Cognitive Psychology Commons^™

Terpenes Mitigate Thc-Induced Working Memory Deficits: Behavioural Evidence Of The Entourage Effect Using A 2-Component Operant Memory Task, Lara Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Most research on cannabis and cognitive function has focused on delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). However, this approach overlooks the complex chemical composition of cannabis products consumed by the public, which often includes cannabidiol (CBD) and various terpenes. These additional constituents may interact with THC to modulate its effects, a phenomenon known as the entourage effect. While this theory has gained traction, experimental evidence for the cognitive impact of terpenes in combination with THC remains limited. This study aimed to assess whether terpenes can mitigate THC-induced cognitive deficits using a 2-Component Operant Memory task. Male Sprague-Dawley rats received intraperitoneal injections of either …

The Long-Term Psychological Effects Of Violent Crime On Victims: A Review Of Evidence And Supportive Interventions, Jayden E. Oleksyn-Lamb

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study utilizes anonymous survey data collected from 26 mental health professionals in various regions of Canada to understand which psychological disturbances are the most prevalent among victims of violent crime as well as which psychological interventions are most beneficial for treating violent crime victims. The data revealed that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), anger, guilt, self-blame, and shame are each highly prevalent. Findings also revealed that certain therapeutic methods including Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Supportive Counselling (SC), Progressive Relaxation (PR), Cognitive Reprocessing Therapy (CPT) and Cognitive Restructuring (CR) are associated with …

From Street Codes To School Codes: Transformative Educational Intervention For Gang Affiliated Student. An Active Research Study, Alexandra Saldivar

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Gang-affiliated youth face significant challenges in educational and community settings, often resulting in lower graduation rates, limited career opportunities, and an increased risk for behavioral problems. While gang activity on school campuses has increased in recent years, there is limited research and little effort specifically tailored to meet the needs of this vulnerable population. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the WhyTry intervention, a resilience-focused program designed for at-risk populations, modified with additional counseling and a gang-intervention emphasis to address the unique challenges gang-affiliated students face. The study explores whether the modified WhyTry program can improve academic performance, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Exploratory Learning In Two Modalities: Tabular Vs Graphical., Lianda Velic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In traditional educational settings, an instructor delivers a lecture prior to providing students a practice activity. Exploratory learning reverses this order to encourage active learning and engagement, typically improving learning outcomes. However, more research is needed in order to determine how to optimally design exploratory learning materials, and how differences in such design impact learning processes and outcomes. The current study investigated the impact of instructional order and activity modality type (tabular or graphical) on learning outcomes. Undergraduate students (N=252) were taught the statistical concept of consistency and the formula to compute standard deviation. In the instruct-first condition, …

Effect Of Epistemic Cognition And Self-Regulation On The Evaluation Of Online Information, Devin T. Foschi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While research has shown that epistemic cognition plays an important role in self-regulation, the way in which it does so in online contexts needs further research. The objective of this dissertation was to examine the relationship between Internet-specific epistemic cognition and Internet-specific self-regulated learning, and to use a mixed-methods approach in order to expand upon the way learners undergo the evaluation of information in online spaces beyond the traditional method of only using self-report measures and other common quantitative techniques. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, Phase 1 (N = 117) used quantitative methods to first look at the relationship …

Music And Narrative Memory, Maxwell Kayser

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Music can overlap with many activities, but its effects on our memory for those activities are not fully understood. The experiments here investigated the effects of calm and intense background music on both memory and narrative transportation (the feeling that one is absorbed into the events of a narrative) during reading. Participants read narratives either in silence or with background music and completed a measure of narrative transportation (Transportation Scale-Short Form; Appel et al., 2015). Participants were then tested, either in silence or with background music, on memory for explicit details and inferences from the narrative. Across both experiments, memory …

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 …

An Fmri Analysis Of The Subjective Experience Of Recent And Remote Autobiographical Memories, Ava G. Peruski, Brendan E. Depue

The Cardinal Edge

Autobiographical memory plays a crucial role in shaping one’s identity and maintaining one’s sense of continuity from past to present. This study strove to deepen the understanding of the neural correlates underlying individual subjective experience of autobiographical memory. We recruited twenty healthy adult participants, who were asked to generate memory cues for both objects and locations from their present and early life (recent/remote). Participants were subsequently shown these cues and asked to recall the associated memory while in an fMRI scanner. Participants were finally asked to rate the memories on various subjective categories (i.e. arousal, frequency, importance, vividness)(behavioral ratings). Our …