Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beer Holder: An Initial Investigation Of The Effects Of Alcohol, Attractiveness, Warmth, And Competence On The Objectifying Gaze In Men, Abigail R. Riemer, Michelle Haikalis, Molly R. Franz, Michael Dodd, David Dilillo, Sarah Gervais

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Despite literature revealing the adverse consequences of objectifying gazes for women, little work has empirically examined origins of objectifying gazes by perceivers. Integrating alcohol myopia and objectification theories, we examined the effects of alcohol as well as perceived female attractiveness, warmth, and competence on objectifying gazes. Specifically, male undergraduates (n = 49) from a large U.S. Midwestern university were administered either an alcoholic or placebo beverage. After consumption, participants were asked to focus on the appearance or personality (counterbalanced) of pictured women who were previously rated as high, average, or low in attractiveness, warmth, and competence. Replicating previous work, appearance …

Perception Of American–English Vowels By Early And Late Spanish–English Bilinguals, Miriam Baigorri, Luca Campanelli, Erika S. Levy

Publications and Research

Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US and learning American–English (AE) as a second–language (L2). Previous studies investigating the relationship between AE and Spanish vowels have revealed an advantage for early L2 learners for their accuracy of L2 vowel perception. Replicating and extending such previous research, this study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish–English bilingual adults assimilated naturally-produced AE vowels to their native vowel-inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminated the vowels. Twelve early Spanish–English bilingual, 12 late Spanish–English bilingual, and 10 monolingual listeners performed perceptual-assimilation and categorical-discrimination tasks involving AE /i,ɪ,ɛ,ʌ,æ,ɑ,o/. Early bilinguals …

Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries And Their Implications On Changes In Event Related Potentials: A Look Into Visual Gating (P50), Katelynn M. Kozak

Dissertations and Theses

Concussions are a prevalent injury that affect a wide range of individuals. Commonly seen amongst individuals who play contact sports, there are many underlying factors that doctors and clinicians have yet to understand which include properties such as proper diagnosis standards or lasting impacts. In this study, we look at those impacts by using electroencephalographic (EEG) measures to study the changes in event related potentials (ERPs) associated with sensory gating and how this cognitive property is affected in those who have a self-reported concussion. Here we show that a visual attention and gating mechanism exists in both populations (control and …

Insulting Words: "They Are Animals!", Carolyn A. Ristau

Animal Sentience

As Chapman & Huffman state, creating divisive human categories has rationalized atrocities committed against the “other.” Labeling neighboring warring villagers as “animals” is considered a despicable insult. Yet contemporary scientific views of many animals grant them thinking and conscious faculties, and the capacity for impressive achievements, many unattainable by humans. Robots, too, can accomplish many similar feats. But the essential reason we must protect animals is not because of their admirable abilities, but their capacity for consciousness, for suffering. Robots are not conscious. Participants in the human-animal debate should not complain about changing criteria for determining human uniqueness. New and …

How Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Recognize Facial Expressions Displayed By A Rear-Projection Humanoid Robot, Farzaneh Askari, Huanghao Feng, Anibal Gutierrez, Timothy Sweeny, Mohammad H. Mahoor

Electrical and Computer Engineering: Graduate Student Scholarship

Background: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience reduced ability to perceive crucial nonverbal communication cues such as eye gaze, gestures, and facial expressions. Recent studies suggest that social robots can be used as effective tools to improve communication and social skills in children with ASD. One explanation has been put forward by several studies that children with ASD feel more contented and motivated in systemized and predictable environment, like interacting with robots.

Objectives: There have been few research studies evaluating how children with ASD perceive facial expression in humanoid robots but no research evaluating facial expression perception …

A Pilot Study On Facial Expression Recognition Ability Of Autistic Children Using Ryan, A Rear-Projected Humanoid Robot, Farzaneh Askari, Huanghao Feng, Timothy D. Sweeny, Mohammad H. Mahoor

Electrical and Computer Engineering: Graduate Student Scholarship

Rear-projected robots use computer graphics technology to create facial animations and project them on a mask to show the robot’s facial cues and expressions. These types of robots are becoming commercially available, though more research is required to understand how they can be effectively used as a socially assistive robotic agent. This paper presents the results of a pilot study on comparing the facial expression recognition abilities of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with typically developing (TD) children using a rear-projected humanoid robot called Ryan. Six children with ASD and six TD children participated in this research, where Ryan …

The Imprint Of Childhood Abuse On Trauma-Related Shame In Adulthood, Joan A. Reid

