Cognition and Perception Commons^™

The Impact On Juries Of Pre-Recording Children's Evidence, Josephine Hubble

Theses : Honours

The impact on juries of pre-recording children's evidence was investigated. University undergraduate students (N = 123; 91 females, 32 males) volunteered to participate in the study as mock jurors. Participants either watched a videotape or read a transcript of a simulated trial involving a child sexual abuse case. Participants who watched the videotape saw the child give evidence either by closed circuit television or by a pre-re-cording. Participants who read the transcript were advised the child's evidence had been given via closed circuit television or had been pre-recorded. After viewing the videotape or reading the transcript, participants completed a questionnaire …

The List-Strength Effect And Categorical Frequency Memory: Tests Of Availability, Joanne Bonanno

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The availability view of memory mantains that the retrieval of categorical frequency information is a function of recall of category exemplars. The List-Strength Effect (LSE), which is evidenced when increasing the strength of competing items in a list reduces memory for the other items, has been found to be a characteristic of recall, but not recognition, performance. The present study was designed to (a) further examine the relationship between cued recall and frequency judgments of category exemplars by testing for the presence of a LSE in categorical frequency estimation; and (b) to examine the role that estimation strategies may play …

Development And Validation Of A Tool To Measure Temporal Orientation, Yolanda Martins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Individuals are thought to differ in the extent to which their day-to-day thoughts, feelings, and fantasies focus on the past or future (i.e., temporal orientation). This thesis describes the continued development of a multidimensional measure of temporal orientation that includes the following four subscales: (1) negative future orientation, (2) positive future orientation, (3) negative past orientation, and (4) positive past orientation. Two studies were conducted. In study one, 921 introductory psychology students completed the thirty-item Temporal Orientation Scale (TOS). Based on analyses of the 30-item initial version of the scale, a refined 21-item version of the TOS was developed. In …

A Case Study Comparison Of Brief Group Treatment And Brief Individual Treatment In The Modification Of Denial Among Child Sexual Abusers, John F. Ulrich

Dissertations

Problem Statement. O'Donohue and Letourneau (1993) demonstrated success in modifying denial among child sexual abusers with brief group treatment when probable incarceration existed for subjects who did not admit. This current study replicated and enhanced their treatment model while omitting the adverse legal consequences for subjects remaining in denial. Brief individual therapy was used as a comparison treatment condition. Factors theoretically contributing to denial were explored.

Methodology. Ten subjects were evaluated as individual case studies in two non-randomly assigned treatment conditions. Five subjects received nine group therapy sessions and five received nine individual therapy sessions. Subjects were selected from …

Moral Judgment In Abusive Relationships: Implications For Interventions, Robert Marshall Masterson

Graduate Theses

Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview and parallel dilemmas depicting abusive domestic situations were used to compare moral development of two groups of couples. Twenty men from a program for abusive men and their wives were compared to 20 couples selected by convenience sampling from university students, two church congregations, and friends. The Conflict Tactics Scale for couples was used to determine the validity of the responses of the male partner. No differences in Global Stage Scores were found between abusive or non-abusive men. None were found between genders. Weighted Average Scores on traditional Kohlberg stories and spousal abuse dilemmas were similar …

Attentional Processing Of Visual Stimuli: What Makes A Face A Face?, Samuel L. Chapman

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Reaction time (RT) and accuracy have been used to investigate the manner in which humans process visual stimuli for many years. Some researchers have found evidence of serial processing (e.g., Sternberg, 1969a) while others have shown that some visual stimuli are processed in parallel (e.g., Neisser, 1963). There have been very few studies investigating the processing of schematic faces with respect to RT and accuracy. The present study investigates the mechanisms associated with the recognition of schematic faces with respect to RT and accuracy.

