Psychology Commons^™

Information Acquisition And Sociality Among Migratory Birds, Zoltán Németh

Dissertations

Information use is a key feature of adaptive behavior: the better informed an individual, the better it is able to adjust its behavior to meet the demands of a variable world. Therefore, most animals attempt to reduce environmental uncertainty by gathering information when it is available. However, tracking unpredictable ecological factors may carry costs as individuals invest valuable time and energy in the process of information acquisition. Social learning (i.e., use of social information inadvertently produced by other individuals) enables the individual to gain rapid and more complete assessment of its novel environment. This process may be particularly important for …

Capuchins (Cebus Apella) Can Solve A Means-End Problem, Anna M. Yocom, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Three capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were tested on a 2-choice discrimination task designed to examine their knowledge of support, modeled after Hauser, Kralik, and Botto-Mahan’s (1999) experiments with tamarins. This task involved a choice between 2 pieces of cloth, including 1 with a food reward placed on its surface, and a second cloth with the food reward next to its surface. After reliably solving the basic problem, the capuchins were tested with various alternations of the original food reward and cloth. The capuchins were able to solve the initial task quickly, and generalize their knowledge to additional functional and nonfunctional …

Neural Reuse As A Source Of Developmental Homology, David S. Moore, Chris Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Neural reuse theories should interest developmental psychologists because these theories can potentially illuminate the developmental relations among psychological characteristics observed across the lifespan. Characteristics that develop by exploiting pre-existing neural circuits can be thought of as developmental homologues. And, understood in this way, the homology concept that has proven valuable for evolutionary biologists can be used productively to study psychological/behavioral development.

The Effect Of Self-Efficacy Manipulation On The Efficiency, Rate Of Perceived Exertion, And Affective State Of Runners, Isabelle Stoate

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objectives: To determine the effect of self-efficacy manipulation on the movement efficiency, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and affective state of runners while running on the treadmill at a constant submaximal pace.

Methods: 20 trained male and female runners were randomly assigned to experimental (self-efficacy manipulation) and control groups. Participants first filled out a pre self-efficacy questionnaire and the positive affect negative affect schedule (PANAS), and then completed a 20 minute run on the treadmill running at 75% of their peak treadmill running speed. After 10 minutes, their oxygen consumption (VO2), heart rate (HR), and RPE was recorded. Participants (n=10) …

Neuropsychological And Emotion Processing Abnormalities In Bipolar Disorder I And Ii, Carol Randall

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder illness is marked by emotional lability and mood disturbance, as well as various neuropsychological deficits, and the neuroanatomical correlates of many of these deficits are beginning to be identified. Numerous studies have implicated specific cortical and sub-cortical abnormalities in areas associated with executive function, memory, motor function, and the processing of emotion. Although a large body of research has been devoted to the investigation of cognitive and emotion-processing deficits in bipolar disorder, relatively few studies have been devoted to the investigation of how these deficits differ among bipolar disorder subtypes. This is surprising in light of known symptomatological …

Food Handling Practices, Knowledge And Beliefs Of Families With Young Children Based On The Health Belief Model, Adeline Lum

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Objective: To determine current food handling practices, knowledge and beliefs of primary food handlers with children 10 years old and the relationship between these components.

Design: Surveys were developed based on FightBac!™ concepts and the Health Belief Model (HBM) construct.

Participants: The majority of participants (n= 503) were females (67%), Caucasians (80%), aged between 30 to 49 years old (83%), had one or two children (83%), prepared meals all or most of the time (76%) and consumed meals away from home three times or less per week (66%).

Analysis: Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (rho) …

The Use Of Horticulture And Gardening As A Special Education Tool At The High School Level, Krysta Marie Johnson

Horticulture and Crop Science

THIS REPORT CONTAINS PLANNING METHODS AND INSTALLATION PROCEDURE FOR A RAISED VEGETABLE GARDEN FOR WILSONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL, IN WILSONVILLE, OREGON. THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE GARDEN WAS TO USE IT AS A LEARNING TOOL FOR THE SPECIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AT WILSONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL. UPON DOING MORE RESEARCH IT BECAME EVIDENT THAT THE GARDEN CAN ALSO BE USED AS A HEALING TOOL FOR STUDENTS WHO SUFFER FROM ATTENTION DISORDERS AND WHO HAVE EMOTIONAL AND LEARNING DISABILITIES. THE STUDENTS HAVE BECOME INVESTED IN THE GARDEN PROJECT AND LOOK FORWARD TO DOING MORE PROJECTS WITH THEIR CLASS.

Enhanced Food Marketing To Children On The Internet: A Content Analysis, Sarah A. Ochsner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In light of the continuing epidemic of childhood obesity, aggressive food marketing strategies have come under increased scrutiny as a possible contributing factor. It has been acknowledged in numerous studies, that poor nutrient quality of food and beverages dominate children's programming. The growth in child-specific media envoys has further increased favorable opportunities to market food and beverages to children, notably less regulated and parentally unsupervised. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 65% of children aged 6-11 have home access to the Internet; and today, the majority of food manufacturers operate websites appealing to children. The Institute of Medicine issued a …

A Longitudinal Study Of Neurocognitive Deficits And Functional Outcome In Bipolar Disorder, Brian D. Leany

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder is an affective disorder that, in addition to being characterized by depressive and expansive mood symptoms, often presents with neuropsychological deficits. Bipolar disorder not only impairs an individual’s cognitive abilities, but these cognitive impairments may also impact day-to-day activities causing functional impairment. In other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, it has been shown that the neuropsychological deficits are predictive of poor, long term treatment outcome and functioning. However, while bipolar disorder affects nearly 1 - 2% of the U.S. population (Keck, McElroy, & Arnold, 2001), little is known about the extent that neurocognitive deficits may play in the …

The Effects Of Handedness And Bilateral Saccadic Eye Movements On False Alarms In Recognition Memory, Lisa Weinberg

Psychology Honors Projects

Handedness can be used as a marker for interhemispheric interaction, which can produce memory benefits. Bilateral saccadic eye movements can be used to manipulate levels of interhemispheric interaction. This study measured the effects of handedness and bilateral saccadic eye movement on memory using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. This study predicted a memory advantage for left-handers and mixed-handers without eye movements and an advantage for right-handers with the eye movements. The results do not support these predictions but do suggest that handedness is a factor in episodic memory performance. The analyses for this study were run using A’ to compare false alarm …

Group Ii Metabolic Glutamate Receptors In The Basal Amygdala Regulate Sleep And Fear-Induced Alterations In Sleep, Enheng Dong

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

Glutamate is a major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain and it has been recognized as playing an essential role in activating and maintaining arousal. Group II metabotropic glutamate (mGlu II) receptors are expressed in the amygdala, a brain structure important in the regulation of stress and anxiety as well as in the regulation of sleep and arousal. Our lab has found that the central nucleus of the amygdala (CNA) is involved in the emotional modulation of sleep. The basal amygdala (BA), which has direct connections with the CNA, is involved in conditioned fear and fear extinction. However, the potential role …

Volume 03, Cheryl Peck, Charles Hoever, Longwood Theater Department, Brittany Anderson, J. Ervin Sheldon, Richard Hayden, Yuri Calustro, Candice Fleming, Rebecca Franklin, Ashley Yocum, Danielle M. Jagoda, Cristina M. Valdivieso, Jameka Jones, Amy Ellis, Ashley Maser, Erikk Shupp, Jamie Yurasits, Joshua Davis, Alexander Leonhart, Kenny Wolfe, Sally Meadows, J. Haley, Amy Jackson, Morgan Howard, Adrienne Heinbaugh, Melissa Dorton, Ciarra Stalker

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Dean Dr. Charles Ross

Little Shop of Horrors by Longwood Theater Department

Who Has the Hottest Hotsauce in Farmville: A Quantitative Comparison of Sauces from Local Restaurants by Cheryl Peck and Charles Hoever

Precipitation Effects on the Growth of White Oaks and Virginia Pines on the Mt. Vernon Plantation by Brittany Anderson

Design and Synthesis of Novel Ion Binding Molecules for Self-Assembly and Sensing Applications by J. Ervin Sheldon

A Statistical Analysis of Algorithms for Playing SameGame by Richard Hayden

Intersecting Cylinders at Arbitrary Angles by Yuri Calustro

Putting a Foot in the Revolving Door: Strategies for Reducing …

Locus Of Control And The Age Difference In Free Recall From Episodic Memory, Paul Amrhein, Judith K. Bond, Derek Hamilton

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The authors investigated the relation of locus of control (LOC) to age differences in free-recall memory performance. Older and younger participants completed P. C. Duttweiler's (1984) Internal Control Index (ICI) and subsequently performed free-recall memory tasks. Compared with the younger participants, the older participants exhibited poorer recall with more intrusions and uncorrected repetition errors as well as reduced categorical clustering. For the older participants with less internal LOC, recall proportion and item-pair associative recall clustering were lower than for the older participants with more internal LOC. By contrast, the younger participants did not exhibit any LOC effects in their recall …

Seasonal Hippocampal Plasticity In Food-Storing Birds., David F Sherry, Jennifer S Hoshooley

Psychology Publications

Both food-storing behaviour and the hippocampus change annually in food-storing birds. Food storing increases substantially in autumn and winter in chickadees and tits, jays and nutcrackers and nuthatches. The total size of the chickadee hippocampus increases in autumn and winter as does the rate of hippocampal neurogenesis. The hippocampus is necessary for accurate cache retrieval in food-storing birds and is much larger in food-storing birds than in non-storing passerines. It therefore seems probable that seasonal change in caching and seasonal change in the hippocampus are causally related. The peak in recruitment of new neurons into the hippocampus occurs before birds …

Changes In Area Affect Figure–Ground Assignment In Pigeons, Leyre Castro, Olga F. Lazareva, Shaun P. Vecera, Edward A. Wasserman

Perception Collection

A critical cue for figure–ground assignment in humans is area: smaller regions are more likely to be perceived as figures than are larger regions. To see if pigeons are similarly sensitive to this cue, we trained birds to report whether a target appeared on a colored figure or on a differently colored background. The initial training figure was either smaller than (Experiments 1 and 2) or the same area as (Experiment 2) the background. After training, we increased or decreased the size of the figure. When the original training shape was smaller than the background, pigeons’ performance improved with smaller …

A Survey Of The Management And Development Of Captive African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana) Calves: Birth To Three Months Of Age, Nicole L. Kowalski, Robert H.I. Dale, Christa L. H. Mazur

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We used four surveys to collect information about the birth, physical growth, and behavioral development of 12 African elephant calves born in captivity. The management of the birth process and neonatal care involved a variety of standard procedures. All of the calves were born at night, between 7PM and 7AM. The calves showed a systematic progression in behavioral and physical development, attaining developmental milestones at least a quickly as calves in situ. This study emphasized birth-related events, changes in the ways that calves used their trunks, first instances of behaviors, and interactions of the calves with other, usually adult, elephants. …

40th Annual Wku Student Research Conference, Student Research Council, Western Kentucky University

Student Research Conference Select Presentations

No abstract provided.

Initial Findings On Visual Acuity Thresholds In An African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana), Melissa R. Shyan-Norwalt, Jeff Peterson, Barbara Milankow King, Timothy E. Staggs, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

There are only a few published examinations of elephant visual acuity. All involved Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and found visual acuity to be between 8′ and 11′ of arc for a stimulus near the tip of the trunk, equivalent to a 0.50 cm gap, at a distance of about 2 m from the eyes. We predicted that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) would have similarly high visual acuity, necessary to facilitate eye-trunk coordination for feeding, drinking and social interactions. When tested on a discrimination task using Landolt-C stimuli, one African elephant cow demonstrated a visual acuity of …

Gender Moderates The Association Between 5-Httlpr And Decision-Making Under Ambiguity But Not Under Risk, Scott F. Stoltenberg, Joanna M. Vandever

