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- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Humans are capable of transferring learning for anticipatory control of dexterous object manipulation despite changes in degrees-of-freedom (DoF), i.e., switching from lifting an object with two fingers to lifting the same object with three fingers. However, the role that tactile information plays in this transfer of learning is unknown. In this study, subjects lifted an L-shaped object with two fingers (2-DoF), and then lifted the object with three fingers (3-DoF). The subjects were divided into two groups--one group performed the task wearing a glove (to reduce tactile sensibility) upon the switch to 3-DoF (glove group), while the other group did not wear the glove (control group). Compensatory moment (torque) was used as a measure to determine how well the subject could minimize the tilt of the object following the switch from 2-DoF to 3-DoF. Upon the switch to 3-DoF, subjects wearing the glove generated a compensatory moment (Mcom) that had a significantly higher error than the average of the last five trials at the end of the 3-DoF block (p = 0.012), while the control subjects did not demonstrate a significant difference in Mcom. Additional effects of the reduction in tactile sensibility were: (1) the grip force for the group of subjects wearing the glove was significantly higher in the 3-DoF trials compared to the 2-DoF trials (p = 0.014), while the grip force of the control subjects was not significantly different; (2) the difference in centers of pressure between the thumb and fingers (ΔCoP) significantly increased in the 3-DoF block for the group of subjects wearing the glove, while the ΔCoP of the control subjects was not significantly different; (3) lastly, the control subjects demonstrated a greater increase in lift force than the group of subjects wearing the glove (though results were not significant). Combined together, these results suggest different force modulation strategies are used depending on the amount of tactile feedback that is available to the subject. Therefore, reduction of tactile sensibility has important effects on subjects' ability to transfer learned manipulation across different DoF contexts.
ContributorsGaw, Nathan (Author) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Santello, Marco (Committee member) / Kleim, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of a context-based teaching approach (STS) versus a more traditional textbook approach on the attitudes and achievement of community college chemistry students. In studying attitudes toward chemistry within this study, I used a 30-item Likert scale in order to study the importance of chemistry in students' lives, the importance of chemistry, the difficulty of chemistry, interest in chemistry, and the usefulness of chemistry for their future career. Though the STS approach students had higher attitude post scores, there was no significant difference between the STS and textbook students' attitude post scores. It was noted that females had higher postattitude scores in the STS group, while males had higher postattitude scores in the textbook group. With regard to postachievement, I noted that males had higher scores in both groups. A correlation existed between postattitude and postachievement in the STS classroom. In summary, while an association between attitude and achievement was found in the STS classroom, teaching approach or sex was not found to influence attitudes, while sex was also not found to influence achievement. These results, overall, suggest that attitudes are not expected to change on the basis of either teaching approach or gender, and that techniques other than changing the teaching approach would need to be used in order to improve the attitudes of students. Qualitative analysis of an online discussion activity on Energy revealed that STS students were able to apply aspects of chemistry in decision making related to socioscientific issues. Additional analysis of interview and written responses provided insight regarding attitudes toward chemistry, with respect to topics of applicability of chemistry to life, difficulties with chemistry, teaching approach for chemistry, and the intent for enrolling in additional chemistry courses. In addition, the surveys of female students brought out subcategories with regard to emotional and professional characteristics of a good teacher, under the category of characteristics of teaching approach. With respect to the category of course experience, subcategories of useful knowledge to solve real-life problems and knowledge for future career were revealed. The differences between the control group females and STS group females with respect to these characteristics was striking and threw insight into how teacher behavior and teaching approach shape student attitudes to chemistry in case of female students.
