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- Creators: Hindemith, Paul, 1895-1963
Description
Previous research has yielded an equivocal answer as to whether speaking aloud while performing intelligence tasks improves, impairs, or has no effect on performance. Some studies show that it impairs performance while others show it aids performance. In the studies in which speaking aloud has been shown to help, only children and older adults benefitted. The present study investigated whether college-aged students benefit from speaking aloud while performing a fluid intelligence test. Subjects performed a battery of working memory and intelligence tasks silently. Once they had completed each task, the participants took them again, though this time they spoke aloud while completing the tests. Results showed that subjects did insignificantly worse on the working memory tests when speaking aloud. However, subjects performed significantly better on the measures of fluid intelligence while speaking aloud as opposed to doing them silently. At an individual differences level, low working memory capacity participants benefited more from speaking aloud than the high working memory ones. Finally, we found a positive correlation between working memory scores and fluid intelligence scores, offering further evidence that the two constructs are related, yet different.
ContributorsRice, Z. Douglas (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Duch, Carsten (Committee member) / Ball, Hunter (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Spongiform Encephalopathies are a rare family of degenerative brain diseases characterized by the accumulation of plaques and formation of tiny holes in the brain tissue making it look "spongy". Spongiform Encephalopathies have a relatively short history but their origins date back to a time long before they were recognized as a disease. It was not until the 1700s that the first record of their existence was made. In 1732 a shepherd in England noticed that some sheep in his flock had become itchy and were "scraping" themselves on nearby trees and fence posts; he reported it to the agricultural authorities of the time. As the symptoms seen in his sheep progressed they also developed problems walking and began to have seizures. Eventually their neurological symptoms progressed to an unmanageable level and they died. In 1794, over 50 years later, the Board of Agriculture in the UK termed this illness in sheep "the Rubbers". In the following years while coming in and out of mention in many flocks of sheep "the Rubbers" remained a disease of minimal consequence showing negligible ability to spread among sheep and having no precedence for jumping the species barrier and affecting humans. The first mention of "the Rubbers" as Scrapie was in 1853, and it is still the designation of the disease in sheep today.
ContributorsPruniski, Brianna (Author) / Green, Monica (Thesis director) / Hurlbut, James (Committee member) / Hunter, Joel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
In the sixty-seven years following the end of World War II, West Germany and Japan underwent a remarkable series of economic and social changes that irrevocably altered their respective ways of life. Formerly xenophobic, militaristic and highly socially stratified societies, both emerged from the 20th Century as liberal, prosperous and free. Both made great strides well beyond the expectations of their occupiers, and rebounded from the overwhelming destruction of their national economies within a few short decades. While these changes have yielded dramatic results, the wartime period still looms large in their respective collective memories. Therefore, an ongoing and diverse dialectical process would engage the considerable popular, official, and intellectual energy of their post-war generations. In West Germany, the term Vergangenheitsbewältigung (VGB) emerged to describe a process of coming to terms with the past, while the Japanese chose kako no kokufuku to describe their similar historical sojourns. Although intellectuals of widely varying backgrounds in both nations made great strides toward making Japanese and German citizens cognizant of the roles that their militaries played in gruesome atrocities, popular cinematic productions served to reiterate older, discredited assertions of the fundamental honor and innocence of the average soldier, thereby nurturing a historically revisionist line of reasoning that continues to compete for public attention. All forms of media would play an important role in sustaining this “apologetic narrative,” and cinema, among the most popular and visible of these mediums, was not excluded from this. Indeed, films would play a unique recurring role, like rhetorical time capsules, in offering a sanitized historical image of Japanese and German soldiers that continues to endure in modern times. Nevertheless, even as West Germany and Japan regained their sovereignty and re-examined their pasts with ever greater resolution and insight, their respective film industries continued to “reset” the clock, and accentuated the visibility and relevancy of apologetic forces still in existence within both societies. However, it is important to note that, when speaking of “Germans” and “Japanese,” that they are not meant to be thought of as being uniformly of one mind or another. Rather, the use of these words is meant as convenient shorthand to refer to the dominant forces in Japanese and German civil society at any given time over the course of their respective post- war histories. Furthermore, references to “Germany” during the Cold War period are to be understood to mean the Federal Republic of Germany, rather than their socialist counterpart, the German Democratic Republic, a nation that undertook its own coming to terms with the past in an entirely distinct fashion.