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Research has consistently linked residual trauma-related shame among child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors to sexual revictimization, health risk behaviors, and poorer response to mental health treatment. However, questions remain regarding the imprint of childhood maltreatment on trauma-related shame including which CSA characteristics or types of childhood maltreatment contribute to residual shame in adulthood. Using data drawn from a prospective study of 174 primarily African American women with histories of CSA and a matched comparison group, this study explores whether specific characteristics of CSA (familial CSA, CSA with penetration, force used by CSA perpetrator), repeat sexual victimization in adolescence, childhood physical …

Entropy, Order, And Agency: The Cognitive Basis Of The Link Between Agents And Order, Adena Schachner, Minju Kim

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

People often believe that orderly structures were created by agents. We examine the cognitive basis of this tendency, asking if learned associations or causal reasoning drives us to link order with agents. Causal reasoning predicts that knowledge of an alternative physical-mechanical cause should ‘explain away’ orderliness, weakening the link with agents. In a preregistered experiment, we manipulated the context to provide (or not provide) a physical-mechanical explanation for orderly outcomes, and participants judged if an object or agent had been present. We compared outcomes differing in (a)levels of orderliness and (b)whether context provided an alternative explanation. We found that environmental …

Poor Metacognitive Awareness Of Belief Change, Michael Wolfe, Todd J. Williams

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

When people change beliefs as a result of reading a text, are they aware of these changes? This question was examined for beliefs about spanking as an effective means of discipline. In two experiments, subjects reported beliefs about spanking effectiveness during a prescreening session. In a subsequent experimental session, subjects read a one-sided text that advocated a belief consistent or inconsistent position on the topic. After reading, subjects reported their current beliefs and attempted to recollect their initial beliefs. Subjects reading a belief inconsistent text were more likely to change their beliefs than those who read a belief consistent text. …

Pokémon Go As A Positive Virtual Reality Game: Promoting Cognitive, Affective, And Empathic Benefits, Rachel Carpenter

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Video game popularity and time playing in children, adolescents, and adults is steadily increasing due to heightened accessibility, advanced technological game design, and a rising sedentary lifestyle among Americans. The advent of exergames and virtual reality paradigms has led to a new wave of mobile video games that can be played anywhere, involve the combination of mobility and gaming, and may be used to improve cognition, affect, and perhaps empathy. The aim of the present study was to examine if the exergame Pokémon Go would improve visual and verbal working memory, attention, positive and negative affect, and empathy. Additionally, the …

A Study Of State College Faculty Trust In Immediate Supervisors, Anna Byrd

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study investigated faculty trust in their immediate supervisors (academic deans and faculty chairs) in a state college setting. A survey instrument created for this study was based on existing research on trust in schools by Bryk and Schneider (2002) and Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (1998), as well as research on trust in corporate setting. The study’s purpose was to determine the types and frequencies of interactions between community college faculty and deans/faculty chairs – i.e., faculty immediate supervisors – that are related to higher levels of faculty trust. Also investigated were the relationships between faculty trust and demographic characteristics …

Learning Strategies Employed By College Aged Students With Disabilities: The Link Between Metacognition, Motivation, And Working Memory, Michael Rodriguez

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is two-fold. First, we want to understand the levels of metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. Previous research states that recall is the most effective method of studying, but most students prefer to reread their notes or textbook which is ineffective. Second, we want to explore the link between Working Memory and metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. The learning strategies that college students with and without disabilities is examined, we found that students in both groups preferred the usage of the same strategies equally. The most …

What Is It Like To Be A Jealous Dog?, Emanuela Prato Previde, Paola Valsecchi

Animal Sentience

Jealousy is a good candidate for comparative studies due to its clear adaptive value in protecting social bonds and affective relationships. Dogs are suitable subjects for investigating the evolution of jealousy, thanks to their rather sophisticated socio-cognitive abilities — which in some cases parallel those reported for human infants — and thanks to their long-lasting relationship with humans. The work of Cook and colleagues (2018) addresses the issue of jealousy in dogs through the lens of neuroscience, examining the relationship between the amygdala and jealousy. Their experiment has a number of methodological flaws that prevent distinguishing jealousy from other internal …

Psychometric Properties Of A Modified Moral Injury Questionnaire In A Military Population, Abby L. Braitman, Allison R. Battles, Michelle L. Kelley, Hannah C. Hamrick, Robert J. Cramer, Sarah Ehlke, Adrian J. Bravo

Psychology Faculty Publications

Moral injury (MI) results from perpetration of or exposure to distressing events, known as morally injurious events (MIEs), that challenge moral beliefs and values. Due to the type of involvement in recent military conflicts, many veterans report MIEs that may cause dissonance and, in turn, MI. Although 2 existing measures assess MIEs, neither currently assesses the defining characteristics of MI (i.e., guilt, shame, difficulty forgiving self and others, and withdrawal). The present study reports the initial psychometric test of a modified version (Robbins, Kelley, Hamrick, Bravo, & White, 2017) of the Moral Injury Questionnaire—Military version (MIQ-M; Currier, Holland, Drescher, & …