Forty-two Old Dominion University students were shown a target face for ten seconds and were then …

Crisis Of Infertility: Effects Of Length Of Treatment On Emotional And Marital Adjustment, Christie L. Markestad

Graduate Theses

Twenty infertile couples participated in the present study to investigate whether infertile couples receiving medical treatment experience changes in their emotional, marital and sexual adjustment as a result of the length of time they have been in treatment. The couples were divided into three groups based on how long they had been seeking medical attention for infertility. The instruments administered were: SCL-90-R (Symptom Checklist), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS). It was predicted couples who were in the initial stages of treatment would experience increased levels of emotional, marital and sexual distress, however those levels would …

The Transmutation Of A Cultural Constant: A Mexican Political Corrido As Personal Legacy, Sara Soledad Garcia

Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Explanatory Style And Perception Of Negative And Positive Daily Events, Amy K. Jester

Masters Theses

This study investigated explanatory style and people's perceptions of negative and positive daily events. Explanatory style can be measured by rating causal explanations that people give on three dimensions; internality, stability, and globality. College students wrote stories in response to pictures, using the Thematic Apperceptive Test (TAT), and also completed a 28-day Daily Event Log Questionnaire. It was expected that how people explain good and bad events that happen to them, would be the same whether someone was explaining a personal daily event or explaining a story written in response to a picture. To prove this, it was expected that …

Reporting On Risk: Who Decides What's News?, William Lanouette

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Dr. Lanouette argues that risks alone do not command national media attention; their implications must first be framed by broader national issues.

Community Structure And Media Risk Coverage, Sharon Dunwoody

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Professor Dunwoody regards media organizations to be community creatures; their accounts to be social constructions; and answers to, "Who's right?" to be relative.

Mass Media As An Information Channel And Public Arena, Hans Peter Peters

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Professor Peters argues that several functions of mass media compete and that attempts to improve risk coverage must avoid optimizing one at the expense of others.

Historical Notes On German Press Coverage Of Technology, Hans Mathias Kepplinger

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Professor Kepplinger accounts for increased negativism in German media coverage of technology by pointing to changes in journalists' role definitions and attitudes.

Technical Risk In The Mass Media: Introduction, Allan Mazur

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Special editor, Professor Mazur introduces and explains the origins of the symposium.

The Effects Of Educational Kinesiology On The Self-Esteem Of At-Risk Students, Julian W. Thrasher Iii

Graduate Theses

A study was performed on at-risk students in the Midland Independent School District, Midland, Texas utilizing Educational Kinesthetics as an alternative counseling technique for improving the self-esteem of the students. Students were divided into control and experimental groups and pretested and posttested with the School Attitude Measure. The experimental group was given twelve sessions of treatment utilizing Educational Kinesthetics. Results of the study showed a trend toward improved self-esteem at the conclusion of the study.

Aging And The Truth Effect In Validity Judgment, Sue Lindsey

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It is sometimes necessary to make validity judgments about information with which we are unfamiliar, because we have no factual knowledge about the event. Under these circumstances, subjective evidence, such as whether the statement has been seen or heard in the past, may be used to judge validity. Previous research has shown that the repetition of unfamiliar, but plausible statements increases the judged validity of the statements. In other words, the more one hears a particular statement, the more one believes it to be true. The present study has been designed to explore this "truth effect." The first experiment examined …

Intermittent Consequences And Problem Solving: The Experimental Control Of “Superstitious” Beliefs, Ruth A. Heltzer, Stuart Vyse

Psychology Faculty Publications

Three groups of college students were asked to determine how points were earned in a task that allowed the assessment of response variability. All students received points for sequences of eight presses distributed across two keys (four presses on each key). One group received a point for each correct sequence, one group received points on a fixed-ratio 2 schedule, and one group received points on a random-ratio 2 schedule. There were no significant differences in nonverbal response variability across the three groups, and the fixed-ratio 2 and random-ratio 2 groups obtained equivalent point totals. However, participants in the random-ratio group …

Tyrosine As A Countermeasure To Performance Decrement During Sleep Loss, Douglas A. Wiegmann, David F. Neri, Robert R. Stanny, Scott Shappell, Andrew M. Mccardie, David L. Mckay

Publications

The fatigue and cognitive performance deficits associated with sleep loss and stress have motivated the search for effective nonpharmacological countermeasures. The purpose of the present study was to examine the potential behavioral effects of tyrosine, an amino-acid presursor to dopamine and norepinephrine, during an episode of continuous nighttime work involving one night of sleep loss.

