Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 104 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-81).

Starting with Steele and Aronson (1995), research documents the performance decrements resulting from the activation of a negative task-relevant stereotype. I suggest that negative stereotypes can generate better performance, as they produce a prevention focus (Higgins, 2000; Seibt & Förster, 2004), because a prevention focus leads to greater cognitive flexibility in a task where points are lost (Maddox, Markman, & Baldwin, 2006). My prior work, Experiments 1 and 2, done in collaboration with Arthur B. Markman, W. Todd Maddox, and Grant C. Baldwin, used a category learning task that requires the participant test different explicit rules to correctly categorize stimuli. Half of the participants gained points for correct responses while half of the participants lost points for correct responses. We primed a positive or a negative gender stereotype. The negative prime matches the losses environment while the positive prime matches the gains environment. The match states are assumed to increase dopamine release into frontal brain areas leading to increased cognitive flexibility and better task performance whereas the mismatch states should not. Thus, we predict and obtain a 3-way interaction between Stereotype (Positive, Negative), Gender (Male, Female), and Reward structure (Gains, Losses) for accuracy and strategy. Experiments 3 and 4 used a category learning task, which requires the implicit learning system to govern participant responses. This task had an information-integration category structure and involves the striatum (e.g., Maddox & Ashby, 2004). Importantly, cognitive flexibility will hurt performance using this category structure. I therefore predicted that regulatory match states, created by manipulating Stereotype and Reward structure, will produce worse performance than mismatch states. I did not completely reverse the effects described in Experiments 1 and 2 as predicted. I found evidence supporting my predictions using computational models to test for task strategy in Experiment 3 and found results consistent with the flexibility hypothesis in Experiment 4. Importantly, I believe that stereotype threat effects should not be conceptualized as a main effect with negative stereotypes producing worse performance than positive stereotypes, but instead as an interaction between the motivational state of the individual, task environment, and type of task performed.

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This research examines the summation characteristics of the neural network subserving self-stimulation reward. The data show that the neural network has two integrators that sum the signals produced by brain stimulation. The time constant of the first integrator is approximately 450 msec, whereas that of the second integrator is approximately 6.5 sec. Furthermore, these integrators are sensitive to the spatiotemporal arrival of the signals. / When prolonged stimulation is delivered at a high pulse frequency, the initial pulses contribute the most to the rewarding effect. Later pulses are affected by the reduced ability of the neurons or synapses to transmit signals along the neural network due to fatigue. / A fatigue effect may be dissipated by splitting a pulse train into two parts by an interval of no stimulation. This should increase the rewarding effectiveness of the pulse train. However, the rewarding effectiveness is dependent upon the duration of the interval of no stimulation and the magnitude of the two pulse-train halves. A long interval of no stimulation combined with a low stimulation magnitude may cause a frustration response and a decay in memory of the associations between the response, first pulse-train half, and second pulse-train half. These would make the rewarding effectiveness of the two pulse-train halves lower than that of a continuous pulse train. / Previous models of summation are unable to predict the present results. The data are explained in terms of a newly developed model of summation involving two central integrators and fatigue.

Despite growing recognition that impulsivity is associated with pathological gambling (PG), three methodological concerns continue to prevent a meaningful examination of how impulsivity is specifically associated with PG. First, the lack of studies specifically comparing PGs to less severe gamblers leaves the question of whether impulsivity was not also associated with less severe gamblers unexamined. Second, the inadequate control of confounding variables in most studies raises concerns about whether findings that impulsivity is associated with PG may be spurious. Third, many findings that impulsivity is associated with PG are based on unrelated definitions of impulsivity, and are therefore relatively uninformative. / The present series of studies is the first attempt to address all of these concerns at the same time. In terms of appropriate comparison groups, study 1 compared PGs to at-risk gamblers and social gamblers, and study 2 compared severe PGs to moderately severe PGs and social gamblers. In terms of adequate controls, both studies examined PGs who were not in treatment and representative in terms of comorbid drug use. In addition, both studies controlled for age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, psychiatric comorbidity, and general cognitive function. Study 2 furthermore controlled for depression, trait anxiety, aggression, and criminality. In terms of improving how impulsivity is examined, study 1 elaborated a neuroanatomically-based definition of impulsivity and examined how three hypothesized neuroanatomical components of impulsivity were associated with PG. In study 2, different operationalizations of impulsivity, based on the same definition of impulsivity, were examined regarding their association with PG. / Every measure that was directly related to the present definition of impulsivity was significantly associated with severe PGs, and only severe PGs, suggesting that severe PGs may comprise a distinct group of gamblers. Measures which were not directly related to this definition of impulsivity were not significantly different between severe PGs (or PGs in study 1) and less severe gamblers. Severe PGs performed as well or better than social gamblers on retention capacity and attention control measures of working memory. / In conclusion, the inability to inhibit inappropriate reward-seeking is argued to be a primary deficit of severe PGs in our sample.

The present program of research explored the impact of performance-contingent rewards on perceived autonomy and intrinsic motivation. Four studies sought to clarify the debate between behaviorist (Eisenberger and Cameron, 1996; Eisenberger, Pierce, and Cameron, 1999; Eisenberger, Rhoades, and Cameron, 1999) and the social cognitive researchers (Deci & Ryan, 1980, 1985; Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 1999) regarding the impact of such incentives on perceived autonomy. Two experimental studies (Studies 1 and 2) examined this relationship among college students and elementary school children. Results revealed an undermining effect of performance-contingent rewards on participants' affective experience of autonomy (enhanced feelings of pressure and tension). No significant results were found on intrinsic motivation for college students, whereas for elementary school children, rewards increased enjoyment for the target activity. / Two field-based quasi-experimental studies (Studies 3 and 4) were designed to explore the impact of performance-contingent rewards in an organizational setting. Both studies differentiated between private sector workers, who received a merit-based salary (performance-reward expectancy) and workers from the public sector who received a salary based on seniority (no performance-reward expectancy). Study 3 replicated the previous findings by demonstrating that that performance-reward expectancy undermined workers perceived autonomy. Study 4 extended these results by revealing that the presence of performance contingent reward programs in organizations undermined employees' work satisfaction and relatedness. Such incentives also had a tendency to reduce workers' adjustment to retirement.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.A. Hons. 1980) from the Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide.