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This study uses two quantitative and two qualitative data sources to determine if homeless people are viewed as dangerous and if they are what factors contribute to this perception. Areas examined are respondent's characteristics, media affects and the perceived rights of homeless people to urban space. Actual levels of perpetration among the homeless are examined to allow for comparisons between perception and reality to be made. Findings showed that race plays a major role in the perception of homeless peo-ple among whites, while gender is more influential among blacks. There was no rela-tionship between media and perceptions. A negative relationship was found between support of rights of the homeless and the perception that they are dangerous. While the homeless have higher incarceration rate as compared to the poor-but-never-homeless, the crimes for which they are sentenced appear to be non-violent in nature and are of-ten what are characterized as nuisance crimes. Recommendations were made to study actual perpetration rates among the homeless to allow for a more in-depth analysis of criminal involvement.

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of an external focus of attention on the learning of dart throwing at three different focus reminder frequencies (every two, every four and every ten trials). Twenty-four male and female subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Subjects threw darts at a circular target 60 times over two days while getting a reminder of their intended external focus at the three different reminder frequencies. Five-day delayed retention and transfer tests were conducted to assess learning, each consisting of five trials. The target was comprised of five concentric circles, with the center zone worth five points and the outer-most zone worth one point. Target scores were used for statistical analysis. Findings show that the groups given a reminder after every fourth and tenth trial perform better during acquisition (F=13.61; p<0.001). Furthermore, the group that received a reminder after every tenth trial performed the best during the retention test. Although, the high variability within groups may have prevented more significant differences between reminder frequency groups in the retention and transfer test results, it is evident that less-frequent reminders result in better performance and learning of dart throwing.

The Mississippi Delta has been recognized for its poverty level and high rate of obesity. As an effort to combat the obesity issue while also considering the poverty issue of the population, a descriptive analysis was developed to understand what intervention might be beneficial. Focus groups were conducted to determine barriers to healthy eating behaviors for children, grades K-2. Focus groups (n=6) with parents or guardians of children from the six elementary schools in the Mississippi Delta were conducted in the Spring of 2007. The emergent themes included, perceived healthy foods, where diet information had been retrieved, and the efforts associated with meal preparation. Participants also voiced concern regarding the school policy on vending and coke machines that provide high-calorie non-nutritious foods.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of ninth-grade students and their teachers and parents/guardians with regard to the transition from middle school to high school. A mixed-method approach with both qualitative and quantitative measures assessed attitudes toward this transition. Student focus groups were also conducted toward this end. Parents and school staff were surveyed to gain insight into the problems associated with the student transition.Data gathered from students, parents, and school faculty were also analyzed to facilitate the design of a school-transition program for the local high school serving as the study site in this research. The findings support research that has indicated academic and social problems confronted by students transitioning into high school. All three study groups agree that developing a program to effectuate early adjustment by students and parents to this transition will “pave the way” toward ultimate student success.

No description available.

No description available.

Working memory (WM) is often described as a mental workspace where information can be maintained and manipulated in the service of ongoing cognition. Theoretical accounts describe the focus of attention as a state within working memory where a limited number of items can be briefly maintained in a heightened status of awareness. Ongoing debate and conflicting empirical evidence surrounds the capacity and characteristics of the focus of attention. Substantial recency effects are reported in a group of WM studies, and these recency effects are interpreted as a marker of the focus of attention (e.g., Nee & Jonides, 2008; Oztekin, Davachi, & McElree, 2010). The present work considers whether these findings are specific to parameters of these particular studies or whether they generalize across a broader range of tasks. An initial behavioral experiment tested performance across two tasks (judgment of recency and judgment of primacy), two information types (verbal and spatial), and two self-reported strategies (maintenance-based and retrieval-based). Central analyses averaged trials by the serial position of the correct item, and compared the accuracy and speed of retrieval of trials in different serial positions. Results showed evidence of both recency effects and primacy effects in all four types of task (verbal judgment of recency, verbal judgment of primacy, spatial judgment of recency, and spatial judgment of primacy). Moreover, a significant task by effect-type interaction showed that the size of recency and primacy effects shifted with the demands of the task (e.g., larger recency effects in judgment of recency than in judgment of primacy). Some similarities and some differences were found between verbal and spatial domains, while no differences were found across self-reported strategy. A subsequent fMRI experiment examined the neural correlates of verbal judgment of recency and primacy. Again, behavioral results showed a task by effect-type interaction where there was a larger recency effect in judgment of recency and a larger primacy effect in judgment of primacy. FMRI results showed no distinct correlates of a recency effect. In other words, , contrasts comparing fMRI signal during retrieval of recency item trials and middle item trials did not reveal above threshold clusters of activation. In contrast, neural correlates of primacy were found in frontal lobe brain regions (BA 4, 6, 32) associated with active maintenance of information. Moreover, the precise neural correlates of primacy were task-specific. In sum, two experiments demonstrate that the behavioral and neural signatures of WM, specifically related to primacy and recency effects, are dependent on task-demands. Accounts of the architecture of WM should address these observations, which inform how competing claims are supported across studies of WM. / Psychology

