While overall road deaths in Australia have fallen since the late 1980's and the impact of road-safety advertising appears to be positive, alcohol-related road fatalities remain the leading cause of death among young Australian adults. Fatality and injury rates continue within this cohort despite increases in alcohol-related knowledge, continuing education efforts in the Australian school system, increased funding for police enforcement and high media presence of road safety advertising (Peder et al 2004). Notwithstanding advances in communication technologies, highly graphic, emotional, shock style television advertising remains the primary medium for road safety message dissemination. Rather than targeting those highest at-risk for drink driving, road safety advertisements typically target an undifferentiated general audience. To date understanding the process by which road safety advertising influences attitudes and behaviour has been the centre of fear arousal research. Nonetheless, there has been little examination of how young adults who differ in drink-driving risk-propensity (high versus low) respond to and process anti-drink driving advertisements designed to modify an avoidable behaviour. Taking a receiver oriented approach, the focus of this study examines how young adult, novice drivers who differ in 'need-for-sensation' (NFS) risk propensity respond to, and process, anti-drink driving advertisements that differ in arousal capacity (i.e. high, low sensation-value). The investigation was conducted in two stages: Study 1 (qualitative) and Study II (quantitative). Study I, the qualitative phase, explored by focus group interviews attitudes, perceptions, beliefs and experiences of sixty young adults aged 18 to 25 years towards alcohol consumption, drink-driving, and anti-drink driving advertising. The major qualitative finding is that young adults characterise drink-driving as a rational, deliberate, planned and accepted behaviour. Young adults were aware of the choices available for not drinking and driving and were aware of the health, social and physical (self and property) risks associated with alcohol consumption and associated behaviours. Nonetheless, the short-term personal experiences of revelry and group cohesion were more pertinent to them on an everyday basis. Alcohol consumption and drink-driving behaviour did not appear to differ between university and nonuniversity students or gender, yet there were differences in attitudes and behaviour across the degree studied within the university cohort. Study II, the quantitative phase, was segmented into three sections. First, the study provides empirical support for NFS as a relevant a priori individual differences segmentation variable for differentiating between those more likely, versus less likely, to engage in responsible drink-driving behaviour. As expected low NFS individuals were more likely to not drink and drive. Second, findings support an interaction effect between an advertisement's sensation value and individual differences variable, NFS, on response outcomes. High NFS individuals engaged in higher levels of adaptive appraisal on the high sensation-value advertisement condition as compared to the low sensationvalue advertisement condition. Low NFS individuals did not discriminate across either advertisement condition. Adaptive appraisal was not counteracted by a corresponding increase in maladaptive appraisal. Both high and low NFS individuals viewed the high sensation-value advertisement condition with high levels of perceived threat and viewed the low sensation-value advertisement with higher levels of perceived efficacy. Yet, although high NFS individuals viewed the high sensation-value advertisement with high levels of threat they simultaneously viewed this advertisement with low levels of perceived efficacy. Third, NFS was not found to be a strong predictor moderating the relationship between message processing (cognitive, sensory, narrative) and response outcomes. The findings indicate strong support for a direct relationship between two modes of message processing: cognitive and narrative processing and response outcomes. Message recipients processed anti-drink driving advertisements via two routes to persuasion. There was stronger cognitive processing evident on advertisements possessing high arousal capacity, whereas stronger narrative processing was evident on low arousal capacity advertisements. This study suggests that those advertisements that possess high arousal capacity have the capability of facilitating attention to the central argument, the consequences of drinking and driving, as well as how drinking and driving may affect the message recipients' life. Alternatively, those messages that impart high levels of rational information have the capability of increasing attention to the peripheral cues in the message. It is also suggested that different styles of message processing, central versus peripheral, act in a synergistic way to influence response outcomes which indicates that there is no single route to persuasion. Individuals process messages in a complex manner attending to various signals in order to evaluate various components of the message. For road safety practitioners and social marketers the results of this study illustrates practical benefits for the design of anti-drink driving advertisements based on the segmentation variable NFS. The finding that high NFS individuals require advertisements that possess high levels of arousal capacity (i.e.: high in sensation-value) is an important development. Importantly, low NFS individuals do not discriminate in accepting the recommendations of advertisements that differ in arousal capacity clearly suggests that they accept messages regardless of their arousal capacity. This finding indicates that the goal of road traffic authorities, advertising agencies and social marketers should be directed towards targeting high NFS individuals who are more atrisk for a drink-drive fatality. That message recipients process anti-drink driving messages via two routes to persuasion indicates that message designers need to consider the mix between the sensation-value of the message and consideration of the way message recipients' process the message, i.e. via central/systematic versus peripheral/heuristic components of the advertisement. Further investigation into the dual processing of anti-drink driving advertisements once individuals are exposed to the message is warranted to further understand the psychological processes influencing message processing. The findings of this research have important implications for both practitioners and academics. This research has provided an insight into the complexity of young adult's response outcomes and message processing of fear-based anti-drink driving messages.

