Psychology Commons^™

Numerical Quantity Estimation In The Elderly, With And Without Cognitive Impairment, Brett Bradley Campbell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This study examined mental representation of numerical quantity in 25 elderly participants with varying degrees of cognitive impairment. An analogue number-line task has been used in research of mental representation of numerical quantity in children, but little of such research has been done in elderly populations. This research also examined the clinical utility of this number-line task as a diagnostic tool for dementia and cognitive impairment in old age.

The Telling Line: The Relationship Between Cognitive Style And Fashion Design Sketching, Mary K. Culpepper

Creative Studies Graduate Student Master's Theses

This mixed-methods exploratory study addresses a gap in the literature by testing for links between cognitive style and the gestalt of sketches produced by college-level fashion design students. Students’ cognitive styles were appraised with the FourSight assessment, a measure of problem-solving preference gaining use in design schools. Then participants sketched fashion designs to complete a design brief. Panels of raters trained in FourSight reviewed the sketches to assess the cognitive styles of the sketchers. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant degree of interrater reliability, while qualitative analysis indicated emergent themes of selection, attitude, and innovation that aligned with FourSight types. The …

Designing A Novel Steering Wheel For Generation-Y, Baby Boomers, And Engineers, Mary Mossey

All Theses

Historically, the steering wheel has been viewed as a stylistic or utility component of the vehicle; however, as in-vehicle technology increases, the steering wheel may provide a way to integrate technologies into the vehicle. This study built upon a usability study that examined a broad range of steering wheels. In the current study, participants designed their ideal steering wheel for a concept vehicle by using a paper prototyping method. Fifty-five participants (20 young adults 18 to 30 years of age, 20 older adults 47 to 65 years of age, and 15 male automotive engineering graduate students 18 to 30 years …

Her Voice Lingers On And Her Memory Is Strategic: Effects Of Gender On Directed Forgetting, Hwajin Yang, Sujin Yang, Giho Park

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The literature on directed forgetting has employed exclusively visual words. Thus, the potentially interesting aspects of a spoken utterance, which include not only vocal cues (e.g., prosody) but also the speaker and the listener, have been neglected. This study demonstrates that prosody alone does not influence directed-forgetting effects, while the sex of the speaker and the listener significantly modulate directed-forgetting effects for spoken utterances. Specifically, forgetting costs were attenuated for female-spoken items compared to male-spoken items, and forgetting benefits were eliminated among female listeners but not among male listeners. These results suggest that information conveyed in a female …

Gait Analysis Of Teenagers And Young Adults Diagnosed With Autism & Severe Verbal Communication Disorders, Michael J. Weiss, Matthew F. Moran, Mary E. Parker, John T. Foley

All PTHMS Faculty Publications

Both movement differences and disorders are common within autism spectrum disorders (ASD). These differences have wide and heterogeneous variability among different ages and sub-groups all diagnosed with ASD. Gait was studied in a more homogeneously identified group of nine teenagers and young adults who scored as “severe” in both measures of verbal communication and overall rating of Autism on the Childhood Autism Rating Scales (CARS). The ASD individuals were compared to a group of typically developing university undergraduates of similar ages. All participants walked a distance of 6-meters across a GAITRite (GR) electronic walkway for six trials. The ASD and …

Relations Between Sexual Identity Exploration And Risky Sexual Behavior In Emerging Adulthood, Jennifer J. Reid

Theses and Dissertations

Examined within this study were the relations between two processes within sexual identity development, sexual identity exploration and sexual identity commitment, and risky sexual behaviors. The moderating effects of sexual identity commitment, sexual self-efficacy, and positive condom use attitudes on relations between sexual identity exploration and risky sexual behaviors were also examined. Risky sexual behaviors included the frequency of substance prior to and barrier protection use during sex, multiple sex partners, and the initiation of sex prior to age sixteen. Study participants included 322 college students attending an urban university in the Southeastern United States. All were heterosexual and reported …

Personality; A Deciding Factor In Leadership, Gordon Hoffman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The goal of the proposed study is to assess whether particular personality styles of leaders relate to both their management style and degree of perceived work success of the individuals they help guide or direct. The basic question that underlies my hypotheses is: Does the personality style of the leader of a group affect the leadership style, group productivity, and group cooperation? I will be using the Big Five Inventory (John, Donahue, & Kentle 1991) and the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (SLPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2006a; Kouzes & Posner, 2006b) to measure these constructs. Using a Repeated Measures ANOVA on …

Engagement And Appraisals Of Risky Behaviors Among Repressors In A University Sample, Melissa Nicole Slavin

