Using a social constructionist perspective, this thesis explores the development of the concepts of “parental alienation syndrome” and “false allegations” in the context of custody and access, as ‘social problems’. Following Joel Best’s framework for critically analysing social problems, it examines the life course of these concepts through an historical account of Canada’s divorce arena and recent changes to custody and access law. It analyzes the reasoning and motives of the major claimsmakers: the Fathers’ Right Movement, medical experts, the legal arena and the counter-claims of Feminist activists. It examines the role of the supervised access facilitator in the construction of the concepts as ‘social problems’. The theories of psychiatrist Richard Gardner are examined in particular, due to their pivotal role in the advancement of the claimsmakers’ goals. Finally, empirical studies are reviewed and analyzed, demonstrating how the concepts of “parental alienation syndrome” and “false allegations” have mutated and permeated the domain of divorce and access in Western society. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-04 11:36:28.395

We examined the spatiotemporal dynamics underlying the processing of a false belief task using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Twenty adults performed a false belief task adapted for MEG. Regions of interest were selected based on source analyses on the contrast between false and true belief, and MEG source time-course reconstructions were generated and analyzed to determine the temporal architecture of neural activations specific to false belief reasoning. We found frontal, temporal and parietal regions to activate during false belief processing, confirming prior findings. We also extend previous findings by adding information about the temporal profile of neural activity during theory of mind processing, an area lacking in the literature. We found that increased frontal activity began at 100 ms bilaterally, followed by parietal regions from 200 to 330 ms and temporal regions at 350 ms, at which point frontal activity became lateralized to the right hemisphere.

