Women are significantly underrepresented in senior-level positions within organizations. A great deal of research has provided evidence that both demand-side factors (e.g., bias and discrimination) and supply-side factors (e.g., the different behavioral tendencies of men and women) significantly contribute to this gender disparity. However, demand- and supply-side factors are inextricably linked, such that differences in supply-side behaviors are often elicited in response to the divergent demand-side treatment that members of each gender receive. The aim of the current research was to investigate whether men and women’s goals, which are a strong predictor of downstream behavior, are similarly affected by differences in the ways that men and women are evaluated and treated. Thus, across 12 studies, employing a total of 6,245 participants, we examined differences in the professional advancement goals, perceptions, and behaviors exhibited by men and women. Our findings reveal that, compared to men, women view attaining power at work as less of a goal and opportunities for professional advancement as less desirable. To explore what may be shaping these differential objectives, we examined four potential contributing factors: (i) perceived attainability, (ii) perceptions of negative outcomes, (iii) perceptions of resistance and backlash to one’s ideas and abilities, and (iv) perceived belonging among one’s coworkers. While we found no gender difference for perceptions of attainability, resistance and backlash, or belonging, women did anticipate more negative outcomes (i.e., conflict amongst one’s goals, trade-offs, time constraints, and sacrifice) being associated with a promotion or high-power job opportunity. Moreover, these perceptions explained the relationship between women’s reduced desire for and pursuit of opportunities related to career advancement. These results are in line with the disproportionate level of domestic responsibilities placed on women as well as the conflicting nature of what it means to be a leader and what it means to be a woman from a societal expectations standpoint. Past research has shown that women’s perceptions of this imbalance and incongruity exert considerable influence over their behavior, but the current research suggests that this role conflict manifests itself on an even deeper level, by influencing the underlying goals that women have for themselves. / Organizational Behavior

This dissertation attempts to link models from cognitive neuroscience with problems and models from education research as well as to advance our understanding of implicit learning. In addition to a review of the current understanding of implicit learning from psychology and neuroscience, an essay on the potential applications of implicit learning to education and two empirical studies comprise this document. The first study compares implicit learning in adults and children to address the question of developmental invariance in implicit learning. One novel aspect of this study is the use of a battery of implicit learning tasks, as well as comparison explicit learning tasks. Although gross differences were not found between adults and children in the implicit learning tasks, nevertheless first-level item analysis revealed that children and adults may differentially exploit stimulus frequency information to perform the tasks. The second study uses parallel forms of multiple implicit learning tasks to determine the reliability of implicit learning tasks for adult participants. Contrary to the prevailing view of implicit learning, stable individual differences were found. Correlations between individual implicit learning and certain non-cognitive traits (such as conscientiousness) were found, but IQ was not correlated with implicit learning. Finally, the implications of these findings for basic research as well as for the possibility of applying implicit learning to K-12 instruction are discussed. / Human Development and Education

The purpose of this study is to examine the mutual effects of the concurrent performance of a spatial memory task (spatial span forward and backward of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III) and postural balance task (standing on a compliant surface) in seniors with good and poor balance. Furthermore, the purpose is to determine if these interference effects are similar if using a verbal memory task (letter number sequencing of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III) rather than a spatial memory task, or a finger tapping task rather than a postural balance task. Sixty-one participants were recruited from seniors' residences and the community. Twenty-nine were assigned to the poor balance group (mean age 72.93) and 32 were assigned to the good balance group (mean age 80.78) based on their scores on the Berg Balance Scale. Subjects were asked to conduct the spatial and verbal memory tasks while sitting, standing, and finger tapping. Four measures of balance were computer from Kistler force plate data: range of center of pressure in the anteriorposterior (Range A-P) and the mediolateral (Range M-L) directions; and root means square of center of pressure in the anteriorposterior (RMS A-P) and mediolateral (RMS M-L) directions. Finger tapping rate was measured with an electronic counter. Interference effects differed for the verbal and the spatial memory tasks. Specifically, postural balance was spared interference when paired with the spatial memory task, but not when paired with the verbal memory task. This pattern of interference was different when a finger tapping task was substituted for a balance task, and could not be explained by a unitary model of attentional resources or a multiple resources model. A new model of attentional resources was presented which better explains the results of the current study as well as the results of previous studies.

