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Values and valuing behavior have many conceptualizations. Despite how they are defined, values have a significant impact on behavior and are idiosyncratic in nature. The present study reviewed values research and sought to explore values identification and successful valued living among an archived sample of university students. Specifically, in a convenience sample of 282 undergraduate students, variables that affect values identification and behavior such as ethnicity, gender, psychological distress, and psychological flexibility were identified. Results indicated that university students identified with more than one valued living domain (as measured by the PVQ) and that contextual factors such as ethnicity, gender, age, and religiosity/spirituality were associated with specific values endorsed. Furthermore, psychological distress, including depression and anxiety (as measured by the DASS) was negatively correlated with values purity – the extent to which values are freely chosen. Finally, psychological flexibility (low experiential avoidance as measured by the AAQ-2), predicted values purity and successful living in accordance with identified values, and the relationship between these two variables was mediated by psychological flexibility.

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Although recent research has demonstrated that intrusive memories of negative autobiographical events are an overlapping cognitive feature of depression and PTSD, there is still a general paucity of research investigating the prevalence and maintenance of these memories in depression. Accordingly, the current thesis represented a much-needed program of empirically-driven research that delineated the cognitive processes that underpin the manifestation, experience, and persistence of intrusive memories in depression. Firstly, Study 1 used descriptive and correlational methodologies to outline the content and features of these memories, and explored whether intrusion characteristics linked to intrusive memories in PTSD are also features of intrusive memories in depression. In accord with studies in PTSD samples, sensory features accounted for unique variance in the prediction of depression severity, over and above that accounted for by intrusion frequency. This commonality raised the possibility that cognitive management strategies linked to the persistence of intrusive memories in PTSD may also play a role in depression. Accordingly, Study 2 utilized a cross-sectional and prospective design to investigate whether negative appraisals and cognitive avoidance strategies, which are key to the persistence of intrusive memories in PTSD, similarly play a role in depression. The results demonstrated that assigning negative appraisals to one???s intrusive memory, and attempts to control the memory, were positively associated with intrusion-related distress, level of depression, and cognitive avoidance mechanisms. Additionally, negative appraisals and the use of cognitive mechanisms were predictive of depression concurrently, but not prospectively. Studies 3, 4, and 5 further investigated avoidant intrusion- response strategies by assessing the role of recall vantage perspective in mediating the effects of intrusion-related distress. Study 3 found that although field memories were not experienced as more distressing than observer memories, the results supported an association between an observer vantage perspective and cognitive avoidance mechanisms. As this study employed a correlational design, Study 4 addressed the question of directionality by experimentally manipulating mode of recall to ascertain whether shifting participants into a converse perspective would have differential effects on the reported experience of their intrusive memory. Results indicated that shifting participants from a field to an observer perspective resulted in decreased experiential ratings; specifically, reduced distress and vividness and increased detachment and observation. Also, as anticipated, the converse shift in perspective (from observer to field) did not lead to a corresponding increase in experiential ratings, but resulted in reduced ratings of observation. Study 5 attempted to investigate the stability of this memory orientation phenomenon by investigating mode of recall vantage perspective prospectively. Attrition of participants across the 12-month study limited analyses to the descriptive level, but illustrated that, at least for some individuals, recall vantage perspective remained stable across assessments periods. Collectively, the findings supported the notion that recall perspective has a functional role in the regulation of intrusion-related distress and represents a cognitive avoidance mechanism. Studies 6 and 7 employed experimental methodologies to investigate whether adopting an abstract/analytical mode of processing following a negative event would result in poor emotional processing, or increased distress associated with intrusive memories. Study 6 found no differences in either intrusion frequency or associated levels of distress across the processing conditions, as hypothesized. The results of Study 6 suggested that the predicted effects of ruminative self-focus on intrusion severity may be dependent upon the self-referential nature of the material being processed. Results of Study 7 indicated that inducing an analytical ruminative mode of processing resulted in participants rating their naturally occurring, self-referential intrusive memories as more negative, more distressing, and evoking a more negative emotional response compared to inducing distraction. Taken together, Studies 6 and 7 suggest the possibility that depressed individuals may get caught up in a ruminative cycle that, due to the documented effects of analytical self-focus, may exacerbate the emotional response elicited by the intrusions and perpetuate biased attentional focus towards them. Finally, Studies 8 and 9 explored suppression as a cognitive avoidance mechanism and addressed some methodological concerns regarding the measurement of this construct. Study 8 investigated the effects of repeated suppression using a method to index the frequency, duration, and associated levels of distress of an experimentally-induced intrusive memory, and assessed whether any observed effects were differentially linked to depressive symptomatology. Results supported a secondary rebound effect in those participants who were most successful at suppressing target intrusions. Study 9 was an investigation of the English version of the TCAQ (Luciano, Algarabel, Tom??s, & Mart??nez, 2005), an index of cognitive control. Study 9 evaluated the association between this measure and performance on a thought suppression task. The results indicated that low TCAQ-20 scorers experienced intrusions of a longer duration and rated these intrusions as more distressing than high TCAQ-20 scorers, supporting the validity of the measure. These findings highlight the role of suppression as a maladaptive mental control strategy and the potential for elevated intrusion-distress to perpetuate its use. Together, the findings of this program of research confirm the importance of intrusive memories in depression, and underscore the need for an empirically-supported model to account for the occurrence and maintenance of these memories.

