<p>Multiple reference frames are used to interact with our surroundings. When these reference frames are in conflict, processing errors can occur. For tactile stimuli, this conflict is highlighted when the hands are crossed over the midline of the body. In this posture, vibrotactile temporal order judgments (TOJs) presented to the hands are impaired compared to an uncrossed posture. This decrease in temporal processing is known as the crossed-hands deficit. The deficit was explored in depth throughout this thesis. In Chapters 2, 3 and 4 different elements of the crossed-hands deficit were evaluated including its connections to the rod and frame test, individual and sex differences within the TOJ task, as well as the influence of vision and body position. These elements were framed with underlying goal of investigating the root cause of the deficit. The data presented here provided evidence for a conflict model of crossed hands processing. A conflict between the internal and external reference frames produced the deficit in temporal processing when the hands were crossed. The role of the body’s midline in understanding multisensory integration was further considered in Chapter 5 through the rubber hand illusion, which is a visuotactile phenomenon whereby an unseen real hand is mislocalized towards a seen rubber hand. When the real hand, rubber hand, or both were crossed over the midline the illusion did not occur. It was hypothesized that a failure to integrate the tactile information presented to the real hand with the visual rubber hand was responsible for the absence of the illusion. Taken together, the data presented in this thesis contribute to the greater understanding of how reference frame conflicts are resolved, particularly when the conflict occurs across the body’s midline.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Experimental aesthetics research has been conducted since the nineteenth century. Interestingly, however, few studies have examined the perceived beauty of naturally shaped objects. In the current experiment, 204 participants were presented with a set of ten snowflake silhouettes that varied in complexity (perimeter relative to area); they were similarly presented with ten randomly-shaped, computer-generated, solid objects that also varied in complexity. For each stimulus set, the participants selected the single snowflake or object that was the most beautiful (Fechner’s method of choice). The results for the solid objects replicated the findings of earlier research: the most and least complex objects were chosen as the most beautiful. Moderately complex objects were rarely selected. The results for the snowflakes were different. For these visual stimuli, the least complex snowflakes were almost never chosen; only the complex snowflakes were perceived to be most beautiful, with the aesthetic preference increasing with increases in complexity.

The last few decades have seen a growing body of research on narcissism, however few studies have examined the relationship between subclinical narcissism and future orientation. The proposed study will examine how grandiose and vulnerable types of narcissism influence future orientation, and whether anxiety, depression, impulsivity and sense of control play mediating roles in this relationship. It is hypothesized that anxiety will play a mediating role between future orientation and vulnerable narcissism, but not between grandiose narcissism and future orientation. Finally, it is hypothesized that grandiose and vulnerable narcissism will be correlated within individuals. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) will be used to test the hypotheses, and the a priori model is expected to have a good fit to the data. This study will further our understanding about how narcissists view their futures, and whether this is influenced by mediating factors.

Athletes are at risk of sustaining a concussion in all sports and at all competitive levels which may lead to balance impairments. Balance results from the integration of visual, vestibular, and somatosensory information. The underlying pathophysiology for balance impairments is not well understood and visuo-motor processing impairments and how these impairments contribute to balance in concussed athletes has not been reported. Objectives: (1) to investigate the influence of visual perturbation on upright postural stability and balance in athletes who have recently suffered a sports-related concussion, (2) to establish the test-retest reliability of a simple visuo-motor processing task. Design: A longitudinal, cohort design. Setting: University research laboratory. Subjects: Fourteen interscholastic, club, and intercollegiate athletes (8 males, 6 females, age 17.21±2.97 years, height 176.43±12.73cm, mass 75.55±22.76kg) participated. Seven subjects with acute concussions (injury) were matched to seven control subjects. Intervention(s): All subjects completed a simple visuo-motor processing task (SVMP), Sensory Organization Test (SOT), and modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction in Balance (mCTSIB). Each subject’s balance was tested under two visual testing conditions: (1) standard testing methods with normal visual fields, and (2) visual distraction through optical flow motion using a computer-generated optical flow pattern. Testing was done 24-48 hours and ten days following injury. The order of the testing was counterbalanced (standard protocol or visual distraction) and day of testing. Main Outcome Measures: Reaction time, accuracy, number of errors on SVMP; composite equilibrium score, sensory system preference on SOT; and mean center of gravity sway velocity on mCTSIB. Results: Significant impairments were noted on day 1 of testingcompared to day 10 for SVMP reaction time (day 1=496.18±52.82ms, day 10=439.01±20.62ms, F=4.72, p=0.01), and SOT composite equilibrium score standard (day 1=73.14±5.73, day 10=83.57±2.15, F=7.60, p<0.001). Conclusion: Physiological changes occur immediately following concussions that affect the visual system, more specifically, visuo-motor processing. The SVMP task provides unique information about visuo-motor processing following a concussion that is not currently being assessed. Visuo-motor processing is correlated with upright balance and should be evaluated following a sports-related concussion.

Studies have shown that adults often categorize mixed-race individuals of White and non-White descent as members of the non-White racial group, an effect said to be reminiscent of the “hypodescent” or “one-drop rule.” This effect has not yet been thoroughly studied in infants, although 9-month-old infants have been shown to be able to categorize mono-racial faces into different racial groups. In the present study, the perception of mixed-race White and Asian/Asian American faces was studied in sixteen 8.5-month-old infants. The infants were randomly assigned to two stimulus groups. The stimuli were the photographed faces of female college students who had self-identified as White, Asian/Asian American, or a 50-50 mix of those two races. Half the infants were habituated to White faces and half were habituated to Asian/Asian American faces, after which all infants were shown a mixed-race face. The results revealed that only infants in the White stimulus group recovered looking to the mixed-race face. This effect suggests that 8.5- month-old infants might see the mixed-race face as part of a different racial group than the White faces, and may see the mixed-race face as part of the same racial group as the Asian faces. Implications of this study on a larger scale are discussed. Further research including a larger sample size and participants of Asian/Asian American descent is recommended.

The proposed study explores the cognitive miser approach to perception formation in job interviews, as well as factors that may motivate people to not act as cognitive misers. Personality type (introverted and extraverted) and gender are characteristics of people that are associated with many stereotypes (Heilman, 2001; Andersen & Klatzky, 1987), and can have a large influence on an employer’s perception of an applicant, particularly when the employer is acting as a cognitive miser. It is hypothesized that in longer interviews, employers will be motivated to not act as cognitive misers, because they have more information about the applicant, have more of an opportunity to disconfirm any biases they may hold about the applicant, and experience greater liking toward the applicant. To test this, participants will conduct interviews with job applicants (who are actually confederates) and rate their perceptions of the applicants’ expected job performance. Participants will either conduct a long or short interview with a male introvert, a female introvert, a male extravert, or a female extravert. Job applicants will provide participants with the same information, although the information about personality type and the amount of information given will depend on the condition. It is predicted that participants who conduct shorter interviews will rate the applicants in line with popular stereotypes that favor extraverts over introverts, and males over females. Conversely, participants in longer interviews will be motivated to thoroughly think through their evaluations of the applicants, and there will be no significant difference in their ratings of male extraverts, female extraverts, male introverts, and female introverts.

The aim of this experiment was to study whether completing a questionnaire either related or unrelated to various aspects of the workplace could induce different implicit and explicit stereotypic associations with Down syndrome. Subjects read one of three questionnaires before completing a task designed to measure implicit associations. The task consisted of photo primes of faces belonging to individuals with Down syndrome and typically developing individuals, followed by an evaluative decision task with adjectives related to the stereotype dimensions of warmth and competence. Following the implicit task, participants were asked directly about their associations between Down syndrome and each of the target traits. It was hypothesized that Down syndrome would be systematically associated with low competence, regardless of the context primed, but that it would be associated with greater warmth when morale-related aspects of the workplace were primed than when efficiency-related aspects of the workplace were primed. These hypotheses were not supported, and questionnaire type did not seem to prime specific associations in the implicit task. However, consistent with past research, Down syndrome was associated with high ratings of warmth on the explicit measure, and implicit results suggest Down syndrome may be implicitly associated with greater warmth as well. Methodological limitations of the study are discussed, as well as possible directions for future research.

Collective memory is a socially shared representation of the past. History, contrastingly, strives to be an unbiased, objective, and critical account of the past. Many researchers have argued that the so-called “history” found in school textbooks and curriculums align more with collective memory; however, many individuals do not know of the pervasiveness of collective memory in supposed “history” texts. To examine perceptions of accuracy and preference of American “history” textbook passages, individuals from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (n= 404) participated in an online study where they were randomly assigned to read one passage that was either negatively biased, neutral, or positively biased regarding the U.S. dropping the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Participants rated their emotional valence of the event and their perceptions of accuracy and preference for the passage. The results suggest that individuals perceive negatively biased passages as less accurate and less preferable, even if their emotional valence matches the bias within the text. Individuals also showed the hypothesized interaction for preference; those who perceived the event as not negative preferred the positive text to the neutral and negative texts. The findings support evidence that individuals are motivated to prefer history passages consistent with their attitudes and rate higher accuracy among positive and neutral texts. The results have broader implications on reporting or dismissing human rights violations within collective memory.

All athletes are driven by motivation, sources or reasons to push their bodies to their limits and continue to do so regularly. There have been several studies concerning motivation in typical athletes, and many regarding social motivation in people with High Functioning Autism (HFA), however most have been limited to children, and there have been no investigations into HFA athletes’ motivation. The current study looks into the role of social dimensions in athletics, and tests how one’s gender and placement on the Empathy Questionnaire (EQ), Systemizing Questionnaire (SQ), and on the Autism Questionnaire (AQ) affect intrinsic motivation in athletics. It was predicted that athletes with HFA would demonstrate greater levels of intrinsic motivation than those with lower scores on the Systemizing and Autism Questionnaires. The second hypothesis predicted that those who are more prone to systematizing (and perhaps higher on the AQ) would be more intrinsically motivated than those who are more prone to empathizing, as social rewards may not be as important to them. To uncover the differences between intrinsic motivation due to placement on the AQ, SQ and EQ, as well as differences between sexes and coaching feedback, a combination of Linear Regression Analyses, Independent Groups T-Tests and Correlations (n=25) were used. The first hypothesis was invalid due to lack of recruitment of HFA participants, but the second was supported by the data.

No description available.