Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3
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- All Subjects: Dogs
- All Subjects: Generation
- Creators: Glenberg, Arthur
Description
Previous research pertaining to dog memory and cognition has been confined mainly to samples of colony dogs and therefore can be hard to generalize to a larger population of pet dogs and varying breeds. The present study focused entirely on pet dogs of many different breeds, rather than colony or laboratory animals for the purposes of accessibility, affordability, and novelty. Methods: We presented the dogs with a memory task in the form of a game in which the dogs chose to search for food at one of two locations at varying delay intervals, with a maximum time limit of one hour per dog. We expected our data to show a significant decrease in memory capacity and an increase in error rates among older dogs as compared to younger dogs; these results would allow us to conclude that it is likely many dogs, much like humans, experience various cognitive deficits as a function of increasing age. Results: Using one-factor ANOVA and linear and curvilinear regression analyses, we examined the relationship between the independent variable, age (individual dog ages as well as three generalized age categories), and three dependent variables. The dependent variables were: (a) percentage of correct choices at a 60 second delay interval, (b) maximum delay interval attempted (MDIA), and (c) the maximum delay interval that was completed above chance level (50%) (MDAC). We found significant results to support our hypotheses that aged dogs show spatial memory and cognitive deficits in comparison with young and middle-aged dogs, and that age can be considered a marginally significant predictor of spatial memory capacity.
ContributorsEvans, Laura Corinne (Author) / Wynne, Clive (Thesis director) / Van Bourg, Joshua (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Dogs in animal shelters are subjected to a number of stressors during their stay, including barking which can reach 120 dB. Music has been suggested as a way to reduce this stress, however, the properties of music that result in reduced stress behavior have not been examined. An affective response to music, like that found in humans, is unlikely due to human higher cognitive function. Masking, reducing the magnitude of volume change with the presence of another sound, is one property that may be responsible for this observed stress reduction. Using white and pink noise, we examined the effects of auditory masking on stress behaviors in shelter dogs. Overall, we observed no difference in the amount of sitting, lying, head resting, or barking between the control and treatment conditions. Limitations and future directions of studies are listed.
ContributorsRedmond, Domenic Xavier Wendell (Author) / Wynne, Clive (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Steele, Kenneth (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Emergent processes can roughly be defined as processes that self-arise from interactions without a centralized control. People have many robust misconceptions in explaining emergent process concepts such as natural selection and diffusion. This is because they lack a proper categorical representation of emergent processes and often misclassify these processes into the sequential processes category that they are more familiar with. The two kinds of processes can be distinguished by their second-order features that describe how one interaction relates to another interaction. This study investigated if teaching emergent second-order features can help people more correctly categorize new processes, it also compared different instructional methods in teaching emergent second-order features. The prediction was that learning emergent features should help more than learning sequential features because what most people lack is the representation of emergent processes. Results confirmed this by showing participants who generated emergent features and got correct features as feedback were better at distinguishing two kinds of processes compared to participants who rewrote second-order sequential features. Another finding was that participants who generated emergent features followed by reading correct features as feedback did better in distinguishing the processes than participants who only attempted to generate the emergent features without feedback. Finally, switching the order of instruction by teaching emergent features and then asking participants to explain the difference between emergent and sequential features resulted in equivalent learning gain as the experimental group that received feedback. These results proved teaching emergent second-order features helps people categorize processes and demonstrated the most efficient way to teach them.
ContributorsXu, Dongchen (Author) / Chi, Michelene (Thesis advisor) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015