Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Neurocorrelates Of The Mirror Neuron System In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome, Ade Marais

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Activation of brain regions that make up the mirror neuron system (MNS) is thought to reflect processing and perceiving behavior, action, and intentionality of other organisms. Sensing and perceiving motor behavior in others is an important component of understanding and participating in social interactions. Children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) are diagnosed with serious medical, cognitive, and socio-emotional symptoms. Atypical development and function of the MNS may underpin some aspects of socio-emotional impairment and autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-like symptomology reported. This study of the MNS investigates differences in activation in the operculum, sensorimotor areas, and basal ganglia (BG) in …

Peace Guardians, Watts Bears And The Maori Haka, Zachariah Fisher

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

In the summer of 2017, Peace Guardians carried out a summer school program for twenty inner city kids ranging from 8-13 years old in Watts Los Angeles. The program was part of the annual Watts Bears summer school. The Watts Bears are group of student football and track athletes coached by the Los Angeles Police Department. Working in conjunction with the Watts officers and coaches, Peace Guardians and guest teachers spent four hours a day with the students facilitating mindfulness exercises and the Haka as wellness tools to incorporate into their lives in and out of the classroom and football …

Effects Of Restrained Eating On Episodic Memory And Implications For Homeostatic Appetite Regulation, Morgan Kindel

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Recent studies in the fields of Psychology and Neuroscience suggest a relationship between episodic memory and appetite regulation. A majority of these studies have used BMI as an important variable in this relationship and have found mild episodic memory deficits to be more likely in individuals with higher BMI’s. The goal of this research was to determine whether restrained disordered eating, regardless of BMI, influenced episodic memory and appetite regulation. Initially, we predicted that individuals showing dietary restraint would show signs of a stronger episodic memory, and therefore would have weaker hunger cues and stronger satiety cues, and that in …

Adaptive Mating Memory: Attractiveness And Contextual Effect On The Remembering And Misremembering Of Potential Mates’ Faces, Peter Kay Chai Tay

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Research on adaptive memory demonstrates that words and objects are remembered better if they are evaluated in relation to their survival or reproductive fitness value. Using the error management theory as a framework to elucidate memory biases emerging from adaptive costs and benefits, the present research examined if memory is enhanced for faces of potential mates (i.e., opposite sex individuals) in an ancestral context when the facial attractiveness and the observer’s short-term mating motive were also considered (i.e., Adaptive mating memory). In two studies, participant read scenarios depicting survival threats, mating, or modern environment, and were told to rate a …

Preschoolers And Pandas Making Friends: A Journey About Healing From Brain Injury, Barbara Anne Doucette

Museum Studies Projects

Preschoolers that have obtained Non-Accidental Injury (NAI) from familial child abuse are in need of having a unique place for neurorehabilitation in correlation with traditional therapies. My thesis project suggests adding an exhibit annex to an existing giant panda exhibit that will give preschoolers an opportunity to help develop new neuropathways when exposed to mediation and creative activities. Meditation and creative activities are being examined by neuroscientists as an aid in neuroplasticity after brain injury. This thesis reviews the neurotypical preschooler’s milestones and the playful means by which they are achieved. Conjoining the contemporary museums’ and zoological gardens’ outreach to …

Assessment Of Reliability And Stability Of Various Visual Search Parameters, Michael Don Mizer

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Research in social science has been on a continuous self-correcting path as scientists find new ways to look at old problems. Recent technology has given us the ability to perform compounded calculations in a fraction of previous times while recording complex measurements with greater degrees of precision. While this is helpful regarding corporeal measures, quantifying cognition is still a difficult task. Recently, many computer-aided eye tracking devices have been developed and used to validate visual search theories. However, few inquiries have been made assessing the reliability and stability of these methods. This study assessed the reliability and stability of visual …

Addressing Our Implicit Bias Against Embracing Creative Ideas, Michelle K. Neumayer Ms.

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this Master's Project is to highlight the fact that we all carry an implicit bias against embracing creative ideas experienced as psychological reactions such as anxiety related to the uncertainties that surround truly creative ideas. Two main innovation processes, Creative Problem Solving and Design Thinking will be compared against suggestions by social psychologist and creativity researcher Jennifer Mueller for addressing this bias. One of the main areas of discussion will revolve around the need to balance two opposing mind-sets often used by decision-makers, which results in the ability to think more like an inventor. Characteristics of these …

Regulating Rumination By Anger: Evidence For The Mutual Promotion And Counteraction (Mpmc) Theory Of Emotionality, Jun Zhan, Fan Tang, Mei He, Jin Fan, Jing Xiao, Chang Liu, Jing Luo

