Psychology Commons^™

Avatars And Empathy: The Use Of Video Games To Affect Prejudicial Evaluations Of African Americans, Christopher J. Corr

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research sought to test the relation between video game avatars (online representations of the self), empathy, social dominance orientation, and prejudice. By having participants imagine playing in a game as an avatar I sought to test three hypotheses. Th first hypothesis proposed that that participants would be more inclined to support policies regarding a specific racial group when imagining play as an avatar representing that group. The second hypothesis proposed that empathy would influence the connection between the avatar and participant race variables. The third, which was split into three parts, tested for a negative correlation between prejudice and …

Exploring The Association Between Female Infertility Stigma, Women’S Cognitions, And Coping Responses, Spencer Paige Brown

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Infertility is becoming a significant problem for many women around the globe. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infertility impacts 186 million individuals worldwide. Women who experience infertility may be exposed to increased pressure from family and friends to get pregnant, feelings of isolation, and inadequacy. Both cultural and societal views that promote the connection between womanhood and motherhood may increase a woman’s negative view about herself due to her inability to conceive a child. The purpose of this study was to bring awareness about the impact that social stigma of infertility has on a woman’s cognitions and ability …

Parent Reports Of Executive Functions In Students With Learning Disability, Jane Roitsch, Annemarie L. Horn, Lisa Morin

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

This study examines the results of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-2) (Gioia et al., 2015) reported by parents of children with Specific Learning Disability (LD) and/or other comorbid disabilities. LD is most notably associated with comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Alloway & Stein, 2014; Westby &Watson, 2004; Willcutt et al., 2013). A total of 43 parents completed the BRIEF-2 rating scale. Findings suggest children with LD and ADHD display greater challenges with inhibition, working memory, planning, along with greater challenges in organization and metacognition. Parents of children with LD reported their children have greater levels of …

The Evolution Of Quantitative Sensitivity, Margaret A H Bryer, Sarah E. Koopman, Jessica F. Cantlon, Steven T. Piantadosi, Evan L. Maclean, Joseph M. Baker, Michael J. Beran, Sarah M. Jones, Kerry E. Jordan, Salif Mahamane, Andreas Nieder, Bonnie M. Perdue, Friederike Range, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Masaki Tomonaga, Dorottya Ujfalussy, Jennifer Vonk

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

The ability to represent approximate quantities appears to be phylogenetically widespread, but the selective pressures and proximate mechanisms favouring this ability remain unknown. We analysed quantity discrimination data from 672 subjects across 33 bird and mammal species, using a novel Bayesian model that combined phylogenetic regression with a model of number psychophysics and random effect components. This allowed us to combine data from 49 studies and calculate the Weber fraction (a measure of quantity representation precision) for each species. We then examined which cognitive, socioecological and biological factors were related to variance in Weber fraction. We found contributions of phylogeny …

A Support Vector Machine Application For The Detection Of Pupillary Markers Of Cognitive Workload, Kouadio Marc-Antoine Audoin B Niamba

Dissertations and Theses

A high percentage of road accidents is caused by driver errors. As such, a first step toward preventing these accidents is the prediction of driver errors. Modern theories of attention suggest that the potential for errors increases with the amount of mental resources demanded from an activity (Kato, Endo, and Kizuka, 2009). In other words, monitoring the amount of mental resources may provide a viable way to predict driver errors. Pupillometry, the study of pupil dimensions and their reactivity, proposes that the diameter of the pupil expands concomitantly with the amount of mental resources mobilized. Pupillometry, therefore, offers a measure …

The Lived Experience Of Individuals Thinking About Food And Coping With Stress, Tobi Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Stress results in many people altering their eating patterns, often consuming food high in sugar and fat. Such behavior is a factor in the growing obesity epidemic and can potentially cause the development of chronic diseases, resulting in employment problems and billions of extra dollars spent on national health care programs. Researchers have focused on the concept of “emotional eating” while overlooking the overarching research question of this study, which was about exploring the experience of individuals using eating behavior as a coping mechanism to deal with stress. All responses were viewed through the lens of social cognitive theory. Interviews …