Eyewitness Testimonies For Spousal Abuse As A Function Of Gender Roles And Person Variables, Cynthia L. Barker

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In order to uncover how personality characteristics interact with the suggestibility and recall of events, subject's recollection and interpretation of domestic violence was tested. College students were shonn a film which a husband and wife began arguing; the argument ended in the husband hitting his wife. Encoding was manipulated by giving negative or neutral suggestions about the woman before subjects witnessed the film, and storage was manipulated by giving such suggestions after the .film creating a 2 X 2 experimental design. Attitude and personality questionnaires were also administered to the subjects. In addition to demonstrating the significance of the encoding …

Planting The Seeds Of Hope: Research And Action On Body Image Of University Students, Michelle Poechman Fisher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A number of researchers have expressed concern regarding the growing prevalence of body dissatisfaction, especially among North American women. Such body dissatisfaction is often linked to dieting, weight concerns, excessive exercise, poor nutrition, and eating disorders. In order to expand our awareness and understanding of university students’ needs with regards to issues concerning body image, a needs assessment was conducted in two universities located in southwestem Ontario. In focus groups and individual interviews, students were asked directly about the issues they find most troublesome, their experiences in the recovery process, and their needs for supportive and preventive interventions. In order …

Changing Authoritarians' Attitudes: The Role Of Authority Legitimacy, Bruce Allen Parker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigated the tendency of right-wing authoritarians (RWAs) to yield to established and legitimate authorities. University students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course read two persuasive passages. One passage concerned whether homosexuals should be allowed to become schoolteachers, while the other discussed whether an aggressive proselytizing religious group should be allowed to recruit students on university campuses. Some of the participants were informed that the passage was written by a highly established and legitimate authority; others were told the passage came from a less established and legitimate authority. In addition, the passages were manipulated so that half supported and …

Use Of Visual And Tactile Behaviors By Rats (Rattus Norvegicus) In An Object Discrimination Swimming Task, Todd Wiebers

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

When challenged with a cognitive task, rats demonstrate a behavioral flexibility in use and preference of sensory modalities. The present study describes visual and tactile behaviors used by rats in a two choice object discrimination swimming task. The task was designed to preclude use of other sensory modalities and could not be solved via spatial strategies. Fourteen rats learned to criterion a series of 10 discrimination problems. Rats exhibited three stereotypic visual and two stereotypic tactile behaviors over the course of the study. Data analyses indicated that rats demonstrated these behaviors more frequently as they became more familiar with the …

An Ounce Of Prevention: The Life Stories And Perceptions Of Men Who Sexually Offended Against Children, Christiane Sadeler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study is to modify primary prevention models in child sexual abuse by incorporating the perceptions of men who sexually offended against children. In open-ended, conversational style interviews I asked 10 men, who are/were involved in self-help community based treatment groups at Community Justice Initiatives (CJI), Waterloo Region, to convey their understanding of how sexual abuse could have been prevented in their own lives, and can be prevented in our communities. The participants shared their views about prevention based on their experiences, and their interpretations of these experiences. I based the research results on the stories I …

The Occurrence Of Alexithymia In Children And Adolescents With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Michael S. Routh

