Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Next-Day Effects Of Binge Drinking On Inhibitory Control In Laboratory And Naturalistic Settings, Justin Verlinden

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Binge drinking occurs at an alarmingly high rate, despite its negative consequences on behavior, health, and cognition. One acute cognitive consequence of binge drinking is the impairment of inhibitory control, or the ability to stop oneself from engaging in maladaptive or inappropriate behaviors. Specifically, during a binge episode, individuals display impaired inhibitory control while completing Go/NoGo or Stop Signal Tasks (SST). This impairment has been shown to be maintained for up to five hours post-drinking, even as breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) approaches zero. Evidence also suggests that binge drinking results in next-day deficits in attention, memory, and psychomotor speed. However, …

Weighted Family History Density Of Substance Use: Influence On Participant Substance Use Onset, Escalation, And Duration, Carleigh A. Litteral

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Substance use disorders impose a staggering toll on the United States (U.S.), straining healthcare systems, destabilizing communities, and profoundly impacting both individuals and families. Approximately one in six Americans aged 12 and older had a past-year substance use disorder in 2022 (Key Substance Use, 2022), and nearly one-third of adults experience a substance use disorder in their lifetime (Wu, 2010), contributing to an economic burden exceeding $400 billion annually (National Drug Threat Assessment, 2011). Family history of substance use disorders is a key predictor of vulnerability, with individuals who have affected relatives being 2–8 times more …

Exploring The Effects Of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Of The Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus On Inhibitory Control In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Colton Rippey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Background: The right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) is implicated in stop signal reaction time (SSRT) performance – a common measure of inhibitory control – and emotional expression and control. Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibit poorer stop SSRT performance, which is associated with rIFG hypoactivity. Neuromodulation of the rIFG with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can significantly improve inhibitory control and reduce fearful responding to threatening stimuli. Research has yet to test the effects of multifocal tDCS targeting the rIFG on inhibitory control or emotional reactivity in individuals with PTSD.

Methods: The current study aims to examine the impact …

The 1-Back Matching/Mismatching Paradigm With Pigeons (Columba Livia): Evidence For Explicit Learning?, Daniel Peng

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

With humans, a distinction can be made between explicit and implicit learning. language can be used to describe rule-based learning commonly seen in explicit, but not implicit learning. Unfortunately, we cannot do so with animals. Therefore, a non-verbal paradigm is needed to differentiate the types of learning. One method to make such a distinction is by training animals under a conditional discrimination task such as matching-to-sample with reinforcement delayed until a choice is made on the next trial: otherwise known as a 1-back procedure. In this experiment an alternating matching/mismatching to sample task under a 1-back schedule of reinforcement was …

Neural Hyperactivity During Value-Based Decision-Making In People With Daily/Near Daily Cannabis Use, Miranda Ramirez

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Value-based decision-making involves the coordinated effort of multiple brain regions to guide future choices based on past experiences. These processes are disrupted in cannabis use disorder, where individuals continue to use cannabis despite negative consequences. Reinforcement learning (RL) paradigms can be used to capture changes in the value of available options and may inform how the brain is impacted by frequent cannabis use. This study combined fMRI with behavioral modeling of probabilistic choice task data to compare value-based choices between young adults reporting daily/near daily cannabis use (CAN) and controls (CTRL). Participants selected one of two options reinforced ($0.25) at …

Influence Of Oral Contraceptives On Alcohol Use In Young Adult Women, Ashley Strzelecki

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Rates of heavy drinking and Alcohol Use Disorder are rising dramatically in young adult women, making it important to better understand female-specific risks for problematic drinking. Circulating levels of ovarian hormones are one potential mechanism influencing alcohol use in women. Many young adult women use oral contraceptives (OCs) that alter endogenous hormone levels, and little is known about how OCs and the synthetic hormones they contain may influence alcohol use. This dissertation consists of three studies that investigated alcohol consumption in women using OCs and explored potential mechanisms through which OCs may influence alcohol use. Study 1 compared self-reported alcohol …

Disinhibition And Bac Estimation As Predictors Of Risky Driving Behavior While Intoxicated, Sarah Heymsfeld

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol-related driving fatalities persist as a public health problem in the United States. Recent studies have begun focusing on driver risk-taking as a factor in DUI occurrences and consequent driving fatalities. Key factors that could contribute to risky intoxicated driving are a lack of self-awareness concerning intoxication levels and consequent risk in addition to alcohol-induced increases in the driver’s impulsivity. Fifty young adult drivers received 0.65 g/kg of alcohol (target BAC = 80 mg/dl) or a placebo in a counterbalanced order on two different days and performed a simulated driving test that measured driver risk-taking as reduced distance to other …

Establishing The Feasibility Of Crowdsourcing To Study Value-Based Decision-Making In Substance Use Disorders, Thomas Shellenberg