Mild Cognitive Impairment In Presurgical Deep Brain Stimulation For Parkinson's Disease, Elizabeth Roslyn Wallace

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Although clinically characterized by motor impairments, Parkinson's disease (PD) often affects cognition early in the disease course. Cognitive changes common in PD include visuospatial abnormalities and prominent executive function (EF) deficits, with 30% of individuals eventually developing Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been identified as a transitional state between normal cognition and PDD. A large cohort of individuals with PD at the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute have undergone pre-surgical evaluations for deep brain stimulation, although cognitive performance in this cohort has never been probed. Baseline cognitive performance of this cohort from 2017-2020 was examined to characterize the …

Eye Movement And Pupil Measures: A Review, Bhanuka Mahanama, Yasith Jayawardana, Sundararaman Rengarajan, Gavindya Jayawardena, Leanne Chukoskie, Joseph Snider, Sampath Jayarathna

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Our subjective visual experiences involve complex interaction between our eyes, our brain, and the surrounding world. It gives us the sense of sight, color, stereopsis, distance, pattern recognition, motor coordination, and more. The increasing ubiquity of gaze-aware technology brings with it the ability to track gaze and pupil measures with varying degrees of fidelity. With this in mind, a review that considers the various gaze measures becomes increasingly relevant, especially considering our ability to make sense of these signals given different spatio-temporal sampling capacities. In this paper, we selectively review prior work on eye movements and pupil measures. We first …

Our Thoughts Matter: The Mental Health Of College Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Caitlin Zarzeczny

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to explore the mental health of undergraduate college students within the context of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as cognitions about health threat and engagement in protective health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were (N = 276) undergraduate students attending the University of North Florida. Students completed a SONA systems survey between March 2021 and December 2021. Participants received course credit for completing the survey. Survey questions were taken from the Perceived Effectiveness of COVID-19 Prevention Effectiveness Protocols scale (Prasetyo et al., 2020). Three types of variables were assessed: demographics, perceived threat, and planned action. Correlational …

Cognitive Effects Of Alcohol Use And Sleep Disruption In College Students, Taylor English

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alcohol use and sleep disruption are highly prevalent amongst college students, yet their combined effects on cognitive functioning and subsequent classroom performance have not been fully examined. Alcohol use has been shown to negatively impact cognitive functioning, especially in college students without fully matured brain regions. This has led to decreases in academic functioning and increases in college dropout. Disruptions in sleep functioning can lead to both lapses in attention and an overall decrease in attention, which can negatively impact learning in a classroom environment.

Participants were 96 undergraduate students who were invited to participate based on responses from a …

Improving The Methodology For Identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment In Intellectually High-Functioning Adults Using The Nih Toolbox Cognition Battery, Grant L. Iverson, Justin E. Karr

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: Low scores on neuropsychological tests are considered objective evidence of mild cognitive impairment. In clinical practice and research, it can be challenging to identify a cognitive deficit or mild cognitive impairment in high-functioning people because they are much less likely to obtain low test scores. This study was designed to improve the methodology for identifying mild cognitive impairment in adults who have above average or superior intellectual abilities.

Method: Participants completed the National Institutes of Health Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB). The sample included 384 adults between the ages of 20 and …

How Long Do Mood Induction Procedure (Mip) Primes Really Last? Implications For Cognitive Vulnerability Research., Jennifer C P Gillies, David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

BACKGROUND: Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are used widely in research on cognitive vulnerability to depression. Although empirical evidence supports certain MIPs as effective, little research has evaluated whether MIP-induced sad moods are sufficiently persistent. This study aimed to determine (1) how long an MIP-induced mood lasts according to commonly used operational definitions and (2) whether these findings vary according to the type of MIP used.

METHODS: Four-hundred-and-one undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of three commonly used sad MIPs (music, memory, music+memory) or to one of three matched neutral MIPs. Mood was repeatedly measured immediately prior to and following …

Driving Habits, Cognition, And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Middle-Aged And Older Adults With Hiv, Josiah J. Robinson, Tess Walker, Cierra Hopkins, Brittany Bradley, Peggy Mckie, Jennifer S. Frank, Caitlin N. Pope, Pariya L. Fazeli, David E. Vance

Graduate Center for Gerontology Faculty Publications

Cognitive impairment is known to increase with aging in people living with HIV (PLWH). Impairment in cognitive domains required for safe driving may put PLWH at risk for poor driving outcomes, decreased mobility, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study described the driving behaviors of middle-aged and older PLWH and examined correlations between driving behaviors and cognitive functioning (Aim 1), and driving behaviors and HRQoL domains (Aim 2). A sample of 260 PLWH ages 40 and older completed a comprehensive assessment including a battery of cognitive tests, an HRQoL measure, and a measure of self-reported driving habits. Associations between …

Ugandan Adolescents’ Descriptive Gender Stereotypes About Domestic And Recreational Activities, And Attitudes About Women, Flora Farago, Natalie Eggum-Wilkens, Linlin Zhang

Faculty Publications

In Eastern Uganda, 201 adolescents aged 11- to 17-years old (48% girls; M_age = 14.62) answered close- and open-ended questions about gender stereotypes of domestic and recreational activities and gender-role attitudes about women’s behavior, rights, and roles. Adolescents answered questions such as “who is more likely to . . .?” assessing descriptive stereotypes (i.e., stereotype knowledge) and questions such as “is it ok for women to . . .?” assessing prescriptive stereotypes (i.e., stereotype endorsement) about gender roles. Data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, correlations, and thematic coding. Findings indicate that Ugandan adolescents were fairly egalitarian in some domains …

Early Indicators Of Cognitive Dysfunction: The Role Of Mild Behavioral Impairment, Hillary J. Rouse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Older age is associated with an increased risk for cognitively impairing diseases such as dementia. Despite significant research to find ways to cure this disease, there has been little success. However, a critical need when an intervention is discovered is a need to find ways to identify people who are at the greatest risk of developing dementia earlier in the disease process so that interventions can be implemented at that time. This could potentially lessen their risk or delay when they are diagnosed. Using longitudinal data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC), the aims of this current dissertation were …

Negative Urgency's Influence On State-Level, Emotion-Based Changes In Alcohol-Related Cognitions, Noah Wolkowicz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project expanded on the Acquired Preparedness Model of Risk (APMR) by examining how Negative Urgency (NU), the tendency to act rashly in negative emotional states, affects emotion-based changes in alcohol cognitions to produce risk for alcohol use. The APMR prioritizes the role of outcome expectancies as the means through which traits such as NU, convey alcohol use risk. However, this model treats these cognitions as static and often fails to assess their valence; further, alcohol-cognitions fluctuate in response to negative emotions and may become more salient during these states. Therefore, this study examined: 1) how NU impacts negative emotion-based, …

Cognition In Context: Pathways And Compound Risk In A Sample Of Us Non-Hispanic Whites, Jennifer W. Robinette, Jason D. Boardman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The population of individuals with cognitive impairment and dementia is growing rapidly, necessitating etiological investigation. It is clear that individual differences in cognition later in life have both genetic and multi-level environmental correlates. Despite significant recent progress in cellular and molecular research, the exact mechanisms linking genes, brains, and cognition remain elusive. In relation to cognition, it is unlikely that genetic and environmental risk factors function in a vacuum, but rather interact and cluster together. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether aspects of individual socioeconomic status (SES) explain the cognitive genotype-phenotype association, and whether neighborhood SES …

Antidepressants, Circadian Rhythms, And Cognition: The Effects Of Ssris And Snris On Circadian Rhythms And Cognitive Performance, Gabriel Gilmore

