Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Acquisition Of The Cardinal Principle Coincides With Improvement In Approximate Number System Acuity In Preschoolers, Anna Shusterman, Emily Slusser, Justin Halberda, Darko Odic

Faculty Publications

Human mathematical abilities comprise both learned, symbolic representations of number and unlearned, non-symbolic evolutionarily primitive cognitive systems for representing quantities. However, the mechanisms by which our symbolic (verbal) number system becomes integrated with the non-symbolic (non-verbal) representations of approximate magnitude (supported by the Approximate Number System, or ANS) are not well understood. To explore this connection, forty-six children participated in a 6-month longitudinal study assessing verbal number knowledge and non-verbal numerical acuity. Cross-sectional analyses revealed a strong relationship between verbal number knowledge and ANS acuity. Longitudinal analyses suggested that increases in ANS acuity were most strongly related to the acquisition …

Parents And Teachers’ Perceptions And Clinical Diagnosis Of Autism Among White And Non-White Groups, Margaret Gopaul

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

The pervasiveness of autism has significantly increased over the past 2 decades with the 2014 Center for Disease Control and Prevention report indicating 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Early intervention is recommended as the most effective treatment approach. Nevertheless, previous research has indicated that White children are diagnosed with ASD about 1.5 years earlier than are Non-White children. A current gap remains in literature regarding ASD and different racial groups, and evidence has been inconclusive regarding disparities in identifying and diagnosing ASD. To fill this gap, this study investigated the relationship between child race, …

Intertemporal Similarity: Discounting As A Last Resort, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Standard models of intertemporal choice assume that individuals discount future payoffs by integrating reward amounts and time delays to generate a discounted value. Alternative models propose that, rather than integrate across them, individuals compare within attributes (amounts and delays) to determine if differences in one attribute outweigh differences in another attribute. For instance, Leland (2002) and Rubinstein (2003) propose models that 1) compare the two reward amounts to determine whether they are similar, 2) compare the similarity of the two time delays, and then 3) make a decision based on these similarity judgments. Here, I tested discounting models against attribute-based …

Reflections Of The Social Environment In Chimpanzee Memory: Applying Rational Analysis Beyond Humans, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Julian N. Marewski, Lael J. Schooler, Ian C. Gilby

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

In cognitive science, the rational analysis framework allows modelling of how physical and social environments impose information-processing demands onto cognitive systems. In humans, for example, past social contact among individuals predicts their future contact with linear and power functions. These features of the human environment constrain the optimal way to remember information and probably shape how memory records are retained and retrieved. We offer a primer on how biologists can apply rational analysis to study animal behaviour. Using chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as a case study, we modelled 19 years of observational data on their social contact patterns. Much …

Cognitive Phenotypes And The Evolution Of Animal Decisions, Tamra C. Mendelson, Courtney L. Fitzpatrick, Mark E. Hauber, Charles H. Pence, Rafael L. Rodriguez, Rebecca J. Safran, Caitlin A. Stern, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Despite the clear fitness consequences of animal decisions, the science of animal decision making in evolutionary biology is underdeveloped compared with decision science in human psychology. Specifically, the field lacks a conceptual framework that defines and describes the relevant components of a decision, leading to imprecise language and concepts. The ‘judgment and decision-making’ (JDM) framework in human psychology is a powerful tool for framing and understanding human decisions, and we apply it here to components of animal decisions, which we refer to as ‘cognitive phenotypes’. We distinguish multiple cognitive phenotypes in the context of a JDM framework and highlight empirical …

Voluntary Food Sharing In Pinyon Jays: The Role Of Reciprocity And Dominance, Juan F. Duque, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Food sharing offers a clear example of prosocial behavior, in which one individual’s actions benefit another. Researchers have proposed a range of hypotheses that explain why food sharing may occur among unrelated individuals. Two such hypotheses, reciprocity and dominance, have been tested in many species, including fish, corvids, rats, bats, and primates, showing that (1) recipients sometimes reciprocate sharing back to previous donors and (2) dominant individuals share more than subordinates. Although primates dominate the study of prosocial behavior, active donation of food is actually quite rare in primates. In contrast, several corvid species spontaneously share food much more frequently. …

Statistical Analyses Of The Resilience Function, Joseph W. Houpt, Daniel R. Little