Graduate Theses

Previous studies of the relationship between alexithymia and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have utilized samples of combat veterans with PTSD. However, children and adolescents who have experienced trauma and are diagnosed with PTSD exhibit similar or identical symptomology. The current study examined alexithymia in a sample of children and adolescents diagnosed with PTSD. It was hypothesized that the sample, when compared to non-PTSD and control samples, would reveal a significantly greater severity of alexithymia and PTSD. Although overall results were not consistent with previous research, trends of group means supported a relationship between alexithymia and PTSD. 1

Behavioral Effects Of Tyrosine During Sustained Wakefulness, D. L. Wiegmann, D. F. Neri, R. R. Stanny, S. A. Shappell, A. H. Mccardie, D. L. Mckay

Publications

The fatigue and cognitive performance deficits associated with sleep loss and stress, like that experienced during sustained flight operations and nighttime flying, have motivated the search for effective nonpharmacological countermeasures. The behavioral effects of the potential countermeasure tyrosine, an amino-acid precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine, were examined during an episode of continuous nighttime work involving one night's sleep loss. Volunteers performed nine iterations of a battery of cognitive and subjective tasks for approximately 13 h, beginning at 1930 and ending at 0820 the following morning. Subjects remained awake throughout the day on which the experiment began and were awake for …

Individual Control Of Risk: Seat Belt Use, Subjective Norms And The Theory Of Reasoned Action, Juanita V. Field, Kenneth D. Boehm, Kevin M. Vincent, Jessica L. Sullivan

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

When faced with a risk for which an inexpensive solution is available, individuals often choose the risk rather than the solution. Protection from certain kinds of risks, e.g., using seat belts or condoms or insulating against radon, is largely under personal control, but individuals often choose not to comply with behaviors which would reduce the risk. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has been used to predict when individuals will comply. The authors attempted to validate aspects of the TRA by the use of scenarios. Factor analysis of their data supports the theory that intention is a major determinate of …

Choice Reaction Time And Conjunctions Of Form Size Color And Orientation, Cristina Bubb-Lewis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Reaction time (RT) is frequently used as a dependent measure in studies that examine the organization of perceptual and cognitive processes. Hick's law states that RT in a choice-reaction-time (CRT) task is a linear function of the amount of information transmitted per stimulus-response event. RT has been used to try to determine whether serial or parallel processing is being employed in CRT tasks (Sternberg, 1966). There is research evidence suggesting a serial, exhaustive search process (Sternberg, 1969a; Wingfield, 1973), as well as findings which suggest parallel processing (Neisser, 1963; Neisser, Novick, and Lazar, 1963) in CRT tasks. All the experiments …

Book Review, Lisa M. White

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Review of: STUART M. SPEISER, LAWYERS AND THE AMERICAN DREAM. (Evans 1993) [430 pp.] Endnotes with full citations, index, and lexicon (lay definitions of legal terms). LC 93-35272; ISBN 0-87131-724-9. [$16.95 paper. 216 E. 49th Street, New York NY 10017.]

Advancing Understanding Of Knowledge's Role In Lay Risk Perception, Branden B. Johnson

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Emphasizing how knowledge affects lay Risk perception, summarizing studies and suggesting further research, the author differentiates between knowledge production, knowledge dissemination and information processing as affected by, e.g., heuristics and Risk aversion. He also suggests that better understanding of lay knowledge can also illuminate experts' hazard knowledge.

Work/Rest Schedules And Performance Of F/A-18 Aviators During Fleet Exercise 1992, Scott A. Shappell, David F. Neri

Publications

As a continuation of our previous work during Operation Desert Shield/Storm, we examined the effect a fleet exercise has on the work/rest patterns, fatigue, and cognitive performance of F/A-18 aviators. For 10 days during Fleet Exercise 1992, 25 pilots from VFA-81 and VFA-83 completed daily work/rest logs while performing their usual tasks. Subjective measure of fatigue, quality of rest, and sleep need were also collected. A subset of these F/A-18 pilots completed a brief battery of cognitive tasks as soon before flying as possible and again after the flight debrief. As a group, the pilots were adequately rested with little …