Publications and Research

Unlike the strategy of cognitive regulation that relies heavily on the top-down control function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which was recently found may be critically impaired in stressful situations, traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine views different types of emotionality as having mutual promotion and counteraction (MPMC) relationships, implying a novel approach that requires less cognition to emotional regulation. Actually, our previous studies have indicated that anger responses could be successfully regulated via the induction of sadness, and this efficiency could not be influenced by stress, thus providing evidences for the hypothesis of “sadness counteracts anger” (SCA) proposed by the …

It's More Than Self-Presentation: Mum Effects Can Reflect Private Discomfort And Concern For The Recipient, Jayson L. Dibble

Faculty Publications

Is the reluctance to share bad news (i.e., the MUM effect) motivated more by a public display or private concern, and does it benefit mainly the messenger or the recipient? An experiment (N = 309) that crossed good/bad news with three communication channels (face to face, text messaging, email) revealed that messenger reluctance was greatest under conditions of bad news and did not vary based on channel through which the recipient contacted the messenger. In contrast with earlier work, this MUM effect was more consistent with a private fear of distressing the recipient. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.

Language Experience With A Native-Language Phoneme Sequence Modulates The Effects Of Attention On Cortical Sensory Processing, Valerie L. Shafer, Monica Wagner, Jungmee Lee, Francesca Mingino, Colleen O'Brien, Adam Constantine, Mitchell Steinschneider

Publications and Research

Auditory evoked potentials (AEP) reflect spectro-temporal feature changes within the spoken word and are sufficiently reliable to probe deficits in auditory processing. The current research assessed whether attentional modulation would alter the morphology of these AEPs and whether native-language experience with phoneme sequences would influence the effects of attention. Native-English and native-Polish adults listened to nonsense word pairs that contained the phoneme sequence onsets /st/, /sət/, /pət/ that occur in both the Polish and English languages and the phoneme sequence onset /pt/ that occurs in the Polish language, but not the English language. Participants listened to word pairs within two …

Weather Communication On Twitter: Identifying Popular Content And Optimal Warning Format Via Case Studies And A Survey Analysis, Joshua D. Eachus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The use of Twitter as a channel for weather information inspires a deeper analysis of key information nodes during episodes of high impact weather, especially local meteorologists. To optimize communication on the channel, it is important to understand what kinds of messages produce exposure and attention among users—which translates to knowledge that could improve the reach of a warning. Literature identifies two key models that well describe the cognitive processing of tweets and warnings. The Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) describes risk perception and the factors that enable or disable one from acting on a warning. Particularly through environmental and …

The Effect Of Text Color And Text Grouping On Attention And Short Term Recall Memory, Emily Haynes

Honors College Research

This study sought to discover whether there was a connection between the attentional draw of a word, as represented by text color and grouping, and the likelihood of it being transferred into short term recall memory. College students at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas were given one of six timed memory test scenarios and asked to recreate the list to the best of their ability. The students were then asked to complete a series of post-test questions designed to measure their perception of their own performance on the test. The students were also asked to complete a demographics questionnaire that …

Saccade Adaptation Deficits In Developmental Dyslexia Suggest Disruption Of Cerebellar-Dependent Learning, Edward G. Freedman, Sophie Molholm, Michael J. Gray, Daniel Belyusar, John J. Foxe

Publications and Research

Background: Estimates of the prevalence of developmental dyslexia in the general population range from 5% to as many as 10%. Symptoms include reading, writing, and language deficits, but the severity and mix of symptoms can vary widely across individuals. In at least some people with dyslexia, the structure and function of the cerebellum may be disordered. Saccadic adaptation requires proper function of the cerebellum and brainstem circuitry and might provide a simple, noninvasive assay for early identification and sub-phenotyping in populations of children who may have dyslexia.

Methods: Children between the ages of 7 and 15 served as participants in …

Housing Diversity In Children’S Literature, Carla Earhart

Charleston Library Conference

Previous studies have examined diversity in children’s literature: Gender diversity, racial diversity, religious diversity, and diversity in family composition. This project examines an often overlooked diversity issue in children’s literature: Housing diversity. In the stories they read and the accompanying images, children need to see a variety of housing environments and need to see the settings and the people portrayed in a positive manner.

Renting an apartment is an increasingly popular housing option for many families. However, many children’s books glamorize living in a traditional house. Using a rubric designed by the course instructor, students in a university immersive learning …

Beliefs In Advance Care Planning Among Chinese Americans: Similarities And Differences Between The Younger And Older Generations, Mei Ching Lee, Ha Do Byon, Katherine Hinderer, Carla Alexander

Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal

The purpose of this research is to explore behavioral, normative, and control beliefs in the discussion of advance care planning (ACP) among older and younger Chinese Americans. Ethnic minority groups have been identified as less engaged in ACP and this represents an ethnic and cultural gap. Older Chinese American adults often have different beliefs and values compared to the younger generation who are more acculturated to American mainstream culture. These differences may hinder the discussion of ACP with Chinese older adults.

