Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Shadow Garments: Costume Creation For Integrating Alienated Parts Of The Self, Mega M. Galvin

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

This study explores costume creation as a narrative-based intervention for integrating "shadow" parts, or aspects of the self that are repressed or alienated due to shame, trauma, or social pressure. Grounded in Jungian analytic psychology, narrative therapy, and expressive arts theory, the research addresses the limitations of traditional talk therapy in accessing somatic memory and proposes costume making as a pathway for externalization and re-authorship. Using a qualitative, participatory study inspired by Pat B. Allen’s Open Studio Process, four adult participants engaged in a three-session workshop to design, construct, and wear costumes representing their identified shadow aspects. Data was collected …

Differences In Sustained Attentional Engagement With Emotional Targets In Individuals Reporting High And Low Worry, Jinu J. Mathew

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Attention bias towards emotionally salient or threatening information has been well documented across various populations, and it has been thought to contribute to the development and maintenance of anxiety. While previous research has identified early-stage attentional differences in individuals reporting elevated anxiety symptoms, less is known about how worry might impact later-stage processes involving sustained attentional engagement and visual working memory. The present study examined behavioral and electrophysiological indices of attentional processing during a modified visual search task in individuals reporting high compared to low levels of worry. Sixty-eight participants were recruited and classified into high and low worry groups …

Obsessive-Compulsive Subtraits And Self-Agency, Jacob Nelson, Cody Barton, Carissa Phillipi Phd

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is categorized by persistent, unwanted thoughts, called obsessions. and repetitive behaviors, called compulsions. The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) is a valid measure of OCD, and breaks the condition into six subtraits: Checking, Hoarding, Obsessing, Ordering, Neutralizing, & Washing. Prior research has suggested that one’s sense of agency, measured through the Sense of Agency Scale (SoAS), is lower in those with higher overall OCI-R scores compared to those with lower scores and controls. Additionally, sub-clinical checking has been negatively correlated with sense of agency, and sub-clinical hoarding and ordering have been positively correlated with sense of agency. However, there …

Hybrid Deep (Cnn-Bilstm) Intrusion Detection For Defense And Mission-Critical Networks, Corey A Cheng, Jermaine Anim-Addo, Asma Jakir Hussain, Zion O Smith-Fox, Sanjay Goel, Yuksel Celik

Military Cyber Affairs

This article examines how hybrid deep learning can strengthen intrusion detection for military and defense networks. Using the CSE-CIC-IDS2018 dataset, the study evaluates a CNN-BiLSTM model designed to detect benign traffic and multiple attack categories, including DDoS, DoS, botnet, brute-force, web attack, and infiltration activity. The model achieved strong multi-class detection performance, with 0.9893 accuracy and 0.9979 ROC-AUC. The findings suggest that AI-supported intrusion detection can improve cyber defense operations, analyst triage, and protection of mission-critical networks.

Foreward, Todd Arnold

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Director: Mastery In Practice, Joseph Schafer

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

Refereed Research - Indispensable Yet Not Fully Legitimate: Street Markets As Invisible Subsistence Infrastructure, Raji Srinivasan, Maria C. Merino

Subsistence Marketplaces

Street markets are key provisioning systems across the Global South, supplying fresh food, employment, and retail access absent formal infrastructure. Yet despite street markets’ functional indispensability to millions of low-income consumers, their legitimacy is chronically contested, affirmed by vendors and communities yet challenged by planners, developers, and state authorities who apply formal-economy criteria in evaluating them. We theorize this as a legitimacy paradox and ask what structural mechanisms sustain it? Using composite vignettes grounded in fieldwork, we theorize three mechanisms. First, visibility without recognition: street markets are hyper-visible yet excluded from cognitive templates of legitimate, formal retail. Second, asymmetric essentiality: …

The Hypnagogic State And Hypnagogic Constraint Modulation In Ocd, Ari Rad

Academic Leadership Journal in Student Research

The past few decades of scholarly inquiries on the topic of the hypnagogic state and N1 sleep onset have introduced a new understanding of human general mentation. The underlying phenomenological, psychological, and neurological aspects of the hypnagogic state have been explored in depth by researchers. Hypnagogia and N1 sleep onset have been associated with creativity, spontaneous access to insights, symbolic representation of cognitive processes, and visual and auditory perceptions. The default mode network (DMN) has been largely associated with creativity and spontaneous thinking during N1 sleep onset. This paper reviews the basics of the neurology and phenomenology of N1 and …

Retrieval Information From Working Memory: The Output Gating Framework Perspective And Its Underlying Processes, Chen Tiferet-Dweck

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Working memory (WM) keeps information accessible and available for further processing. However, not all the information we maintain in WM is behaviorally relevant at any given moment. To act effectively, we must dynamically control which memory representations are accessed to support ongoing goal-directed behavior. While the mechanisms underlying the selection of single items from WM access are comparatively well-studied, less is known about the principles governing multi-item access. Existing models of WM access imply that selecting multiple items should take longer and be more error-prone than single-item access. Yet, paradoxically, prior studies have shown that retrieving all items in WM …

Motivation, Empowerment, And Entrepreneurial Intentions: A Pls-Sem Analysis Of Female Students In Algeria, Lotfi Mekhzoumi, Salima Ben Omar, Abderrazak Laouid, Sabrina Chikh-Amnache

Journal of Global Business Insights

This paper investigates the multidimensional nature of women’s empowerment and its impact on entrepreneurial intentions among female students at the University of El Oued, Algeria. It aims to clarify how motivational factors and perceived barriers interact with psychological, social, political, and economic empowerment to shape entrepreneurial aspirations in a developing economy context. A stratified sample of 353 female university students was used for quantitative research. A validated online questionnaire assessed entrepreneurial intention, motivation, empowerment, and barriers. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test direct, indirect, and mediating effects between constructs, along with rigorous reliability and validity …

Psychological Adaptation In Colorectal Cancer Survivors: Pilot Study Findings, Anuja L. Sarode, Emily M. Su, Amber Kerstetter-Fogle, Steve Paciorek, Erica L. Laipply

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

In this pilot study, we examined psychological impacts of colorectal cancer (CRC), focusing on cancer-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CR-PTSD) symptoms, posttraumatic growth (PTG), and their relationship with coping strategies in surgically treated CRC patients.

Methods

This prospective pre- and postoperative pilot study assessed CRC patients at 2 time points, pre- and postoperative. Psychological symptoms were evaluated using the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (PCL-5) and the PTG Inventory Short Form (PTGI-SF). Coping strategies were assessed using the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) instrument. Changes in CR-PTSD, PTG, and coping …

Breaking The Cycle: From Victimization To Offending Through The Lens Of Human Services, Colette R. Penalosa

Master of Arts in Human Services

The victim-offender overlap challenges the common view that victims and offenders are separately labeled by recognizing that both groups have experienced significant childhood trauma, physical, emotional, and psychological abuse, neglect, and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Current research implies these experiences can increase the risk of offending as they all influence cognitive and behavioral development while leaving criminal behavior undetermined. The purpose of this capstone is to analyze the relationship between childhood victimization and offending from a human service perspective; analyzing the pathways a victim takes on the road to offending. Research conducted will focus on exploring the victim-offender overlap, …

How Do Dual Tasks Affect Id Verification? A Mobile Eye-Tracking Analysis, Nathan Wieters

Masters Theses (Archived)

ID screening is a two-part process — the card and identity must be authenticated. Psychological research has typically focused on identity verification without considering card verification. To fill this gap, the present study had participants complete an ID verification task while wearing eye-tracking glasses to record gaze behavior during face-matching decisions. After 2 practice trials, a research assistant presented 48 physical ID cards with embedded facial images, one at a time, beside a computer monitor that presented a facial videos and calendar date. Participants were asked to decide if the ID card was valid on a 6-option scale from Definitely …

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Mental Health: Perceptions Of Ai Therapists, Ulker Yusupova

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This study explores how people perceive Artificial Intelligence (AI) therapists compared to human therapists, focusing on differences in empathy, effectiveness, and competence. As AI tools like ChatGPT and mental health chatbots become more commonly used for emotional support, it is important to understand how users evaluate them in comparison to human professionals. To begin addressing this, in the first part of the study, participants reviewed therapist-client conversation transcripts and identified whether they believed the therapist was human or AI-generated, helping us validate the materials for the main study. Notably, initial findings suggest that participants frequently relied more on surface-level language …

Understanding And Responding To Childhood Trauma In The Classroom, Kara L. Ganzer

Master of Arts in Human Services

This capstone explored childhood trauma as a significant public health and educational issue because of its widespread impact on children’s development, learning, behavior, and educational experiences. A review of the current literature was conducted to examine adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), the neurobiological and developmental effects of childhood trauma, its impact within educational settings, and the trauma-informed approaches for supporting students who have experienced adversity. The literature suggested that childhood trauma can disrupt brain development, executive functioning, emotional regulation, attention, memory, and stress-response systems, contributing to academic, behavioral, and social-emotional challenges within the classroom. Findings also highlighted the important role schools …

Repairing Workplace Trust: A Process-Based Classroom Exercise For Management Education, Luke A. Langlinais Ph.D.

Posters

Trust is essential in every workplace, but conflicts, mistakes, and broken promises are inevitable. This project develops an experiential classroom exercise in which students diagnose workplace trust violations, examine the perspectives and emotions of both parties, and practice selecting and communicating evidence-based reparative actions. The exercise translates organizational behavior research into a practical learning experience that develops not only managerial competence but also the character, empathy, and relational wisdom needed to build healthy organizations and promote human flourishing.

I gratefully acknowledge peer review feedback on this project, and I am accountable for writing of this product without generative AI and …

The Consequences Of Using Human Behavior To Train Ai, Lauren Treiman

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now an integral part of everyday decision making. These systems not only help us make choices but also learn from our behavior. Therefore, it is important to understand how our interactions with AI influence these systems. Current approaches often assume that the behavior used to train AI accurately reflects how people would naturally behave. However, people are often informed that their choices will be used for AI training, and as a result, may change how they would normally act. In this dissertation, we combine psychological and computer science perspectives to investigate the consequences of this awareness. …

How Philip K. Dick Used The Unreliable Narrator To Transport Unwitting Acolytes, Michael Barros, Jordi Smith

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This essay examines the use of the unreliable narrator to transport the reader into narrative worlds, specifically in Philip K. Dick's fiction. By exploring the phenomenon of narrative transportation and the role of emotions in engagement with fiction, we argue that Dick's use of the unreliable narrator significantly engages and transports readers into his narrative worlds. Subsequently, we contend that his belief in the fundamental reality of those worlds is effectively positioning himself as a gatekeeper and mediator between the narrative world and the real world, which sets him, in his mind, as a prophet, using fiction as a tool …

A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Finding a published poem I had written as a teenager, titled “The Heavens Weep.” this article uses that poem as the basis for a commentary that reflects on the state of the world today (2026),  As a commentary, the article uses the poetic and metaphoric words in the poem as a relevant "reality check" for what is still going on today.  In essence, the commentary is about a call for Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, and Compassion, or what I call Archetypal Energies, Higher Vibrational Energies that operate deep within our individual and collective psyches to creatively urge us to "see" …

Explaining The Relationship Between Trust And Dependence: The Unexplored Interactive Effect Of Workload And Individual Differences In Cognitive Abilities, Connie Ku

All Dissertations

Trust is often treated as a key driver of automation use, with the assumption that higher trust leads to greater dependence. Yet findings have been inconsistent, with trust-dependence correlations ranging from negative to positive, and some studies finding no relationship at all. One factor that may explain this inconsistency is mental workload, which has received little attention as a moderator. This research examined whether workload moderates the trust-dependence relationship, and whether attention control, working memory, and fluid intelligence further shape this moderation.

Study 1 used a web-based AI chatbot quiz to test whether workload moderated the trust-dependence relationship. Trust was …