Psychology Commons^™

Using Mimic Methods To Detect And Identify Sources Of Dif Among Multiple Groups, Seokjoon Chun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the efficacy of multiple indicators, multiple causes (MIMIC) methods in detecting uniform and nonuniform differential item functioning (DIF) among multiple groups, where the underlying causes of DIF was different. Three different implementations of MIMIC DIF detection were studied: sequential free baseline, free baseline, and constrained baseline. In addition, the robustness of the MIMIC methods against the violation of its assumption, equal factor variance across comparison groups, was investigated. We found that the sequential-free baseline methods provided similar Type I error and power rates to the free baseline method with a designated anchor, and much better Type I …

“Me & My Brain”: Exposing NeuroscienceʼS Closet Dualism, Liad Mudrik, Uri Maoz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Our intuitive concept of the relations between brain and mind is increasingly challenged by the scientific world view. Yet, although few neuroscientists openly endorse Cartesian dualism, careful reading reveals dualistic intuitions in prominent neuroscientific texts. Here, we present the “double-subject fallacy”: treating the brain and the entire person as two independent subjects who can simultaneously occupy divergent psychological states and even have complex interactions with each other—as in “my brain knew before I did.” Although at first, such writing may appear like harmless, or even cute, shorthand, a closer look suggests that it can be seriously misleading. Surprisingly, this confused …

A Contingency Model Of Team Leadership For Emergency Medical Teams, Andeneshea Shacardia Kemp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emergency medical teams operate under unusual circumstances. They assemble for a singular, temporary purpose, potentially change in size and composition, and their performance can influence whether a patient lives or dies. Although leadership is a critical component to team success, it is rarely investigated in the context of emergency medical teams. This study sought to examine the relationship between directive leadership behaviors and team performance outcomes. It was hypothesized that directive leadership would be particularly effective for emergency medical teams. In addition, a contingency model was proposed. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the effectiveness of directive leadership is contingent upon …

What Kills Love? Factors Influencing The Ending Of Love In Romantic Relationships, Michelle Duda

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reports the results of an online survey study that examined dimensions of love, positive behaviors, negative behaviors, and relationship satisfaction in current romantic relationships where the individual currently had a feeling of being in love with their partner ("still in love" or SIL group) versus in past romantic relationships where the individual once had a feeling of being in love with that person, but ceased loving - essentially, fell out of love with - that person over the course of the relationship ("fell out of love" or FOL group). An MTurk sample of 202 individuals (Mean age = …

The Paradox Of Commercial Photography: Power And Sexuality In Models, Christina Bell

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

Commercial photography has a tendency to force upon us a standard template of what the ideal person is or looks like. Unfortunately, the artificial standard is horribly unachievable and detrimental to physical and mental health, which produces sentiments of insufficiency and abjection with the self, especially among young impressionable girls. In a sick - and very modern - twist of evolutionary progress we find ourselves idealizing the depictions of models appearing to be on the verge of starvation. This article examines the power and sexuality in models produced through commercial photography and its effects on society at-large.

The Psychology Of Competitive Dance: A Study Of The Motivations For Adolescent Involvement, Samantha Sobash

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

"Competition is a social process that is so pervasive in Western civilization that no one can escape it" (Robson 2004). Dance training for most people begins at an early age, and thus the art form akin to sports introduces youth to competition. The booming dance competition industry has only enhanced the competitive aspect of the art form. Currently there are upwards of 200 local, regional, and national competitions held annually with participants as young as four years old. Is competition innate or are we introducing it as part of youth development in the Western world? Youth are increasingly pushed by …

The Perception Of The Economy Influencing Public Opinion On Immigration Policy, Jeff Sanchez

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

Does the majority express interest concerning immigration on the basis of perceived personal economic circumstance and security, or on the basis of its perception of the state of the national economy? This study explains how perception of the state of the economy influences opinion on immigration policy. This study finds that an individual's preferences for varying immigration policies are rooted in his or her perception of the state of the national economy, rather than being narrowly determined by his or her perception of their own economic circumstance and security.

