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Full-Text Articles in Experimental Analysis of Behavior
The Impact Of Exposure Time And Interference From Cognitive Activity On The Frequency Of Involuntary Videogame Thoughts, Victoria Au
WWU Graduate School Collection
Involuntary thoughts of all kinds come to mind, including those about videogames. Amount of exposure and cognitive activity can affect involuntary thought frequency. I explored the effects of exposure time, task type, and cognitive load on involuntary videogame thought frequency experienced immediately after gameplay and 24-hours later. I found that the higher amount of exposure time to a videogame leads to an increase in involuntary thought frequency 24-hours later. I also found that involuntary thoughts are less likely to come to mind during a higher cognitive load activity, than a low cognitive load activity. Though there is a need for …
Predicting Preschoolers' Emotion Regulation: The Roles Of Parental Depression Symptoms And Conflict, Jessica Norman
Predicting Preschoolers' Emotion Regulation: The Roles Of Parental Depression Symptoms And Conflict, Jessica Norman
WWU Graduate School Collection
Using a family systems perspective, this study investigated interparental conflict style, including destructive, depressive, and constructive conflict, as a mediator of the effects of parent depression symptoms on child emotion regulation. Self-reported depression symptoms and both self-reports and observations of interparental conflict style were collected from a community sample of 72 families when children were 6 -14 months old; observations of child emotion regulation behavior during a frustrating boring story task were collected from 33 of the original families when children were 3 - 4.5 years old. A methodological gap was addressed by examining links for both mothers and fathers. …
Preferred Social Support Roles And Methods Of Communication In College Students When Presented With Potentially Anxiety-Inducing Interpersonal Situations, Alexander N. (Alexander Nicholas) Poh
Preferred Social Support Roles And Methods Of Communication In College Students When Presented With Potentially Anxiety-Inducing Interpersonal Situations, Alexander N. (Alexander Nicholas) Poh
WWU Graduate School Collection
Person by situation, or interactional, psychology predicts that an individual's anxiety will vary across situations. Past studies noted that anxiety increased the likelihood that an individual sought others for social support. Anxiety also affected the method of communication used by individuals. According to the richness model of anxiety, higher anxiety scores are associated with indirect or low richness methods of communication and lower anxiety scores are associated with direct or high richness methods of communication. This study used a person by situation approach to examine both whom participants sought and the method of communication used when presented with potentially anxiety-inducing …
Development And Validation Of The Transgender Prejudice Scale, Maxwell R. (Maxwell Roaldseth) Davidson
Development And Validation Of The Transgender Prejudice Scale, Maxwell R. (Maxwell Roaldseth) Davidson
WWU Graduate School Collection
The Transgender Prejudice Scale (TPS) was developed and validated across four studies as a measure of transgender prejudice (transprejudice). The TPS is a 25-item scale with two subscales: sex essentialism and discomfort. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses support the two-factor structure, while tests of convergent, construct, and discriminant validity support the TPS as a valid measure of transprejudice. Importantly, the TPS predicts negative evaluations of transgender individuals, and support for transgender civil rights, beyond the ability of a current popular transprejudice scale. The TPS does this by measuring the extent to which individuals conceptualize gender as dichotomous, unchanging, and biologically …
Measuring Attitudes Of Self-Silencing In Japan And The United States, Lanen J. Vaughn
Measuring Attitudes Of Self-Silencing In Japan And The United States, Lanen J. Vaughn
WWU Graduate School Collection
The primary purpose of this study was to explore the expression of self-silencing across cultures using indirect forms of measurement. Although some previous research has measured self-silencing in different cultural populations, no studies have addressed selfsilencing for Japanese participants. Many of the items highly correlated with self-silencing have been ranked higher by Japanese participants than those from the United States. Thus, self-silencing may not be equivalent across all cultures. Drawing samples from Japan and the United States, self-silencing for each of the two groups and gender were measured using the own-category approach, an open card-sorting technique. Hierarchical cluster analyses of …
Romantic Relationship Memory Effects On Future Romantic Relationship Forecasts: Differences By Attachment, Derek D. Caperton
Romantic Relationship Memory Effects On Future Romantic Relationship Forecasts: Differences By Attachment, Derek D. Caperton
WWU Graduate School Collection
The present study experimentally investigated the effects of recalling romantic relationship memories on forecasts for future romantic relationships for people of different attachment orientations. I assessed 133 college students not in a romantic relationship at the time of the study for their attachment group membership and asked them to recall and write about either their most vivid positive or negative romantic relationship memory. I measured the effects of recalling the memory on mood and asked participants to make a series of predictions, or forecasts, concerning the quality of an imagined future relationship in which they were a part. I expected …
