Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Aged Rats: Sex Differences And Responses To Chronic Stress, Rachel E. Bowman, Neil J. Maclusky, Samantha Diaz-Weinstein, Mark C. Zrull, Victoria N. Luine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Cognitive, as well as physiological, sex differences exist in young adult rats under both basal conditions and following chronic stress; however, few studies have examined whether sex differences remain in aged subjects and whether responses to stress are altered. We compared aged male and female Fischer 344 rats (21.5 months at testing) without stress and when given 21 days of restraint for 6 h/day on locomotion, anxiety-related behaviors, object recognition (non-spatial memory), object placement (spatial memory), body weight and serum steroid hormone levels. Control (unstressed) females had lower levels of estradiol and testosterone and higher corticosterone than males, and stress …

An Overview Of The Near-Death Experience Phenomenon, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Near-death experiences appear to be universal phenomena that have been reported for centuries. A near-death encounter is defined as an event in which the individual could very easily die or be killed, or may have already been considered clinically dead, but nonetheless survives, and continue his or her physical life. Reports of near-death experiences date back to the Ice Age. There are cave paintings, in France and Spain that depict possible after life scenes that are similar to reported scenes related to near-death experiences. Plato's Republic presents the story of a near-death experience of a Greek soldier named Er. In …

Differential Effects Of Stimulus Context In Sensory Processing: Effets Différentiels Du Contexte De Présentation Des Stimuli Sur Les Processus Perceptifs, Yoav Arieh, Lawrence E. Marks

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Stimulus contexts in which different intensity levels are presented to two sensory–perceptual channels can produce differential effects on perception: Perceived magnitudes are depressed in whichever channel received the stronger stimuli. Context differentially can affect loudness at different sound frequencies or perceived length of lines in different spatial orientations. Reported in the hearing, vision, haptic touch, taste, and olfaction, differential context effects (DCEs) are a general property of perceptual processing. Characterizing their functional properties and determining their underlying mechanisms are essential both to fully understanding sensory and perceptual processes and to properly interpreting sensory measurements obtained in applied as well …

Perceived Similarity And Relationship Success Among Dating Couples: An Idiographic Approach, Catherine J. Lutz, Angela Christine Bradley, Jennifer L. Mihalik, Erika R. Moorman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study utilized an idiographic approach to investigate the relation between similarity on valued characteristics and relationship success. College students (N = 247) rated their current romantic partner on perceived similarity in personality, attitudes, interests, and religious affiliation; the importance of similarity in these dimensions; and relationship satisfaction. Relationship status was assessed 6 weeks later. Results revealed significant similarity by importance interactions for religion and interests in predicting satisfaction. Participants with high perceived similarity in religion or interests reported greater satisfaction than did their low similarity counterparts, but only to the extent that they rated this type of similarity …

The Effects Of Category Overlap On Information-Integration And Rule-Based Category Learning, Shawn W. Ell, Gregory F. Ashby

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Three experiments investigate whether the amount of category overlap constrains the decision strategies used in category learning, and whether such constraints depend on the type of category structures used. Experiments 1 and 2 used a category learning task requiring perceptual integration of information from multiple dimensions (information-integration task) and Experiment 3 used a task requiring the application of an explicit strategy (rule-based task). In the information-integration task, participants used perceptual-integration strategies at moderate levels of category overlap, but explicit strategies at extreme levels of overlap – even when such strategies were sub-optimal. In contrast, in the rule-based task, participants used …

Relationships In Aging, Cognitive Processes, And Contingency Learning, Sarah Reeder

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study investigated the influence of age, processing speed, working memory,and associative processes on the acquisition of contingency information. Young and older adults completed positive (+.65) and negative (-.65) contingency tasks that measured their ability to discover the relationship between a symptom (e.g., FEVER) and a fictional disease (e.g., OLYALGIA). Both d' scores, i.e., contingency learning, and contingency estimates, i.e., contingency judgment, were examined. Participants were also asked to complete cognitive tasks that measure the constructs of processing speed, working memory resources, associative memory, and associative learning. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct and indirect relationships between …

Focal Putamen Lesions Impair Learning In Rule-Based, But Not Information-Integration Categorization Tasks, Shawn W. Ell, Natalie L. Marchant, Richard B. Ivry

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Previous research on the role of the basal ganglia in category learning has focused on patients with Parkinson’s and Huntington’s Disease, neurodegenerative diseases frequently accompanied by additional cortical pathology. The goal of the present study was to extend this work to patients with basal ganglia lesions due to stroke, asking if similar changes in performance would be observed in patients with more focal pathology. Patients with basal ganglia lesions centered in the putamen (6 left side, 1 right side) were tested on rule-based and information-integration visual categorization tasks. In rule-based tasks, it is assumed that participants can learn the category …

Historical Perspectives On Attitudes Concerning Death And Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Beliefs and practices concerning death have changed throughout human history. In pre-modern times, death at a young age was common due to living conditions and medical practices. As medical science has advanced and helped humans live longer, attitudes and responses to death also have changed. In modern Western societies, death is often ignored or feared. Changes in lifestyles and improved medical science have depersonalized death and made it an encroachment on life instead of part of life. This has left many people ill equipped to deal with death when it touches their lives.