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is a disease characterised by repetitive upper airway obstructions which are manifest by desaturation and arousal from sleep. It has been known for many years that this interruption to the normal architecture of sleep may present to the clinician as excessive daytime somnolence often with a complaint of difficulties with concentration and short term memory. Previous work had demonstrated a relationship between variables of cognitive dysfunction in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea, however, little was known about which components of the syndrome contributed to this outcome and whether specific clinical thresholds of sleep disordered breathing could be defined for the development of cognitive dysfunction. In the context of this body of work cognitive dysfunction is defined as: a level of cognitive performance below normal derived values for a given cognitive test, when the subjects performance is controlled for age, sex and level of education.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2006. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-110). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-110). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 2006 / Typescript (photocopy)

L’objectif de ma thèse était d’étudier de façon plus approfondie l’influence des émotions sur la perception du temps, et surtout d’essayer d’identifier les mécanismes sous-jacents, encore méconnus aujourd’hui. Pour cela, j’ai mené 6 études organisées autour de 2 axes. L’objectif de l’Axe 1 était d’identifier les mécanismes impliqués dans l’effet des émotions sur la perception de la durée de stimuli émotionnels dans une tâche de bissection temporelle. L’objectif de l’Axe 2 était d’élaborer de nouvelles techniques d’induction permettant d’observer des effets plus robustes. Les résultats révèlent un allongement subjectif du temps, avec différents types de stimuli émotionnels fortement activateurs sur le plan physiologique. Cet effet apparait avec plusieurs types de stimuli menaçants et un large éventail de durées, allant de 0.3 à 8 s. Il apparait également de manière similaire chez l’adulte et l’enfant, du moins dès l’âge de 5 ans. De plus, cette dilatation du temps n’est pas accompagnée d’une amélioration de la sensibilité au temps, même quand la discrimination temporelle s’avère difficile. L’ensemble de ces données suggère un effet robuste des émotions fortement activatrices sur le jugement du temps, qui serait expliqué principalement par des mécanismes automatiques, et provoquerait l’accélération de l’horloge interne. Dans les situations de menace, cette accélération de l'horloge permettrait d’agir le plus rapidement possible. Quand le temps passe plus vite, l’individu est plus promptement prêt à agir. Toutefois, d’autres études sont encore nécessaires pour trancher la question de l’automaticité des processus et l’absence d’effet attentionnel. / The objective of this thesis was to study more precisely the influence of emotions on time perception, and above all to try to identify the underlying mechanisms, still unknown to this day. For this, I conducted 6 studies organized around 2 axes. The goal of Axis 1 was to identify the mechanisms involved in the effect of emotions on the duration judgment of emotional stimuli in a temporal bisection task. The goal of Axis 2 was to develop new induction methods in order to observe more robust effects.The results reveal a subjective lengthening of time, with different types of highly arousing emotional stimuli. This effect appears with several types of threatening stimuli and a wide range of durations, ranging from 0.3 to 8 s. It also appears similarly in adults and children, at least from the age of 5. Moreover, this time dilatation is not accompanied by an improvement in time sensitivity, even when temporal discrimination was difficult. All of these data suggest a robust effect of highly arousing emotions on time perception, which would be explained mainly by automatic mechanisms, and would cause the acceleration of the internal clock. In a situation of danger, this clock acceleration would allow the individual to react as quickly as possible. When time goes faster, the individual is prepared to act quicker. However, further studies are still needed to resolve the issue of automatic processes and the absence of attentional effects.