Transient Signals And Inattentional Blindness In A Multi-Object Tracking Task, Dakota B. Palmer, Yusuke Yamani, Taylor L. Bobrow, Nicole D. Karpinsky, Dean J. Krusienski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Inattentional blindness is a failure to notice an unexpected event when attention is directed elsewhere. The current study examined participants' awareness of an unexpected object that maintained luminance contrast, switched the luminance once, or repetitively flashed. One hundred twenty participants performed a dynamic tracking task on a computer monitor for which they were instructed to count the number of movement deflections of an attended set of objects while ignoring other objects. On the critical trial, an unexpected cross that did not change its luminance (control condition), switched its luminance once (switch condition), or repetitively flashed (flash condition) traveled across the …

Exploring Illusions Of Height In Suit Design, Michael P. Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Objective: The goal of this research was to explore how the design of clothing, specifically the design of the suit, can create height illusions.

Background: Taller people enjoy many advantages, such as increased income and perceived attractiveness. These advantages motivate people to try to appear taller than they actually are, and clothing experts provide advice on how to accomplish this. However, there is little empirical evidence to validate the illusory effects clothing might have on overall height perception. The few studies that have explored illusions of body size created by clothing design have been limited in two important ways – …

Is Pecking Aversive To A Pigeon Or Is It Only The Delay To Reinforcement?, Danielle M. Andrews

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The principle of least effort suggests that animals should minimize effort to reinforcement. Thus, not pecking should be preferred over pecking. However, pigeons often peck when it is allowed but not required (e.g., fixed time schedules) but pecking may be adventitiously reinforced. In the present experiment, to better compare a schedule of reinforcement that requires pecking with one that requires the absence of pecking, we compared a fixed-interval (FI) schedule in which reinforcement follows the first peck after the interval has elapsed and a differential-reinforcement-of-other behavior (DRO) schedule which requires pigeons abstain from pecking for a similar interval. The delay …

On Elemental Phenomenology: Sallis And Dzogchen Buddhism, Schwartz, Michael

Journal of Conscious Evolution

John Sallis’ volumes on the Force of the Imagination (2000) and Logic of the Imagination (2012) constitute, in the field of contemporary Continental thought, a novel philosophical view of the elementals. Tibetan Buddhism has a more than a thousand-year old tradition of teaching about and practicing with the elements. This study is a preliminary exploration of the cross-currents of these two elemental teachings.

Differences In Spatial Visualization Ability And Vividness Of Spatial Imagery Between People With And Without Aphantasia, Anita Crowder

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics education researchers have examined the relationship between visualization and mathematics for decades (e.g., Arcavi, 2003; Bishop, 1991; Duval, 1999; Fennema & Tartre, 1985; Presmeg, 1986). Studies have linked spatial visualization ability, such as measured in mental rotation tasks, directly to mathematics self-efficacy (Pajares & Kranzler, 1995; Weckbacher & Okamoto, 2014), which in turn influences mathematics achievement (Casey, Nuttall, & Pezaris, 1997). With the important role that spatial visualization plays in learning mathematics, the recent identification of congenital aphantasia (Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, 2015), which is the lack of mental imagery ability, has raised new questions for mathematics education …

Effects Of A 2-Week Exercise Intervention On Heart Rate Variability In Individuals With Low And High Anxiety Sensitivity, Hannah M. Kotarski

Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety Sensitivity (AS), the belief that anxiety-related sensations may have harmful implications, can alter autonomic nervous system (ANS) function. Exercise has previously been shown to reduce AS; however, the effects of an exercise intervention on heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of ANS function, has not been evaluated in individuals with high AS. This study sought to 1) compare resting HRV in individuals with either low (LAS) or high AS (HAS) and 2) evaluate the effects of a 2-week exercise intervention on HRV and AS. Using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI-3), participants were identified as LAS (n=9; ASI-3=5.89±1.39) or HAS …

Fish Sentience, Consciousness, And Ai, Ila France Porcher

Animal Sentience

The systematic criticism of articles providing evidence that fish and invertebrates can feel pain is discussed. Beliefs are known to be stronger than evidence in the human mind, and could generate this outcry, while from another perspective, the criticisms appear as a territorial move by fishermen against a perceived threat to their domain. The scientific inconsistency in which consciousness is granted to machines but not to fish and invertebrates, purely due to political bias, is pointed out. No basis exists for denying sentience to any life form as long as science is ignorant of the nature and source of consciousness.