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Decisions made under ambiguity may involve a different genetic architecture than those made under risk. Because gender moderates the effect of genetic polymorphisms on serotonin function and because there are gender differences in decision-making, the present study examined potential gender moderation of associations between polymorphisms in important serotonin system candidate genes (serotonin transporter [SLC6A4] and tryptophan hydroxylase-2 [TPH2]) and performance on a decision-making task (Iowa Gambling Task, IGT) in healthy, adults (N = 188; 62% women). Subjects were genotyped for the well-studied SLC6A4 promoter variant 5-HTTLPR and a TPH2 single nucleotide polymorphism in intron-8 (rs1386438). Genotype at rs1386438was not …

Effects Of Chlordiazepoxide On Predator Odor-Induced Reductions Of Playfulness In Juvenile Rats, Stephen M. Siviy, Courtney L. Steets, Lauren M. Debrouse

Psychology Faculty Publications

The extent to which a non-sedative dose of chlordiazepoxide (CDP) is able to modify the behavioral responses toward a predator odor was assessed in juvenile rats. Play behavior was suppressed and defensive behaviors were enhanced in the presence of a collar previously worn by a cat, when tested 24 hours later in the same context as that where the exposure occurred, and when tested in a context different than that in which the exposure occurred for up to 3 hours after exposure. CDP had no effect on the ability of cat odor to suppress play when rats were tested in …

Octopuses (Enteroctopus Dofleini) Recognize Individual Humans, Roland C. Anderson, Jennifer A. Mather, Mathieu Q. Monette, Stephanie R.M. Zimsen

Sentience Collection

This study exposed 8 Enteroctopus dofleini separately to 2 unfamiliar individual humans over a 2-week period under differing circumstances. One person consistently fed the octopuses and the other touched them with a bristly stick. Each human recorded octopus body patterns, behaviors, and respiration rates directly after each treatment. At the end of 2 weeks, a body pattern (a dark Eyebar) and 2 behaviors (reaching arms toward or away from the tester and funnel direction) were significantly different in response to the 2 humans. The respiration rate of the 4 larger octopuses changed significantly in response to the 2 treatments; …

Squid Dances: An Ethogram Of Postures And Actions Of Sepioteuthis Sepioidea Squid With A Muscular Hydrostatic System, Jennifer A. Mather, Ulrike Griebel, Ruth A. Byrne

Sentience Collection

A taxonomy of the movement possibilities for any species, within the constraints of its neural and skeletal systems, should be one of the foundations of the study of its behaviour. Caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea, appear to have many degrees of freedom in their movement as they live in a three-dimensional habitat and have no fixed skeleton but rather a muscular hydrostatic one. Within this apparent lack of constraints, there are regularities and patterns of common occurrences that allow this article to describe an ethogram of the movements, postures and positions of squid. Squid have a combination of bent, …

Vigilance And Antipredator Responses Of Caribbean Reef Squid, Jennifer A. Mather

Sentience Collection

Antipredator responses, especially those of open-ocean squid, have been seldom studied in the natural environment. Sepioteuthis sepioidea, observed by snorkellers near the shore in early morning/late afternoon, produced an average of eight moves of over 1m per hour, apparently mostly antipredator behaviours. Close approaches by herbivorous parrotfish elicited no response in 74% of encounters; otherwise, squid produced agonistic zebra stripes or startle-mantle-dots skin patterns. Predatory bar jack fish caused flight but not zebra displays, and squid usually paled and fled quickly (66%) from snapper. The speed of approach was the best predictor for flight and display responses to snapper, …

Male Territoriality In A Social Sciurid, Cynomys Gunnisoni: What Do Patterns Of Paternity Tell Us?, J. L. Verdolin, C. N. Slobodchikoff

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

In many social sciurids, male territoriality confers significant mating advantages. We evaluated resident male paternity in Gunnison’s prairie dogs (Cynomys gunnisoni), a colonial ground-dwelling sciurid, where males and females cooperatively defend territories. Contrary to findings reported for other social sciurids, our results show that territorial resident males do not gain significant reproductive advantages. Resident males sired the majority of offspring from their respective territories only 10.5% of the time. A single non-resident male sired equal or greater number of offspring than any single resident male 71.2% of the time. While adult males were more likely to sire a greater number …

