete verbs. In this dissertation, employing a novel method that measures the underlying spatial biases of actors in transitive sentences, I show that findings from previous studies showing a relationship between transitivity and space reflect an interaction between word order in the sentence, order …

Sleep Extension And Stable Sleep Schedules In Older Adults, Alexandria M. Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations

There is consistent evidence demonstrating a “U-shaped” association between sleep duration and mortality, as well as several morbidities, such as increased systemic inflammation, decreased cognitive performance, and mood disturbances. Much of the information on long sleep is epidemiological in nature. The present study examined the associations between sleep duration and extension on mood, inflammation, and cognition. Ten (50-79 y) healthy adults who report sleeping 6-8 h were assessed on cognitive, emotional, and inflammatory measures in a cross-over design. Following a baseline week, participants were randomized to one of two three-week treatments: (1) a control treatment of habitual time in bed; …

An Investigation Of The Increased Reliance On Familiarity In Associative Recognition Of Unitized Compound Word Pairs, Fahad Naveed Ahmad

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Unitization refers to when two components are integrated or combined into a single unit. So the whole is more familiar than the parts (Graf & Schacter, 1989). Previous researchers have shown unitization of unrelated word pairs can occur by the use of compound definition. As support, they have found unitization to increase reliance on familiarity in associative recognition. The purpose of this PhD dissertation was to examine the effects of unitization of preexperimental associations on associative recognition. The effects of associative recognition of unitized compound word (CW) pairs can serve as a useful benchmark to compare to that of other …

An Exploration Of The Wheel-Induced Feeding-Suppression, Stephen Benjamin Peckham

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Anorexia nervosa is an enigmatic human condition typified by food-restriction that is often accompanied by extensive exercise. This has been modeled in rats in the wheel-induced feeding-suppression (WIFS) model. In this model, animals are given access to a running-wheel, which induces a volitional drop in food-consumption. Short periods of wheel access have induced a feeding-suppression which is effectively reversed by chlorpromazine administration (Adams et al., 2009). Recent attempts at replicating Adams et al.’s (2009) feeding-suppression have, however, been unsuccessful (Peckham et al., 2013). These attempts raised questions as to whether or not the existing methodology is most effective at suppressing …

The Motivation To Express Prejudice, Patrick S. Forscher, William T.L. Cox, Nicholas Graetz, Patricia G. Devine

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Contemporary prejudice research focuses primarily on people who are motivated to respond without prejudice and the ways in which unintentional bias can cause these people to act inconsistent with this motivation. However, some real-world phenomena (e.g., hate speech, hate crimes) and experimental findings (e.g., Plant & Devine, 2001; 2009) suggest that some expressions of prejudice are intentional. These phenomena and findings are difficult to explain solely from the motivations to respond without prejudice. We argue that some people are motivated to express prejudice, and we develop the motivation to express prejudice (MP) scale to measure this motivation. In seven studies …

Investigating The Role Of Objective And Subjective Task Complexity On Retirement Investment Plan Earnings Judgments, Natasha Hardy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This research addressed the effect of retirement plan task complexity on retirement plan earnings estimates. Past research has shown that increased task complexity results in more decision-making errors as well increased use of heuristics, or rules of thumb, which can result in non-optimal outcomes such as under-saving or disproportionate equity/income balances (Benartzi & Thaler, 2001, 2007; Maynard & Hakel, 1997). This research used two experiments to test whether individuals would judge a retirement investment plan with high task complexity to be more profitable than a plan with low task complexity - a non-normative and potentially costly bias. Experiment 1 used …

Alterations To Taste Preference In Mc4r Haploinsufficiency Manifest Prior To Dietary Induced Obesity And Are Accompanied By Dendritic Spine Alterations To Medium Spiny Neurons Of The Nucleus Accumbens In Adulthood, Robert Francis Roscoe Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and has become an increasing public health concern for developed nations. Haploinsufficiency of melanocortin receptor 4 has been identified as the single most common monogenetic cause of obesity in humans. Using the MC4R +/- haploinsufficient rat, we sought to determine potential alterations in body weight and morphology, locomotor activity, sucrose concentration preference, and progressive-ratio operant testing in a dietary-induced obesity environment. Rats were placed on four separate diets corresponding to 1.7% saturated fat with 12.2% total kcal/fat, 6% saturated fat with a 40% total kcal/fat, 12% saturated fat with a 40% …

A Preliminary Study Of Distracted Driving, Sarina Karwande, Ashley Nieto, Lauren Rhodes

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report distracted driving is a “problem on the rise” with increasing numbers injuries and deaths each year. More than 9 people are killed each day while more than 1,153 people are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. Specifically, the number one killer of adolescents (ages 15-24) is automobile related deaths due to distracted driving. One of the most dangerous forms of distracted driving is texting while driving because it combines all three types of distraction: visual, manual, and cognitive. Texting and driving is a growing public safety hazard as seen through media and …

Hemispheric Bases For Emotion And Memory, Tad T. Brunyé, Sarah R. Cavanagh, Ruth E. Propper

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The goal of this Research Topic was to bring together diverse scientific perspectives on lateralized brain mechanisms underlying emotion, motivation, and memory. The Topic resulted in eight articles, three of which report original research and five of which review and synthesize past research with the aim of developing new hypotheses and theory. A range of international experts with diverse backgrounds, theoretical perspectives, and experimental methods contributed to the Topic. Contributions strongly reflect this diversity, ranging from examining pupil dilation in response to viewing Rembrandt portraits to understanding how caffeine supplementation influences levels of spatial processing. In all cases, the authors …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Value-Enhancing Effects Of Nicotine, Bupropion, And Varenicline In Male And Female Rats, Scott Barrett

