Intentional forgetting is a phenomenon that has been studied by memory researchers since 1968 (Bjork, LaBerge, & Legrand, 1968), however a formal model to explain directed forgetting has not yet been developed. In this paper, I will review the literature on directed forgetting and discuss the results six experiments used assess directed forgetting in highly controlled manner. The striking findings are a.) that directed forgetting phenomena are observed for both free recall and recognition memory when the list method is utilized, b.) that almost the entire effect in free recall is the result of the ability to initially recall the item from the first serial position, and c.) that the costs and benefits are separately affected by an increase in the retention interval. After extensive model analyses, no simple rehearsal or context based model was identified that can handle the full data set. Here I describe a Retrieving Effectively from Memory model (REM; Shiffrin & Steyvers, 1997) that does account for the full range of findings by blurring the traditional distinctions between these classical approached to directed forgetting phenomena.

Increasingly, mentor programs are being developed in teacher education programs to assist novice teachers. The focus in most of the literature on mentoring is on the new teacher being mentored. While the mentor teacher appears to be the most crucial element in mentoring programs (Feinman-Nemser, 1992; Little, 1990; White, 1995), there is not much information about how a teacher experiences being a mentor or the perceived benefits to a mentor. The purpose of this present study was to examine the effects of mentoring on mentors in order to: (a) address the gap in the literature by exploring the effects of mentoring on the mentor, (b) inform the mentoring and mentor training process and (c) examine the effects of mentoring on mentors. To meet these purposes, six mentors in a southeastern county in Florida were interviewed using Seidman's, (1998) protocol. The analysis of the interview data revealed that the mentors felt strongly about the benefits derived from being a mentor. They believed they were a vital part of their school environment. The major theme throughout the data showed that the reason these teachers chose to become mentors was because they wanted to help. Their desire to help new teachers came from either not having a mentor themselves or having been inspired by other mentors. They saw mentoring as their opportunity to help new teachers be successful in their first year as teachers.

This research compared measures of marital quality between married respondents who were classified as adults currently receiving government assistance (GA) or adults not currently receiving government assistance (NGA). Additional demographic/contextual variables such as gender, age, age at first marriage, religiosity, income, education, cohabitation, mental health, and substance abuse along with four interactional variables - escalating negativity, criticism, negative interpretation, and withdrawal - were measured as potential correlates with marital quality. Results indicated statistically significant differences between GA and NGA individuals on all of the marital quality measures and on 8 of the 11 demographic/contextual variable.;. Additionally, the four interactional variables showed strong predictive associations for each measure of marital quality for both GA and NGA individuals. Findings from this study are synthesized to help legislators, policy makers, therapists, and other helping professionals target specific needs and intervention strategies for each of these two distinct populations.

Following the loss of a loved one, grief is a near-universal experience. While most grieving individuals are able to cope effectively and return to baseline functioning over time, some develop persistent complex bereavement disorder (PCBD). This dissertation aims to elucidate the ways in which cognitive and emotional processing go awry in the context of PCBD. More specifically, it examines the relationship between the types of language that bereaved individuals use and their trajectories of adjustment in the first year following a loss. In particular, this dissertation examines context sensitivity in word use. Context sensitivity describes the degree to which an individual is attuned to the particular demands of a given task or situation. In the present study, linguistic context-sensitivity was measured by analyzing the use of words pertaining to certain categories within specific contexts (e.g., participants were asked to discuss a recent positive event, and the use of positive emotion words within their responses was analyzed). Results indicated that, among those individuals who display high levels of grief immediately following the loss of their spouse, the use of context-sensitive language predicted a favorable course of adjustment in the first year of bereavement with low levels of grief at one- year post-loss. Conversely, the use of context insensitive language predicted high levels of grief at one-year post-loss. These findings indicate that context sensitivity may instrumental in the development of PCBD and, as such, may help predict an individual’s course of adjustment immediately following a significant loss. A better understanding of these early signs of PCBD may greatly assist in the timely detection of the disorder so that intervention may be most effective. Furthermore, this field of inquiry also has the potential to deeply inform treatment modalities designed to help individuals cope in the wake of bereavement.

Human resource management (HRM) has paid insufficient attention to the impact of context. In this article, we outline the need for HRM to take full account of context, particularly national context, and to use both cultural theories and, particularly, institutional theories to do that. We use research publications that utilize the Cranet data to show how that can be done. From that evidence, we develop a series of proposals for further context-based research in HRM.