ContributorsPiscopo, Michael (Author) / Benkert, Volker (Thesis director) / Moore, Aaron (Committee member) / Machander, Sina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
This project aims to provide a contextualized history of the Sky Harbor Neighborhood Association‟s community collective action efforts. The Sky Harbor Neighborhood (SHN) of East Phoenix is bounded on the West by 24th St., on the East by 32nd St., on the North by Roosevelt St., and the South by Washington Street. SHN is a majority Latino, low-income, working class community (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010) that faces a variety of challenges including low walkability due to inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, low tree coverage, and crime. East Van Buren St., which has a reputation for being one of Phoenix‟s red-light districts, splits the neighborhood in two. In addition, the SHN lacks some key amenities such as grocery stores and is partly considered a food desert by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA Economic Research Service, 2012).
ContributorsPearson, Kimberly (Author) / Golub, Aaron (Thesis director) / Wiek, Arnim (Committee member) / York, Abigail (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Walt Disney dove into his first theme park project in 1955 with Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California in order to have a safe, clean place he could enjoy with his daughters. However, he knew to make his park a success, he would need to do so without sacrificing the elements of storytelling that made him famous. What sets Disneyland apart from other theme parks such as Six Flags Magic Mountain or nearby Knott‟s Berry Farm is an intense attention to detail for storytelling and the creative integration of the most innovative, immersive interactions possible for the guests. The key to the overall company‟s success is storytelling, therefore the key to Walt Disney Parks and Resorts lies in their dedication to providing the best overall experience for their guests by immersing them into a story they can easily engage in. The Walt Disney Company has, in recent years, made extra efforts to make the experience of the guests more interactive (Malmberg 144). The demand for this type of interactive experience has increased since such media forms as contemporary commercialized video games became popular to the mainstream, acclimating audiences to more engaging experiences. Park visitors now desire the freedom to move within a certain setting in order to create their own story and to have forms of control over their interactions with the environment.
ContributorsMiller, Cassie (Author) / Daer, Alice (Thesis director) / Miller, Keith (Committee member) / Hayes, Elisabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The aim of this thesis was to explore whether major life changes can have a visual, perceptible impact on facial changes. The proposed mediation model suggested that changes in personality serve as a mediating factor between life experiences and facial changes throughout the lifetime. The proposed model was tested by examining (1) perceived personality changes, (2) perceived physical changes, and (3) major life changes in photos of individuals' old-aged faces compared to their respective younger faces. Participants in the current study viewed old and young photos of 29 Miss America pageant winners and rated how much each older face changed from its respective younger face on the following criteria: age change, overall change, personality change, and physical change. Responses were aggregated across participants for each target, and personality and physical items were separately composited into single measures of overall perceived personality change and overall perceived physical change. Results did not support the proposed model; however, some marginally significant correlations were found between the number of times the targets experienced a change in marital status and the appearance of being calm, feminine, and less changed in older age. However, these correlations were in the reverse direction from what was expected; further research is needed to understand how marital changes influence, and are influenced by, personality and physical changes. As a form of face perception, the processes underlying the proposed model are discussed in terms of possible social consequences. Further research is needed to explore whether changes in life events, such as the ones presented here, are related to specific facets of personality and physical changes, and how these perceptions translate to important social outcomes. Suggestions for future research pertaining to these issues are discussed.
