Voluntary actions affect subsequent perception. For example, an action that precedes an auditory stimulus is perceived to have occurred later in time than is actually the case, while the auditory stimulus is perceived earlier in time. This effect is known as intentional binding. Current literature regarding action effects focuses on perception of a single sensory modality while the effects on perception of multiple modalities remain largely unknown. The present thesis explored how actions influenced the timing of perceived multisensory events. Additionally, this thesis investigated differences in voluntary compared to involuntary actions on subsequent perception. In Chapter 2, action effects on perceived onsets of visual and tactile stimuli were explored. This question was extended to other bimodal pairs, including audiovisual and audiotactile, in Chapter 3. Lastly, in Chapter 4, action effects on temporal resolution were investigated. In all the experiments, participants performed a chosen or a fixed button press that followed a bimodal temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. To investigate the influence of spatial proximity between actions and stimuli on binding, in Chapters 2 and 3, each stimulus modality appeared on different sides. In Chapter 4, the critical stimuli appeared at the same location, either close to or far from the preceding action, to explore the effect of action on temporal resolution. The present data provide evidence that actions affect the perceived onsets of multisensory events in an idiosyncratic manner, depending on the subsequent stimuli. Actions appear to preferentially bind to vision, then touch, and lastly, audition, but actions do not always bind to subsequent stimuli. Furthermore, actions degrade temporal resolution of bimodal stimuli. Lastly, the type of action, whether chosen or fixed, did not impact the degree of binding. Together, these data contribute to the action-perception literature, illustrating that our behaviours dynamically affect how we perceive the world. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Neighborhood Size Effect (NSE), characterized as the effect in word determination based on changing one orthographic aspect of that word. The amount of words that can be created through such manipulation is called a neighborhood size (NS). Number of other factors such as frequency, how often a word appears and morphology, the combination of meaningful word units, have been suggested to have an overriding effect on NSE. In addition, there is a lack of research on NSE with non-alphabetical languages such as Chinese, which uses characters comprising of a multitude of semantic or phonetic markers. In this experiment, participants coming from mainland China were presented with 60 individual characters and 59 characters with Chinese morphology made up of two characters which form single words. Both conditions, were manipulated with NS by adjusting the semantic or phonetical radical within a character and with frequency by using a website that measures how frequent a character appeared within the language. Both character conditions were found to have a significant effect with frequency and neighborhood size (NS) with characters with higher frequency and lower NS found to have higher accuracy and lower reaction times. With low frequency single characters, it was that those with higher neighborhood size had greater delay in reaction time and lower accuracy. With low frequency morphologically constructed characters, it was found that lower neighborhood size had higher accuracy, but no significant result with regards to reaction time. Due to differing accuracy results with NS and character condition, it is suggested that further factors such as morphological processing in single characters and bigram frequency in morphologically constructed characters might have an effect on word determination in conjunction with neighborhood size. Thus, it is a possibility that Chinese morphological may depend more on other factors than neighborhood size.

Sleep is known to influence basic tasks concerning working memory, reaction time and executive functioning (Silva, Wang, Ronda, Wyatt, & Duffy, 2010; Nebes, Buysse, Halligan, Houck, & Monk, 2009). However, the amount that sleep influences these functions varies from study to study possibly due to differences in age and task design. Aim 1A of this study is to determine if sleep quality affects working memory. Aim 1B of this study is to determine if age affects sleep quality and working memory in comparison of young and old adult populations. Finally, Aim 2 of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between sleep quality, working memory, and decision making in the younger adults. These aims were researched using a validated and commonly used sleep questionnaire: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). In addition, the study utilized an n-back test to measure working memory and executive functioning, and an economic decision task to measure decision making accuracy. Results show that sleep quality did not significantly influence accuracy on an n-back test in either age group, but age was significantly correlated with accuracy on an n-back test in the older adults. The study also found a relationship between working memory performance and complex decision making among younger adults, but this relationship was not modulated by sleep quality. Our findings suggest that self-reported sleep quality is not a strong predictor of working memory or complex decision making, particularly in early adulthood. Future research on this topic may benefit from a more objective measure of sleep quality and from larger samples across different phases of the lifespan.

<p>Typical adults use gaze cues to make inferences about people's mental and emotional states. I investigated the development of fine-grained sensitivity to the direction of gaze during middle childhood, and how development differs in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In Study 1, sensitivity to deviations of gaze from an object in the environment improved after age 6, becoming adult-like by age 10. This improvement may allow more precise inferences about others' interests and/or intentions. In Study 2, the horizontal range of directions of gaze perceived as direct (the cone of gaze) narrowed considerably after age 6, becoming adult-like by age 8. This narrowing may reduce social costs associated with erroneously perceiving direct gaze. In contrast, the vertical cone of gaze was adult-like at age 6. In Study 3, 6-year-olds' horizontal cone of gaze was narrower when they heard object-directed voice cues (e.g., “I see that.”) than when they heard participant-directed voice cues (e.g., “I see you.”) or no voice, a result suggesting that object-directed voice cues can allow more adult-like judgments of gaze. In Study 4, face inversion increased the width of the cone of gaze in typical adults, but not in those with ASD. However, the cone of gaze was normally modulated by facial expression in the ASD group. This pattern suggests that in adults with ASD, sensitivity to the direction of gaze is not tuned to be finer for upright faces, but that information is nevertheless integrated across expression and gaze. Together, these results suggest that although some aspects of sensitivity to the direction of gaze are adult-like at age 6, immaturities in other aspects of sensitivity will limit children's social judgments until at least age 8. The results also suggest that adults with ASD use atypical visual processing to discriminate the direction of gaze.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Two studies were conducted to measure positive personality change expected to occur during four years of a self-actualizing program. The first study computed inter correlations among the scales of the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) for students in the Psychology and English Departments of a Spanish-speaking college, which were then compared with those reported in the test manual. Generally, correlations were greater than those in the manual, which suggested possible influence by the humanistic and Christian philosophy of the college. The second study examined the effect of training for self-actualization and personality growth on the behavior of a group of psychology teacher-trainees. Results indicated that subjects in the treatment conditions improved significantly in their levels of self-actualization as measured by the Time Competency and Inner-directedness scales of the POI.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of pain causal attributions on patient pain-related functioning, treatment engagement, and clinical outcomes. Additionally, the impact of discordant pain causal attributions between patients and their providers as well as between interdisciplinary providers was examined. Patients rated their pain functioning and causal pain attributions during a regular clinic visit. Following the patient’s visit both the behavioral medicine provider and internal medicine resident provided ratings of similar pain-related functioning domains and causal attributions. Follow-up data were collected from the electronic medical record three months following that clinic visit. Overall, results revealed that patients’ chronic pain attributions did influence pain-related functioning, however the impact was relatively small. There was insufficient evidence to conclude that chronic pain attributions influence a patient’s readiness to adopt self-management coping strategies and their subsequent treatment engagement. Additionally, results confirmed that different health care disciplines attribute the cause of patients’ chronic pain in distinct ways and these unique perspectives can lead to discrepant pain-related functioning assessments between providers. Discordant ratings between providers were shown to influence referring patterns for interdisciplinary services and the patient’s overall opioid dose. Similarly, discrepancies between patients and their providers influenced subsequent referral for behavioral health services, the patient’s attendance at those visits, and their overall morphine equivalent doses. Together the results indicate the important role pain attributions can play in chronic pain management and highlight the central role of the patient-provider and provider-provider relationship.

This research aims to fill a research gap by examining video games to explore whether gender, age, or hours played per week would exert any influence on the information of those who may or may not play video games. Mood Management Theory and Uses and Gratification Theory were used as the theoretical foundation for this study. Four-hundred-three East Tennessee State University students who received the survey via email were asked to voluntarily participate in a survey about their motivations behind playing video games. Results from MANOVA showed that the motivations of male participants on video games were significantly higher than were female participants on video games. Moreover, those who claimed to play five or more hours of video games per week were significantly higher than those who claimed to play zero hours per week.

Video game popularity and time playing in children, adolescents, and adults is steadily increasing due to heightened accessibility, advanced technological game design, and a rising sedentary lifestyle among Americans. The advent of exergames and virtual reality paradigms has led to a new wave of mobile video games that can be played anywhere, involve the combination of mobility and gaming, and may be used to improve cognition, affect, and perhaps empathy. The aim of the present study was to examine if the exergame Pokémon Go would improve visual and verbal working memory, attention, positive and negative affect, and empathy. Additionally, the current study is an extension of seminal research that discovered being in nature alone has positive effects on working memory and affect. Participants (N = 62) from a Florida University were assessed on the Alloway Working Memory Assessment (AWMA), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) before and after playing Pokémon Go outdoors around the most natural parts of the campus (e.g., ponds, dense foliage). The participants then returned several days later, completed the assessments, and spent time outdoors not playing. The study was counterbalanced over the course of a year to control for seasonal differences. Main findings included increased verbal working memory scores and decreased negative affect after playing Pokémon Go with no changes in empathy. The results have important implications for those interested in using Pokémon Go to improve working memory and decrease stress and negative affect in adult populations.

The aim of this study is two-fold. First, we want to understand the levels of metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. Previous research states that recall is the most effective method of studying, but most students prefer to reread their notes or textbook which is ineffective. Second, we want to explore the link between Working Memory and metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. The learning strategies that college students with and without disabilities is examined, we found that students in both groups preferred the usage of the same strategies equally. The most preferred strategy was rereading notes/textbook, and least preferred was studying in groups. Interestingly, we found no differences between the groups with regards to their: motivation, metacognition, and working memory. Initially, it was found that the group of students with disabilities greatly differed in visual-spatial working memory, however, once we controlled for those who were visually-impaired or had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the results became non-significant. Gender differences in learning strategies was examined and we found that males preferred the usage of completing practice problems and the usage of mnemonic devices, whereas females preferred highlighting their notes or textbook.

Activation of brain regions that make up the mirror neuron system (MNS) is thought to reflect processing and perceiving behavior, action, and intentionality of other organisms. Sensing and perceiving motor behavior in others is an important component of understanding and participating in social interactions. Children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) are diagnosed with serious medical, cognitive, and socio-emotional symptoms. Atypical development and function of the MNS may underpin some aspects of socio-emotional impairment and autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-like symptomology reported. This study of the MNS investigates differences in activation in the operculum, sensorimotor areas, and basal ganglia (BG) in children with 22q11.2DS compared to typically-developing (TD) controls. Twenty-nine children (22q11.2DS: n=15; TD: n=16) between ages 7-16 viewed videos of a human hand manipulating various household objects during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. In Analysis 1, children with 22q11.2DS had less extensive brain activation than TD children in the operculum, sensorimotor areas, and BG. In Analysis 2, children with 22q11.2DS had the same results as Analysis 1 with the exception of sensorimotor areas not being highly active in either group. In both analyses, fMRI signal change from baseline to video did not differ significantly between groups. Processing efficiency in children with 22q11.2DS may be lower or more variable when compared to TD peers. This is the first study comparing children with 22q11.2DS to TD peers specifically looking at MNS activation within the operculum region to assess higher cognitive functioning, somatosensory cortex for sensory interpretation, and basal ganglia for gross motor activity. Future studies should compare brain activation between children with ASD and those with 22q11.2DS during an MNS task as the next step to further clarify the origin of ASD symptoms reported in this population.