Human Factors Psychology Commons^™

Lateralized Difference In Tympanic Membrane Temperature: Emotion And Hemispheric Activity, Ruth E. Propper, Tad T. Brunyé

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We review literature examining relationships between tympanic membrane temperature (TMT), affective/motivational orientation, and hemispheric activity. Lateralized differences in TMT might enable real-time monitoring of hemispheric activity in real-world conditions, and could serve as a corroborating marker of mental illnesses associated with specific affective dysregulation. We support the proposal that TMT holds potential for broadly indexing lateralized brain physiology during tasks demanding the processing and representation of emotional and/or motivational states, and for predicting trait-related affective/motivational orientations. The precise nature of the relationship between TMT and brain physiology, however, remains elusive. Indeed the limited extant research has sampled different participant populations …

Use And Non-Use Of It In The Workplace: Studies On Emotions, Identity And Technology, Mari-Klara Stein

2013

Adoption, acceptance and, more recently, continued use of information technology (IT) in workplace contexts have been researched extensively over the last three decades. As acceptance and use of IT underlie its ability to fulfill expected business benefits, it is unsurprising that researchers have sustained a great interest in the topic. While there is a wealth of cumulative knowledge on adoption and the factors affecting adoption, much less is known about specific patterns of use – ranging from extensive and frequent use to complete non-use – and the reasons behind these patterns. Existing research on both use and non-use of IT …

Asymmetry In Resting Alpha Activity: Effects Of Handedness, Ruth E. Propper, Jenna Pierce, Mark W. Geisler, Stephen D. Christman, Nathan Bellorado

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha band power during rest shows increased right, and/or decreased left, hemisphere activity under conditions of state or trait withdrawal-associated effect. Non-right-handers (NRH) are more likely to have mental illnesses and dispositions that involve such withdrawal-related effect. The aim of the study was to examine whether NRH might be characterized by increased right, relative to left, hemisphere activity during rest. Methods: The present research investigated that hypothesis by examining resting EEG alpha power in consistently-right-handed (CRH) and NRH individuals. Results: In support of the hypothesis, NRH demonstrated decreased right hemisphere alpha power, and therefore increased right hemisphere …

Cogtool-Helper: Leveraging Gui Functional Testing Tools To Generate Predictive Human Performance Models, Amanda Swearngin

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Numerous tools and techniques for human performance modeling have been introduced in the field of human-computer interaction. With such tools comes the ability to model legacy applications. Models can be used to compare design ideas to existing applications, or to evaluate products against those of competitors. One such mod- eling tool, CogTool, allows user interface designers and analysts to mock up design ideas, demonstrate tasks, and obtain human performance predictions for those tasks. This is one step towards a simple and complete analysis process, but it still requires a large amount of manual work. Graphical user interface (GUI) testing tools …

What Are We Studying? Student Jurors, Community Jurors, And Construct Validity, Stacie R. Keller, Richard L. Weiner

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Jury researchers have long been concerned about the generalizability of results from experiments that utilize undergraduate students as mock jurors. The current experiment examined the differences between 120 students (55 males and 65 females, mean age = 20 years) and 99 community members (49 males and 50 females, mean age = 42 years) in culpability evaluations for homicide and sexual assault cases. Explicit attitude measures served as indicators of bias for sexual assault, defendant, and homicide adjudication. Results revealed that student and community participants showed different biases on these general explicit attitude measures and these differences manifested in judgments of …

A Pilot Study Of Bibliotherapy To Reduce Alcohol Problems Among Patients In A Hospital Trauma Center, Paul Amrhein, Timothy Apodaca, William R. Miller, Carol R. Schermer

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Because alcohol use plays a major role in many injuries that require hospital care, there is increasing interest in developing interventions to address alcohol problems among emergency department and trauma center patients. The aim of the current study was to extend past research on brief interventions by investigating the use of a self-help manual to treat problem drinkers in a hospital trauma center. Forty injured patients who were either intoxicated at the time of injury or screened positive for harmful drinking were randomly assigned to receive either a brief assessment and a self-help booklet with no more than 5 minutes …

Discriminating Between Afferent And Efferent Contributions To Visual Awareness In Afterimages, Allen Lane Thomas

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Allen Lane Thomas on July 31, 2005.

An Assessment Of An Education Package Intervention Targeting The Appropriate Reporting Of Suspected Child Abuse, Clinton K. Wirtz

Masters Theses

The proper reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect continues to be a concern despite laws requiring professionals working with children to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to Children's Protective Services (CPS). This study assesses the efficacy of an education intervention versus the Michigan Child Protection Law (CPL) using 29 undergraduate child psychology students. Videotaped scenarios of simulated child interviews were used in a pretest/posttest between-groups design. Child physical abuse was the focus of the study. The results of the student participants' decisions regarding the videotaped scenarios were compared to the results of 10 CPS employees having …

Why Girls? The Importance Of Developing Gender-Specific Health Promotion Programs For Adolescent Girls, Amanda Birnbaum, Tracy R. Nichols

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Adolescence is a time when many girls begin to develop unhealthy behaviors that can affect myriad short- and long-term health outcomes across their lifespan.2There is evidence that smoking, physical activity, and diet are habituated during adolescence, and some physiologic processes of adolescence, such as peak bone mass development, have direct effects on future health.3-4 Establishing healthy practices, beliefs and knowledge among adolescent girls will decrease morbidity and mortality among adult women and potentially affect the health of men and children through women’s role as healthcare agents. This paper provides a brief review of lifestyle health behaviors among women and girls …

Love Attitudes: A Developmental Process In First Time Fathers, Dennis Klenowski

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Thirty-four first time expectant fathers age 20 to 38 were individually administered a set of behavior and attitude assessments during the first, second, and third trimesters of their wives pregnancy. This particular study focused on the Love Attitudes Scale. Research indicates that fathers are expected to go through behavior and attitude changes during their wives pregnancy due to several possible reasons like stress, an unhappy marriage, or love development. The main objective of this study was to measure whether or not first time expectant fathers experienced any significant attitude changes during the pregnancy. A second objective was examining if certain …

Gender And Parenting Stress Using Abidin's Parenting Stress Index, K. Penny Nicholls

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The effect of gender on parenting stress was studied on a sample of 56 parents at the time of custody disputes. Each pair of parents completed the Parenting Stress Index or the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form. Results were not significant when gender was matched to the total parent stress scores, indicating parent child stress was not associated with parent gender as was found in previous research.

Sociological Analysis Of Gambling Behavior: A Subculture Perspective, Robert W. Wright Iii

Masters Theses

This study examines the effects of gender, socioeconomic status and age first gambled on rates of problem gambling among adult residents of Michigan and interprets those effects through the application of subculture theory. The data used in this study are from the 1997 Michigan prevalence survey on gambling. The data were collected to estimate the prevalence level of gambling among adult Michigan residents. Data obtained from 2,111 female and 1,776 males indicated that (1) males have a higher rate of pathology than females; (2) respondents who start gambling earlier will be more likely to be classified as pathological gamblers; (3) …

Math Anxiety, Coping Behavior, And Gender, Sandra Joy Grossmann

Dissertations and Theses

Non-math majors enrolled in lower-division math courses at an urban university were surveyed on their math attitudes, coping behaviors, and math anxiety (MATHANX). The Revised Ways of Coping Checklist (RWCC), Revised Math Anxiety Rating Scale, and other questions were presented to 30 men and 32 women. Hierarchical regressions showed that after controlling for attitudinal covariates, emotion-focused coping behaviors (EMOTFOC) were strongly associated with MATHANX (F(5,54)=18.66, 12 < .0001), but problem-focused coping behaviors (PROBFOC) were not. The RWCC subscale most highly correlated with MATHANX was Wishful Thinking (r = .70, p < .0001). Ss were then dichotomized on PROBFOC and EMOTFOC, providing four behavioral groups. An ANCOVA controlling for attitudinal covariates showed behavioral group membership significant with respect to MATHANX (F(3,58)=6.07, p < .001), and an ANOVA revealed that students who reported high EMOTFOC coupled with low PROBFOC experienced the greatest MATHANX (,E(3,58) = 12.66, p < .0001).

Males and females reported virtually identical MATHANX (M=36.30 for males, 36.44 for females), and the only significant gender difference was for avoidance coping, which was used more by males (F(1,60) = 5.43, p < .03]. Results from this study suggest that fewer gender differences may exist in MATHANX and coping than have been found in the past. Additionally, this study identifies the need for future research to determine whether EMOTFOC is the behavioral component, or one of the determinants, of math anxiety.

Hemispheric Effects Of Response Hand And Concurrent Auditory And Visual Information Processing On Task Performance, Paula J. Guerette

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Previous research (cf. Wickens, Mountford & Schreiner, 1981; Wickens & Sandry, 1982) has suggested that performance is facilitated by maintaining "integrity" between the hemisphere of information input, processing, and motor response. This task-hemispheric integrity has been found to exist during concurrent performance of verbal and spatial tasks, both of which are presented in a visual modality. The present study sought to examine whether task-hemispheric integrity exists during concurrent performance of a verbal and a spatial task when the verbal task is presented in an auditory modality and the spatial task(s) are presented in a visual modality. Fifty-six individuals (28M, 28F) …