Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Memory Bias Toward Emotional Information In Burnout And Depression, Renzo Bianchi, Eric Laurent, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Lucas M. Bietti, Eric Mayor

Publications and Research

A sample of 1015 educational staff members, exhibiting various levels of burnout and depressive symptoms, underwent a memory test involving incident encoding of positive and negative words and a free recall task. Burnout and depression were each found to be associated with increased recall of negative items and decreased recall of positive items. Results remained statistically significant when controlling for history of depressive disorders. Burnout and depression were not related to mistakes in the reported words, or to the overall number of recalled words. This study suggests that burnout and depression overlap in terms of memory biases toward emotional information.

Eyewitness Recall And Identification Accuracy: Effects Of Stress In An Extreme Haunt And A Haunted House, William Blake Ridgway

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The impact of stress on eyewitness recall and identification accuracy has been studied extensively but with somewhat inconsistent results. Understanding the effects of stress are important if they are to be generalized to victims or witnesses of real crimes. This study consisted of two experiments that used an extreme haunt and a haunted house to examine attendees’ ability to recall details of and identify actors encountered, as a function of state anxiety and in the context of Deffenbacher’s (1994) catastrophe model of memory performance under anxiety. The results showed that physiological (i.e., heart rate) and psychological (i.e., State Anxiety Inventory) …

Teen Stress And The High School Experience: Fostering The Adaptive Abilities To Survive And Advance, William P. Dewitt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose if this study is to examine the stress experience of teenagers during their high school years. The study uses existing research to identify causes of stress and stress- management techniques and then gathers students’ perceptions through surveys and a group interview to provide student voice on the issue of stress.

Recent nation-wide efforts have been made in schools to provide more supports for the social and emotional well-being of students, but despite these efforts, stress levels of high school students remain elevated. Understanding the ways in which students identify stress and the adaptive abilities they use to manage …

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

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & 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 Process Of Therapeutic Change In The Attention Training Technique, Benjamin J. Laman-Maharg

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Background: An unacceptably large proportion of individuals remain symptomatic after receiving first-line interventions. The attention training technique (ATT) is a potentially effective treatment augmentation and standalone treatment that may help improve the treatment of psychological disorders. The machanisms of therapuetic change of ATT remain understudied. This study is a randomized controlled trial of ATT compared to progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) that examined mindfulness and attentional control as potential mechisms of therapeutic change.

Method: A convenience sample of 64 participants (Mage = 20.13, SD = 3.65; 42.2% Male; 64.1% non-Hispanic White; 23.4% Black; 9.4% Hispanic/Latino; 3.1% Other) were randomly assigned to …

Components Of Mindfulness Training: Impacts On Attention And Affect, Maximilian Fey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The literature on mindfulness supports a distinction between two components of non-judgmental acceptance and directed attention. The present research analyzed whether there are distinct differences in attentional capabilities or affect between mindfulness inductions which differed in either including only directed attention or directed attention and non-judgmental acceptance. I hypothesized that the acceptance component of mindfulness would increase participants sustained attentional capabilities relative to a control condition; furthermore, I hypothesized that the non-judgmental acceptance component of mindfulness would lead to significant increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect relative to control. Lastly, I hypothesized that an individual difference measure …

Personality And Coping, Alyssa Seely

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Hypervigilance In A Normative Population, Karly Weinreb

Theses and Dissertations

Hypervigilance is conceptualized as a symptom of trauma-related disorders, however it can also occur in a normative population. To distinguish normative hypervigilance from trauma-related hypervigilance, 372 participants (123 trauma-exposed and 249 non-trauma-exposed) completed a questionnaire assessing hypervigilance in contexts. Trauma-exposed participants reported greater levels of hypervigilance in 3 contexts.

