Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Mathematical Models Of Games Of Chance: Epistemological Taxonomy And Potential In Problem-Gambling Research, Catalin Barboianu

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Games of chance are developed in their physical consumer-ready form on the basis of mathematical models, which stand as the premises of their existence and represent their physical processes. There is a prevalence of statistical and probabilistic models in the interest of all parties involved in the study of gambling – researchers, game producers and operators, and players – while functional models are of interest more to math-inclined players than problem-gambling researchers. In this paper I present a structural analysis of the knowledge attached to mathematical models of games of chance and the act of mathematical modeling, arguing that such …

The Divergent Effects Of Fear And Disgust On Inhibitory Control: An Erp Study., Mengsi Xu, Zhiai Li, Cody Ding, Junhua Zhang, Lingxia Fan, Liuting Diao, Dong Yang

Education Sciences and Professional Programs Faculty Works

Negative emotional stimuli have been shown to attract attention and impair executive control. However, two different types of unpleasant stimuli, fearful and disgusting, are often inappropriately treated as a single category in the literature on inhibitory control. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the divergent effects of fearful and disgusting distracters on inhibitory control (both conscious and unconscious inhibition). Specifically, participants were engaged in a masked Go/No-Go task superimposed on fearful, disgusting, or neutral emotional contexts, while event-related potentials were measured concurrently. The results showed that for both conscious and unconscious conditions, disgusting stimuli elicited a larger P2 than …

Generalized Event Representation In Pre-School Children With Mild- To High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd) And Children With Cognitive And Linguistic Delays (Cld), Tashana S. Samuel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently establish rigid routines and have difficulties flexibly applying what they have learned. Three experiments were conducted to examine generalized event representation in 34 pre-school children. In Experiment 1, children diagnosed with varying kinds of cognitive and language delays (CLD: n = 14) were tested with the generalized imitation paradigm, a reliable measure of representational capacity. Two sets of perceptually dissimilar objects with similar functions were used to perform the same task: one set consisted of modeling props and the other set was the generalization props. At the generalization assessment, children observed actions modeled …

A Spelling Pronunciation Strategy Helps College Students Remember How To Spell Difficult Words, Turkan Ocal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drake and Ehri (1984) showed that children could utilize a spelling pronunciation strategy in order to remember spellings of words. One purpose of the current study was to determine whether college students could also benefit from a spelling pronunciation strategy in remembering spellings of 20 commonly misspelled words. The second aim of the study was to examine the contribution of decoding skill, exposure to print and vocabulary knowledge in explaining variance in general spelling ability of college students. Based on Share's (1995) self-teaching hypothesis, each of these predictors was expected to explain unique variance in the ability to remember the …

Task-Switching In Bilinguals: Further Investigation Of The Bilingual Advantage, Jennifer M. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research has suggested that speaking more than one language may lead to benefits across a variety of different cognitive tasks (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009). This effect has been dubbed the Bilingual Advantage. It has been suggested that this advantage relates to more the development of greater efficiency with processes involved in task-switching. The current study used a task-switching task to investigate three of these processes: reconfiguration, monitoring, and inhibitory control processes.

Monolingual and bilingual participants were presented blocks of trials in which they had to either categorize words as either abstract or concrete, or pictures as human-made …

Examining The Effect Of Education Type On Common Misconceptions Of Traumatic Brain Injury, Monica De Iorio

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

It has been widely shown that misconceptions related to traumatic brain injury (TBI) are held among both family members of people with TBI and the general public. These misconceptions have the potential to increase the distress of people with TBI and negatively impact rehabilitation processes. Although increased education has often been suggested to reduce misconceptions, few studies have examined which methods are most effective in providing information to the public. In the current study, I investigated the effects of existing education materials – either a TBI factsheet or personal stories of people with TBI. These materials are currently easily accessible …

The Bounded Log-Odds Model Of Frequency And Probability Distortion, Hang Zhang, Laurence T. Maloney

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

A Signal Detection Experiment With Limited Number Of Trials, Tadamasa Sawada

MODVIS Workshop

Signal detection theory has been well accepted in vision science to measure human sensitivity to stimuli in a Psychophysical experiment. The theory is formulated so that the measured sensitivity is independent from a response bias (criterion). The formulation is based on an assumption that number of trials in the experiment is infinite but this assumption cannot be satisfied in practice. The assumption came from two normal distributions used in the formulation. The distributions respectively represent a set of signal trial and that of noise trials in the experiment. In this study, I will show how the violation of the assumption …

Come Closer: Cognitive Dissonance Between Strangers, Melissa Bond, Connie Shears

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Whether it’s reacting to unwanted invasion of our personal space (Khan & Kamal, 2010) or creating interpersonal warmth using physical touch (Williams & Bargh, 2008), our interactions with others affect us every day. But how will you feel toward a stranger that you voluntarily let invade your personal space? Cognitive dissonance states that our behaviors will dictate our attitudes instead of the other way around (Festinger, 1957) and is typically studied within an individual. The current study investigates cognitive dissonance between two people. To test the hypothesis that physical touch would change two strangers’ perception of “closeness,” we manipulated three …

Bayesian Modeling Of 3d Shape Inference From Line Drawings, Seha Kim, Jacob Feldman, Manish Singh

MODVIS Workshop

Human depth comparisons in line drawings reflect the underlying uncertainty of perceived 3D shape. We propose a Bayesian model that estimates the 3D shape from line drawings based on the local and non-local contour cues. This model estimates the posterior distribution over depth differences at two points on a line drawing. The likelihood is numerically computed by assuming a generative model, which generates random 3D surfaces and, via projection, random line drawings. The 3D surfaces are inflated from random skeletons and projected into line drawings. Given a novel line drawing, the model samples probable local surfaces based on the relations …

Intuitive Thought And Consumer Decision Making, Morgan M. Moore

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Anytime the human mind makes a decision, intuitive thought has played a hidden role. There is more to consumer decision making than just logical, slow cognition. Exploring the intuitive mind through the works of Johnathan Haidt and Daniel Kahneman helps researchers understand the roles and origins of intuition. Proof of the presence and power of intuitive thought in cognitive processes is offered. A subset of the intuitive mind, termed the righteous mind by Haidt, is shown to be responsible for moral intuition. As the role of intuitive thought in consumer decision making is considered, numerous marketing applications are applied. Whether …

The Effects Of Tylenol On Non-Social Emotional Memory, Renato Puga

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The present study proposes utilizing a slide-show presentation analogous to the one employed in Puga, Spelman, and Bohannon (2014). However, a new series of precritical, critical, and post-critical slides will be utilized, counterbalancing perceptuallycentral/peripheral items across all ofthem as well as counterbalancing the pre-critical and post-critical slides. The ultimate goal of this manipulation is twofold: To provide a strong methodological scenario in which (1) the "preceding information effect" found in Puga, Atkinson, and Bohannon (2012) as well as (2) the acetaminophen-post critical effect found in Puga, Spelman and Bohannon (2014) can both be re-tested and solidified.

Myside Bias In Probabilistic Ethical Decision Making, Richard E. Hohn

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This study examined the extent to which myside bias was observed in the context of ethical decision making. In judgment and decision making research the resistance of myside bias is described as a component of rational thinking. Thus, to some effect, this study aimed to examine the extent to which people act rationally when making ethical decisions. Measures of thinking dispositions (actively open-minded thinking and need for cognition) as well as measures of cognitive reflection and probabilistic knowledge were included in the study to examine their associations with myside bias in ethical decisions. Modest myside bias effects were observed between …

Are There Shared Characteristics Among Children With Autism Who Develop Speech While Training With The Picture Exchange Communication System?, Katherine Neidhart

Honors Theses

It is clear in the literature that there are many factors that may contribute the development of speech as a possible outcome of training with the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Research has indicated a need for more data on the characteristics and skills of children with autism that may contribute to their success while using PECS, and the possible development of speech while receiving PECS training.

This study sought to identify common characteristics and skills of children with autism that acquired speech while receiving PECS training through creating an inventory of demographics, pre-requisite skills, and other characteristics of children …

The Effect Of Forewarning On Suggestibility: Does It Depend On Working Memory Capacity?, William Barrett Corley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Suggestibility occurs when inaccurate information is incorporated into currently existing memories. The present study examined the effect of forewarning on suggestibility, including the influence of working memory capacity (WMC). The main hypotheses are that forewarnings will reduce suggestibility compared to the control group and that high-WMC will yield lower suggestibility compared to medium- and low-WMC. The final hypothesis is that WMC and forewarning will interact such that low-WMC individuals will benefit more than high-WMC individuals from the forewarning. A sample of 123 college students was recruited. Participants watched a clip of the TV-show 24. WMC was then assessed followed by …

An Exploratory High-Density Eeg Investigation Of The Misinformation Effect: Attentional And Recollective Differences Between True And False Perceptual Memories, John E. Kiat, Robert F. Belli

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The misinformation effect, a phenomenon in which eyewitness memories are altered via exposure to post-event misinformation, is one of the most important paradigms used to investigate the reconstructive nature of human memory. The aim of this study was to use the misinformation effect paradigm to investigate differences in attentional and recollective processing between true and false event memories. Nineteen participants completed a variant of the misinformation paradigm in which recognition responses to true and misinformation based event details embedded within a narrative context, were investigated using high-density (256-channel) EEG with a 1-day delay between event exposure and test. Source monitoring …

The Impact Of Childhood Trauma As Moderated By Ptsd, Relationship With Caregiver, And Rumination, Aislyn M. Allen

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

The current study explored the relationship between childhood trauma and deliberate rumination, as well as PTSD symptomology, psychological and physiological functioning. Participants consisted of 55 undergraduate students, ages 18-23; who completed measures about a specific traumatic event, psychological functioning, parental attachment, PTSD symptoms, deliberate rumination, childhood maltreatment, and a demographics questionnaire. Reported childhood trauma was a specifically identified traumatic life event, child maltreatment, or having a parent with a substance abuse or mental disorder. Following completion of measures, participants were asked to answer questions while heart rate, heart rate variability, and electrodermal activity were monitored. Results indicated there was relation …

The Effects Of Deficits In Emotional Self-Regulation On Relationship Satisfaction In Young Adults, Murphy Harrell

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Effective emotional self-regulation is essential for evaluating a situation, giving meaning to the experience and to regulate emotions in order to achieve a desired goal. Emotional selfregulation is an essential feature of executive functioning, which affects a number of functional domains across the lifespan and is specifically important for sustaining healthy interpersonal relationships. Research to date shows that adults with ADHD and emotional dysregulation have poor social relationships, due to a variety of problems such as: not following social norms, missing nonverbal cues, interrupting conversations, not following through with promises, appearing inpatient or rude, and not thinking before speaking. Despite …

Spike Field Coherence (Sfc) For Ripples In Rat Hippocampus, Pranav Singla

Honors Scholar Theses

The aim of this project was to determine coherence between two types of neural recordings which can be obtained from the rat hippocampus: spikes and local field potentials. Extracellular recording makes it possible to determine spiking activity from individual neurons in the vicinity of the recording electrode. Local field potential recording gives a combined activity of many neurons (thousands) at once to determine an overall picture of the coordination of the cells in real time. Here we examine the relationship between these two signals, focusing on place cells which spike at their maximal rate only at certain positions in physical …

Design, Programming, And User-Experience, Kaila G. Manca

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is a culmination of my individualized major in Human-Computer Interaction. As such, it showcases my knowledge of design, computer engineering, user-experience research, and puts into practice my background in psychology, com- munications, and neuroscience.

I provided full-service design and development for a web application to be used by the Digital Media and Design Department and their students.This process involved several iterations of user-experience research, testing, concepting, branding and strategy, ideation, and design. It lead to two products.

The first product is full-scale development and optimization of the web appli- cation.The web application adheres to best practices. It was …