Psychology Commons^™

Evolution Of The Cerebellar Cortex: The Selective Expansion Of Prefrontal-Projecting Cerebellar Lobules, J. H. Balsters, E. Cussans, J. Diedrichsen, Kimberley A. Phillips, T. M. Preuss, J. K. Rilling, N. Ramnani

Psychology Faculty Research

It has been suggested that interconnected brain areas evolve in tandem because evolutionary pressures act on complete functional systems rather than on individual brain areas. The cerebellar cortex has reciprocal connections with both the prefrontal cortex and motor cortex, forming independent loops with each. Specifically, in capuchin monkeys cerebellar cortical lobules Crus I and Crus II connect with prefrontal cortex, whereas the primary motor cortex connects with cerebellar lobules V, VI, VIIb, and VIIIa. Comparisons of extant primate species suggest that the prefrontal cortex has expanded more than cortical motor areas in human evolution. Given the enlargement of the prefrontal …

C-Reactive Protein, Homocysteine, And Cognitive Performance In Healthy Adults, Cheryl Dahle

Wayne State University Dissertations

Elevated blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and homocysteine (Hcy) have received a great deal of attention as biomarkers for the development of cardiovascular disease. Their utility in predicting cognitive function has also been assessed, though the findings are equivocal. The current study examined the relationship between elevated blood levels of CRP and Hcy and their effect on cognition across several cognitive domains. As baseline blood levels of CRP and Hcy and cognition are in part regulated by genetic factors, the impact of T carrier status for variants in the CRP -286 C>T>A and the MTHFR 677C>T …

Training The Forgetting Of Negative Material: The Role Of Active Suppression And The Relation To Stress Reactivity, J. Lemoult, Paula T. Hertel, Jutta Joormann

Psychology Faculty Research

In this study, the authors investigated whether training participants to use cognitive strategies can aid forgetting in depression. Participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and never-depressed participants learned to associate neutral cue words with a positive or negative target word and were then instructed not to think about the negative targets when shown their cues. The authors compared 3 different conditions: an unaided condition, a positive-substitute condition, and a negative-substitute condition. In the substitute conditions, participants were instructed to use new targets to keep from thinking about the original targets. After the trainingphase, participants were instructed to recall all …

Laterality Enhances Cognition In Australian Parrots, Maria Magat, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Cerebral lateralization refers to the division of information processing in either hemisphere of the brain and is a ubiquitous trait among vertebrates and invertebrates. Given its widespread occurrence, it is likely that cerebral lateralization confers a fitness advantage. It has been hypothesized that this advantage takes the form of enhanced cognitive function, potentially via a dual processing mechanism whereby each hemisphere can be used to process specific types of information without contralateral interference. Here, we examined the influence of lateralization on problem solving by Australian parrots. The first task, a pebble-seed discrimination test, was designed for small parrot species that …

Deep Rationality: The Evolutionary Economics Of Decision Making, Douglas T. Kenrick, Vladas Griskevicius, Jill M. Sundie, Norman P. Li, Jessica Yexin Li, Steven L. Neuberg

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What is a “rational” decision? Economists traditionally viewed rationality as maximizing expected satisfaction. This view has been useful in modeling basic microeconomic concepts, but falls short in accounting for many everyday human decisions. It leaves unanswered why some things reliably make people more satisfied than others, and why people frequently act to make others happy at a cost to themselves. Drawing on an evolutionary perspective, we propose that people make decisions according to a set of principles that may not appear to make sense at the superficial level, but that demonstrate rationality at a deeper evolutionary level. By this, we …

Mood Over Matter: Can Happiness Be Your Undoing?, Melissa Falkenstern, Holly H. Schiffrin, S. Katherine Nelson, Lyndsey Ford, Christina Keyser

