Matching Items (12)
152231-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
This study examined the relations between cognitive ability, socioemotional competency (SEC), and achievement in gifted children. Data were collected on children between the ages of 8 and 15 years (n = 124). Children were assessed via teacher reports of SEC, standardized cognitive assessment, and standardized achievement assessment. Composite achievement significantly

This study examined the relations between cognitive ability, socioemotional competency (SEC), and achievement in gifted children. Data were collected on children between the ages of 8 and 15 years (n = 124). Children were assessed via teacher reports of SEC, standardized cognitive assessment, and standardized achievement assessment. Composite achievement significantly correlated with all areas of SEC on the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA). Cognitive ability significantly correlated with all areas of SEC as well. Composite cognitive ability significantly correlated with all composite achievement, as well as with achievement in all subject areas assessed. Achievement scores tended to be higher in older age groups in comparison to younger age groups. When gender differences were found (in some areas of SEC and in language achievement), they tended to be higher in females. Gender moderated the relation between SEC and composite achievement. The areas of SEC that best predicted achievement, over-and-above other SEC scales, were Optimistic Thinking, Self-Awareness, and Relationship Skills. While cognitive scores did not significantly predict achievement when controlling for SEC, SEC did significantly predict achievement over-and-above cognitive ability scores. Overall findings suggest that SEC may be important in children's school achievement; thus it is important for schools and families to promote the development of SEC in gifted children, especially in the areas of optimism and self-awareness.
ContributorsKong, Tiffany (Author) / Caterino, Linda (Thesis advisor) / Naglieri, Jack (Committee member) / Brulles, Dina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
152966-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Patients with schizophrenia have impaired cognitive flexibility, as evidenced by behaviors of perseveration. Cognitive impairments may be due to dysregulation of glutamate and/or loss of neuronal plasticity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The purpose of these studies was to examine the effects of mGluR5 positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) alone

Patients with schizophrenia have impaired cognitive flexibility, as evidenced by behaviors of perseveration. Cognitive impairments may be due to dysregulation of glutamate and/or loss of neuronal plasticity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The purpose of these studies was to examine the effects of mGluR5 positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) alone and in combination with the NMDAR antagonist MK-801, a pharmacological model of schizophrenia. An operant-based cognitive set-shifting task was utilized to assess cognitive flexibility, in vivo microdialysis procedures to measure extracellular glutamate levels in the mPFC, and diolistic labeling to assess the effects on dendritic spine density and morphology in the mPFC. Results revealed that chronic administration of the mGluR5 PAM CDPPB was able to significantly reduce the effects of chronically administered MK-801 on both behavioral perseveration and glutamate neurotransmission. Results also showed that CDPPB had no evidence of an effect on dendritic spine density or morphology, but the mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator fenobam caused significant increases in spine density and the frequency of occurrence of spines with smaller head diameters. Conclusions include that CDPPB is able to reverse MK-801 induced cognitive deficits as well as alterations in mPFC glutamate neurochemistry. The culmination of these studies add further support for targeting mGluR5 with PAMs as a novel mechanism to alleviate cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia.
ContributorsLaCrosse, Amber (Author) / Olive, Michael (Committee member) / Gallitano-Mendel, Amelia (Committee member) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Hammer, Ronald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
150669-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) evidence has been shown to have a strong effect on juror decision-making when presented in court. While DNA evidence has been shown to be extremely reliable, fingerprint evidence, and the way it is presented in court, has come under much scrutiny. Forensic fingerprint experts have been working

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) evidence has been shown to have a strong effect on juror decision-making when presented in court. While DNA evidence has been shown to be extremely reliable, fingerprint evidence, and the way it is presented in court, has come under much scrutiny. Forensic fingerprint experts have been working on a uniformed way to present fingerprint evidence in court. The most promising has been the Probabilistic Based Fingerprint Evidence (PBFE) created by Forensic Science Services (FSS) (G. Langenburg, personal communication, April 16, 2011). The current study examined how the presence and strength of DNA evidence influenced jurors' interpretation of probabilistic fingerprint evidence. Mock jurors read a summary of a murder case that included fingerprint evidence and testimony from a fingerprint expert and, in some conditions, DNA evidence and testimony from a DNA expert. Results showed that when DNA evidence was found at the crime scene and matched the defendant other evidence and the overall case was rated as stronger than when no DNA was present. Fingerprint evidence did not cause a stronger rating of other evidence and the overall case. Fingerprint evidence was underrated in some cases, and jurors generally weighed all the different strengths of fingerprint testimony to the same degree.
ContributorsArthurs, Shavonne (Author) / McQuiston, Dawn (Thesis advisor) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Schweitzer, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
151179-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
ABSTRACT Approximately 3.5% of adolescents in the United States have chronic daily headache (CDH). Chronic daily headaches in adolescents are often refractory to the adult pharmacological interventions. And as a result, adolescents typically experience increased levels of stress, which exacerbates their headaches. Chronic daily headaches negatively impact both the adolescent

