Executive dysfunction can affect community integration in adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) approach has shown some promise in promoting functional improvements in adults with executive dysfunctions post TBI. However, access to rehabilitation is often limited especially in rural communities. This study aimed to (1) investigate the feasibility of administering the CO-OP approach in a tele-rehabilitation format and (2) examine its impact on community integration and executive dysfunction. A pilot series of 3 case studies was conducted. Participants identified 5 goals; 3 were trained and 2 were untrained to allow examination of transfer. Outcome measures included the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 Participation Index, and the Dysexecutive Questionnaire. Descriptive analyses demonstrated goal achievement and transfer, suggesting it is feasible to implement the CO-OP approach in a tele-rehabilitation format. Community integration and executive dysfunction behaviours also showed trends towards improvement.

A review of extant literature on positive affect suggested that it has two major dimensions: a hedonic dimension related to subjective feelings and reward processing, and a cognitive dimension related to affect-specific changes in perception and cognition. A novel dopaminergic mod el was proposed to provide a unitary account for the effects of positive affect across the two dimensions. The model hypothesized that positive affect is associated with distinct modes of mesocortical and mesolimbic dopa mine transmission, which in turn mediate unbiased, unfiltered and flexible attention. Three separate behavioral tasks on perception, attention, and reward learning were conducted. In line with the hypothesis, positive affect was found to associate with less biased bi-stable perception, faster regain of attention to previously ignored information, and fewer perseverative errors in face of changing reward contingencies.

The goal of the present study was to develop and compare two different methods for rating scaffolding between siblings: a thin slice approach and an interval coding approach. Fifty younger (age=3 years) and 50 older (age 3-7 years) siblings interacted for five minutes on a cooperation task and scaffolding during the task was coded for each child. Internal consistency was excellent for the thin slice measure and questionable for the interval measure. Inter-rater reliability was good for both. Thin-slicing was more strongly related to predicted variables (children’s theory of mind, language, age, cooperation, positive and negative behavior) than interval coding, and reduces demands on resources in terms of training and reliability. The development of a reliable and valid measurement for the assessment of child-to-child scaffolding, which involves limited training and is quick to code, will be a useful research and practice tool for developing children’s cooperation skills in applied settings.

In four experiments on insight problem solving, we investigated the time course of the development of solution knowledge prior to response, as well as the impact of stimulus familiarity on task performance and eye movement measures. In each experiment, participants solved anagram problems while their eye movements were monitored. In Experiments 1a and 1b, each anagram problem consisted of a circular array of letters: a scrambled four-letter solution word containing three consonants and one vowel, and an additional randomly-placed distractor consonant. Viewing times on the distractor consonant compared to the solution consonants provided an online measure of knowledge of the solution. Viewing times on the distractor consonant and the solution consonants were indistinguishable early in the trial. In contrast, several seconds prior to the response, viewing times on the distractor consonant decreased in a gradual manner compared to viewing times on the solution consonants. Importantly, this pattern was obtained across both trials in which participants reported the subjective experience of insight and trials in which they did not. These findings are consistent with the availability of partial knowledge of the solution prior to such information being accessible to subjective phenomenal awareness. In Experiments 2 and 3, each anagram problem consisted of a centrally located three-letter string plus three additional individual letters located above and to the side of the central letter string. All the letters in the central letter string were members of the five-letter solution word, while one of the individual letters was a randomly placed distractor. In Experiment 2, we replicated our findings of the gradual development of solution knowledge using this more complex stimulus display. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the familiarity of the central letter string by presenting it either in the form of a three-letter word, or as a meaningless string of letters. Behavioural measures showed an overall negative impact of familiarity on task performance, while eye movement measures revealed a more complex pattern of effects, including both interference and facilitation. Critically, the effects of familiarity on problem solving did not interact with the development of solution knowledge prior to response.