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Repressors are individuals who report low anxiety on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (Taylor, 1953) and high defensiveness on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). These individuals are largely out o f touch with their true feelings o f anxiety and general distress, as indicated by discrepancies between their self-reported emotions and objectively measured physiological symptoms. Prior research has indicated that repressors underreport behaviors that could be negatively perceived, such as substance and alcohol use. This study assessed risky behaviors and appraisals o f benefits and consequences among 50 classified repressors and 50 randomly selected nonrepressors from …

Are All Voices Created Equal?: Conditional Indirect Effects Of Directness Of One's Voice On Perceived Uncertainty And Performance, Dennis Lawrence Poepsel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current investigations was to examine the effects of the amount of voice one is given during decision-making on group behaviors. In particular, across two studies, participants were members of groups that needed to make a decision. In these situations, participants were provided varying degrees of voice during a decision-making process. Depending on the study, participants were either given a direct voice (Personal Voice), an indirect voice (Group Voice), a direct voice and an indirect voice (Composite Voice), or were not allowed a voice (No Voice). The results of Study 1 found that having Personal Voice or …

Content And Concept: An Examination Of Transcendental Empiricism, Charles Macmillan Urban

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I critically examine the philosophy of transcendental empiricism. Transcendental empiricism is, among other things, a philosophy of mental content. It attempts to dissolve an epistemological dilemma of mental content by splitting the difference between two diametrically opposed accounts of content. John McDowell's minimal empiricism and Richard Gaskin's minimalist empiricism are two versions of transcendental empiricism. Transcendental empiricism itself originates with McDowell's work. This dissertation is divided into five parts. First, in the Introduction, I state the Wittgensteinian metaphilosophical orientation of transcendental empiricism. This metaphilosophical approach provides a plateau upon which much of the rest of this work …

Everything Is Flat: The Transcendence Of The One In Neoplatonic Ontology, Joshua Packwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation research addresses the relationship between the One and everything else in Neoplatonic metaphysics. Plato is vague in describing this distinction and thus much of late antiquity attempts to fill in the gaps, as it were. The potential difficulty, however, is that the hierarchy of existence in late antiquity is susceptible to being understood as postulating a being that is "beyond being." To avoid this difficulty, I propose an interpretation of Dionysius the Areopagite to show that being is, by definition, intelligible and thus finite and limited. Since the first principle is that which is infinite it therefore cannot …

A Conceptual Model Of Exploration Wayfinding: An Integrated Theoretical Framework And Computational Methodology, Matthew Lee Tenney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an attempt to integrate contending cognitive approaches to modeling wayfinding behavior. The primary goal is to create a plausible model for exploration tasks within indoor environments. This conceptual model can be extended for practical applications in the design, planning, and Social sciences. Using empirical evidence a cognitive schema is designed that accounts for perceptual and behavioral preferences in pedestrian navigation. Using this created schema, as a guiding framework, the use of network analysis and space syntax act as a computational methods to simulate human exploration wayfinding in unfamiliar indoor environments. The conceptual model provided is then implemented …

A Need For Green: An Approach For Motivating Environmentally Sustainable Practices At The University Of Rhode Island, Alyssa Mason, Mary Vidal

Senior Honors Projects

“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade

Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man details his yearlong experiment to live without creating any environmental impact. As sophomores we were inspired by Beavan’s journey but also skeptical of living a completely no-impact lifestyle as college-students. Although we were motivated to try to live sustainably, our efforts were dormant until our junior year. That year we decided that we would attempt to live up to the standards set forth by Beavan--understanding that some practices would be harder …

A College Study On Grief, Depression, And Anxiety, Briana Alexandre Paulo

Senior Honors Projects

Trauma and stress have been commonly studied with the occurrence of anxiety disorders. However, less research has been conducted on the relationship between the experience of loss, the centrality of the loss to a person’s identity and the experience and severity of symptoms of depression and anxiety. Current research has examined the relationship between a significant stressful event and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Symptoms of anxiety and depression are experienced by people during various points in their life, although higher levels of these disorders may be exhibited after having experienced a loss or stressful life event.

Grief can …

Token Reinforcement And Resistance To Change, Eric A. Thrailkill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Interventions based on a token economy effectively reduce problematic behavior. Yet, treatment gains deteriorate once an intervention is discontinued. It is important to better understand the persistence of behavior maintained by token reinforcement in simple experimental procedures. A Pavlovian association with primary reinforcement is said to endow neutral stimuli (e.g., coins, poker chips, lights, signs, stickers, etc.) with their own function to strengthen behavior as conditioned reinforcers. Behavioral momentum theory suggests that resistance to change under conditions of disruption is the appropriate measure of response strength. However, some animal studies have suggested that conditioned reinforcement may not affect resistance to …

An Investigation Of Clinically Significant Change Among Clients Of A Doctoral Psychology Training Clinic, Kerry Kathleen Prout

