Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

Affect Regulation In The Context Of Sexual And Gender Minority Stress: A Scoping Review Protocol, Daphne Y. Liu, Benjamin A. Swerdlow, Shao Yuan Chong, Nadia Kako, Alex Rubin, Nicholas S. Perry

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Objective

To provide a broad, comprehensive picture of affect regulation in the context of sexual and gender minority stress, this scoping review aims to identify and synthesize methods, methodologies, and available evidence pertinent to emotion regulation and coping in the context of minority stress among sexual and gender minority (SGM) people.

Introduction

SGM people face disproportionately high rates of mental health problems due to experiences of minority stress and lack of social safety. Theories and growing evidence suggest that affect regulation plays a critical role in SGM people’s well-being in the face of minority stress. Researchers have largely studied emotion …

Emotional And Social Perception In Hearing And Deaf Individuals, Julie Klenotic

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study will compare the differences in emotional recognition and social dynamic understanding between hearing and Deaf people. I will investigate the differences in these areas between hearing and Deaf individuals, as well as the role American Sign Language use has in performance. It will utilize point light walkers which will display the emotions happy, angry, sad, and neutral. Participants will be asked which emotion is being displayed based on the presented gait of the point light walker. Second, they will view 15 videos from the Interpersonal Perception Task without audio. The questions from the IPT 15 will then be …

Risky Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, Suyoung Yoo, Jae Hyung Woo

Wetterhahn Science Symposium Posters

This research project aims to discover how a person’s brain continuously learns about its changing environment and how those memories dynamically alter their subsequent willingness to take risks. By testing 73 participants on a two-stage computer module, the study evaluates whether humans evaluate risk absolutely or relatively to their historical surroundings. In Stage 1, participants use reinforcement learning to track a hidden, shifting "lucky room" context. In contrast, in Stage 2, they face explicit two-option gamble cards in which they must weigh different point amounts and win percentages. Computational maximum likelihood estimation proved that a Subjective Utility (SU) model, which …

The Sleep, Inhibition, And Performance (Sip) Study: An Erp Investigation Of Sleep, Stress, And Response Inhibition In Early Childhood, Alivia Overbee

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Background: Inhibitory control (IC) is fundamental to academic achievement and mental health, yet limited research examines how modifiable environmental factors influence neural substrates of IC in early childhood. Sleep regulation and adversity may shape IC development through experiential canalization processes. Objective: The Sleep, Inhibition, and Performance (SIP) study investigates how sleep characteristics, socioeconomic status (SES), and stress predict neural markers of inhibitory control in children aged 5-8 using event-related potentials (ERPs). Methods: Twenty children were enrolled in this study, which assessed sleep assessment via actigraphy, sleep diaries, and questionnaires. SES and stress were measured through caregiver reports. IC was assessed …

From Physical Correlation To Emotional Connection: The Role Of Passive Haptics On Empathy In Virtual Reality, Jemely Robles

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Virtual reality is increasingly explored as a tool for cultivating empathy, and haptic feedback as a tool for enhancing immersion. This paper investigates the effects of combining the two.  Fifty-two participants experienced a custom-built VR scene in which a character was shown packing up a room. Participants were assigned to either a haptic condition, receiving passive haptic feedback corresponding to the character's actions, or a non-haptic control condition that did not receive any haptic input. Trait empathy was measured beforehand, and state empathy and engagement were measured after the experience. Thematic analysis was conducted on post-study interviews, and headset recordings …

The Efflorescence Of Apocalypticism (Imminent & Prepping Beliefs): Considering Informational And Motivational Regulatory Mechanisms, James T. Good Mr.

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In the last quarter of the 21st century, apocalyptic beliefs emerged in scholarly and lay representations notably doubling over the last decade. With nearly forty percent of United States citizen reporting this belief, unfulfilled questions arose: What drives discrepancies in beliefs of an imminent end of the world? Additionally, what drives beliefs in the need to prepare for an end of the world? These individual questions were examined together in this study using Construal Level Theory (CLT) and Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT) in an attempt to identify how psychological mechanisms are significantly affecting the fluctuations, in these self-reported beliefs. A …

Investigating Sex Differences In The Regulation Of Conditioned Morphine Reward By Orexin, Farzana Akter Koly

Psychology Theses

Strong activation of the brain’s reward circuitry by morphine and morphine-associated cues drives the progression toward morphine abuse. Additionally, orexin neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) are activated in response to cues paired with morphine reward. The orexin system, particularly the orexin-1 receptor (OX1R) regulates reward-seeking behavior through its activation. Despite the well-established role of orexins in reward-related behaviors, the specific contribution of OX1R in morphine-associated reward remains unclear. Furthermore, while sex differences in drug reward and reward-related behaviors are well documented, they remain unexplored in the regulation of morphine-associated reward by orexins. To address this gap, the present study …

The Great Divide: The Relationship Between Perceived Immorality And The Work Of Artists, Caelyn R. Anderson

Psychology | Senior Theses

The psychological response one has when viewing art depends heavily on contextual understanding. More specifically, when a viewer learns negative biographical information about perceived immorality of an artist, it can negatively affect their relationship with that artist's work (Kaube et al., 2023). The sample was made up of 134 participants randomly assigned to one of two groups exposed to either positive or negative information about the artist Paul Gauguin. After viewing information, participants were shown three different paintings, before being asked to respond to an intentionality scale, and two art reception scales. An independent samples t-test showed that there is …

Industrial And Organizational Psychology Researchers’ Positive And Negative Experiences With The Peer-Review Process, Alexa Weaver

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Peer review plays a critical role in advancing the field of psychology; however, limited empirical research has examined psychologists’ experiences with the peer review process. The present study investigated both positive and negative peer review experiences among industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologists and assessed the prevalence of specific reviewer behaviors. A two-phase survey design was administered via Qualtrics. Study 1 employed open-ended questions to identify recurring themes in researchers’ experiences with peer review. Thematic analysis revealed distinct positive and negative patterns of reviewer behavior, which informed the development of Study 2.

Study 2 quantitatively assessed the prevalence of behaviors associated …

Do The Adaptogenic Mushrooms, Cordyceps Militaris And Hericium Erinaceus, Produce Caffeine-Like Discriminative-Stimulus Effects?, Stephen James Cullinan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Caffeine is one of the most widely consumed drugs in the United States, but its excessive consumption increases the risk of heart disease, sleep problems, and anxiety. In response to these issues, there has been a rise in efforts to find safer alternatives to caffeine while maintaining similar subjective effects. The adaptogenic mushrooms, cordyceps and lion’s mane, are claimed to have similar energy- and mood-enhancing effects as caffeine; however, there is limited research directly comparing their effects to caffeine. A drug-discrimination paradigm, in which rats were trained to discriminate between caffeine and saline, was used to compare the discriminative-stimulus effects …

An Assessment Of The Reinforcing And Aversive Properties Of Transition-Related Stimuli, Lillian Louise Skiba-Thayer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Transitions from relatively favorable (rich) to relatively unfavorable (lean) activities have been shown to disrupt behavior. Transition-related disruptions in behavior have been observed across laboratories, species, and procedural arrangements. The most commonly reported disruption in basic research is a pause in the reinforced behavior in the signaled transition from a relatively rich to a relatively lean condition of reinforcement (Perone & Courtney, 1992). The present study assessed the function of the stimuli associated with transitions as either reinforcing, punishing, or neutral across two experiments using eight pigeons as subjects. Experiment 1 tested the function of two stimuli, one correlated with …

“What Is In Vogue?” A Critical Study Of Photography, Psychology, And Power In Vogue Magazine, Hannah Eve Osinoff

MA Theses

Capitalizing on our obsession with beauty and power, this thesis examines, through psychological and art-historical lenses, how Vogue’s use of photography increased the public’s fascination with elitist culture. Using archives and secondary sources, this thesis aims to prove that photography was so powerful that it compelled readers to covet what they did not have. Accordingly, Vogue serves as a key example of how photography informed cultural perceptions of beauty and class. Ultimately, photography has and continues to impact fashion and media, as exemplified by Vogue’s early dominance of this medium and the resulting change in culture.

Establishing Hierarchical Classification Responding: Directly Trained And Emergent Responses, George H. Noell, Kristin A. Gansle, Hannah M. Sliman, Danielle M. De Lucia

Psychology Faculty Publications

Hierarchical classification responding (HCR) describes a collection of responses that require discrimination of logical relationships between stimuli based on their position in a categorical hierarchy. This study established HCR for a new hierarchy in young children through discrete trial instruction. Participants selected pictures corresponding to different hierarchical levels of categorization. We tested for the emergence of naming that matched the level of hierarchy presented, transformation of function, and class inclusion responding for the trained and novel stimuli. Correct responding to the target hierarchy was established and resulted in the emergence of class naming and transformation of function without direct instruction. …

Rude Awakening: An Examination Of The Incivility-Sleep Relationship Via Affect, Mallory A. Mccord, Gargi Sawhney, Nastassia M. Savage, Kristen M. Fisher

