Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

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 …

A Community-Based Needs And Resource Assessment On Youth Mental Health: Bay Of Islands/Pasadena, Newfoundland, Joanne A. Mills

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In this research project, I undertook a community-based needs and resource assessment on youth mental health within a western Newfoundland community to assist a mental health planning team, the Community Mental Health Initiative (CMHI). CMHI is a stakeholder-based committee dedicated to addressing mental health concerns for all citizens in a geographical area in western Newfoundland, encompassing the city of Corner Brook, the communities along the north and south shore of the Bay of Islands, and the community of Pasadena. The mandate of CMHI includes identifying mental health needs and promoting the general well being of all persons of all ages …

Does Religion Teach Empathy And Helpfulness? The Role Of Fundamentalism And Target Of Need In The Religion-Helping Relation, Lynne Marie Jackson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The empathy-altruism hypothesis predicts that when social expectation for helping is low, empathy will facilitate, and distress will attenuate, helping (Batson, 1991). Based on this prediction, this study explored the relations among religious fundamentalism, emotional reactions of empathy and distress, and helping behaviour, for differing targets of need. One hundred thirty-three introductory psychology students (38 male, 95 female), of varying levels of religious fundamentalism, read a letter ostensibly written by a person hoping to attend university during the coming academic year. The letter indicated that the author had concerns about coping with the demands of university studies. The potential student …

A Comparison Of Metamemory Judgements And Forgetting Rates For Item And Associative Recognition For Normal And Closed-Head Injured Populations, Kathy Bharrath Singh

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Metamemory, in particular memory monitoring during a memory task, was investigated in a closed—head injured (CHI) population and a normal (control) population. Prediction ratings were used to determine memory monitoring at time of encoding, and postdiction ratings were used to determine memory monitoring at time of retrieval. Item and associative information for concrete and abstract words were tested using a forced—choice recognition test procedure. Forgetting rates for these two types of information (item and associative) were examined by analyzing immediate and final recognition memory performance. Results indicated that the CHI group had a lower overall level of recognition performance, however …

Processing Effects On A Context-Sensitive Fragment Completion Test, Brenda Darlene Nash

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present research examined the effects of conceptual processing on the implicit test of fragment completion. At study, subjects either generated a sentence to a word pair, solved a fragment (this fragment was paired with another word), or counted the number of vowels in a word pair. Subjects were tested on either a standard fragment completion test or a test in which the fragment was embedded in a meaningful sentence. This sentence also contained the other member of the studied pair. The fragment could be completed with the studied word or with another reasonable alternative. The results revealed functional independence …

Authoritarianism And Integrative Complexity, Susan Michele Alisat

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The relationship between Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and cognitive style was examined. Consistent with social learning theory, it was hypothesized that the development of authoritarian attitudes may be accompanied by the development of certain ways of thinking about the objects of these attitudes. High and low RWAs provided solutions for social conflicts which involved authoritarian and nonauthoritarian issues. After having provided their initial solutions, students were encouraged to increase the complexity of their reasoning by means of "prodding" questions. Results suggested that, instead of thinking less complexly for only authoritarian issues, high RWAs displayed lower integrative complexity scores than low RWAs …

The Role Of Conceptual Processing In Perceptual Identification Performance, Michael B. Wasdell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present research examined the extent to which conceptual processing done at study contributed to perceptual identification priming in an associative priming paradigm. Subjects performed either an elaborative (sentence generation) or non-elaborative (vowel comparison) encoding task on unrelated cue-target pairs presented in a study list. On a subsequent perceptual identification test, old target words were paired with their study trial cues (same context), other study trial cues (rearranged context), novel cue words (new context) and non-word cues (no context). A conceptual processing effect would be evidenced by a significantly higher level of the same context priming in the elaborative encoding …

A Cognitive Approach To Discharge Planning For Offenders, Frederick Wayne Morris

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The paper describes an application of cognitive psychological techniques to a program of discharge planning for offenders from a medium security Correctional Centre. It contains a review of alternative methods of discharge planning, outlines the development of cognitive treatment techniques, and explains the rationale for applying these techniques to incarcerated offenders. A quasi-experimental approach is utilized, comparing a group that experienced a combination of Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving, an affective component, self-initiation and relapse prevention with no treatment comparison groups. A significant improvement was in the experiment group in their ability to solve problems as measured by the Means End Problem-Solving …

Differential Outcome Expectancies Of Reinforcement And Nonreinforcement And Memory For Temporal And Nontemporal Stimuli, Mary Jo Ducharme

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The effects of differential outcome expectancies of food and no-food on memory for temporal and non-temporal stimuli were examined. Pigeons matched short (2s) and long (8s) sample durations to red and green comparison stimuli, and vertical and horizontal lines to vertical and horizontal lines. In Experiment 1, the Nondifferential Outcome group (NDO) received food or no-food on a random half of all trials. The Differential Outcome groups (DO) received food for correct responding to one temporal sample and one nontemporal sample, and no-food following the other samples. In the Differential Outcome-Short-Food group (DO-SF), the short sample stimulus was followed by …

Evidence For Common Coding Of Temporal And Nontemporal Information In Pigeons, Stephen Bridson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Two experiments found evidence that pigeons commonly code temporal and visual samples that are associated with the same comparisons in many-to-one matching. In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained to match temporal (2-sec and 8-sec keylight durations) and color (red and green) samples to line tilt comparisons (vertical and horizontal). Similar rates of forgetting were found for all samples. Furthermore, retention of sample information appeared more similar for samples which shared common comparisons than those that did not. In Experiment 2, pigeons learned new comparison (circle and triangle) associations with either temporal or visual samples from Experiment 1. When tested on …

Assessment Of Visual/Orthographic Awareness In Beginning Readers, Hope Elizabeth Lemoine

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Various models reading development (Frith, 1985; Gough & Hillenger, 1980; Marsh, Friedman, Welch, & Desberg, 1981) have suggested that word shape is of critical important to early readers when recognizing words they know. As children progress through the early stages of reading, critical features such as first letter then become the important definers of word recognitions among early readers until they are at a much more advanced stage (Frith, 1985). More generally, advanced orthographic awareness among early readers is not considered to play an important role until children are older and have established a more advanced reading vocabulary. The purpose …

The Effect Of Priming, Christian Orthodox Beliefs, And Training On Critical Thinking, Cheryl Norry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigated the extent to which pro and antireligious individuals responded objectively and critically to religious and nonreligious material. Proreligious (n=72) and antireligious (n=72) individuals, as determined by Fullerton and Hunsberger’s (1982) Christian Orthodoxy Scale, were selected from 507 introductory psychology students. They judged the logical soundness of 30 syllogisms (10 proreligious, 10 antireligious, and 10 neutral) following a priming task (critical, religious, or neutral). Prior to the analysis of the syllogisms, half of the subjects were given logic training, while the other half did not receive any instruction in logic. Dependent variables included critical ability (i.e., the number …

The Effects Of Expectancy, Task Importance And Self-Attention On Task Persistence, Jim Jewett

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study was designed to examine the relative power of control theory (Carver, 1979) and self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977) in predicting behavioral persistence. This study employed a 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design. One hundred and twelve undergraduate females were exposed to high and low levels of self-attention and task importance as well as positive and negative self-efficacy and outcome expectancies. Following failure on an anagram task subjects’ persistence in solving in insoluble design puzzle was assessed. Contrary to the hypotheses, the results suggested that self-efficacy expectancies, outcome expectancies, task importance and self-attention do not influence persistence …

Stimulus Control Exerted By Remember Cues Over Processing In Pigeons’ Short-Term Memory, Patricia E. Hernandez Torres

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The aim of the present research was to provide further evidence regarding the role of remember cues on pigeon short-term memory. The first two experiments were conducted to determine whether, using a single cuing procedure, control over delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) performance could be demonstrated by establishing a no cue condition as an implicit cue to forget. In Experiment 1, subjects were provided with training in a procedure where both forget cue (F) and no cues indicated the omission of the comparison stimuli at the end of the delay interval. In Experiment 2, naive subjects were trained with remember (R) and …

