The aim of this research thesis was to investigate whether there are any cognitive factors that might influence reported dream colour. This question was prompted by the existence of a period of time in the early 20th century when the majority of people reported having greyscale dreams, and coloured dreaming was treated as an anomaly. On the level of individual differences, age, visual imagery abilities and memory for colour were singled out as the potential contributors to reports of greyscale television and the changes in the methodology of research were preliminarily identified as the possible causes of the historical trends in the colour of dreams, and the first empirical studies in this thesis address these issues. Subsequent studies explored the role of visual imagery ability, and individual differences in cognitive representation and memory in determining the reporting of colour in dreams. Overall a total of seven studies are reported The range of methods employed in these studies was diverse and required the development of new measures of colour memory and visual imagery. Some studies employed diaries to gather dream data and allowed cross-sectional (e.g. age) or cross-cultural comparisons. Others were more laboratory-based and explored data concerning visual memory and imagery performance with diverse dependent measures (e.g. response time data). In addition these studies involved the development of a novel coding scheme for visual dream content. While it was impossible to decisively support or disprove the idea that greyscale dream reports reflect genuine dream experiences, the research carried out for this thesis provided many fascinating insights into the factors that determine how we dream and how we report our dreams, highlighting the role of our cognitive abilities and preferences. Moreover, the studies have uncovered novel ways in which visual imagery preferences shape how we remember and report our experiences. The implications of these findings are important not just for the methodology of dream research, but for the whole field of cognitive and applied psychology

Lui, Wai Shan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-155). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Title --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / 論文摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgments --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v / Chapter Section One: --- "The Research Question, theoretical context and methodological considerations" / Chapter Chapter One --- The ´بLanguage Education' Question --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction: The Gendered Achievement Gap in English --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Research roblematic --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3 --- Form One Students in a Band One EMI Working Class School in Hong Kong --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Gender and English as a Second/Foreign Language Education Studies in Contexts / Chapter 2.1 --- Theoretical Contexts: From Male Dominated Subjects to Female Dominated Subjects --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2 --- Borrowing Frameworks from Gender and Mathematics and Science Education Studies --- p.26 / Chapter 2.3 --- Research Questions --- p.33 / Chapter 2.4 --- Structure of this Report --- p.37 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Making the Familiar Strange --- p.40 / Chapter 3.1 --- Ethnography at Home: Tension and Inspiration with Personal Experience --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2 --- Multiple Identities and Old and New ower Relations --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3 --- Qualitative Analysis and Writing --- p.61 / Chapter Section Two: --- Findings and Analysis / Chapter Chapter Four --- Students´ة Perception of English: An “Inferior´ح and “Feminine´ح Subject --- p.66 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Funny but Boring English Lessons (and the Boring but Interesting Mathematics Lessons) --- p.66 / Chapter 4.2 --- Hierarchy of Academic Subjects --- p.86 / Chapter 4.3 --- "Authority and Masculinity of ""Objective"" Knowledge" --- p.90 / Chapter 4.4 --- The Making (or the Unsuccessful Making) of Objective Academic Subjects --- p.95 / Chapter 4.5 --- Conclusion: The Valuable but Inferior Subject --- p.103 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Learning as Identity Construction: The Case of English --- p.105 / Chapter 5.1 --- "Achiever by Instrumental Rationality: Jackson, the ""Career Plan´ح Boy" --- p.105 / Chapter 5.2 --- "Achiever by Feminine ersona Over-acted: Ricky, the ""Maria"" boy" --- p.109 / Chapter 5.3 --- A Communal Activity: Girls as a Group --- p.117 / Chapter 5.4 --- Conclusion: Interplay between Gender Identity and Learner Identity --- p.119 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Being in a Colonized World: Students´ة Social Struggles over English Learning --- p.121 / Chapter 6.1 --- Middle Class Normative Ideal and Working Class Struggle --- p.121 / Chapter 6.2 --- Anxiety over EMI Identity --- p.126 / Chapter 6.3 --- L2 Learners´ة Sense of Ownership --- p.129 / Chapter 6.4 --- Value of L1 Resource --- p.133 / Chapter 6.5 --- Overpowering Colonialism through the Power of Masculinity --- p.135 / Chapter 6.6 --- Conclusion: Deficiency Model of the Colonized --- p.139 / Chapter Section Three: --- Conclusion / Chapter Chapter Seven --- The Complexity of the ´بLanguage Education，Question in Feminism --- p.141 / Appendix: Interview and Observation Guide --- p.148 / References --- p.150