The primary aim of this dissertation is to address an important issue of individual susceptibility to false memories. Specifically, what is the role inhibitory control (IC) in children’s and adult’s propensity to producing false memories? Inhibitory control within the context of the current study is defined on the basis of performance on selective attention tasks. Inhibitory control is discussed within this dissertation as it is reflected in two selective attention tasks, Stroop and Negative Priming. While the false memory effect, as reflected in the Deese/Roediger and McDermott paradigm (Roediger & McDermott, 1995), is one of the most widely studied memory phenomenon, the current study is important as it provides some insights into the relation between attention and memory. An interesting finding in the DRM false memory effect is that participants often report having a clear false memory of having seen or heard the non-presented critical lure item (CL item). Such memory illusions have been informative on how memory works. The current study adds to this body of research by providing converging evidence of how individual differences in the sensitivity to the false memory effect may occur, and how this sensitivity may reflect the same IC mechanisms involved in selective attention tasks. The basic notion examined within this dissertation is that when recognition memory is tested in the DRM paradigm, individuals have to select information that was studied and simultaneously inhibit highly activated yet non-presented information in memory, in order to correctly reject the CL item. If the notion that individual differences in sensitivity to the false memory effect is indeed related to a basic IC mechanism, then a relationship should be found between measures of IC in selective attention tasks and rates of false memories in the DRM test. The current study incorporates three experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 are broken down into parts ‘a’ and ‘b’, with each part varying in respect to the IC measure. In part a, participants were assigned to an inhibitory control group (IC group) on the basis of Stroop interference. In part b, participants are assigned to IC groups on the basis of a combined measure of inhibitory control that is, Stroop and Negative Priming. The third experiment assigned participants on the basis of a combined measure of IC, and then considered the relation between the duration of IC over a number of DRM word-lists presented simultaneously prior to the recognition test. Experiment 3 also compared the robust effect of IC on the propensity to produce false memories across all three experiments. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. In each experiment there was clear evidence of a relation between IC estimates and proportion of false memories. As predicted, individuals assigned to a Less IC group produced a higher proportion of false memories than those assigned to the More IC group. Inhibitory control differences did not modulate differences in correct or incorrect recognition in general (hits and false alarms to unrelated distractors). This second finding is important because it suggests a specific effect of IC in false memories, rather than a general breakdown in memory processes. The IC effect in false memories occurred in children (8-year olds and 10-year olds) as well as adults. Furthermore, the IC effect appeared to be additive with age; i.e., all groups produced a similar pattern across all three experiments. Last, the combined estimate of IC was found to be a more sensitive measure of false memories than a single index of IC; however, this was found in relation to adults but not for children. A number of additional manipulations and measures of interest were also included. Experiment 2 found clear evidence of an effect of IC on remember responses, not only were Less IC individuals more likely to produce false alarms to critical lure items, they were also more likely to distinctly respond they “remembered” the CL item as opposed to only “knowing” the CL had been presented. Examination of reaction times (RTs) to false alarms as a function of IC group found the Less IC group were faster to make false alarm responses to CL items, whereas the More IC group were slower to make false responses CL items. As predicted the relation between IC and the false memory effect was modulated by the random versus blocked presentation manipulation in Experiment 3. Specifically, decreased rates of false memories were found in the random presentation format compared to the blocked format. Interestingly however, a small effect of IC group in false memories was found even in the random condition. From this study it can be concluded that individual susceptibility to the false memory effect is in part modulated by inhibitory control. Individuals who demonstrate less effective IC show a greater propensity to false memories than those who demonstrate more effective IC. The IC effect of false memories was found to be robust, with converging evidence found across all three experiments. In relation to the development of inhibitory control, consistent with the research of Pritchard and Neumann (2004, 2009), and Lechuga and colleagues (2006), the results of this study suggest IC is fully developed in young children. However, their ability to accurately encode, retain and retrieve information would appear to develop at a different rate than IC. Specifically, it may be that while younger children are able to utilize IC in memory processes, they have yet to fully develop a richly interconnected semantic network. On the other hand, older children and adults would appear to have a more fully developed semantic network. This series of experiments presents a novel demonstration of the relation between inhibitory control and false memories. As such, this study has the potential to provide new insight into a cognitive mechanism that may be responsible for both developmental trends and for individual differences in the regulation of false memories. Moreover, if the mechanism responsible for mediating false memories is causally linked to performance on selective attention tasks in the systematic way that is proposed, it may be possible in the future to utilize IC measures to assist in identifying individuals who have an exaggerated propensity to form false memories, as well as those more prone to resist them.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the false memory rates for word and picture Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists in children, adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Deese (1959), Roediger and McDermott (1995) developed the DRM paradigm as a method for testing the effects of semantic intrusion on the creation of false recollections. This method is used in the current thesis to test false memory in participants with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a disorder characterised by social, language and behavioural deficits. False memory studies of adults with this disorder have had conflicting results and found ASD participants have lower or similar false memory rates to controls. Experiment 1 compared false memory rates in 11 children, 11 adolescents and 5 adults with ASD to 15 children, 11 adolescents and 7 adult controls. ASD participants had higher false critical lure rates and lower studied item recognition rates than controls regardless of age. Adolescents had higher false and studied memory than children while adults had higher studied but lower false recognition rates than the younger groups. Due to the use of short DRM lists the adult participants recognised the fewest critical lures. In Experiment 2 there were 6 ASD children and 9 ASD adolescents compared with 6 control children and 9 control adolescents who were all tested both individually and in collaborative trios. Collaboration was beneficial to ASD adolescents and control children and adolescents by reducing false recognition and increasing studied item recognition. Collaboration was more beneficial for ASD adolescents and control children in the correct rejection of critical lures and for control adolescents in the recognition of studied items possibly due to decision making techniques. Critical lure recognition did not vary between collaborative trios and individuals and studied item recognition was decreased by collaboration in the ASD children. The observed decision making techniques employed revealed a clear pattern in social development and suggest ASD adolescents, but not ASD children, would benefit from group work. Overall the findings of this study, when taken into context with previous DRM studies, suggest that ASD participants have a delay in their social development and in the development of their association networks.

