Drivers in simulators tend to drive faster than in a real car. The study aimed to examine if visual cues impact driver velocity in a simulator. This is important because of the tendency for users of to drive faster in simulators than in authentic driving situations. This is supposed to be caused by the lack of sufficient cues in the simulated environment to convey motion. The hypothesis advocates that the usage of visual cues would make simulated motion cues more realistic to assist the driver to make accurate judgements of their driving speed. Accurate judgements would in turn result in less speeding in the driver simulator. The experiment was conducted in a driver simulator in a collaboration with SAFE trafikskola. The experiment compared two conditions where visual cues were more and less present. The data was complimented with a survey to gather additional information. The result from the t-test showed a significant effect on the measured velocity, whereas the two-way ANOVA yielded no such impact. The repeated measures ANOVA contributed with significant results on the difference between the points of measure and gave no significant main effect between conditions. Together with the complimentary survey the conclusion was made that the usage of visual cues in a driver simulator can affect the velocity of the driver. The knowledge regarding visual cues in a simulated environments could be used to improve driver simulators. Future research has the possibility to investigate motion cues from other modalities than vision to increase realism in driver simulators.

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Effects of oxazepam concerning on social behavior in guppies are still unknown. The purpose ofthis thesis is to investigate if the benzodiazepine oxazepam has effects on fish behavior in terms ofsocial preferences and responses to predation risk using an olfactory cue mixture. After anexposure period of 15 days to 100 μg/l of oxazepam, behavioral experiments were performed overtwo days. Results indicate that oxazepam exposed fish were more social at the beginning of theexperiment, which differ from what was expected and from previous social preferences studies.Moreover, less social behavior was found as a result of combining oxazepam treatment andolfactory cue mixture (predator cues and guppy skin extract) treatment.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relative efficacy of cueing modalities employed in Integral Stimulation (IS) treatment for childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Previous literature has supported the use of IS for children with CAS, though there are no studies that evaluate the active ingredients of IS. This study aimed to examine the efficacy of single- and multi-modality cues in IS treatment. The experiment was administered as a single-case, alternating treatments design consisting of three conditions (auditory-only, visual-only, and simultaneous auditory and visual). Two participants with CAS received IS treatment in every condition during each session. Probes were administered prior to starting every other session (once per week), consisting of practiced and control targets that were balanced for complexity and functionality. Perceptual accuracy of productions was rated on a 3-point scale and standardized effect sizes were calculated for each condition. Each participant demonstrated different effects in regard to modality and treatment effects. The visual-only condition yielded the greatest effect for one participant, followed by the auditory-only cues. The other participant displayed no significant effects in any condition nor a treatment effect. The results of this study suggest that single-modality cues may be more beneficial for some children with CAS than the clinically used simultaneous auditory-visual multi-modality cue. The significant effect of the visual-only condition in one participant indicates that visual-only cues may bypass an impaired auditory feedback system and support speech motor learning, though more research is required. / Public Health

Thesis advisor: Gorica Petrovich / Hunger and palatability modulate food intake through homeostatic and hedonic mechanisms that can work either independently, or in tandem. Both also influence food-seeking and learning about cues for food. Our prior work suggested that hunger and satiety impact motivation for palatable food differently in males and females. Sensitivity to food rewards also differs between adolescence and adulthood. Adolescents exhibit heightened motivation to consume and work for palatable food compared to adults. However, sex and age differences in palatable food motivation under sated and hungry conditions have not been explored. Here, we examined how rats consume and learn about palatable food. To assess cue-food associative learning and memory, rats underwent Pavlovian conditioning, extinction, and testing to assess the renewal of conditioned behavior. Male and female adult and adolescent Sprague Dawley rats were either food restricted (85% ad libitum body weight) or had ad libitum access to regular chow (n=8 per group). Rats learned palatable food-cue associations across 8 acquisition sessions, followed by cue-only presentations for 4 extinction sessions in a different context. They were then tested for renewal of conditioned responding (time spent at the food cup) to the food cue in the acquisition compared to extinction context. Before learning and after renewal testing, rats were tested for consumption of palatable food and chow in their home cage (1hr test/day per food). We found that adults and adolescents of both sexes were able to learn, extinguish, and renew conditioned responding regardless of hunger. Adolescents consistently had higher responding than adults across the learning and memory protocol. During consumption testing, females of both ages ate more palatable food than males, particularly when sated. Adolescent consumption was dependent on hunger state. Sated adolescents ate more palatable food than adults, and both sated adults and adolescents showed a preference for palatable food over chow. Food-deprived adolescents and adults ate similar amounts of chow, but only adults showed a preference for palatable food over chow. Palatable food consumption and conditioned responding during early acquisition training for that same food were positively correlated, indicating that hunger and satiety similarly impact palatable food-cue learning and consumption. Overall, these findings suggest that physiological hunger is not a prerequisite for successful associative learning and memory during adolescence or adulthood, and that female sensitivity to palatable food is present during adolescence. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology and Neuroscience.