ABSTRACT Approximately 3.5% of adolescents in the United States have chronic daily headache (CDH). Chronic daily headaches in adolescents are often refractory to the adult pharmacological interventions. And as a result, adolescents typically experience increased levels of stress, which exacerbates their headaches. Chronic daily headaches negatively impact both the adolescent and their family. Adolescents with CDHs frequently exemplify comorbid psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and increased risk for suicide. Risk factors for CDH in adolescents have been well studied; however, few studies have focused on psychologically based interventions to enhance effective coping, positive mental health, and pain relief in this group of teens. Given the paucity of psychologically focused interventions in this group, further research is necessary to test and develop the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral skills building (CBSB) interventions. This pilot study focused on the use of a CBSB intervention that emphasized problem solving, cue recognition, effective communication, behavior modeling, cognitive reappraisal, stress management, effective coping, and positive thinking. A randomized controlled trial pilot study was conducted. The intervention group received a seven-week intervention focused on CBSB techniques and headache education, while the comparison headache education group received a seven-week program focused on basic headache hygiene measures (e.g., adequate sleep, adequate hydration, dietary triggers, environmental triggers). The total sample included 32 adolescents inclusive of the ages 13 and 17 years. Paired t-tests resulted in significant preliminary positive effects for COPE-HEP on anxiety, depression, beliefs, headache disability, headache frequency, and headache duration. Comparison group education resulted in significant preliminary positive effects on anxiety, depression, headache disability, headache frequency, headache pain level, headache duration, and medication frequency. There were no significant changes over time in means of parent perception of pain interference for both groups. Independent t-tests revealed that COPE-HEP teens had significantly less anxiety and headache duration at post-intervention. The acceptability of the COPE-HEP intervention with adolescents with CDHs in a specialty care setting is supported by this study, while the feasibility of conducting this study in a specialty care setting is partially supported. These findings support a need to refine the intervention and test both its short and long-term effects in a full-scale randomized controlled trial with adolescents who have CDHs.
ContributorsHickman, Carolyn (Author) / Melnyk, Bernadette M (Thesis advisor) / Jacobson, Diana (Thesis advisor) / Gance-Cleveland, Bonnie (Committee member) / Szalacha, Laura (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
151131-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Differentiating bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) from those with typical development in the process of learning a second language has been a challenge. Studies have focused on improving the diagnostic accuracy of language measures for bilinguals. However, researchers are faced with two main challenges when estimating the diagnostic

Differentiating bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) from those with typical development in the process of learning a second language has been a challenge. Studies have focused on improving the diagnostic accuracy of language measures for bilinguals. However, researchers are faced with two main challenges when estimating the diagnostic accuracy of new measures: (a) using an a priori diagnosis of children (children with and without PLI), as a reference may introduce error given there is no gold standard for the a priori classification; and (b) classifying children into only two groups may be another source of error given evidence that there may be more than two language ability groups with different strengths and weaknesses or, alternatively, a single group characterized by a continuum of language performance. The current study tested for the number of distinct language ability groups and their characteristics in predominately Spanish-speaking children in the U.S. without using an a priori classification as a reference. In addition, the study examined to what extent the latent groups differed on each measure, and the stability of language ability groups across three assessment methods in Spanish (standardized tests, language sample analyses, and comprehensive assessment), taking in to account English and non-verbal cognitive skills. The study included 431 bilingual children attending English-only education. Three latent profile analyses were conducted, one for each method of assessment. Results suggested more than two distinct language ability groups in the population with the method of assessment influencing the number and characteristics of the groups. Specifically, four groups were estimated based on the comprehensive assessment, and three based on standardized assessment or language sample analysis in Spanish. The stability of the groups was high on average, particularly between the comprehensive assessment and the standardized measures. Results indicate that an a priori classification of children into two groups, those with and without PLI, could lead to misclassification, depending on the measures used.
ContributorsKapantzoglou, Maria (Author) / Restrepo, Maria A. (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Shelley S. (Committee member) / Thompson, Marilyn S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
156069-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Military veterans have a significantly higher incidence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), depression, and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to civilians. Military veterans also represent a rapidly growing subgroup of college students, due in part to the robust and financially incentivizing educational benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The

Military veterans have a significantly higher incidence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), depression, and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to civilians. Military veterans also represent a rapidly growing subgroup of college students, due in part to the robust and financially incentivizing educational benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The overlapping cognitively impacting symptoms of service-related conditions combined with the underreporting of mTBI and psychiatric-related conditions, make accurate assessment of cognitive performance in military veterans challenging. Recent research findings provide conflicting information on cognitive performance patterns in military veterans. The purpose of this study was to determine whether service-related conditions and self-assessments predict performance on complex working memory and executive function tasks for military veteran college students. Sixty-one military veteran college students attending classes at Arizona State University campuses completed clinical neuropsychological tasks and experimental working memory and executive function tasks. The results revealed that a history of mTBI significantly predicted poorer performance in the areas of verbal working memory and decision-making. Depression significantly predicted poorer performance in executive function related to serial updating. In contrast, the commonly used clinical neuropsychological tasks were not sensitive service-related conditions including mTBI, PTSD, and depression. The differing performance patterns observed between the clinical tasks and the more complex experimental tasks support that researchers and clinicians should use tests that sufficiently tax verbal working memory and executive function when evaluating the subtle, higher-order cognitive deficits associated with mTBI and depression.
ContributorsGallagher, Karen Louise (Author) / Azuma, Tamiko (Thesis advisor) / Liss, Julie (Committee member) / Lavoie, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
147970-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

The purpose of this study was to test the reproducibility of the current data set. It was hypothesized that older adults’ scores on the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) would decrease from their initial visit to their one year follow-up visit and that greater overall age is

The purpose of this study was to test the reproducibility of the current data set. It was hypothesized that older adults’ scores on the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) would decrease from their initial visit to their one year follow-up visit and that greater overall age is associated with worse performance. Overall, the older adults with a follow-up visit in this study experienced greater decline on the RBANS DMI than on the RBANS total scaled score. There seems to be a negative trend in which individuals with higher first-visit VCI scores experience greater improvement on the first trial of the motor task with the non-dominant hand. The same trend can be seen in DMI scores where higher initial DMI scores are associated with greater improvement on the first non-dominant hand trial of the motor task. This initial trend suggests that visuospatial scores have an association with long-term change in the motor task. The number of participants in this data set were limited, thus more data will be needed to increase confidence in conclusions about these relationships in the future.

ContributorsDettmer, Alaina Nicole (Author) / Schaefer, Sydney (Thesis director) / Hooyman, Andrew (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
141341-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

We integrate multiple domains of psychological science to identify, better understand, and manage the effects of subtle but powerful biases in forensic mental health assessment. This topic is ripe for discussion, as research evidence that challenges our objectivity and credibility garners increased attention both within and outside of psychology. We

We integrate multiple domains of psychological science to identify, better understand, and manage the effects of subtle but powerful biases in forensic mental health assessment. This topic is ripe for discussion, as research evidence that challenges our objectivity and credibility garners increased attention both within and outside of psychology. We begin by defining bias and provide rich examples from the judgment and decision making literature as they might apply to forensic assessment tasks. The cognitive biases we review can help us explain common problems in interpretation and judgment that confront forensic examiners. This leads us to ask (and attempt to answer) how we might use what we know about bias in forensic clinicians’ judgment to reduce its negative effects.

ContributorsNeal, Tess M.S. (Author) / Grisso, Thomas (Author)
Created2014-05
141342-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

We conducted an international survey in which forensic examiners who were members of professional associations described their two most recent forensic evaluations (N=434 experts, 868 cases), focusing on the use of structured assessment tools to aid expert judgment. This study describes:

1. The relative frequency of various forensic referrals.
2. What tools

We conducted an international survey in which forensic examiners who were members of professional associations described their two most recent forensic evaluations (N=434 experts, 868 cases), focusing on the use of structured assessment tools to aid expert judgment. This study describes:

1. The relative frequency of various forensic referrals.
2. What tools are used globally.
3. Frequency and type of structured tools used.
4. Practitioners’ rationales for using/not using tools.

We provide general descriptive information for various referrals. We found most evaluations used tools (74.2%) and used several (on average 4). We noted the extreme variety in tools used (286 different tools). We discuss the implications of these findings and provide suggestions for improving the reliability and validity of forensic expert judgment methods. We conclude with a call for an assessment approach that seeks structured decision methods to advance greater efficiency in the use and integration of case-relevant information.

ContributorsNeal, Tess M.S. (Author) / Grisso, Thomas (Author)
Created2014-09-25
141347-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

This survey of 206 forensic psychologists tested the “filtering” effects of preexisting expert attitudes in adversarial proceedings. Results confirmed the hypothesis that evaluator attitudes toward capital punishment influence willingness to accept capital case referrals from particular adversarial parties. Stronger death penalty opposition was associated with higher willingness to conduct evaluations

This survey of 206 forensic psychologists tested the “filtering” effects of preexisting expert attitudes in adversarial proceedings. Results confirmed the hypothesis that evaluator attitudes toward capital punishment influence willingness to accept capital case referrals from particular adversarial parties. Stronger death penalty opposition was associated with higher willingness to conduct evaluations for the defense and higher likelihood of rejecting referrals from all sources Conversely, stronger support was associated with higher willingness to be involved in capital cases generally, regardless of referral source. The findings raise the specter of skewed evaluator involvement in capital evaluations, where evaluators willing to do capital casework may have stronger capital punishment support than evaluators who opt out, and evaluators with strong opposition may work selectively for the defense. The results may provide a partial explanation for the “allegiance effect” in adversarial legal settings such that preexisting attitudes may contribute to partisan participation through a self-selection process.

ContributorsNeal, Tess M.S. (Author, Designer, Analyst)
Created2016-04-28