En dépit d’une littérature abondante étudiant les bases cérébrales de l’excitation sexuelle chez l’homme sans trouble, celle-ci reste plus restreinte dans l’étude de la pédophilie dont les corrélats cérébraux sont encore peu connus. La présente thèse se propose d’étudier, en IRMf, les activations cérébrales de 13 pédophiles hétérosexuels et 12 pédophiles homosexuels, appariés à 24 témoins sans trouble, en réponse à des photographies d’enfants en maillot de bain (fillettes/garçons) et d’adultes (femmes/hommes) dévêtus, les stimuli contrôlent représentant des adultes et enfants habillés normalement. Les résultats montrent que les activations cérébrales des pédophiles et témoins hétérosexuels et homosexuels, en réponse à leurs stimuli préférés ne diffèrent pas. Ces activations impliquent des régions occipitales, temporales et pariétales mises en évidence dans les corrélats cérébraux de l’excitation sexuelle chez les sujets sans trouble. En accord avec les résultats de la pléthysmographie pénienne, les analyses révèlent que les pédophiles homosexuels et hétérosexuels pourraient traiter les stimuli d’enfants du genre non préféré comme sexuellement pertinents. Ces résultats s’expliqueraient par le modèle bipolaire selon lequel l’excitation sexuelle pourrait varier selon une dimension bipolaire définie par la similitude physique, où femmes et hommes adultes se situent aux extrêmes et fillettes et garçons se situent au milieu. / In contrast to the numerous studies about the neural underpinnings of normal sexual motivation, brain correlates of pedophilia are still largely unknown. The present thesis aimed to identify functional networks involved in pedophile sexual arousal. Therefore, we investigated with fMRI the activation profile of 13 heterosexual and 12 homosexual pedophiles, compared to each other and to 24 matched healthy subjects, in response to visual sexual stimuli depicted adult (women/men) and child (girls/boy) wearing swimsuits, while neutral ones depicted ordinarily dressed adult and dressed children. Results showed that brain responses of heterosexual and homosexual pedophiles were not statistically different from those of matched healthy subjects, in response to their respective preferred stimuli. They were located in occipital, temporal and parietal brain areas known to be involved in sexual arousal in healthy subjects. In the line of penile plethysmographic studies, analysis also showed that homosexual and heterosexual pedophiles may process non preferred child stimuli as relevant sexual stimuli. This could be explained by a bipolar dimension of morphological similarity, on which children are located near the middle, and adult men and women are located at opposite ends.

The purpose of this study was to discover how to efficiently use tailored messaging to increase recreational water users' behavioral intentions to perform specific behaviors that prevent the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) and Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS). The objectives were to identify the most effective message structure and message order for signs targeting seven behaviors that reduce the spread of AIS and VHS, and to examine the moderating effect of AIS and VHS knowledge and awareness on behavioral intentions. The population of this study consisted of students 31 years of age and younger attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale (μ = 21.06; n = 680). The study design tested messages according to the Optimal Arousal Theory. The respondents completed an 11-item questionnaire that measured knowledge, awareness, and behavioral intentions, and included one of 34 sign treatments. When asked how knowledgeable respondents were about AIS and VHS, 48% of respondents indicated that they were not knowledgeable. Respondents were also asked the extent to which they believed AIS is a problem in Illinois; 43% reported AIS to be a "moderate" problem. Seven (7) items on the questionnaire measured intention to perform specific behaviors that may reduce the spread of AIS and fish disease between water bodies. Knowledge and awareness (only when interacting with knowledge) were found to be covariates of behavioral intentions. Complex results were revealed regarding the most effective tailored message, as no one sign significantly increased all seven behavioral intentions and the number of treatments significantly increasing behavioral intentions varied by behavior (i.e., 11 treatments had a significant influence on the behavioral intention for "visual inspections;" 4 treatments had a significant influence on the behavioral intention for "drain water;" 8 treatments had a significant influence on the behavioral intention for "avoid bait release;" 6 treatments had a significant influence on the behavioral intention for "remove plants and animals;" 4 treatments had a significant influence on the behavioral intention for "flush motor;" and, 11 treatments had a significant influence on the behavioral intention for "rinse boat". Results suggest mainly positively phrased messages works best when trying to stimulate environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). The recommendations from this study encourage strategic use of communication to enhance natural resource management as this study yielded gains in predicted behaviors of respondents to reduce the spread of AIS and VHS. The study also demonstrates the need to increase recreational water users' AIS and VHS knowledge improve the likelihood that they will perform desired behaviors.