Canine Sense And Sensibility: Tipping Points And Response Latency Variability As An Optimism Index In A Canine Judgement Bias Assessment, Melissa J. Starling, Nicholas Branson, Denis Cody, Timothy R. Starling, Paul D. Mcgreevy

Cognitive Ethology Collection

Recent advances in animal welfare science used judgement bias, a type of cognitive bias, as a means to objectively measure an animal's affective state. It is postulated that animals showing heightened expectation of positive outcomes may be categorised optimistic, while those showing heightened expectations of negative outcomes may be considered pessimistic. This study pioneers the use of a portable, automated apparatus to train and test the judgement bias of dogs. Dogs were trained in a discrimination task in which they learned to touch a target after a tone associated with a lactose-free milk reward and abstain from touching the target …

Every Breath You Take: An Examination Of The Natural Phenomenon Of Stalking, Gordon A. Crews, Sara K. Green, Paige A. Heinrich

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

Everyone is a potential stalker, given the right set of circumstances. There are a vast number of tools readily available—from social media networking to easily accessible websites that provide background checks for a minimal fee—that allow individuals to observe the life (or lives) of whomever they so desire. But what are the innate, essential traits and characteristics of an individual that extends beyond the more normative expression of romantic interest and the general curiosity that is a natural and accepted occurrence for anyone who has ever been infatuated with another? This paper will consider the intentionality and motivation behind stalking, …

Every Breath You Take: An Examination Of The Natural Phenomenon Of Stalking, Gordon A. Crews, Sara K. Green, Paige A. Heinrich

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Everyone is a potential stalker, given the right set of circumstances. There are a vast number of tools readily available—from social media networking to easily accessible websites that provide background checks for a minimal fee—that allow individuals to observe the life (or lives) of whomever they so desire. But what are the innate, essential traits and characteristics of an individual that extends beyond the more normative expression of romantic interest and the general curiosity that is a natural and accepted occurrence for anyone who has ever been infatuated with another? This paper will consider the intentionality and motivation behind stalking, …

Double Jeopardy In Inferring Cognitive Processes, Mario Fific

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Inferences we make about underlying cognitive processes can be jeopardized in two ways due to problematic forms of aggregation. First, averaging across individuals is typically considered a very useful tool for removing random variability. The threat is that averaging across subjects leads to averaging across different cognitive strategies, thus harming our inferences. The second threat comes from the construction of inadequate research designs possessing a low diagnostic accuracy of cognitive processes. For that reason we introduced the systems factorial technology (SFT), which has primarily been designed to make inferences about underlying processing order (serial, parallel, coactive), stopping rule (terminating, exhaustive), …

Asenapine Sensitization From Adolescence To Adulthood And Its Potential Molecular Basis, Qing Shu, Rongyin Qin, Yingzhu Chen, Gang Hu, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Asenapine is a new antipsychotic drug that induces a long-lasting behavioral sensitization in adult rats. The present study investigated the developmental impacts of adolescent asenapine treatment on drug sensitivity and on 3 proteins implicated in the action of antipsychotic drugs (i.e. Brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dopamine D₂ receptor, and ΔFosB) in adulthood. Male adolescent Sprague-Dawley rats (postnatal days, P 43-48) were first treated with asenapine (0.05, 0.10 or 0.20 mg/kg, sc) and tested in the conditioned avoidance or PCP (2.0 mg/kg, sc)-induced hyperlocomotion tasks for 5 days. After they became adults (∼P 76), asenapine sensitization was assessed in a …

Metacognitive Planning: Development And Validation Of An Online Measure., Jian Li, Bo Zhang, Han Du, Ze Zhu, Yi Ming Li

Psychology Faculty Publications

Planning is the critical first stage of metacognition. Although it has long been emphasized theoretically, it has not been the subject of much empirical study due to the lack of a valid assessment tool. Because planning is a metacognitive process, online methods that collect data during task performance would much better capture it. The present study was conducted to develop an online measure of metacognitive planning. Researchers designed a puzzle task that took the form of the popular game Sokoban, and the ratio between planning time and total time of each item was chosen as the metacognitive planning index. The …

The Epidemic Of Mental And Neurological Health, Mohsyn I. Malik

Psychology Publications

This paper composes an image of modern mental and neurological health issues and looks to draw links to the current epidemic based on research and studies found online the internet and off-line. The goal is to examine what may be the underlying problem for a lot of these increases in mental health issues and neurodegenerative diseases and what are some promising clinical and sociocultural advances that may help. It explores problems such as the negative impact of the pharmaceutical giants, the increase in apathy in the work place and the general stigma towards mental disease. Through current research, the use …

The Eat-16: Validation Of A Shortened Form Of The Eating Attitudes Test, Elizabeth Mclaughlin

Psychology ETDs

Eating disorders (EDs) are common in certain nonclinical groups, such as college students. Given known health risks and other sequelae of EDs, and difficulties in assessing them, psychometrically sound measures are needed. This study assessed the validity of the EAT-16, a shortened form of the EAT-26. The EAT-16 had been previously proposed and tested as a screening measure for EDs. The measure was tested in the current study in a sample of Caucasian and Hispanic undergraduate females. In a confirmatory factor analysis, the EAT-16 four-factor structure was replicated in the Caucasian and Hispanic groups, and support for metric invariance was …

The Impact Of Dance/Movement Classes On Adolescent Behavior In An Urban High School Setting, Dinesha Demesa-Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