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are characterized by repeated choices to use drugs despite adverse consequences. Value-based decision-making theory posits that choices are guided by predicted values of available options which are updated based on outcomes. Computational modeling of reinforcement learning (RL) during choice tasks has shown promise for uncovering latent mechanisms of decision-making. Recruiting people with SUD is difficult, but crowdsourcing offers an alternative for accelerating data collection. However, the validity of computational modeling using online choice task data has not been well-established. This thesis aimed to use the online crowdsourcing platform Prolific to 1) compare online and in-person choice …

Trait Impulsivity And Acute Alcohol Responses As Markers Of Binge Drinking In Young Adults, Holley Jamison

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Impulsivity, tolerance to alcohol-induced motor impairment, and high sensitivity to alcohol-induced disinhibition each have empirical support as markers of alcohol-related problems. However, research on alcohol response and personality-based markers of risk have remained largely independent lines of research. This dissertation examined how individual differences in these well-established markers may interact to additively contribute to heavy drinking.

Participants were 96 young adults (21-33 years old). with no history of AUD. They self-reported their drinking habits over the prior 90 days, and behavioral tasks measuring disinhibition and motor impairment were administered on two separate days following two alcohol doses (active [0.65 g/kg] …

Prenatal Ethanol Exposure Impairs Performance On Spatial And Tactile Sequential Discrimination Task In Juvenile Rats, Caleb S. Bailey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a set of cognitive and behavioral abnormalities that arise in ~5% of children who have been prenatally-exposed to alcohol. Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can cause impairments in learning acquisition, working memory, response inhibition, and attentional-set shifting that result in exaggerated deficits in executive function and impairments in goal-seeking behavior. There are standard procedures used in rodent research to address some components of these deficits, but few procedures are sensitive enough to comprehensively assess such deficits. To address this issue in FASDs research techniques, we developed a procedure that requires prolonged executive function in a …

Birds Of A Feather: Exploring Social Facilitation Effects On Learning And Suboptimal Choice In Pigeons (Columba Livia), Peyton Mueller

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The social facilitation effect describes a change in the behavior of an individual due to the presence of another organism of the same species (i.e., a conspecific). Many theories exist that attempt to explain why this change in behavior exists across species. A set of four experiments were executed to best explain how pigeons learn in the presence of non-competing conspecifics. The first experiment sought to replicate an interesting effect previously found in cockroaches and rats, such that conspecific presence inhibits performance early in training but facilitates it with increased training. The second experiment placed the novel response acquired in …

The Effects Of Social And Nonsocial Contextual Stimuli On The Renewal Of Cocaine Seeking, Bree Humburg

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Those with substance use disorders can undergo craving and relapse when re-exposed to a drug-associated context. This study determined if renewal of cocaine seeking is differentially controlled by contexts consisting of social and/or nonsocial stimuli. Experiment 1, rats self-administered cocaine in Context A which included a social peer and house light illumination. Following self-administration, rats were randomly assigned to an AAA or ABA group for extinction and renewal. For the AAA rats, context was similar to self-administration; for ABA rats, the drug-associated stimuli (peer and house light) were removed (Context B). Following extinction, renewal of cocaine seeking was examined by …

Role Of Prior Knowledge In Timing Of Computer-Generated Feedback, Julie Faye Shirah

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Although often helpful, feedback sometimes has neutral or negative effects on learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). For example, Fyfe and colleagues have found that the effects of feedback timing are moderated by students’ prior knowledge such that feedback has been useful for students with low prior knowledge, but has mixed effects on students with high prior knowledge (e.g., Fyfe et al., 2012; Fyfe, 2016). In this study, I extended Fyfe’s work by re-conceptualizing prior knowledge as knowledge of more familiar foundational concepts a learner brings to a learning task (Sidney & Alibali, 2017), which can be …

The Measurement Of Product Typicality In Design Research. A Basic And Applied Approach, Travis Kent

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The objective of this study was to examine the use of the cognitive construct of “typicality” to guide design decisions in the development of consumer products. Increasing products that will appeal to consumers, designers strive to balance novelty and familiarity. A potential way to thread this needle is to understand how “typical” a design is of its particular product category. The construct of typicality has been used by psychologists to understand how people create and represent categories. Objects that are more typical of a category are often associated with positive responses from observes (e.g., greater visual appeal, faster recognition). In …

Examining The Impact Of Discrete And Contextual Stress Factors On Memory, Jillian Rae Silva-Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Stress is a complex and multifaceted process which is often not perceived as such. Therefore, given the unidimensional conceptualization of stress in previous research the current understanding of the associations between stress and memory are not well understood. This study investigates the association between stress and memory by capturing the complexity of stress through discrete and contextual stress factors. The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and geocoded indices (i.e., zip codes) of population density (i.e., urbanicity) and deprivation (socioeconomic disadvantage) in a large and diverse sample of U.S. participants (N = 8817) to examine the relationship between …

The Interactive Effects Of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (Bdnf) Polymorphisms And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder On Neurocognitive Functioning In U.S. Military Veterans, Colton Shafer Rippey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is associated with mild-to-moderate deficits in neurocognitive functioning. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, namely, the Met allele, may also be associated with mild deficits in neurocognitive functioning. However, findings are inconsistent and may be sensitive to environmental epigenetic moderators such as psychopathology.

The current study analyzed data from European-American U.S. military veterans (n = 1,244) who participated in the 2011 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS). Multivariate analyses of covariances were conducted to evaluate the unique and interactive effects of the Met allele and probable PTSD on …

Altering The Distance: Using Construal Level Theory To Examine Conciliatory Policy Support, Brandon Reinkensmeyer

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Distancing—a cognitive reappraisal strategy—increases conciliatory policy support (i.e., policies redressing inequity) by reducing anger. Related but distinct research has used construal level theory (CLT), which explains the relationship between psychological distance and mental representations (e.g., events and attitudes), to explore intergroup relations. CLT demonstrates increased psychological distance induces abstract thinking, which leads to high-level construal (HLC) mindsets. HLC mindsets, like distancing, decrease political polarization and prejudice toward out-groups. As both distancing (an appraisal technique) and HLC mindsets (a potential outcome of appraisal techniques) may decrease political polarization and prejudice toward outgroups, across two experiments, the present work investigated whether …

The Midsession Reversal Task With Pigeons: Effects Of A Brief Delay Between Choice And Reinforcement, Megan Ashley Halloran

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

During a midsession reversal task, the session begins with a simple simultaneous discrimination in which one stimulus (S1) is correct and the alternate stimulus (S2) is incorrect (S1+/S2-). At the halfway point, the discrimination reverses and S2 becomes the correct choice (S2+/S1-). When choosing optimally, a pigeon should choose S1 until the first trial in which it is not reinforced and then shift to S2 (win-stay/lose-shift). With this task pigeons have been shown to respond suboptimally by anticipating the reversal (anticipatory errors) and continuing to choose S1 after the reversal (perseverative errors). This suboptimal behavior may result from a pigeon’s …

Elementary School Children’S Understanding Of Disproportionate Discipline, Sharla D. Biefeld

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

In the U.S. Black students, particularly Black boys, receive more out of school punishments, are punished more frequently, and are punished for more subjective behaviors than their White peers (Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002). This phenomenon is referred to as disproportionate discipline and is an early precursor to the disproportionate number of Black men and boys incarcerated in the U.S. Disproportionate discipline begins as early as preschool, and continues throughout elementary, middle, and high school (Gregory & Fergus, 2017). Perceptions of discrimination greatly impact children’s school involvement, school belonging, and educational outcomes (Brown, 2017, for review). However, little is …

Attentional Control In Infancy: The Role Of Sociodemographic Risk, Cortisol, And The Home Environment, Hannah B. White

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Infants’ ability to channel their cognitive resources by controlling their visual attention allows them to be active agents in their learning and development. Individual differences in attentional control have been linked to a wide variety of developmental outcomes including disparities between social classes in cognitive functioning. However, it is yet unknown when in development differences in attentional control related to sociodemographic factors emerge, or how factors of the home environment and the infant’s stress response relate to this effect. Accordingly, Experiment 1 examined whether certain sociodemographic factors, such as socioeconomic and minority status, predict 3.5-month-old infants’ (N = 102) …

Body Processing And Attentional Patterns In Infancy, Rachel Lynn Jubran

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Bodies provide important social information, and adults benefit from this information by recognizing and responding appropriately to bodies. Body recognition is enabled by the fact that human bodies are defined by parts, such as the limbs, torso, and head, arranged in a particular configuration. To understand the development of social cognition, it is important to analyze and document how infants come to recognize bodies. Infants are sensitive to distortions to the global configurations of bodies by 3.5 months of age, suggesting an early onset of body knowledge. It was unclear, however, whether such sensitivity indicates knowledge of the location of …

What Is Familiar Is Beautiful: A Novel Approach Investigating The Relationship Between Aesthetics And Perceived Use, Travis M. Kent

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Objective: This study investigates the application of aesthetic principles to designed objects with which we interact, specifically looking at the impact of perceived function of the objects on perceptions of visual appeal. Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that a product’s judged beauty or visual appeal is related to perceptions of its usability. Arguments have been put forward for both directions of causality leading to “what is beautiful is usable” and “what is usable is beautiful” hypotheses. Explanations for the relationship between usability and beauty judgments include stereotype effects, ecological explanations, and cognitive processing viewpoints. The current studies contribute to this …

Exploring Illusions Of Height In Suit Design, Michael P. Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Objective: The goal of this research was to explore how the design of clothing, specifically the design of the suit, can create height illusions.

