Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- Creators: Glenberg, Arthur
- Creators: Loebenberg, Abby
Description
A look at how the Vietnam War influenced immigrant and first-generation children's perception of culture. This thesis focuses on Vietnamese-American immigration as a whole, and on subjects on the American west coast. Interviews were conducted with eleven subjects to examine the most profound influences on culture and how native culture is passed on through the generations. Focuses include cultural identity, cultural inheritance, prominent native and adoptive cultural values, and culture as affected by adversity.
ContributorsTran, Yvana (Author) / Loebenberg, Abby (Thesis director) / Suk, Mina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Often learning new skills, such as how to throw a basketball or how to play the piano, are better accomplished practicing with another than from self-practice. Why? We propose that during joint action, partners learn to adjust their behavior to each other. For example, when dancing with a partner, we must adjust the timing, the force, and the spatial locations of movements to those of the partner. We call these adjustments a joint body schema (JBS). That is, the locations of our own effectors and our own movements are adapted by interaction with the partner. Furthermore, we propose that after a JBS is established, learning new motor skills can be enhanced by the learner's attunement to the specifics of the partner's actions. We test this proposal by having partners engage in a motor task requiring cooperation (to develop the JBS). Then we determined whether a) the JBS enhances the coordination on an unrelated task, and b) whether the JBS enhances the learning of a new motor skill. In fact, participants who established a JBS showed stronger coordination with a partner and better motor learning from the partner than did control participants. Several applications of this finding are discussed.
ContributorsMunion, Amanda Kathleen (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / McBeath, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The Latino population is the fastest growing minority group in the United States (U.S Census Bureau, 2003). Such a rapidly changing demographic stresses the importance of implementing strategies into the community social framework to accommodate for cultural and language differences. This research paper seeks to answer: what factors influence the sense of community among Latino families in Phoenix? The following questions will help to assess the dynamic relationship between sense of community and literacy 1) what is the perceived importance of literacy among Latino families living in Phoenix? 2) How is language development reflected among the family dynamics within a predominantly collectivist culture? It is hypothesized that both collectivism and literacy are the main influences on sense of community among this population.
ContributorsBennett, Julie (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Restrepo, Laida (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This project, which consists of a review article and an applied creative project, proposes mirror neurons as being a physiological mechanism for motor imagery. The review article highlights similarities between motor imagery research and research on mirror neurons. The research is roughly divided into three types of studies: neuroimaging studies, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electromyography (EMG) studies, and electroencephalography (EEG) studies. The review also discusses the associative hypothesis of mirror neuron origin as support for the hypothesis and concludes with an assessment of conflicting research and the limitations of the hypothesis. The applied creative project is an instructional brochure, aimed at anyone who teaches motor skills, such as dance teachers or sports coaches. The brochure takes the academic content of the review and presents it in a visually pleasing, reader-friendly fashion in an effort to educate the intended audience and make the research more accessible. The brochure also prescribes research-based suggestions for how to use motor imagery during teaching sessions and how to get the best benefits from it.
ContributorsNgai, Valerie Christina (Author) / Hoffner, Kristin (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Recent evidence suggests that youth from affluent and upper-middle-class, white collar families are at high risk for maladaptive behaviors, such as aggression, rule breaking, and substance use. A major hypothesized underlying factor is lax parental discipline that involves low repercussions for errant behaviors such as substance use—also known as perceived parents’ “containment” of such behaviors. In this study, the focus is on multiple dimensions of perceived containment among parents and school authorities, in relation to both externalizing problems and drug use behaviors. These associations are examined in four different schools: two boarding schools and two day schools. Results show much stronger links with maladjustment for perceived containment by parents as opposed to perceived containment by school. The largest significant effects within the containment indices were found to be between parent containment of drug use and the levels of substance use behaviors reported by students. These effects were found across gender and all schools, indicating robust links. Overall, the most robust index studied was the perceived parental monitoring variables; monitoring effects were stronger than effects from any containment variables. Students who perceived the highest levels of parental monitoring exhibited the least amount of externalizing behaviors across all schools and genders. A possible explanation includes students perceiving that their parents monitor their behavior due to caring on the behalf of the parent, which then leads to fewer externalizing outcomes. These results suggest that the most effective means of decreasing substance use levels seem to lie within the parents of the students and not the schools.
ContributorsHudson, Johnny (Author) / Luthar, Suniya (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Simulation theory states that text comprehension is achieved by simulating (or imagining) text content using motor, perceptual, and emotional systems. Hence, motor skill should correlate with comprehension skill. In fact, previous research has linked fine motor skills (FMS) with word processing and mathematical skills. I predicted a positive relationship between FMS and reading comprehension. Children enrolled in a reading comprehension intervention were assessed on FMS using the Movement ABC-2. There was a significant correlation between FMS and comprehension of narrative texts, but contrary to the prediction, the correlation was negative. Also unexpected, the control condition performed better on comprehension questions than the intervention conditions. To try to understand these results, we examined the time each child took to answer the comprehension questions. Many children answered the questions quickly, and average time to answer the questions was strongly correlated with comprehension scores. Children may have been answering questions quickly (and randomly) in order to advance to the next story. Nonetheless, the data do not support a relationship between FMS and reading comprehension.