Stress Of College Students And Memory With The Implementation Of Brief Mindfulness, Rebecca Lopez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

College students are faced with stressors which can negatively impact memory function, thereby, negatively affecting academic performance. This study used a field experiment design to investigate the effects of brief mindfulness on levels of distress and memory functioning between first-year community college students engaging in a brief mindfulness intervention (n = 29) and a control group (n = 28) by using ANCOVA, MANOVA, correlations, and descriptive statistics. Research questions examined whether a brief mindfulness intervention lowered levels of distress in a treatment group. Second, the study examined whether the intervention of brief mindfulness in a treatment group improved memory function. …

Exploring Locus Of Control In Offender Cognition And Recidivism Paradigms, Anistasha Lightning, Danielle Polage

All Master's Theses

Working with four Washington State county jails to administer surveys to currently incarcerated inmates, we investigated locus of control and beliefs in the likelihood of continued legal involvement as possible antecedents to criminal recidivism. The surveys examined whether there was any connection between legal involvement frequency and the externalization of locus of control. We investigated external locus of control with specific respect to involvement with the law, the prospect of future incarceration, and feelings concerning the overall cause of original and/or sustained legal involvement utilizing the Revised Causal Dimension Scale (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992). We identified statistically significant interactions …

An Investigation Of The Relations Between Stress And Prospective Memory, Brandon T. Stewart

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Prospective memory (PM) is a future-oriented memory system that entails “remembering to remember” intentions, or to perform actions in the future. People spend significant portions of their day-to-day lives forming and acting on intentions, and the ability to successfully generate, retain, and complete these intentions has important implications for one’s daily functioning and quality of life. Another common human experience is stress, whether that be short-term, acute stress, or long-term, chronic stress. Despite the significance and ubiquity of both PM and stress, the research base documenting the relations between them is sparse. This topic area necessitates additional research to delineate …

Can Coloring Reduce Stress And Increase Working Memory In The Elderly?, Alexus Lepere

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores whether the observed effects of coloring on anxiety and stress apply to the elderly. Two coloring activities were administered to elderly participants to evaluate the effects on stress, anxiety, and working memory. The Mini Mental State Examination was used to establish cognitive level. The Perceived Stress Scale and Brief State Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered to obtain pretest and posttest scores on stress and anxiety levels. Working memory was measured using the Backward Digit Recall to test if the potential calming effects improve working memory. A near significant increase in stress scores was demonstrated in the mandala …

Investigating The Effects Of Mindfulness On Children’S Executive Function, Emotional Regulation, Stress, And Academic Performance Compared To A Control Condition, Lerna Hanceroglu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mindfulness is a growing field in the study of psychological well-being, with reports of individuals experiencing increases in resilience and reduced stress. The current research on mindfulness lacks information on a comprehensive analysis on the relationship between mindfulness and executive function, emotional regulation, stress, and subsequent academic performance for children. Additionally, studies contain methodological issues, such as the absence of active control groups. Hence, the current study assessed the effects of mindfulness training on children’s executive function, emotional regulation, stress, and academic outcomes compared to an active control group. There were 51 younger children from grades 2 to 4 (Mean …

Sex Differences In Chronic Stress Effects On Cognition In Rodents, Victoria N. Luine, Juan Gomez, Kevin D. Beck, Rachel E. Bowman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Chronic stress causes deleterious changes in physiological function in systems ranging from neural cells in culture to laboratory rodents, sub-human primates and humans. It is notable, however, that the vast majority of research in this area has been conducted in males. In this review, we provide information about chronic stress effects on cognition in female rodents and contrast it with responses in male rodents. In general, females show cognitive resilience to chronic stressors which impair male cognitive function using spatial tasks including the radial arm maze, radial arm water maze, Morris water maze, Y-maze and object placement. Moreover, stress often …

The Manifestation Of Stress And Rumination In Musicians, Michael M. Roy, Joseph R. Radzevick, Laura Getz

Management Faculty Publications

Here we offer a brief review of research on individual differences that are common to musicians, focusing on our own work on rumination and stress. Rumination and stress have been linked with depression and negative health outcomes. We discuss two of our published studies and two new, unpublished replications that find elevated levels of rumination and stress in musicians. Further, we review literature that finds this combination of rumination and stress might be especially toxic. Even though people frequently use music to help combat stress, musicians may not be taking advantage of their frequent exposure to music, further exacerbating the …

