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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
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Description
Achievement of many long-term goals requires sustained practice over long durations. Examples include goals related to areas of high personal and societal benefit, such as physical fitness, which requires a practice of frequent exercise; self-education, which requires a practice of frequent study; or personal productivity, which requires a practice of performing work. Maintaining these practices can be difficult, because even though obvious benefits come with achieving these goals, an individual's willpower may not always be sufficient to sustain the required effort. This dissertation advocates addressing this problem by designing novel interfaces that provide people with new practices that are fun and enjoyable, thereby reducing the need for users to draw upon willpower when pursuing these long-term goals. To draw volitional usage, these practice-oriented interfaces can integrate key characteristics of existing activities, such as music-making and other hobbies, that are already known to draw voluntary participation over long durations. This dissertation makes several key contributions to provide designers with the necessary tools to create practice-oriented interfaces. First, it consolidates and synthesizes key ideas from fields such as activity theory, self-determination theory, HCI design, and serious leisure. It also provides a new conceptual framework consisting of heuristics for designing systems that draw new users, plus heuristics for making systems that will continue drawing usage from existing users over time. These heuristics serve as a collection of useful ideas to consider when analyzing or designing systems, and this dissertation postulates that if designers build these characteristics into their products, the resulting systems will draw more volitional usage. To demonstrate the framework's usefulness as an analytical tool, it is applied as a set of analytical lenses upon three previously-existing experiential media systems. To demonstrate its usefulness as a design tool, the framework is used as a guide in the development of an experiential media system called pdMusic. This system is installed at public events for user studies, and the study results provide qualitative support for many framework heuristics. Lastly, this dissertation makes recommendations to scholars and designers on potential future ways to examine the topic of volitional usage.
ContributorsWallis, Isaac (Author) / Ingalls, Todd (Thesis advisor) / Coleman, Grisha (Committee member) / Sundaram, Hari (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This document is intended to show the various kinds of stylistically appropriate melodic and rhythmic ornamentation that can be used in the improvisation of the Sarabandes by J.S. Bach. Traditional editions of Bach's and other Baroque-era keyboard works have reflected evolving historical trends. The historical performance movement and other attempts to "clean up" pre-1950s romanticized performances have greatly limited the freedom and experimentation that was the original intention of these dances. Prior to this study, few ornamented editions of these works have been published. Although traditional practices do not necessarily encourage classical improvisation in performance I argue that manipulation of the melodic and rhythmic layers over the established harmonic progressions will not only provide diversity within the individual dance movements, but also further engage the ears of the performer and listener which encourages further creative exploration. I will focus this study on the ornamentation of all six Sarabandes from J.S. Bach's French Suites and show how various types of melodic and rhythmic variation can provide aurally pleasing alternatives to the composed score without disrupting the harmonic fluency. The author intends this document to be used as a pedagogical tool and the fully ornamented Sarabandes from J.S. Bach's French Suites are included with this document.
ContributorsOakley, Ashley (Author) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Campbell, Andrew (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Pagano, Caio (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The repertoire of the saxophone has advanced significantly since its invention circa 1840. Performers are required to adapt to the demands of composers - many of whom are exploring new and unconventional sounds and techniques. Numerous texts exist to identify and explain these so-called "extended" techniques, but there are very few resources for the initial stages of performance. In order to offer performers a resource, the author of this text composed forty original etudes (or studies) that incorporate extended techniques in a variety of ways. After identifying common extended techniques that a performer might face, the author focused on four different ways each individual technique might appear in actual repertoire. The resulting work is entitled Pushing Boundaries: Forty Etudes on Extended Techniques. Each etude offers a practical approach to what is generally a single extended technique. Although this text is not pedagogical in the sense of identifying the mechanics and anatomical requirements of each technique, it does contain a performance analysis of each etude. This analysis identifies areas where performers might struggle and offers helpful suggestions. To this end, the etudes accompanied by performance analysis provide a paced, systematic approach to the mastery of each technique.