Masters Theses, 2020-current

It has been well documented that individuals with depression commonly experience sleep disturbances. Decreased sleep quality, diminished sleep efficiency, and increased nighttime awakenings are all typical ailments. Deficits in cognitive functioning often co-occur, including impairments in working memory, learning, inhibition, and set shifting. Many studies have found that upon taking antidepressants (i.e. serotonin agonists), individuals with depression experience normalized sleep and cognitive performance. The impact of antidepressants, especially SSRIs and SNRIs, on sleep stages, particularly REM and slow wave sleep, has been the subject of numerous studies. However, there is currently very limited literature that examines their impact on sleep …

Facts From Fiction: Packaging Misinformation, Angel Ray Houts

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research established that readers learn both accurate and inaccurate information from fictional stories. The current study explored factors that might moderate the impact of misinformation. Participants read fictional stories that contain three assertions; the first two were labeled as set-up assertions, and the last were labeled as the critical assertion. First, there was a manipulation of plausibility of information within the stories by presenting either assertions with truthful information, assertions with small lies (plausible misinformation), or assertions with big lies (implausible misinformation). Second, there was manipulation of reliability of the fictional stories by presenting big lies or truthful information …

The Influence Of Mental Fatigue On Sessional Ratings Of Perceived Exertion In Elite Open And Closed Skill Sports Athletes, Joseph O. C. Coyne, Aaron J. Coutts, Robert U. Newton, G. Gregory Haff

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

ABSTRACT: Coyne, JOC, Coutts, AJ, Newton, RU, and Haff, GG. The influence of mental fatigue on sessional ratings of perceived exertion in elite open and closed skill sports athletes. J Strength Cond Res 35(4): 963-969, 2021-The main purpose of this investigation was to examine influence of mental fatigue on sessional ratings of perceived exertion (sRPE) over a training week in elite athletes in open skill (OS, i.e., more unpredictable and externally paced sports) and closed skill (CS, i.e., more predictable and internally paced) sports. Visual analogue scales for mental fatigue, sRPE (CR-10 scale), and training duration were collected from an …

Depressive Cognition On Twitter., David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Environmental Enrichment On The Brain And On Learning And Cognition By Animals, Thomas R. Zentall

Psychology Faculty Publications

The humane treatment of animals suggests that they should be housed in an environment that is rich in stimulation and allows for varied activities. However, even if one’s main concern is an accurate assessment of their learning and cognitive abilities, housing them in an enriched environment can have an important effect on the assessment of those abilities. Research has found that the development of the brain of animals is significantly affected by the environment in which they live. Not surprisingly, their ability to learn both simple and complex tasks is affected by even modest time spent in an enriched environment. …

Cognitive-Emotional Processing In Alexithymia: An Integrative Review, Olivier Luminet, Kristy A. Nielson, Nathan Ridout

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality construct characterised by difficulties identifying one’s feelings and distinguishing them from bodily sensations, difficulties describing one’s feelings to others, and an externally oriented cognitive style. Over the past 25 years, a burgeoning body of research has examined how alexithymia moderates processing at the cognition–emotion interface. We review the findings in five domains: attention, appraisals, memory, language, and behaviours. The preponderance of studies linked alexithymia with deficits in emotion processing, which was apparent across all domains, except behaviours. All studies on behaviours and a proportion of studies in other domains demonstrated emotional over-responding. Analysis at the …

Effects Of Mindfulness Meditation On Selective, Sustained Attention, Brain Neural Oscillations, And Short-Term Memory, Anamaria Guzman

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The following extended literature review and research proposal study started initially as a complete research proposal but, due to the challenges COVID-19 has brought, it has become a stand-alone piece of work without data collection. The goal is to synthesize a broad range of literature and previous research on mindfulness meditation and its effects on attention, memory, and brain activity and thus, offering a new perspective and a proposed research path on this subject. This proposed research study, besides previous studies, indicates that mindfulness meditation is expected to improve and enhance selective and sustained attention, which results in better attentional …

L-Theanine Prevents Long-Term Affective And Cognitive Side Effects Of Adolescent Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Exposure And Blocks Associated Molecular And Neuronal Abnormalities In The Mesocorticolimbic Circuitry, Marta De Felice, Justine Renard, Roger Hudson, Hanna J. Szkudlarek, Brian J. Pereira, Susanne Schmid, Walter J. Rushlow, Steven R. Laviolette