ContributorsMichael, Kendra (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Religion and the belief in supernatural agents have been assumed to play an important role in encouraging prosocial behavior. However, different studies conducted have shown a complex relation between religion and prosociality. For example, Darley & Batson (1973) found that religious people do not always help strangers. In the present study, Christian participants were primed with benevolent commandments attributed to either the Bible or past historical figures or secular, non-benevolent quotes (control). I then measured their willingness to help pick up envelopes dropped by either a Muslim (wearing a hijab) or non-Muslim confederate woman. The results show that subjects primed with Bible or presidential quotes about benevolence were more likely to be helpful to the Muslim confederate than those in the control group. Differences between the Bible and presidential condition were not significant. I conclude that an authority, whether it be a president or God, promoting benevolence can increase prosocial behaviors toward out-group members.
ContributorsMemon, Rabia (Author) / Cohen, Adam (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Okun, Morris (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The impact of musical theatre in the United States calls attention to its role in our cultural heritage. Art in all its forms has always been considered to be something of an ongoing history of a society's culture. Musical theatre has been very successful in synthesizing several different aspects of American culture and establishing historical markers in areas of music, drama, social issues, and even technology. The plethora of issues challenged by pieces of music theatre has created a large canon of works that contribute greatly to our culture, both artistically and socially. These works are the result of many centuries of artistic performance and the evolution that these works have gone through over time. Tracing back through vaudeville, Follies, and into the works of European opera: musical theatre has a rich and extensive background in production styles that still inform its presentation today. These styles allow for a dynamic presentation of the ideas and issues that music theatre wishes to address and challenge. When the production style and content of musical works are drawn from these past sources, the oral traditions and storytelling aspects of these works gain renewed prominence. Music theatre as a new frontier of literary study warrants further investigation into its literary merit.
ContributorsMcNay, Michael (Author) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Thesis director) / Harper, Robert (Committee member) / Yatso, Toby (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The deficiency of American primary and secondary schools as compared to schools worldwide has long been documented. The Teaching Gap highlights exactly where our problems might lie, and lays out a plan for how to deal with it. Progress would be slow, but tangible. Our country, however, seems to prefer vast and immediate overhauls that have historically failed (see: New math, etc.). If we had implemented the changes in The Teaching Gap in the decade in which it was written, we would be seeing results by now. Instead, every change we make gets reverted. The Common Core State Standards will prove over the next few years to be either another one of these attempts or a large step in the right direction. It might finally be the latter, as its creation was informed by practices that work best in every state in the US, as well as high- performing countries around the world.
ContributorsMcKee, Emily (Author) / Sande, V. Carla (Thesis director) / Ashbrook, Mark (Committee member) / Schroeder, Darcy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Civil society, when taken as a whole, is a complex phenomenon that incorporates several movements and can be accompanied with international support. For instance in 1987, 40 NGOs (non-governmental organizations) were registered by the government, and within 25 years, the number has increased to 300,000 in the present day Russian Federation. These numbers only include registered organizations, and do not count unregistered organizations, as approved under article 3 "Public organizations...can function without state registration and acquiring of the rights of registered legal body," or organizations that have been refused registration, such as the "Marriage Equality Russia" NGO that was denied registration in 2010. Thus the total amount of NGOs is significantly higher than 300,000. Every one of these NGOs "contribute to Russia‘s economic, political and social life in numerous ways and provide opportunities for citizens to help create better communities and elevate their voices" ("USAID in Russia"). With hundreds of thousands of organizations attempting to make a better society, they are creating a Russian civil society, one that could use the experience of countries with already well-established civil societies (Walzer). Walzer, however, notes the importance for civil society of political engagement with the state (317). In this thesis, I argue that the LGBT movement in Russia today has set an important example for other groups in civil society through its willingness to take on the Russian state through demonstrations and to use the state through the EU Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
ContributorsMark, Daniel (Author) / Hoogenboom, Hilde (Thesis director) / Hagen, V. Mark (Committee member) / Siroky, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12