Mak, Hok Kiu Edward. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 262-276). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and results in progressive cognitive decline, particularly in regards to memory (National Institute on Aging, 2012). Prior research has shown sex differences in brain-atrophy rates of AD patients, with women experiencing a higher rate of progression in volume reduction (Skup et al., 2011). This suggests that there may also be differences in cognitive functioning between sexes, particularly in the rate of cognitive decline with a more rapid disease progression for dementing females compared to dementing males. The current study monitored memory function longitudinally in approximately 200 total participants, 100 with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or probable AD and 100 healthy controls enrolled in an aging study through the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Consortium. Memory performance was evaluated with two memory tests, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT; Rey, 1941) and the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R; Benedict, 1997). Memory function was evaluated in participants with at least three data points over a five-year span. A multivariate regression model was used that includes controls for disease severity, age, age at disease onset, education, ethnicity, and medical comorbidities. Results indicated that females in the MCI and AD groups initially performed better than the males, but that over time, female scores had dropped significantly lower than male scores, suggesting a more rapid decline in females. Significant sex differences in cognitive decline may yield a deeper understanding of the development and progression of AD and aid in more effective and sex-specific treatment.

Fatigue is a difficult phenomenon to study because the response can vary based upon task-specific (i.e. contraction type, intensity, position– vs. load-matching and muscle group/joint region) and subject-specific (i.e. sex and age) variables. Although numerous investigations have provided insight into muscle fatigue, further efforts were needed to better characterize the influence of age, sex, joint/muscle group, contraction type, and task complexity have upon fatigue. The primary purpose of this series of three studies was to identify and characterize the influences of potential moderating variables (i.e., sex, joint, age, contraction type, and task complexity) upon fatigue resistance during voluntary muscle contraction fatigue tasks through both empirical (systematic review and meta-analysis) and experimental methods. In general, women demonstrated either the same or better fatigue resistance than men (men never better), the sex advantage was joint specific not systematic, old men were more fatigue resistant than young men, task complexity was not an influential factor and fatigue differences were more readily apparent under isometric conditions. The inclusion of empirical and experimental methods helped clarify the driving factors of localized muscle fatigue. This in turn will better direct future study design and power for mechanistic, training and performance response studies.

I test canonical theories in the preference literature - evolutionary psychology, social role theory, and social exchange theory - using group mean comparisons to replicate basic sex differences in spouse preferences. I find that, consistent with past studies, males prefer attractiveness and females prefer resources in potential partners, and in general, we prefer partners who are similar, rather than different, to us. I also find that males who anticipate enacting the "traditional" male role of "provider" within their marriage tend to prefer spouses who would fulfill the caregiver role, compared to males who do not anticipate such "traditional" gender divisions within the family. Interestingly, females who anticipate the "traditional" caregiving role do not in turn prefer spouses who fulfill the "provider" role; they instead prefer a spouse who is family-oriented, as they themselves are. I further test four new theoretical derivations and methodological assessment techniques. First, I expand the test of social exchange theory to include a wide array of personality characteristics and find similarity between how respondents see themselves and the types of characteristics they prefer in a spouse. Second, I include an assessment of gender endorsement - how respondents see themselves in terms of characteristics we commonly associate with masculinity and femininity. Interestingly, I don't find the predicted complimentarity - that highly masculine individuals prefer highly feminine spouses and vice versa. I find instead strong homogamy effects, such that respondents with masculine self-perceptions prefer spouses who also embody those masculine traits, and respondents with feminine self-perceptions prefer spouses who also identify with feminine traits. Third, my data includes a wider age range of unmarried respondents than nearly all other preference studies, so I am able to test preference differences by age. I find that older unmarried adults are generally less "particular" in their preferences, compared to those unmarried adults still in college. Despite my predictions that age would be positively related to the desire for spouse characteristics associated with "growing up," essentially, age appears to be negatively related or unrelated to most spouse preferences. Fourth, I include factor analysis techniques that both replicate a past research study (which was pioneering for the field), and broach the possibility for latent variable assessment using a wider array of preference dimensions than have been previously considered. I find evidence of several underlying preference constructs which could, and should, be taken into account when conducting future preference studies.

The prevalence of drugged driving has increased in the United States, and some prescription medications (e.g., zolpidem) cause impairment after the predicted duration of therapeutic action has elapsed. The aim of this study is to determine if bedtime administration of alprazolam similarly impacts driving performance the following day. Volunteers were 14 healthy adults (6 males) who completed a double-blind, double-dummy within-subjects design study examining the effects of alprazolam (0.5, 1, & 2mg), zolpidem (10mg), and placebo administered at bedtime on driving performance the following day. The positive control condition was alprazolam (1mg) administered on the test morning. Driving simulator measures, cognitive and psychomotor tasks, and questionnaires querying drug effects were collected the afternoon before drug administration and for 5.5 hours the next day and analyzed using symmetry and mixed-model approaches. The positive control was robustly impairing. Driving impairment equivalent to that seen with alcohol at the legal limit was observed up to 12.5hr after bedtime alprazolam 2mg and for 8.5hr after bedtime zolpidem 10mg. Volunteers were not fully aware of their own level of impairment. These results suggest that alprazolam used before bed may pose an as yet unrecognized public safety risk in the form of next-day drugged-driving.