ContributorsPerkins, Gita (Author) / Baker, Dale R. (Thesis advisor) / Sloane, Finbarr (Committee member) / Marsh, Josephine P (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Biculturalism embodies the degree to which individuals adapt to living within two cultural systems and develop the ability to live effectively across those two cultures. It represents, therefore, a normative developmental task among members of immigrant and ethnic-racial minority groups, and has important implications for psychosocial adjustment. Despite a strong theoretical focus on contextual influences in biculturalism scholarship, the ways in which proximal contexts shape its development are understudied. In my dissertation, I examine the mechanisms via which the family context might influence the development of bicultural competence among a socio-economically diverse sample of 749 U.S. Mexican-origin youths (30% Mexico-born) followed for 7 years (Mage = 10.44 to 17.38 years; Wave 1 to 4).
In study 1, I investigated how parents’ endorsements of values associated with both mainstream and heritage cultures relate to adolescents’ bicultural competence. Longitudinal growth model analyses revealed that parents’ endorsements of mainstream and heritage values simultaneously work to influence adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the effect of multiple and often competing familial contextual influences on adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on intergenerational cultural transmission and advances scholarship on the culturally bounded nature of human development.
In study 2, I offer a substantial extension to decades of family stress model research focused on how family environmental stressors may compromise parenting behaviors and youth development by testing a culturally informed family stress model. My model (a) incorporates family cultural and ecological stressors, (b) focuses on culturally salient parenting practices aimed to teach youth about the heritage culture (i.e., ethnic socialization), and (c) examines bicultural competence as a developmental outcome. Findings suggest that parents’ high exposure to ecological stressors do not compromise parental ethnic socialization or adolescent bicultural competence development. On the other hand, mothers’ exposures to enculturative stressors can disrupt maternal ethnic socialization, and in turn, undermine adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the influence of multiple family environmental stressors on culturally salient parenting practices, and their implications for adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on ethnic-racial minority and immigrant families’ adapting cultures and advances scholarship on the family stress model.
In study 1, I investigated how parents’ endorsements of values associated with both mainstream and heritage cultures relate to adolescents’ bicultural competence. Longitudinal growth model analyses revealed that parents’ endorsements of mainstream and heritage values simultaneously work to influence adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the effect of multiple and often competing familial contextual influences on adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on intergenerational cultural transmission and advances scholarship on the culturally bounded nature of human development.
In study 2, I offer a substantial extension to decades of family stress model research focused on how family environmental stressors may compromise parenting behaviors and youth development by testing a culturally informed family stress model. My model (a) incorporates family cultural and ecological stressors, (b) focuses on culturally salient parenting practices aimed to teach youth about the heritage culture (i.e., ethnic socialization), and (c) examines bicultural competence as a developmental outcome. Findings suggest that parents’ high exposure to ecological stressors do not compromise parental ethnic socialization or adolescent bicultural competence development. On the other hand, mothers’ exposures to enculturative stressors can disrupt maternal ethnic socialization, and in turn, undermine adolescents’ bicultural competence. By examining the influence of multiple family environmental stressors on culturally salient parenting practices, and their implications for adolescent bicultural competence development, this work provides insights on ethnic-racial minority and immigrant families’ adapting cultures and advances scholarship on the family stress model.
ContributorsSafa Pernett, Maria Dalal (Author) / White, Rebecca M. B. (Thesis advisor) / Knight, George P. (Committee member) / Updegraff, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / Wilkens, Natalie D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Latino children are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than their non-Latino, White peers (Kids Count Data Center, 2017), yet limited work has aimed to understand neighborhood influences on pathways of mental health among Latino children. Substantial work documents the deleterious effects of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood on mental health outcomes throughout the lifespan (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Parental and familial variables may explain neighborhood influences on children’s mental health during the first few years of life (May, Azar, & Matthews, 2018). The current study evaluated the influence of three neighborhood indicators (concentrated disadvantage, residential instability, and the percentage of residents identifying as Hispanic/Latino) on maternal postpartum depressive symptoms and child behavior problems at 3 and 4.5 years via mediation and moderated mediation models among a sample of 322 low-income, Mexican American mother-child dyads. Contrary to hypotheses and existing literature, concentrated disadvantage and residential instability were not predictive of maternal or child mental health outcomes. The percentage of residents identifying as Hispanic/Latino emerged as a protective neighborhood factor for both mothers and children. The neighborhood ethnocultural context may be especially relevant to understanding pathways of mental health specific to Mexican American families. More research is needed to understand specific parental and familial mechanisms underlying this protective effect.