Psychology Faculty Publications

The extent to which distracting information influences decisions can be informative about the nature of the underlying cognitive and perceptual processes. In a recent paper, a response time-based measure for quantifying the degree of interference (or facilitation) from distracting information termed resilience was introduced. Despite using a statistical measure, the analysis was limited to qualitative comparisons between different model predictions. In this paper, we demonstrate how statistical procedures from workload capacity analysis can be applied to the new resilience functions. In particular, we present an approach to null-hypothesis testing of resilience functions and a method based on functional principal components …

A High-P/Low-P Procedure To Improve Recall Memory In Elderly Patients With Mild To Moderate Cognitive Impairment, Dawn Amber Seefeldt, Daniel Houlihan, Jeffrey Buchanan

Psychology Department Publications

The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of implementing two types of high-probability of naming/low-probability of naming procedures to improve object recall memory in elderly individuals with cognitive impairment. The procedures involved the use of directives for recall compliance with a demonstrated high rate of compliance followed by embedded directives with a demonstrated low rate of recall. Two elderly subjects in states of cognitive decline were used in this demonstration. Results indicated positive outcomes with both procedures. Recall-based interventions were more effective than recognition-based procedures.

The Domain Specificity Of Intertemporal Choice In Pinyon Jays, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Bryce Kennedy, Dina Morales, Marianna Burks

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

When choosing between a piece of cake now versus a slimmer waistline in the future, many of us have difficulty with self-control. Food-caching species, however, regularly hide food for later recovery, sometimes waiting months before retrieving their caches. It remains unclear whether these long-term choices generalize outside of the caching domain. We hypothesized that the ability to save for the future is a general tendency that cuts across different situations. To test this hypothesis, we measured and experimentally manipulated caching to evaluate its relationship with operant measures of self-control in pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus). We found no correlation …

Why Babies Do Not Feel Pain, Or: How Structure-Derived Functional Interpretations Can Go Wrong, Helmut Segner

Animal Sentience

The response to pain involves a non-conscious, reflexive action and a conscious perception. According to Key (2016), consciousness — and thus pain perception — depends on a neuronal correlate that has a “unique neural architecture” as realized in the human cortex. On the basis of the “bioengineering principle that structure determines function,” Key (2016) concludes that animal species such as fish, which lack the requisite cortex-like neuroanatomical structure, are unable to feel pain. This commentary argues that the relationship between brain structure and brain function is less straightforward than suggested in Key’s target article.

Music And Memory: A Qualitative Look At How Music Affects Episodic Memory, Jonathan A. Coad

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study was designed to examine qualitative data regarding gender and age differences about significant life events that are recalled when music is remembered. Two groups of participants were recruited, younger adults (M = 19.78, SD = 4.99) and older adults (M = 49.31, SD = 8.72). Data were collected by creating a survey and allowing participants to choose whichever songs, from their own experience, they like and asking them to list detailed memories that are attached to the song. Using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (2015) software, data was coded into categories of word count, positive and negative emotions, …

Perception Of Facial Expressions In Social Anxiety And Gaze Anxiety, Aaron Necaise

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study explored the relationship between gaze anxiety and the perception of facial expressions. The literature suggests that individuals experiencing Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) might have a fear of making direct eye contact, and that these individuals also demonstrate a hypervigilance towards the eye region. It was thought that this increased anxiety concerning eye contact might be related to the tendency of socially anxious individuals to mislabel emotion in the faces of onlookers. A better understanding of the cognitive biases common to SAD could lead to more efficient intervention and assessment methods. In the present study, the Depression Anxiety Stress …

Tempo Perception Across Cultures: The Beat Is All It Takes, Kendall L. Lyons, Jessica E. Nave-Blodgett, Erin E. Hannon

AANAPISI Poster Presentations

• Dancing to music is a human universal that relies on beat perception.
• Listeners may infer the “tempo” or speed of music from:
• the time interval between beats;
• the density of events;
• higher-level features of musical temporal organization (the meter).
• The “Gabbling Foreigner Illusion” is the observation that listeners perceive unfamiliar languages as being faster than familiar ones.
• Even when music is the same speed, listeners tap faster to unfamiliar music.
• Does culture background impact how we perceive musical tempo?

