Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Spirituality In Place: Assessment Of Spirituality, Place Attachment, And Locus Of Control In College, Chloe Armand

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore how spirituality in place shapes college students’ cognition. While spiritual development is recognized as an important aspect of student affairs, its influence on cognitive factors such as locus of control and place attachment remains underexplored. This study investigates the relationship between spirituality, place attachment, and locus of control, as well as students’ perceptions of spiritual design elements on UCF’s campus. To assess these perceptions, a Quality of Place Questionnaire for Spirituality was developed. This instrument aims to measure humanity, sensuality, and sustainability in the built environment. This research uncovers the connections between …

Disconnected Minds: Exploring Nomophobia And Adhd's Impacts On Driving Hazard Perceptions Among College Students, Stephanie Zheng

Honors Undergraduate Theses

An increasing psychological concern in the 21st century is the development of the fear of being unable to access one's mobile phone, also known as nomophobia. However, its impact on individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) remains largely unexplored. Given ADHD’s association with impulsivity, attentional difficulties, and emotional dysregulation, those with the condition may be particularly vulnerable to nomophobia, which can affect every aspect of their daily lives, ranging from interpersonal relationships to their academic success and overall physical and mental well-being. This study aims to answer four questions: how does ADHD impact the severity of nomophobia among college students, do …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Working Memory, Lake Miller

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Extensive research has shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as sexual abuse, poverty, physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, can negatively impact an individual’s development. The presence of ACEs has also been linked to an increase in one’s engagement in risky behavior, dropping out of school, unemployment before the age of 21, and a variety of health issues. Currently, there is a gap in literature regarding the performance of different working memory (WM) tasks and the presence of ACEs. This study focuses on filling this gap in literature by measuring participants’ Philadelphia ACE score, which is a 16-item questionnaire, …

Using Different Measures To Explore Confidence Bias In Video Games, Laura Valdes-Vega

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Researchers have been debating whether video games influence our cognitive and perceptual processing abilities. There are two notable gaps in the video game literature, which are (1) the lack of objective performance measures and (2) not addressing participants’ confidence ratings. This study addressed both by examining (1) the relationship between confidence and performance scores, (2) changes in confidence after gameplay, and (3) the relationship between self-reported play hours and AimLabs performance. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining AimLabs data with pre- and post-game confidence ratings. Participants were grouped (high, medium, low) based on reported weekly play hours and three perceptual …

Mini-Maps, Crucial Or Controversial: Assessing The Influence Of Perceived Spatial Orientation And Cognitive Mapping Performance On Video Game User Experience, Angela Le

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Decades of game studies, also known as video games research, have revealed frequent video gameplay is positively correlated with enhanced cognition. An area of study that is limited, however, is the relationship between spatial cognition, specifically the domains of spatial orientation and cognitive mapping and their effects on video game user experience for games employing visual navigational aids. Video game user experience is influenced by many factors such as graphics and audio, gameplay mechanics, user interface design, etc. The present study aims to explore whether spatial abilities influence and are significantly correlated with user experience for games using heads-up displays …

The Effect Of Need For Cognition & Need For Affect On Human Reliance And Artificial Intelligence Interactions, Aliyah Mcgowan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Abstract

With the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) automations in fields like medical diagnoses and mental health queries, there are concerns regarding an individual’s trust and reliance on the technology. Reliance on AI output may lead an individual to accept inaccurate or incorrect information without further analysis. Trust may influence reliance and trust formation may be a product of affective processing. This study investigated the relationship between Need for Affect (NFA), Need for Cognition (NFC), and trust and reliance on AI interactions. Participants were assessed on the NFA scale for willingness to approach or avoid emotional stimuli, the NFC …

Parent Ptsd, Social Support And Differential Associations With Facets Of Anxiety Sensitivity, Kristen Bermingham, Christopher Latourrette, Karen G. Chartier, Spit For Science Working Group, Ananda B. Amstadter, Kaitlin Bountress

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Anxiety Sensitivity (AS), the belief that anxiety experiences have negative implications, is a prospective predictor of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has been linked to changes in PTSD in experimental studies. AS is comprised of three sub-components: cognitive, physical, and social concerns. PTSD is moderately heritable and parental PTSD may increase risk for these AS facets both directly and through environmental influences like reduced social support.

Objective: The present study will examine whether Parent PTSD is associated with reduced social support and in turn facets of AS.