This paper presents algorithms for computing constraints on the position of an object due to the presence of obstacles. This problem arises in applications which require choosing how to arrange or move objects among other objects. The basis of the approach presented here is to characterize the position and orientation of the object of interest as a single point in a Configuration Space, in which each coordinate represents a degree of freedom in the position and/or orientation of the object. The configurations forbidden to this object, due to the presence of obstacles, can then be characterized as regions in the Configuration Space. The paper presents algorithms for computing these Configuration Space obstacles when the objects and obstacles are polygons or polyhedra. An approximation technique for high-dimensional Configuration Space obstacles, based on projections of obstacles slices, is described.

There are various kinds of creature living in the world and each kind of creatures has its own unique life habits and behavior patterns. For these reasons between the creature as well as the biology and the environment can have many interactions with each other, and we may observe these interactions easily in the frequently daily life. However the humanity may be the quantity hugest, and also have the most complex behavior at the fine race group in all kind of creatures on earth. So how could we penetrate into by observed and analysis to obtain the information which translates to the computer simulation realistically is a topic of the very hardship with challenge to presents the human behavior. Virtually all previous work has been agent-based, meaning that motion is computed separately for each individual. Such models can capture each person¡¦s unique situation. So the agent-based modeling will inevitably result in a large number of calculation and make poor efficiency. In addition, there are leader-follower system which consists of a leader and multiple followers. This leader will lead the entire group to the destination, and the followers will follow the motion of their leader closely. In our research apply the physical properties of electric charge to the simulation of pedestrians by using the basic concepts of electromagnetism. The simulation method contains the agent-based modeling and the leader-follower system at the same time. The agent-based modeling simulates pedestrian of the individual motion. The goal of the leader-follower system is to simulate the real world behavior that people in a community often move by following a specific object.

Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Psychology-Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2009. / "May, 2009." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 12/2/2009) Advisor, Aaron M. Schmidt; Committee members, Rosalie J. Hall, Paul E. Levy, Yang Lin, Robert G. Lord; Department Chair, Paul E. Levy; Dean of the College, Chand Midha; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

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Learned taste avoidance (LTA) was studied by allowing rats to drink a novel sweet solution followed by induction of gastric malaise (training). When the solution was presented again (test), normal rats reduced their consumption. Ultrasonic vocalizations indicated that the rats experienced positive affect during training which shifted to negative affect during the test. Basolateral amygdala lesions eliminated the LTA and the negative affective shift when the rats were 23 hr water deprived during both training and test suggesting amygdala-based Pavlovian conditioning, but only attenuated the LTA and eliminated the aversive shift when the rats were 3 hr deprived on the test, suggesting instrumental learning. When rats were 3 h deprived during training the lesions had no effect on either the LTA or the negative affective shift, suggesting an amygdala-independent form of LTA based on latent learning.