Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Cognition and Perception Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 20 of 20

Full-Text Articles in Cognition and Perception

Crossmodal Perception Of Object Shape: A Study On The Effect Of Modal Order On Successful Shape Recognition, Ashlyn Vale Jan 2022

Crossmodal Perception Of Object Shape: A Study On The Effect Of Modal Order On Successful Shape Recognition, Ashlyn Vale

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Visual and haptic (tactile) modes of perception, while occasionally exercised independently, most often occur concurrently. The degree to which the ordering of the two modes of perception affects successful recognition of three-dimensional shapes varies. Some have found that the cross-modal orders (vision followed by haptics or vice versa) produce equal performance (Caviness, 1964; Lacey, Peters, & Sathian, 2007; Norman et al., 2006), while other researchers found visual-haptic (VH) performance to be superior to haptic-visual (HV) performance (Davidson, Abbott, & Gershenfeld, 1974; Norman, Clayton, Norman, & Crabtree, 2008). The current experiment used an old-new recognition task (with cookie cutter stimuli). In …


The Effects Of White Noise Exposure On Cognition: An Examination Of The Impacts Of White Noise Presentation On Recall And Cognitive Load, Cordelia Ann Witty Apr 2021

The Effects Of White Noise Exposure On Cognition: An Examination Of The Impacts Of White Noise Presentation On Recall And Cognitive Load, Cordelia Ann Witty

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

White noise has historically been utilized as a tool for offsetting or masking sounds that may be perceived as disruptive, most commonly during the sleeping process. More recently, literature has begun to explore the possibility of using white noise as a tool to suppress these potentially distracting sounds within the area of cognitive processing. Present literature suggests that white noise may be a useful tool for masking noises like these in order to improve cognitive performance, especially for those individuals who may possess inattentive symptoms. However, this research has largely been conducted using tasks that involve working memory or visual …


Do Emotion Words Influence Age Effects In Delayed Match-To-Sample Performance For Emotional Faces?, Ying-Han Li Apr 2021

Do Emotion Words Influence Age Effects In Delayed Match-To-Sample Performance For Emotional Faces?, Ying-Han Li

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Age differences are apparent in using verbal labels of emotion to categorize emotion face stimuli. Particularly, older adults have more difficulty detecting emotion cues like anger and fear relative to younger adults, but seem to have less difficulty with disgust cues. However, age differences are diminished in situations when participants are limited to two possible emotion choices or are required to simply match stimuli based on emotion cues without the use of labels. One question that emerges from the disparities in these findings is the role that emotion labels themselves play in driving possible age differences in emotion perception. The …


Reliability Of Index And Subtest Discrepancy Scores From The Kabc-Ii Nu, Grant Hacherl Apr 2020

Reliability Of Index And Subtest Discrepancy Scores From The Kabc-Ii Nu, Grant Hacherl

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

School psychologists often consider index- and subtest-level discrepancy scores from intelligence tests when making decisions regarding students’ special education eligibility. Best practices for clinical decision-making indicate that scores may only be considered if they meet an established standard of reliability. Therefore, it is essential to assess whether an interpretation of discrepancy scores can be considered reliable. This research used data provided in the supplemental manual of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition Normative Update (KABC-II NU) to calculate internal reliability coefficients (ICR) for discrepancy scores for each of the sample age group batteries, ages 3-6 and ages 7-18. …


The Influence Of Aging, Gaze Direction, And Context On Emotion Discrimination Performance, Alyssa Renee Minton Apr 2019

The Influence Of Aging, Gaze Direction, And Context On Emotion Discrimination Performance, Alyssa Renee Minton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined how younger and older adults differ in their ability to discriminate between pairs of emotions of varying degrees of similarity when presented with an averted or direct gaze in either a neutral, congruent, or incongruent emotional context. For Task 1, participants were presented with three blocks of emotion pairs (i.e., anger/disgust, sadness/disgust, and fear/disgust) and were asked to indicate which emotion was being expressed. The actors’ gaze direction was manipulated such that emotional facial expressions were depicted with a direct gaze or an averted gaze. For Task 2, the same stimuli were placed into emotional contexts (e.g., …


Emotion Discrimination In Peripheral Vision, Hayley M. Lambert Apr 2018

Emotion Discrimination In Peripheral Vision, Hayley M. Lambert

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The recognition accuracy of emotion in faces varies depending on the discrete emotion being expressed and the location of the stimulus. More specifically, emotion detection performance declines as facial stimuli are presented further out in the periphery. Interestingly, this is not always true for faces depicting happy emotional expressions, which can be associated with maintained levels of detection. The current study examined neurophysiological responses to emotional face discrimination in the periphery. Two event-related potentials (ERPs) that can be sensitive to the perception of emotion in faces, P1 and N170, were examined using EEG data recorded from electrodes at occipitotemporal sites …


The Effects Of Aging On Associative Learning And Memory Retrieval In Causal Judgment, Jessica Parks Arnold Oct 2015

The Effects Of Aging On Associative Learning And Memory Retrieval In Causal Judgment, Jessica Parks Arnold

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has shown that detecting and judging causal relationships requires associative learning and memory. Retrospective revaluation of causal cues requires associative memory (Aitken, Larkin, & Dickinson, 2001) to bind multiple cues together and use these associations to retrieve unseen cues for revaluation of their associative value. The difficulty that older adults experience with respect to retrospective revaluation could occur because of their deficit in associative binding and retrieval (Mutter, Atchley, & Plumlee, 2012). Like retrospective revaluation, blocking requires cue – outcome associative learning, but unlike retrospective revaluation, blocking does not require binding two cues together nor does it require using …


Short-Term Visual Deprivation, Tactile Acuity, And Haptic Solid Shape Discrimination, Charles E. Crabtree Aug 2014

Short-Term Visual Deprivation, Tactile Acuity, And Haptic Solid Shape Discrimination, Charles E. Crabtree

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The visual cortex of human observers changes its functionality in response to visual deprivation (Boroojerdi et al., 2000). Behavioral studies have recently documented enhanced tactile abilities following a short period of visual deprivation (Facchini & Aglioti, 2003; Weisser, Stilla, Peltier, Hu, & Sathian, 2005). The current study investigated the effects of visual deprivation on two unique tactile tasks. While Facchini and Aglioti observed significant effects of visual deprivation, neither Wong, Hackeman, Hurd, and Goldreich (2011) nor Merabet et al. (2008) observed these effects. Corroborating these more recent results, no difference in grating orientation discrimination performance was observed between the sighted …


The Influence Of Spatial Distance Priming On Test Anxiety And Judgments, Eric R Raap May 2013

The Influence Of Spatial Distance Priming On Test Anxiety And Judgments, Eric R Raap

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This paper examined the effects of distance priming on test anxiety and judgment. Research suggests that individuals’ perceived distance can impact their affect and judgments, which sheds light on the principle of “distance equals safety” (Williams & Bargh, 2008). Taking an exam invokes both cognitive and emotional anxiety, such as worry, panic, and tension. It is hypothesized that the distance priming may reduce test anxiety—particularly, the emotionality aspect—as well as perceived test difficulty. The results showed that, counter to the hypotheses, there was no significant difference among the three priming groups in their emotional test anxiety or perceived test difficulty. …


Age Differences In Reward Anticipation And Memory, Kristen L. Cushman Dec 2012

Age Differences In Reward Anticipation And Memory, Kristen L. Cushman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Aging research on item- and associative-recognition memory has demonstrated that older adults are deficient in forming associations between two unrelated stimuli. Although older adult performance on tests of item-recognition is similar to younger adult performance, older adults perform worse than younger adults on tests of associative memory (Naveh-Benjamin, Hussain, Guez, & Bar-On, 2003). In addition to the idea that younger adult performance on associative-recognition tests is superior to that of older adults, research has shown that reward cues can enhance motivated learning and item memory performance of younger adults. In an fMRI study that examined the influence of reward anticipation …


Teleological Reasoning In Adults: Believing In The Purpose Of Events, Carrie Jeanette Guggenmos Nov 2012

Teleological Reasoning In Adults: Believing In The Purpose Of Events, Carrie Jeanette Guggenmos

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Teleological reasoning reflects the general tendency to view objects, behaviors and events in terms of their “purpose.” Although healthy educated adults tend to refrain from committing errors in teleological reasoning about objects, our knowledge regarding how adults reason about events is limited. It has been suggested that teleological reasoning biases our interpretations of emotionally significant and unexpected life events of which a physical or social cause is absent or unsatisfactory. The current investigation seeks to better understand the types of events that evoke a teleological perspective and the conditions and individual difference factors that facilitate it. The results revealed that …


Learned Attention In Younger And Older Adults, Jared M. Holder Dec 2010

Learned Attention In Younger And Older Adults, Jared M. Holder

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A relatively new phenomenon in learning research called highlighting occurs when participants show a seemingly irrational preference to attribute a stronger cue-outcome association to a later presented perfect predictor when it is paired with an imperfect predictor than that of an earlier presented perfect predictor paired with the same imperfect predictor (Kruschke, 1996). Current research suggests that the highlighting effect depends on the ability to learn to shift attention away from an irrelevant cue toward a more relevant cue in order to reduce errors in causal judgment and preserve an earlier formed association (Kruschke, 2003). Much research has suggested that …


Addressing Relationships Among Moral Judgment Development, Narcissism, And Electronic Media And Communication Devices, Meghan M. Saculla Aug 2010

Addressing Relationships Among Moral Judgment Development, Narcissism, And Electronic Media And Communication Devices, Meghan M. Saculla

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Recently, Thoma and Bebeau (2008) reported moral judgment developmental trends among various samples of undergraduates and graduates where increases in Personal Interests reasoning and decreases in Postconventional reasoning were observed. In an attempt to explain such trends, they cited recent trends in increased narcissism among college students (Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, 2008) and also noted that certain types of technological devices (i.e. social networking websites, cell phones, etc.) may have adverse effects social decision-making and self-presentation. The current study, therefore, addresses the relationships among moral judgment development, narcissism, and electronic media and communication devices (EMCD's). Analyses support that …


Exploration Of The Relationship Between Moral Judgment Development And Attention, Lauren I. Clark Aug 2010

Exploration Of The Relationship Between Moral Judgment Development And Attention, Lauren I. Clark

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research in moral psychology has focused on understanding what factors assist in the development of moral action and decision making. The purpose of this study was to address whether variability in attention relates to moral judgment development. The reason for exploring moral judgment development was to further explore the research of Thoma and Bebeau (2008) who documented that the moral development scores of college and graduate students has been declining over time, with more college-aged students scoring in the lower levels of moral reasoning. Attention was chosen as a viable topic of research, based on the writings of Carr (2008a) …


Attentional Uncertainty In The Stroop Priming Task, Brandy Nicole Johnson May 2009

Attentional Uncertainty In The Stroop Priming Task, Brandy Nicole Johnson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

There is extensive evidence that structures in the anterior attentional system (i.e. dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate) are susceptible to normal aging processes, whereas structural changes in the posterior attentional system are minimal. Using the Stroop priming task, we investigated whether reducing the involvement of the anterior attentional system by pre-cuing the location of the target stimulus would eliminate age differences in interference. Older adults continued to be susceptible to interference when the location cue was ambiguous or invalid, but were less susceptible when the target location of a stimulus was presented with a valid cue.


The Differential Effects Of Mental Fatigue And Alcohol On Selective Attention, Emily Keller Bloesch Aug 2008

The Differential Effects Of Mental Fatigue And Alcohol On Selective Attention, Emily Keller Bloesch

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Decrements in selective attention are a commonly experienced phenomenon that has practical implications for many industries. Two causes of such deficits are mental fatigue and alcohol intoxication, which impair selective attention by decreasing the efficiency of inhibitory processes. The present research examined the effects of these two factors on the selective attention subtest of the Useful Field of View test in both a baseline and an experimental session. Participants in the mental fatigue condition (n = 14) were tested while performing a divided attention task for two hours to induce mental fatigue. Those in the alcohol condition (n = 10) …


Cognitive Techniques As A Means For Facilitating Supervisee Development, Aaron Kindsvatter, Darcy Haag Granello, Dr. Jill D. Duba Mar 2008

Cognitive Techniques As A Means For Facilitating Supervisee Development, Aaron Kindsvatter, Darcy Haag Granello, Dr. Jill D. Duba

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

During periods of uncertainty or psychological distress, a supervisee may encounter or develop rigid or unhelpful thinking patterns that could delay development by promoting discouraging realities and experiences. Such cognitive experiences often are so subtle that they occur outside the supervisee's immediate awareness. This article explores how the cognitive model of counseling could be used in supervision as a guide to help the supervisor and supervisee discover and modity negative thought processes.


Relationships In Aging, Cognitive Processes, And Contingency Learning, Sarah Reeder Aug 2006

Relationships In Aging, Cognitive Processes, And Contingency Learning, Sarah Reeder

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study investigated the influence of age, processing speed, working memory,and associative processes on the acquisition of contingency information. Young and older adults completed positive (+.65) and negative (-.65) contingency tasks that measured their ability to discover the relationship between a symptom (e.g., FEVER) and a fictional disease (e.g., OLYALGIA). Both d' scores, i.e., contingency learning, and contingency estimates, i.e., contingency judgment, were examined. Participants were also asked to complete cognitive tasks that measure the constructs of processing speed, working memory resources, associative memory, and associative learning. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct and indirect relationships between …


Eliminating Sex Bias Through Rater Cognitive Processes Training, Carter Ard Mar 1988

Eliminating Sex Bias Through Rater Cognitive Processes Training, Carter Ard

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The success of Rater Cognitive Processes Training as a strategy for eliminating sex bias in ratings of performance in a physically demanding job was investigated in the present study. One hundred undergraduate students from a mid -sized regional university served as subjects. The independent variables were type of training and sex of the ratee. resulting in a two by two factorial design. The dependent variable was the performance ratings assigned by the subjects. Subjects in the experimental condition were trained to recognize the important dimensions of performance for the lob of feed handler and received one Practice/feedback session. Subjects in …


Developmental Study Of The Mueller-Lyer Illusion Under Conditions Of Restricted Exposure Time & Task Interference, Jerald Clampitt Apr 1977

Developmental Study Of The Mueller-Lyer Illusion Under Conditions Of Restricted Exposure Time & Task Interference, Jerald Clampitt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present study brought together two lines of research in an attempt to explain some issues in perceptual development. The first pertained to the Mueller-Lyer illusion which tends to decrease with age. Piaaet attributed this change to increased perceptual activities, such as eye movements in the older subjects. Pollack related it to changes in the physical structure of the eye. Grice attributed the charge partially to cognitive processes, and partially to perceptual activities. Second, the concept of iconic memory was reviewed. Grice had employed the concept of iconic memory in an attempt to relate the age related changes in illusions …