Method: Participants were recruited from an ongoing longitudinal study of college student …

Stability Of Cognitive Ability And Effect Of Education Across 58 Years: A Project Talent Aging Study, Thalida Em Arpawong, Jimi Huh, Tara Gruenewald, Gwenith G. Fisher, Jennifer J. Manly, Dominika Seblova, Kelly Peters, Margaret Gatz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We assessed the degree to which individuals retain cognitive abilities from adolescence through older adulthood, and whether more education associates with better retention in some more than others, after adjusting for adolescent cognitive ability. We also evaluated whether benefits associated with education differ for those with lower or higher cognitive scores in adolescence, or women or men. Data came from the Project Talent Aging Study, and included measures of abstract reasoning, mathematics, visualization in two dimensions, and recognition memory in 1960 and 2018 (n=2,032; age range 71 to 79). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to fit one-factor (cognitive ability factor, …

How Do Anxiety, Stress, Impulsiveness, And Sleep Quality Affect Memory, Hodavia Tshiya Kaseya

Online Theses and Dissertations

Memory is a critical cognitive function that enables individuals to retain, recall, and apply knowledge across various contexts. Different memory systems, including working memory and long-term memory, collaborate to process and store information. Factors such as stress, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and impulsiveness can impact memory encoding and retrieval, especially in college students, whose academic success depends heavily on memory performance. This study examined the relationship between these everyday factors and memory performance by analyzing brain activity during memory encoding using Electroencephalography (EEG) and the Difference due to memory (DM) event-related potential (ERP) effect, to understand how stress, sleep, anxiety, and …

Embodied Cognition And Teaching Stem: Tenets To Explain And Enhance A Middle School Science Project, Jonathan E. Roberts, Joshua L. Williams, Robert A. Hodgdon, Caroline Payne, Gabriela Ruiz Emmanuelli

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

STEM pedagogy is a popular area for research and discussion. The empirical literature on this topic supports a variety of approaches (e.g., inquiry-based) to help instructors spark student interest create an effective learning environment, and foster long-term retention and transfer of information related to STEM topics. One potential approach is to use tenets of embodied cognition, in which behavior and cognition emerge out of real-time sensorimotor behavior of the individual situated within a particular context, to implement strategies to enhance STEM pedagogy. We applied the six lessons of embodied cognition to understand the beneficial aspects of a middle-school project on …

Leadership Awakening: Shifting Towards Eco-Consciousness Through Psychedelics, Ladana Edwards

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Corporate leaders, wielding influence and decision-making power over world resources and capital, are key drivers of systemic change to address current social, economic, and ecological crises. To address the myriad complex and interdependent crises, a transformative shift in consciousness is required in leaders and leadership teams, from ego-consciousness towards eco-consciousness, which can be supported through psychedelic experiences. Shifting towards eco-consciousness can facilitate holistic decision making and an expanded sense of leadership responsibility to the planet and all its inhabitants—ultimately supporting the creation of healthier eco-nomics in our Earth community.

Shifts towards leadership eco-consciousness have the potential to open up space …

Polarization And The Algorithmic Undertow: Integral And Critical Realist Perspectives, Bruce Alderman

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The recent election in the United States has underscored, in dramatic fashion, the depth and intensity of polarization that has taken hold, not only in America but across the globe. While political division is not new, the character and scope of today’s polarization suggest deeper, complex dynamics that resist simple explanation. At the Institute of Applied Metatheory—and in the Blue Sky Leaders program, a new trans-disciplinary leadership certificate program at CIIS—we explore how these dynamics may become clearer through multiple metatheoretical lenses. This paper brings together insights from Integral Theory (IT) and Critical Realism (CR) to examine the underlying generative …

The Effects Of Negative Feedback On Cognitive And Behavior Performance Related To Self-Efficacy, Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, Karly Kammann, Mattie Harvey, Rayna Cruickshanks

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Feedback is information or guidance in response to a behavior, action, or result. Feedback is a method for improvement and is a tool commonly used by professors, coaches, and bosses. Existing literature suggests that feedback can elicit emotional responses affecting attitudes and behaviors across contexts. Negative feedback specifically is understudied with variable findings; some literature suggests negative feedback is dismissed while other studies suggest that it may enhance performance. Similar inconclusive findings exist when examining ability-based and effort-based feedback. One factor that may play a role in the response to feedback is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy contributes to emotional reactions and thoughts …

Observing Dynamic Emotional Faces From Many Generations, Tashaunda Grimmett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study sought to further understand emotion perception capabilities in younger and older adults. Previous studies examining emotion perception have consistently found emotion recognition deficits with age. The most common technique used to investigate age differences in emotion perception is a label selection task that presents static images of actors expressing emotion. More recently, dynamic stimuli have been developed; they portray realistic facial expressions that are more comparable to what one sees in real life. The use of dynamic stimuli has been found to ameliorate most age differences in the recognition of basic emotion categories. The current study presented dynamic …

Enhancing Memory Through Literary Features, Sarah Naylor

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Literary devices used by a writer can influence and impact the manner in which readers respond and interact with a text. Both the perspectives readers are expected to take while reading and the amount of foregrounding in a text cognitively and affectively influence a reader’s experience. However, little research has explored what effects these factors have on verbatim memory. For this research, participants were instructed to read a short literary story either by identifying with the protagonist or as a spectator. After reading and completing a range of other tasks, participants were asked to select sentences they saw in the …

Enhancing Password Security And Memorability Using Machine Learning And Linguistic Patterns, Jared Wise

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the digital age, text-based passwords remain a primary method for securing online accounts. Yet, users frequently face a dilemma between creating passwords that are easy to remember and sufficiently secure against cyberattacks. This research introduces an approach to password generation that bridges this gap by utilizing linguistic patterns, particularly song lyrics, to develop highly secure and naturally memorable passwords. Using large lyric datasets gained from web scrapes from popular song lyric websites (AZ Lyrics, Genius), features are extracted from a corpus of over 5 million lyrics using sentence structure and natural language processing in a novel way. In using …

Constructing A Discourse Model Across Modalities In Bilinguals, Diana Uribe

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present study aimed to explore whether discourse integration is affected by differences in modalities, and if the magnitude of the effect is modulated by language dominance for bilingual readers. Spanish-English bilinguals read and listened to pairs of passages describing two fake science facts, one of which was repeated across passages and the other revised in the second passage. The pair of passages were either in the dominant or less dominant language. The modality (audio or text) of each member of the passage pair was manipulated across four within-subject conditions. After the second passage of each pair, participants verbally recalled …

Cognitive Differences In Parkinson’S Disease With Amyloid Positivity And Negativity, Kenya Luna

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In Parkinson’s Disease (PD), research has shifted to investigate how biomarkers commonly seen in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), such as amyloid beta (AB), may be associated with cognitive functioning in PD. AB is considered a reliable biomarker for AD pathology, however in PD there is a lacking biomarker that can accurately reflect severity of cognitive impairment. AD research has shown an association between low AB and cognitive decline, but the data in PD has mixed results. Most studies that analyze cognitive decline and biomarkers do not use a cutoff level and the few that do have a threshold vary greatly in …

Perceiving, Processing, And Evaluating Infant Facial Affect In Potential Parents: An Erp Study, Tiffany Bonnagio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Evidence for differences between assigned female at birth (AFAB) and assigned male at birth (AMAB) perceiving, processing, and evaluating infant faces has been mixed. The current study examined whether expected parental self-efficacy (EPSE) and desire for children predicts event-related potentials (ERPs) to infant facial affect in potential parents. No scale for EPSE exists. Therefore, we reworded the Perceived Maternal Parental Self-Efficacy scale from present to future tense. There was no correlation with EPSE scores, ERPs, or behavioral data. No difference was found between AFAB and AMAB in accurately evaluating infant faces; however, AFABs responded more quickly. ERP data revealed significantly …

The Relationship Between Aging Perceptions And Cognition Among Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study Using The Enact And Efit Studies, Ava Mcvey

All Theses

Maintaining cognition is critical to overall health and independence. While lifestyle predictors (e.g., cognitive engagement, social engagement, physical activity) of cognition have been established in current research, the relationship of one’s perceptions of aging and cognition have been less thoroughly investigated. This thesis cross-sectionally explores the relationships between self-perceptions of aging (SPA; including awareness of age-related change and expectations regarding aging) and cognition, including performance-based measures of executive function (Matrix Reasoning, Letter/Number Switching, Digit Symbol, Trails A & B, Visual Paired Associates) and self-reported cognition (Cognitive Self Report Questionnaire). Participants include community dwelling older adults from two studies: the Elucidating …