ContributorsMurphy, Patrick Joseph (Author) / Hill, Gary (Thesis advisor) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / McAllister, Timothy (Committee member) / Micklich, Albie (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Research has shown that a developmental process of maturing out of alcohol involvement occurs during young adulthood, and that this process is related to both young adult role transitions (e.g., marriage) and personality developmental (e.g., decreased disinhibition and neuroticism). The current study extended past research by testing whether protective marriage and personality effects on maturing out were stronger among more severe late adolescent drinkers, and whether protective marriage effects were stronger among those who experienced more personality development. Parental alcoholism and gender were tested as moderators of marriage, personality, and late adolescent drinking effects on maturing out; and as distal predictors mediated by these effects. Participants were a subsample (N = 844; 51% children of alcoholics; 53% male, 71% non-Hispanic Caucasian, 27% Hispanic; Chassin, Barrera, Bech, & Kossak-Fuller, 1992) from a larger longitudinal study of familial alcoholism. Hypotheses were tested with latent growth models characterizing alcohol consumption and drinking consequence trajectories from late adolescence to adulthood (age 17-40). Past findings were replicated by showing protective effects of becoming married, sensation-seeking reductions, and neuroticism reductions on the drinking trajectories. Moderation tests showed that protective marriage effects on the drinking trajectories were stronger among those with higher pre-marriage drinking in late adolescence (i.e., higher growth intercepts). This might reflect role socialization mechanisms such that more severe drinking produces more conflict with the demands of new roles (i.e., role incompatibility), thus requiring greater drinking reductions to resolve this conflict. In contrast, little evidence was found for moderation of personality effects by late adolescent drinking or for moderation of marriage effects by personality. Parental alcoholism findings suggested complex moderated mediation pathways. Parental alcoholism predicted less drinking reduction through decreasing the likelihood of marriage (mediation) and muting marriage's effect on the drinking trajectories (moderation), but parental alcoholism also predicted more drinking reduction through increasing initial drinking in late adolescence (mediation). The current study provides new insights into naturally occurring processes of recovery during young adulthood and suggests that developmentally-tailored interventions for young adults could harness these natural recovery processes (e.g., by integrating role incompatibility themes and addressing factors that block role effects among those with familial alcoholism).
ContributorsLee, Matthew R. (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Corbin, William R. (Committee member) / Mackinnon, David P (Committee member) / Presson, Clark C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Digital sound synthesis allows the creation of a great variety of sounds. Focusing on interesting or ecologically valid sounds for music, simulation, aesthetics, or other purposes limits the otherwise vast digital audio palette. Tools for creating such sounds vary from arbitrary methods of altering recordings to precise simulations of vibrating objects. In this work, methods of sound synthesis by re-sonification are considered. Re-sonification, herein, refers to the general process of analyzing, possibly transforming, and resynthesizing or reusing recorded sounds in meaningful ways, to convey information. Applied to soundscapes, re-sonification is presented as a means of conveying activity within an environment. Applied to the sounds of objects, this work examines modeling the perception of objects as well as their physical properties and the ability to simulate interactive events with such objects. To create soundscapes to re-sonify geographic environments, a method of automated soundscape design is presented. Using recorded sounds that are classified based on acoustic, social, semantic, and geographic information, this method produces stochastically generated soundscapes to re-sonify selected geographic areas. Drawing on prior knowledge, local sounds and those deemed similar comprise a locale's soundscape. In the context of re-sonifying events, this work examines processes for modeling and estimating the excitations of sounding objects. These include plucking, striking, rubbing, and any interaction that imparts energy into a system, affecting the resultant sound. A method of estimating a linear system's input, constrained to a signal-subspace, is presented and applied toward improving the estimation of percussive excitations for re-sonification. To work toward robust recording-based modeling and re-sonification of objects, new implementations of banded waveguide (BWG) models are proposed for object modeling and sound synthesis. Previous implementations of BWGs use arbitrary model parameters and may produce a range of simulations that do not match digital waveguide or modal models of the same design. Subject to linear excitations, some models proposed here behave identically to other equivalently designed physical models. Under nonlinear interactions, such as bowing, many of the proposed implementations exhibit improvements in the attack characteristics of synthesized sounds.
ContributorsFink, Alex M (Author) / Spanias, Andreas S (Thesis advisor) / Cook, Perry R. (Committee member) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This project sheds light on trombonist Andy Martin's improvisation and provides tools for further learning. A biographical sketch gives background on Martin, establishing him as a newer jazz master. Through the transcription and analysis of nine improvised solos, Martin's improvisational voice and vocabulary is deciphered and presented as a series of seven thematic hooks. These patterns, rhythms, and gestures are described, analyzed, and presented as examples of how each is used in the solos. The hooks are also set as application exercises for learning jazz style and improvisation. These exercises demonstrate how to use Martin's hooks as a means for furthering one's own improvisation. A full method for successful transcription is also presented, along with the printed transcriptions and their accompanying information sheets.
ContributorsWilkinson, Michael Scott (Author) / Ericson, John (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Bright Summer, a one-movement piece for orchestra, was composed in Arizona, and completed in February 2013. The piece is approximately twelve minutes long. The motivation for writing this piece was the death of my mother the year before, in 2012. The prevailing mood of this work is bright and pleasant, expressing my mother's cheerful personality when she was alive. It also portrays bright summer days which resemble my mother's spirit. Thus, soundscape plays an important role in this work. It depicts summer breeze, rustling sounds of leaves, and, to translate a Korean saying, "high blue skies." This soundscape opens the piece as well as closes it. In the middle section, the fast upbeat themes represent my mother's witty and optimistic personality. The piece also contains the presence of a hymn tune, The Love of God is Greater Far, which informs the motivic content and also functions as the climax of the piece. It was my mother's favorite hymn and we used to sing it together following her conversion to Christianity. The piece contains three main sections, which are held together by transitional material based on the soundscape and metric modulations. Unlike my earlier works, Bright Summer is tonal, with upper tertian harmonies prevailing throughout the piece. However, the opening and closing soundscapes do not have functional harmonies. For example, tertian chords appear and vanish silently, leaving behind some resonant sounds without any harmonic progression. Overall, the whole piece is reminiscent of my mother who lived a beautiful life.
ContributorsKim, JeeYeon (Composer) / DeMars, James (Thesis advisor) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Levy, Benjamin (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This study examined four research questions investigating relationships among the experience of trauma, identity development, distress, and positive change. There were 908 participants in the study, ranging in age from 18 to 24 which is known as the period of emerging adulthood. Participants completed an online survey regarding their exposure to trauma and reactions to these experiences. The first research question examined the experience of trauma for the sample. The second question examined group differences among the participant's identity status, gender, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnostic status on the hypothesized variables. In general, comparisons among the four identity status groups found participants who experienced greater identity exploration (diffused and moratorium) experienced more distress, whereas the identity status groups that reported greater identity commitments (foreclosed and achieved) were associated with positive change. Similar findings were found for PTSD diagnostic status indicating more distress and identity exploration for participants with the diagnosis and more positive change and identity commitments for participants without the diagnosis. Female participants were found to experience more PTS symptoms, centrality of the trauma event, and positive growth than males. Examination of the relationships between trauma severity and posttraumatic growth revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship (quadratic) that was a significant improvement from the linear model. An S-shaped relationship (cubic) was found for the relationship between trauma exposure and posttraumatic growth. Regression analyses found the centrality of the trauma event to one's identity predicted identity distress above and beyond the experience of trauma. In addition, identity distress and the centrality of the trauma contributed to the variance for identity exploration, while only identity distress contributed to identity commitments. Finally, identity development significantly predicted positive change above and beyond, identity distress, centrality of the trauma event, and the experience of trauma. Collectively, these results found both distress and growth to be related to the experience of trauma. Distress within one's identity can contribute to difficulties in the psychosocial stage of identity development among emerging adults. However, the resolution of identity exploration towards commitments to goals, roles, and beliefs, can help trauma survivors experience resilience and growth after stressful experiences.
