Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Are All Older Adult Transgressors Treated Equally?, Heather Marie Dahlgren

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has shown that young adults treat older adults with less blame and more forgiveness when they commit a social transgression. This study sought to understand whether the stereotype of an assumed positive personality and/or a supposed lack of cognitive ability are potential driving forces behind the greater leniency that young adults display toward older transgressors. Seventy-five young adult participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions. Participants’ aging stereotypes were primed with one of four paragraphs that depicted older adults as (a) socially warm and cognitively competent, (b) socially cold but cognitively competent, (c) socially warm but …

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

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 …

The Effect Of Gender And Implicit Theories Of Math Ability On Math Interest And Achievement, Jillian Hendricks

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study examined whether males and females differed in math achievement and held different beliefs regarding the malleability of math ability at the elementary level. The study also explored the relationships between students’ implicit theories of math ability, math interest, and math achievement. Potential grade level differences in math trait beliefs were also investigated. Study participants consisted of a total of 1802 students from six elementary schools that participate in the Gifted Education in Math and Science (GEMS) Project. Project GEMS is a federal grant project seeking to encourage science and math interest and achievement in children from lowincome …

Reactions To A Near Fatal Accident: An Investigation Of Emotion And Coping Responses, Devin Matthew Pauly

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A 12-month longitudinal study assessed the emotional reactions of an intercollegiate athletic team to a near fatal bus incident. PANAS-X and the Brief COPE, administered on five occasions, indicated NA declined over time. Most coping strategies showed significant changes in trajectory. Acceptance and Positive Reframing were high across waves.

In October 2010, an intercollegiate athletic team and coaching staff were traveling by sleeper bus to an out-of-state match. The team members and coaches were in the back of the bus when they felt the bus swaying and heard the tires hit the rumble strips. The head coach went forward to …

Palliative Commitments, Leo Buser

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This project is a speculative fiction novel. The focus of my project is a futuristic palliative care treatment. The intended use if for terminal patients, and it can also be considered an alternative to terminal sedation. The theme of this project mainly came from Biomedical Ethics. This project is also influenced by economics and dreaming supplements. A section explaining the academic influences to the story is provided.

Associative And Error-Driven Learning In Younger And Older Adults, Candice B. T. Groves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Previous research has consistently shown associative deficits in older adults learning and memory (Chalfonte & Johnson 1996; Naveh-Benjamin, 2000; Naveh-Benjamin, Hussain, & Bar-On 2003) that are related to decreases in hippocampal function (Driscoll et al., 2003; Mitchell, Johnson, Raye, & D’Esposito, 2000). However, older adults learn certain simple predictive relationships between events (Mutter & Williams, 2004) that involve basal ganglia dependent error-driven learning. The goal of the current study was to determine whether error-driven learning could reduce the age-related associative deficits that are associated with hippocampal decline. The results did not support the idea that error-driven learning enhanced older adults’ …

Aging And Selective Attention In Causal Learning, Melanie Waldrop Asriel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study investigated age differences in generalization of causal value employing similarity as a cue to causality. Exemplars from six food categories (A+, B-, C+, D-. E+, F-) were presented to both young and older adults in two contiguous training phases. Training Phase 1 included exemplars from categories A+, B-, C+, D-. Training Phase 2 included exemplars from A+, B-, E+, F-. Foods in the “+” categories were paired with an outcome of sickness and foods in the “-” categories were not paired with sickness. Tests of causal judgment and exemplar recognition were conducted. For causal judgment, individual exemplars experienced …

An Examination Of The Effects Of Mindfulness And Task-Relevant Attentional Focus On Running Performance, Anthony R. Atchley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of mindfulness and task-relevant attentional focus on running performance. WKU psychology undergraduate students were assigned to one of two conditions: task-relevant attentional focus experimental training and no training control. Participants in the experimental condition received training designed to optimize the use of attentional focus strategies in a running context. Trait level mindfulness was examined as a covariate. Participants were compared on two mile run times and the use of attentional focus strategies. Differences were expected to reveal the effectiveness of the training by showing faster running times in the …

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 …

Essences And Transformations In Objects, Animals, And Humans, Alicia Brooke Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research as to how humans group natural kinds, such as animals, is essential to understanding categorization processes. However, it lacks conventional application and generalization to everyday life. Humans are social beings that encounter a wide array of individuals on a daily basis. In these situations, we are required to consider various properties that make up these people. As Keller (2005) suggests, the way we categorize is shaped by our theories about the world. Therefore, when we determine the rationale behind people’s social categorization processes, we are better able to understand people’s perceptions of their social environment. Moreover, when we conduct …