The inclusion of the arts in education has been undervalued and overlooked by many public school districts throughout the country. As a result of cutbacks, dance programs in educational settings have become an afterthought. In this study the relationship between dance/movement classes and disruptive behavior was analyzed in a sample of 45 at risk students in an urban high school setting. The findings supported the hypothesis that a) dance classes can be utilized as an intervention to reduce stress and b) students who participate in dance programs in public school settings will develop self-control, self-regulation and exhibit less disruptive behavior. …

Integrating Cognitive Science With Innovative Teaching In Stem Disciplines, Mark A. Mcdaniel, Regina F. Frey, Susan M. Fitzpatrick, Henry L. Roediger Iii

Books and Monographs

This volume collects the ideas and insights discussed at a novel conference, the Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in STEM Disciplines Conference, which was held September 27-28, 2012 at Washington University in St. Louis. With funding from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the conference was hosted by Washington University’s Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE), a center established in 2011. Available for download as a PDF. Titles of individual chapters can be found at http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/circle_book/.

Low Attentional Engagement Makes Attention Network Activity Susceptible To Emotional Interference, Verónica Mäki-Marttunen, Natasha Pickard, Anne-Kristin Solbakk, Keith Ogawa, Robert B. Knight, Kaisa M. Hartikainen

School of Science Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Developmental Trajectories Of Physical Aggression And Nonaggressive Rule-Breaking Among At-Risk Males And Females During Late Childhood And Early Adolescence, Eugena Givens

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Criminological, psychological, and developmental researchers have relentlessly explored behavioral characteristics and juvenile justice outcomes in an effort to establish the most appropriate means of analyzing childhood and adolescent problem behaviors. Cross-discipline, empirical evidence and factor analytic research has consistently identified the presence of two predictive concepts, physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking. Research pertaining to the risk factors and correlates of these two distinct substructures of offending align with theoretically postulated typologies of delinquency and offending as well as the frequently cited patterns of delinquency and offending within reviews of longitudinal research. Using longitudinal data from a sample of 756 at-risk, …

Depressive-Like Behavioral Response Of Adult Male Rhesus Monkeys During Routine Animal Husbandry Procedure, Michael B. Hennessy, Brenda Mccowan, Jing Jiang, John P. Capitanio

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social isolation is a major risk factor for the development of depressive illness; yet, no practical nonhuman primate model is available for studying processes involved in this effect. In a first study, we noted that adult male rhesus monkeys housed individually indoors occasionally exhibited a hunched, depressive-like posture. Therefore, Study 2 investigated the occurrence of a hunched posture by adult males brought from outdoor social groups to indoor individual housing. We also scored two other behaviors—lying on the substrate and day time sleeping—that convey an impression of depression. During the first week of observation following individual housing, 18 of 26 …

Influence Of Seductive Details, Belief-Congruence, And Repeated Testing On Memory For Controversial Information, Daniel Adam Nuccio

Theses and Dissertations

People often encounter conflicting information on a wide array of topics. How they evaluate this information in relation to their current beliefs, and the effects of other influences, such as the weight given to superficial aspects of the information (e.g. pictures, anecdotes, or jargon that are at most minimally related to an author's argument), has been of interest to researchers for many years. One component of their processing

and evaluation of this information is their memory for the information. This study set out to examine the following questions: (1) Is belief-congruent in

formation remembered better or worse than belief incongruent …

Intergeniculate Leaflet Lesions Result In Differential Activation Of Brain Regions Following The Presentation Of Photic Stimuli In Nile Grass Rats, Andrew J. Gall, Lily Yan, Laura Smale, Antonio A. Nunez

Faculty Publications

The intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) plays an important role in the entrainment of circadian rhythms and the mediation of acute behavioral responses to light (i.e., masking). Recently, we reported that IGL lesions in diurnal grass rats result in a reversal in masking responses to light as compared to controls. Here, we used Fos as a marker of neural activation to examine the mechanisms by which the IGL may influence this masking effect of light in grass rats. Specifically, we examined the patterns of Fos activation in retinorecipient areas and in brain regions that receive IGL inputs following 1-h light pulses given …

A Cross-Sectional Study Of Student-Athlete Needs Satisfaction And Well-Being, Abigail M. Gunnink

Dissertations and Theses

Grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), the purpose of this study was to examine (a) the effects of the social environment, as defined by the divisions of the Department of Athletics, on student-athletes' perceptions of basic needs satisfaction, (b) the effects of basic needs satisfaction on well-being, and (c) the effects of time demands, during in-season and off-season, on well-being, among student-athletes at Portland State University (PSU). Participants were student-athletes at PSU (n = 118). The participants completed a multi-section survey assessing basic needs satisfaction and well-being. Cumulative mean scores highlighted the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs …

Mixed-Case Format And Lexical Decision Performance: Initial Uppercase Is Special, Julia C. Harvey Azzolina, Lois M. Rotuno, April D. Butler Waltonen, Albert F. Smith

Undergraduate Research Posters 2014

Previous research has shown that there are phenomena that may require a route to word identification by means other than through letters. For example, in a lexical decision task, in which an experimental participant is asked to determine if a string of letters is a word or not, responses to items in a MIXed caSE format are slower than to items in PURE UPPERCASE or pure lowercase formats. In this experiment, we investigated the effect of different mixed-case formats on lexical decision performance, focusing on the type and location of the case transition. Twenty-four students participated in a lexical decision …

Speaking Two Languages Enhances An Auditory But Not A Visual Neural Marker Of Cognitive Inhibition, Mercedes Fernandez, Juliana Acosta, Kevin Douglass, Nikita Doshi, Jaime L. Tartar

Faculty Articles

The purpose of the present study was to replicate and extend our original findings of enhanced neural inhibitory control in bilinguals. We compared English monolinguals to Spanish/English bilinguals on a non-linguistic, auditory Go/NoGo task while recording event-related brain potentials. New to this study was the visual Go/NoGo task, which we included to investigate whether enhanced neural inhibition in bilinguals extends from the auditory to the visual modality. Results confirmed our original findings and revealed greater inhibition in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. As predicted, compared to monolinguals, bilinguals showed increased N2 amplitude during the auditory NoGo trials, which required inhibitory control, …

The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Burnout Among Master Of Social Work Students, Jolanta Maria Piatkowska

Dissertations and Theses

Social work students frequently endure elevated levels of prolonged stress and psychological affliction that might result in serious consequences, such as development of burnout. Some experts suggest that burnout originates in the exposure to chronic interpersonal stressors in the work environment. Yet, there is emerging evidence suggesting that mindfulness practice might be beneficial in alleviating stress. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between mindfulness and burnout among Master of Social Work students. Burnout, mindfulness, religiosity, spirituality and their potential relationship were discussed and related to previous scholarly literature. Specifically, this study focused on testing …

Public Management In Political Institutions: Explaining Perceptions Of White House Chief Of Staff Influence, José Villalobos, Justin Vaughn, David Cohen

Selected Works Temporary Series

The notion that public managers influence organizational performance is common in public administration research. However, less is known about why some managers are better at influencing organizational performance than others. Furthermore, relatively few studies have systematically examined managerial influence and scholars have yet to investigate either quantitatively or systematically managerial influence in the White House. Utilizing original survey data collected from former White House officials who served in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations, this study applies empirical public management theory to examine for the first time the key determinants that shape perceptions of chief of staff managerial …

Anthropomorphism, Anthropectomy, And The Null Hypothesis, Kristin Andrews, Brian Huss

Experimentation Collection

We examine the claim that the methodology of psychology leads to a bias in animal cognition research against attributing ‘‘anthropomorphic’’ properties to animals (Sober in Thinking with animals: new perspectives on anthropomorphism. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 85–99, 2005; de Waal in Philos Top 27:225–280, 1999). This charge is examined in light of a debate on the role of folk psychology between primatologists who emphasize similarities between humans and other apes, and those who emphasize differences. Weargue that while in practice there is sometimes bias, either in the formulation of the null hypothesis or in the preference of Type-II …

Laterality Influences Cognitive Performance In Rainbowfish Melanotaenia Duboulayi, Anne-Laurence Bibost, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Cerebral lateralization has been suggested to convey a selective advantage to individuals by enhancing their cognitive abilities. Few, however, have explicitly compared the cognitive ability of animals with strongly contrasting laterality. Here, we examined the influence of laterality on learning performance in the crimson spotted rainbowfish, Melanotaenia duboulayi, using a classical conditioning paradigm. We also compared the learning ability of wild caught and captive-reared fish to examine the influence of rearing environment on cognitive performance. Laterality was established by observing which eye fish preferred to use while viewing their mirror image. Subjects were then conditioned to associate the appearance of …

A Comparison Of Spatial Learning And Memory Capabilities In Intertidal Gobies, Gemma E. White, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

For the majority of animals, the ability to orient in familiar locations is a fundamental part of life, and spatial memory allows individuals to remember key locations such as food patches, shelter, mating sites or areas regularly occupied by predators. This study determined if gobies collected from rocky platforms and sandy beaches differ in their ability to learn and memorise the locations of tide pools in a simulated rocky intertidal zone. Intertidal rock pool gobies show acute homing abilities and, therefore, should be expected to display superior learning and memory capabilities. In contrast, it is unlikely that natural selection would …