The purpose of this study was to determine whether changes in physical space impacted preschool children's cooperative behavior. These changes in physical space included differentiated and undifferentiated ceiling height and wall color. This study used an experimental design with subjects experiencing four conditions each. The sample consisted of 30 preschool children across four different half-day preschool classes in a preschool laboratory on a university campus. Children were assigned to small groups of four children. Each group was comprised of two boys and two girls. The groups experienced each condition for five minutes each week over a four-week period. A multivariate repeated-measures analysis was used to determine whether the predictor variables: age, gender, and condition, were related to the outcome variable of cooperative behavior. There was a significant main effect for Condition on children's cooperative behavior. Post-hoc comparisons revealed the cooperative behavior scores of children in the condition with a differentiated ceiling and an undifferentiated wall color to be significantly higher than all other conditions. A polynomial contrast revealed a nonlinear relationship between the conditions. Additionally, older children were more cooperative than younger children. Boys were more cooperative than girls. In differentiated spaces, whether in ceiling height or in wall color, children's cooperative behavior scores increased. Physical spaces where ceiling height and wall color were both undifferentiated or differentiated appeared to depress children's cooperative behavior scores. The undifferentiated space may have not been stimulating enough to enhance children's cooperative behavior, while the space with both differentiation in the ceiling height and wall color may have been overstimulating for preschool children. Administrators and planners of children's play spaces must be aware of how overly simple or highly complex environments can negatively impact on children's development. / Graduation date: 1997

No description available.

The majority of the studies reviewed so far indicated that individual subject variables interact with stimulus variables in order to produce human response to color.

In the field of information sciences, attention has been focused on developing mature information retrieval systems that abstract information automatically from the contents of information resources, such as books, images and films. As a subset of information retrieval research, content-based image retrieval systems automatically abstract elementary information from images in terms of colors, shapes, and texture. Color is the most commonly used in similarity measurement for content-based image retrieval systems. Human-computer interface design and image retrieval methods benefit from studies based on the understanding of their potential users. Today's children are exposed to digital technology at a very young age, and they will be the major technology users in five to ten years. This study focuses on children's color perception and color association with a controlled set of digital images. The method of survey research was used to gather data for this exploratory study about children's color association from a children's population, third to sixth graders. An online questionnaire with fifteen images was used to collect quantitative data of children's color selections. Face-to-face interviews investigated the rationale and factors affecting the color choices and children's interpretation of the images. The findings in this study indicate that the color children associated with in the images was the one that took the most space or the biggest part of an image. Another powerful factor in color selection was the vividness or saturation of the color. Colors that stood out the most generally attracted the greatest attention. Preferences of color, character, or subject matter in an image also strongly affected children's color association with images. One of the most unexpected findings was that children would choose a color to replace a color in an image. In general, children saw more things than what were actually represented in the images. However, the children's interpretation of the images had little effect on their color selections.

Subjects were 101 Mexican-American adults (53 females, 48 males), age range 17-72, and most often were in the blue-collar job level. Instructions were that (a) 18 pairs of slides would be shown; (b) each slide would be projected for 15 seconds; (c) each of the two models was to be judged on intelligence, attractiveness, friendliness, happiness, and success; and (d) the rating scale would be marked corresponding to the left or right slide. Results indicated the lighter-skinned models were judged more favorably than the darker ones on all five dimensions. To the extent this study sheds light on an important cultural value, it is hoped the treatment of Mexican-Americans in therapy will be facilitated and improved.