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) …

An Examination Of Student-Ahtletes' Perceptions Of Their Academic Abilities, Tiffany Ann White

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A common stereotype in our society is that athletes are not as capable of performing well academically as their non-athlete counterparts; they are “dumb jocks”. Do athletes feel that others have lower expectations of them academically? This is important because previous research in education has shown that expectations play a role in academic achievement (for example, Rosenthal and Jacobson’s Pygmalion effect (1968) and self-fulfilling prophecy research). The current study examined student-athletes’ perceptions of this stereotype. Three areas were addressed: athletes’ perceptions of their peers’ awareness that the student is a student-athlete, perceptions of their instructors and peers academic expectations of …

Examining The Relationship Between Body Work And Muscle Dysmorphia Symptoms, Katharine J. Reynolds

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether men with a large amount of Muscle Dysmorphia symptoms had a more favorable outlook and opinion of body work. Participants in the current study were a convenience sample of men recruited from undergraduate classes at Western Kentucky University and the community of Bowling Green Kentucky and Somerset Kentucky. A total of 215 men completed the study. Participants completed the Muscle Dysmorphia Inventory (MDI) and the Attitude-Behavior Questionnaire (ABQ). Results indicate scores on the MDI were significant predictors of scores on the ABQ. This suggests that men with a high number of …

Knowledge Of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury In Populations That Self-Injure, Darcy Leanne Cates

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Archived data was utilized for the present study which examined knowledge about non-suicidal self-injury, or NSSI, in individuals who engage in various degrees of the behavior and those who do not self-injure. Knowledge about NSSI was measured in three groups of respondents: those with no history of self-injurious behavior (no NSSI group), those with more limited experience with NSSI who reported 1-30 incidences of NSSI (limited NSSI group), and those with an extensive history (extensive NSSI group) who reported over 30 incidences of NSSI. To measure knowledge, participants were asked level of agreement with myths and facts about NSSI using …

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 …

Examining The Relationship Between Criticism And Muscle Dysmorphia Symptomotology In Collegiate Men, Lauren M. Menees

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of the current study was to examine the relationship between critical comments that men can recall others making about their bodies and their current level of Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) symptomotology. Participants (N = 118) were recruited via study board from a mid-Western university with a population of 20,674 students. The hypothesis of the current study was that men who can recall critical comments about their bodies will report more MD symptomotology than those who remembered no such comments. In addition, it was expected that out of those who recall critical comments, the more severe or threatening they remember …

The Effects Of Rater Training On The Relationship Between Item Observability And Rater Agreement, Keaton Edwin Montgomery

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was an extension of a study conducted by Roch, Paquin, and Littlejohn (2009). They investigated the relationship between rater agreement and the observability of items on a rating form. The current study found similar results in that, as items became less observable, interrater agreement increased. The purpose of this study was to introduce frame of reference training as an extension to the Roch et al. study in order to reverse their findings. In other words, trained raters would be less likely to default to a general impression on less observable items and thus would demonstrate higher rater agreement …

The Effects Of Picture Presentation On Male Body Shame And Muscle Dysmorphia, Samantha A. Wilson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether picture presentation influenced men’s experienced body shame or Muscle Dysmorphia symptomatology, and whether there was a relationship between body shame and Muscle Dysmorphia. Participants were 112 men attending Western Kentucky University. Participants completed the Body Shame Questionnaire and Muscle Dysmorphia Inventory. Participants were randomly assigned to either view eight photographs of average men or eight photographs of muscular men. After viewing the photographs, the participants completed the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale and the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale. Although there was a trend, results indicate that men who view photographs of muscular …

An Examination Of Body Dissatisfaction And Media Exposure, Richard H. Kirchmeyer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of the current study was to examine the relationship between muscle magazine consumption and body dissatisfaction. The study also examined the relationship between muscle magazine consumption and the amount of disparity between ideal and real body shape. Participants (N = 108) were recruited via study board, and also on a volunteer basis, from a mid-Western university with a population of 20,674 students. The first hypothesis stated that men with greater exposure to muscle magazines would indicate that their actual body shape falls further away from their ideal body shape, in terms of both muscularity and fat level, than …

The Influence Of Affective Ties On Children's Consequential Reasoning About Ambiguous Provocation Situations, Jennifer R. Maulden

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Past models (i.e., Crick and Dodge, 1994) of children’s social information processing (SIP) have neglected to include the role of emotions in children’s reasoning during social situations. A recent reformulation (Lemerise and Arsenio, 2000) updated Crick and Dodge’s model to incorporate emotions and their impact on children’s processing. Since then, studies have examined the influence of emotion in children’s SIP, but few have investigated the impact of children’s affective ties with their peers. This study explores the effect of the participant’s relationship with the provocateur on subsequent consequential reasoning concerning possible hostile, passive, and competent response; in addition, it addresses …

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.

Fan Perception Of Justice In Team Disciplinary Decisions, Lauren Cathryn Gruchala

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present study examined procedural and distributive justice outcomes of discipline in an athletic team setting. A 2 (Consistency of Punishment: consistent vs. conditional) x 2 (Violation Severity: moderate vs. severe) x 2 (Punishment Severity: moderate vs. severe) x 2 (Decision Maker: head coach vs. team captains) factorial design was used. Participants responded to four of the 16 hypothetical scenarios resulting from the design. Participants included 354 fans in attendance at a several university athletic events and students in psychology courses. The results indicated that consistent punishment was perceived as more fair to the punished athlete, teammates, and fans than …

Intercollegiate Athlete Perceptions Of Justice In Team Disciplinary Decisions, Brandon Richard Severs

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Perceptions of justice involving disciplinary decisions for a star player in an intercollegiate team sport setting were investigated. Male and female intercollegiate athletes (N = 142) at a midsized southeastern university responded to one of sixteen scenarios and reported perceptions of fairness for the punished athlete and teammates, perceptions of procedural fairness for the punished athlete and teammates, and whether the punishment was likely to deter future misconduct by the punished athlete and teammates. The results indicated that athletes perceived consistently applied punishment as more fair to all team members than they did conditional punishment; consistently applied punishment was perceived …

The Physical Discrimination And Possible Concept Of Object Weight That Exists In Infants And Toddlers, Anita Patnaik

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Young children’s attention to a variety of object features has been studied. However, very few studies have examined young children’s understanding of object weight. In order to investigate developmental changes in perception and categorization of weight, three tasks were given to 59 18-month-old to 3-year-old children. Three age groups (20; 27 and 34 months old) were analyzed for the final results. The first two tasks used a familiarization and novelty preference paradigm in which attention was assessed by measuring each child’s looking time.

The first task’s goal was to evaluate young children’s ability to discriminate objects on the basis of …

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) …

The Influence Of Cultural Identification And Gender-Linked Characteristics On The Body Satisfaction Of African American Men, Amy Lynn Baird

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of the present study was to examine the relationships between gender schema, level of cultural identification, and body dissatisfaction in African American men. The first hypothesis under study was that men with a low identification to African American culture would report higher dissatisfaction with their body than those with a high cultural identification. Secondly, it was hypothesized that men with a large discrepancy from their culture’s description of an “ideal man” would also report higher body dissatisfaction than those with low or no discrepancy. Lastly, it was hypothesized that an interaction between variables would occur and that men …

The Visual Perception Of Elasticity, Elizabeth Y. Wiesemann

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Two experiments were designed to evaluate human sensitivity to elasticity. Elastic objects bend when a force is applied to them. Observers saw two computer-generated bending rods (defined by the motions of 50 dots) on any given trial and were required to judge which rod was more flexible. Elasticity difference thresholds were calculated for each observer for each of three bending conditions. The rods bent in a plane that was either frontoparallel or oriented 42.5 or 85 degrees from frontoparallel. The results showed that observers could precisely discriminate between bending rods of different elasticities, independent of whether the bendings occurred in …

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.

Memory For Non-Focal Words, John Jones

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In two experiments a modified flanker paradigm was used to simultaneously present a focal word and an incidental non-focal word. The participants' task was to process the focal word in one of two conditions: naming aloud or a conceptual decision (concrete or abstract). The focal and non-focal words were either semantically related or not. Participants were instructed to direct their attention at the focal word.  Furthermore, the presentation of the focal word was brief to reduce the possibility of eye movement to the non-focal word. Memory was measured with implicit and explicit memory tests. Evidence was found to suggest implicit …