The Effect Of Social Media On Sexual Cognitions And Behaviors, Joshua Duarte

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Pop culture and social media have become a prime source of entertainment and communication. The current study focuses on the potential effects of consuming this form of media and how it affects our sexual cognitions and behaviors. A sample of nine hundred and two university students were given self-reporting questionnaires concerning demographics, sexual cognitions, and exposure to sexual content in music. An analysis of music artist’s posts on social media was also performed. It was hypothesized that artists who have sexual content published in their work will also have the same amount of sexual content on social media. However, there …

Effectiveness Of An Emergency Vehicle Operations Course Component, Visual And Perceptual Skills: Analyzing Student Response To Searching, Identifying, Predicting, Deciding, And Executing Skills, Christopher Bradley Millard

Online Theses and Dissertations

As funding for driver education declines according to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHSA) 2013 Traffic Safety Facts, there were 2,345,719 people injured or killed as a result of vehicle crashes. NHTSA reported that there were a total of 118 people killed in 2013 from accidents involving emergency vehicles. The effectiveness of an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course component of visual and perceptual skills can be measured by administering the Driver Performance Test prior to and after student participation. This study examined the population of the students who participated in the TRS 235: Emergency Vehicle Operations Course at Eastern Kentucky University …

Hebrew And Computer-Mediated Communication: The Effects Of A Language Manipulation On Perception, Identity, And Preservation, Tamar Nir

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study aimed to explore the ways in which Hebrew is currently being manipulated online through a linguistic deviation called Fakatsa. In this study, participants were asked to rate random statements of frivolous or serious topics in either standard grammatical Hebrew or Fakatsa Hebrew conditions on specific judgment values. It was hypothesized that participants would rate the Fakatsa writer negatively on certain characteristics, such as intelligence, education, religiosity, and nationalism and positively on other characteristics, such as femininity and creativity. Twenty-four participants completed this experiment. Results showed that participants responded as expected for certain negative attributes typical of Fakatsa and …

Context-Dependent Seed Dispersal By A Scatter-Hoarding Corvid, Mario B. Pesendorfer, T. Scott Sillett, Scott A. Morrison, Alan C. Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

1. Corvids (crows, jays, magpies and nutcrackers) are important dispersers of large-seeded plants. Studies on captive or supplemented birds suggest that they flexibly adjust their scatter-hoarding behavior to the context of social dynamics and relative seed availability. Because many corvid-dispersed trees show high annual variation in seed production, context-dependent foraging can have strong effects on natural corvid scatter-hoarding behavior.

2. We investigated how seed availability and social dynamics affected scatter-hoarding in the island scrub jays (Aphelocoma insularis). We quantified rates of scatter-hoarding behavior and territorial defense of 26 colormarked birds over a three-year period with variable acorn crops. …

Examining The Factors To Knowledge Sharing Within An Organisational Context, Paul Mc Manus

Conference papers

Abstract

In a global economy, knowledge may be a company’s greatest competitive advantage (Davenport & Prusak 2000). As such, competition for this resource has driven an increased demand for “a conscious strategy [by organisations] of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve organisational performance” (O’Dell et al. 1998). Thus, it is the aim of this paper to provide an investigative look at the factors influencing the willingness of employees to knowledge share (KS) within an organisational context. Separated into two …

Do Placement And Repetition Of Information In Pictorials Affect Comprehension And Memory Of Medication Instructions?, Jessica Le

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how text and picture pairings affected comprehension and memory for medication instructions. Participants viewed instructions on how to prepare a mock oral suspension drug. These instructions either had the picture repeat the information in the text, or complement information in the text. The text instructions were also either integrated into the pictures, or were separated from the pictures. Next, participants were assessed on their comprehension and memory including memory for the order of the steps and their belief in their ability to carry out this task effectively. The results indicated that participants …

Caffeinated And Non-Caffeinated Alcohol Use And Indirect Aggression: The Impact Of Self-Regulation, Brynn E. Sheehan, Ashley N. Linden-Carmichael, Cathy Lau-Barraco

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research shows that heavier alcohol use is associated with physical aggression. Scant research has examined the way in which alcohol relates to other forms of aggression, such as indirect aggression (e.g., malicious humor, social exclusion). Given the possible negative consequences of indirect aggression and the limited evidence suggesting alcohol use can elicit indirectly aggressive responses, research is needed to further investigate the association between drinking behavior and indirect aggression. Additionally, specific alcoholic beverages, such as caffeinated alcoholic beverages (CABs; e.g., Red Bull and vodka), may potentiate aggression above the influence of typical use, and thus warrant examination with regard to …