The simultaneity judgment (SJ) and temporal order judgment (TOJ) tasks are the two widely used methods for measuring the window of multisensory integration; however, there are some indications that these two tasks involve different cognitive processes and therefore produce unrelated results. The present study measured observers’ visuotactile window of integration using these two tasks in order to examine whether or not SJs and TOJs produce consistent results for this particular pairing of modalities. Experiment 1 revealed no significant correlations between the SJ and TOJ tasks, indicating that they appear to measure distinct processes in visuotactile integration, and in addition showed that both sensory and decisional factors contribute to this difference. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2, which, along with Experiment 3, also showed that the reliability of the SJ and TOJ tasks may in part be responsible for the lack of agreement between these two tasks. A secondary result concerned the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS), which were tactile-leading across all three experiments. This contradicts some of the previous literature in visuotactile integration. Manipulating the spatial distance between the visual and tactile stimulus (Experiment 2) and the certainty of stimulus location (Experiment 3) did not lead to significant changes of the location of the PSS. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Perception often involves the use of more than one sensory modality at the same time; for example, touching an object usually produces sensory signals in the visual and tactile modalities. Since the amount of time needed to transmit and process sensory signals is different among the modalities, the brain allows for a certain time difference between signals of various pairs of modalities that it will consider as coming from one event. Two tasks commonly used to measure these allowable time differences are the simultaneity judgment (SJ) and temporal order judgment (TOJ) tasks. Although they are usually used interchangeably, the present data show that the results from these tasks in the visuotactile pairing of modalities are unrelated, and a major contributing reason appears to be that these tasks are not the most reliable.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the temporal order in the association between marijuana use and depression. There are two possible hypothesis examined, and for each of them is conducted a separate set of analyses. The dependent variable in the first hypothesis is current depression, predicted by previous and current marijuana use, abuse, and dependence. In the second hypothesis the dependent variables are current marijuana use, abuse, and dependence, predicted by previous and current depression. To conduct the analyses this study uses data from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS). The NCS is an epidemiological research study of the prevalence, causes, and consequences of psychiatric disorders and comorbodity, analyzing data from a national sample of 8098 participants covering an age range from 15 to 54 years old. Results show that prior depression is the main predictor of current depression while marijuana use has a weak effect on current depression. Marijuana users are slightly more depressed than never users, but the lag of the effect is short. There is a strong association between marijuana use and abuse and other drug use and abuse. Findings show that prior marijuana and other drug use and abuse predict current marijuana use and abuse. There is a weak association between current depression and current marijuana use, and when controlled for prior marijuana use this association disappears. The results of this study provide no support for the coping theory. There is a clear pattern of comorbidity of both, mental disorders, and substance use and abuse. / Master of Science

Audio has the capacity to display geospatial data. As auditory display design grapples with the challenge of aligning the spatial dimensions of the data with the dimensions of the display, this dissertation investigates the role of time in auditory geographic maps. Three auditory map types translate geospatial data into collections of musical notes, and arrangement of those notes in time vary across three map types: sequential, augmented-sequential, and concurrent. Behavioral and neuroimaging methods assess the auditory symbology. A behavioral task establishes geographic context, and neuroimaging provides a quantitative measure of brain responses to the behavioral task under recall and active listening response conditions. In both behavioral and neuroimaging data, two paired contrasts measure differences between the sequential and augmented-sequential map types, and between the augmented- sequential and concurrent map types. Behavioral data reveal differences in both response time and accuracy. Response times for the augmented-sequential map type are substantially longer in both contrasts under the active response condition. Accuracy is lower for concurrent maps than for augmented-sequential maps; response condition influences direction of differences in accuracy between the sequential and augmented-sequential map types. Neuroimaging data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) show significant differences in blood-oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response during map listening. The BOLD response is significantly stronger in the left auditory cortex and planum temporale for the concurrent map type in contrast to the augmented- sequential map type. And the response in the right auditory cortex and bilaterally in the visual cortex is significantly stronger for augmented-sequential maps in contrast to sequential maps. Results from this research provide empirical evidence to inform choices in the design of auditory cartographic displays, enriching the diversity of geographic map artifacts. Four supplemental files and two data sets are available online. Three audio files demonstrate the three map types: sequential (Supplementary Files, Audio 1), augmented- sequential (Supplementary Files, Audio 2), and concurrent (Supplementary Files, Audio 3). Associated data are available through OpenNeuro (https://openneuro.org/ datasets/ds001415).

Anillin is a highly conserved multi-domain cytoskeletal protein that provides a spatial and temporal scaffold for contractile ring proteins to ensure successful cytokinesis. We have looked at the temporal order of anillin and septin recruitment to the cleavage furrow using time-lapse microscopy and found that anillin localizes to the furrow in early anaphase while septins appear there later in an anillin-dependent manner. We also characterized the effect of anillin depletion in different cell lines and observed that septins and myosin delocalize in the absence of anillin in Tet-ON HeLa, AD293 and ARPE-19 cells but not in wild type HeLa cells. Asymmetric furrow formation was also investigated using the epithelial cell model: MDCK cells. Depletion of anillin and SEPT9 in MDCK cells was achieved using lentivirus shRNA constructs and this revealed that anillin or SEPT9 depletion did not affect asymmetric cytokinesis, although localization of SEPT 9 was affected by anillin depletion.

Anillin is a highly conserved multi-domain cytoskeletal protein that provides a spatial and temporal scaffold for contractile ring proteins to ensure successful cytokinesis. We have looked at the temporal order of anillin and septin recruitment to the cleavage furrow using time-lapse microscopy and found that anillin localizes to the furrow in early anaphase while septins appear there later in an anillin-dependent manner. We also characterized the effect of anillin depletion in different cell lines and observed that septins and myosin delocalize in the absence of anillin in Tet-ON HeLa, AD293 and ARPE-19 cells but not in wild type HeLa cells. Asymmetric furrow formation was also investigated using the epithelial cell model: MDCK cells. Depletion of anillin and SEPT9 in MDCK cells was achieved using lentivirus shRNA constructs and this revealed that anillin or SEPT9 depletion did not affect asymmetric cytokinesis, although localization of SEPT 9 was affected by anillin depletion.

Anillin is a highly conserved multi-domain cytoskeletal protein that provides a spatial and temporal scaffold for contractile ring proteins to ensure successful cytokinesis. We have looked at the temporal order of anillin and septin recruitment to the cleavage furrow using time-lapse microscopy and found that anillin localizes to the furrow in early anaphase while septins appear there later in an anillin-dependent manner. We also characterized the effect of anillin depletion in different cell lines and observed that septins and myosin delocalize in the absence of anillin in Tet-ON HeLa, AD293 and ARPE-19 cells but not in wild type HeLa cells. Asymmetric furrow formation was also investigated using the epithelial cell model: MDCK cells. Depletion of anillin and SEPT9 in MDCK cells was achieved using lentivirus shRNA constructs and this revealed that anillin or SEPT9 depletion did not affect asymmetric cytokinesis, although localization of SEPT 9 was affected by anillin depletion.

Anillin is a highly conserved multi-domain cytoskeletal protein that provides a spatial and temporal scaffold for contractile ring proteins to ensure successful cytokinesis. We have looked at the temporal order of anillin and septin recruitment to the cleavage furrow using time-lapse microscopy and found that anillin localizes to the furrow in early anaphase while septins appear there later in an anillin-dependent manner. We also characterized the effect of anillin depletion in different cell lines and observed that septins and myosin delocalize in the absence of anillin in Tet-ON HeLa, AD293 and ARPE-19 cells but not in wild type HeLa cells. Asymmetric furrow formation was also investigated using the epithelial cell model: MDCK cells. Depletion of anillin and SEPT9 in MDCK cells was achieved using lentivirus shRNA constructs and this revealed that anillin or SEPT9 depletion did not affect asymmetric cytokinesis, although localization of SEPT 9 was affected by anillin depletion.

Attended objects are perceived differently than unattended objects. Spatial attention is consistently associated with an enhancement in spatial resolution. However, the relation between spatial attention and temporal resolution is not as straightforward. Some studies have shown that attention enhances temporal resolution, and others have shown that attention degrades temporal resolution. The motivation of the present work was to investigate the source of this discrepancy. In particular, the research herein examines the hypothesis that attention degrades temporal resolution when the target stimuli are easily integrated (i.e., according to the Gestalt principles of grouping), and that attention enhances temporal resolution when the targets are easy to perceptually segregate. Temporal resolution was assessed by the mean just noticeable difference (the minimum temporal interval in milliseconds required by observers to perform the task at 75% accuracy) in a visual temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. Trials involved the presentation of two targets, at randomly varying stimulus onset asynchronies, and observers reported which one they perceived first. The primary research questions concerned the effect of perceptual grouping on temporal resolution, and the influence of attention on that relation. Grouping processes were manipulated using a variety of Gestalt principles and attention was investigated under conditions of automatically-and voluntarily-driven orienting. Three main findings emerged: temporal resolution is worse for grouped than ungrouped targets; attention modulates the effect of grouping on temporal resolution on a continuum - strong grouping effects produce large impairments on temporal resolution, and weaker grouping effects produce smaller impairments; and automatic and voluntary spatial orienting affect the relation between grouping and temporal resolution differently - automatic orienting augments the relation, while voluntary orienting does not. I conclude that the discrepant findings in the previous research are due to object-based factors pertaining to the target stimuli and propose an object-based theory of temporal perception. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

abstract: Temporal-order judgments can require integration of self-generated action-events and external sensory information. In a previous study, it was found that participants are biased to perceive one’s own action-events to occur prior to simultaneous external events. This phenomenon, named the “Egocentric Temporal Order Bias”, or ETO bias, was demonstrated as a 67% probability for participants to report self-generated events as occurring prior to simultaneous externally-determined events. These results were interpreted as supporting a feed-forward, constructive model of perception. However, the empirical data could support many potential mechanisms. The present study tests whether the ETO bias is driven by attentional differences, feed-forward predictability, or action. These findings support that participants exhibit a bias due to both feed-forward predictability and action, and a Bayesian analysis supports that these effects are quantitatively unique. Therefore, the results indicate that the ETO bias is largely driven by one’s own action, over and above feed-forward predictability. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2020

Prior entry refers to the notion that attended stimuli are perceived sooner than unattended stimuli due to a speed up in sensory processing. The century long debate regarding the prior entry phenomenon’s existence has always been grounded in the degree to which the methods applied to the problem allow for cognitive response bias. This thesis continues that trend by applying the synchrony comparison judgment method to the problem of audiovisual prior entry. Experiment 1 put this method into context with two other common psychophysical methods – the temporal order judgment and the synchrony judgment – that have been applied to the prior entry problem. The results of this experiment indicated that the temporal order judgment method was out of step with the other two methods in terms of the parameter estimates typically used to evaluate prior entry. Experiment 2 evaluated and confirmed that a specific response bias helps explain the difference in parameter estimates between the temporal order judgment method and the other two. Experiment 3 evaluated the precision of the synchrony comparison judgment method. The results indicated that the method was precise enough to detect potentially small prior entry effect sizes, and that it afforded the ability to detect those participants with points of subjective synchrony that deviate substantially from zero. Finally, Experiment 4 applied the synchrony comparison judgment method to a prior entry scenario. A prior entry effect was not realized. Overall, this thesis highlights the drawbacks of all previous methods used to evaluate audiovisual perception, including prior entry, and validates the use of the synchrony comparison judgment. Further, due to the resistance of this method to response bias, this result now stands as the most convincing evidence yet against the prior entry phenomenon.