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Richard J. Harris / The present study examined the effects of discourse context information on English Monolinguals' and Spanish-English Bilinguals' ability to 1) translate Spanish and Finnish vocabulary words and 2) comprehend inferential and factual comprehension questions based on language-mixed prose. Language-mixed (i.e., codeswitched) prose varied in the number of foreign words presented in each sentence (i.e., 0, 1, 2, or 3 words per sentence). Results indicated that Monolinguals and Bilinguals' ability to translate Finnish words from pre-test to post-test increased due to their use of contextual information as an aid in translation. Furthermore, Monolinguals' translation accuracy increased from pre-test to post-test when tested on Spanish vocabulary words, but Bilinguals' translation difference scores did not increase from pre-test to post-test, due to their high prior knowledge of Spanish. Monolinguals and Bilinguals' comprehension accuracy was high throughout all conditions, even when tested on material conveyed by Finnish and Spanish words. Results from the study suggest that the use of language-mixed prose does not necessarily impair comprehension or translation ability for Monolinguals or Bilinguals, but in fact provides the context to help translate foreign vocabulary words and draw pragmatic inferences and factual information from text. The findings from this study are of importance in suggesting that, through the use of written contextual information, it is possible to learn basic foreign language vocabulary. Implications for foreign language learning, language-mixing as a mode of communication, and models of language acquisition and lexical access are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychological Sciences / Gary L. Brase / Operational Sex Ratio (OSR: the ratio of reproductively viable males to females in a given population) has been theorized and studied as a construct that may influence behaviors. The encoding of sex ratio was examined in order to determine whether the cognitive process underlying it is automatic or effortful. Further, the current work examines whether OSR or Adult Sex Ratio (ASR: the ratio of adult males to females) is encoded. The current work involved four experiments; two using frequency tracking methodology and two using summary statistic methodology. Experiment 1 found a strong correlation between OSR of conditions and estimates of sex ratio. Participants in Experiment 1 were uninformed on the purpose of the experiment, thus the strong correlations between actual and estimated sex ratio suggest a level of automaticity. Experiment 2 found a strong correlation between the ASR of conditions and estimates, suggesting that individuals do not encode OSR over ASR. Experiments 3.a. and 3.b. demonstrated automaticity in estimates of sex ratio from briefly presented sets of faces, for two different durations: 1000ms and 330ms, the later of which is widely accepted as the length of a single eye fixation. Overall this work demonstrated a human ability to recall proportion of sexes from arrays of serially presented individuals (Experiments 1 and 2), and that ASR is encoded when participants are presented with conditions including older adults. This work found the encoding of sex ratio to be highly automatic, particularly stemming from the results of Experiments 3.a. and 3.b. Conclusions from this work help to verify previous research on sex ratio’s effect on mating strategies through evidence supporting the automatic nature of encoding sex ratio. Further, the current work is a foundation for future research regarding sex ratio, and leads to several proposals for future endeavors.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Richard J. Harris / Memory processes have undergone extensive investigation using various experimental methods. While working memory studies have profoundly influenced the development of new cognitive theories, including the Dual-Processing Theory (Mayer & Moreno, 1998), limited research has investigated the effects of subtitled messages on multimedia comprehension. Previous eye movement research has investigated the ability of observers to attend to the multiple sensory inputs associated with multimedia viewing (D’Ydewalle, Van Rensbergen & Pollet, 1987; D’Ydewalle & De Bruycker, 2007); however, eye movement research only scratches the surface of cognitive abilities associated with multimedia learning. In order to satisfy the need for more subtitling research two studies were performed to investigate the effects of subtitled movies on the comprehension of movie content. Both investigations involved the presentation of 10-minute movie clips from A Few Good Men and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Participants completed three types of multiple-choice recognition questions for each movie, including: pictorial-only questions, verbal-only questions and combined-information questions. Experiment 1 was designed to investigate the difference between levels of comprehension, when verbal information was presented only in the participants’ native language (i.e. English soundtrack and/or subtitles). Results of Experiment 1 indicate that participants performed significantly better on verbal-only and combined-information questions when their native language was present in the subtitles as opposed to the soundtrack. These findings confirm previous findings that reading verbal information in subtitles is more efficient than listening to the soundtrack. Comparison of performance on the pictorial-only questions across presentation formats in Experiment 1 showed participants in the English soundtrack with no subtitles condition performed significantly better than all other conditions. Although Experiment 1 provides a basic understanding of how native language soundtracks and subtitles influence comprehension of movies, subtitled media are primarily used when viewing a movie with verbal information from a foreign language. Experiment 2 built on the results of Experiment 1 by incorporating an unfamiliar language (i.e. French). The question sets used in Experiment 1 were also used in Experiment 2; however, two French vocabulary tests were also used in Experiment 2 to measure incidental foreign language acquisition. Consistent with the results of Experiment 1, participants performed significantly better on verbal-only and combined-information questions when their native language was in the subtitles. This finding extended the conclusion that native language verbal information presented visually (i.e. subtitles) yields better performance on questions requiring verbal cues than native language verbal information presented orally (i.e. soundtrack) to foreign language material. Comparison of performance on the pictorial-only questions across presentation formats in Experiment 2 showed no significant differences. Comparison across the two experiments reflected a distraction effect associated with the presence of a foreign language. Performance on the French vocabulary tests was very poor across all conditions and yielded no significant differences, suggesting that the tasks may have been too difficult.