Pigeon Short-Term Memory: The Effects Of Intertrial Interval Duration And Illumination In A Successive Delayed Matching-To-Sample Procedure, Vic Grossi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The aim of this research was to examine the effects of illumination and intertrial interval duration on pigeon short-term memory, using a successive matching-to-sample procedure. In phrase one the retention interval was manipulated individually for each bird. During the second phase, a correction procedure was implemented in order to reduce the number of responses made to non-match comparison stimuli. In the third phase, the birds were returned to a common baseline, in order to observe what effect elimination of the correction procedure had on the bird’s performance. In the final phase of the research, after achieving stable performance in the …

The Interrupted Task Paradigm: Age And Observer-Performer Differences, Laurie E. Davidson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Previous research has indicated a developmental tendency toward greater repetition choice and recall of interrupted tasks than for completed tasks. The present study investigated this relationship and the possibility that observing versus performing a task might have differential effects on recall and repetition choice. Thirteen ten year old and eleven year old boys (performers) individually assembled eighteen jig-saw puzzles of birds and animals. Twenty-four peers of the same age (observers) observers puzzle assembly. Contrary to previous research, no significant tendency was found for older participants to recall and to choose to repeat more interrupted tasks than for younger participants. However, …

Discrimination Of Bidimensional Stimuli By Autistic Children, Kathryn A. Brock

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Four autistic and four normal children were trained to respond on a series of four bidimensional complex-component discrimination tasks where the complex stimuli were comprised of auditory and visual components. The results indicated a transfer of learning effect for the autistic group. The increment in performance was such that the autistic group’s performance did not significantly differ from the normal group on the last task. These results were seen as encouraging evidence that the apparent phenomenon of stimulus overselectivity, as described in previous research, is not an enduring characteristic of autistic children. It was suggested that further research is needed …

An Investigation Of Three Aspects Of Cognitive Style In Young Children, Briar D. Gaudun

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the developmental concept of the process of differentiation as reflected in cognitive style with three and seven year old male and female Ss. The ideas underlying this study stemmed from the Witkin concept of an analytical versus a global cognitive style. The design, however, differed considerably from the studies of Witkin, Dyk, Faterson, Goodenough, and Karp (1962) by incorporating three aspects of psychological functioning which theoretically should be highly related, although they have never been investigated simultaneously. The three aspects of psychological functioning were perceptual articulation as measured by the Preschool …

Methodological, Modal, And Cross-Modal Studies Of Short Interval Judgements Of Duration, With Specific Reference To The Development Of A Model Of The Internal Clock, Michael J. Procyshyn

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A series of experiments was carried out to investigate: (1) the effect of a background sound applied at either the input and/or the output stages on judgements of visual intervals made using the methods of verbal estimation, operative estimation, and reproduction; (2) the effect of lack of knowledge of the method of response during teh input stage of temporal information on the judgement made; (3) the effect of auditory visual cross-modal stimuli on reproductions of intervals; (4) the effect of lack of knowledge of the mode of response during the input of cross-modal temporal stimuli.

Analysis of the data revealed: …

Shock Intensity And Task Difficulty As Determiners Of Avoidance And Escape Learning In Rats, Arthur Louis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Thirty-six naive female hooded rats were divided randomly into three groups and tested in an instrumental escape and avoidance learning situation involving three degrees of task difficulty. Each group was also randomly subdivided into four subgroups, each of which underwent a different shock intensity level. The purpose of this study was to test the Yorkes-Dodson law which states that (a) there is an optimal level of punishment intensity for any given task (or an inverted-U curve relating shock intensity and performance) and (b) this optimal intensity decreases as task difficulty increases. The results supported (a) but not (b).

An Investigation Of The Influence Of Varying Lengths Of Rest Following Differential Amounts Of Practice On The Practice Effect In Tachistoscopic Word Recognition, John G. Platt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

An experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of varying rest periods after three different amounts of practice on the practice effect in word recognition.

Analysis of the data revealed: (1) rest resulted in a sharp increment in recognition thresholds except at short rest intervals after a brief practice period, (2) the threshold scores immediately after rest were found to be an inverse function of the length of the rest period, and (3) larger threshold increments were observed following greater amounts of practice than after lesser amounts.

The results were discussed in terms of two interpretations of the practice …