<p> This study was designed to examine three issues concerning the learning of a new coordination pattern. The first issue examined was the root of the conflicting findings of previous work concerning the effect of learning a novel coordination pattern on the performance an intrinsically stable antiphase pattern (Fontaine, Lee, & Swinnen, 1997; Lee, Verschueren & Swinnen, 1995; Zanone & Kelso, 1992). Consideration of these experiments revealed that different metronomes were used, and that this metronome difference is critical because it may have influenced the learners' attentional focus during learning. Therefore, the present experiment sought to examine whether a difference of attentional focus was the cause of this conflict. The second issue was whether the superiority of an external focus over internal focus of attention during learning would be evident in the learning of a new coordination pattern. And last, this study set out to examine the issue of prior learning of a bimanual coordination pattern on the learning of a new coordination pattern. Two groups of participants (one with an. internal focus of attention, and the other with an external focus of attention) learned to perform a 90° relative phase (RP) coordination pattern over two practice sessions, and were then asked to perform a 135° RP pattern in a third session. An additional two groups of participants (one with an internal focus of attention, and the other with an external focus of attention), served as controls, and learned to perform the 135° RP pattern over all three sessions. Results of this experiment did not support the hypothesis that a difference in attentional focus during learning is responsible for the conflicting findings concerning the effect of learning on intrinsic pattern performance. Although the results seem to indicate that an external focus of attention is more beneficial than an internal focus of attention during learning of a new coordination pattern, further work without feedback as a confounding factor is required. Finally, results show that prior learning does influence the learning of a new coordination pattern in that positive transfer of learning was evident (prior learning of the 90° pattern facilitated performance of the 135° pattern), and findings provide evidence for the creation of a new attractor with learning. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Mental fatigue impairs performance of physically-demanding tasks and increases rating of perceived exertion (RPE) while performing. However, there may be ways of overcoming such performance decrements. One possible method includes the use of attentionally focused instructions. Motor learning research has shown that externally focused instructions can lead to improved performance in comparison to internally focused instructions. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of attentional focus on the mental fatigue – endurance performance relationship as well as the mental fatigue – perceived exertion relationship. Undergraduate students (N = 78) completed two wall sit tasks to volitional failure, one before and one after the completion of a cognitive task. Half the participants were randomly assigned to complete a high cognitive demand task to induce mental fatigue (incongruent Stroop; HMF), while the other half performed a low cognitive demand task (documentary viewing; LMF) before the second wall sit. Immediately prior to the second wall sit, half the participants in each cognitive task group also received instructions to focus their attention either internally (INT) or externally (EXT) during the second wall sit. The main effect of mental fatigue (p < .001, d = .873) during the cognitive task and the main effect of attentional focus (p < .001, d = .883) during the wall sit task were significant, indicating effective manipulations. Results found no moderating effect of attentional focus on wall sit performance (p >.500) or RPE (p = .724). However, between-group analyses were conducted to probe the differences in performance between each group. Results indicated the HMF/INT group performed significantly worse than the LMF/EXT (p = .032) and trended towards performing worse than the HMF/EXT and LMF/INT groups (ps < .090). Significant differences in RPE were also seen between trials for the HMF/INT group (p = .009, d = .592) alone, suggesting detrimental effects of both mental fatigue and internal focus combined. Overall, the data indicate a potential moderating effect of internal attentional focus that may exacerbate the detrimental effects of mental fatigue on performance and RPE. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)