Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: working memory
- All Subjects: relative phase
- Creators: Amazeen, Eric
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
Individual differences in working memory capacity partly arise from variability in attention control, a process influenced by negative emotional content. Thus, individual differences in working memory capacity should be predictive of differences in the ability to regulate attention in emotional contexts. To address this hypothesis, a complex-span working memory task (symmetry span) was modified so that negative arousing images or neutral images subtended the background during the encoding phase. Across three experiments, negative arousing images impaired working memory encoding relative to neutral images, resulting in impoverished symmetry span scores. Additionally, in Experiment 3, both negative and arousing images captured attention and led to increased hit rates in a subsequent recognition task. Contrary to the primary hypothesis, individual differences in working memory capacity derived from three complex span tasks failed to moderate the effect of negative arousing images on working memory encoding across two large scale studies. Implications for theories of working memory and attention control in emotional contexts will be discussed.
ContributorsWingert, Kimberly Marie (Author) / Brewer, Gene A. (Thesis advisor) / Amazeen, Eric (Committee member) / Killeen, Peter (Committee member) / Goldinger, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Effects of Assisted Cycle Therapy on Short Term and Working Memory in Adolescents with Down Syndrome
Description
To examine the effect of an 8-week cycling intervention on short term and working memory in adolescents with Down syndrome (DS), participants were divided into Assisted Cycling Therapy (ACT), Voluntary Cycling (VC), or No Cycling (NC) groups. Forward and backward digit span assessments were administered prior to and after the intervention to evaluate short term and working memory respectively. 8 weeks of exercise via ACT showed a trend toward conventional levels of significance in the number of levels completed in the backward direction.
ContributorsSandoval-Menendez, Amber Melanie (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Amazeen, Eric (Committee member) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The action of running is difficult to measure, but well worth it to receive valuable information about one of our most basic evolutionary functions. In the context of modern day, recreational runners typically listen to music while running, and so the purpose of this experiment is to analyze the influence of music on running from a more dynamical approach. The first experiment was a running task involving running without a metronome and running with one while setting one's own preferred running tempo. The second experiment sought to manipulate the participant's preferred running tempo by having them listen to the metronome set at their preferred tempo, 20% above their preferred tempo, or 20% below. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether or not rhythmic perturbations different to one's preferred running tempo would interfere with one's preferred running tempo and cause a change in the variability of one's running patterns as well as a change in one's running performance along the measures of step rate, stride length, and stride pace. The evidence suggests that participants naturally entrained to the metronome tempo which influenced them to run faster or slower as a function of metronome tempo. However, this change was also accompanied by a shift in the variability of one's step rate and stride length.
ContributorsZavala, Andrew Geovanni (Author) / Amazeen, Eric (Thesis director) / Amazeen, Polemnia (Committee member) / Vedeler, Dankert (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Humans achieve coordination within and across themselves through the use of coupling. Coupling is the term for an informational linkage that allows two independent processes to eventually coordinate together. Coupling between the motor and respiratory system is evident within people through the signaling of the nervous system. However, little has been known about the degree of coordination that can be attained across two people regarding their respiratory patterns. The current study tested whether unintentional coordination of respiration across two people could be achieved when both people were intentionally coordinating their motor movements. Participants were assigned the position of leader or follower, where the leader followed the rhythm of a metronome to lift their leg to and the follower coordinated their leg-lift with the leader’s using their vision, as instructed. During the experiment the movements of each participant’s knee and their respiration were recorded. Relative phase was used as a measure of coordination. Results show that motor coordination was achieved, consistent with past studies, but that there was no coordination of respiration across the participants. This is most likely due to individual differences in physiology and the lack of coupling between the two separate respiratory systems. Although internal motor-respiratory patterns may have coordinated in a multi-frequency manner within each participant, the outward phasing of their respiration showed no such relationship. This study highlights the importance of a multi-frequency approach when observing coordination within and across physiological systems.
ContributorsHunteman, Zebediah Monroe (Author) / Amazeen, Polemnia (Thesis director) / Amazeen, Eric (Committee member) / Anderson, Samantha (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12