Previous research suggested that unlike marketing goods, marketing services required manipulating the physical environment as well as price, promotion, production, and place. This indicates a role for interior design in the marketing strategy of a service business. Research also indicated that little was known about the effect of the different environmental components, especially the color component on consumers' responses. Most color research in marketing is in advertising and packaging but most of it is proprietary and thus unpublished. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of color on subjects' evaluations of a bank and its employees. The choice of banks was motivated by the fact that banks have a high degree of familiarity among potential subjects. An experiment was designed in which subjects were provided with an illustration of a bank's interior and asked to evaluate the service quality at that bank. The illustrations were computer generated and were identical except for the color scheme. The study used monochromatic color schemes, manipulating the hue (warm and cool) at two value levels (dark and light), generating four treatments (light-warm, dark-warm, light-cool, and dark-cool). A convenience sample of 486 college students, in two lower division classes, was used. Subjects were each assigned a treatment at random, and asked to rate the banks and their employees on eight criteria: reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, access, communication, security, and understanding. The treatments were in the form of 5 1/2 X 4 inch computer printouts attached to the last page of a questionnaire package. The experiment was conducted at the beginning of class time and subjects were given directions by the class instructors. The experiment took subjects an average time of five minutes to complete. The study investigated the effect of color on subjects' evaluations of the eight dependent measures in terms of three independent variables: value, hue, and subjects' gender. The data collected indicated that value had more effect on the dependent variables than did hue or subjects' gender. Banks with dark color schemes were thought to be more reliable, more competent, and safer. Banks with a light color scheme scored significantly better in terms of courtesy and communication, and scales relating to access. In terms of hue, warm color schemes had a higher mean score on courtesy, while the cool color schemes scored higher on competence. Warm hues were found to be more aesthetically pleasing and more familiar than the cool ones. Gender yielded an effect only on the responsiveness variable where mean scores of female subjects were higher than males' scores. Although the study had some limitations the results indicated that there is potential for using specific color choices in bank interiors to foster a desired image. Specifically value can be varied throughout a bank interior to communicate different messages to customers. Dark values could be applied in the teller area to project the impression of safety and privacy that customers need. In the loan department light values can be used to communicate consideration and accessibility. Findings from this study can be of use in other service oriented businesses with role demands similar to banks. / Graduation date: 2000

Photocopy of typescript. / Bibliography: leaves 58-62. / Microfiche. / vii, 62 leaves ill. 29 cm

Intersectional analyses have made clear that Black women as a group fare far worse in employment outcomes than their race and gender counterparts. However, there is little research that examines differences among Black women. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how Black women are perceived intra-intersectionally, or within the intersection of race and gender. Black women are not monolithic and it is important to illuminate how they are perceived differently from one another. This dissertation explores the effects of differences in skin tone and hair texture among Black women seeking a management position. It was hypothesized that Black women with lighter skin and/or straight hair would be characterized more positively than Black women with darker skin and/or kinky hair; this hypothesis was not supported. However, for negative characteristics, the hypothesis that Black women with darker skin would be characterized more negatively than Black women with lighter skin was confirmed. Further, it was found that hair texture significantly interacts with skin tone such that darker-skinned Black women with kinky hair were characterized more negatively than light-skinned women with kinky hair. There were no significant differences found between the skin tone and hair texture of Black women on salary offers, but there was a marginally significant skin tone effect for perceptions of success in that lighter-skinned Black women are perceived to be more successful than darker-skinned Black women. This study sheds light on the need to look at the intersection of both skin tone and hair texture in order to fully understand how negative stereotypes apply to Black women.

No description available.

A two session nutrition education research project was conducted using basic training candidates at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), Glynco, Georgia. Prior to the administration of the full scale project, a test questionnaire was developed and evaluated and a project pilot test was conducted. The first part of the project involved the basic training candidates (N=313) responding to questionnaire survey designed to measure demographic and occupational data, knowledge of nutrition (NKQ), and attitudes toward nutrition (AQ). The NKQ and AQ were individually subdivided to measure various subscales. A minimum time period of 10 calendar days was allowed to elapse prior to the administration of the second part of this project. The same participants (N=286) were randomly assigned to one of four color treatment groups. All the groups were exposed to written nutrition education material, Eater's Almanac Vol. 1, No. 21, reprinted on one of four background colors (white, blue, green, and yellow). Following a set time period to review the contents, the candidates were administered an immediate recall questionnaire (IRQ). The basic training candidates at FLETC possessed some knowledge of nutrition prior to reading the nutrition education material. Out of a possible maximum score of 20, the mean was 10.38. Food faddism issues appeared to be the weakest area. Improvement of nutrition knowledge was approximately equal among all treatment groups. The overall mean IRQ score was 13.28 with a ranqe of 12.92 to 13.60. The nutrition attitudes of the candidates were favorable with a mean cumulative score of 45.08 out of a possible 80 (2.83/item). Food faddism was the weakest area. Immediate recall scores were unaffected by the candidates attitudes (r=.122 p .05). Background color does not appear to be a factor in the improvement of immediate recall scores. Basic training candidates possess favorable attitudes toward nutrition; however, this favorable attitude did not affect immediate recall scores. Further research efforts should be tailored toward the evaluation of additional relationships between color and nutrition education, long term nutrition education recall, the relationship of nutrition knowledge and nutrition attitudes, and their effect of knowledge and attitudes upon nutrition practices for law enforcement personnel. / M.S.