A retention study in a therapeutic community (TC) was conducted to examine treatment as a factor in client drop out. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design involving 22 new admissions was used to evaluate the efficacy of a behaviorally based treatment approach designed to enhance retention for TC clients in their early phase of residential treatment. The Beck Depression Inventory and Problem-Solving Inventory were administered in pretest-post format, in addition to the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 which was administered at posttreatment. Results revealed a retention rate of 100 percent for the treatment group compared to 27 percent for the untreated group. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 6131. / Major Professor: Dianne Montgomery. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purposes of this research were to: (1) determine the dependence of vernier acuity upon specific spatial frequency channels; (2) determine the effect of stimulus position in the central 2 deg arc upon vernier acuity thresholds; (3) investigate the relationship between binocular, monocular, and dichoptic vernier acuity; (4) evaluate the effect of the subjective task upon vernier acuity thresholds; and, (5) determine the differences between using absolute thresholds and difference thresholds as measures of vernier acuity. / Vernier acuity thresholds were found to be a function of both spatial frequency (0.5-20 cpd) and grating contrast (0.25-0.65). Thresholds were higher with low spatial frequency grating ($<$2 cpd), and the low spatial frequency grating thresholds were most affected by reduced levels of contrast. Vernier acuity mechanisms appear to utilize information over a wide range of spatial frequencies. / Monocular vernier acuity thresholds were found to vary with the stimulus position, with stimulus in the nasal hemifield resulting in lower thresholds than presentation in the temporal hemifield. Binocular vernier acuity was well predicted from the monocular vernier acuity by a probability summation model, suggesting independence between the monocular inputs. / In general, stimulus detection resulted in lower thresholds than stimulus classification (i.e., offset direction), particularly at low spatial frequencies. Difference thresholds were consistently lower than absolute thresholds, and they showed smaller variations with stimulus manipulation than absolute thresholds. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-10, Section: B, page: 4598. / Major Professor: Mark A. Berkley. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-04, Section: B, page: 1929. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1976.

Previous studies across multiple domains (e.g. pain, negative film clips, and learning word lists) have established that the end of an experience is heavily weighted when making summary judgments. However, these studies have not typically involved the type of tasks that individuals complete in everyday life. Moreover, they generally focus on retrospective evaluations of an event rather than its immediate affective impact. We sought to leverage these findings and ask how the order in which people complete hard and easy tasks might have consequences for how they feel after they are finished. To test this, we first ran a pair of between-subjects studies where participants completed one hard and two easy tasks with minimal expectations about the nature and length of the experience. We systematically varied whether the hard task occurred first, second, or third in the sequence and measured affect before and after the set of tasks. Consistent with predictions generated from these prior studies, those who completed the most difficult task at the end of a sequence had a greater drop in affect than those who completed it earlier. Also, final task affect was significantly predicted by the difficulty and enjoyment of the final task in the sequences. Related to this, the affective experience of the tasks in isolation was very similar to sequences that end on those same tasks. Taken together, these findings suggest an end effect in our data. We next sought to replicate the observed order effects when participants had prior knowledge of how many tasks they would be completing. We saw a very similar pattern in this study as well, with participants who completed the most difficult task at the end of the sequences having the greatest drop in affect. We also replicated our end effects, and observed that knowledge of task number led to greater affect in all orders. Our final studies tried to answer the question of whether or not participants predict that completing the most difficult task at the end of a sequence will lead to worse affect than completing it earlier. Across two studies, we did not find that participants who read about the tasks predicted affective differences as a result of task order. We also did not see evidence of a clear end effect in these participants. However, when compared to those who completed the tasks, we did observe a general overestimation of negative affect across all orders, regardless of hard task position. Although it has not been shown for task sequences, this finding is consistent with literature on ‘affective forecasting,’ which suggests that people overestimate the magnitude of expected negative affect. Finally, we asked participants in all studies what order they would have preferred to complete the sequences in. The majority of all participants would have preferred to complete the hard task at the end of a sequence rather than earlier. This was despite the affective consequences that many of them experienced from recently completing it at the end of a sequence. However, those in the prediction groups who merely had the hardest task presented to them first showed a disproportionate preference to also complete it first. And those who only completed a single task would prefer to complete it first in a hypothetical sequence with two easy but unknown tasks. Thus, despite the affective consequences of task order, many people do not seem to select orders that may diminish negative affect following a sequence. However, these data also suggest that completing easy tasks at the end of a sequence can improve affect, and there may be scenarios where individuals make more adaptive choices.

