Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-101).

The present research addressed an assumption of Attention Restoration Theory (ART), which predicts that built scene content captures attention more strongly than natural content. Section І covers the findings of three pilot studies that were aimed at finding a suitable methodology for contrasting the saliency of natural and built content. An initial study in which use was made of a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) did not provide evidence for divergent saliency levels between natural and built scene categories. Hence, a Go/No-Go paradigm with shorter exposure times was used in later studies. A second pilot study was carried out in order to determine which scene category labels are both comprehensible and interpreted consistently across respondents. A third pilot study was aimed at filtering out boundary case scenes from the set of images pre-selected by the experimenter. Section ІІ covers four studies, which addressed two aims: (1) To test whether built content is more salient than natural scene content, and (2) to test the effect of inconsistent built and natural elements on saliency. These studies supported the claim of ART that built scenes are more salient than natural scenes. In addition, they provided evidence for the assumption that a built element increases the saliency of a natural scene more strongly than a natural element increases the saliency of a built scene. The relationship between saliency of content and restoration is explored in Section ІІІ. The findings provided mixed evidence in support of ART. Restoration of alerting attention was more complete following non-salient than salient scenes. However, previous research indicating stronger restoration of executive attention and working memory span in response to natural than built content exposures was not replicated. Furthermore, restoration of orienting attention was more complete following salient than non-salient scene presentations. It is concluded that saliency of scene content is predictive of psychological restoration, albeit not necessarily in the way as predicted by ART.

x, 262 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1974

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on November 1, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2004. / Härtill 3 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1974.

Thesis (B.S.) Magna Cum Laude--Butler University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-24).

According to the network theory of psychoneuroimmunology, (Hyland, 2011a), the placebo response is a short-term, problem solving response to a variety of inputs processed via the ‘infornet’. However, within the current infornet model of placebo response, these inputs are categorized as either conscious verbal inputs, or inputs learnt via traditional conditioning mechanisms. This thesis investigates the extent to which other ‘higher-order’ subliminal inputs may also play a part in determining placebo response. The findings presented here found no reliable effect of subliminal priming information on placebo response in a short-term placebo context. Further research is needed to determine if subliminally presented information is more likely to be used within a long-term placebo context. The lack of consistency in findings across this set of experiments supports replication criticisms leveled at the subliminal priming field, and the claim that differences in trivial contextual details may be the underlying cause of these inconsistencies. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.

No description available.

Three aspects of stimulus content, i.e. meaningfulness, familiarity and task relevance, were manipulated without the subjects awareness. A number of subliminal (backward-masked) stimuli were presented to the subject whose task it was to estimate an interval of 1 sec (starting with the presentation-flash) by pressing a button. Supraliminal words were randomly interspersed among these, subliminal stimuli, appearing above or below the masked field. Whenever the subject detected a previously assigned target among the supraliminal stimuli, he/she was required to press the button as fast as possible. The meaningfulness of the subliminal material was manipulated using words, nonwords and blanks. Three groups of words were used: the targets, the nontargets and other, 'new' words (which were never presented supraliminally). Task relevance (targets vs. nontargets) and familiarity ('new' words vs. other words) were thus manipulated. Unexpectedly, detection performance was better with words than with nonwords. This suggests that detection is a late process drawing on lexical information. Several components of the event related potential (ERP) differentiated as early as 140 msec poststimulus between sub-and supraliminal conditions. More importantly, differences within the subliminal conditions were observed: familiarity was discriminated after 260 msec and simple presence of a string after 300 msec. These results are consistent with the conclusions drawn from detection performance, and they support the notion that backward masking does not disrupt processing. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate