Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Autonomy Support In Australian Higher Education: A Review Of Contextual And Situational Applications Of Self-Determination Theory, Nicolas Connault

Theses : Honours

Self-Determination Theory (SDT, Deci & Ryan, 2000) is a macro-theory of motivation that has received much support from empirical research in the last twenty years. One of its main tenets is that the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs-autonomy, competence and relatedness-is universally required for the attainment of optimal psychological well-being, health, growth and self-determined behaviour. Higher education in Australia, through its outcomes-based approach to academic success, is not typically designed to promote student autonomy. Self-Determination Theory posits that promoting students' autonomy should lead to better quality of learning, higher intrinsic motivation to study, lower attrition and enhanced subjective well-being. …

Facebook Usage Predicted By Sense Of Community And 'Loneliness', Alison Bagworth

Theses : Honours

Facebook Usage Predicted by Sense of Community and 'loneliness' Face book is one of a growing number of social networking sites (SNSs) that are currently being used by young adults to compliment face-to-face interactions. The use of these sites raises questions in relation to how their function may be compared to measurements of more traditional communication. This research measured Sense of Community (SoC) and 'loneliness' in young adults in order to predict usage of Facebook. Participants were 154 Facebook users (82% female, mean age 23.66) who completed an online survey with four components (demographics, Facebook usage, SoC Index, and …

The Experiences Of Incarceration On Indigenous Parents And Primary Care-Givers Of Juvenile Detainees, Simone Reid

Theses : Honours

Incarceration impacts on a number of people, not just the person sentenced. It has been suggested that the family of the prisoner can experience the prison sentence just as much, albeit differently, as the prisoner themself. Families remain important, as those prisoners who return to strong family networks are at less risk of recidivism. National research has been used to inform policy-makers, but every State has unique characteristics. The overrepresentation of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal juveniles in juvenile detention, especially in Western Australia, has been well-documented. However, research examining the experiences of incarceration on family members is limited. This …

Communicative Competence In Persons With Aphasia: The Impact Of Executive Function, Judy Marie Mikola

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between executive function and performance on selected linguistic tasks in persons with aphasia secondary to left frontal lesions.

A group of 15 persons with aphasia (PWA) completed three communication board tasks of varying levels of complexity and structure. The subject's functional use of the picture/word communication board was tested during a Story Retelling task. In addition, the PWA's executive function skills were examined using six nonverbal tests. The PWA group performance scores were compared to that of the neurologically healthy control group.

Results demonstrated that the control group performed significantly …

The Effect Of Initial Entry Training On The Moral And Character Development Of Military Police Soldiers, Kenneth R. Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Army conducts extensive training on its core values beginning with initial entry training (IET), commonly referred to as basic training, in order to shape soldiers' behavior and decision making in combat and noncombat situations. This mixed methods study addressed the problem of limited empirical research on the effects of U.S. Army IET on soldiers' moral and character development. The purpose was to explore the effects of Military Police (MP) IET on soldiers in training through a mixed methods quantitative and qualitative model. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Rest's four component model (FCM) of moral …

A Conceptual Guide To Museum Visitors’ Understanding Of Evolution, E. Margaret Evans, Amy Spiegel, Wendy Gram, Brandy N. Frazier, Sarah Cover, Medha Tare, Judy Diamond

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to profile natural history museum visitors’ reasoning about the evolution of seven organisms featured in Explore Evolution, an NSF funded exhibition. Seven current research studies on evolution were exhibited; each targeted different organisms: HIV, diatoms, ant/fungus, Hawaiian flies, Galapagos finches, humans/chimps, and fossilized whales. The exhibits illustrated a common set of evolutionary principles, variation, inheritance, selection, time, and adaptation, in diverse organisms.

Method: As part of the front-end evaluation, 32 museum visitors were interviewed and asked to explain evolutionary change in the seven organisms, though the term evolution was not mentioned. …

Investigating The Relationship Between Motor Resonance And Nonconscious Mimicry, Jeremy Hogeveen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Motor resonance refers to the mirroring of observed actions in one’s own motor system. It is possible that motor resonance is the neural mechanism underlying nonconscious mimicry (NCM)—the ubiquitous phenomenon wherein people mimic the behaviour of interaction partners (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). Previous research has shown that priming interdependent selfconstrual (interSC) increases mimicry (van Baaren et al., 2003). If motor resonance is the mechanism underlying NCM, then a manipulation known to facilitate mimicry (i.e. interSC) should increase motor resonance. In experiment one, we variably primed independent selfconstrual (indSC)—known to inhibit mimicryv—and interSC in a motor priming paradigm. Participants observed videos …

The Effects Of Associative Interference, Stimulus Type, And Item Familiarity On Associative Recognition Memory, Fahad Naveed Ahmad

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigated whether recognition memory requires two retrieval processes (i.e., familiarity and recognition) as stated by the Dual process theory or requires one retrieval process (i.e., familiarity) as stated by the Single process theory. The first experiment investigated the effects of A-B, A-C, A-D-, A-E interference on both word and picture pair recognition. As expected, it was found that a picture superiority effect was present in the baseline condition, but was reduced in the interference condition. Moreover, in the baseline condition, a non-mirror pattern (i.e., hits higher for picture pairs, but false alarm rates were the same) was present …

Extension Of The Theory Of Planned Behaviour Incorporating An Improved Measure Of Emotion: An Application To Speeding, Chloe Jones

Theses : Honours

Speeding is related to crashes. The motivational factors underlying speeding must be identified to inform road safety. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) suggests that behavioural intention is predicted by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. The present research was an attempted extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), in a speeding context. It was identified that the scales used in the TPB are not appropriately capturing emotion, and that the lack of emotion measures may be responsible for unaccounted for variance in intention. Questionnaires were developed based on Ajzen's (2006) and Bradley and Lang's (1999) methods. It …

The Experience Of Single Mothers: Resilience In Their Multiple Roles, Sharon Cheeseman

Theses : Honours

Single motherhood has been identified as a challenging role, with disadvantages including financial hardship and poor mental health. Resilience is a multidimensional construct, where two conditions need to occur: some form of adversity and positive adaptation. Resilience may empower single mothers to face the challenges whilst leading psychologically healthy and productive lives. Participants in this qualitative research study were ten West Australian single mothers, aged 35 to 45 years. A phenomenological methodology was used to understand their experiences with information collected through in-depth interviews and the Resilience Scale for Adults, used to complement the qualitative findings as descriptive support. Qualitative …

Tackling Ocd: Talk Is Not Cheap!, Christina J. Taylor

Psychology Faculty Publications

Cognitive Therapy offers techniques to help identify ways and patterns of thinking that produce distress, negative behavior, and poor motivation. Cognitive techniques can help improve an individual’s motivation to tackle their OCD, help change their reaction to and interpretation of their obsessions, and help them to cope with the anxiety they experience when they carry out an exposure and response prevention regimen.

When Battered Persons Kill: The Impact Of Gender Stereotypes On Mock Juror Perceptions, Emily Catherine Hodell

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The present experiment investigated the role of gender stereotypes in cases in which a battered person kills his or her abuser. Regression analysis revealed an overall gender bias such that mock jurors were more likely to convict a man defendant who had killed his abusive wife than they were when a woman defendant who had killed her husband. Mediational analyses indicated that the relationship between abuser gender and verdict was partially mediated by sympathy toward the victim, and fully mediated by sympathy toward the defendant. Regression analysis also revealed an effect of abuser height, such that conviction rates were higher …

Stalking Myth Acceptance: An Investigaton Of Attitudinal Constructs Associated With Gender Differences In Judgments Of Intimate Stalking, Emily Elizabeth Dunlap

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Emerging research has shown that women and men perceive criminal stalking differently, yet there is little research addressing why these differences exist. For example, mock juror research on intimate stalking has found that men are more likely than women to render lenient judgments (e.g., not-guilty verdicts). Understanding the underlying attitudes associated with differences in how men and women interpret whether certain behaviors would cause reasonable fear is crucial to an evaluation of current anti-stalking legislation. The primary goals of this research were: (1) to examine the extent to which beliefs that support stalking (i.e., stalking myth acceptance – SMA victim …

Examination Of The Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Evaluative And Semantic Priming Effects By Varying Task Instructions: An Erp Study, Jennifer Hilda Taylor

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the cognitive processes that underlie stimulus identification and the activation of attitudes by investigating behavioral and psychophysiological effects in a priming paradigm. Cognitive mechanisms were investigated by examining evaluative and semantic priming effects on behavioral response times, the N400, and LPP event-related potential (ERP) components by varying tasks between-subjects. Participants either completed an evaluative task, a semantic task, or a feature-detection task. It was hypothesized that the behavioral evaluative priming effect would occur in the evaluative task and that the behavioral semantic priming effect would occur in the semantic and feature-detection tasks. The N400 was hypothesized to …

Developmental Variation In Children's Acquisition Of Metrical Structure: How Early Treatment Of Stressless Syllables Can Inform Phonological Theory, Clifford S. Jones

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present study uses 26 color photos to elicit a total of 14 words conforming to a very specific pattern: a stressless syllable word-initially, followed by a stressed syllable, and at most one more stressless syllable. This was found to be a particularly difficult metrical structure for the two- and three-year old participants to produce in an adult-like manner. Based on the findings that a fairly reliable (if language-particular) order of acquisition is observable for contrasts of both place and manner of articulation, the case is made for a system of six emergent features, which may be characterized as combinable …

Intelligent Tutoring For Interviewing To Detect Deception: Can Investigators Be Trained To Attain And Detect Accurate Cues To Deception?, Justin Albrechtsen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined whether investigators can be trained to elicit and detect cues to deception. The study included two training conditions and a control condition. Participants in the virtual Human Intelligent Tutoring System (vHITS) conditions completed a training program for deception detection and investigative interviewing. The primary components of this training were one-on-one interaction with a virtual human and tutoring tailored to specific participant responses. Participants in the Computer Based Training (CBT) conditions completed a comparable training program for deception detection and investigative interviewing. However, this program provided a more passive training environment with no interaction between student and …

Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Biculturalism, Cultural Ideologies, And Perceptions Of Cultural Change, Stephanie Ann Quezada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ethnic minorities are adopting a bicultural identity to simultaneously identify with their heritage culture and mainstream American culture. While much research has investigated the extent to which ethnic majority and minority groups differentially respond to cultural ideologies, bicultural reactions to cultural ideologies remain uninvestigated. Bicultural individuals' differential endorsement of cultural ideologies has critical implications for implementation of assimilation and multiculturalism in multicultural societies. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to test the extent to which the salience of cultural identity predicts bicultural individuals' endorsement of assimilation and multicultural ideologies. Identity saliency was manipulated for bicultural Latino Americans and …

The Role Of Generation And Monitoring Processes In Governing The Paradoxical Effects Of Retrieval On Memory For Faces, Kyle Joseph Susa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Verbal descriptions of faces can at times impair and at other times facilitate subsequent face identification accuracy. Three experiments were conducted from a retrieval-based theoretical perspective to determine the underlying cognitive processes that can account for these paradoxical findings. Results demonstrated that the verbal description-identification relationship is analogous to other domains of memory where an initial retrieval of memory can have both positive and negative effects on subsequent retrieval attempts. Results of Experiment 1 showed that verbal facilitation is a product of self-generated descriptions that enrich the semantic encoding of the original memory trace. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that …