Psychology Faculty Publications

Despite the prevalence of incivility at work and the essential nature of sleep, study of this relationship is comparatively sparse in the organizational sciences literature. Further, although impaired sleep could logically impact how one interprets subsequent interpersonal interactions at work, the dominant approach is to study sleep as an outcome of perceived incivility. Therefore, we drew upon affective events theory, the affect-as-information hypothesis, and sleep physiology to argue that state affect, both positive and negative, can explain the relationship between perceived incivility and sleep quality in either direction. The hypotheses were tested using a between-subjects design with one-month time lags …

Relative Utility Governs Working Memory For Drug-Associated Stimuli In A Novel Translational Paradigm, Maxwell E. Boileau

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Substance use disorder (SUD) remains a prevalent health concern, partially characterized by continued drug use despite aversive consequences. Contrary to accounts emphasizing cognitive deficits, drug versus non-drug choice data reflect sensitivity to reinforcement dimensions, with preference shifting systematically as a function of magnitude and probability. The present study tested whether another cognitive system, working memory, is similarly affected by relative utility. Preclinical studies have demonstrated sensitivity of working memory to reinforcement dimensions, but these are often attributed to the differential outcomes effect. Generalized matching models were fit to allomorphic choice data, allowing estimation of exchange rate parameters. A concurrent solid- …

Working Memory In The Pigeon: An Alternative Paradigm, Daniel Peng

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

One of the most widely used measures of working memory in non-human animals is the delayed matching to sample (DMTS) design. While this design can assess for duration of working memory, alternative accounts can be made to explain decrements in retention. In addition, DMTS does not assess capacity of working memory in terms of number of items able to be held. The works in this dissertation aims to design a paradigm to measure capacity of number of items held in memory for non-human animals by asking animals to make a specific response after presentation of a random spatial sequence. While …

The Effect Of A Functionally Indicated Choice-Based Antecedent Intervention On Academic And Behavioral Outcomes For Students In A Public School, Alyssa M. Rodriguez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The present study examined the effects of functionally indicated choice-based antecedent interventions on academic and behavioral outcomes for elementary general education students exhibiting elevated levels of off-task behavior during independent seat work. A replicated hybrid single-case design was used to compare two interventions: choice of task sequence (across-activity choice) and choice of peer (within-activity choice). Brief functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) informed hypothesized behavioral function and intervention match. Dependent variables included academic engagement (on-task behavior), with off-task behavior conceptualized as its inverse, as well as academic completion and accuracy; social validity was assessed from teachers and students. Results indicated support for …

From Meaning To Memory: Assessing The Capacity And Representational Structure Of Visual Working Memory With Meaningful Stimuli, Yong Hoon Chung

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Visual working memory is thought to be strictly limited. Yet we remember meaningful, real-world objects better than abstract stimuli. Here I show that this advantage arises from the semantic structure of meaningful objects, not their perceptual features alone, and that it extends even to memory for associated features such as color. In the brain, meaningful objects elicit greater and more distributed delay activity, consistent with the recruitment of higher-level neural processes during maintenance. I propose that semantic knowledge adds representational dimensions that make items more distinctive, and that these dimensions are organized hierarchically with lower-level visual features. These findings recast …

Donation Collection Method: Nudging To Minimize Cost Aversion, T. Ezni Balqiah, Dianti E. Kusumawardhani

ASEAN Marketing Journal

Manuscript type: Research Article

Research Aims: to analyze the effect of donation collection method (allocation vs addition) and the level of materialism on attitude, total donation amount, program donation amount, and cost donation amount.

Design/methodology/approach: This study used a between-subjects design with randomization. Data was collected through questionnaires administered to participants 18 years old and above, who are Indonesian citizens, resulting in 208 participants (102 participants in the Addition condition and 106 participants in the Allocation condition), and analyzed by ANCOVA.

Research Findings: the result demonstrated only four hypotheses are supported that the significant role of …

Marooned: A Western Frontier Dismal Swamp Narrative, Professor Meya E. Hargett

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Marooned: A Western Frontier Dismal Swamp Narrative centers the erased figure of Samuel Mars, a lost Black station master whose movements through the Great Dismal Swamp have been excluded from dominant Underground Railroad cartographies. Here, the term “Marooned” refers not to abandonment, but to the maroon geographies of Black and Indigenous resistance encoded in land, lineage, and fugitive infrastructure.

Guided by Diasporic Maroon Memory Theory, Lineage as Method, and the Maroon Geographies Framework, this research reconstructs Mars’s trajectory through oral testimony, spatial patterning, and ancestral land memory. Rather than casting the Dismal Swamp merely as a site of refuge, this …