The Nerve: Associations Between Perceived Parenting Style And Coping With Stress, Lauren Mcgrew

Undergraduate Theses

Throughout a lifetime, women are twice as likely as men to develop an anxiety disorder. Several factors – biological, psychological, and social/environmental – are involved in the mechanisms of anxiety. The present study was designed with particular interest in the association between parents’ parenting styles and daughter anxiety, specifically paternal influences in correlation with how daughters cope with stress. Previous studies suggest that anxious tendencies in parents can be transferred to their children (Ballash, Leyfer, Buckley, & Woodruff-Borden, 2006). Studies have also identified three main parenting styles – authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive – which may also play a role in …

Acute Stress Exposure And Expression Of Instrumentally Conditioned Financial Preferences: An Fmri Study, William Travis Mccuddy

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Recent research suggests acute stress exposure is associated with increased habit-based over goal-oriented decision making (e.g., Schwabe & Wolf, 2011). The current study examined whether acute stress promotes the expression of simple financial preferences “overtrained” to the point of habit in the face of a changing environment where said preferences were later rendered non-optimal. Over three days participants (N = 28) learned to discriminate between visual stimuli probabilistically associated with monetary gains or losses and made decisions between stimuli with real financial outcomes. On the fourth day after exposure to either an acute stressor or control procedure participants performed the …

The Relationship Between Self-Compassion, Sleep Quality, And Perceived Stress Among Undergraduate And Graduate Students, Michael Unger

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Research has indicated that sleep problems are prevalent in college students. Current studies show that over half of college students report that they are poor-quality sleepers. The consequences of poor sleep quality include increased stress, substance use, and mental health issues. Poor sleep hygiene is one of the many factors that contribute to poor sleep quality in college students. Although research has identified contributing factors and consequences of sleep problems in college students, less attention has been given to factors that may serve as a buffer against the effects of poor sleep quality. This study introduces and discusses self-compassion as …

Effect Of Mindfulness Training On Interpretation Exam Performance In Graduate Students In Interpreting, Julie E. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

Many graduate interpreting students struggle because the real-time, interactive nature of interpreting dictates that they be able to regulate their attention across different parallel cognitive activities and manage the inherent stress and unpredictability of the task. Within the framework of Cognitive Load Theory, this mixed-methods study explored the effect of short-term mindfulness training on consecutive interpreting exam performance using a quasi-experimental repeated-measures design. It also examined the relationships among mindfulness, stress, aspects of attention, and interpreting exam performance. The sample included 67 students (age M = 26.9 years; 82% female) across seven language programs (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, …

The Effects Of Mindfulness On Verbal Distress Disclosure, Sara Fleming

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a mindfulness induction on participants’ verbal distress disclosure (as measured by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count and State Disclosure Questionnaire). Participants were 86 undergraduate students enrolled in an Introduction to Psychology course and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a mindfulness condition or a control condition. Participants in the mindfulness condition engaged in a 15-minute mindfulness induction prior to disclosing about a stressful experience, while participants in the control condition listened to a neutrally valenced audio excerpt from a podcast about emotions before speaking about a …

Cortisol Levels And Voltage Conditions Of College Students, Adriana Steffens

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a limited research base on low voltage brain conditions, which are characterized by electrical activity being measured at below 20 microvolts. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between saliva cortisol levels and voltage using an EGG in a college student population. Illuminating this relationship is important to inform how low voltage conditions can affect daily memory and cognitive functioning of undergraduate college students that may be a result of stress. The college student population may be vulnerable to the low voltage condition because of stress from the transition between teenage and adult life and …

Psychophysiological Markers Of Cognitive Reactions To Depictions Of Corporal Punishment, Hope Reuschel

Online Theses and Dissertations

The following study assessed cognitive mechanisms, via physiological measures, in reaction to photos depicting conditions of corporal punishment, nonphysical punishment, and a neutral control. Detections in skin conductance (SCR) were used to examine autonomic stress response. The current study examined executive working memory (WM) processes as influenced by cognitive and psychophysiological response to viewing depictions of various punishments being implemented. Results of this study found that while participants reacted differently, autonomically and cognitively, to photo conditions, these differences were unrelated to other anticipated moderators such as tendency to internalize shame or greater personal exposure to corporal punishment. Subsequent analyses, however, …

Effects Of Mild To Moderate Stress On Mental Rotation, James Frederick Bell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental rotation (MR) is the ability to mentally shift one's visual perspective of any object by changing the orientation of a mental image of that object. Research into the effects of stress on MR could be used to help improve understanding of a variety of visual-spatial tasks performed in hyper-vigilance situations. However, until the present study, there has been no research on the effects of stress on MR. The Yerkes-Dodson Law predicts performance will be improved when an individual is exposed to mild to moderate stress. The purpose of this study was to answer three research questions. The questions examined …

A Mindfulness-Based Intervention To Reduce Stress In Undergraduates., Dirk Anthony Dorsel

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This study piloted a mindfulness-based intervention to reduce stress in university undergraduates, and explore effects on psychological and biological indicators of stress. Mindfulness is “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment-by-moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). The one week mindfulness intervention used audiobased mindfulness tracks recorded by Clinical Psychologist Paul Salmon. These tracks taught the basics of mindfulness. Participants were asked to listen to the tracks for 30 minutes a day for five days of the intervention. Perceived stress, self-reported anxiety, self-reported depression, heart rate and skin conductance were …

The Effects Of Acute Psychosocial Stress On Cognitive Performance, Anne I.S. Gray

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of acute psychosocial stress on cognitive performance. Psychosocial stress evolves from the perceived presence of a social evaluative threat and results in the activation of the home hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. As part of this reaction the stress hormone cortisol is secreted into the blood stream, ultimately crossing the blood-brain barrier, where it can have profound effects on various aspects of cognition. A review of the literature reveals that that attention, working memory, spatial judgment and cognitive processing efficiency are particularly susceptible to stress induced changes in performance level. A test battery …

From College Student To Change Agent: A Triadic Model Of Self-Efficacy, Attribution, And Appraisal, Joshua M. Garrin

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Beyond their newfound emancipation and opportunities for self-discovery, college students in the young adult stage of development are expected to achieve balance between their autonomous new world and the impending pressures of postgraduation life. The college student must not only reconcile issues related to identity formation, goal pursuits, and career exploration, but is expected to begin the process of identifying and developing the skills required to address salient social themes. How students establish competency beliefs, negotiate controllability over future outcomes, and appraise challenges have deep implications in their capacity to discover their social change “voice.” The following discussion proposes a …

Developmental Variation In Children's Acquisition Of Metrical Structure: How Early Treatment Of Stressless Syllables Can Inform Phonological Theory, Clifford S. Jones

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present study uses 26 color photos to elicit a total of 14 words conforming to a very specific pattern: a stressless syllable word-initially, followed by a stressed syllable, and at most one more stressless syllable. This was found to be a particularly difficult metrical structure for the two- and three-year old participants to produce in an adult-like manner. Based on the findings that a fairly reliable (if language-particular) order of acquisition is observable for contrasts of both place and manner of articulation, the case is made for a system of six emergent features, which may be characterized as combinable …

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 …

9/11 Stress About Coping With 9/11 Stress, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies paradoxes and conceptual difficulties with behavioral scientists and expert advice on coping with 9/11-related stress.

Chronic Restraint Stress Enhances Radial Arm Maze Performance In Female Rats, Rachel E. Bowman, Mark C. Zrull, Victoria N. Luine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Effects of chronic restraint stress (21 and 28 days) on physiological and behavioral parameters in female rats were examined. Total (bound and free) and free corticosterone (CORT) levels were measured at different time points during the stress period. Higher total CORT levels were observed in stressed rats during the stress period but returned to baseline at 15 days poststress. Additionally, free CORT levels decreased across the stress period. Estrous cyclicity was monitored daily in all animals. Stress had no apparent effects on estrous cyclicity, in rats with either normal length or elongated estrous cycles, but stressed females gained less weight …