Psychological Science Articles

Research in the field of positive psychology has revealed many advantages of positive emotions. According to the undoing hypothesis (Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998), positive affect can undo the physiological effects of negative emotion. The present study examined whether positive emotions could undo the cognitive effects of negative emotion. A letter identification task was used to measure changes in cognitive processing of 86 college students who were induced into a positive, negative, or neutral affective state by viewing various film clips. The results of this study provided preliminary support for the hypothesis that positive emotions undo the cognitive effects of negative …

The Impact Of Friendships And Mutual Antipathies On Children's Social Behavior And Social Cognition, Elizabeth M. Boulie

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Mutual antipathies are rare among preschoolers and are common among older school age children, but little is known about the prevalence of mutual antipathies among younger school age children. One goal of this study was to examine the prevalence of mutual antipathies among first graders to determine if they are common among younger children. A second goal of the study was to examine the impact of friendship and mutual antipathies on children’s social behavior and social cognition. A sample of first, third, and fifth graders (N = 512) first completed rating and nomination sociometric assessments to assess participation in friendships …

Cognitive Vulnerability To Anxiety: A Review And An Integrative Model., Allison J Ouimet, Bertram Gawronski, David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

Consistent research evidence supports the existence of threat-relevant cognitive bias in anxiety, but there remains controversy about which stages of information processing are most important in the conferral of cognitive vulnerability to anxiety. To account for both theoretical and empirical discrepancies in the literature, an integrative multi-process model is proposed wherein core assumptions of dual-systems theories from social and cognitive psychology are adapted to explain attentional and interpretive biases in the anxiety disorders. According to the model, individual differences in associative and rule-based processing jointly influence orientation, engagement, disengagement, and avoidance of threat-relevant stimuli, as well as negatively-biased interpretation of …

The Cognitive And Behavioral Effects Of Acute Ethanol Exposure And Acute Ethanol Withdrawal, Natasha Laverne Golden

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Although ethanol, in the form of alcoholic beverages, is one of the most widely used and abused drugs, little research has focused on cognitive and behavioral impairments relating to acute ethanol withdrawal. The primary purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of acute ethanol withdrawal on cognition and behavior using the radial arm maze (RAM) and the elevated plus maze (EPM). The secondary purpose of the study was to explore the immediate effects of acute ethanol exposure using a repeated acquisition version of the RAM. Sixteen male, Long-Evans rats were used for the study. For acute ethanol …

The Relationship Between Goal Orientation And Gender Roles, Amanda Michelle Hutchins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was designed to examine the relationship between a person’s goal orientation and the gender roles that they adopt. The relationship between gender and goal orientation has been studied for years, but the results have been inconclusive. Some studies find a gender difference and some studies do not. For this reason, this study examined if there was another factor that was influencing goal orientations that was related to gender.

Goal orientations are perceptual-cognitive frameworks for how individuals approach, interpret, and respond to achievement situations. Gender roles are the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions that are considered acceptable and appropriate for …

Training Forgetting Of Negative Material In Depression, Jutta Joormann, Paula T. Hertel, J. Lemoult, Ian Henry Gotlib

Psychology Faculty Research

In this study, the authors investigated whether training participants to use cognitive strategies can aid forgetting in depression. Participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and never-depressed participants learned to associate neutral cue words with a positive or negative target word and were then instructed not to think about the negative targets when shown their cues. The authors compared 3 different conditions: an unaided condition, a positive-substitute condition, and a negative-substitute condition. In the substitute conditions, participants were instructed to use new targets to keep from thinking about the original targets. After the training phase, participants were instructed to recall …

Constructive And Deconstructive Tool Modification By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Amanda E. Bania, Stephany Harris, Hannah R. Kinsley, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Nine chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were tested for their ability to assemble or disassemble the appropriate tool to obtain a food reward from two different apparatus. In its deconstructed form, the tool functioned as a probe for one apparatus. In its constructed form, the tool functioned as a hook, appropriate for a second apparatus. Each subject completed four test trials with each apparatus type. Tool types were randomized and counter-balanced between the two forms. Results demonstrated that adult and juvenile chimpanzees (N = 7) were successful with both tool types, while two infant chimpanzees performed near chance. Off-line video analyses revealed …

Not All Faces Are Processed Equally: Evidence For Featural Rather Than Holistic Processing Of Ones Own Face In A Face-Imaging Task, Seth N. Greenberg, Yonatan Goshen-Gottstein

Psychology Faculty Work

The present work considers the mental imaging of faces, with a focus in own-face imaging. Experiments 1 and 3 demonstrated an own-face disadvantage, with slower generation of mental images of one’s own face than of other familiar faces. In contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated that mental images of facial parts are generated more quickly for one’s own face. Finally, Experiment 4 established that a bias toward local processing is advantageous for one’s own face, whereas a global-processing bias produces an enhanced own-face disadvantage. The results suggest that own-face imaging is more synchronized with retrieval of face features and less attuned to …

Apolipoprotein Status And Cognitive Functioning In Adulthood: Role Of Physical Health And Social Network Characteristics, Jennifer Lee Silva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the relationships among cognitive function, physical health, social network characteristics, and apolipoprotein (APOE) genotype in participants from the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study. Prior literature has shown that the ε4 allele of APOE is associated with cognitive deficits (Wisdom, Callahan, & Hawkins, 2009). This study failed to find any relation between APOE genotype (ε4 carrier vs. non-carrier) and cognitive ability after controlling for age and education level. Tests for physical health mediation and social network moderation did not alter the ε4/cognition null results. This finding conflicts with prior research suggesting that physical activity and health modify the association …

Student Perceptions Of Streaming-Media Effectiveness, Sara Floyd Baber

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate cognitive-load theory as applied to the design of streaming media. In this study, student learning preferences and cognitive style were measured on a visualizer-verbalizer scale to determine the perceived importance of visual and audio components of streaming media used to supplement classroom instruction. Additionally, this study investigated cognitive-load theory by assessing attitudes regarding the importance of learner control when accessing streaming media files. The writer used 4 existing visualizer-verbalizer instruments in combination with 1 original survey that was designed to gather student perceptions and attitudes regarding the effectiveness of streaming media …

Size Of Food Packaging And Cognitive Performance, Shannon Henry

Honors Theses

Many factors have been shown to affect individuals' cognitive performance, such as sleepiness, hunger, motivation, etc. One such factor that has recently gained much attention is self-regulation, or one's ability to control, regulate, or change his or her behaviors. In lay terms, self-regulation may be thought of more or less as self-control. Together, this researchon self-regulation suggests that it is a limited resource, which, when depleted in one area, reduces self-regulationability across other areas. Many past studies regarding self-regulation have incorporated food as a way to deplete self-regulation. In particular, the size of food packaging may be a way to …

A Study Of The Cognitive Profiles Of Medicated And Nonmedicated Children Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Amy E. Mclaughlin

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is among the most commonly diagnosed childhood disorders, with symptoms that can cause significant difficulties in the educational setting. Deficits related to working memory and processing speed are thought to be a core feature of ADHD. As such, research using traditional measures of cognitive functioning has shown that children diagnosed with ADHD tend to perform poorly on measures of processing speed and working memory, relative to non-ADHD individuals and relative to measures of other cognitive abilities. Psychostimulant medication is a common treatment for ADHD and research overwhelmingly supports its positive impact on behavior and concentration; however, …

Exploration Of Specific Learning Disability Subtypes Differentiated Across Cognitive, Achievement, And Emotional/Behavioral Variables, Lisa A. Hain

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The emphasis on the ability-achievement discrepancy approach for SLD identification diminished the importance of robust examination into patterns of cognitive strengths and weaknesses as related to achievement deficits. This approach directed attention away from related psychosocial deficits previously reported in this population by concentrating on the quantitative differences between standard scores. The cognitive and academic deficits of children with SLD have been well studied, but little is known about the emotionaVbehavioral functioning of children with SLD, and even less about the interconnections between the neurocognitive and emotional/behavioral systems. Children with disparate types of neurocognitive assets and deficits may experience learning …

Relationships Between Executive Functions, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd), Comorbid Disorders, And Familial History In A Nonclinical Population, Sara M. Sachjog Velez

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is typically characterized by impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity and often lasts into adulthood. Depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are often diagnosed as comorbid disorders with ADHD. Adults with ADHD may also display executive functioning deficits. The current study sought to identify whether symptoms of executive functioning were related to symptoms of ADHD in adults. It also identified comorbid disorders in the participants. Questionnaires assessing executive functioning, ADHD, depression, anxiety, and bipolar spectrum disorders were given to participants. Demographics were obtained regarding their own background and comorbid disorders in their first-degree relatives. Results indicated that symptoms of executive …

Adaptive Rationality: An Evolutionary Perspective On Cognitive Bias, Martie Haselton, Gregory A. Bryant, Andreas Wilke, David Frederick, Andrew Galperin, Willem E. Frankenhuis, Tyler Moore

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

A casual look at the literature in social cognition reveals a vast collection of biases, errors, violations of rational choice, and failures to maximize utility. One is tempted to draw the conclusion that the human mind is woefully muddled. We present a three-category evolutionary taxonomy of evidence of biases: biases are (a) heuristics, (b) error management effects, or (c) experimental artifacts. We conclude that much of the research on cognitive biases can be profitably reframed and understood in evolutionary terms. An adaptationist perspective suggests that the mind is remarkably well designed for important problems of survival and reproduction, and not …

Menstrual Cycle And Visual Information Processing, Michelle Nash

Theses and Dissertations

This project examined the effects menstruation may have on visual attention in women. A recent study examined electroencephalographic (EEG) gender differences using a visual object recognition task. Results indicated certain EEG amplitudes (specifically, P300 and N400) are greater in women than men. This study extended the previous findings to determine if these increased EEG amplitudes vary across menstrual phases. Eighteen female participants participated in a series of 3 EEG recording sessions using the same visual object recognition task from the previous study; 18 male participants completed this task once. Analyses from 15 of the 18 female and 16 of the …

Cognition, Commitment Language, And Behavioral Change Among Cocaine-Dependent Patients, Efrat Aharonovich, Paul Amrhein, Adam Bisaga, Edward V. Nunes, Deborah S. Hasin

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Patients' cognitive abilities and verbal expressions of commitment to behavioral change predict different aspects of substance abuse treatment outcome, but these 2 traits have never been examined conjointly. The authors therefore investigated patients' cognitive abilities and verbal expressions of commitment to behavioral change as predictors of retention and drug use outcomes in an outpatient cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) of adult cocaine-dependent patients. A neuropsychological battery was administered at baseline. Two independent raters used recordings of CBT sessions to code commitment language strength across the temporal segments (e.g., beginning, middle, and end) of 1 session per patient. Better cognitive abilities predicted …

Sensation Seeking And Visual Selective Attention In Adults With Hiv/Aids, David J. Hardy, Steven A. Castellon, Charles H. Hinkin, Andrew J. Levine, Mona N. Lam

Psychological Science Faculty Works

The association between sensation seeking and visual selective attention was examined in 31 adults with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Sensation seeking was measured with Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (SSS-V). Selective attention was assessed with a perceptual span task, where a target letter-character must be identified in a quickly presented array of nontarget letter-characters. As predicted, sensation seeking was strongly associated (R² = .229) with perceptual span performance in the array size 12 condition, where selective attention demands were greatest, but not in the easier conditions. The Disinhibition, Boredom Susceptibility, and Experience Seeking subscales of the …

The Effects Of Acute Stress On Human Prefrontal Working Memory Systems, Anthony J. Porcelli, Daniel Cruz, Karen Wenberg, Michael D. Patterson, Bharat B. Biswal, Bart Rypma

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

We examined the relationship between acute stress and prefrontal-cortex (PFC) based working memory (WM) systems using behavioral (Experiment 1) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI; Experiment 2) paradigms. Subjects performed a delayed-response item-recognition task, with alternating blocks of high and low WM demand trials. During scanning, participants performed this task under three stress conditions: cold stress (induced by cold-water hand-immersion), a room temperature water control (induced by tepid-water hand-immersion), and no-water control (no hand-immersion). Performance was affected by WM demand, but not stress. Cold stress elicited greater salivary cortisol readings in behavioral subjects, and greater PFC signal change in fMRI …

Multicultural Experience Enhances Creativity: The When And How, Angela K. Y. Leung, William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Many practices aimed at cultivating multicultural competence in educational and organizational settings (e.g., exchange programs, diversity education in college, diversity management at work) assume that multicultural experience fosters creativity. In line with this assumption, the research reported in this article is the first to empirically demonstrate that exposure to multiple cultures in and of itself can enhance creativity. Overall, the authors found that extensiveness of multicultural experiences was positively related to both creative performance (insight learning, remote association, and idea generation) and creativity-supporting cognitive processes (retrieval of unconventional knowledge, recruitment of ideas from unfamiliar cultures for creative idea expansion). Furthermore, …

Employing Strategy In Measures Of Executive Functioning, Amanda A. Yocum

ETD Archive

Although various dementia-related executive deficits have been identified, the functional state of the frontal lobe during healthy aging remains unclear (Raz et al., 2005). The proposed study examines the use of strategy in measures of executive functioning in younger and older adults. Specifically, the strategy types of a nonverbal fluency task are shown to differentially correlate with the actual output generated by participants. The strategies employed here are compared between the two age groups, illustrating that older adults use the best strategy significantly less than younger adults, even when controlling for output differences, which may support the frontal lobe hypothesis …

Analytic-Holistic Thinking, Information Use, And Sensemaking During Unfolding Events, Mei-Hua Lin

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

In complex domains such as commerce, military operations, transportation, and humanitarian efforts, practitioners are sometimes overwhelmed by uncertain, contradictory, and dynamic information. They must obtain, organize, interpret, and use this information often under time pressure and high stakes during sensemaking. While sensemaking is a gateway to information management, sensemaking also depends on information management; the gathering and use of information provides the raw material for sensemaking. These processes work together to help people understand complex situations but are vulnerable to cultural as well as individual variation in cognition. This study investigated individual cognitive and personality differences that may affect information …

Trait Arousability And Its Impact On Adaptive Multimedia Training, Sae Schatz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today's best intelligent, adaptive, multimedia trainers have shown excellent performance; however, their results still fall far-short of what good human tutors can achieve. The overarching thesis of this paper is that future intelligent, adaptive systems will be improved by taking into account relevant, consistent, and meaningful individual differences. Specifically, responding to individual differences among trainees will (a) form more accurate individual baselines within a training system, and (b) better inform system responses (so that they interpret and respond to observable data more appropriately). One variable to consider is trait arousability, which describes individual differences in sensitivity to stimuli. Individuals' arousability …

Classical Recall: Analysis Of The “Mozart Effect” On Basic Mental Tasks, Matthew Black, Steven Carter, Adam Rose

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Researchers conducted a study based on the theory of the Mozart Effect to determine how well students at Lindenwood University performed on cognitive tasks when certain variables were manipulated. There were a total of twelve different conditions, in which the order of tasks, music, and hypothesis instructions were varied. It was concluded that no significant difference was found between any of the assigned conditions. Further research needs to be performed to determine if other variables would be better predictors of cognitive achievement, instead of the presence of classical music and priming participants with different hypotheses. If the Mozart Effect is …

The Social Construction Of Authorship: An Investigation Of Subjectivity And Rhetorical Authority In The College Writing Classroom, Johannah Rodgers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although we use the term author on a daily basis to refer to certain individuals, bodies of work, and systems of ideas, as Michel Foucault and other critics have pointed out, attempting to answer the question “What is an Author?” is by no means a simple proposition. And, starting from the position that there is no single, or definitive answer to this complex question, this dissertation seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the genealogy of authorship by investigating the ways in which conceptions of the author have informed models of the writing subject in the field of rhetoric …