Men from a culture of honor often use physical aggression in response to threats as a way of restoring lost honor. Threats can range from being called an offensive name to someone flirting with their romantic partner. On the other hand, women from a culture of honor are expected to be submissive and avoid situations that can result in harm to their reputation. However, a recent meta-analytic review of the literature suggests that women do not always avoid situations that can harm their reputation. Rather, women in a culture of honor also use physical aggression in response to threats. In this study, I tested when and why men and women from a culture of honor use aggression in response to an honor threat. Participants (N = 1,043) responded to hypothetical scenarios that included threats to a person’s honor. Overall, men and women from a culture of honor used more aggression following a threat to their honor compared to people not from a culture of honor. People from a culture of honor also felt as though their reputation was hurt more by an honor threat than those, not from a culture of honor. The more participants felt their reputation was hurt, the more aggression they used against their attacker.

La mémoire prospective est une fonction cognitive complexe sollicitée quotidiennement en particulier chez les personnes âgées qui sont, par exemple, fréquemment amenées à se souvenir de prendre un traitement médicamenteux. Cette thèse conduite dans une perspective différentielle était guidé par deux objectifs. Le premier était d’identifier les mécanismes cognitifs sous-tendant le déclin lié à l’âge à des tâches de laboratoire et à des tâches naturelles de mémoire prospective. Le second était d’étudier les possibilités d’amélioration de la mémoire prospective chez la personne âgée. Quatre études ont donc été conduites auprès de personnes âgées. Les deux premières études ont permis d’avoir une meilleure compréhension des effets du vieillissement sur la mémoire prospective en mettant en évidence le rôle médiateur de la mémoire rétrospective et du contrôle exécutif dans le déclin lié à l’âge de la mémoire prospective. La troisième étude a notamment montré que les personnes âgées semblent spontanément compenser certaines difficultés de mémoire prospective en ayant recours à des aides mnésiques externes. Ces trois études nous ont permis d’élaborer et de tester l’effet d’un programme d’intervention, visant à améliorer la mémoire prospective, basé sur le renforcement de la mémoire rétrospective, du contrôle exécutif et de certaines connaissances méta-mnésiques. Les résultats n’ont pas mis en évidence d’effet de l’intervention. Ces résultats suggèrent que des interventions individualisées ciblées sur des difficultés spécifiques seraient peut-être plus adaptées que des interventions destinées à améliorer le fonctionnement global de la mémoire prospective de la personne âgée / Prospective memory is a complex cognitive function requested to remember a planned action. For example, this function is particularly important in elderly people to remember taking medication at the appropriate time. Two key objectives were pursued in an interindividual differences approach. The first goal was to have a better understanding of prospective memory in aging people. Thus, we wanted to identify the cognitive mechanisms underlying the age-related decline in laboratory and naturalistic prospective memory tasks. The second goal was to estimate how prospective memory can be improved in elderly people. To that end, we performed four studies using samples of aging people. The results of the two first studies indicated that retrospective memory and executive control processes mediate the relation between age and prospective memory. In the third study, the results showed that elderly people compensated spontaneously some of their prospective memory problems using external memory aids. These studies allowed us to develop and to test a cognitive intervention program based on the reinforcement of retrospective memory, executive control processes, and metacognitive knowledge. The results indicated any effect of the intervention program on prospective memory performance. These suggest that individualized cognitive interventions focused on specific prospective memory problems would be more suitable than interventions designed to improve the global functioning of prospective memory in elderly people

The purpose of this research was to explore the gender differences in caregiver burden in Alzheimer’s patients in the Inland Empire. Currently, there are more than half a million Californians who live with Alzheimer’s disease (Ross, Brennan, Nazareno, & Fox, 2009) and this number is expected to double over the next few years. Due to an increase in the older population and the rise of informal caregivers, the study provided insight as to how males and females perceive caregiver burden and how each gender responds to caregiver burden. This exploratory study utilized a quantitative research design through the use of questionnaires which measured caregiver burden through the use of the Zarit Burden Interview. A total of 38 participants were recruited through support groups at the Inland Caregiver Resource Center. Though findings did not suggest a gender difference in caregiver burden, they did indicate that there was a relationship between ethnicity and gender in relation to the caregiver and care receiver relationship. Implications for social work practice include assessment for and aid in the development of gender appropriate resources for informal caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients.