Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

Environmental- And Ethanol-Induced Effects On Reference And Short-Term Memory In The Rat, Kimberly Ramos

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Environmental enrichment (EE) is a combination of complex physical and social stimulation beyond that which would be received in standard or isolated laboratory housing. Continuous enrichment paradigms have been shown, among other influences, to increase neurogenesis and dendritic branching, and enhance learning and memory. Recently, the preventative effects of enrichment have been considered, specifically relating to drugs of abuse (Solinas, Thiret, Chauvet, & Jaber 2010; Stairs & Bardo 2009). This series of studies examined the effects of daily EE on reference memory and short-term memory, as assessed in the radial arm water maze (RAWM) and Morris water maze (MWM). Sprague-Dawley …

Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of A Rat Agreement Based Reinforcement Procedure, Katherine B. Lalonde

Masters Theses

Since 2007, giant African pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) have been used successfullyfor detecting Tuberculosis (TB) positive patients.The rats are trained to detect TB-positive sputum samples through the use of operant conditioning techniques, in which an indicator response is rewarded with food. If the rats are to be used for first line screening of patients reinforcement could not be provided because the true status of the sample would be unknown. The present study evaluated the effects of a reinforcement-for-agreement procedure that could be used to reinforce indication responses when the true status of the sample is unknown. Four rats evaluated 100 …

Comparison Of Temperamental Rating Bilingually In Ukraine Using Child Behavioral Questionnaire (Cbq): Short Form, Nelly Ostrovsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 2 goals of the present investigation were to 1) examine the reliability of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire: Short Form (CBQ) in a sample of 4-7 year-old children from the Ukraine and 2) compare those children’s temperament profiles to a) one another when the form was administered in 2 different languages and b) their American counterparts from the CBQ standardization sample. Three waves of data were collected from the parents of 167 children residing in Kiev, Ukraine. Internal reliability analyses showed good internal consistency of the instrument. Comparative analyses conducted both within and between cultures showed similarities and differences across …

The Role Of Music-Specific Representations When Processing Speech: Using A Musical Illusion To Elucidate Domain-Specific And -General Processes, Christina M. Vanden Bosch Der Nederlanden

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

When listening to music and language sounds, it is unclear whether adults recruit domain-specific or domain-general mechanisms to make sense of incoming sounds. Unique acoustic characteristics such as a greater reliance on rapid temporal transitions in speech relative to song may introduce misleading interpretations concerning shared and overlapping processes in the brain. By using a stimulus that is both ecologically valid and can be perceived as speech or song depending on context, the contribution of low- and high-level mechanisms may be teased apart. The stimuli employed in all experiments are auditory illusions from speech to song reported by Deutsch et …

Influences Of Tnt-Food Pairings On The Performance Of Mine Detection Rats In Early Training Stages, Timothy L. Edwards

Dissertations

Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling (APOPO), a Belgian nongovernmental organization headquartered in Tanzania, trains giant African pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) to detect land mines and deploys the rats for operational use in countries afflicted with mines and explosive remnants of war. In the present study an evaluation of the influence of ongoing scent-food pairings on the performance of the rats in early mine detection training was conducted. Twenty young rats in APOPO’s mine detection rat program were divided into two groups and exposed to five daily stimulus-food pairing sessions each week. For the experimental group the stimulus was the …

Congruent And Incongruent Effects Of Ethnic Music On Ethnic Menu Item Selection, Ryan David Muniz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated what impact ethnic music had on ethnic menu item selection. College students were randomly divided into three groups and listened to one randomly assigned sound treatment in sensory booths. Three hundred and five participants completed the questionnaire with measures of expected price value and willingness to pay value. One of the groups listened to an Italian folk music, the second group listened to a Thai folk music, and the third group listened to a restaurant background noise in order to examine if the music will impact each participant menu items selection and perceived price values. The result …

Slope Of Change Through D-Cycloserine Facilitation Of Exposure Therapy In A Social Anxiety Population, Christina M. Sheerin

Dissertations

The present study sought to add to a growing base of research investigating approaches that facilitate the therapeutic effects of exposure-based therapy for social anxiety disorders. In particular, the approach involves the use of medication adjuvants that work in conjunction with therapeutic learning. This work translates findings from preclinical work to further our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that impact extinction learning. Among others, a promising method has been found with the use of D-cycloserine (DCS), a partial NMDA receptor agonist. Evidence of its positive impact in preclinical work has led to its application to clinical populations who suffer from …

Strength, But Not Direction, Of Handedness Is Related To Height, Ruth E. Propper, Tad T. Brunyé, Karly Frank, Sean E. Mcgraw

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Left-handers are reputed to be shorter than right-handers. However, previous research has confounded handedness direction (left- versus right-handedness) with handedness strength (consistency with which one hand is chosen across a variety of tasks; consistent- versus inconsistent-handedness). Here, we support a relationship between handedness strength, but not direction, and stature, with increasing inconsistent-handedness associated with increasing self-reported height.

The Effects Of The Temporal Placement Of Feedback On Performance And Skill Acquisition Of A Medical Data Entry Task, Nathan Bechtel

Masters Theses

This study was conducted in a laboratory, and compared the effects of the temporal placement of feedback on task performance and skill acquisition. Temporal placement offeedback refers to the timing offeedback delivery relative to performance. Two temporal placements were examined: feedback immediately after performance and feedback immediately prior toperformance. The experimental design utilized was a form of Latin square design that included a combination of one between-group and two within subjects factors. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, which differed only in the phase order utilized. Participants performed a data entry task intended to replicate thejob of …

The Influence Of Anger On Implicit Biases, Katherine Reiter

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Interpretation of ambiguous information is influenced by anxious (Richards, Reynolds, & French, 1992) and depressive (Wisco, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2010) symptoms. Emotion regulation strategies, and in particular, cognitive reappraisal has shown to be effective at reducing feelings of distress (Denson, Grisham, & Moulds, 2011). The current study seeks to understand the extent that emotion regulation can influence interpretation bias, thoughts and behaviors. In the current study, participants underwent both Angry and Neutral mood inductions. For each mood condition, participants were instructed to cognitively reappraise and attend to their emotions. Participants rated the degree of negative affect they experienced, and completed 6 …

Effects Of Anger Awareness And Expression Training Versus Relaxation Training On Headaches: A Randomized Trial, Olga Slavin-Spenny, Mark A. Lumley, Elyse R. Thakur, Dana C. Nevedal, Alaa M Hijazi

Psychology Faculty Research Publications

Background and purpose: Stress contributes to headaches, and effective interventions for headaches routinely include relaxation training (RT) to directly reduce negative emotions and arousal. Yet, suppressing negative emotions, particularly anger, appears to augment pain, and experimental studies suggest that expressing anger may reduce pain. Therefore, we developed and tested anger awareness and expression training (AAET) on people with headaches.

Methods: Young adults with headaches (N = 147) were randomized to AAET, RT, or a wait-list control. We assessed affect during sessions, and process and outcome variables at baseline and 4 weeks after treatment.

Results: On process measures, …

Using Meta-Ethnography To Synthesize Research: A Worked Example Of The Relations Between Personality On Software Team Processes, Fabio Q. B. Silva Dr., Shirley S. J. O. Cruz, Tatiana B. Gouveia, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Context: The increase in the number of qualitative and mixed-methods research published in software engineering has created an opportunity for further knowledge generation through the synthesis of studies with similar aims. This is particularly true in the research on human aspects because the phenomena of interest are often better understood using qualitative research. However, the use of qualitative synthesis methods is not widespread and worked examples of their consistent application in software engineering are needed. Objective: To explore the use of meta-ethnography in the synthesis of empirical studies in software engineering through an example using studies about the relations between …

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Disability And Health-Risk Behaviors, Sophia Miryam Schussler-Fiorenza Rose Md, Phd

Population Health Matters (Formerly Health Policy Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Mouse-Tracking Reveals When The Stroop Effect Happens., Sara Incera, Theresa A. Markis, Conor T. Mclennan

Psychology Faculty Publications

We examined the continuous dynamics of the Stroop task using mouse-tracking. Participants moved the computer mouse to indicate the color of words presented on the computer screen in both congruent (blue in blue font) and incongruent (blue in yellow font) conditions. Mouse-tracking data revealed significant differences in reaction times, spatial attraction, and velocity. In the Stroop effect, word reading and color processing influenced performance, but they did so differently: Word reading influenced the early part of the mouse trajectory, but color processing influenced later parts. The data provide important new information about the real time processing dynamics underlying the effect.

Dynamics Of Perceptual Organization In Complex Visual Search: The Identification Of Self Organized Criticality With Respect To Visual Grouping Principles, Attila Jozsef Farkas

Dissertations

The current project applies modern quantitative theories of visual perception to examine the effect of the Gestalt Law of proximity on visual cognition. Gestalt Laws are spontaneous dynamic processes (Brunswik & Kamiya, 1953; Wertheimer, 1938) that underlie the principles of perceptual organization. These principles serve as mental short-cuts, heuristic rule-of-thumb strategies that shorten decision-making time and allow continuous, efficient processing and flow of information (Hertwig & Todd, 2002). The proximity heuristic refers to the observation that objects near each other in the visual field tend to be grouped together by the perceptual system (Smith-Gratto & Fisher, 1999). Proximity can be …

Sharing: Social Behavior In Situations Of Risk, Stephanie Theresia Stilling

Dissertations

The present study will experimentally investigate human cooperation (sharing) in a laboratory foraging task that simulates environmental variability and resource scarcity (shortfall risk). Specifically, it investigates whether a risk-reduction model of sharing developed by evolutionary biologists (derived from a risk-sensitive optimization model known as the energy-budget rule) could predict human cooperative behavior. Participants respond to earn points exchangeable for money when point gains were unpredictable. Failures to acquire sufficient points result in a loss of accumulated earnings (a shortfall). Participants are given the choice between working alone or working with others. The difficulty of meeting the earnings requirement is manipulated …

Assessing The Generality Of A Bout Analysis In The Description Of Operant Behavior, J. Adam Bennett

Dissertations

Operant psychologists typically use response rate as a primary measure of behavior. Although response rate has proven a useful dependent measure resulting in the identification of many important behavioral regularities, many researchers have argued that the measure has significant limitations. Primarily, response rate treats all responses in the measured response class as functionally equivalent and distributed uniformly across time. This conceptualization of behavior is useful as long as all responses are affected similarly by different experimental manipulations. Research has shown, however, that certain manipulations differentially affect responses with relatively short or long interresponse times. This has led to a new …

Child-Parent Attachment And The Assessment Of Self, Jin Qu

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Jin Qu on July 10, 2013.

Depression, Social Anxiety, And Attachment As Predictors Of The Use And Quality Of Cyber Communication, Stefan E. Latulip

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the influence of depression symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and adult attachment style on the use and the perceptions of the quality of cyber communications with close friends, romantic partners, and family members. One hundred thirty-five individuals completed an initial survey, with sixty five of the original group completing a follow-up survey five weeks later. Results indicated that anxious attachment was associated with a greater reported usage of social networking sites, whereas avoidant attachment predicted less instant message use over time. Depression symptoms and avoidant attachment were generally associated with perceptions of higher negativity and lower positivity with …

The Effectiveness Of A Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program That Offer Special Benefits For Pregnant And Parenting Teens: A Qualitative Study, Marsha Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Teen pregnancy continues to be a problem for families, educators, health care professionals, and the government. Teenagers are not afforded the opportunity to learn or receive reinforcement on God's laws on abstaining from premarital sex because religious education is not allowed in the public school system. This increase has led to the creation of the Teenage Parenting Center (TAPP), located in southwest Georgia. TAPP is one of 64 schools in a school district that offers special benefits for pregnant and parenting teens. This qualitative case study used a phenomenological approach to explore the experience of eight former attendees of the …