Functional recovery of the upper limb after stroke is influenced by many factors, one being amount of affected arm and hand use following stroke. In the healthy population, amount of hand use is influenced by degree of hand dominance. Depending on side of stroke and previous hand dominance, these preferences may be altered, consequently affecting the amount of upper limb use. Determining hand preference in patients after stroke, when measured, is commonly assessed with questionnaires; however, these reports are subjective and patients may have difficulty recalling from memory which hand they use for the numerous activities on the questionnaire. A preferential reaching task has been shown to correlate with the degree of hand dominance as determined by the Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire, providing an objective performance-based method to assess the continuum of hand dominance in healthy subjects. A modified version of this preferential reaching task, with varying degrees of proximal to distal control, was used to investigate the influence of impairment, pre-stroke dominance and task difficulty on affected arm reach percentage. Results of the study revealed that it is feasible to administer a modified preferential reaching task in the stroke population, as the test could be completed in less than 10 minutes with no adverse effects reported from the patients. Heterogeneity made it difficult to detect statistical effects of task difficulty and pre-stroke dominance on post-stroke preference; however, there were trends observed indicating that patients with their dominant arm affected may have greater preference for the affected arm compared to those with their non-dominant arm affected. This was despite similar impairment levels between these patient groups. Preference for the dominant arm (whether affected or unaffected) was stronger when the task was at midline or in contralateral space, and when tasks required the greatest degree of distal control. In future, the degree of hand preference measured with this tool will have important implications for identifying areas in therapy requiring greater focus as well as identifying individuals who would most benefit from therapies that promote affected arm use, such as constraint induced movement therapy

The statistical structure of natural images has sparked interest in regards to both visual processing of such images and the aesthetic responses they elicit. We bring together these two lines of research under the simple proposition that early visual processing, more specifically visual sensitivity, may mediate visual preferences. In our first set of experiments, we measured both visual preference and visual sensitivity in the same observers, using patterns varying in the slope of their amplitude spectrum. Our results found similar functions for both variables, supporting our hypothesis. In a second set of experiments, we investigated the same question with regards to simple spatial frequency variations, and found even more convincing results. We conclude that early visual processing is implicated in visual preference, supporting the recently emerging sensory-based approaches to understanding visual preference.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Dept. of History, 1989. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

INTRODUCTION: Evaluate how esthetic smiling variables influence laypeople’s preference for a step or no step between the incisal edges of the maxillary central and lateral incisors, and how subject demographics may modify such an association. METHODS: Sixteen smiling photographs with differing esthetic variable combinations were duplicated and paired. One of each pair was modified to create a 1mm step between the maxillary central and lateral incisors, while the other picture had no step. Photos were shown to 200 laypeople, and they were asked to choose which smile they prefer for each pairing. RESULTS: 99% of the subjects did not realize any difference between the photos in each pairing. 63% of the subjects surveyed in this study were college educated. For ten out of sixteen esthetic combinations, people preferred no step between central and lateral incisors. People younger than 43 years of age preferred no step for four esthetic categories. In one of the esthetic categories, males preferred a step, while females preferred no step. Caucasians and other racial backgrounds preferred no step for one esthetic combination. For two categories, people who did not attend college preferred a step, and those who did attend college preferred no step. CONCLUSIONS: More people prefer no step between maxillary central and lateral incisors, and patient background and demographics have little-to-no influence on this preference.

The need continues within the field of organizational behavior management for empirically valid and feasible interventions to assist organizations with producing desirable changes in the work behavior of employees. The present study sought to determine the utility of a procedure to identify preferred stimulus among employees and the effects of implementation of the preferred stimulus on employee performance. Baseline data was collected on the productivity of employees. Then, a preference assessment was administered to employees. The results of the preference assessment yielded a commonly preferred stimulus which was then implemented to test for an effect on employee task completion. Results indicated moderate increases in employee performance and support the use of preference assessments to identify effective reinforcers for employees.

Purpose: There is accumulating evidence that treatment preference may significantly impact treatment compliance and satisfaction in individuals with psychological disorders. Very few studies have examined treatment preferences in clients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Moreover, little is known if treatment preference for a conventional therapy such as cognitive behavioural therapy versus mindfulness-based interventions, influence outcomes. The primary objective of the current study was to determine whether treatment expectancy and preferences for a mindfulness intervention adapted for SAD (MBI-SAD), cognitive behavior group therapy (CBGT), or no preference, would influence treatment compliance and treatment satisfaction. Method: The sample included 97 participants who met the DSM-5 criteria for SAD. After selecting a treatment preference, participants were randomly assigned to a treatment group. Analyses of variance, chi-square, and logistic regressions were conducted to determine if being matched to one’s preferred treatment influenced outcomes, and if those with no preference differed from those who indicated a preference. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to determine if participants’ perceptions of credibility and expectations and match to treatment influenced compliance and satisfaction. Results: There was some support that treatment preference and match to treatment influenced compliance and satisfaction, however the majority of the analyses revealed no impact of treatment preferences. CBGT met expectations more often than did MBI-SAD when participants were matched to their preferred treatment. When participants were matched to their preferred treatment or had no preference, they were more compliant with homework than those who were not matched. Those with no preference had lower attendance than both the matched and not matched groups. Perceived credibility and expectancy were higher for those who were matched to their preferred group, however this did not have an impact on compliance and satisfaction. The remainder of the analyses did not find a relationship between treatment preference or match to treatment on compliance or satisfaction.

Purpose: There is growing interest in the clinical application of mindfulness meditation. However, little is known about the extent to which clients prefer mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) over conventional psychological therapies. The present study examined predictors of treatment preference and credibility in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) who participated in a randomized trial of a mindfulness intervention adapted for SAD (MBI-SAD) versus a conventional psychological therapy (cognitive behavior group therapy; CBGT). Method: The sample included 97 adults who met DSM-5 criteria for SAD. Binary logistic and multiple linear regressions were conducted to examine baseline sociodemographic and clinical predictors of treatment preference for the MBI-SAD and perception of treatment credibility. Analysis of variance was used to compare levels of trait mindfulness across treatment preference groups. Results: The majority of participants (49%) reported a preference for the MBI-SAD. Ratings of treatment credibility were comparable for the two interventions. Employment status significantly predicted preference for CBGT versus the MBI-SAD, whereas younger age predicted preference for CBGT. Higher household income, a history of psychotherapy, elevated scores on clinician ratings of depression and social anxiety, and lower scores on self-report depression predicted no treatment preference. Higher household income predicted greater perceived credibility of treatment. Trait mindfulness did not differ across the treatment preference groups or predict treatment credibility. Discussion: Mindfulness meditation appears to be an acceptable and credible treatment for SAD. However, few baseline demographic and clinical characteristics predicted preference for the MBI-SAD. Additional research is needed to explore factors that shape preference and beliefs about mind-body interventions.

Abstract This thesis deals with factors affecting mate choice as well as with genetic variation in male courtship song in Drosophila montana. Males, which produced song with a high carrier frequency, were found to court females, and also to succeed in their courtship more often than the males producing low frequency song. Male mating success correlated with the carrier frequency of his song recorded after, but not before, an "artificial winter", which suggests that a sexually selected male trait is sensitive to environmental factors. A high carrier frequency of male courtship song correlated positively with the survival rate of the male's progeny from egg to adulthood (indirect benefit for the female), but not with the fecundity of his mating partner (no direct benefit for the female). The heritabilities and the amount of additive and residual variation in male courtship song characters were measured in two populations using father-son regression and sib analysis. The songs of the males from one of these populations were analysed for a second time after the cold treatment. Most heritability values were insignificant, largely due to high residual variation. During the cold treatment, the additive variation increased and the residual variation decreased in almost all song traits. Increased variation in sexually selected traits may help the females to exercise selection between the males during the mating season of the flies in the wild in spring. This, and the fact that male song gives the female information about the male's condition/genetic quality suggests that in this species the evolution of female preferences for male song characters could have evolved through condition-dependent viability selection as postulated by "good genes" models. Variation and inbreeding depression/heterosis were studied in traits associated with fly reproduction using inbred D. montana strains. Songs, hydrocarbons and some behavioural traits of the flies varied significantly between strains. The strain of both sexes affected female egg-laying, and the female strain, also, the survival rate of the flies' progeny, in different intra- and interspecific combinations. Heterosis was found in the mating propensity of the flies and in the carrier frequency of the male song. Diallel analysis revealed unidirectional dominance towards higher carrier frequency. This direction is the same as the direction of sexual selection exercised by the females of this species suggesting that sexual selection could be a driving force in evolution of this song trait.

The attraction effect reveals that people do not compare alternatives independently of one another. Instead, they make comparisons, such that preferences between two alternatives can be reversed by adding or removing otherwise irrelevant alternatives. This behaviour is particularly difficult for rational models of decision making to explain since such models require the independent evaluation of alternatives. As such these models describe preference reversal behaviour as irrational. This thesis examines what rational decision making should look like once a person's cognitive bounds have been taken into account. The key finding is that contextual preference reversals like the attraction effect, far from being irrational, actually result from people making better decisions than they would if they assessed alternatives independently of one another. The research was grouped into three objectives concerning the attraction effect and the rationality of human cognition. The first of these was to identify under what conditions people exhibit the attraction effect, and what consequences the behaviour has for the outcomes they experience. Two experiments revealed that the effect is only exhibited in choice sets where alternatives are approximately equal in value and therefore hard to tell apart. This finding also means that the potential negative consequences of exhibiting the attraction effect are very small, because it only occurs when alternatives are similar in value. The second objective was to develop a computationally rational model of the attraction effect. Computational rationality is an approach that identifies what the optimal behaviour is given the constraints imposed by cognition, and the environment. Our model reveals why people exhibit the attraction effect. With the assumption that people cannot calculate expected value perfectly accurately, the model shows that in choices between prospects, the attraction effect actually results in decisions with a higher expected value. This is because noisy expected value estimates can be improved by taking into account the contextual information provided by the other alternatives in a choice set. The final objective was to provide evidence for our model, and the computational rationality approach, by making a novel prediction. We conducted an experiment to test the model's prediction that the attraction effect should be much reduced in the loss domain. We replicated existing attraction effect studies and extended them to the loss domain. The results replicated previous results in the gain domain and simultaneously revealed the novel finding that people did not exhibit the effect in the loss domain. People exhibit the attraction effect as a result of making the best decision possible given the cognitive resources they have. Understanding decision making as computationally rational can provide deep insights into existing phenomena. The method allows us to ascertain the causal link between cognitive mechanisms, a person's goal, and their decision making.

Important advancements have been made in the identification of reinforcers over the past decade. The use of preference assessments has become a systematic way to identify preferred events that may function as reinforcers for an individual's behavior. Typically, preference assessments require participants to select stimuli through verbal surveys or engagement with stimuli as preferred or non-preferred. Not all studies go on to directly test the effects of the preferred stimuli, and even fewer studies directly test for the effects of the non- preferred stimuli. The present study systematically identified preferred and non-preferred stimuli in adult human subjects by verbal report and then proceeded to test the effects of both verbally reported preferred and non preferred events on single and concurrent schedules of reinforcement. The results are discussed in terms of contemporary concerns regarding preference and reinforcer assessments.