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Smoking and tobacco dependence are serious health concerns in the United States and globally. Reward via the pharmacological effects of nicotine are believed to be the principal motivating factor that drive tobacco dependence. Research reveals differences in sensitivity between males and females to the motivational effects of nicotine in tobacco use. Enhancement of reinforcement value of non-nicotine rewards contributes to overall nicotine reward. Similar value-enhancing effects have been observed by the two most commonly prescribed smoking cessation aids, bupropion and varenicline. The present dissertation investigated the value-enhancing effects of nicotine, bupropion and varenicline in both male and female rats using …

Factors That Affect Attachment Between The Employed Mother And The Child, Infancy To Two Years, Naureen Kassamali, Salma Amin Rattani

School of Nursing & Midwifery

To explore a mother's feeling of attachment and the affects her working status on the attachment relationship with her child, upon ethical clearance from the institutional ethics committee, in-depth interviews of nine participants were conducted. Mothers enrolled were those who resumed the employment within the first year of post-delivery and were having a child up to two years of age. Results revealed that maternal employment itself does not enhance or deteriorate attachment with the child. It is combinations of factors that revolve around it impact on their bond. Overall, maternal integration or the balance of the dual roles of employment …

The Effect Of Grapes In Mice With Alzheimer's Disease And Brain Injury, Nikita Mistry

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder resulting in cognitive and memory deficits and deposits of amyloid beta (Aβ) in the cortex and hippocampus are thought to be significant contributors to the disease process. Increasing evidence suggests that foods rich in polyphenols, such as pomegranates and grapes, may have neuroprotective effects in both rodents and humans. Our previous research has shown that a pomegranate-enriched diet decreased Aβ plaque load and improved behavior in Tg2576 mice. In this study, we determined whether a grape-enriched diet altered Aβ neuropathology and TBI in PSAPP mice. Mice received either craniotomy or a moderate …

Effects Of Oxytocin On Human Aggression, Joseph L. Alcorn Iii

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

EFFECTS OF OXYTOCIN ON HUMAN AGGRESSION

Joseph Louis Alcorn III, B.S.

Advisory Professor: Scott D. Lane, Ph.D.

Human interaction is comprised of common, yet complex, behaviors and the outcomes of these social behaviors can beneficially or detrimentally impact individual and public health. One social behavior that can have profound detrimental outcomes is aggression. Aggression is a class of social behavior that is particularly prevalent in individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and comorbid substance use disorder (SUD). Aggression in these individuals can manifest at maladaptive levels that place considerable burdens on public health and communities. Therefore, understanding the neurobehavioral underpinnings …

Change Detection In Rhesus Monkeys And Humans, Deepna T. Devkar, Deepna T. Devkar

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Visual working memory (VWM) is the temporary retention of visual information and a key component of cognitive processing. The classical paradigm for studying VWM and its encoding limitations has been change detection. Early work focused on how many items could be stored in VWM, leading to the popular theory that humans could remember no more than 4±1 items. More recently, proposals have suggested that VWM is a noisy, continuous resource distributed across virtually all items in the visual field, resulting in diminished memory quality rather than limited quantity. This debate about the nature of VWM has predominantly been studied with …

Evaluation Of Novel Κappa Opioid Agonists Alone And In Combination With D-Amphetamine On Locomotor Activity In Sprague-Dawley Rats Evaluation Of Novel Κappa Opioid Agonists Alone And In Combination With D-Amphetamine On Locomotor Activity In Sprague-Dawley Rats, Mary Melissa Peet

Dissertations

Stimulant abuse is a widespread problem that often leads to detrimental health and social consequences. Currently, there are no FDA-approved pharmacotherapies available as a treatment option for stimulant abuse or the prevention of relapse. Drugs targeting kappa opioid receptors (KOR) are under investigation as a potential pharmacotherapy. KOR agonists have been shown to modulate dopamine levels within brain reward pathways, thereby producing anti-addictive effects. Traditional KOR agonists unfortunately tend to produce untoward side effects, including sedation, limiting their therapeutic utility. Structurally different from traditional KOR agonists, salvinorin A (salvA) may produce less sedating effects while still exerting anti-addictive properties. SalvA …

An Attempt To Establish Approval As A Learned Reinforcer, Kelly T. Kohler

Dissertations

Approval does not function as a powerful reinforcer for many children with autism, making it difficult to reinforce appropriate behavior in a functional and consistent manner. The current study first assessed the effects of establishing approval (“Nice,” accompanied by a smile and nod) and nonsense words as discriminative stimuli, with the intent that they might also become learned reinforcers. We conducted several experiments to assess the effectiveness of approval as a reinforcer, including tests on learning new responses (receptive, expressive, freeoperant, and simple simultaneous discriminations) and tests on the performance of previously mastered responses (receptive and expressive responses). Despite the …

The Use Of Response Interruption Redirection, Timeout, And Differential Reinforoement To Decrease Stereotypy, Jessica Korneder

Dissertations

Behaviors such as toe walking, hand flapping, nonfunctional vocalizations, and rocking are all examples of stereotypy. Stereotypy can occur at high rates in children with and without developmental delays (Smith & Van Houten, 1996). These behaviors can interfere with the acquisition of new skills (e.g., Dunlap, Dyer, & Koegel, 1983; Morrison & Rosales-Ruiz, 1997) and social interactions (Jones, Wint, & Ellis, 1990). The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of response interruption and redirection (RIRD), time-out, and differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) in reducing vocal and motor stereotypy with children who engage in automatically reinforced high-rates …