ContributorsCurci, Sarah (Author) / Luecken, Linda J. (Thesis advisor) / Perez, Marisol (Committee member) / White, Rebecca MB (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Positive alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) are consistent longitudinal predictors of later alcohol use; however, exclusion of solitary drinking contexts in the measurement of AOEs may have resulted in an underestimation of the importance of low arousal positive (LAP) effects. The current study aimed to clarify the literature on the association between AOEs and drinking outcomes by examining the role of drinking context in AOE measurement. Further, exclusion of contextual influences has also limited understanding of the unique effects of AOEs relative to subjective responses (SR) to alcohol. The present study addressed this important question by exploring relations between AOEs and SR when drinking context was held constant across parallel measures of these constructs. Understanding which of these factors drives relations between alcohol effects and drinking behavior has important implications for intervention. After conducting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and tests of measurement invariance for the AOE and SR measures, 4 aims collectively examined the role of context in reporting of AOEs (Aims 1 and 2), the extent to which context specific AOEs uniquely relate to drinking outcomes (Aim 3), and the importance of context effects on correspondence between AOEs and SR (Aim 4). Results of Aims 1 and 2 demonstrated that participants are imagining contexts when reporting on measures of AOEs that do not specify the context, and found significant mean differences in high and low arousal positive AOEs across contexts. Contrary to the hypotheses of Aim 3, context-specific AOEs were not significantly associated with drinking behavior. Results of Aim 4 indicated that while LAP AOEs for both unspecified and solitary contexts were associated with LAP SR in a solitary setting, unspecified context AOEs had a stronger relation than the solitary context AOEs. No significant relations between high arousal positive (HAP) AOEs and HAP SR emerged. The findings suggest that further investigation of the relation between context-specific AOEs and drinking outcomes/SR is warranted. Future studies of these hypotheses in samples with a wider range of drinking behavior, or at different stages of alcohol involvement, will elucidate whether mean level differences in context specific AOEs are important in understanding alcohol related outcomes.
ContributorsScott, Caitlin (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis advisor) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
It is well known that neighborhood contexts form an integral part in shaping development across the lifespan. At the same time, it is recognized that there is variability in the manner with which the neighborhood context is associated with pertinent outcomes, such as mental health and psychological well-being. In this regard, empirical research has differentiated between subjective and objective neighborhood indicators. Midlife is a critical life stage due to middle-aged adults being “sandwiched” between generations and being firmly entrenched in the workforce; in this regard, the neighborhood context could play a role in shaping mental health and psychological well-being in midlife. Of importance is determining which factors account for development in midlife, and whether individuals can find protective factors in order to preserve their health and psychological wellbeing into older adulthood. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine whether and how neighborhood context is associated with mental health and psychological well-being in midlife. The first study examined whether the subjective and objective neighborhood context moderates the impact of monthly adversity on mental health and psychological well-being in midlife. The second study aimed to examine whether and which potentially relevant latent factors exist among subjective and objective neighborhood indicators in a sample of middle-aged adults from the Phoenix Metropolitan area.
Taken together, the results of these studies provide evidence that neighborhood context is indeed relevant resource for middle-aged adults. Specifically, in Paper 1, found that individuals who live in neighborhoods with less disorder show fewer steep declines in mental health and well-being in months when an adversity was reported. Paper 2 found that that there are distinct latent constructs that were primarily comprised of factors related to resource and prosperity and financial strain for the objective indicators. For subjective perceptions factors comprised neighborhood insights. These findings contribute to the literature on potential ways in which neighborhood context may serve as a resource and serve as the groundwork for future studies that test mechanisms linking the neighborhood context to mental health and well-being in midlife and inform future intervention studies.
