A number of studies have examined the ability of dogs (Canis Familiaris) to follow human given cues. Dogs have been shown to reliably follow pointing cues. To date, few studies have investigated whether emotional cues are a factor in these canine choices. We tested dogs using a two-way object choice food task. Sixty large and medium breed dogs were tested in one of four conditions (positive baited, silent baited, negative non-baited and negative baited). Results showed that dogs reliably followed human pointing cues over emotional cues in three of the four conditions. In the negative non-baited bowl, dogs did not select the non-indicated, baited bowl over chance. This suggests that canines use pointing as a more salient cue than emotions in object choice tasks.

Our Hearts and Minds examines how the “figure of the refugee”—as an analytic—both illuminates and complicates conventional understandings of nationhood, citizenship, and belonging, and in doing so, imagines alternative ways to think about history as well as socio-political formations to come. Through analyses of literary and cultural productions, my interdisciplinary project reconceptualizes “refugee” as a condition of subjectivity, as opposed to a legal category, a political anomaly, or a historical experience empty of rights and values. Taking the context of the War in Viet Nam, and the Southeast Asian diasporas that have resulted from it, as my case study, I focus on three affective categories—gratitude, resentment, and resilience—to explore how refugees remember, represent, and embody forced migration and its afterlife. Affect, I suggest, is an important means of turning to the bodies that migrate—its contacts, attachments, intensities, potentialities—as well as the forms of relationality and sociality that enable the refugee’s positioning in the world. Reading a range of texts including novels, short fiction, memoir, poetry, activist performance, and art videos, my research develops a critical framework for understanding refugee passages through the lens of feeling and embodiment, emotion and collectivity. This focus on affect departs from, and challenges, a field of refugee studies that take refugees as “objects of investigation” as well as popular modes of representation that characterize them as pitiful, identity-less mass. I center the textures of subjectivity and embodied experience, suggesting that rather than being restrictive and/or constrictive of diasporic lives, identities, and epistemologies, the refugee designation, or a sense of refugeeness, is valuable in making sense of entangled processes of war, migration, and diaspora. I contend that gratitude, resentment, and resilience are not only inevitable affective structures of American militarism overseas, they also illuminate the conditions of possibility crucial for the work of survival and memory-work in its wake. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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This study examines persons' trust in the federal government using data from the National Election Study for the presidential election years 1980 through 2000. I hypothesize that person's perceptions of the national economy's health and their affect toward the incumbent president are both positively correlated with their trust in the federal government. I also hypothesize that a person's level of affect toward the president is a stronger predictor of their trust in the federal government than persons' perceptions of the national economy's health. All of these hypotheses are supported in my findings. I also present a serendipitous finding that relates to political party culture. This study finds significant differences between Democrats and Republicans in the trust they afford the government via affect toward the president, suggesting a difference in how self-identified Democrats and Republicans view the president's role in government. / Master of Science

A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the effects of follower behaviors (passive or active) and affect (positive or negative) on leadership perception within the context of an implicit association task (IAT). Individuals watched either a positive or negative affect inducing video, were placed in a leader role, and were asked to read a brief scenario detailing the behavior of their followers. The results indicated that: 1) active follower behavior information activated leadership perceptions that reflect an implicit preference for Visionary Leadership, and 2) positive affect activated leadership perceptions that reflect an implicit preference for Visionary Leadership. It was hypothesized that there would be an interaction between follower behavior and leader affect such that negative affect would lead to more detailed follower behavior information processing and therefore follower behavior would have stronger effects on leadership perceptions. The interaction was not significant; however the main effects provide support for the Connectionist Model of Leadership, such that contextual constraints do influence perceptions of leadership. Limitations and future research directions are discussed. / Ph. D.

Objective: To explore the relationship between individual factors (i.e. affect, self-efficacy, and self-regulation), social and environmental factors, and their effects on the level of participation in physical activity (PA). Design: Undergraduate and graduate students (N = 386) completed 11 online measures assessing physical activity level and reactions to physical activity participation at Time 1, 9 online measures at Time 2, and a measure of physical activity participation at Time 3. Measures included those assessing affective reactions to PA, outcome expectancy, self-efficacy, self-regulation, social support, and perceptions of the environment. Results: Affect had a small total effect on METs (Ã =.13, p=.03), which was partially mediated by self-regulation, a strong predictor of METs (Ã =.45, p<.01). The total effect of affect on METs was substantially reduced (Ã =.05, p=.34) when self-efficacy was added as a precursor in the model. Self-efficacy influenced both METs (Ã =.39, p<.01) and affect (Ã =.23, p<.01). Adding environment and social support as predictors of self-efficacy (Ã =.23, p<.01; Ã =.19, p<.01, respectively) further reduced the influence of affect on METs (Ã =.03, p=.63) as environment and social support influenced affect (Ã =.20, p<.01; Ã =.14, p=.02, respectively) and METs (Ã =.15, p=.02; Ã =.21, p<.01, respectively). Conclusion: As in earlier studies of acute affective response to PA, these results provide evidence that anticipatory affect is positively associated with behavioral decision-making related to PA participation. Although increasing an individual's self-efficacy for PA should increase their affective association with the behavior, affect may not influence PA decision-making independently of self-efficacy and ecological factors (i.e. environment and social support). / Master of Science