Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Defusing Escalating Situations, Louis Lamont Fletcher Phd, David Allen Watson

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

The Executive Director of Facilities and Operations and the Director of Safety and Security for a Colorado School district with 28,000 students will share tools, techniques, and experiences with conflict resolution. The presenters will outline the recognizable precursors to conflict, the importance of the individual's initial reaction, and provide tools to facilitate de-escalation. This interactive presentation provides relevant tools to de-escalate conflicts between peers, supervisors and subordinates, teachers and students, teachers and parents, school security officers and students, superintendents and board members, and school districts and community members.

Correlates Of Celebrity Worship And Materialism, Caitlin T. Davis

Honors College Theses

The proposed study will further examine the relationship between celebrity admiration and narcissism. The proposed study will also examine the relationship of the variables to materialism. Finally, this study will examine how the extent to which one perceives themselves to be similar in some respect to their favorite celebrity correlates with the aforementioned variables. We expect that there will be positive relationships among the variables such that greater celebrity worship is associated with higher narcissism, materialism, and perceived similarity with one’s favorite celebrity.

Diet And The Role It Plays In Cognition, Ryan S. Lavrisa

Honors College Theses

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations have calculated the effects of animal agriculture and factory farming to be responsible for generating 14.5-16.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions as well as using 70% of all agricultural land to sustain itself. Plant-based diets such as veganism and vegetarianism have been on the rise as many seek to find diets that mitigate the animal suffering and environmental impact for which animal agriculture is responsible. With the rise of these diets, it is important to understand the cognitive effects adhering to such diets can have on the body and mind, as …

Facial Recognition As It Relates To The Obstruction Of Holistic Processing By Partial Occlusion, Karen B. Raymond

Honors College Theses

Facial recognition is an important cognitive function in communication and is how we process, remember, and recall facial information. Research concerning processing styles and their effects on facial recognition accuracy is a prominent subject within the field of cognitive psychology. Holistic processing and featural processing have been experimentally manipulated in various ways with an aim to determine which of these processing styles would aid with accurate recognition. The current study is a replication of a previous study that examined the effects of masks on face information processing and recognition. This study assesses the effects of partial occlusion on face information …

Capitalizing On Stress: Improving Affect And Self-Efficacy Through An Arousal Reappraisal Intervention, Angel Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stress is a non-specific reaction to the body (Jamieson et al., 2018), defined as a feeling of tension when one’s personal resources are taxed or exceeded (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985). Coping mechanisms for stress often focus on reducing associated features (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007). However, stress can produce challenge states, mindsets where individuals perceive personal resources as greater than situational demands (Jamieson et al., 2013). Challenge states are more likely to elicit positive behavior (Jamieson et al., 2018) and improved cognitive performance (Jamieson et al., 2010). One prospective mechanism to foster challenge states is arousal reappraisal, a cognitive mechanism …

Unlearning Myths One Question At A Time, Jessica K. Kolman

Honors College Theses

People may believe in myths such as “you only use 10% of your brain” that are related to psychology. Additionally, belief in these myths may prevail despite education, or in some cases, because of education. Indeed, some research suggests students acquired false memories by remembering the wrong answers instead of the correct information (Nitschke et al., 2019). However, research on how leading questions affects memory can provide insight to this problem. Specifically, research shows that subjects who are presented with leading questions or content are more likely to recall an event consistent with that question (Miller & Loftus, 1976). Such …

Effects Of A Suggestion Based Intervention On Human Cooperation In The Stag Hunt Game, Melvin S. Marsh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cooperation has been one of the most foundational aspect of human society and is frequently studied via use of “The Stag Hunt” which has been used to tease out factors which may influence cooperation. The present study is the first study to attempt to influence human cooperation by means of positive imagery. Participants included 33 males and 72 females) who listened to either an a 7-minute audio designed to encourage them to trust others or an audio designed to encourage them to trust themselves. Participants played 40 rounds of the Stag Hunt game. The total number of times the participant …

Influence Of Increased Options On Performance Generalization Across Two Variations Of The Monty Hall Dilemma, Robert A. Southern

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Monty Hall dilemma (MHD) is a probability puzzle at which humans consistently fail to adopt the optimal winning strategy. The participant chooses between three identical doors, behind one of which is a valuable prize. After the participant makes their initial decision, the host reveals that there is nothing behind one of the two remaining doors, then asks the participant if they would like to stay with their originally selected door or switch to the remaining unopened door. The optimal choice is to switch to the previously unchosen door, which increases the probability of winning from 33% to 67%. Despite …

Smartphones, Stress, And The Reduction Of Cognitive Resources, Jenay R. Stone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smartphones are a ubiquitous part of daily life for most Americans. They offer an abundance of information, connectivity, and entertainment. Previous research suggests that smartphones are also responsible for cognitive costs in educational, public, private and professional settings when in use or audibly creating stimuli in the environment. Smartphones are also linked to an automatic attenuation of cognitive resources even when not in use and merely salient (Ward, Duke, Gneezy and Bos; Journal of the Association for Consumer Research; 2, 141, 154, 2017). The purpose of the present study was to experimentally test the effect of cell phone salience …

The Mediation Of Affect On Imagery Use And Self-Efficacy In Collegiate Athletes, Michelle Wirbiezcas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the sports domain, research has become an essential part of how we understand the psychological factors that play a key role in maximizing performance. Previous research has suggested that an individual’s performance can be highly influenced by the psychological variable of self-efficacy (e.g., Bandura, 1997; Calmels & Fournier, 2001). Self-efficacy has been used to describe individuals’ perceived capability of achieving a certain level of performance in the domain of sport (Feltz, 1998). Previous research has also demonstrated that the tendency of athletes to interpret their imagery as either facilitative or debilitative affects specific constructs known to enhance or impede …

The Effects Of Ses Stereotypes On Hurricane Decision Making, Alexandria D. Booth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the severe and often costly consequences associated with severe weather instances, there is a continuing problem with noncompliance to weather warnings. This issue is pervasive, and research has shown a number of factors that are related to weather response (Joslyn & LeClerc, 2013). Further, individuals of a low socioeconomic status (SES) are often disproportionately impacted by severe weather instances, such as hurricanes (Elliot & Pais, 2006). Past research has shown that individuals of a low education level do not understand some aspects (e.g., numerical uncertainty) of a weather warning, suggesting that weather warnings may not be accessible for all …

Expressions Of Optimism Bias And "Self" Versus "Other" Perceived Controllability In The Context Of Military-Related Risks, Lauren Lachica-Muschett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to examine expressions of optimism bias and perceived controllability specifically regarding risks often associated with military service. Optimism bias refers to people’s tendency to believe they are less susceptible to experiencing negative life events compared to others. Previous studies show high levels of optimism bias are associated with strong perceptions of personal controllability. Optimism bias is a significant aspect of health promotion research particularly in the field of general occupational health and safety (OHS). However, optimism bias has never been investigated in the military OHS domain. Given the number of risks associated with military occupations, examination of …

The Effects Of Alcohol Priming On Age Perception And Attractiveness Ratings, Brooks B. Kolberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual assault and alcohol have often been linked together (Abbey et.al, 2004; Collins & Messerschmidt, 1993). Also, 29% of rape victims are between the ages of 12 and 17 (Greenfield, 1997). Research suggests people who are more impulsive are more likely to be sexually aggressive (Mouilso, Calhoun, & Rosenbloom, 2013); however, less is known regarding the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault of minors. This study addressed this knowledge gap by (1) examining the effects of alcohol priming on attractiveness ratings and age perception of individuals who could be perceived as adolescent, and (2) investigating the …

The Effects Of Preceding Stimuli Formats On Proportional Reasoning Ability In Elementary School Students, Natalie D. Branch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) described fraction knowledge as the most important, yet most underdeveloped foundational skill among students. Due to the complex nature of fraction education, this study sought to understand the underlying fraction problem-solving skill of proportional reasoning in the hopes of gaining insight into children’s problem-solving strategies in order to implement more focused educational designs. The current study examined the effects of stimuli formats on children’s proportional reasoning ability by presenting four conditions involving two formats (continuous and discrete). Previous research indicates that students perform better on continuous stimuli and the goal of this study was …

The Effects Of Pointing Gestures On Visual Attention, Samaria J. Hamilton

Honors College Theses

Visual attention is a process that involves concentrating on select features, such as sensory cues, within the complex environment. Sensory cues within the visual field capture and redirect our attention. Previous research on eye gaze revealed that direct gaze captures attention. In the present study, pointing gestures and motion cues were tested together in a visual search task to examine their effects on attention. Participants were instructed to identify a target letter presented on one of four hands. Initially, two hands displayed a pointing gesture while the other two displayed an open gesture. Next, a target letter appeared, one open …

Cognitive And Emotional Processes Involved In The Experience Of Objects As Holy Or Transcendent, Lotte J. Pummerer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, attitudes about religion/spirituality have become more pluralistic (Pew Research Center, 2015a). At the same time, the number of individuals who identify themselves as nonreligious, atheist or agnostic are growing (Pew Research Center, 2015b), yet we are lacking words and research to describe their attributions of transcendence in language not bound to religious concepts. This study aims at examining both concepts – holiness and transcendence – in their similarities and differences through assessing cognitive and emotional processes involved in experiences of objects.