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

Fear and anxiety disorders are potentially crippling conditions that often stem from past experience of trauma and chronic stress. One clear feature of these disorders is the failure to use proximate spatial and contextual information presented in the environment to regulate reflexive physiological threat responses. The central nervous system networks that govern spatial navigation and contextual learning and memory are a series of complex circuitries in which the hippocampus is integrally involved. Deficits in hippocampal function have been linked to severe anterograde and mild retrograde amnesia of semantic and episodic memory, and specific deficits in contextual processing. These deficits manifest as failure to distinguish between the details of contexts that help predict for danger or safety and can thus lead to the overexpression of threat responses that compose the behavioral symptoms of fear disorders. The dentate gyrus (DG) is a subdivision of the hippocampus that serves as the first filter of excitatory flow through the hippocampus. The DG is hypothesized to function in “pattern separation” or the dissociation of similar inputs into dissimilar outputs. Failure in this domain leads to generalization between contexts, a common feature of pathology. Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) and the PAC1 receptor are associated with multiple behavioral disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Mutations in the PAC1 receptor gene are associated with hypervigilance, and modified amygdalar and hippocampal activity. These results are mirrored by rodent studies where central PACAP infusion causes anxiety-like behavior, pain hypersensitivity, anorexia, and reinstatement of drug-seeking. PAC1 receptor transcript is found in high abundance in granule cells of the dentate gyrus and potentiation of DG synapses is impaired in PAC1 knockout mice. PACAP is known to have effects of long-duration, such as those in injury repair, growth, and development, but it also can affect ion channel physiology to control neuronal excitability through several parallel intracellular signaling cascades including those dependent on adenylyl cyclase, phospholipase C, and extracellular signal regulated kinase. Accumulated evidence suggests that recruitment of extracellular signal regulated kinase can be through either adenylyl cyclase-, phospholipase C-, or a receptor endocytosis-dependent mechanism. The experiments described in this dissertation address the role of PACAP in the DG in regulating expression of fear behavior, the effects of PACAP on the excitability of DG granule cells, and the signaling pathways and ion channels responsible for these effects. We found that PACAP infused into the DG amplifies expression of fear to a context but does not affect fear acquisition. Electrophysiology studies demonstrate that treating DG neurons with PACAP increases their excitability, and that parallel signaling mechanisms recruit extracellular signal regulated kinase to drive this excitability. Furthermore, these effects on excitability are attenuated by blocking a persistent inward sodium current. This work represents novel regulation of the DG and its impacts on behavior and identifies a current that likely participates in modulating granule cell excitability in multiple domains. In aggregate, this research traces the path from ligand, to receptor and intracellular signaling, to neurophysiology in order to propose a comprehensive description of behavioral regulation by these processes.

The uptake of evidence in practice remains a challenge for healthcare professionals including nurses and providers. Increased use of evidence-based practices in healthcare settings may improve patient conditions such as pain and decrease the cost of healthcare. A wealth of literature can be found describing barriers and facilitators of evidence-based practice (EBP), and a movement in research has begun to focus on what influences the use of EBP. This study explored the relationships of context including the elements of individual, unit, and hospital and the use of evidence-based nonpharmacological pediatric pain management practices (EBNPP) using an existing data set of nurses and providers caring for children in the Emergency Department. Initial analysis found several significant correlations with individual, unit, and hospital context elements and EBNPP. A significant correlation was not found between evaluation and EBNPP and Magnet Status and EBNPP for nurse or providers. Nurse regression analyses showed knowledge and continuing education were significant predictors of EBNPP. Overall context was a significant predictor of EBNPP for both the nurse and provider models. A pooled regression analysis with Registered Nurses and Providers found nurses had a significant increased use of EBNPP when compared to providers. Regression analyses found that while overall context is a significant predictor of EBNPP, no single element was significant when all three were added to the model. The effect of context on EBNPP did not differ by profession in this sample. Results of this study indicate that while context is important in the uptake of EBNPP, one area does not have more influence than another. The variables explored in this study account for 13% of the variance in EBNPP. Future research should focus on the overall influence of context on EBP and consider other factors that may play a role in the uptake of EBP.

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.

The current study uses a lottery-based paradigm to examine how risk taking is affected by two specific types of good and bad experiences, luck and fortune. Though the terms are often used interchangeably, we suggest that they refer to two separate aspects of risk. Fortune refers to the overall positivity or negativity of the overall context, whereas luck refers to the probability of a better or worse outcome. To make the lottery context fortunate or unfortunate, a set of mixed-valence control lotteries were surrounded by all gain (good fortune) or all loss lotteries (bad fortune). To make the lotteries lucky or unlucky, the proportion of better outcomes received was fixed to be well above (good luck) or well below (bad luck) 50%. Results of the study suggest that, fortune, but not luck, had a significant influence on risk taking behaviors. Participants who experienced good fortune decreased risk taking, and those who experienced bad fortune increased risk taking. When asked, however, participants were unable to differentiate between the luck and fortune manipulations. Gains and losses due to fortune were undifferentiated from gains and losses due to luck. Yet, it was found that the number of gain outcomes received, which was determined by the luck-fortune combination, largely determined subjective experiences of luck and fortune. Consistent with the somatic marker and hedonic editing hypotheses, more gain outcomes led to a heightened sense of good luck and good fortune. Following on SPA (security/ potential aspiration) theory, we suggest that these differences in risk taking behavior in response to fortune may be due to increased attention to goals emphasizing security versus potential.