ContributorsWiley, Rachel (Author) / Robinson-Kurpius, Sharon (Thesis advisor) / Stamm, Jill (Committee member) / Kinnier, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The academic literature on science communication widely acknowledges a problem: science communication between experts and lay audiences is important, but it is not done well. General audience popular science books, however, carry a reputation for clear science communication and are understudied in the academic literature. For this doctoral dissertation, I utilize Sam Harris's The Moral Landscape, a general audience science book on the particularly thorny topic of neuroscientific approaches to morality, as a case-study to explore the possibility of using general audience science books as models for science communication more broadly. I conduct a literary analysis of the text that delimits the scope of its project, its intended audience, and the domains of science to be communicated. I also identify seven literary aspects of the text: three positive aspects that facilitate clarity and four negative aspects that interfere with lay public engagement. I conclude that The Moral Landscape relies on an assumed knowledge base and intuitions of its audience that cannot reasonably be expected of lay audiences; therefore, it cannot properly be construed as popular science communication. It nevertheless contains normative lessons for the broader science project, both in literary aspects to be salvaged and literary aspects and concepts to consciously be avoided and combated. I note that The Moral Landscape's failings can also be taken as an indication that typical descriptions of science communication offer under-detailed taxonomies of both audiences for science communication and the varieties of science communication aimed at those audiences. Future directions of study include rethinking appropriate target audiences for science literacy projects and developing a more discriminating taxonomy of both science communication and lay publics.
ContributorsJohnson, Nathan W (Author) / Robert, Jason S (Thesis advisor) / Creath, Richard (Committee member) / Martinez, Jacqueline (Committee member) / Sylvester, Edward (Committee member) / Lynch, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Each year, millions of aging women will experience menopause, a transition from reproductive capability to reproductive senescence. In women, this transition is characterized by depleted ovarian follicles, declines in levels of sex hormones, and a dysregulation of gonadotrophin feedback loops. Consequently, menopause is accompanied by hot flashes, urogenital atrophy, cognitive decline, and other symptoms that reduce quality of life. To ameliorate these negative consequences, estrogen-containing hormone therapy is prescribed. Findings from clinical and pre-clinical research studies suggest that menopausal hormone therapies can benefit memory and associated neural substrates. However, findings are variable, with some studies reporting null or even detrimental cognitive and neurobiological effects of these therapies. Thus, at present, treatment options for optimal cognitive and brain health outcomes in menopausal women are limited. As such, elucidating factors that influence the cognitive and neurobiological effects of menopausal hormone therapy represents an important need relevant to every aging woman. To this end, work in this dissertation has supported the hypothesis that multiple factors, including post-treatment circulating estrogen levels, experimental handling, type of estrogen treatment, and estrogen receptor activity, can impact the realization of cognitive benefits with Premarin hormone therapy. We found that the dose-dependent working memory benefits of subcutaneous Premarin administration were potentially regulated by the ratios of circulating estrogens present following treatment (Chapter 2). When we administered Premarin orally, it impaired memory (Chapter 3). Follow-up studies revealed that this impairment was likely due to the handling associated with treatment administration and the task difficulty of the memory measurement used (Chapters 3 and 4). Further, we demonstrated that the unique cognitive impacts of estrogens that become increased in circulation following Premarin treatments, such as estrone (Chapter 5), and their interactions with the estrogen receptors (Chapter 6), may influence the realization of hormone therapy-induced cognitive benefits. Future directions include assessing the mnemonic effects of: 1) individual biologically relevant estrogens and 2) clinically-used bioidentical hormone therapy combinations of estrogens. Taken together, information gathered from these studies can inform the development of novel hormone therapies in which these parameters are optimized.
ContributorsEngler-Chiurazzi, Elizabeth (Author) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather A. (Thesis advisor) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Olive, Michael F (Committee member) / Hoffman, Steven (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013