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / James C. Shanteau / This project included two studies that looked at how the brand name and price of consumer products can affect intended purchasing decisions. In Study 1, 30 undergraduate students tested products from three different product categories (crayons, tissues, and tortilla chips). Each product category consisted of three different brands; one with high brand value, one with medium, and one with low brand value (generic). The brands for each product were as follows: Crayons (Crayola, Roseart, and Dollartree); Tissues (Puffs, Kleenex, and Wal-Mart); Chips (Tostitos, Mission, and Kroger). The design for this study was a 3x3+3+3 matrix. For each brand, there were five conditions: 1) the product in the correct brand name; 2) the product in a switched brand name; 3) the product in the other switched brand name; 4) the product alone, no brand name; and 5) the brand name alone, no product. The product alone and brand name alone conditions acted as controls. Participants were unaware that the products had been switched. After trying each product, participants rated their likelihood to purchase that product on a 9-point Likert scale; 1 being “definitely would not buy” and 9 being “definitely would buy.” In Study 2, 47 participants completed an online survey assessing their likelihood to purchase three different products (a bicycle, a watch, and a T.V.) based on the price alone. The brand names were removed so as to not create an interactive effect. This study had the same design as Study 1. After a within-subjects Repeated Measures ANOVA, it was found in Study 1, that the two brands with higher brand value were rated as higher quality than the generic. Study 2 found that when just looking at price, subjects were more likely to purchase the cheapest product. In conclusion, it seems that the brand name associated with a product can cause people to rate the quality of that product as either higher or lower depending on the strength of the brand, even if the product itself is lower quality. Also, when looking at the prices of products without the brand names, people want to purchase the lowest priced product.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Lester C. Loschky / To investigate the role of various bands of spatial frequencies for drawing, untrained artists drew four portraits from four different bands of spatial frequencies (e.g. unfiltered, 4-8, 8-16, & 16-32 cycles per face width (c/fw)). Raters then judged the accuracy of the drawings in comparison to both the source image from which the drawings were produced and an unfiltered version of the same face. The results show that low spatial frequencies (LSFs) and high spatial frequencies (HSFs) were useful for drawing, relative to middle spatial frequencies (MSFs). Additionally, the unfiltered condition that contained all spatial frequencies produced the most accurate drawings. This suggests that when artists are allowed access to both LSFs and HSFs they are able to utilize the global structure information carried in LSFs as well as the edge and detail information carried in HSFs to create more accurate drawings. The author posits that the MSFs that are useful for face recognition become redundant for drawing and that novice artists discount these MSFs in the control condition in order to increase the saliency and usefulness of the LSFs and HSFs. The results have implications for art education, drawing technology and the development of low-level drawing theory.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Richard J. Harris / Previous research has indicated that many factors influence the likelihood of using the central or peripheral routes of processing during exposure to a persuasive message, including involvement in the message. Previous research has generally focused on response involvement, which is based on outcome, while the focus of the present study is involvement based on personal investment. In the present study, 229 undergraduates were assessed on their trait empathy toward animals, and attitudes toward animals. They read a strong or weak persuasive message presented by either an attractive or less attractive writer. This design replicated previous findings by Bae (2008) on empathy and attitude change, and extended them by examining them experimentally, with a focus on issue-based involvement, which relies on moral or ego involvement. Participants were tested on several distinct DVs designed to indicate their change in attitude and behavior. Results varied for each DV, with source attractiveness predicting willingness to wear a button and display a bumper sticker, but with trait empathy predicting willingness to adopt a pet and vote to support a petition. The results imply that participants relied on different routes of processing depending on the DV, and that the role of emotion in issue involvement may inform advertisers in ways to effectively increase the likelihood of paying attention to a message.