Background: Taller people enjoy many advantages, such as increased income and perceived attractiveness. These advantages motivate people to try to appear taller than they actually are, and clothing experts provide advice on how to accomplish this. However, there is little empirical evidence to validate the illusory effects clothing might have on overall height perception. The few studies that have explored illusions of body size created by clothing design have been limited in two important ways – …

Is Pecking Aversive To A Pigeon Or Is It Only The Delay To Reinforcement?, Danielle M. Andrews

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The principle of least effort suggests that animals should minimize effort to reinforcement. Thus, not pecking should be preferred over pecking. However, pigeons often peck when it is allowed but not required (e.g., fixed time schedules) but pecking may be adventitiously reinforced. In the present experiment, to better compare a schedule of reinforcement that requires pecking with one that requires the absence of pecking, we compared a fixed-interval (FI) schedule in which reinforcement follows the first peck after the interval has elapsed and a differential-reinforcement-of-other behavior (DRO) schedule which requires pigeons abstain from pecking for a similar interval. The delay …

Usability Is Not Just Usability: Discovering The Strategies Used By Non-Experts In Making Usability Predictions, Michelle A. Sublette

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Much of the research on metacognition in human factors has focused on prescriptive, normative strategy training. That is, many researchers have concentrated their efforts on finding ways to improve system users’ prediction, planning, monitoring and evaluation strategies for tasks. However little research has focused on the strategies and heuristics users employ on their own to make usability predictions. Understanding usability prediction methods is critical because users’ predictions inform their expectations about whether they will make errors using a product, how much effort they will need to expend to be successful in using the product, whether they can perform two tasks …

Cognitive And Behavioral Mechanisms Underlying Alcohol-Induced Risky Driving, Jennifer R. Laude

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol intoxication represents one situation an individual might increase their amount of risk taking when driving. This dissertation is comprised of three studies that investigate the mechanisms by which alcohol increases driver risk-taking. Study 1 examined the effect of alcohol on driver risk-taking using a proxemics approach. The study also tested whether alcohol-induced increases in risky driving co-occurred with pronounced impairment in the driver’s skill. The study also examined whether the most disinhibited drivers were also the riskiest. Indeed, alcohol increased driver risk-taking and impaired driving skill. The study also revealed risky driving can be dissociable from impairing effects on …

Effects Of Headings On Processing Of Audio Texts, Hung-Tao Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Text-to-speech devices often do a poor job of translating signals such as headings from visual into audio mode. Previous research studies have attempted to address this problem but these studies have mainly used heading detection tasks. The current study seeks to investigate 1) whether listeners find the presence of audio headings useful in natural learning tasks, and 2) the type of heading rendering that is most useful in natural learning tasks. The three learning tasks in this study include note-taking, cued recall, and knowledge transfer. Results from this study reveal that listeners find audio headings useful in the note-taking task. …

The Effects Of Alternate-Line Shading On Visual Search In Grid-Based Graphic Designs, Michael P. Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Objective: The goal of this research was to determine whether alternate-line shading (zebra-striping) of grid-based displays affects the strategy (i.e., “visual flow”) and efficiency of serial search. Background: Grids, matrices, and tables are commonly used to organize information. A number of design techniques and psychological principles are relevant to how viewers’ eyes can be guided through such visual works. One common technique for grids, “zebra-striping,” is intended to guide eyes through the design, or “create visual flow” by alternating shaded and unshaded rows or columns. Method: 13 participants completed a visual serial search task. The target was embedded in a …

Facial And Body Emotion Recognition In Infancy, Leah Oberst

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Adults are experts at assessing emotions, an ability essential for appropriate social interaction. The present study, investigated this ability’s development, examining infants’ matching of facial and body emotional information.

In Experiment 1, 18 6.5-month-olds were familiarized to angry or happy bodies or faces. Those familiarized to bodies were tested with familiar and novel emotional faces. Those habituated to faces were tested with bodies. The 6.5-month-old infants exhibited a preference for the familiar emotion, matching between faces and bodies.

In Experiment 2, 18 6.5-month-olds were tested with faces and bodies displaying anger and sadness. Infants familiarized to faces showed a familiarity …

The Whole Picture: Body Posture Recognition In Infancy, Alyson J. Hock

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Holistic image processing is tied to expertise and is characteristic of face and body processing by adults. Infants process faces holistically, but it is unknown whether infants process body information holistically. In the present study, we examined whether infants discriminate changes in body posture holistically. Body posture is an important nonverbal cue that signals emotion, intention, and goals of others even from a distance. In the current study, infants were tested for discrimination between body postures that differ in limb orientations in three conditions: in the context of the whole body, with just the limbs that change orientation, or with …