Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Assessing The Impact Of Emotion In Dual Pathway Models Of Sensory Processing., James H. Kryklywy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In our daily environment, we are constantly encountering an endless stream of information which we must be able to sort and prioritize. Some of the features that influence this are the emotional nature of stimuli and the emotional context of events. Emotional information is often given preferential access to neurocognitive resources, including within sensory processing systems. Interestingly, both auditory and visual systems are divided into dual processing streams; a ventral object identity/perception stream and a dorsal object location/action stream. While effects of emotion on the ventral streams are relatively well defined, its effect on dorsal stream processes remains unclear.

The …

The Effects Of Reading Metaphor On Perceptual Distance Judgments, Jeffrey N. Reid

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present research examined the effects of reading metaphor on judgments of distance between people. In two experiments, we found that reading metaphor induced participants to perceive pairs of models shown in pictures as physically farther apart compared to reading either literal language, or nothing aside from instructions. A third experiment ruled out that this effect was due to participants feeling closer themselves to the models and a fourth experiment ruled out that this effect was related to perceived social distance. Construal level theory posits that there are multiple dimensions of psychological distance and that these dimensions are cognitively related. …

Measuring Engagement Of The Executive Control Network From 3 Months Of Age, Michelle Tran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The executive control network (ECN) is critical for higher cognition and executive function (EF). Despite its importance, no scientific consensus has been reached on how and when it begins to function. In the present study, we assessed the development of the ECN in awake infants less than a year old by employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and naturalistic stimuli. First, we identified evocative movies that engaged infant attention. We then transferred them into adult imaging to test for which movie evoked the highest ECN response. Strong ECN responses were evoked while viewing Despicable Me, therefore we implemented this …