Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Attribute-Based Choice, Francine W. Goh, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Alternative-based approaches to decision making generate overall values for each option in a choice set by processing information within options before comparing options to arrive at a decision. By contrast, attribute-based approaches compare attributes (such as monetary cost and time delay to receipt of a reward) across options and use these attribute comparisons to make a decision. Because they compare attributes, they may not use all available information to make a choice, which categorizes many of them as heuristics. Choice data have suggested that attribute-based models can better predict choice compared to alternative-based models in some situations (e.g., when there …

Are Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus Spp.) Sensitive To Lost Opportunities? The Role Of Opportunity Costs In Intertemporal Choice, Elsa Addessi, Valeria Tierno, Valentina Focaroli, Federica Rossi, Serena Gastaldi, Francesca De Petrillo, Fabio Paglieri, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Principles of economics predict that the costs associated with obtaining rewards can influence choice. When individuals face choices between a smaller, immediate option and a larger, later option, they often experience opportunity costs associated with waiting for delayed rewards because they must forego the opportunity to make other choices. We evaluated how reducing opportunity costs affects delay tolerance in capuchin monkeys. After choosing the larger option, in the High cost condition, subjects had to wait for the delay to expire, whereas in the Low cost different and Low cost same conditions, they could perform a new choice during the delay. …

The Role Of Talker In Adjusting For Different Speaking Rates In Speech Perception, Chloe M Sharpe, Christian Stilp

Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase

Speech perception is heavily influenced by acoustic context effects, where perception of a sound is influenced by acoustic properties of surrounding sounds. Talker variability, or the acoustic variability among different talkers, can disrupt these context effects. Studies have shown that talker variability does impact Spectral Contrast Effects (SCEs; an acoustic context effect induced by variations in frequency), but it is unknown if Temporal Contrast Effects (TCEs; an acoustic context effect induced by speech rate) are similarly affected. To test this, on each trial, listeners heard a context sentence (spoken at a fast or slow rate) followed by the target word …

Using Eye Tracking To Explore Visual Attention In Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Anne M.P. Michalek, Jonna Bobzien, Victor A. Lugo, Chung Hao Chen, Ann Bruhn, Michail Giannakos

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Video social stories are used to facilitate understanding of social situations for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study explored the use of eye tracking technology to understand how adolescents with and without ASD visually attend to video social story content and whether visual attention is related to content comprehension. Six adolescents, with and without ASD, viewed a video social story of visiting a dental office. Eye gaze metrics, including fixation duration and count, and visit duration were collected to measure visual attention, and a knowledge assessment was administered for comprehension. Results indicated adolescents with ASD fixated and maintained …

Mindfulness: How It Affects Pregnancy, Labor And Delivery, Olivia R. Snipes

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

Pregnancy is a very physical and mental process during which many women face a wide variety of complications. The influx of hormones that happens during pregnancy has the ability to make pregnant women more susceptible to depression, anxiety and other stress related illnesses. High levels of stress can negatively affect the mother and unborn child and potentially the mother-child relationship. Many women prefer not to take the pharmaceutical route when coping with stress, anxiety and depression while pregnant. As a result, mindfulness practices have been utilized as an alternative method to reduce the negative effects of these complications and lower …

The Archaeology Of Height – Cultural Meaning In The Relativity Of Irish Megalithic Tomb Siting, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

Exploring sacred mountains around the world, the book examines whether bonding and reverence to a mountain is intrinsic to the mountain, constructed by people, or a mutual encounter. This chapter explores mountains in Ireland and embraces the union of sky, landscape and people to examine the religious dynamics between human and non-human entities.

This chapter take as its starting point the fact that mountains physically mediate between land and sky and act as metaphors for bridges from one realm to another, recognising that mountains are relational and that landscapes form personal and group cosmologies. The chapter fuses ideas of space, …

Wait For It: An Eeg Exploration Of Excitement In Dance Music, Amelia Turrell, Andrea R. Halpern, Amir-Homayoun Javadi

Faculty Journal Articles

Previous brain-related studies on music evoked emotions have relied on listening to long music segments, which may reduce the precision of correlating emotional cues to specific brain areas. Break routines in electronic dance music (EDM) are emotive but short music moments containing three passages: breakdown, build-up, and drop. Within build-ups music features increase to peak moments prior to highly expected drop passages and peak pleasurable emotions when these expectations are fulfilled. The neural correlates of peak-pleasurable emotions (such as excitement) in the short seconds of build-up and drop passages in EDM break routines are therefore good candidates to study brain …

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 …

A Foray Into The Interval Timing Capabilities Of Tufted Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus [Sapajus] Apella), Gryff Griffin

Honors Theses

Time is a critical part of life and timing on the range from milliseconds to minutes has proven to be critical for several behaviors such as foraging and movement. While the exact neurological structures of interval timing are currently undefined, several studies have been completed comparing the interval timing capabilities of humans and nonhuman primates. However, these studies have unanimously utilized members of Macaca, which limits the abilities for researchers to make apt comparisons between humans and all nonhuman primates. This study sought to investigate whether tufted capuchins (Cebus [Sapajus] apella) have the capability to measure time …

Uncovering Object Categories In Infant Views, Naiti S. Bhatt

Scripps Senior Theses

While adults recognize objects in a near-instant, infants must learn how to categorize the objects in their visual environments. Recent work has shown that egocentric head-mounted camera videos contain rich data that illuminate the infant experience (Clerkin et al., 2017; Franchak et al., 2011; Yoshida & Smith, 2008). While past work has focused on the social information in view, in this work, we aim to characterize the objects in infants’ at-home visual environments by modifying modern computer vision models for the infant view. To do so, we collected manual annotations of objects that infants seemed to be interacting within a …

Critically Evaluating Website Credibility: Factors That Influence Perceptions Of Online Mental Health Information, Mikayla Kimery

All Master's Theses

Research on the use of online information has suggested that general users of the internet do not critically evaluate the information they consume. In addition, specific elements of online information, such as the presence of advertisements, has been shown to affect perceptions of that information, resulting in less favorable ratings of websites. In contrast, communication studies have shown that perceptions of the presented information increased favorably when an image of a brain was included even when the actual information was considered insufficient in quality by experts. To date, the combined effects of brain images and advertisements on evaluations of online …

Exposure Therapy: Stimulus Intensity As A Factor In Treatment Preference, Matthew C. Arias

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Currently, a host of treatments are available for treating anxiety disorders, including specific phobia. Treatment of specific phobia includes pharmacological, psychosocial, and combined approaches. Exposure therapy, however, is considered the leading psychological treatment for specific phobia, and has shown to be effective. Exposure therapy challenges held beliefs about feared stimuli/situations and attempts to integrate new learning about the feared object/situation. Despite exposure being effective to treat specific phobia, it is associated with low adherence and high dropout rates. There is a need to examine, therefore, ways to improve patient adherence for exposure. A way to examine this issue is to …

After The Protests: A Campus Racial Climate Case Study Of The Perception And Curricular Responses For Institutional Reforms, Following The Black Students’ Demands For Interventions At The University Of Missouri-Columbia, Bruce E. Mitchell Ii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This qualitative method single case study explores the phenomenon of a racially tense campus climate at the University of Missouri Columbia, a Predominantly White Midwestern Institution. At the forefront of the media regarding student and athlete protests, leading to the resignation of senior level administrators, African American students put forth eight demands to their administrators. Included, was the creation and implementation of a required racial awareness and inclusion curriculum. The study explores the perceptions of the institutional response to an exceptional campus racial climate issue and the process of formulating and participating in a diversity training course and a semester …

Third Culture Kids - Playing To Heal, Amna Sana

Theses and Dissertations

With increased globalization and a large expat population, Qatar is home to increasing numbers of Third Culture Kids (TCKs). TCKs are children who live in a country where their parents are non-native, children who grow up between cultures. Young TCKs, especially children between the ages of three and seven, do not possess the skills to adequately vocalize their feelings, but fortunately, play therapy allows them to articulate problems and feelings on their own terms. This thesis addresses the emotional hurdles facing TCKs, using concepts derived from play therapy and offering a series of interactive objects designed to reflect emotional expression …

Now You See Me — Now You Don’T: An Investigation Of Hair Alterations Effects On Face Identification In Own- And Other-Race Faces, Maresa A. Tate

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Autistic Personality Traits And Processing Of Ironic Language, Jaclyn Opie

Honors Theses

Whereas typically developing adults tend to show processing differences for ironic versus literal language, recent research has demonstrated that adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder do not show a difference. Building on these findings, the present study examined whether similar effects would emerge in a sample of college students who were assessed on autistic personality traits. Through an eye tracking during reading experiment, participants read sentence contexts in which factors of emotional language, ironic versus literal language, and sentence perspective were manipulated. Results showed that participants who had a low degree of autistic traits somewhat replicated the two-stage processing model of …

Memory Strategy Instruction With Goal-Setting And Positive Feedback: Impact On Memory, Strategy Use, And Task Commitment, Mercedes E. Ball

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Strategy instruction can improve memory performance, but some training programs are more effective than others. Some scholars propose that a key element to boosting the benefits from training programs is enhancing or emphasizing self-regulatory factors, such as knowledge about memory, beliefs about ability, or motivational factors. Research supporting this claim evidence adds that programs that enhance trainees’ confidence in their abilities improve memory performance and that multifactorial programs are more effective than strategy-training-only programs. Setting performance goals and receiving feedback are two self-regulatory factors known to relate to memory performance that may sometimes be included in some training programs. However, …

The Internet-Extended Mind: The Psychological Ramifications And Philosophical Implications Of Cognitive Offloading, Gloria Choi

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I explore the internet-extended mind through both philosophical and psychological lenses in order to investigate the questions “To what extent is the mind extended onto the internet and, more generally, outside our bodies?” and “How will an increasingly internet-extended brain change the ways in which humans communicate, remember, and behave?”. First, I introduce the idea of a mind that extends out into the world, instead of lying solely in the brain. Then, I outline existing research that introduces the challenges and implications of an internet-extended mind in an ever-changing internet landscape. Next, I discuss how the internet …

Influence Of Increased Options On Performance Generalization Across Two Variations Of The Monty Hall Dilemma, Robert A. Southern

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Monty Hall dilemma (MHD) is a probability puzzle at which humans consistently fail to adopt the optimal winning strategy. The participant chooses between three identical doors, behind one of which is a valuable prize. After the participant makes their initial decision, the host reveals that there is nothing behind one of the two remaining doors, then asks the participant if they would like to stay with their originally selected door or switch to the remaining unopened door. The optimal choice is to switch to the previously unchosen door, which increases the probability of winning from 33% to 67%. Despite …

Excluder: An R Package That Checks For Exclusion Criteria In Online Data, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Collecting survey data online can result in low-quality data. Survey participants may not complete the survey, may complete the survey too quickly or slowly, may not reside in the country they claim, or may use unacceptable screen types. Also, online surveys are plagued by automated bots attempting to complete the surveys while offering worthless data. Researchers collecting online data may want to check their data for these and other potential criteria to exclude problematic data entries. The excluder package uses three main function types to mark, check, and exclude data based on seven different exclusion criteria.