Behavior Of A Solitary Sociable Female Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Off The Coast Of Kent, Southeast England, Sonja Eisfeld, Mark P. Simmonds, Laura R. Stansfield

Ethology Collection

This article provides a report of the behavior of a solitary sociable dolphin studied on the southeast coast of England in 2007. This is the first study of its kind in which behavior of such a nonhuman animal was systematically studied. By the time of this study, this young female was highly interactive with people in the water. People accompanied the dolphin for 18.4% of the 100 hr of observation, and their presence changed her behavior. The study recorded 39 different behaviors; feeding and resting behaviors declined in frequency in the presence of people. In addition, the dolphin exhibited behavior …

Quality Prevails Over Identity In The Sexually Selected Vocalisations Of An Ageing Mammal, Elodie F. Briefer, Elisabetta Vannoni, Alan G. Mcelligott

Ethology Collection

Background: Male sexually selected vocalisations generally contain both individuality and quality cues that are crucial in intra- as well as inter-sexual communication. As individuality is a fixed feature whereas male phenotypic quality changes with age, individuality and quality cues may be subjected to different selection pressures over time. Individuality (for example, morphology of the vocal apparatus) and quality (for example, body size and dominance status) can both affect the vocal production mechanism, inducing the same components of vocalisations to convey both kinds of information. In this case, do quality-related changes to the acoustic structure of calls induce a modification of …

Weight Gain Among Adults With Intellectual Disabilities Receiving Atypical Antipsychotics, Sherri Lyn Transier

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study assessed whether the atypical antipsychotic agents olanzapine, risperidone, and quetiapine are associated with significant weight gain among adults with intellectual disabilities after 6 months of drug treatment. The body weights of 79 participants were retrieved 6 months prior to the initiation of drug treatment, at the start of the atypical antipsychotic agent, and after 6 months of drug therapy. Each individual served as his or her own control by utilizing pretreatment baseline trends in weight change to calculate a dependent measure of adjusted posttreatment weight gain. Doing so allowed for a stringent determination of the liability for …

The Influence Of Affiliative Relations On Copulatory Behaviors Of Tibetan Macaques (Macaca Thibetana), Laura P. Ginn

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The genus Macaca is the largest and most widely distributed primate genus, but M. thibetana remains understudied. Field research on this species has focused on dominance style, post-conflict behaviors, and the effects of eco-tourism, with limited research on sexual selection. As a sexually dimorphic species with linear hierarchies, rank is expected to play a role in mate choice; however, recent data suggest that male rank is not correlated with mating. This study examined affiliative behaviors of male-female dyads in a free-living group of Tibetan macaques at Mt. Huangshan, China to assess whether affiliative interactions influenced copulation patterns. The proportion of …

Comparison Of Affective Analgesia And Conditioned Place Preference Following Cholinergic Activation Of, Elena Schifirnet

Wayne State University Dissertations

Activation of the dopaminergic mesolimbic reward circuitry that originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) is postulated to preferentially suppress affective reactions to noxious stimuli (affective analgesia, AA). VTA dopamine neurons are activated via cholinergic inputs, and we have observed that microinjections of the acetylcholine agonist carbachol suppressed vocalizations of rats that occur following administration of brief (1 sec) tail-shocks (vocalization afterdischarges = VAD). VADs are a validated rodent model of pain affect. In addition, the capacity of carbachol to support reinforcement appears to be regionally dependent within VTA. Ikemoto and Wise (2002) reported that carbachol was self-administered in the …

Virtual Environments And Sensory Integration: Effects Of Aging And Stroke, Nicoleta L. Bugnariu, Joyce Fung

All Faculty Scholarship

Research was carried out on the effects of aging and sensory motor defi cits following strokes with respect to the capacity of the central nervous system to resolve sensory confl icts created by Virtual Reality (VR). The results of this research demonstrate that VR can be a valuable tool for therapeutic interventions that require an adaptation to complex, multimodal environments. The rehabilitation protocols include balancing training in virtual environments.

Les études qui ont été menées sur les effets du vieillissement et des défi cits sensori-moteurs consé-cutivement aux accidents vasculaires cérébraux concernent la capacité du système nerveux cen-tral à résoudre les …