ContributorsStaben, Omar Enrique (Author) / Infurna, Frank J (Thesis advisor) / Sheehan, Connor (Committee member) / White, Rebecca (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Lifespan psychological perspectives have long suggested the context in which individuals live having the potential to shape the course of development across the adult lifespan. Thus, it is imperative to examine the role of both the objective and subjective neighborhood context in mitigating the consequences of lifetime adversity on mental and physical health. To address the research questions, data was used from a sample of 362 individuals in midlife who were assessed on lifetime adversity, multiple outcomes of mental and physical health and aspects of the objective and subjective neighborhood. Results showed that reporting more lifetime adversity was associated with poorer mental and physical health. Aspects of the objective and subjective neighborhood, such as green spaces moderated these relationships. The discussion focuses on potential mechanisms underlying why objective and subjective indicators of the neighborhood are protective against lifetime adversity.
ContributorsStaben, Omar E (Author) / Infurna, Frank J. (Thesis advisor) / Luthar, Suniya S. (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Previous research used the context-free Big Five model of personality traits to predict social media behaviors. The perspective implicit in this research assumes that expression of the Big Five is free of situational context. This thesis challenges this assumption to address whether people express the same Big Five on social media as offline. In two studies, this thesis addressed three issues: (1) whether there are self-reported differences in the Big Five between social media/online and offline contexts, (2) whether a five-factor structure replicates in the offline and social media context reports, and (3) whether the predictive validity of the Big Five is the same between offline and social media contexts. College students (total N = 2102) reported their offline and social media Big Five. Main findings reveal that, first, all of the Big Five have lower expressions in social media/online than offline, except for those in the lowest quartile of offline trait expressions; possible explanations include regression towards the mean or the environmental impact of social media. Second, a similar factor structure appeared with openness, extraversion, and neuroticism items being the most robust between offline and social media contexts. However, some conscientiousness and agreeableness items did not apply across offline and social media contexts. Third, the Big Five had different predictive patterns of social media behaviors depending on the context. These findings inform that future research may better serve to specify the context of Big Five expression to understand social media behavior.
ContributorsBunker, Cameron James (Author) / Kwan, Virginia S. Y. (Thesis advisor) / Edwards, Michael C. (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas T. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Increase in the usage of Internet of Things(IoT) devices across physical systems has provided a platform for continuous data collection, real-time monitoring, and extracting useful insights. Limited computing power and constrained resources on the IoT devices has driven the physical systems to rely on external resources such as cloud computing for handling compute-intensive and data-intensive processing. Recently, physical environments have began to explore the usage of edge devices for handling complex processing. However, these environments may face many challenges suchas uncertainty of device availability, uncertainty of data relevance, and large set of geographically dispersed devices. This research proposes the design of a reliable distributed management system that focuses on the following objectives: 1. improving the success rate of task completion in uncertain environments. 2. enhancing the reliability of the applications and 3. support latency sensitive applications. Main modules of the proposed system include:
1. A novel proactive user recruitment approach to improve the success rate of the task completion.
2.Contextual data acquisition and integration of false data detection for enhancing the reliability of the applications.
3. Novel distributed management of compute resources for achieving real-time monitoring and to support highly responsive
applications.
User recruitment approaches select the devices for offloading computation. Proposed proactive user recruitment module selects an optimized set of devices that match the resource requirements of the application. Contextual data acquisition
module banks on the contextual requirements for identifying the data sources that are more useful to the application. Proposed reliable distributed management system can be used as a framework for offloading the latency sensitive applications across the volunteer computing edge devices.
ContributorsCHAKATI, VINAYA (Author) / Gupta, Sandeep K.S (Thesis advisor) / Dasgupta, Partha (Committee member) / Banerjee, Ayan (Committee member) / Pal, Anamitra (Committee member) / Kumar, Karthik (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021