published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Mini-dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Homeopathy, Durban Institute of Technology, 2006. / It was my perception, after having worked in the Complementary and Alternative Medicines Industry, that the knowledge and understanding of homeopathy by retail providers, was poor. Considering that pharmacies also sold over-the- counter homeopathic medicine, I felt it would be of value to do an empirical study in order to obtain more accurate data on this topic. / M

thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford Approximate Word Count: 50,000 After literary scholars, the group of people who most likely cite Marcel Proust are the niche group of psychologists and neuroscientists researching the topic of memory. The incident of the madeleine and Proust's vibrant re-experiencing of 'times past' highlights how important contextual associations are in our lives. The memories we form are often rich in contextual detail, and it is this type of memory which I aim to explore in this thesis. Specifically, I show how memories of contextual nature are formed, and used to guide behaviour. In the General Introduction (Chapter 1), I review the background literature of attention, and the different sources of information that guide it, as well as how contextual information -the associations between iterns-, specifically in natural scenes, can serve as such a source. Next, I describe in detail the literature to date on memory-based signals for attentional guidance. The next chapter summarizes the methodological approaches used in this thesis (Chapter 2). In Chapter 3, I show that long-term memory can optimize perception in complex natural scenes by modulating preparatory attention as well as target processing, using electroencephalography (EEG). In Chapter 4, exploiting the high temporal and spatial resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG), I explore the neurophysiological markers of encoding, while participants learned contextual associations. In the final experimental chapter (Chapter 5), in a series of experiments I test the low-level mechanisms through which the long-term memory-bias in attentional guidance comes about. In the General Discussion (Chapter 6), I summarize my Findings and incorporate them into the existing literature, and propose outstanding questions.

Kwan, Lok Yin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / The basic mediation model --- p.1 / General approaches in mediation analysis --- p.2 / Resampling methods --- p.8 / Comparing indirect effects --- p.9 / A sequential model fitting method --- p.10 / Current interest of study --- p.13 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO: --- STANDARDIZATION OF PATH COEFFICIENTS --- p.15 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- COMPARING STANDARDIZED INDIRECT EFFECTS --- p.19 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- REAL EXAMPLES --- p.28 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE: --- DISCUSSION --- p.55 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX: --- CONCLUSION --- p.57 / APPENDICES --- p.58 / REFERENCES --- p.80

Forster and Lavie (2008) and Lavie, Lin, Zokaei and Thoma (2009) have demonstrated that meaningful stimuli, such as objects, are ignored under conditions of high perceptual load but not low. However, objects are seldom presented without context in the real world. Given that context can reduce the threshold for object recognition (Barenholtz, 2013), is it possible for context to reduce the processing load of objects such that they can be processed under high load? In the first experiment, I attempted to obtain similar findings of the aforementioned studies by replicating their paradigm with photographs of real-world objects. The findings of the experiment suggested that objects can cause distractor interference under high load conditions, but not low load conditions. These findings are opposite of what the perceptual literature suggests (e.g., Lavie, 1995). However, these findings are aligned with a two-stage dilution model of attention in which information is first processed in parallel and then selectively (Wilson, Muroi, and MacLeod, 2011). Experiment 2 assessed if this effect was specific to semantic objects by introducing meaningless, abstract objects. The results suggest that the dilution effect was not due to the semantic features of objects. The third experiment assessed the influence of context on objects under load. The results of the experiment found an elimination of all interference effects in both the high and low load conditions. Comparisons between scene-object congruency revealed no influence of semantic information from scenes. It appears that the presentation of a visual stimuli prior to the flanker task diluted attention such that the distractor effects previously observed in the high load condition were minimized. Thus, it does not appear that context reduced the threshold for object recognition under load. All three experiments have demonstrated strong evidence for the dilution approach of attention over perceptual load models. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In the autoshaping preparation subjects are exposed to magazine training (US-only trials) prior to the conditioning phase in which a stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) predicts the delivery of a response independent reinforcer (unconditioned stimulus, US). Two experiments examined the hypothesis that irrespective of the number of US-only trials administered the magazine training and autoshaping contexts interact to determine conditioning, as measured by contact responses to the CS. The contexts employed were houselight on (light, L) and houselight off (dark, D). In Experiment I pigeons were exposed to 1, 20, 100, or 900 US-only trials in a D, or L, context prior to autoshaping in the D, or L. The results indicated that first, autoshaping in the L was superior to autoshaping in the D. Second, irrespective of the autoshaping context performance was better following magazine training in the different context. Third, the function relating performance to the number of US-only trials was an inverted U if magazine training occurred in the D and biphasic if it occurred in the L, irrespective of the autoshaping context. In Experiment II pigeons were exposed to 900 US-only trials in a D, or L, context. Prior to autoshaping in the D, or L, they were exposed to either the magazine training, or a novel, context; this constituted extinction of the US-only context. The results demonstrated that when magazine training and autoshaping occur in the D extinction in the magazine training context results in superior performance relative to extinction in a novel context. However, extinction in a novel context results in better performance, relative to extinction of the magazine training context, if magazine training and autoshaping proceed in the L. In summary, conditioning in the autoshaping paradigm is determined by the magazine training and autoshaping contexts and their interaction. The development of conditioning is therefore dependent on both the associative value of the CS and the background stimuli.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-192).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-101). Also available in print.

Since Kinsey and his colleagues (Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1948; 1953) first began to empirically examine human sexual behavior researchers have found that heterosexual men tend to report having had more sexual partners than heterosexual women. The purpose of the present study was to explore this phenomena using a within subject design. Participants were 124 undergraduate women who completed a packet of surveys on sensitive topics, such as sexuality, and body image, in two conditions: Anonymity Threat Condition: Participants were led to believe that the principle investigator would come in a view their responses while completing the surveys and Bogus Pipeline: Participants were led to believe that they were `hooked-up' to a lie detector. Results found within as well as between subject effects for measures of social desirability and one sexual attitude measure. However, these results did not generalize to the body image measures or sexual behavior questions. / Department of Psychological Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.