The Effects Of Values And The Presence Of A Mobile Phone On Friendship Interactions, Genavee Brown
The Effects Of Values And The Presence Of A Mobile Phone On Friendship Interactions, Genavee Brown
WWU Graduate School Collection
Friends are sources of social support and are often observed interacting in public settings while using their mobile phones. Four types of mobile phone use were predicted: distraction, distraction multitasking, facilitation, and facilitation multitasking. These types of mobile phone use were predicted to be influenced by communication technology use, values, and friendship quality. Furthermore, these phone use types were predicted to influence the quality of a friendship interaction. An observational paradigm was used to observe mobile phone use behaviors in friendship interactions. Participants were recruited in friendship dyads and completed communication technology, values, and friendship quality questionnaires before visiting the …
"Johnny Feels Cranky": A Family Systems Approach To Studying The Links Between Interparental Conflict And Preschoolers' Emotion Understanding, Kristen A. Stouder
"Johnny Feels Cranky": A Family Systems Approach To Studying The Links Between Interparental Conflict And Preschoolers' Emotion Understanding, Kristen A. Stouder
WWU Graduate School Collection
Emotion understanding is a necessary ability for young children to develop, as this competence helps children navigate their social world. Parents offer a rich environment for children to learn about emotion, but to date little is known about how interparental conflict relates to children's growing emotion understanding. From a family systems perspective, it is important to consider not only how conflict behaviors may be connected with children' emotion understanding directly, but also indirectly through changes in parenting behaviors. In this study interparental conflict tactics and related parenting behaviors of both mothers and fathers were examined in relation to children's emotion …
Category Bias In Facial Memory, Joshua R. (Joshua Russell) Adams
Category Bias In Facial Memory, Joshua R. (Joshua Russell) Adams
WWU Graduate School Collection
Existing knowledge has been shown to interact with episodic information in a variety of memory tasks. The present study examined a known bias due to existing knowledge in the context of memory for facial features. Specifically, we examined if the category bias, a systematic error in remembering a target toward the prototypical location of its region, increased as a function of distance away from its prototypical location and if time and degree of distortion moderated the bias. We manipulated eye width along a horizontal axis to create a set of face stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants saw one face at …
Persuasive Commentary: Using The Elaboration Likelihood Model To Predict Attitudinal Change Online, Matthew A. Chavez
Persuasive Commentary: Using The Elaboration Likelihood Model To Predict Attitudinal Change Online, Matthew A. Chavez
WWU Graduate School Collection
The current study examined the persuasiveness (based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model) of user comments on the evaluation of an Internet news article. Participants reviewed a news article concerning the implementation of a new comprehensive exam for all senior-level undergraduates, which was manipulated such that the news article information was either self-relevant (evoking central route processing) or self-irrelevant (evoking peripheral route processing). In addition, comments that followed the news article were also manipulated by both strength and quantity. Attitudes toward the topic of comprehensive exams for seniors were assessed via an attitudinal scale and thought listing task after viewing both …
Effects Of Social Support Visibility On Cardiovascular And Emotional Responses During An Acute Stress Task, Julie A. Kirsch
Effects Of Social Support Visibility On Cardiovascular And Emotional Responses During An Acute Stress Task, Julie A. Kirsch
WWU Graduate School Collection
In contrast to invisible (unacknowledged) social support, visible social support tasks produce exaggerated negative emotional responses. Processes such as social comparison and negative social evaluation confound operationalizations of visible social support. This study tested social support visibility independent of negative social evaluation and social comparison processes, and included cardiovascular responses. Female undergraduates (N = 73) participated in an anticipatory speech task. A female confederate provided either visible or invisible social support, or no social support. Negative emotions were not affected by the social support manipulations. Cardiovascular outcomes were tested by incorporating a series of theoretically driven planned contrasts into tests …
The Processing And Content Of Family Narratives In Emerging Adulthood: Gender, Family Functioning, And Associations With Identity Development, Sarah Morrison-Cohen
The Processing And Content Of Family Narratives In Emerging Adulthood: Gender, Family Functioning, And Associations With Identity Development, Sarah Morrison-Cohen
WWU Graduate School Collection
