Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Gains, Losses, And The Psychology Of Litigation, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

An Exploratory Factor Analysis Of The Leiter-R, Mike Bay

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Cognitive assessment is an important domain in psychology. The development of nonverbal cognitive assessment devices has been spurred by the increasingly multicultural nature of U.S. society and by legislation calling for early identification and treatment of children with cognitive disabilities. The Leiter-R is a non-verbal test of intelligence designed chiefly for use with language-and cognitively-impaired persons aged 2-21. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the Leiter-R was undertaken in an effort to (a) identify the factor structure of the Leiter-R, (b) verify general visualization (Gv) and fluid reasoning (Gf) as second-level factors in the Leiter-R, and (c) examine evidence for the …

Repetition Blindness And Bilingual Memory: Token Individuation For Translation Equivalents, Jeanette Altaribba, Emily G. Soltano

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

The repetition blindness effect (RB) occurs when individuals are unable to recall a repeated word relative to a nonrepeated word in a sentence or string of words presented in a rapid serial visual presentation task. This effect was explored across languages (English and Spanish) in an attempt to provide evidence for RB at a conceptual level using noncognate translation equivalents (e.g.,nephew-sobrino). In the first experiment, RB was found when a word was repeated in an English sentence but not when the two repetitions were in different languages. In the second experiment, RB was found for identical repetitions in …

Measuring Changes In Spontaneous Play Behavior In Preschoolers With Autism Associated With A Receptive Language Intervention, Jori Reijonen

Dissertations

Children diagnosed with Autistic Disorder have well documented deficits in the development of pretend play. When it occurs, spontaneous pretend play differs from play seen in other children in frequency, duration, and quality. The present study examined the effects of teaching preschoolers with Autism to follow one-part directions to play during discrete trial receptive language training sessions on spontaneous play skills.

Receptive language tasks were designed to teach simple pretend play skills (e.g., "Feed the doll with a spoon"). Spontaneous play was continuously sampled during free play sessions in the clinic and in the child's home before these receptive tasks …

The Use Of Prior Knowledge In Learning From Examples, Stephen B. Blessing '89

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the way people acquire procedures from examples, and provides a computational model of the results. In four experiments, people learned an analog of algebra. For each experiment, the initial know ledge that people had of the task was varied. In two experiments (Experiments 1 and 3), the syntactic know ledge that people had concerning the task w as manipulated. The knowledge of syntax that participants had, particularly the ability to correctly parse the character string, was found to be a major determiner in the way participants acquired the rules. Experiment 2 explicitly manipulated participant's awareness as to …

The Influence Of Time Pressure And Information Load On Rule-Based Decision-Making Performance, Brooke Browne Schaab

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Performance was evaluated under varying levels of time pressure and information load to determine their influence on simple rule-based decision-making. Consistent errors, biases, and heuristics found in human decision-making have been attributed to attempts to reduce attentional demands and to the limitations of working memory. Do these same mistakes occur when little or no demand is placed on working memory and the decision is made by following a set of simple rules? Using a simulation of a radar operator's task, 96 participants monitored a display for 24 min. Time pressure was manipulated by increasing or decreasing the number of aircraft …

Neuropsychological Assessment Of Battered Women, Mona Matheney Tiernan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effect of physical battering on the neuropsychological functioning of women. Twenty-five battered women and twenty-five non-battered women were administered a neuropsychological screening battery (11 separate tests, yielding 16 variables) to assess for possible deficits in the areas of attention/concentration, memory, visual-perceptual skills, sensory-motor skills, novel problem solving, and verbal fluency. All participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a post-concussive syndrome checklist, and a questionnaire evaluating for the presence of depressed mood and possible effects of depression. Potential participants with a history of previous head injury (occurring from a source other than battering) or other neurological disorders were …

Animal-Word And Sound Test: An Auditory Cognitive Interference Effect, Jason L. Parker

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study presented a method in which the Stroop Color Word Test can be adapted to an auditory form. This auditory test used a series of animal words, animal sounds and word-sound combinations. This "Animal-Word-and-Sound test" contained three subtests. The test tasks were to repeat a list of words, identify a list of animal sounds, and to identify the sound in a combined animal word-sound pairings (Both the animal's name and sound are presented simultaneously). An alternate form of this audio test was examined. The alternate form followed the same construction except in the final condition, the task was to …

Feminism For Men: Legal Ideology And The Construction Of Maleness, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

It may seem a little odd to suggest that feminist theory has overlooked men. Yet, in several important respects, apart from the role of culprit, men have been largely omitted from feminism. Feminist legal theorists have paid mild attention to the "Can men be feminists?" question but this issue is usually relegated to footnotes. The negative effect gender role stereotypes have on men is typically subsidiary to the main focus of feminist legal literature, which has concentrated on documenting the patterns of subordination of women and on questions of feminist ideology.