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Several studies have seemingly demonstrated that artificial surveillance cues, such as images of watching eyes, increase prosocial behaviour. One of these studies investigated the effect of observation cues on moral judgment (Bourrat et al., 2011). Participants rated the moral acceptability of two misdeeds: falsifying information on a resume and keeping the cash found in a lost wallet. The moral acceptability ratings were lower for participants who were presented with an image of watching eyes than they were for participants exposed to a control image of flowers. The authors suggested that false cues of being watched triggered evolved cognitive mechanisms for recognizing when one is being observed. These mechanisms may have driven the cued participants to behave in a way that would have protected their reputations if they really had been watched; that is, by expressing disapproval of immoral behaviour. Inspired by Bourrat et al., I conducted an experiment investigating the effect of surveillance cues on self-rated positive traits, religiosity, and moral judgment. I found no evidence for an effect on any of these variables, including moral judgment. I conducted 3 more experiments, each increasingly similar in design to Bourrat et al., to determine the reason for the discrepancy in our results. None of my experiments replicated the surveillance cue effect. I suggest the most likely explanation is that Bourrat et al. obtained a false positive. My experimental results call into question the effect of surveillance cues on moral judgment; thus, it is appropriate to be skeptical of surveillance cues generally. I conducted a meta-analysis of studies investigating the effect of surveillance cues on generosity. The resulting funnel plot is consistent with publication bias in favour of significant results; it may also indicate that the surveillance cue effect on generosity, though perhaps a real phenomenon, is smaller than the literature implies. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The purpose of this thesis is to assess dieting consumers’ perceptions of dessert advertisements containing subtle food cues. Participants were presented with one of three dessert advertisements depicting either, a dessert that had been left untouched, cut in half, or had a bite mark. Across the studies, the results show that the image of the bitten dessert is more preferred than the cut or whole desserts among participants with dieting experience. The relationship between dessert type and dieting is mediated via perceptions of realness/authenticity. The findings contribute to the literature on food consumption and advertising. Companies advertising low-fat products to dieting consumers can benefit from the results of these studies. / February 2017

The CUES II was used to investigate and analyze the campus environment of a small church-affiliated college in California.

Gaze direction and head rotation are powerful cues that inform humans about another person's attention, intentions and even emotion. Previous research has focused on understanding how people make judgements about individual faces in direct view. However in everyday life, people are often presented with groups of faces and need to judge where the attention of that group is directed, such as in group conversations or when giving presentations. This thesis presents research whose aim is to better understand how gaze direction and head rotation are perceived in the visual periphery and in groups. First, observers' perception of gaze deviation in the visual periphery was tested, using psychophysical methods and modelling. The results showed that observers' ability to judge gaze perception is severely limited, and that observers' judgements are severely biased by head rotation in the visual periphery. Second, observers' ability to perceive the average gaze or head direction of a group of spatially distributed faces was investigated. This was done using equivalent noise analysis, a technique which gives estimates for observers' internal noise (how certain they are in their judgements of any individual face) and their effective sample size (how many faces they are able to combine into their average). The findings revealed that head rotation was averaged with less uncertainty and greater effective sample size than gaze deviation, suggesting that observers can more precisely and efficiently pool information about head rotation than gaze. Finally, averaging of heads and gaze stimuli presented in temporal sequences was analysed using the same equivalent noise technique and compared to spatial averaging. In sequences, the differences in processing between head and gaze direction disappear, suggesting that poor peripheral perception of gaze is the limit on our averaging of gaze cues.