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The current study sought to examine client outcome data for clients seen for outpatient psychotherapy services by graduate-level student therapists in doctoral psychology training clinics in order to better understand the change process occurring in such settings and to examine whether services being offered are meaningful for clients. One hundred ninety-nine clients seen by graduate-level therapists at a training clinic setting were assessed on a session-by-session basis using the Outcome Questionnaire-45 in order to identify the percentage of clients who met criteria for clinically significant change, reliable improvement, no change, or deterioration in outcomes across the course of treatment. Approximately …

A Dual Dilemma: An Examination Of Body Dissatisfaction Among Asian American Females In Emerging Adulthood, Sarah Javier

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine what factors contribute to and result from body dissatisfaction using the theoretical framework of the Tripartite Model of Influence, which included family, peer, and media influence. Participants were recruited from SONA and student organizations and participated in an online survey (N =148). A MANCOVA indicated that Asian and White females did not differ in body dissatisfaction and other health outcomes. Thin-ideal internalization mediated the relationships between media influence, peer influence, and body dissatisfaction among Asian American females. Moderation analyses indicated that ethnic identity, Asian American identity, and acculturation did not moderate the …

Connection Between Cannabis Use And Psychosis And The Direct Vs. Indirect Form Of Inquiry To Combat Self-Report Bias, Lauren Grady

Psychology

The purpose of this paper is to investigate two problems: one clinical and one methodological. The first is whether there is a connection between drug use, and specifically cannabis use, and psychosis. Previous research on the subject has provided mixed results. Van Os et al. (2002) and Arseneault et al. (2002) both found that cannabis use predicted the onset of psychosis. Van Dam, Earleywine, & DiGiacomo (2008) found that the use of other drugs was a better predictor of psychosis than cannabis alone. The second problem involves how to maximize honesty when people answer questions regarding their own drug use. …

The Moderating Effect Of Skin Conductance Level On The Relationship Between Family Conflict And Disordered Eating Behaviors, Laura B. Kenneally

Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) on the relation between family conflict and disordered eating behaviors. Participants were 67 undergraduate students at the University at Albany, SUNY, ages 17 to 40. Researchers used a retrospective measure of harsh parenting and interparental aggression experienced during childhood and adolescence to determine how sympathetic activation interacts with family conflict in predicting disordered eating behaviors in a sample of university students. SNS activation was measured by baseline skin conductance level (SCL). Results indicated that SCL moderated the relationship between harsh parenting experienced during …

The Effects Of Progesterone Receptor On Development Of Serotonergic Circuits That Mediate Cognition, Heather Smith

Psychology

As the rate of premature births has been substantially increasing, progestin administration is becoming a common treatment for the prevention of preterm labor. However, not much is known regarding how these hormonal supplements may affect the development of the fetal brain. The developing brain is highly sensitive to progesterone as progesterone receptor (PR) is expressed in many regions during critical developmental periods. Steroid hormone receptors such as PR are powerful transcription factors and regulate gene expression to alter fundamental processes of neural development. During the developmental period of post-natal day one (P1) to P14 in rats, PR is transiently expressed …

The Role Of Psychological Flexibility In Eating Disorders In A Residential Treatment Sample, Phillip Ryan Mitchell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder not otherwise specified) have a dramatic effect on the lives of people who struggle with them. Individuals struggling with these diagnoses often suffer from cardiovascular problems, hormonal irregularities, and gastrointestinal issues, such as wearing away of the esophageal lining. The biggest concern to clinicians is mortality resulting from physical complications related to an eating disorder or suicide. There is a growing body of research that attempts to describe the cognitive and emotional aspects of these diagnoses. Research has illustrated how suppressing emotions and thoughts, or avoiding situations that may make these …

Hand Preference For Tool-Use In Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Apella) Is Associated With Asymmetry Of The Primary Motor Cortex, Kimberley A. Phillips, C. R. Thompson

Psychology Faculty Research

Skilled motor actions are associated with handedness and neuroanatomical specializations in humans. Recent reports have documented similar neuroanatomical asymmetries and their relationship to hand preference in some nonhuman primate species, including chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys. We investigated whether capuchins displayed significant hand preferences for a tool use task and whether such preferences were associated with motor-processing regions of the brain. Handedness data on a dipping tool-use task and high-resolution 3T MRI scans were collected from 15 monkeys. Capuchins displayed a significant group-level left-hand preference for this type of tool use, and handedness was associated with asymmetry of the primary motor …

Recognition Of Famous Names Predicts Cognitive Decline In Healthy Elders, Michael Seidenberg, Christina D. Kay, John L. Woodard, Kristy A. Nielson, J. Carson Smith, Cassandra Kandah, Leslie Guidotti, Julia Novitski, Melissa A. Lancaster, Monica Matthews, Nathan Hantke, Alissa Butts, Stephen M. Rao

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: The ability to recognize familiar people is impaired in both Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD). In addition, both groups often demonstrate a time-limited temporal gradient (TG) in which well known people from decades earlier are better recalled than those learned recently. In this study, we examined the TG in cognitively intact elders for remote famous names (1950–1965) compared to more recent famous names (1995–2005). We hypothesized that the TG pattern on a famous name recognition task (FNRT) would predict future cognitive decline, and also show a significant correlation with hippocampal volume.

Method: Seventy-eight healthy elders (ages …

Characteristics Of Subjects Who Avoid Activities And Participation Due To A Fear Of Falling In Parkinson’S Disease, Russell Gourlie, Spencer Sorensen, Rithea Vong

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine and identify key characteristics of and differences between people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) who exhibit moderate/high fear of falling avoidance behaviors and those that exhibit low fear of falling avoidance behaviors.

Subjects: A total of 24 subjects (5 females, 19 males; mean age= 72.2, SD=9.1) participated in this study.

Methods: A cross-sectional design was used to identify descriptive characteristics of subjects with PD associated with moderate/high levels of fear avoidance behavior (MHA) or low levels of fear avoidance (LA) as measured by the Fear of Falling Avoidance-Behavior …

Healthy Sexuality: Evaluating A Psychoeducational Group Promoting Knowledge, Communication, And Positive Experiences, Brenna M. Wernersbach

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although most people will have at least one sexual relationship throughout the course of their life, many of us have not developed the skills we need to create the sexual experiences that we really want. This is influenced by (among other things) our sexual knowledge, our attitudes and values about sex, our ability to communicate clearly and effectively with our partner(s), and our access to sexual and reproductive health services and products. Accurate knowledge, positive attitudes, and self-efficacy in communication and resource access are all contributing factors to what is known as healthy sexuality.

The present study examined these areas …

Attentional Factors In Temporal Distortion: The Effects Of Food Availability On Responses Within The Interval Bisection Task, Robert N. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Time estimation is a process that underlies many complex behaviors. Accurately timed performance depends upon some biological mechanism, which may be revealed by experimental methods. There have been several proposals on the subject of the function of the timing mechanism, some of which have revealed contradictory findings regarding the effect of distraction on timing. Whereas some studies have revealed underestimation (reports of time moving more slowly than it actually is) of the target interval following distracter presentation, others have revealed generalized disruption (no meaningful evidence of timing). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether food presentation for …

An Analysis Of Auditory Stimulus Generalization Gradients In Children With Autism Following Two Different Training Procedures, Steven N. Corry

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Previous research suggests learning of children with autism often fails to successfully generalize across changes in settings and stimuli. Much of this research has assessed generalization by first teaching a behavior in one context and then measuring the transfer of the behavior to extra-treatment stimuli and settings. The present study measured generalization of learned behavior by systematically varying the tone of an auditory stimulus present during training to obtain generalization gradients. Generalization gradients are graphical representations of the strength of a response produced by stimuli that vary from the training stimulus along some stimulus dimension. By obtaining generalization gradients, this …

Predictors Of Father-Child And Mother-Child Attachment In Two-Parent Families, Jared P. Benware

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Jared Benware, M.S. and Gretchen Gimpel Peacock, Ph.D. at Utah State University examined parent-child attachment in two-parent families. Specifically, the relationship between mother-child and father-child attachment, the relationship between a child's temperament and parent-child attachment, and the relationship between the attachment and the amounts of time a parent spends away from his or her child. The researchers solicited parents as participants to complete questionnaires that measure parent-child attachment and the temperament of their child. This study focused especially on providing more information on the connection between father-child attachment and mother-child attachment rather than focusing only on mothers as the primary …

Increasing Psychological Flexibility Regarding Interpersonal Conflict Between Religious Beliefs And Attitudes Towards Sexual Minorities: An Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (Act) Intervention, Cory John Myler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to facilitate the development and assessment of a group therapeutic intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning individuals. Previous research has established that this population is particularly vulnerable to psychological distress and that religiosity contributes to this vulnerability, but there have been no interventions established specifically for the population of sexual minorities who are experiencing religious conflict. The components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy were used to inform the development of a group intervention, which was then carried out. An assessment battery of numerous quantitative measures was given to participants before and after the intervention to …

Mothers' And Fathers' Attachment Relationships With Children Who Have Disabilities, Sheila Lopez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research has found that attachment relationships between parents and children are formed independent of each other and have different outcomes for the child. Very little research regarding parent-child attachment relationships has been done with children who have a disability. This study aimed to learn more about whether differences exist in attachment relationships between mothers and fathers and whether or not the child has a disability. Results indicate that fathers of children with a disability appear to have less secure attachments with their children compared to fathers of typically developing children as well as mothers of children with and without disabilities. …