A qualitative design was used. The Theory of Planned Behavior guided the development of the interview guide. We recruited …

Reforming Recusal Rules: Reassessing The Presumption Of Judicial Impartiality In Light Of The Realities Of Judging And Changing The Substance Of Disqualification Standards To Eliminate Cognitive Errors, Melinda A. Marbes

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

In recent years, high profile disqualification disputes have caught the attention of the public. In each instance there has been an outcry when a presiding jurist was asked to recuse but declined. Unfortunately, even if the jurist explains his refusal to recuse, the reasons given often are unsatisfying and do little to quell suspicions of bias. Instead, litigants, the press, and the public question whether the jurist actually is unbiased and doubt the impartiality of the judiciary as a whole. This negative reaction to refusals to recuse is caused, at least in part, by politically charged circumstances that cause further …

Is Cooperative Memory Special? The Role Of Costly Errors, Context, And Social Network Size When Remembering Cooperative Actions, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Tim Winke

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Theoretical studies of cooperative behavior have focused on decision strategies, such as tit-for-tat, that depend on remembering a partner’s last choices. Yet, an empirical study by Stevens et al. (2011) demonstrated that human memory may not meet the requirements that needed to use these strategies. When asked to recall the previous behavior of simulated partners in a cooperative memory task, participants performed poorly, making errors in 10–24% of the trials. However, we do not know the extent to which this task taps specialized cognition for cooperation. It may be possible to engage participants in more cooperative, strategic thinking, which may …

Feature Space Augmentation: Improving Prediction Accuracy Of Classical Problems In Cognitive Science And Computer Vison, Piyush Saxena

Dissertations (1934 -)

The prediction accuracy in many classical problems across multiple domains has seen a rise since computational tools such as multi-layer neural nets and complex machine learning algorithms have become widely accessible to the research community. In this research, we take a step back and examine the feature space in two problems from very different domains. We show that novel augmentation to the feature space yields higher performance. Emotion Recognition in Adults from a Control Group: The objective is to quantify the emotional state of an individual at any time using data collected by wearable sensors. We define emotional state as …

Syntax And Semantics Of Perceptual Representation, James K. Quilty-Dunn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a defense of perceptual pluralism, the thesis that perceptual systems deliver multiple types of representations including those used in thought. In particular, it argues that perceptual systems output iconic (i.e., image-like, analog) representations as well as discursive (i.e., language-like, digital) states. A central thesis is that perceptual representations of objects are propositional and composed of concepts. It also develops a compositional syntax of iconic representation called the coordination model, according to which icons are sets of primitive parts, each of which determines values along multiple analog feature dimensions simultaneously. The dissertation supports the conclusion that perceptual …

The Inconvenient Truth About Thinking Chickens, Lori Marino

Animal Sentience

Original Abstract: Domestic chickens are members of an order, Aves, which has been the focus of a revolution in our understanding of neuroanatomical, cognitive, and social complexity. Some birds are now known to be on a par with many mammals in their intelligence, emotional sophistication, and social interaction. Yet views of chickens have largely remained unrevised in light of this new evidence. In this paper, I examine the data on cognition, emotions, personality, and sociality in chickens, exploring such areas as self-awareness, cognitive bias, social learning and self-control, and comparing their abilities with other birds and other vertebrates, particularly …

Positive Facial Affect Looks Healthy, Alex L. Jones, Carlota Batres, Aurélie Porcheron, Jennifer R. Sweda, Frédérique Morizot, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

A healthy appearance is linked to important behavioural outcomes. Here we investigated whether positive facial affect is a cue for perceived health. In study one, two groups of participants rated the perceived health or perceived happiness of a large set of faces with neutral expressions. Perceived happiness predicted perceived health, as did anthropometric measures of expression. In a second experimental study, we collected ratings of perceived health for a wide age range of target faces with either neutral or smiling expressions. Smiling faces were rated as being much healthier looking than neutral faces, confirming that facial expression plays a role …

The Golden Age Of Phenomenology At The New School For Social Research, 1954–1973, Lester Embree, Michael D. Barber

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

This collection focuses on the introduction of phenomenology to the United States by the community of scholars who taught and studied at the New School for Social Research from 1954 through 1973. During those years, Dorion Cairns, Alfred Schutz, and Aron Gurwitsch—all former students of Edmund Husserl—came together in the department of philosophy to establish the first locus of phenomenology scholarship in the country. This founding trio was soon joined by three other prominent scholars in the field: Werner Marx, Thomas M. Seebohm, and J. N. Mohanty. The Husserlian phenomenology that they brought to the New School has subsequently spread …

Combined Mnemonic Strategy Training And High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation For Memory Deficits In Mild Cognitive Impairment, Benjamin M. Hampstead, Krishnankutty Sathian, Marom Bikson, Anthony Y. Stringer

Publications and Research

Introduction: Memory deficits characterize Alzheimer’s dementia and the clinical precursor stage known as mild cognitive impairment. Nonpharmacologic interventions hold promise for enhancing functioning in these patients, potentially delaying functional impairment that denotes transition to dementia. Previous findings revealed that mnemonic strategy training (MST) enhances long-term retention of trained stimuli and is accompanied by increased blood oxygen level–dependent signal in the lateral frontal and parietal cortices as well as in the hippocampus. The present study was designed to enhance MST generalization, and the range of patients who benefit, via concurrent delivery of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

Methods: This protocol describes …

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

Behavioral Responses To Pulses Of Light In The Longfin Inshore Squid, Doryteuthis Pealeii (Lesueur, 1821), Stavros P. Hadjisolomou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The coleoid cephalopods (octopus, squid, and cuttlefish) are masters of rapid, adaptive camouflage. Unlike the slower hormonal chromatophore control of flatfish and chameleons, coleoid mollusks can change body patterns in milliseconds. Visual camouflage in coleoids is driven by a sensorimotor system consisting of visual input of their surroundings, a sophisticated central nervous system for information processing, and a neuromuscular control for body patterning. Motor neurons selectively activate millions of muscles, alternately expanding and reducing the pigmented chromatophores to generate visible brown, red, orange and yellow patterns on the skin. Below the chromatophore-layered skin are two types of reflecting cells, iridophores …

Psychological Well-Being’S Link With Cardiovascular Health In Older Adults, Julia K. Boehm, Jackie Soo, Ying Chen, Emily S. Zevon, Rosalba Hernandez, Donald Lloyd-Jones, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction

Favorable cardiovascular health (FCH) is associated with healthy longevity and reduced cardiovascular mortality risk. However, limited work has investigated the distribution of FCH in older age or considered the antecedents of FCH. Based on prior work linking psychological well-being with cardiovascular endpoints, higher psychological well-being was hypothesized to be associated with increased likelihood of maintaining FCH over time.

Methods

Data were from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The first study wave (2002–2003) included men and women aged ≥50 years. The analytic sample (N=4,925) was restricted to individuals without baseline cardiovascular disease and with clinical data from three follow-ups …

Review Of Training Principles For Flight Training In Aircraft Or Simulator, Stefan Kleinke

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

In human-performance-driven fields such as the social and behavioral sciences and education, there is a particular risk for a disconnect between current research and applied practice. Often, new findings require policy changes and workforce re-education before being applied in a meaningful way. Therefore, a continuous need for practitioner professional development and continuation training exists to ensure informed practices. This presentation is motivated by these needs and aims to help flight training professionals to make informed decisions when designing and conducting flight training events. Based on a conceptual framework of cognitive and behavioral theories in learning, a variety of common training …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Ethnic Identity Development, Cognitive Complexity, Differentiation Of Self, And Reports Of Racial And Ethnic Microaggressions, Deshae C. Gatti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although individuals may not engage in racism consciously due to social undesirability, they may have biases that manifest in more subtle and unconscious ways. Research has found that people of color experiencing different racial and ethnic microaggressions in their everyday lives are subject to pervasive and negative impacts on their mental health, though little is known about the influence of one’s ethnic identity formation, affective processes, and cognitive processes. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the degree to which ethnic identity development, cognitive complexity, and differentiation of self were associated reported experiences of microaggressions. The analysis indicated that …

Ask The Pendulum: Personality Predictors Of Ideomotor Performance, Jay A. Olson, Ewalina Jeyanesan, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

For centuries, people have asked questions to hand-held pendulums and interpreted their movements as responses from the divine. These movements occur due to the ideomotor effect, wherein priming or thinking of a motion causes muscle movements that end up swinging the pendulum. By associating particular swinging movements with “yes” and “no” responses, we investigated whether pendulums can aid decision-making and which personality traits correlate with this performance. Participants (N=80) completed a visual detection task in which they searched for a target letter among rapidly presented characters. In the verbal condition, participants stated whether they saw the target in each trial. …

A Nirs Study Of Violinists And Pianists Employing Motor And Music Imageries To Assess Neural Differences In Music Perception, Sonja Prychitko

All NMU Master's Theses

Do musicians imagine movements differently? Are instrument-specific movements represented differently in the brain? The current study explores the perceptual differences in imagining music and movements. While attached to a near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) device, violinists and pianists of diverse experience levels viewed a series of performance videos (piano, violin) and performed associated imagery tasks. It was hypothesized that musicians will show diverse levels of brain activity in the motor areas during imagery tasks, depending on their primary instrument and the movements within their repertoire. Results revealed that violinists and pianists significantly differ in imagining movements and music of their non-primary …