The aim of the present study was to examine the family narratives of emerging adults. While previous studies have found that interpretative narrative content in adolescents' family narratives is related to identity development, this relation has not been explored in emerging adulthood. One hundred and fifty-eight university students, most in their first year, were asked to provide written narratives of times for the family that were happy, difficult, or transitional, as well as a narrative about themselves commonly told by the family. I examined the relationship between interpretive processing and identity within and across these narrative types, controlling for family …
The Impact Of Magnetic Resonance Imaging On Juror Perceptions Of Guilt, Christopher M. (Christopher Michael) Jackson
The Impact Of Magnetic Resonance Imaging On Juror Perceptions Of Guilt, Christopher M. (Christopher Michael) Jackson
WWU Graduate School Collection
This study examined the impact of MRI-based evidence on juror perceptions of guilt in a criminal case. Jury eligible undergraduates read one of three mock trial summaries of a murder case wherein MRI evidence was manipulated: (1) MRI evidence with accompanying neuroimages, (2) MRI evidence without accompanying brain images, or (3) no MRI evidence. The proportion of guilty verdicts rendered was statistically similar across all conditions. In addition, participants did not list MRI evidence as the most influential piece of evidence for their verdict. Based on the results of this study it appears that MRI-based evidence and neuroimages do not …
Self-Silencing Among Punjabi Women: The Interplay Of Cultural Adaptation, Depression, And Domestic Violence, Madhura Bhadra
Self-Silencing Among Punjabi Women: The Interplay Of Cultural Adaptation, Depression, And Domestic Violence, Madhura Bhadra
WWU Graduate School Collection
Silencing the self theory predicts that women in oppressive relationships tend to experience loss of self through self-silencing, and are therefore more prone to depression. Past studies have found that both abuse and immigration are associated with higher levels of self-silencing and depression. The current study investigated the psychometric properties of the Silencing the Self Scale (STSS) and the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDIII), as well as the validity of the STSS subscales for a specific cultural population. Fifty-five Punjabi women completed the STSS, the BDI-II, and participated in in-depth focus groups for a mixed methods approach to a culturally …
Self-Regulation Among Highly Prejudiced People: A Tool For The Amelioration Of Racial Bias, Kristina L. Silverbears
Self-Regulation Among Highly Prejudiced People: A Tool For The Amelioration Of Racial Bias, Kristina L. Silverbears
WWU Graduate School Collection
The source of motivation to respond without prejudice varies among individuals and is connected to their evaluations of biased materials. People who are highly internally motivated to respond without prejudice tend to be lower in prejudice than are people who are highly externally motivated. High internal motivation is typically associated with less biased responding, but when bias does occur feelings of self-directed negative emotions often result. For low prejudice people these self negative feelings can lead to a system of responses culminating in future self regulation. The same self-negative feelings do not function identically for people who are higher in …
Self Discrepancy And Narrative Repair, Lauren E. Jennings
Self Discrepancy And Narrative Repair, Lauren E. Jennings
WWU Graduate School Collection
Personal narratives have been shown to play an important role in creating a stable sense of self, yet little research has examined this in experimental designs. Thus, this study explored the utility of narrative, in comparison to other mechanisms (e.g., self-affirmation, distraction), for coping with threats to self-concept by examining affective and cognitive repair after experiencing a threat. Participants (N = 331) received false physiological feedback suggesting a prejudiced response to African Americans and obese people and were induced to complete one of five repair techniques. Participants also completed affect and self-concept measures pre-study, post-threat, and post-repair. Overall, threat-specific and …
Measuring Smoking-Related Attentional Bias With A Change Detection Task, Gordon T. Barker
Measuring Smoking-Related Attentional Bias With A Change Detection Task, Gordon T. Barker
WWU Graduate School Collection
Despite well known health risks, cigarette smoking remains very prevalent in the United States. In addition, those who attempt to quite are very likely to relapse. Cognitive predictors have not been well examined to date, despite evidence from the Incentive- Sensitization model of addiction that cognitive processes play a large role in relapse and continued addictive behavior (Robinson & Berridge, 1993). To address if the cognitive adaptations involved in the Incentive-Sensitization model are permanent or semi-permanent, this current study examined the abilities of current smokers (n = 15), former smokers (n = 13), and never smokers (n = 15) to …
Bis-Bas, Dispositional Influences On Cardiac Reactivity To Naturally Occurring Stressors, Nicholas P. (Nicholas Peter) Goodman
Bis-Bas, Dispositional Influences On Cardiac Reactivity To Naturally Occurring Stressors, Nicholas P. (Nicholas Peter) Goodman
WWU Graduate School Collection
Research has relied primarily on laboratory settings to examine how emotions and physiology are affected by acute experiences of stress. This is because it is difficult to manipulate acute stress outside the lab and without a discrete manipulation it is difficult to measure physiological and emotional arousal during acute stress. This study found evidence that everyday stress predicts temporary changes in blood pressure. The purpose of this study was to investigate Gray's (1987) behavioral inhibition (BIS) and behavioral activation (BAS) systems, and to identify divergent cardiovascular and emotional outcomes to natural stressors for each of these systems. The data from …
Differences In Anti-Fat Attitudes Among Healthcare Providers And General Students, Jessica C. Silks
Differences In Anti-Fat Attitudes Among Healthcare Providers And General Students, Jessica C. Silks
WWU Graduate School Collection
Weight bias is prevalent, detrimental, and resistant to change. This study provided a general student sample and a healthcare provider sample with information about behavioral, environmental, or biogenetic causes of obesity to compare resulting anti-fat attitudes. Across conditions, the healthcare providers were less likely to agree that obesity is personally controlled, and demonstrated more positive implicit attitudes than did the general students. Among general students, implicit anti-fat attitudes were impervious to reduction efforts across article conditions. Among healthcare providers, implicit anti-fat attitudes improved with biogenetic explanations and did not worsen with behavioral explanations relative to the control group. No such …
The Relationship Between Parental Conflict And Family Interactions: The Role Of Emotional Security And Parenting Behaviors, Nichole Stettler
The Relationship Between Parental Conflict And Family Interactions: The Role Of Emotional Security And Parenting Behaviors, Nichole Stettler
WWU Graduate School Collection
Interparental conflict (IPC) is an inevitable part of family life which has been linked to child adjustment. Two theories have been proposed to explain this relationship. The emotional security hypothesis represents a direct path by which IPC affects children by threatening their sense of felt security in the interparental relationship. In contrast, the spillover hypothesis suggests that IPC affects children indirectly by influencing parenting practices. The current study extends previous research by examining both of these pathways in families with infants, as well as testing how IPC may contribute to family outcomes. Seventy-four two-parent families of 6- to 14- month-old …
Emotion Processing In High-Functioning Autistic Children: A Priming Task, Ashley E. Ruggles
Emotion Processing In High-Functioning Autistic Children: A Priming Task, Ashley E. Ruggles
WWU Graduate School Collection
Although high-functioning autistic individuals demonstrate normative intelligence, profound deficits in social processing exist. Understanding emotions in faces can be particularly difficult for autistic individuals. In the present research a priming task was used to uncover the speed and strength of association between emotional faces and emotional words. Autistic individuals are often capable of explicitly recognizing emotion in faces but still demonstrate difficulty interpreting emotional situations. In the current study, emotional words were primed by quickly presented matching or mismatching emotional faces. This may be more similar to naturalistic social interactions in which facial expressions change quickly. The aim was to …
Five-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task Performance Following Catecholamine Depletion Of Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex: Implications For Attention Deficit In Schizophrenia, Rabia V. Magnusson
Five-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task Performance Following Catecholamine Depletion Of Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex: Implications For Attention Deficit In Schizophrenia, Rabia V. Magnusson
WWU Graduate School Collection
The symptoms of schizophrenia are highly variable and include a variety of cognitive deficits, including attentional deficit. These cognitive deficits may involve dopamine (DA) underactivity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Weinberger, Egan, Bertolino, Callicott, Mattay, Lipska, et al., 2001). The purpose of this thesis was to test the hypothesis that reduced DA in the PFC alters attention by examining the effects of reduced DA in the medial PFC (mPFC) of rats on a sustained attention task. Rats in the DA-lesioned group were administered 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) in the mPFC. Following 6-OHDA administration, rats in the DA-lesioned and shamlesioned group were trained …
Effects Of Parental Depressive Symptoms And Marital Discord On Parental Functioning And Parent-Infant Relationships, Clare R. White
Effects Of Parental Depressive Symptoms And Marital Discord On Parental Functioning And Parent-Infant Relationships, Clare R. White
WWU Graduate School Collection
Mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms were examined as predictors of parentally reported parenting distress, infant difficulty, and dysfunctional parent-infant interactions within an actor-partner interdependence model approach (Cook & Kenny, 2005). Observed marital conflict styles were examined as mediators of associations. A community sample of 72 couples participated with their 6-14 month old infants. Path analyses using EQS (Bentler, 2005) revealed that mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms were significantly associated with increased parenting distress. Mothers' and fathers' parenting distress was subsequently associated with increases in infant difficulty. Fathers' depressive symptoms predicted greater dysfunctional father-infant interactions, and additionally predicted greater dysfunctional mother-infant …