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Chronic adolescent exposure to Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is linked to elevated neuropsychiatric risk and induces neuronal, molecular and behavioral abnormalities resembling neuropsychiatric endophenotypes. Previous evidence has revealed that the mesocorticolimbic circuitry, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway are particularly susceptible to THC-induced pathologic alterations, including dysregulation of DAergic activity states, loss of PFC GABAergic inhibitory control and affective and cognitive abnormalities. There are currently limited pharmacological intervention strategies capable of preventing THC-induced neuropathological adaptations. L-Theanine is an amino acid analog of L-glutamate and L-glutamine derived from various plant sources, including green tea leaves. L-Theanine has previously been …

New Frontiers In Translational Research: Touchscreens, Open Science, And The Mouse Translational Research Accelerator Platform, Jacqueline A. Sullivan, Julie R. Dumont, Sara Memar, Miguel Skirzewski, Jinxia Wan, Maryam H. Mofrad, Hassam Zafar Ansari, Yulong Li, Lyle Muller, Vania F. Prado, Marco A.M. Prado, Lisa M. Saksida, Timothy J. Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd Many neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases and other brain disorders are accompanied by impairments in high-level cognitive functions including memory, attention, motivation, and decision-making. Despite several decades of extensive research, neuroscience is little closer to discovering new treatments. Key impediments include the absence of validated and robust cognitive assessment tools for facilitating translation from animal models to humans. In this review, we describe a state-of-the-art platform poised to overcome these impediments and improve the success of translational research, the Mouse Translational Research Accelerator Platform (MouseTRAP), which is …

The Effect Of Microdosing Classical Psychedelics On Cognitive Performance, Michael Harris

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Public interest and scientific inquiry are currently bringing psychedelic research back into the spotlight after a decades-long respite from clinical human trials. A majority of the research during this recent renaissance has surrounded applications of psychedelics in the fields of mental health. Less attention is being focused to other research areas where psychedelics may also prove informative, such as cognition and information processing. A common trend taking place is the act of administering very small doses of psychedelics as a potential cognitive enhancer, called microdosing. With less research being focused on these areas however, it is not well documented whether …

Occupational Depression, Cognitive Performance, And Task Appreciation: A Study Based On Raven’S Advanced Progressive Matrices, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently developed to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. Research on the criterion validity of the instrument is still in its infancy. In this study, we examined whether the ODI predicted performance on, and appreciation of, a cognitively challenging test. In light of the link established between clinical depression and neuropsychological impairment, and considering that individuals with depressive symptoms are more likely to feel helpless under challenging circumstances, we hypothesized that occupational depression would be associated with poorer cognitive performance and a darkened appreciation of the task undertaken. We relied …

Why Do You Wear A Mask? Children’S Conceptualizations Of Covid-19 And Contagion Avoidance Behaviors, Emily Hillman

Scripps Senior Theses

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a need has emerged for psychological research on children’s understanding of infectious disease transmission. However, little existing research examines the link between children’s cognitive reasoning about illness and their subsequent behaviors regarding its transmissibility. This study will examine children’s conceptualizations of contagious illnesses such as COVID-19 and their subsequent contagion avoidance. A mixed methods approach will be used to establish the content of children’s conceptualizations of contagion and level of causal reasoning related to illness transmission. Dyads will be constructed comprising 4-12-year-old children and their parents. It is expected that parental contagion avoidance …

Trained And Derived Relational Responding, Jonathan D. Sober

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: Persons with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD) show impairments in semantic and associative memory years before the onset of clinical symptoms. However, many tasks used to assess these deficits make use of previously learned stimuli, often within well-established semantic networks that may be more resistant to disease-related changes. No research has been conducted examining trained and derived relational responding (TDRR) in older adults or in the presence of AD risk factors. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a novel TDRR task would be sensitive to age-related and disease-risk cognitive changes. Method: Thirty younger adults and 15 older …