Religious Interpretations Of Death, Afterlife & Ndes, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This E-book reviews religious beliefs concerning death, afterlife, and near-death experiences. The discussion will provide commentary regarding the similarities between different religious beliefs and experiences concerning death, as well as between religious interpretations of near-death experiences.

Perspectives On The Fears Of Death & Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This E-Book will examine some perspectives on fear, the fears of death, and constructs used to overcome or deal with the fears of death. By examining the literature on fear in general, a framework can be developed to understand how individuals become fearful. In the section, “Fears of Death,” what people fear about death and why they fear it will be discussed.

Philosophical, Psychological & Spiritual Perspectives On Death & Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This Ebook reviews the philosophical perspectives on death, the psychological perspectives on death and the fears of death and some religious perspectives of death. The philosophic section will review perspectives of death from ancient Greece through modernity. The psychological section will review death, and the fear of death, from the perspectives of psychoanalytic, humanistic, and existentialist theories. The religious section will provide a brief overview of Prehistoric, African, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, and Christian religious beliefs concerning death and afterlife.

Thinking For Speaking About Motion: L1 And L2 Speech And Gesture, Gale Stam

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Emotional Dimensions Of Urban Teacher Change, Nate Mccaughtry, Jeffrey J. Martin, Pamela Hodges Kulinna, Donetta Cothran

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

This study used an emotional geographies theoretical framework to analyze the emotional dimensions of urban teacher change. Fifteen urban physical education teachers involved in a comprehensive curriculum reform project were interviewed and observed multiple times across one school year. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis, and trustworthiness measures included triangulation, peer debriefing, researcher journals, and member checks. Teachers reported that emotional dimensions related to their urban students, colleagues, and status heavily influenced their engagement in the project. The discussion section maps the emotional dimensions of these teachers' change experiences onto an emotional geographies framework that situates their experiences in change …

Decision-Making Styles In A Real-Life Decision: Choosing A College Major, Kathleen M. Galotti, Elizabeth Ciner, Hope E. Altenbaumer, Heather J. Geerts, Allison Rupp, Julie Woulfe

Faculty Work

Undergraduate students were surveyed at the beginning stages of a potentially life-framing decision: choosing a college major. We investigated the relationships among individual difference variables (decision-making styles, planning proclivities, and epistemological orientations), cognitive measures of performance (e.g., amount of information gathered and considered); and affective reactions to, and descriptive ratings of, the decision-making process. There were few significant relationships between individual differences and performance measures. However, there were significant relationships found between individual differences measures and affective reactions to, or descriptive ratings of, the decision-making process. We suggest that stylistic measures have their effects in the way individuals frame the …

Children's Moral Reasoning Regarding Physical And Relational Aggression, Diann Murray-Close, Nickix R. Crick, Kathleen M. Galotti

Faculty Work

Elementary school children’s moral reasoning concerning physical and relational aggression was explored. Fourth and fifth graders rated physical aggression as more wrong and harmful than relational aggression but tended to adopt a moral orientation about both forms of aggression. Gender differences in moral judgments of aggression were observed, with girls rating physical and relational aggression as more wrong and relational aggression as more harmful than boys. In addition, girls were more likely to adopt a moral orientation when judging physical and relational aggression and girls more often judged relational aggression than physical aggression from the moral domain. Finally, moral reasoning …

A Campus-Wide Model For Supporting Untenured Faculty Including Women And Minorities: Strategies, Recommendations And Caveats, Ellen N. Junn, M. Atwell

Office of the Provost Scholarship

This paper presents a comprehensive campus-wide strategic model for more effectively supporting tenure-track faculty with a special concern for assisting women and minority faculty. A description of the process and the outcomes includes establishment of a clear, high-level administrative initiative; formation of a campus-wide committee of highly respected faculty and administrators; compilation and discussion of current research and writings on the issue of recruiting and retaining women and minority faculty; collection of campus and national comparison data; creation, administration, and analysis of a survey of untenured faculty; compilation and dissemination of the committee’s final report and specific recommendations; and prioritized …

Museum Visitors’ Understanding Of Evolution, Amy N. Spiegel, E. Margaret Evans, Wendy Gram, Judy Diamond

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence supporting evolution, a large percentage of the Ameri-can public does not understand or accept the fundamental principles of evolutionary theory. Museums have an important role in educating children and adults about evolution. This paper reviews recent museum visitor studies, which suggest that while visitors are interested in learning about and less likely to reject evolution than the general public, they tend to have a limited understanding of evolutionary concepts. A new conceptual framework, based on developmental research, indicates that visitors reason about evolution differently depending on the type of organism they are considering, applying …

Homocysteine, Folate, And Vitamins B6 And B12 Blood Levels In Relation To Cognitive Performance: The Maine-Syracuse Study, Merrill F. Elias, Michael A. Robbins, Marc M. Budge, Penelope K. Elias, Suzanne L. Brennan, Carole Johnston, Zsuzsanna Nagy, Christopher J. Bates

Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Papers

Objective: Our objective was to examine associations among plasma homocysteine concentrations (tHcy), the tHcy-cofactors (folate, vitamins B6 and B₁₂), and multiple domains of cognitive performance, with statistical adjustment for possible confounds, including cardiovascular disease risk factors (CVD-RF) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods: Subjects were 812 partici- pants (58% women) of the Maine-Syracuse study who were free of dementia and stroke. Employing a cross-sectional design and multiple regression analyses, fasting concentrations of tHcy and its vitamin cofactors (folate, B6, and B12) were related to multiple domains of cognitive performance. Results: With adjustment for age, education, gender, ethnicity, and the …

It’S Not About The Money: The Role Of Preferences, Cognitive Biases And Heuristics Among Professional Athletes, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

Professional athletes are often regarded as selfish, greedy, and out-of-touch with regular people. They hire agents who are vilified for negotiating employment contracts that occasionally yield compensation in excess of national gross domestic products. Professional athletes are thus commonly assumed to most value economic remuneration, rather than the love of the game or some other intangible, romanticized inclination.

Lending credibility to this intuition is the rational actor model, a law and economic precept which presupposes that when individuals are presented with a set of choices, they rationally weigh costs and benefits, and select the course of action that maximizes their …

Methodological Challenges For Identifying And Coding Diverse Knowledge Elements In Interview Data, Victor R. Lee, Moshe Krakowski, Bruce Sherin, Megan Bang, Gregory Dam

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper, as part of a symposium on the analysis of clinical interview data and the development of a framework for analyzing students' intuitive science knowledge, identifies and discusses methodological challenges encountered when specifying the knowledge elements and resources are invoked dynamically during a clinical interview. Drawing from interviews with middle school students about the seasons and an analysis of knowledge in terms of 'nodes', two classes of problems are identified: those associated with identification of nodes and those associated with their application as codes to a transcript-based data corpus. We posit that these challenges are common ones associated with …

Vergleich Zweier Schulbasierter Programme Zur Prävention Depressiver Symptome Bei Jugendlichen (Comparison Of Two School Based Depression Prevention Programs For Adolescents)., Patrick Pössel, Andrea B. Horn, Martin Hautzinger

Faculty Scholarship

Theoretischer Hintergrund: Depressive Störungen im Jugendalter sind ein weitverbreitetes Problem mit weitreichenden psychosozialen Folgen. Um beidem vorzubeugen wurde ein kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutisches und ein auf dem Paradigma des Expressiven Schreibens beruhendes universales schulbasiertes Präventionsprogramm entwickelt. Fragestellung: Haben die beiden Präventionsprogramme positive Wirkung auf depressive Symptomatik und Lebenszufriedenheit Jugendlicher? Methode: Es wurde eine randomisierte Kontrollgruppenstudie mit 3-Monats Follow-up an 579 Realschülern und -schülerinnen der 8. Klasse durchgeführt. Ergebnisse: Das kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutische Programm wirkt in Abhängigkeit der Ausgangssymptomatik kurz- bzw. mittelfristig auf die depressive Symptomatik, während das Schreibprogramm unabhängig von der Ausgangssymptomatik kurz- und mittelfristig positiv auf die Lebenszufriedenheit wirkt. Schlussfolgerungen: Trotz Einschränkungen in Bezug …

Cognitive Errors, Individual Differences, And Paternalism, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Legal scholars commonly argue that the widespread presence of cognitive errors in judgment justifies legal intervention to save people from predictable mistakes. Such arguments often fail to account for individual variation in the commission of such errors even though individual variation is probably common. If predictable groups of people avoid making the errors that others commit, then law should account for such differences because those who avoid errors will not benefit from paternalistic interventions and indeed may be harmed by them. The research on individual variation suggests three parameters that might distinguish people who can avoid error: cognitive ability, experience …

A New Theory And Measure Of Ethical Work Climate: The Psychological Process Model (Ppm) And The Ethical Climate Index (Eci), Anke Arnaud

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

With this dissertation I developed a new theory and measure of ethical work climate (EWC). Currently, there exists one dominant theory and measure of EWC developed by Victor and Cullen (1988, 1987). Even though researchers have identified problems with this theory, such as inconsistencies with regard to its limited theoretical scope and troubling psychometric properties, it is the most widely utilized framework for conceptualizing and testing EWC. Therefore, I propose to develop an improved theory and measure of EWC, one capable of addressing some of the principle shortcomings of earlier efforts. Building on Rest’s (1986, 1979) “Four-Component” model of individual-level …

Proximity In Context: An Empirically Grounded Computational Model Of Proximity For Processing Topological Spatial Expression., John D. Kelleher, Geert-Jan Kruijff, Fintan Costello

Conference papers

The paper presents a new model for context-dependent interpretation of linguistic expressions about spatial proximity between objects in a natural scene. The paper discusses novel psycholinguistic experimental data that tests and verifies the model. The model has been implemented, and enables a conversational robot to identify objects in a scene through topological spatial relations (e.g. ''X near Y''). The model can help motivate the choice between topological and projective prepositions.