Fish And Plant Sentience: Anesthetized Plants And Fishes Cannot Respond To Stimuli, Ken Yokawa, František Baluška

Animal Sentience

Recent denial of fish sentience is at variance with the fact that all living organisms need environmental awareness in order to survive in a continuously fluctuating environment. Moreover, fish sentience – like plant sentience – is also strongly supported by the sensitivity of fishes and plants to diverse anesthetics.

Researchers, Not Dogs, Lack Control In An Experiment On Jealousy, Jennifer Vonk

Animal Sentience

Cook and colleagues (2018) have developed a clever method to measure fMRI in awake dogs in response to a number of interesting stimuli. As a result, they are able to determine neural correlates of observable behavior. They report that dogs may experience something akin to jealousy because they show greater amygdala activation in response to food being given to a fake dog versus food being placed in a bucket. However, several critical controls are missing which prevent the authors from being able to speak of jealousy.

Lessons From Behaviour For Brain Imaging, Carolyn J. Walsh

Animal Sentience

Integrating physiological and behavioural arousal with social context is fundamental to understanding affect in dogs. Cook et al. (2018) have made a worthy start towards illuminating the neural basis of dog affect underlying resource loss. However, their study depends on retrospective behaviour reports versus direct testing, and an interpretation of differential neural activation that is based on too few dogs. Research groups conducting canine brain-imaging work might: (1) consider collaborative approaches to augment sample sizes and replicability, and (2) take a recent lesson from dog behavioural research regarding a more cautious approach to applying functional labels to physiological and/or behavioural …

Dogs Aren’T Jealous – They Are Just Asking For Accurate Information, Karen L. Overall

Animal Sentience

Awake fMRI offers us a unique opportunity to view and understand how dogs see the world and use the information in it. Given the limitations of behavioral assays and the small sample sizes inherent in these studies, labeling of patterns of canine behaviors using pop psychology terms may actually interfere with our understanding of canine brains and obscure for us a more parsimonious but exciting interpretation of canine behavior. We should use this window into how dogs think wisely.

Situating The Study Of Jealousy In The Context Of Social Relationships, Christine E. Webb, Frans B. M. De Waal

Animal Sentience

Whereas the feelings of other beings are private and may always remain so, emotions are simultaneously manifested in behavior, physiology, and other observables. Nonetheless, uncertainty about whether emotions can be studied adequately across species has promoted skepticism about their very presence in other parts of the animal kingdom. Studying social emotions like jealousy in the context of the social relationships in which they arise, as has been done in the case of animal empathy, may help dispel this skepticism. Empathy in other species came to be accepted partly because of the behavioral similarities between its expression in nonhuman animals and …

The Degeneracy Of Behavior And The Rise Of Neuroimaging To Measure Affective States In Dogs, Peter F. Cook, Gregory S. Berns

Animal Sentience

It is gratifying and significant that so many scientists from diverse fields are arguing in-depth regarding a particularly complex set of social emotions in a non-human animal. Emotions play a fundamental role in decision making and information processing. Neuroimaging is important in understanding the cognitive and emotional worlds of non-human animals and can help measure covert emotions lacking clear behavioral correlates. Various experimental approaches could clarify the relative importance of attachment and aggression in jealousy and whether the phenomenon we measured is more akin to human envy or jealousy. Reverse inference from amygdala activation is probably justified because behavior is …

Is Superiority A Necessary Aspect Of Cruelty?, William H. Edmondson

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman argue that humans inflict cruelty without apparent concern because of their categorization of the victims as inferior. The supposed inferiority of non-human animals can be argued against on the basis of documentation and analysis of behaviour. Humans continue to inflict cruelty on their own and other species. It is not obvious that a sense of superiority is a necessary aspect of cruel behaviour. Nor is it obvious that further enlightenment regarding the cognitive status of non-humans will diminish cruelty.

Human Superiority?, Bernard Rollin

Animal Sentience

Like Charles Darwin and George Romanes, I am quite willing to use anecdotal information as a source of knowledge about animal behavior. There are many more people observing nonhuman animals than there are people conducting controlled experiments, and we can thereby learn that behaviors we think are unique to humans are shared by other animals. From a strictly biological point of view, it makes no sense to speak of “human superiority.” One species of animal can be superior to another only in terms of survival and niche occupation. As moral concern for animals increases across the world, claims of human …

Using Anthropocentrism To The Benefit Of Other Species, Vanessa Wilson

Animal Sentience

Chapman & Huffman (2018) argue that we should not consider humans as unique or superior to other animals when we have the chance to explore the diversity of the traits of other species. This is a valid and progressive point in our approach to research, but I suggest that an anthropocentric approach can have animal welfare benefits when it helps us perceive other species – especially distantly related ones such as crustaceans – in a human light.