The primary purpose of this article is to suggest …

Critical Decision Making Skills Of Postgraduate Respiratory Care Personnel, Leisa Kay Bowden

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The researcher of the study became interested in critical decision making skills while working with Respiratory Care post graduates. The researcher of the study noticed through observation a deficiency in critical thinking skills, reasoning abilities and decision making skills of recent post graduate Respiratory personnel. These weaknesses impacted a deterioration in interdepartmental communications and most importantly a deterioration in the quality of patient care. The problem of this study is to determine the effects of critical decision making skills in the College of West Virginia’s 1995 Respiratory Care class as compared to the College of West Virginia’s 1994 Respiratory Care …

Item Versus Associative Information: A Comparison Of Forgetting Rates With And Without Recollective Experience, Angela Consoli

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Past experiments examining the relationship between recognition memory and the recollective experience has consistently focused on single word stimuli. The present study was designed to assess the nature of this relationship with associative information in addition to item information. Two experiments are reported in which participants studied a list of random word pairs, and were subsequently given a recognition memory test for both item and associative information. Of those recognized events, participants were asked to indicate which words or word pairs they could and could not recollect from the study phase. Participants returned either 2 and 7 days later (Experiment …

Factors Related To Earthquake Preparedness Among Child Care Professionals: Theory And Policy Implications, Ellen N. Junn, D. Guerin

Ellen N. Junn

With increasing numbers of children enrolled in child care, the safety of the child care environment and the preparedness of personnel to prevent injuries and fatalities in the event of natural disasters becomes an important public policy issue. In this study, earthquake preparedness and its correlates were examined in 25 child care centers located in a southern California community adjacent to the San Andreaas Fault. Extensive survey, interview, and on-site observational data were collected. Findings indicated a wide range of preparedness in child care centers. Half of the child care centers lacked basic essentials required to cope in the aftermath …

Adult Attentional Functioning In Families With Children Diagnosed As Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Michael C. Mcdonough

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore what differences, if any, existed between individuals and families with or without children diagnosed as Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Information was gathered to identify subjects according to such demographic and situational variables as age, race, education, occupation, income, and performance on tasks requiring sustained attention and concentration. to further understand possible etiology each subject completed a neuropsychological battery. Collected data was analyzed to determine if the differences were significant.;The subjects were selected from the author's private practice and the local churches and schools that refer to that practice. Each subject completed a biographical …

A Study Of The Effect Of Interactive Language In The Stimulation Of Cognitive Functioning For Students With Learning Disabilities, Kathleen Ricards Hopkins

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Much can be gained by applying knowledge and insight gleaned from the field of neuropsychology to the field of education. Diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities (LD) could be enhanced through an increased understanding of neurolinguistic functioning. The present study examined the effect of five instructional techniques aimed at stimulating the cognitive functioning of students with diagnosed learning disabilities. The defining characteristic of each of the five techniques is the use of interactive dialogue to stimulate oral language production leading to greater cognitive efficiency. Evidence is presented for the need for interhemispheric collaboration in complex linguistic tasks such as reading, …

Bullying In Schools : An Extension And Replication Of Schoolchildren's Attitudes And Helping Behaviour Toward Victims Of Bullying, Kathy Elliott

Theses : Honours

A replication and extension of Rigby and Slee's (1991) study, was conducted in rural Western Australia to investigate age and gender differences in schoolchildren's attitudes and behaviour toward victims of bullying. One hundred and seventy two students (93 Females, 79 males) participated in the study, comprising of, Year 3, Year 7, Year 8, and Year 12 students. Three written, anonymous questionnaires were used: (i) The Peer Relations Questionnaire (Rigby & Slee, 1994) and (ii) the Pro-Victim Scale (Rigby & Slee, 1991) examined students peer interactions and attitudes toward victims; and a self-developed questionnaire, (iii) the Victim Questionnaire, was ased to …

Factors Related To Earthquake Preparedness Among Child Care Professionals: Theory And Policy Implications, Ellen N. Junn, D. Guerin

Office of the Provost Scholarship

With increasing numbers of children enrolled in child care, the safety of the child care environment and the preparedness of personnel to prevent injuries and fatalities in the event of natural disasters becomes an important public policy issue. In this study, earthquake preparedness and its correlates were examined in 25 child care centers located in a southern California community adjacent to the San Andreaas Fault. Extensive survey, interview, and on-site observational data were collected. Findings indicated a wide range of preparedness in child care centers. Half of the child care centers lacked basic essentials required to cope in the aftermath …

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 …

Individual Differences In Word Association And Inference Generation From Brief Discourse, Alison L. Clark

Theses : Honours

When people read a short discourse, both more and less skilled readers make word associations. However, it has also been found that, whereas more skilled readers generate inferences from the text, less skilled readers do not (Long, Oppy, & Seely, 1994). The present study partially replicates and extends the study of Long et al. (1994) by investigating the pattern of word associations and whether less skilled readers may be able to generate inferences if given more time to process the discourse. In particular, the study investigates whether word association are made and inferences are drawn as part of an automatic …

Patterns Of Anger, Attribution, And Appraisal, Andrew J. Ellis

Theses : Honours

A single study investigates two cognitive theories of anger arousal, and the hostile attribution bias (HAB) phenomenon from the aggression literature. It was argued that the role of B. Weiner’s (1985, 1986) casual attribution dimension of intentionality has been underestimated in anger arousal; and it was hypothesised that when attributions of intentionality increase anger arousal increases. R. S. Lazarus and K. A. Smith's ( 1988) appraisal theory holds that emotions arc aroused in response to personally relevant events, and without this appraisal process causal attibutions are insufficient to evoke emotions. Based on this it was hypothesised that appraisal components are …

Brain Activation Modulated By Sentence Comprehension, Marcel Adam Just, Patricia A. Carpenter, Timothy A. Keller, William F. Eddy, Keith R. Thulborn

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.