No description available.

Three series of experiments discussed the impact of uncertainty reduction on attentional guidance and selection. First, uncertainty was examined in the context of object-based attention by manipulating the predictive power of a sensory cue. It was shown that when uncertainty is reduced with a highly predictive spatial cue, object-based effects were not present. This demonstrates that uncertainty is what determines selection. Second, uncertainty reduction was applied to a dynamic display to separate spatial locations from overlapping objects to determine which benefits from uncertainty reduction. It was demonstrated that with uncertainty, surfaces and spatial locations influence selection but when uncertainty was reduced, only spatial locations guided attention. Results suggest that uncertainty plays an important role in attentional selection and the focus of prioritization changes over time. Third, uncertainty reduction was applied to an internal signal by introducing reward. A significant reward effect was demonstrated with controls: search was structured so that the high rewarded targets were selected faster than low rewarded targets. Effects in neglect patients depended on lesion location: those with the putamen intact showed a sensitivity to reward (in either bottom-up or top-down orienting), and one showed a significant reduction of neglect. This series suggests that not only is an internal signal effective for attentional allocation, but that it can help to overcome an attentional deficit such as neglect. Overall, results from the three series suggest that uncertainty plays a vital role in attentional selection, in that it determines the most efficient way to allocate resources.

The relationship between life stress and working memory capacity (WMC) has been documented in college students and older adults. It has been proposed that intrusive thoughts about life stress are the mechanism responsible for the impairments seen in WMC. To examine the mechanism responsible for these impairments the current study attempted to induce intrusive thoughts about personal events. The current study allowed for a test of predictions made by two theories of mind wandering regarding the impact of these intrusive thoughts on WMC task performance. One hundred fifty undergraduates were assigned to a control group, positive event group, or negative event group. Participants in the positive and negative event groups completed a short emotional disclosure about an imagined future positive or negative event, respectively, to induce positive or negative intrusive thoughts. WMC measures were completed prior to and following the emotional writing. Results indicated a significant relationship between WMC and mind wandering, however the writing manipulation did not result in any consistent changes in intrusive thoughts or WMC. The results suggest a causal relationship between WMC and mind wandering. The emotional valence of the intrusive thought altered the impact on WMC. No relationship was seen between the measures of stress and WMC. The results of the current study suggest that negative intrusive thoughts result in impaired WMC task performance but other types of off-task thoughts may not result in similar impairments.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Psychology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: B, page: 0570. Adviser: James Townsend. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 22, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph. D.) in Psychology--University of Maine, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-110).

Perceptual Centers (P-centers) refer to that phenomenon in a word that must be regularly spaced in time with respect to other P-centers in a sequence of words in order for the sequence to sound isochronous (Morton, Marcus, and Frankish, 1976). The P-centers of monosyllables have been found to be affected by the phonetic makeup of the syllable itself (Marcus, 1981; Fowler and Tassinary, 1981; Cooper, Whalen, and Fowler, 1986). In general, the longer a particular segment within a syllable (initial consonant, vowel, or final consonant), the later the syllable's P-center. This P-center is equidistant from the surrounding P-centers of other words. For example, if words are set in time to a metronome, their P-centers would align with the metronome beat since the beats are equidistant from each other. This thesis examines what determines the P-center locations within disyllabic English words (American dialect). Consonant lengths and stress patterns (foot type) are evaluated for their effects on the words' P-centers in a series of six production experiments. The results indicate that, like monosyllables, consonant length has a major effect on the location of disyllabic words' P-centers. And, initial consonants have a greater effect on their words' P-centers than either medial or final consonants. This finding supports Morishima's (1994) Onset-Tail model that was developed for Japanese disyllables. In addition to demonstrating the consonant length P-center effect in English disyllables, this thesis will also show that the disyllable's foot type affects its P-center. The interword intervals preceding trochees will be shown to be longer than those preceding iambs (a P-center effect). Therefore, the overall results of this thesis suggest that the P-centers of disyllables are affected by both their prosodic structure and their individual consonant lengths. The implications of this joint effect on words' P-centers will then be considered in light of the isochrony, timing, and slot literatures.