The effects of onset interaural time differences (ITD) on lateralization and detection of binaural broadband click trains with alternating and non-alternating ITDs were examined under earphones. Three ITDs were employed: 0 us, or $\pm$ 500 us (right-leading and left-leading). Within each train, ITDs were the same (all-left, all-right, and centered) or alternated between two of the three values. The interclick interval was 2 milliseconds and the train duration was 250 milliseconds. Lateralization has investigated with a broadband acoustic pointer with variable delay. Listeners' pointer adjustments were essentially dominated by onset ITD. Detection thresholds were obtained with two broadband continuous maskers, left-leading and diotic. MLDs of nearly 12 dB were seen for the right-leading non-alternating probe when the masker was left leading. For the alternating ITD probes, thresholds improved when one or both ITDs in the probe differed from that of the masker. Threshold improvement was independent of the onset ITD. Similar results were obtained with the diotic masker, with the magnitude of the MLD being somewhat less. To rule out the possibility of the onset being masked by the noise masker at threshold, MLDs were obtained for trains with an exponentially decaying envelope with the onset 20 dB above the trailing portion of the trains. Detection thresholds obtained in a duration discrimination task revealed MLDs of smaller magnitude, but even with the onset enhanced, no effect of onset ITD was seen. These results showed that while onsets strongly influenced lateralization of the relatively long duration signals used in these experiments, MLDs were determined by the ongoing interaural differences. Subjects' performance in lateralization showed some inter-subject variability and variability across signals. Three out of four subjects also lateralized more strongly to the left than to the right. When lateralization was determined as a function of signal sensation level (SL), the effect of onset ITD became weaker or disappeared at low SLs. These results are generally consistent with the statistical decision theory based hypothesis of Houtgast and Plomp (1968) and suggested that while onset cues dominated lateral position, detection depended on the time-varying steady-state cues in the signals.

Two studies examined whether motivation influences the utilization of accessible trait constructs in person perception. Previous research shows that perceivers readily rely on both chronically and temporarily accessible trait constructs in social information processing. It has been proposed that this process is automatic in that it does not require many processing resources, that it occurs unintentionally, and that it runs autonomously to completion. The present studies were designed to examine the generality of these accessibility effects in person perception. The first study focused on chronically accessible constructs, and the second on temporarily accessible constructs. Outcome dependency should motivate the use of relatively complex information processing strategies, and so moderate the relatively automatic reliance on chronically and temporarily accessible constructs in person perception. Alternatively, to the extent that the relatively automatic reliance on chronically and temporarily accessible constructs is immune to motivation because it is immune to intent, outcome dependency should not influence whether or not perceivers utilize either kind of accessible trait constructs in social information processing. Both of these possibilities were examined. The results did not support the prediction that outcome dependency would moderate effects of either chronically or temporarily accessible trait constructs on person perception.

Social changes associated with aging were assessed in seven captive, socially-housed rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) over a fifteen year period encompassing early, middle, and late adulthood. The changes were evaluated with regard to existing theories about social aging in humans (the theories of social disengagement, activity, continuity, and selectivity). Both quantitative and qualitative measures, as well as analyses of sequential patterns of behavior were used to obtain a complete assessment of changes in social interactions. Analysis of the quantitative measures indicated that highly energetic, non-social behaviors decreased, while affiliative social behaviors either increased or remained stable with advancing age. Tension and agonistic behaviors also decreased. In addition, there were significant changes in the qualitative aspects of social interactions. The time spent in a given affiliative behavior (groom or social contact) increased and negative social interactions decreased across adulthood. The patterns of behavior associated with groom remained highly stable at all points during adulthood, while those associated with passive social contact were more variable. However, these patterns did become less diverse with age. These findings may indicate that groom is used to maintain social ties, while social contact is used for a larger number of social purposes. Although highly energetic activities declined with lower physical stamina in later adulthood, this was not associated with a general decrease in all behaviors. Social interactions were apparently enhanced as evidenced by the increased duration of affiliative behaviors and the decline in negative interactions. These findings do not support the theories of social disengagement or activity, but do provide some evidence to support the selectivity theory. The animals appeared to be maximizing their positive interactions, while minimizing their negative interactions with increased age. In addition, the stability in certain patterns of social behaviors, and the decrease in the diversity of behaviors associated with affiliative interactions further indicates that the establishment and maintenance of social relationships are important during all stages of adulthood, irrespective of advancing age.

Eight rats (Rattus norwegicus) were individually exposed to either closed or open economies in a multioperant experimental setting with a proportional ratio reinforcement contingency imposed. Completion of successive ring pull ratios accrued visually signaled opportunities for access to food and/or water via further ratio completions on distinct levers. Successive pellet or water presentations decreased the remaining available food and water opportunities and when the last opportunity was depleted, subjects were returned to the ring pull option only. Experiment 1 compared the effects of a simple and forced savings proportional schedule. Rats "saved" when required to by the forced trials condition but substantial savings occurred in the simple proportional schedule irrespective of forced trials training. Assessment of responses occurring in the presence of specific discriminative stimuli indicated that the relevant operants were under adequate stimulus control. No systematic differences were observed in savings responses within closed or open economies and subsequent work was conducted in an open economy. Three of the subjects exhibited low rates of extended ring pull runs while five of the subjects emitted moderate to high savings responses. Experiment 2 compared the conditional probabilities of feeding and drinking bouts under a proportional schedule and a "free-choice" condition. Distributions of feeding and drinking bout lengths were similar across all subjects under the free-choice baseline and were not seen to covary in any way with the differences in ring pull run lengths observed among subjects under the proportional schedule conditions. Experiment 3 shifted each subject's baseline distribution of save runs to a higher proportion of extended save runs by increasing the response cost on the terminal food and water ratios following short save runs. Overall, the proportional schedule generated rates of saving, hoarding and putative examples of "self-control" in rats that were substantially greater than those previously reported in operant hoarding or self-control literature. The implications of proportional schedule effects for human performance are discussed.

Rats given a footshock 2 min after placement in a box subsequently freeze much more in that box than rats given the shock immediately upon placement. This lack of freezing following the immediate-shock is termed the immediate-shock deficit (ISD), and it is presumed to reflect a learning failure. The purpose of my dissertation was to examine possible mechanisms for the ISD and to further characterize one-trial context fear conditioning. Experiment 1a found the ISD data pattern, but freezing was weak in the delay procedure. Experiment 1b used a smaller box and found enhanced freezing only in the delay procedure. Also, for the delay-shock rats, freezing was distributed on the test day such that freezing increased up to about the time that shock was given on the conditioning day and then decreased. Experiments 2a and 2b used the opioid blocker naloxone to see if the ISD was due to a reduced potency of the immediate-shock brought about by opioid analgesia. The results argued no. Also, for the first time, more freezing and defecation was found in immediate rats than in no-shock control rats. This finding was strengthened by the results of Experiment 3 which measured escape, side preference, side and nose crossings, freezing, and defecation. For each measure, the immediate-shock rats behaved more like the delay-shock rats than no-shock rats. The results of Experiments 2a, 2b, and 3 argue that the ISD is not a complete failure of learning, but instead is only a partial reduction in learning. Experiment 4 found that freezing after experiencing an immediate-shock is not an unconditional effect of shock, but instead reflects learning. Experiment 4 also found that rats shocked 2.5, 15, or 405 s after placement in box freeze less than rats shocked 45 or 135 s after placement. These results suggest that the ISD can be subsumed as a specific instance of a more general interstimulus interval (ISI) effect. Experiments 5a, 5b, and 5c, taken together, determined that an immediate-shock, while only weakly conditioning the context in which it was delivered, could condition other cues that enjoy a more favorable ISI with that shock. This result further suggests that the ISD is not due to any reduced shock potency, but due instead to an unfavorable ISI. The parallel between many of the results found here with those seen in more complex but better studied Pavlovian conditioning models argues that the one-trial context fear conditioning preparation can serve as a simple model system for studying Pavlovian conditioning.

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