The study consisted of two parts with a total of 206 Christian and 52 nonreligious/atheistic/agnostic participants. …

Examining The Effects Of Enclosure Size At Training And At Test In Spatial Reorientation, Zebulon K. Bell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has begun to shed light on the differentiated influence of enclosure size on cue use during reorientation (Sturz, Forloines, & Bodily, 2012). Namely, the question remains of why both feature (i.e., objects or landmarks in the enclosure) and geometric (i.e., shape of the enclosure) cues are differentially affected by enclosure size, and the extent to which local (i.e., wall lengths and corner angles) and global (i.e., principal axis of space) geometric cues are affected by enclosure size. Further, it remains unclear whether training size, testing size, or the relationship between training and testing size influences the use of …

Dual Task Testing Of The Adaptive Combination View In Spatial Reorientation, Donald G. Sullens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

If an organism is trained to approach a location within an enclosure the organism will approach the correct location and it’s geometrically identical location within the environment upon removal of any features. This phenomenon has been turned spatial reorientation, and further studies on how, and to what, organisms reorient have conducted in the last several decades. In the reorientation literature, two theories have surfaced to fill the void left by the rejection of the initial reorientation theory, the Geometric Module theory. I attempt look to discern if the synonym judgement dual task will hinder reorientation in a similar or different …

The Effect Of Social Influence On Perception Of Tornado Warnings, Jason A. Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tornado activity annually results in many deaths throughout the U.S. As a result, the emergency alert system (including tornado warnings) has made considerable advancements throughout the past few decades. However, continued improvements could be made to warning content that aid to facilitate adaptive decision-making by increasing individuals’ motivation to respond. One method that could increase adaptive responses to warnings is by including the modality of descriptive social information within the warning. Research suggests that normative social influence acts as a powerful motivator for individuals to conform toward the witnessed or perceived behaviors of others. The current study examined the impact …

Working Memory And Cued Recall, Max V. Fey, Karen Naufel, Lawrence Locker

Honors College Theses

Previous research has found that individuals with high working memory have greater recall capabilities than those with low working memory (Unsworth, Spiller, & Brewers, 2012). Research did not test the extent to which cues affect one’s recall ability in relation to working memory. The present study will examine this issue. Participants completed a working memory measure. Then, they were provided with cued recall tasks whereby they recalled Facebook friends. The cues varied to be no cues, ambiguous cues high in imageability, and cues directly related to Facebook. The results showed that there was no difference between individual’s ability to recall …

Rudeness And Ego Depletion, Daniel A. Zuardo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study sought to examine the effect that rudeness would have on ego depletion by having participants engage in a task where they would build Legos with a confederate who would be rude or neutral to them. Ego depletion was measured using a typing task on a computer where participants would type A+E+I+O+U+ until they wanted to stop. The results suggest that rudeness can cause ego depletion.

The Influence Of Emotion On Memory For A Crime, Taylor Langley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have reported errors in recall or recognition of witnessed events, accounting for the most common cause of false convictions of innocent people. Tiwari (2010) indicated that 25% of suspects who were identified in a line-up were actually innocent. Jurors are strongly influenced by eyewitness testimony and this can lead to false convictions. The validity of eyewitness identification is critical in cases in which it is used as evidence. In the current study we examined specific emotion states by inducing fear, surprise, and neutral moods. We hypothesized that participants in the Fear group would be least susceptible to the effects …

The Moderating Effects Of Positive And Negative Automatic Thoughts On The Relationship Between Positive Emotions And Resilience, Michael W. Judd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Resilience is generally characterized as the ability to recover and grow following adversity (Connor & Davidson, 2003) and is considered an integral factor in the promotion of overall physical and psychological health (Masten & Reed, 2002). One factor thought to be associated with resilience is more frequent positive emotions, but the relationship between positive emotions and resilience varies (Tugade, Fredrickson, & Feldman-Barrett, 2004), suggesting moderating factors may be involved. Cognitive factors may be involved in determining the parameters that define when and to what degree this relationship occurs (Troy & Mauss, 2011). The current study was designed to further elucidate …

The Effects Of Alcohol-Related Stimuli Priming On The Expression Of Relational Aggression, Connor W. Ondriezek

Honors College Theses

The semantic network model of memory states that concepts closely related (e.g., pencil-paper) are stored together in memory (Posner & Snyder, 1975). When one concept is activated, other related concepts becoming more accessible, which increases the likelihood that related concepts will influence behavior. Past research has established a link between aggressive behaviors after exposure to alcohol-related words (Bartholow, Grosvenor, Pedersen, Truong, & Vasquez, 2014). Previous research has also shown that alcohol outcome expectancies contribute to problematic drinking behavior (Fromme, Stroot, & Kaplan, 1993). In the present study, alcohol outcome expectancies of each participant were assessed by the CEOA questionnaire. Then, …

Schadenfreude, The Dark Triad, And The Effect Of Music On Emotion, Robin Lane

Honors College Theses

Schadenfreude is a humorous response at the misfortune of others and has been suggested to be an empathic defense mechanism. Previous research indicates that individuals who tend to exhibit the Dark Triad personality traits narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, experience higher levels of Schadenfreude. Additional studies suggest that music modulates neural activity associated with experiencing humor. In the present study we ask, do music and dark personality traits influence Schadenfreude? Participants viewed a series of brief, randomly intermixed physical misfortune and neutral videos (e.g., a person falling off a treadmill or running on a treadmill, respectively), with either an upbeat or …

The Effects Of Size And Principal Axis Difference Ratio On The Use Of Featural And Geometric Cues, Spencer J. Price

Honors College Theses

Enclosure size has been shown to affect an animal’s reliance on featural and geometric cues when reorienting in space. Previous research has shown that humans and animals rely primarily on geometric cues in smaller enclosures, and on featural cues in larger enclosures. The multiple-bearings hypothesis predicts that directional information is more discriminable than distance information when landmarks are father away from a goal. As the size of the environment increased, the distance information was less discernible than featural information. In the current study, we tested to see if the reliance on geometry changes across enclosure size. Three different Principal Axis …

Using The Stroop Effect To Examine The Effect Of Words To Which Humans Are Sensitive On Cognitive Conflict, Stacia Fritz

Honors College Theses

The purpose of experiment one was to test the effects of drink consumed (glucose, artificial sweetener, or water) and stimuli (food or non-food) on cognitive conflict. Glucose has been known to better cognitive functioning, and preoccupation with food worsens cognitive functioning on a food-related task. We hypothesized that participants who received glucose and non-food stimuli will perform best on the cognitive tests, and participants who received aspartame and food-stimuli will perform worst on the cognitive tests. Participants were each given an 8 oz. drink to consume, shown six minutes of stimuli, performed an “X-word” Stroop test, shown six more minutes …

Understanding Tendencies Of Aggressive Behavior And Cognition As Related To Alcohol Use And Intimate Partner Violence, Taylor D. Thomas Ms.

Honors College Theses

The term intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to any act of aggression (physical or emotional) committed within an intimate relationship by one partner against the other, regardless of gender, sexual intimacy, or sexual orientation. One of the leading risk factors for IPV is the regular abuse of alcohol (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2014). High levels of alcohol consumption predict an increase in aggression in individuals with aggressive dispositions (Barnwell et al., 2006). Extensive research exists on the relationship between alcohol use and IPV, yet there is a dearth in the literature investigating the complexities of the alcohol use-IPV relationship …

The Relationship Between Competitive Trait Anxiety And Optimism In College Aged Individuals, Allison M. Heiskell

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between competitive trait-anxiety and optimism in college students. A sample of 112 undergraduate students from a university in the Southeast completed three questionnaires: a demographics survey, a Life Orientation Test and a Sport Competition Anxiety Test. The data werethen analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to determine if a relationship exists. The hypothesis was that there would be a negative correlation between competitive trait anxiety and optimism levels in college students. This meant that as trait-anxiety in an individual increased, the optimism level decreased. It was found that a statistically …

Tornado Trouble: How Can Current Tornado Warnings Be Improved?, Jonathan P. Evans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are many unnecessary deaths from tornadoes every year (NOAA.org, 2013). Although there have been great advancements in tornado warning systems (Coleman, Knupp, Spann, Elliot, & Peters, 2010), more changes to systems could be made to motivate people to take action in preparation for tornadoes (Brotzge & Donner, 2013). Protection motivation theory outlines the process by which we assess threats and decide whether or not preventative actions are worth performing. If the threat is perceived as severe enough and the preventative actions are seen as capable of mitigating the threat, the individual is motivated to act (Rogers, 2000). One means …