ContributorsWeiss, Julia (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Gomez Franco, Ligia (Committee member) / Peter, Beate (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Introduction: Depression is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the United States, and is characterized by feeling sad or empty most of the day, nearly every day (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The experience of childhood trauma is one of many factors that may lead to depression, while trauma can also yield other adverse life outcomes, such as alcohol-related consequences (Felitti et al., 2001; Neumann, 2017). One of the specific aims of this investigation was to examine the direct influences of childhood trauma on depression. We also examined selected direct and indirect influences of childhood trauma on drinking outcomes through the potential mediating mechanism of depression. We examined three distinct drinking outcomes, 1) impaired control over drinking (i.e. the inability to stop drinking when intended), 2) heavy episodic drinking (four or more drinks on one occasion for men, four or more for women), and 3) alcohol-related problems. Methods: A survey was administered to 940 (466 women, 474 men) university students. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the data. Potential two- and three-path mediated effects were examined with the bias corrected bootstrap technique in Mplus (MacKinnon, 2008). Results: Emotional abuse was found to be positively associated with depression. In contrast, having an emotionally supportive family was found to be negatively associated with depression. Congruent with the Self-Medication Hypothesis, depression was found to be positively associated with impaired control over drinking. Physical neglect was found to be positively associated with impaired control. Lastly, emotional abuse was found to be indirectly linked to increased heavy episodic drinking and alcohol-related problems through depression and impaired control.
ContributorsBobel, Emily Rebecca Leslie (Author) / Patock-Peckham, Julie (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Fast mapping is the initial link infants make between a word and its referent, and it is crucial to later processes of learning the meanings of words. Despite the importance of fast mapping, previous research has suggested that fast mapping is fragile, with infants being unable to retain words learned through fast mapping longer than five minutes. The current study tested the robustness of fast mapping by imposing task irrelevant interruptions on a fast mapping task. Forty-seven infants (14.7 \u2014 17.4 months old) were assigned to a No Interruption condition, a Posture Interruption condition, or a Visual Interruption condition, and they performed a fast mapping task in which a novel object was named in one trial. Videos of the infants were coded for accuracy of fast mapping and for attentional behaviors (looking behavior) during the task. We found that infants did not learn novel word-object pairings when interrupted, demonstrating that infants' fast mapping abilities are easily disrupted. Overall, there was no evidence that looking behaviors were affected by interruptions, or that they were correlated with accuracy. These findings suggest that fast mapping is fragile in young infants, and further research is required to determine the mechanisms for infant learning, and how infants transition from fast to slow mapping processes.
ContributorsSmith, Emily J (Author) / Benitez, Viridiana (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
The world of role playing games, or RPGs, is a complex, ever changing balance of egos, luck, skill, and fun. It is "always on the verge of destruction… a movement between order and chaos” (Sicart 2014, 3). This paper looks at the creation and implementation of one basic Generic Universal Role Playing System (GURPS) story skeleton, and how five groups of five to seven players created five extremely diverse, rich stories. A jointly told story is the sum of the experiences and interactions of the storytellers. The Game Master creates an ever-evolving story based on their own ideas and characters, and influenced by the choices of the Player Characters. Likewise, the Player Characters react and adapt to scenarios given to them by the Game Master, steering the story in subtler, but no less influential ways. Both the Game Master and the Player Characters are influenced in their decisions by out of game rivalries and the interplay of the different roles each player takes on. My research sought to explore how and why a jointly told narrative changes from the original source material. What change agents are due to the power of the Game Master? How do PCs most effectively change their story? To what extent does the story depend on the out-of-game interactions that are shaped by the real world? In this paper I will argue that agônistic play or the lack thereof is the driving force behind joint storytelling due to both the conflict within one player between player and character, and the conflict inherent in bringing multiple overlapping but incongruous social realities together to create a separate shared social reality.
ContributorsAbraham, Rebecca (Author) / Loebenberg, Abby (Thesis director) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Both dialogic reading and embodied cognition have showed to be effective strategies in the development of early literacy skills. Additionally, the use of electronic books has been found to also have a positive effect, including in combination with dialogic reading. The effectiveness of dialogic reading and embodied strategy while reading an e-book has not been compared. The purpose of the study is to determine if embodied cognition can improve dialogic reading practices and possibly offer a theoretical framework for why dialogical reading practices work. Additionally, this study aims to determine the impact of embodied cognition and dialogic reading on the development of both vocabulary and story recall skills in preschool-aged children. Twenty-nine preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old took part in a matched pairs experiment that included reading an e-book. Children in the experimental groups received four readings of either an embodied cognition condition or a dialogic reading condition. Following the four readings, the groups switched treatment. The children who received the embodied cognition conditions scored significantly higher on both story recall and vocabulary acquisition compared to those in the dialogic reading and control groups. Results of the study suggest embodied cognition in conjugation with dialogic reading practices could provide a more effective and improved model for promoting early literacy skills.
ContributorsMedrano, Danielle Alessandra (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Gomez, Ligia (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05