Background: Hepatitis E (HEV) is a small, non-enveloped virus that belongs to the viral genus Hepevirus. HEV is a positive sense single-stranded RNA virus and there is insufficient information regarding its replication. This is mainly because the virus has low capacity to grow in normally used cell cultures. Many specific strand assay detection studies have been done in order to understand more about HEV replication. Unfortunately, these assays have the disadvantage of giving false positive results. Aim: The aim of this project was to improve the positive strand assay to increase specificity and eliminate false positivity which is due to high sensitivity of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). False positivity occurs as remains of transfected material in the cell are amplified. Method: The samples used in this project were swine samples from Sweden and a human sample (plasmid clone of genotype 1) from India. Negative samples, extracted positive samples and transcribed RNA positive sense samples were used. The methods applied were cDNA synthesis, exonuclease I and RNase treatments, DNA purification kits followed by first and nested PCR. Result: The results of this study indicated great improvement of the detection assay especially for the transcribed RNA samples. Best results were obtained at a final concentration of 1.5mM MgCl2 in the mastermix.  Conclusion: Changing the concentration of MgCl2 appeared to have a great effect on PCR specificity. Improving detection assays is very essential as they can be applied in the research field and in public health centers either for diagnosis or tracking disease outbreaks.

False Creek has been both the poster child and the ground zero of Vancouver’s acclaimed ‘urban renaissance’ – the transformation of the city from resource town to world-class metropolis. This study explores the interplay between urban redevelopment and the loss of industrial land and blue-collar work in False Creek in the 1970s. I investigate how city officials, urban experts, local workers and business owners viewed and made sense of the transformation of False Creek from an industrial site to a commercial, recreational and residential district. An examination of the testimony of local workers and businessmen as well as of the visions of municipal authorities is necessary to demystify the loss of inner-city industrial land as a natural and inevitable process. I demonstrate how the demise of the industrial sector in False Creek resulted in part from state policy, and from changing understandings about the place of industry in the socio-economic life of the city. Finally, I make the case that while the redevelopment project incorporated innovative planning practices, and brought countless benefits to many Vancouverites, the transformation of the area is inextricably linked to a story of displacement. / Graduate

This thesis examines the effects of linguistic input on the development of children’s epistemic concepts. It draws upon two fundamental questions in the field of cognitive development: (a) whether distinctions between automatic and controlled forms of cognitive processing are indicative of underlying conceptual differences, and (b) whether language is critical to the process of concept development. To establish the background of the current research, a summary of how these theoretical questions have been addressed in other fields of cognitive psychology is first provided (Chapter 1). These questions are then re- examined within the specific domain of epistemic concept development (Chapter 2). Changes in false-belief processing that occur between infancy and the early preschool years are discussed in relation to two competing theories of false-belief development. A framework to explain how language promotes children’s transition between automatic and controlled forms of processing is then provided. It is suggested that language facilitates change by both reducing the cognitive demands associated with controlled response tasks as well as assisting with the formation of robust epistemic representations. An empirical study that was designed to examine the effects of epistemic language (i.e., verbs and syntax) on children’s automatic and controlled processing of belief is then described (Chapters 3 to 5). Eighty-four children (Mage = 3;5 years), who initially failed elicited measures of false-belief, were trained with visual contexts of true- and false-belief. The critical manipulation across three conditions was the linguistic input presented in conjunction with these contexts. Children heard narrations that contained either (a) the description of an agent’s actions without an epistemic verb, (b) a familiar epistemic verb (thinks) across both contexts, or (c) the familiar epistemic verb in contexts of true-belief and a novel epistemic verb (gorps) in contexts of false-belief. Results demonstrated a significant advantage for children who were trained with epistemic verbs on spontaneous measures of false-belief (i.e., anticipatory gaze). Significant effects of epistemic verb exposure were also demonstrated in novel contexts of belief induction. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to theories that make distinct predictions about the role of language in epistemic concept development (Chapter 6).

Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / To investigate the extent of the problem of use of fraudulent academic qualifications in Australia, the study used two approaches under the theoretical framework of risk management. Firstly, the author assessed the potential risk of Australian academic qualifications being falsified and available on the Internet, through an exploratory research question. Secondly, equivalency testing was used to assess how far existing verification tools were being employed by three separate users of academic qualifications in Australia. --p. xix. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1289333 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Education, 2007

Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / To investigate the extent of the problem of use of fraudulent academic qualifications in Australia, the study used two approaches under the theoretical framework of risk management. Firstly, the author assessed the potential risk of Australian academic qualifications being falsified and available on the Internet, through an exploratory research question. Secondly, equivalency testing was used to assess how far existing verification tools were being employed by three separate users of academic qualifications in Australia. --p. xix. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1289333 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Education, 2007

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2006. / "August, 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-37). Online version available on the World Wide Web.